NBA: Top 3D talents to start

Chapter 374 Eliminate the Nuggets and Advance to the Western Conference Finals

(Let’s talk about the update. Some book friends may say that the latest update is not as frequent as before, but in fact, I have compressed the number of words. Now the number of words in a chapter is three thousand less, four or five thousand more, and two updates a day is almost the same. From [-] to [-] words, three updates per day in the first two months, and two thousand words in one update, which is actually [-] words a day, so the total amount of updates is about the same.)
The Lakers, who swept the Lone Ranger in the first round, entered the second round, and their upcoming opponent in the second round was the winner between the No.4 Denver Nuggets in the West and the fifth Utah Jazz in the West.

The regular season records of the Nuggets and Jazz are very close, both just barely reaching 50 wins. The Nuggets have a slightly better record, so they rank fourth.

From this point of view, the strength of the two teams is relatively close.

But the Nuggets are obviously stronger, and this strength is mainly reflected in the star.

The signature of the Nuggets is center Nikola Jokic, and the core of the Nuggets at this time happens to be center Rudy Gobert. Elected as the MVP of the regular season for the first time, he is a comprehensive insider who can help the team in all aspects in the game.

Although Gobert also has multiple Best Defensive Player awards in his hand, the awards for such blue-collar players do not have much gold content. Gobert, who is seriously lacking in offensive ability, has always been regarded as a standard defensive player.

However, no one expected that the protagonists of this series were actually the young guards of the two teams.

The 24-year-old Donovan Mitchell of the Jazz, and the 23-year-old Jamal Murray of the Nuggets.

19-20赛季，米切尔和穆雷的飙分大战也算是当年喜闻乐见的一个新闻了，米切尔7场比赛两场砍下50+，场均36.3分5篮板4.9助攻、

Murray also returned two 50+ games, averaging 26.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game.

In seven games, Murray and Mitchell scored 475 points together, setting a new record for the sum of opponents in the series. At the same time, the two also scored 50+ in one game.

In terms of scoring and stability per game, Mitchell, who averaged 36 points per game, is obviously better, but the Jazz does not have a second strong scoring point, but the Nuggets still have their star Nikola Jokic. This also led to the Nuggets finally defeating the Jazz in the tiebreaker and advancing to the second round with difficulty.

Leaving aside the two young guards, Jokic, relying on the data of 26 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists per game, completed Gobert's 16 points and 11 rebounds, which also proved that the best defensive player award is not worth mentioning small awards.

The Jazz successfully advanced to the second round and will play against the Lakers.

In this series, most people are still more optimistic about the Lakers.

Although the Nuggets have an advantage on the inside, they are completely different on the outside.

Murray can score 50+ twice under the Jazz's perimeter defense, but facing the Lakers, especially Wang Feng, no one thinks that he can still perform as efficiently and outstandingly as he did in the first round.

What's more, apart from Wang Feng, Butler and Ingram both played very well in the first round against Dallas.

These are the points that the Nuggets are difficult to fight against.

For the Lakers, there is only one problem to deal with the Nuggets, and that is how to limit Jokic's performance.

The Lakers' internal strength is weak, which is recognized by the league.

Although Brook Lopez relies on his medium and long-range shooting ability, he has a certain number of shots in the fast-paced tactical system of the Lakers today, and his average data per game is also maintained at around 12 points and 4.5 rebounds. Poor shortcomings are always there.

For this reason, the Lakers signed the old Warcraft Howard to serve as Lopez's substitute, improving the ability to rebound inside and protect the frame.

The signing was reached at the suggestion of Wang Feng. The Lakers were interested in Howard, and seeing that Wang Feng also agreed, they simply went downhill and signed Howard.

As a time traveler, Wang Feng certainly knew Howard's abilities in the past two years.

Although he no longer has the strength of his peak period, and in the era when small ball tactics are becoming more and more popular, it is difficult for Howard, a traditional center who is not good at long shots and slow feet, to survive. There are nice play outs.

In another time and space, in the 19-20 season, Howard played 69 regular season games for the Lakers in the regular season, averaging 18.9 minutes per game, scoring 7 points and 7.3 rebounds. The Lakers let Howard mark Jokic, and the old Warcraft gave Jokic a good education in the paint.

Especially in the last two games where Howard started, Jokic averaged only 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the two games, which is far below the average level.

Regardless of other things, just looking at the defense against Jokic in the Western Conference Finals in the 19-20 season, Howard is better than the thick-browed brother Davis.

Good steel must be used on the blade.

Since Wang Feng knew that Howard was effective in defending Jokic, he naturally would not let this opportunity pass.

Before the start of the second round of the game, he talked with the head coach, hoping that the team could adjust the starting lineup and let Howard start to mark Jokic specifically.

Wharton was quite surprised by Wang Feng's suggestion, because he didn't think Howard could restrain Jokic very well.

In the first round of the series, Rudy Gobert, the two-time best defensive player and currently recognized as the strongest defender in the league, failed to restrain Jokic. Can Howard do it well?
Although Howard won the best defensive player three times in his peak period, and his defensive ability is far better than Gobert, but that was the past after all, and Howard is old now.

Instead of letting Howard start and get beaten by Jokic, it is better to continue to let Lopez start. Even if there is no way to prevent Jokic, at least the Lakers' offense will not be affected too much.

However, Wharton still needs to consider Wang Feng's opinion seriously, because the suggestions given by Wang Feng before are often proved to be correct afterwards.

So after discussing with the coaching staff, Wharton said this to Wang Feng.

"Wang, in the first game, just to be on the safe side, we will still play the game according to the original starting lineup. I will replace Dwight in the middle of the game to defend Jokic to examine the effect. If he can really play a role against Jokic Good defensive effect, let him start the next game."

For this result, Wang Feng also readily agreed.

His version of the Lakers is only stronger than the Lakers of another space-time James + Davis version. Even if Howard is not relied on, it is not difficult to defeat the Nuggets with hard power. It was originally simpler.

……

On April 4, at the Staples Center, home of the Lakers, the opener of the second round of the playoffs began.

The starting lineup of the Lakers continues to use the regular season and the first round starting list, Wang Feng, Butler, Ingram, Kuzma and Lopez.

On the Nuggets side are Jamal Murray, Will Barton, Gary Harris, Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic.

The two sides jumped the ball, and Lopez rarely won the scrimmage, and the Lakers had the ball.

Wang Feng led the team's offense.

As most fans and media reporters think, the Nuggets don't have any defensive players who can limit Wang Feng very well, because Wang Feng's current passing ability does not dare to double-team casually.

Wang Feng frequently broke through with the ball and hit the basket. He scored 13 points in a single quarter, scored another 11 points in the second quarter, and scored 24 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in the half.

What's more terrible is that Wang Feng is responsible for marking Murray who played well in the first round on the defensive end.

Murray, who was able to score 50 points in two games efficiently under the defense of the Nuggets, immediately withered against Wang Feng.

Murray, who is only 1 meters tall, is inferior to Wang Feng in terms of height, weight, strength and other aspects. Even Murray is inferior to Wang Feng in terms of speed.

In the case of being suppressed in all directions, Wang Feng still has the badge bonus. How could Murray be his opponent?
The Nuggets can only focus on Jokic and Millsap's inside scoring, and the scoring efficiency is naturally inferior to the Lakers.

At the end of the half, the score between the two teams was 63:57, and the Lakers led by 6 points at home.

In the third quarter, the Nuggets launched a counterattack under the leadership of Jokic, successfully equalized the score and completed the overtake, but in the fourth quarter, Wang Feng and Butler worked together to play a wave of 12:0. Take the Nuggets away in one wave.

At 116:109, the Lakers won a good start at home without bloodshed.

湖人队这边王峰37分8篮板11助攻，巴特勒28分，英格拉姆18分。

The Nuggets Jokic scored a triple-double of 31 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Millsap also had an advantage in the interior against Kuzma and scored 20 points. But it was Murray's turn to be miserable, and he was taken care of by Wang Feng Murray made 7 of 1 shots and 4 of 3 free throws. He only scored 5 points in the game.

……

The victory in the first game gave the Lakers a big victory, and then in the second game, Walton followed Wang Feng's suggestion and sent Howard to start against Jokic.

The move paid off immediately.

Jokic, who scored a large triple-double in the first game, was entangled by Howard. In the second game, he only had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

Even Jokic played like this, how could the Nuggets win?

124:100，掘金队第二场惨败24分，总比分也来到2:0。

The Nuggets returned to the home court in the G3 series and finally played a wave of extraordinary performances. Jokic scored 28 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists. The score was rewritten to 8:2, but the Denver fans hadn't had time to be happy. In the fourth game, the Lakers used another clean victory to turn the score into 1:3.

The series completely lost its suspense. No one believed that the Nuggets still had a chance to come back after falling behind 1:3.

The same is true.

In the fifth game, the Lakers returned to the home court and did not give the Nuggets any chance.

Won the game at 113:98, defeated the Nuggets with a total score of 4:1, and successfully entered the Western Conference Finals.

(End of this chapter)