The Denver Nuggets emerged victorious in Game One in their Western Conference playoff collection against the Los Angeles Lakers, however their offense struggled to deal with momentum within the latter levels of the fit.
The staff controlled to protected an in depth victory at Ball Arena, thank you largely to the improbable efficiency of heart Nikola Jokic. However, the Lakers’ protection made a decisive adjustment that just about contained the Nuggets sufficient to scouse borrow the sport.
Hosts Matt Moore and Adam Mares mentioned Jokic’s outstanding contribution at the Locked On Nuggets podcast, in addition to the way in which the Lakers spoke back to it, and what it would imply for the remainder of the collection.
Jokic scored a exceptional 34 issues and 21 rebounds, along 14 assists, indicating that the Lakers and their all-world defender Anthony Davis would require some high-level creativity to include him.
“We thought Davis would at least slow him down, and Jokic went out and had one of the best playoff performances of all time in a way that didn’t feel like a fluke,” Mares commented.
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Instead of placing Davis on Jokic as his number one defender, the Lakers opted to make use of younger ahead Rui Hachimura in that position. This allowed Davis to concentrate on Denver’s Aaron Gordon and use his agility as a roaming assist defender to free up his staff’s features. However, this technique resulted within the Nuggets’ offense slowing down significantly throughout the fourth quarter.
“People are going to (point to) the Rui stuff, but also the Nuggets got tired and just started walking the ball up,” Moore added.
While many have puzzled what changes Jokic will make, Mares argued that it’s the accountability of Denver’s complete training team of workers and staff individuals to spot techniques to counter the Lakers’ technique.
“You’re effectively saying don’t let Anthony Davis double-team Jokic … and so really it’s a Nuggets solve, not a Jokic solve,” Mares defined.
As Gordon isn’t a in particular sturdy three-point shooter, and is simpler across the rim, Davis used to be in a position to sag off him and center of attention extra on blocking off photographs and inflicting deflections. To cope with this, Gordon must grow to be extra concerned and make himself a extra important danger in order that Davis can’t center of attention solely on Jokic. Alternatively, Denver would possibly wish to believe taking Gordon off the courtroom for some video games and the use of Michael Porter Jr. extra steadily as a 4.
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