Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

Minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

At this time, the score was 17:12, with the Lakers leading by 5 points.

At this time, the Nuggets called a timeout. Several players came to the sidelines and surrounded Coach Malone. Coach Malone first made substitutions, then spread out the tactical board and made some arrangements.

Here, Coach Scott frowned.

The Lakers still had the upper hand in these few minutes, but Jokic of the Nuggets scored a lot of points, which made Coach Scott a little dissatisfied.

Before the game, he repeatedly emphasized the need to defend Jokic, but the players obviously failed to do so in the last few minutes.

It’s not that the Lakers played bad defense.

It’s just that Jokic plays very smartly. He won’t force shots, but he is good at seizing opportunities. Once an opportunity arises, he can always score the ball in the most appropriate way.

It can be seen from one point that Jokic cut into the inside after completing the pick-and-roll with his teammates. After receiving the pass from his teammates, he always held the ball up and did not dribble, giving the Lakers no chance to double-team or cut the ball. He either attracted the defense and then passed the ball, or made a hook shot or a jump shot, leaving Lopez helpless.

A center who is over 2.1 meters tall can't do anything with his shooting methods such as hook shots and lobs, even if Lopez is standing in front of him.

When the pause is over.

The Lakers replaced Kuzma with Cunningham.

The Nuggets also made substitutions, replacing Barton and Harris with Porter Jr. and Grant.

When Zhuang Yu came to the frontcourt, the defender in front of him was replaced by Grant. At this time, the Nuggets' lineup was obviously taller than the Lakers.

"ball."

Zhuang Yu ran back and asked Holiday for the ball, then lowered his center of gravity, swung his shoulders, and pretended to break through to the left, and then suddenly accelerated to the right.

Grant immediately turned sideways and stuck close to Zhuang Yu.

He also knew that his speed was not as fast as Zhuang Yu's, so it was unrealistic to block the breakthrough route first. The only thing he could do was not to be left behind by Zhuang Yu.

At the same time, Little Porter moved closer, wanting to attack Zhuang Yu together with Grant.

At this time, the Lakers' No. 3 position is Cunningham, who is a defensive player and scoring is not his strong point, so Porter Jr. can let Cunningham go temporarily.

Seeing this, Zhuang Yu passed the ball to Cunningham.

At the same time, Holiday ran towards Cunningham and passed by Cunningham. Cunningham passed the ball to Holiday and turned sideways to screen for Holiday and blocked Murray.

"Hurry up and make up for the defense."

At this time, the Nuggets immediately switched defense, Millsap left Anderson and rushed towards Holiday, preventing Holiday from shooting three-pointers.

Holiday then made a ground pass to Anderson, who turned around and was already near the three-second zone, and made a layup.

......

Turning around, the Nuggets attacked.

The ball was still given to Jokic, and the Lakers went up to assist in defense. Jokic passed the ball out, and did not give it back to Murray, but passed it to Porter Jr., who took the ball and shot a three-pointer directly, which also hit the target.

In the next few rounds, Jokic did not score again because the Lakers strengthened their defense on Jokic, but he made wonderful passes to his teammates and assisted them in scoring.

After a few rounds, the gap between the two sides not only did not widen, but narrowed a little.

"Requesting a substitution."

Coach Scott looked at the time and saw that most of the first quarter had passed. He started making substitutions, replacing Zhuang Yu, Holiday and Anderson with Rose, Clarkson and other substitute players.

Lopez remained on the court.

Coach Scott was not sure whether the Nuggets would substitute Jokic, but regardless of whether the Nuggets would substitute Jokic or not, he would let Lopez play the entire first quarter.

This is also a kind of game.

The game between the coaches of both sides is not limited to tactics, but also includes the deployment of troops and even the game of mentality.

When Coach Scott keeps Lopez on the court, the Nuggets will face a problem.

If they replace Jokic, the Nuggets will have no one who can match up with Lopez, and the Lakers also have Rose and Clarkson on the outside. The Nuggets cannot concentrate all their defensive strength on Lopez, so they can only watch Lopez explode in the interior.

There is another way, which is to keep Jokic on the court and let Jokic continue to face off against Lopez.

But if this happens, Jokic's playing time will increase.

The Nuggets do not have the "three core" configuration of the Lakers. At best, they can only be considered a "dual core", namely Lopez and Murray.

The Lakers can use a three-core rotation to ensure that at least one core player remains on the court at any time.

If the Nuggets want to do this, then Murray and Jokic's playing time will increase greatly, which will be a test of their physical fitness.

"Scott is such a cunning guy."

"Coach, why don't you let Nikola stay on the court? We don't ask him to score, as long as he organizes the pass on the court."

"No, this is only the first quarter. Nikola has spent most of the previous half of the quarter scoring, grabbing rebounds, and organizing the offense, which consumes a lot of his physical energy. If he stays on the court and plays the entire quarter, what about the second, third, and fourth quarters? Even if Murray rotates with him, Nikola's physical energy will be a problem in the fourth quarter."

"But......"

The assistant coach suggested to Coach Malone, but Coach Malone waved his hand and said decisively: "No need to say more. Replace Nikola. The last quarter of the game is the most crucial. We need him to retain enough energy in the last quarter."

"what about now?"

"Now..." Coach Malone frowned, his expression serious, "leave it to other players. Give Nikola the main minutes, but other players need to step up during rotation time. If they can't even do this, then we can only say that they don't deserve to win."

Hearing this, the teaching assistant said nothing more.

In fact, both of them are very clear that the fundamental problem is that their lineup is not as good as the Lakers.

In this case, they have to make some trade-offs.

For example, replace Jokic and give rotation time to other players. Even if you know that this may not work, you have to take a gamble.

Of course, the Lakers have the combination of Rose, Clarkson, and Lopez. If the Nuggets use a pure substitute lineup, they will definitely be beaten by the Lakers.

So Coach Malone replaced Jokic and Millsap, but kept Murray on the court and let him play with the substitute lineup.

Even with Murray on the court, the Nuggets were still no match for the Lakers.

Lopez was on fire in the paint, and Rose's breakthrough jump shot and Clarkson's three-pointer from the outside gave the Nuggets a headache.

After a few minutes, the Nuggets were still at a disadvantage.

By the end of the first quarter, the score was 33:26, with the Lakers leading by 7 points.

"fine......"

Coach Malone felt that this result was acceptable. Although the score difference was still widened to 7 points, this was predictable.

A difference of 7 points is completely acceptable.

But this is only the first section...

......

Soon, the second quarter begins.

Although he knew that it would be difficult for his rotation lineup to gain the upper hand without Jokic, Coach Malone still resisted the urge and did not send Jokic or Murray. After all, Murray had already played the entire first quarter.

At this time, Coach Malone sent out Harris, Porter Jr., Grant and others.

One main player + four substitutes.

The Lakers sent out Rose, Clarkson, Holiday, Nance Jr. and Zubac.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Zubac received a pass from Holiday and performed a dunk, and then Clarkson and Nance Jr. also scored successively.

The Nuggets played in a somewhat disorganized manner. They didn't have a strong scoring point on the court, nor a good organizer. It was just a mess. The offense was disorganized, and they failed to play tactical coordination... You have to know that the Lakers' lineup at this time was not particularly strong in defense, but the Nuggets were completely at a disadvantage.

"Coach." The assistant coach called Coach Ma Long with a bitter face, thinking that he needed to adjust himself because he was obviously no match for the opponent.

Let’s not talk about the lineup configuration issue for now. The key point is that the game is too chaotic right now.

"Oh..." Coach Ma Long sighed. He also knew that this was not a solution. The score difference had already reached ten points, and if it continued it would be further widened.

After looking at the time, Coach Malone called a timeout.

After several players came off the court, he started to make substitutions, sending Jokic on to replace Harris.

The situation improved immediately after this substitution.

First, Jokic came on the court and scored in the paint. At this time, the Lakers' inside player was Zubac, who could not defend Jokic.

Then, under Jokic's command, the Nuggets' overall offense was obviously much better than before, playing more organized and smoother.

When Jokic came back, the team had a backbone and someone to organize the offense.

Porter Jr., Grant and others just need to do their own jobs. The three-point shooters should shoot three-pointers, cut when they should cut, and break through when they should break through...

After a few rounds, the Nuggets gained the upper hand.

"This fat guy is really amazing." Anderson couldn't help but sigh.

"Yeah." Zhuang Yu agreed, "Jokic's strength is not only in scoring. I even think his greatest role is not scoring, but organizing the offense. When he was not on the court, the Nuggets played a mess, but after Jokic returned to the court, the Nuggets seemed to suddenly know how to play and how to play correctly."

Anderson nodded.

For example, at this time, the individual strength of several substitute players on the Nuggets' field was not strong, but under the leadership of Jokic, they actually had the upper hand.

You know, although the Lakers have a rotation lineup, the combination of Rose, Clarkson, Holiday, Nance Jr., and Zubac is not weak.

This combination can even compete with the starting lineups of some teams.

"This fat guy is very interesting. He is playing a very new kind of basketball." Zhuang Yu said with a smile. He found himself appreciating this big white fat guy more and more.

"A very new basketball?" Anderson was stunned.

Zhuang Yu did not explain.

In Zhuang Yu's opinion, Jokic is changing the game of basketball in a completely new way.

Just like Curry changed the modern basketball game with his three-point shot.

Jokic is also changing the game of basketball in a whole new way.

He is a center, but not completely a center; he can score, but not just score; he can organize the offense, but his influence is not limited to this...

Curry used three-pointers to prove that the saying "offense is the best defense" is correct. He proved that three-pointers are the key to modern basketball.

Even if he doesn't have top-notch physical talent, as long as he takes enough three-pointers and makes enough of them, he can still dominate the game.

After Curry's rise, almost everyone thought, "If you don't have top physical talent, you have to learn from Curry and shoot more three-pointers."

Jokic has given these people a new path - even if you don't have top physical talent, as long as you have top skills and top basketball IQ, you can still become an All-Star player or even the leader of a team.