Why did Jokic win so badly? The Thunder got half right in the two thoughts in the small ball era

Text/Jiang Shihua

The price of the Thunder with a 43-point victory over the Nuggets in the last game was lost when he returned to the away game. While Jokic played more like an undercover agent, the Nuggets still won the game without any danger, which looked a bit incredible. But it is reasonable to exist for many things. The Thunder seemed to lose because of Murray Gordon's three-pointer, but in fact it was lost to himself. Frankly speaking, at least from this game, the Thunder only got half of the two thinking questions in the small ball era.

Everyone knows that Jokic's performance is a barometer of whether the Nuggets can win, but today's game is obviously not very exciting. Judging from the data of Teacher Yoo's 20 points, 16 rebounds and 8 mistakes, he is no longer a flexible running pork belly, and even the Thunder's extreme propulsion speed and youth storm, which makes Teacher Yoo's weakness of slow movement speed show. If the Nuggets lose this game, there is no doubt that the teacher will be the first person in the team to take the blame. But what made Teacher Yo feel relieved was that there were people in the Thunder team. When they played in overtime, their experience and rhythm gradually turned to the Nuggets side. Even if Teacher Yo wanted to take the blame, Alexander refused. Of course, Alexander has to take the blame for losing this game, and he has no choice but to pay attention.

As we all know, the Warriors' small ball era has two major characteristics: one is the rapid advancement of offense and defense speed, which is called running and bombing. The second is the accurate three-pointer on the outside. But the Thunder's style in this game is a bit like Tianjin's mohua: random twists. Although their offense and defense conversion speed is good, they are more like the spokesperson of Zhangqiu Iron Pot in the three-point shooting stage. The three-pointer from 9 of 35 is simply a replica of the Lakers' outs. Of course, the second young master of Thunder seemed to have a good breakthrough, at least the referee's whistle was given enough part-time job, but the Nuggets' defense line shrank under the basket. When the Thunder's breakthrough was blocked, the embarrassment of the iron-raid from the outside came as promised. This is the problem encountered by the Thunder in the small ball era. The speed is fast enough, the breakthrough is sharp enough, but when three-pointers need to be used to solve the problem, three-pointers have become their problem, and even Westbrook can wake up with a smile in his dream.

Of course, now the series is only 1-2, and the Thunder still has time to correct their mistakes. However, it is impossible for a teacher to be so humble in every game. It seems that it is difficult to decide the winner without reaching the tiebreak in this round of the series.