By shooting Luka Doncic, the Nuggets lost basketball

“The weak link”. This is what all teams identify and then target. With the Lakers, in defense, it’s about Luka Dončićand opponents multiply pick-and-rolls to create a “mismatch” and attack him. That’s what the Nuggets did last night, with Jamal Murray putting on a one-man show with 26 points in the first half. After him, the Nuggets will return to the locker room with a 14-point advantage and 71 points scored.

What’s next? Fall in the air, with only 36 points scored in the second half, and a a 115-107 loss at home. Symbol of this deficiency: 2 points scored by Jamal Murray. A minute to the end of the match…

“I thought it was really effective, and then I felt like it took us out of what we usually do.”, Estimated by David Adelman. “Looking back, I think we need to vary more. We attacked Doncic and I think it was right. But maybe we overdid it. And that’s where we lose the rhythm of our attack. But that’s part of the game against these kinds of teams. We have to attack players who can create 2-on-1, their situation is obvious, 3-on-2 was an adjustment. create this 4-on-3, you have to use it… and we didn’t do that.

How do you explain that one half worked and the other was the complete opposite?

“Damn, we had the shots we wanted, we just didn’t convert them”

“It’s usually the kind of thing where you look at the stats and you only see five turnovers the whole game, which means we hit.” he continues. “We even attempted four more shots than them, despite only having five offensive rebounds. So I think the guys tried to do the right thing, hats off to them. The shots we made in the first half – the ones we made – we didn’t make them in the second. I think we only made three 3-pointers in the second half. But, a little bit, I think the beginning of the … the third and even the beginning of the fourth, I thought we had good shots.

For Jamal Murray, the analysis is the same. He finished with 28 points and 11 assists, and in the second half only a fumble problem allowed the Lakers to turn the situation around. “Even without my shot, we were still ahead… I remember it was close, like 81-80 or 81-81, and then they scored. I think LeBron had a little run. I had a two-and-one.”

“And then it was like the Cleveland game: really good shots, but misses at the wrong time.” he judges. “I lost the ball, missed a floater, missed a couple of layups at the rim… Those misses are demoralizing because they give you backs and you say to yourself, ‘Damn, we had the shots we wanted, we just didn’t make them.’ It’s hard when you miss those easy baskets and come back. I had the feeling that we controlled the match most of the time. Even with the duel, we still got the hits and kicks we wanted. »