Today, in the Game 7 of the Western Semifinals of the NBA playoffs, the Nuggets suffered a big reversal when they were 15 points ahead in the first half and 20 points ahead in the beginning of the third quarter. They lost to the Timberwolves by 90-98. Jokic scored 34 points, 19 rebounds and 7 assists, and Murray scored 35 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. However, other Nuggets players scored a total of 21 points, and the Timberwolves scored in double figures, so the Timberwolves became the winner in the end. After losing G7, Denver was eliminated by the Timberwolves 3-4 in the series, and the playoffs stopped in the second round. The Denver Nuggets are regarded as the favorites to win the championship this season. They were even more favored by the industry after defeating the Lakers 4-1 in the first round. Unexpectedly, they lost to the Timberwolves 3-4 in the end.
Nuggets won the championship in the playoffs last year by an absolute advantage. Unexpectedly, this year's playoffs stopped in the second round. Why is that so? There are many reasons, such as Murray's leg injury in the playoffs this year, his overall performance is poor, and Porter's series continues to be depressed. Among many reasons, there is another key reason, that is, the departure of a player is too fatal.
This person is Bruce Brown. Brown has a high basketball IQ, strong physical quality and comprehensive ability. On the defensive side, he can defend multiple positions. On the offensive side, he is very good at scoring in the air cut and counter attack, and can also shoot three points. In addition, he can organize and comb the ball like a point guard. Because of this, he played a golden role in the playoffs last year, and the Denver Nuggets can immediately switch roles to complete the work.
In last year's playoffs, whenever the Denver Nuggets' starting lineup was not effective, they would let Brown play to change the trend, and Brown was always able to play an amazing role. When Murray, Pop and Porter are not in good condition, Brown can come up to replace them, so the Nuggets' fault tolerance rate is much higher. Brown averaged 12 points, 4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.1 steals 0.5 blocks in the playoffs last year, with a 51.1% shooting rate and a field average of plus or minus 5.2. When he needs to score, he can cut 15 or even 20 points, which is very useful.
After helping Denver win the championship, Brown's value also increased significantly. The Pacers offered a big contract of 45 million yuan for two years to poach him. After losing Brown, the strategy of Nuggets is to train Braun, Watson and other rookies in the regular season and intend to use them to replace Brown. However, after the start of the playoffs, the performance of these rookies is far lower than expected. In addition to Braun's role, Watson and other rookies can not play a role at all. Nuggets are seriously short of substitutes and can only start, Unfortunately, Murray, Porter and Popp did not perform well in the series against the Timberwolves, and Denver had a low tolerance rate. Even though Jokic scored 29 points, 11.4 boards, 7.9 assists, 1.6 steals and 1 blocks in the series, with a hit rate of 51.7%, Denver was still defeated because its lineup was not as deep as the Timberwolves.
The Nuggets' lineup should be adjusted this offseason, because the current Nuggets' lineup is seriously lacking in depth and has a very low tolerance rate. The Denver Nuggets have to find a qualified substitute for Jokic, and also have to find a golden substitute like Bruce Brown, who can replace him when his starting performance is poor. How will Nuggets operate during the offseason? Let's wait and see.
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