The Lakers have struggled throughout pretty much the entire year to create offense in the half-court. In 10 games since, they have allowed only 107.1 points per 100.
#ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION 106.7 TODAY SERIES#
Through the first four games of their series against the Jazz, the Nuggets were even worse, allowing 131.1 points per 100 possessions. Can the Nuggets sustain their improved defense?ĭenver got absolutely flambeed for a bubble-worst 121.7 points per 100 possessions in the seeding games. How LA chooses to deal with Denver’s star guard is just as important. Harden did quite a bit more damage than that, but the Lakers completely shut down everybody else on the roster.Įntering the playoffs it sure seemed like shutting down - or at least slowing down - Jokic would be opponents’ biggest concern against the Nuggets, but Murray’s play has made that, if not necessarily secondary, then at least less of a clear-cut number one goal. They held Lillard to 40 percent shooting and only 4 assists per game. But that was also the case with Damian Lillard heading into the Blazers series, and with James Harden heading into the Rockets series. The way Murray is rolling, none seem like particularly appealing options. So, who gets the assignment? Danny Green or (more likely) Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will presumably be on him to start games, while Alex Caruso and/or Rajon Rondo will spend some time in the matchup as well.
Avery Bradley spent the most time on him when the two teams played during the regular season, but he opted out of the restart.
The Lakers have a more reasonable answer for Jokic than did the Clippers in the form of Anthony Davis, but they might have worse options to go up against Murray. brethren and that has held true in the playoffs, though the differential is not that wide in either case. The Lakers’ pick-and-roll defense was more solid during the regular season than that of their L.A. The Murray- Nikola Jokic pick-and-roll proved damn near impossible for the Clippers to stop, with 150 possessions that including at least one such screen producing 164 points. (via Second Spectrum, qSQ is a measure of shot quality interpreted as expected eFG%, qSI is how much a played exceeded his expected eFG%) He spent the significant majority of the last series being defended by three of the very best perimeter defenders in basketball (Paul George, Patrick Beverley, Kawhi Leonard) and, well, he did this. Across 14 games, Murray is playing 39 minutes a night, averaging 27 points, 5 rebounds, and 6.4 assists while posting a 50-49-91 shooting line. I’d say that Murray has taken a mini-leap in the playoffs, but that’s not true. There are any number of factors that will contribute to who advances, but we want to focus on these four questions in particular. It’s not the Battle for Los Angeles that many envisioned since last July, but instead, the Lakers taking on the Denver Nuggets for the right to represent their conference against the winner of Celtics vs. These are the lineup, matchup and strategic issues that will decide a winner. Nuggets isn’t the Western Conference Finals we were expecting.
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