NBA: I am the god of basketball

The first defeat of the Nuggets came from an away game against the Golden State Warriors on November 11.

Prior to this, the Nuggets' winning streak had come to nine consecutive victories, but they lost in this game against the Warriors and stopped at nine consecutive victories.

Although the game lost to the Warriors, the Warriors home fans were still in a cold sweat, just like the Nuggets vs. the Nets. In terms of lineup, the Warriors with four All-Stars are far better than the Nuggets , but the game process was extremely difficult, and the Warriors even fell behind for a while. If it weren't for the Splash Brothers' strong explosion from the outside and 4 consecutive three-pointers to reverse the situation, they might have lost the game at home.

The reason why the Nuggets lost this game is because of the team's lineup structure. Now this Nuggets team is very similar to the Nets in Wang Chao's first season. There are many rookie players with good potential, but they are lacking in game experience and ability to handle critical moments.

It will not appear when facing most weak teams in the league or when there is a complete tailwind, but once the situation is stalemate and facing the opponent's high-pressure defensive pressure, mistakes will inevitably occur.

In this game, the Nuggets' two starting main guards, Mitchell and Murray, both performed abnormally. They made 11 of 3 shots and 14 of 5 shots respectively. Although they both scored in double figures, their efficiency was much higher than before Discount, there is no way, the Warriors' perimeter defensive ability is indeed considered top level in the league, with excellent defensive players such as Thompson, Iguodala and Green.

Not only that, even Curry, who has always been criticized for not being strong enough to defend and is always picked up by opponent stars for military training in games, actually has a real defensive ability that ranks among the best among all point guards in active service. The position is limited by height, and basically any team in any other position is at a natural disadvantage.

Just like Mitchell, while being lower than Curry, he is actually weaker than Curry in terms of strength. He only leads Curry in terms of speed. He can indeed use the advantage of speed to break through Curry, but he can pass Curry In the end, he had to face Green, the Warriors' inside defensive gate.

Green, who is good at defending and defending, has done the most in previous games to help Curry and other teammates wipe their butts. With his defensive experience and ability, it is not too simple to reduce Mitchell's offensive efficiency. [-] itself was Green's best seasons. If there was no Wang Chao, he would have defeated many competitors and won the best defensive player DPOY last season.

While suffering from the outside line, the Nuggets have also been educated at the center position.

Gobert vs. Cousins, this is a unilateral sling without any suspense.

Gobert's static talent is an absolute leader in the league against any center. There is no doubt about it, but one thing is always his weakness, that is, his lack of confrontation ability.

Cousins ​​weighs close to 125 kilograms, and looks like a fat man to the naked eye. This weight gives him a very strong confrontation ability at the basket. There is also no shortage of strong attacks at the basket.

After all, in this small ball era, there are fewer and fewer centers with such a tonnage.

The Warriors also considered whether to let Cousins ​​lose weight to match the team's small ball tactics, but after some careful consideration, they chose to maintain the status quo.

When Cousins ​​is on the court, it will indeed slow down the offensive rhythm of the Warriors, but it also allows the Warriors to have a top-level center who can face any team in the league and even have the upper hand in most cases. .

The existence of such a player also makes the Warriors' tactical changes more diverse. When Cousins ​​is on the court, the Warriors can play positional warfare, and after Cousins ​​is off the court, they will be replaced by the Warriors of the death five small lineup. It is also the team with the strongest offensive firepower in the league.

This kind of Warriors, which can switch freely between the two styles, is also the reason why they can always dominate the Western Conference in recent years.

Of course, the Warriors' management and coaching staff, who are satisfied with the status quo, don't know what kind of lineup they will have, nor how strong the Warriors' dominance will be when they maximize their small-ball tactics.

It is good to have both position and fast break, but it is destined to be inferior to the extreme and powerful specialization.

The topic is far away. Back to the game, Gobert's defense is very good, but now his body is still a bit too thin. He is 2 meters tall and weighs only 16 kilograms. In the future, Gobert will further strengthen his ability to protect the basket , and the weight has increased to about 110 kilograms, but even so, there will still be a certain gap with Cousins.

As a black man, Cousins ​​is still superior to Gobert in terms of strength, explosive power and athletic ability, but he is still better than Gobert. In addition to the huge gap in weight, he is like no one in the basket. Just slap Gobert casually.

Throughout the game, Cousins ​​made 19 of 9 shots and 8 of 7 free throws. He scored 26 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks. He was the Warriors' best performer.

In addition to Cousins, Curry and Thompson both scored 20+ points.

On the other hand, for the Nuggets, only Wang Chao scored more than 20 points. Even if Wang Chao scored a triple-double of 46 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the entire game, he still lost the game.

It's just like what I said before, even though the Nuggets lost the game, no one dared to bad-mouth the Nuggets. After all, even if the Warriors won the game, the victory process was quite a fluke, and Still in the case of the Nuggets' double guards not performing well, even if one of Mitchell and Murray performed normally in the game, the outcome of this game is hard to say.

Moreover, this is still the Warriors' home court. As we all know, Denver, the Nuggets' home court, is one of the strongest devil's home courts in the league. The Nuggets also have the highest home winning percentage in the league.

If the roles are reversed and the Warriors go to the home court of the Nuggets, the outcome will be even more difficult to say.

The Nuggets are top-notch both offensively and defensively. It is difficult to find any weaknesses other than looking for opportunities in rookies who are not yet stable.

A heavy offensive center like Cousins ​​is not owned by any team in the league.

Therefore, other teams will feel headaches when they encounter the Nuggets.

The Nuggets, who lost to the Warriors, took all the anger of the loss and the end of the winning streak on the Thunder on November 11 three days later.

Unlike the Nuggets, who drive low and go high, are not favored by anyone but lead the league with 9 wins and 1 loss, the Thunder's performance in the new season is extremely disappointing.

This summer, the Thunder made a desperate move and traded for Paul George and Carmelo Anthony successively, and partnered with Westbrook to form the standard Big Three lineup.

However, the cooperation of the three players at the beginning of the season was extremely inconsistent and compatible, and their record performance was also shocking. At present, there are only 4 wins and 6 losses. Even winning those 4 games is completely dependent on the individual ability of the stars. Tough hard to win.

Although the regular season has just begun, many basketball commentators have already begun to assert the failure of the Thunder Stud Big Three combination.

"Facts have proved that not any three superstars can achieve success together. The Thunder's Big Three played in the game without any rules. The team is in disarray, without any tactics at all, it is normal for such a team to lose, and the next game against the Nuggets in the away game will inevitably be a disastrous defeat for them.”

Really got the media right.

On November 11th, the Denver Nuggets home court, the game between the two teams officially began.

The Thunder's starting five really look bluffing enough.

Point guard Westbrook, shooting guard Paul George, small forward Andre Robertson, power forward Carmelo Anthony, and center Steven Adams.

Among the five positions, except for Robertson at the small forward position, who is an insignificant player, the other four have three All-Stars, and the only remaining Adams is also an excellent inside blue-collar player and a good rebounder.

今年夏天为了留下亚当斯，雷霆不得不给出一份4年1亿美元的合同，这也让亚当斯17-18赛季起薪便达到2247万美元。

This also means that the Thunder has four players with an annual salary of 2000 million+!
Westbrook 2800 million, Anthony 2600 million, Adams 2200 million, George 1950 million!
The four high-salary players directly exploded the salary space of the Thunder team. The salary of this small market team in the 17-18 season was as high as 1.33 million. Looking at the Cavaliers and Trail Blazers, which are second only to 1.4 million in the league, their salary is close to that of the Warriors.

This salary also means that the Thunder boss needs to pay nearly 2500 million in luxury taxes to the league.

After paying such a high price, it turned out that the regular season started like this. It is conceivable that the owner of the Thunder team has a lot of hidden areas in his heart.

Especially in this game, compared with the Nuggets, this feeling is even stronger.

There are only two Nuggets with a salary of more than [-] million, Wang Chao and Gobert, and the total salary of the team has only just reached the level of the salary cap.

But look at the performance of the two teams in the regular season, it is simply a world of difference.

And after watching the duel in this game, this feeling of blood loss is even stronger.

Before the start of the original season, the duel between the Nuggets and the Thunder, two rising upstarts in the West, was also one of the hottest topics in the league.

But when the two teams met, it was a complete massacre.

The Thunder are no match for the Nuggets at all.

Not to mention Wang Chao on the offensive end. No one can defend him in this league, not even George, a regular in the best defensive team.

Mitchell and Murray, two rookies who played poorly against the Warriors in the last game, also seemed to want to vent their anger in this game. The desire to attack was very strong, and the offensive efficiency was good. Both scored 20 points. + scoring, plus Wang Chao who scored 35 points in the whole game, the three of them scored only 80 points together.

This score should have been the score expected by the Thunder's Big Three. After all, whether it is Westbrook, George or Anthony among the Thunder's Big Three, they should have such abilities in terms of scoring ability and explosive power.

But the result is not the case.

三巨头中发挥最好的，是全场20投10中，罚球9中7，砍下27分5篮板2助攻的保罗.乔治。

威斯布鲁克全场22投仅6中，只有13分7篮板5助攻入账，并且有4次失误。

Anthony made 14 of 6 shots and scored 15 points.

Anthony, who plays the main power forward position in the Thunder, played directly against Wang Chao, the four-time best defensive player in this game, and his performance is generally normal. Besides, Anthony's performance so far this season has always been the worst among the Big Three. A struggling one.

From the No. [-] core of the Knicks suddenly to the No. [-] of the Thunder, it is difficult for anyone to change their mentality and style of play for a while.

In the original history, Anthony's average data dropped to 17 points and 18 rebounds per game in the Thunder in the 16-5.8 season, which directly wiped out his worth.

After only playing one season in the Thunder, he was traded to the Hawks by the team and immediately reached a buyout agreement to become a free agent.

Then such a star player who was only 34 years old and still possessed certain strength joined the Rockets with a veteran's basic salary hoping to compete for the championship.

From the perspective of the Thunder team's management, Anthony should indeed be placed last among the Big Three. After all, this is a 33-year-old veteran, compared with Westbrook and George who are still young and in their prime. It's worse.

Judging from the follow-up performance of the three, the Thunder's judgment is indeed correct.

But in Wang Chao's view, it was a mistake for them to invest huge sums of money in Stud to form the Big Three.

Not to mention that Anthony's performance in the following two years with the Knicks has shown signs of fatigue. Just Westbrook's ball-holding and big-core style of play is destined to be unsuitable for the configuration of the Big Three.

In the final analysis, Westbrook is neither Wang Chao nor James. As a big core with the ball, he did have an exaggerated performance of averaging a triple-double in the season, but in the playoffs, there are no three-pointers at all, and he can only hold the ball and go inside. The inefficient play style of is too easy to target.

In the game against the Nuggets, Westbrook was well educated.

Mitchell, who is in charge of defending him, does not guard against his outside shots at all. If you dare to shoot from the three-point line, you will be allowed to shoot open.

Westbrook, who was put more than two meters away, really didn't shoot, he still used the old style of gouging inside.

The problem is that this time his opponent is the Nuggets with a long-arm monster with a wingspan of 2 meters and 35 on the inside.

Gobert just gave Westbrook 3 blocks, and the latter's reckless meal resulted in 22 of 6 shots and a shooting percentage of only 27%.

In the end, the score of the two teams was fixed at 112:94. The Nuggets beat the Thunder by 18 points at home, easily defeated their opponents, and their record reached 10 wins and 1 loss, continuing to lead the league. (end of this chapter)