(Let's talk about the update, some book friends may say that the recent update is not as good as before, but in fact, I compressed the number of words, and now the number of words in a chapter is less than three thousand, more than four or five thousand, and two more in a day is almost 6,000 to 8,000 words, three more per day for the first two months, one more than 2,000 words, and a day is actually 6,000 words, so the total number of updates is about the same.) ）

The Lakers, who swept the Mavericks in the first round, entered the second round, and in the second round, they will face the winner between the Denver Nuggets, who are fourth in the West, and the Utah Jazz, who are fifth in the West.

The Nuggets and Jazz had very close regular season records, both barely reaching 50 wins, with the Nuggets having a slight win over the record and sitting in fourth place.

From this point of view, the strength of the two teams is relatively close.

But the Nuggets are obviously a little stronger, and this strength is mainly reflected in the star of the house.

The Nuggets' signature is center Nikola. Jokic, and the core of the Nuggets at this time also happens to be center Rudy. Gobert, the strength of these two is very different, Jokic is a comprehensive interior line who has been elected as the regular season MVP twice in a row in the future, and can help the team in all aspects of the game.

Although Gobert also has a number of best defensive player awards in hand, this kind of blue-collar player award itself does not have much gold, and Gobert, who is seriously lacking in offensive ability, has always been regarded as a standard defensive player.

However, no one expected that the protagonists of this series would actually be the young defenders of both teams.

The Jazz are only 24 years old. Mitchell, as well as the Nuggets' 23-year-old Jamal . Murray.

In the 19-20 season, Mitchell and Murray's score battle was also a favorite news of the year, Mitchell scored 50+ in two of the 7 games, averaging 36.3 points, 5 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game.

Murray also returned two 50+ games, averaging 26.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game.

In seven games, Murray and Mitchell combined for 475 points, setting a new record for the combined number of points scored by opponents in a series, while the two also scored 50+ points in one game.

In terms of points per game and stability, Mitchell, who averages 36 points per game, is obviously superior, but the Jazz do not have a second strong scoring point, but the Nuggets still have the star Nikola. Jokic, which led to the Nuggets finally defeating the Jazz in the tiebreaker and struggling to advance to the second round.

Putting aside the two young guards, Jokic relied on his average of 26 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists per game to complete Gobert's 16 points and 11 rebounds, which also proved that any Best Defensive Player award is just a small award that is not worth mentioning.

The Jazz advanced to the second round and will play the Lakers.

In this series, most people are still more optimistic about the Lakers.

Although the Nuggets have an advantage on the inside, they are completely different on the outside.

Murray can hit 50+ twice under the Jazz's outside defense, but against the Lakers, especially against Wang Feng, no one thinks he can still play as efficiently and well as in the first round.

What's more, in addition to Wang Feng, Butler and Ingram also played very well when they faced Dallas in the first round.

These are all points that the Nuggets will struggle with.

For the Lakers, there is only one problem to deal with against the Nuggets, and that is how to limit Jokic's play.

The Lakers' interior strength is on the weak side, which is recognized by the league.

Brooke. Although Lopez has a certain number of shots in the fast-paced tactical system of the Lakers today, relying on his mid-to-long-range shooting ability, and his average data per game is maintained at about 12 points and 4.5 rebounds, his slow movement and poor rim protection ability have always existed.

To this end, the Lakers signed the old monster Howard to serve as a backup for Lopez to improve his interior rebounding and rim protection.

This signing was reached at the suggestion of Wang Feng, the Lakers were originally interested in Howard, and seeing that Wang Feng also agreed, they simply signed Howard on the donkey.

As a traverser, Wang Feng certainly knew Howard's ability in the past two years.

Although he is no longer at his peak, and in the era of small-ball tactics, it is difficult for a traditional center like Howard who is not good at long-range shooting and slow to move has been difficult to survive, but if he is a substitute center, he can still play well at a certain time.

In another time and space, in the 19-20 season, Howard played 69 regular season games for the Lakers in the regular season, playing an average of 18.9 minutes per game, and could get 7 points and 7.3 rebounds, and in the playoffs Western Conference Finals against the Nuggets, the Lakers let Howard keep an eye on Jokic, and the old monster educated Jokic on the inside.

Especially in the last two games when Howard started, Jokic averaged only 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game in the two games, which was far below average.

Anything else, looking at Jokic's defense in the 19-20 Western Conference finals, Howard was better than Davis.

Good steel should be used on the cutting edge.

Since Wang Feng knew that Howard's defense of Jokic was wonderful, he naturally would not let go of this opportunity.

Before the start of the second round, he spoke to the head coach and hoped that the team could adjust the starting lineup and let Howard start specifically to guard Jokic.

Wharton's suggestion surprised Wharton, because he didn't think Howard could contain Jokic well.

In the first round of the series, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, the current league's recognized strongest defender on the inside, Rudy. Gobert couldn't contain Jokic, so can Howard do it?

Although Howard won the best defensive player three times in his prime, and his defensive ability is far better than Gobert's, after all, that was before, and the current Howard is old.

Instead of letting Howard start and be beaten by Jokic, it is better to continue to let Lopez start, even if there is no way to prevent Jokic, at least the Lakers' offense will not be affected too much.

However, Wharton still has to focus on Wang Feng's opinion, because the suggestions given by Wang Feng before are often proven to be correct afterwards.

So after some discussion with the coaching staff, Wharton said this to Wang Feng.

"Wang, in the first game, for the sake of stability, we will still play according to the original starting lineup, and I will replace Dwight to defend Jokic to see the effect, if he can really play a good defensive effect against Jokic, let him start the game after the game."

For this result, Wang Feng also readily agreed.

His version of the Lakers is only stronger than the James + Davis version of the Lakers in another time and space, even if he doesn't rely on Howard, it is not difficult to defeat the Nuggets by hard power, Howard's existence just makes the process of winning easier than the original.

……

On April 30, at the Staples Center, the Lakers' home court, the opening game of the second-round series of the playoffs began.

The Lakers' starting lineup continues to be the same as the starting lineup from the regular season and the first round, with Wang Feng, Butler, Ingram, Kuzma and Lopez.

On the Nuggets' side, it's Jamal. Murray, Will. Barton, Gary. Harris, Paul. Millsap and Nikolai. Jokic.

The two sides jumped the ball, Lopez won the rare scrum, and the Lakers had the ball.

Wang Feng led the team's attack.

As most fans and media reporters think, the Nuggets did not have a good way to limit Wang Feng's defensive players, because Wang Feng's current passing ability does not dare to cover it casually.

Wang Feng frequently broke through the basket with the ball, scored 13 points in a single quarter, and scored another 11 points in the second quarter, scoring 24 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in the half.

What's worse is that Wang Feng was responsible for marking Murray on the defensive end in the first round.

Murray, who can efficiently score two 50-point games under the defense of the Nuggets, immediately withered against Wang Feng.

Murray, who is only 1.93 meters tall, is inferior to Wang Feng in terms of height, weight, strength and other aspects, and even in terms of speed, Murray is not as good as Wang Feng.

In the case of being suppressed in all directions, Wang Feng still has the bonus of the badge, how can Murray be an opponent?

The Nuggets can only focus on the interior scoring of Jokic and Millsap, and the scoring efficiency is naturally inferior to that of the Lakers.

The score was 63-57 at halftime, and the Lakers led by six points at home.

In the third quarter of the game, the Nuggets set off a wave of counterattacks under the leadership of Jokic, successfully equalized the score and completed the overtake, but in the fourth quarter of the game, Wang Feng and Butler worked together to play a wave of 12:0, directly taking away the Nuggets in a wave.

At 116:109, the Lakers won the opener at home.

On the Lakers' side, Wang Feng had 37 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists, Butler had 28 points, and Ingram had 18 points.

Nuggets Jokic got a triple-double of 31 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, and Millsap also had an advantage in the face of Kuzma on the inside, scoring 20 points, but it was Murray's turn to be miserable, Murray, who was taken care of by Wang Feng, shot 1 of 7 and 3 of 4 free throws, and only scored 5 points in the game.

……

The victory in the first game gave the Lakers a big victory, and then in the second game, Wharton sent Howard to start against Jokic according to Wang Feng's suggestion.

The move was immediate.

Jokic, who had a big triple-double in the first game, was entangled by Howard, and only had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in the second game.

Even if Jokic plays like this, how can the Nuggets win?

At 124:100, the Nuggets lost by 24 points in the second game, and the total score also came to 2:0.

The Nuggets, who returned to their home court in the G3 series, finally played an extraordinary wave, Jokic cut 28 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists, and the Nuggets scored double-doubles with 8 players, and finally won a difficult game, rewriting the total score to 2:1, but the Denver fans didn't have time to rejoice, and the Lakers used a crisp victory in the fourth game to turn the score into 3:1.

The series completely lost suspense, and no one believed that the Nuggets still had a chance to turn the tables when they were down 1:3.

And so it is.

In Game 5, the Lakers, who returned to play at home, did not give the Nuggets any more chances.

Won the game at 113:98, defeated the Nuggets with a total score of 4:1, and successfully entered the Western Conference Finals.