The Nuggets' first defeat came on Nov. 4 against the Golden State Warriors.

Prior to that, the Nuggets' winning streak had reached nine, but they lost this game against the Warriors to stop a nine-game winning streak.

Although the game was lost to the Warriors, the Warriors' home fans were still shocked into a cold sweat, just like the Nuggets vs Nets, in terms of lineup, the Warriors with four All-Stars are obviously far better than the Nuggets, but the game process is extremely difficult, the Warriors were even behind for a while, if it weren't for the Splash Brothers' strong outburst of 4 three-pointers in a row to reverse the occupation, maybe they would have to lose the game at home.

The reason why the Nuggets lost this game is because of the team's roster structure, and now this Nuggets are very similar to the Nets in Wang Chao's first season, although there are many potential rookie players in the team, but they lack game experience and the ability to deal with key moments.

It won't show up against most of the league's weaker teams or completely tailwind, but once the game is stalemate and the opponent's high-pressure defense is pressing, mistakes will inevitably occur.

In this game, the Nuggets' two starting main guard players, Mitchell and Murray, both played abnormally, the two shot 3 of 11 and 5 of 14 respectively, although the score was successful but the efficiency was greatly reduced from the past, no way, the Warriors' outside defensive ability is indeed the 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 in defense and is always brought out by opponent stars in the game for military training, in fact, his real defensive ability is among the best among all point guards in the current service, but the position of the point guard is limited by his height, and he is basically at a natural disadvantage to any other team.

Just like Mitchell, while being lower than Curry, he is actually weaker than Curry in terms of strength, only leading Curry in terms of speed, he can indeed use the advantage of speed to break through Curry, but after passing Curry, he has to face the Warriors' interior defensive gate Green.

Green, who is good at helping to defend and supplement defense, 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, after all, the last few years itself is Green's best season, if there is no Wang Chao, he has beaten a group of competitors last season to win the best defensive player DPOY.

While the outside line suffered, the Nuggets were also educated at the center position.

Gobert vs Cousins, this is a one-sided hanging.

Gobert's static talent is undeniably dominant against any center in the league, but one thing has always been his weakness, and that is his lack of confrontation ability.

Cousins weighs nearly 125 kilograms, and looks like a little fat man to the naked eye, which makes him very capable of confrontation under the basket, although his offense is more like to focus on mid-range shooting, but there is no shortage of strong offense under the basket on the court.

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

The Warriors also considered whether or not to let Cousins lose weight to match the team's small-ball strategy, but after some deliberation, they chose to leave it at the moment.

When Cousins is on the court, it does slow down the Warriors' offensive tempo, but it also gives the Warriors a top-tier center who can have the upper hand against any team in the league.

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 battles, and after Cousins is off the court, the Warriors who are replaced by the Death Five lineup are the team with the strongest offensive firepower in the league.

This kind of Warriors who switch between the two styles freely is also the reason why they have been able to dominate the West in recent years.

Of course, the Warriors' management and coaching staff, who are content with the status quo, don't know what kind of roster they will have, or how dominant the Warriors will be if they take their small-ball tactics to the extreme.

It's good to have both positional and fast offense, but it's destined to be less extreme and powerful than the specialization has always been.

The topic is far away, back to the game, Gobert's defense is very good, but now his body is still a little too thin, 2.16 meters tall, weighing only 110 kilograms, in the future, Gobert will further strengthen the basket protection ability under the basket, the weight has increased to about 117 kilograms, but even so there will still be a certain gap with Cousins.

As a black man, although Cousins belongs to the inferior category of blacks in terms of strength, explosiveness and athleticism, he is still better than Gobert, and with the huge difference in weight, he is simply like entering a no-man's land under the basket, casually beating Gobert.

Throughout the game, Cousins shot 9 of 19 and 7 of 8 free throws, and scored 26 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks, which was the best performance on the Warriors' side.

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

On the other hand, on the Nuggets' side, only Wang Chao scored more than 20 points, even if Wang Chao cut a triple-double of 46 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the whole game, he still lost the game.

It's just that as I said before, although the Nuggets lost the game, no one dares to sing the Nuggets anymore, after all, even if the Warriors win this game, the victory process is quite lucky, and in the case of the Nuggets' two guards playing poorly, even if one of Mitchell and Murray plays normally in the game, the outcome of this game is not easy to say.

Moreover, this is still on the home court of the Warriors, and as we all know, Denver, the home of the Nuggets, is one of the strongest devils in the league, and the Nuggets are also the team with the highest home win percentage in the league.

If the roles were reversed and the Warriors went to play on the Nuggets' home court, it would be even harder to say whether they would win or lose.

The Nuggets are top-notch on both ends of the floor, and it's hard to find any weaknesses other than looking for opportunities in rookie players who haven't played consistently.

A heavy, attacking center like Cousins isn't something that any team in the league has.

Therefore, other teams will have a headache when they encounter the Nuggets.

The Nuggets, who lost to the Warriors, poured all the anger of the loss and the end of the winning streak on the Thunder three days later, on November 7.

Unlike the Nuggets, who started low and went high, and were not favored by anyone but led the league with a 9-1 record, the Thunder's performance in the new season was extremely disappointing.

This summer, the Thunder made a desperate bet and traded for Paul Brown. George and Cameron. Anthony, paired with Westbrook, forms the standard triumvirate lineup.

However, the cooperation of the three players at the beginning of the season was extremely incompatible and incompatible, and the record performance was also staggering, with only 4 wins and 6 losses at present, and even winning those 4 games was completely dependent on the individual ability of the star.

Although the regular season has only just begun, there are already a lot of basketball commentators who are beginning to assert the failure of the Thunder's Stud Triumvirate Combo.

"It turns out that not any three superstars can succeed together, the Thunder's big three played in a disorganized game, completely fighting on their own, relying on the individual ability of the stars to play, resulting in the whole team falling apart, without any tactics at all, it is normal for such a team to lose, and the next away game against the Nuggets will inevitably be a fiasco."

It really made the media right.

On November 7, the Denver Nuggets were at home, and the game between the two teams officially began.

The Thunder's starting five Tigers do seem to be enough to bluff.

Point guard Westbrook, point guard Paul. George, small forward Andre. Robertson, power forward Cameron. Anthony, center Steven. Adams.

At the five positions, except for Roberson 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 interior blue-collar player and a good rebounder.

In order to keep Adams this summer, the Thunder had to offer a four-year, $100 million contract, which also brought Adams' starting salary to $22.47 million in the 17-18 season.

This also means that the Thunder team has four players with an annual salary of 20 million+!

Westbrook 28 million, Anthony 26 million, Adams 22 million, George 19.5 million!

Four high-paid players have made the Thunder's salary space explode directly, and the salary of this small-ball city team in the 17-18 season is as high as 133 million, second only to the Cavaliers and Trail Blazers in the league, which is close to the Warriors' salary.

This salary also requires the Thunder owner to pay a luxury tax of nearly 25 million to the league.

paid such a big price, and as a result, the regular season began like this, you can imagine how big the heart of the Thunder team owner is.

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

There are only two people on the Nuggets side with a salary of more than 10 million, Wang Chao and Gobert, and the total salary of the whole team has only just reached the level of the salary cap.

If you look at the performance of the two teams in the regular season, there is a world of difference.

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

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

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

The Thunder are no match for the Nuggets at all.

Not to mention Wang Chao on the offensive end, he has no one in this league who can defend at all, not even a regular in the best defensive team like George.

Mitchell and Murray, two rookies who did not play well in the last game against the Warriors, also seemed to want to spill all their anger in this game, with a very strong desire to attack, and the offensive efficiency was good, both scored 20+ points, plus Wang Chao, who scored 35 points in the whole game, only three of them combined to score only 80 points.

This score should have been the score expected by the Thunder Big Three, after all, whether it is Westbrook, George or Anthony in the Thunder Big Three, they should have such ability in terms of scoring ability and explosiveness.

But that was not the case.

The best player among the Big Three was Paul, who shot 10-of-20 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line, and scored 27 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. George.

Westbrook finished with just 13 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four turnovers on just 6-of-22 shooting from the field.

Anthony scored 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting.

Anthony, who plays the main power forward position in the Thunder, played directly opposite Wang Chao, the four-time best defensive player, and his performance was generally normal, and Anthony's performance so far this season has been the worst and most struggling of the Big Three.

From the first core of the Knicks to the third leader of the Thunder, it is difficult for anyone to change their mentality and playing style for a while.

In the original history, Anthony's average data in the 17-18 season with the Thunder dropped to 16 points and 5.8 rebounds, directly knocking out his value.

After just one season with the Thunder, he was traded by the team to the Hawks and immediately agreed to buy him as a free agent.

Then such a 34-year-old star player with a certain level of strength joined the Rockets with a veteran base salary in the hope of competing for a championship, and a generation of superstars eventually became role players who wandered around multiple teams and remained champion-free.

From the perspective of the Thunder management, Anthony should indeed be placed in the last place in the Big Three, after all, this is a 33-year-old veteran, and he is definitely worse than Westbrook and George, who are still young and in their playing years.

Judging from the subsequent performance of the three, the judgment of the Thunder team is indeed correct.

But in Wang Chao's view, their behavior of spending huge sums of money to form the Big Three is a mistake in itself.

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

In the final analysis, Westbrook is not Wang Chao nor James, and when he was the core of the ball, he did play an exaggerated performance of averaging a triple-double per game this season, but in the playoffs, there was no three-point shooting at all, and the inefficient play of only holding the ball and recklessly going inside was too easy to target.

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

Mitchell, who is responsible for defending him, doesn't guard against his outside shots at all, and if you dare to shoot at the three-point line, let you shoot in the open space, and the shot counts as your ability.

Westbrook, who was put more than two meters away, really didn't shoot, and it was still the same old-fashioned way of playing to the inside.

The problem is that this time his opponent is the Nuggets with a 2.35-meter long arm monster with an arm span of 2.35 meters on the inside.

Gobert made three blocks to Westbrook alone, and the latter shot 6-of-22 from the field for just 27 percent.

In the end, the score of the two teams was fixed at 112:94, and the Nuggets defeated the Thunder by 18 points at home, easily defeating the opponent, and the record also came to 10-1, continuing to lead the league. (End of chapter)