Minecraft G5: Harden s defense against Jokic is effective, Nuggets use Murray Gordon s pick-and-roll

Translator's note: The original text was published in CBS Sports. The data in the text were as of the time of publication (April 30, local time), and the date involved has been converted. The views in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform. The Nuggets have adapted well to the unusual defensive strategy of the Clippers

The basketball story of the Denver Nuggets in this era is the story of Nicola Jokic saving a lineup with insufficient strength.

Whenever Jokic goes off the court, the Nuggets' net efficiency drops significantly. When Jokic's teammates can't support him, they lose playoff games and series. Whenever Jokic is substituted, the city of Denver holds its breath. Any offensive round that does not directly revolve around Jokic can be in chaos. The Nuggets' situation has become so precarious that head coach David Adelman left Jokic on the court throughout the second half without a break in the fourth win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.

This in turn became the theme of the Nuggets' first round series against the Clippers. Can the Nuggets survive Jokic's short break, and can the Clippers use a peculiar defensive strategy to confuse him long enough to allow them to control the games they might have lost? That's almost the case on Sunday. The Nuggets led 22 points in the fourth quarter. The Clippers used a peculiar 1-1-3 joint defense to limit Jokic, and this tactic was used long enough to strike a 32-9 offensive and almost steal the victory of that game. It was Aaron Gordon's miraculous performance that saved the situation.

You see, the fifth match played on Wednesday was almost in a very similar way. Like they did on Sunday, the Nuggets built a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Clippers narrowed the gap again. With 4 minutes and 1 seconds left in the game, the Nuggets' lead was narrowed to 9 points. So, how did the Clippers complete this nearly successful counterattack? They rely on another unusual defensive strategy. The Clippers allowed James Harden, who was 6-foot-5 inches (about 1.96 meters) to defend Jokic.

If this confuses you, well, that's understandable. Besides being half a foot shorter than Jokic (about 0.15 meters), Harden's reputation on the defensive end is often seen as a joke stock. The facts are more complicated. Although Harden has indeed had many poor defensive performances in some regular season games, he is often able to withstand better at critical moments of high pressure. More importantly, Harden has several consistent advantages: his basketball IQ, his lightning-fire ball, and, most importantly, to our discussion, is his strength. Harden can play against most big players at low posts and gain a foothold, and his defensive strategy has taken advantage of this from past performances.

made Harden defend Jokic achieve several goals. Most importantly, this makes it even harder for Jokic to catch the ball. With 6 minutes and 30 left in the fourth quarter, Jokic passed the ball to Russell Westbrook on the wing and then tried to move to the inside to prepare for the pass. However, since Harden is defending Jokic, the much larger Ivica Zubac is defending Westbrook. So, in order to pass the ball to Jokic, Westbrook had to pass the ball very high to get past the defender. The high-hanging pass allowed Chris Dunn to sneak in and break the ball.

Another similar round appeared with 6 minutes and 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Jokic received the ball in one step inside the top of the arc. Harden lowered his center of gravity and prepared to deal with Jokic's back-to-back singles. But Jokic did not do that, and he made a hand-pass with Jamal Murray. This once again allowed the Clippers to place multiple defensive players between the ball and Jokic.

Murray passed the ball to Westbrook, and Zubac's barrier appeared again. Harden, one of the strongest defenders in basketball, has gained a foothold as Jokic competes for a low position. Westbrook didn't want to pass the ball low because Harden's quick reach would break the ball. But Westbrook doesn't want to try a high-hanging pass again, because he sees Kawhi Leonard lurking behind Jokic. So Westbrook chose to shoot a jump shot, but ended up making a blacksmith.

With the sideline service with 4 minutes and 18 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Jokic finally faced the ball with his back to the basket and received the ball under Harden's defense. Jokic managed to push some distance, but this time Zubac was defending Gordon, so he once again felt at ease to switch positions to double-team. However, Jokic is the rare passer who can get out of the situation, so he cleverly passes the ball around Zubac's back. Once again, lurking Leonard influenced the Nuggets' offense by blocking Gordon's dunk attempt.

Let Harden defend Jokic have a particularly valuable role, that is, it opens the door for the replacement of defense. No team is willing to let big players face Murray in single defense, but the Clippers feel relieved to have Harden participate in this matchup. This once again achieved multiple purposes. Of course, Murray's counter defender Chris Dunn will not defend Jokic one-on-one. But the Clippers can rotate and assist in defense as needed. However, allowing a fast, organized defender to defend Murray during the switch will make passing more dangerous. Let's see how Dunn cut the pass.

If all this starts to feel a little familiar, it's because this is a variant of a defensive strategy a few teams have tried to deal with Jokic in the past. Remember when the Los Angeles Lakers asked Hachimura to defend Jokic? Or when the Minnesota Timberwolves won the series with Carl Anthony Towns defending Jokic? Many of the same basic principles actually apply.

The best defensive organizers of a team lurk near Jokic, ready to interfere with him when needed, but they do not assume the heavy responsibility of a separate matchup, because it is impossible to defend Jokic alone. This strategy relies on the Nuggets' opponents who do not trust Jokic's role players. They are forcing other Nuggets players to find ways to take advantage of all this extra defensive attention. They did it against the Lakers, so they won. They didn't do it against the Timberwolves, so they lost. The strategy of using Harden to switch defense is a little new, but these are the principles that many teams have used against Jokic.

And, many times, the Nuggets actually don't care. Usually the best offense for the Nuggets is to let Jokic solve the problem by himself. Even though the process wasn't always so good, Jokic led the team across the finish line on Sunday. For most of the past two years, the Nuggets actually had no better choice. Then, the playoff version of Jamal Murray returns.

Murray performed well in Game 5, and he scored a total of 43 points in the game. Murray has a long tradition of playing monster-level playoffs after a dull regular season. Murray has never been selected for the All-Star Game, but his average score in the playoffs is higher than Larry Bird. The injury caused the Nuggets to lose that version of Murray in last playoffs. Murray also entered the playoffs with injuries this year, and his performance was not stable in the first four games against the Clippers.

But in Game 5, Jokic performed well from the start, so the Nuggets did an incredible thing: they took the ball away from Jokic midway through the Clippers' counterattack and asked Murray to save them. This is not to say that the Nuggets' tactics around Jokic were designed to ultimately let Murray take action. During the time the Nuggets secured the victory, Jokic barely even played the role of screener in the pick-and-roll.

Frustrated with Harden's effect against Jokic, the Nuggets found another pick-and-roll combination they prefer. Zubac is a terrible defensive presence at the basket, but his defense on the outside is relatively fragile. So the Nuggets decided that if they couldn't attack him with Murray Jokic's pick-and-roll, they would instead attack him with Murray Gordon's pick-and-roll. Look at this first round, it happened when there were less than four minutes left in the game. Murray played a long enough possession to draw Zubac outside the three-point line. Murray then sent a pocket pass between Dunn and Zubac to Gordon, who obtained a straight path to the basket and completed a layup.

The next turn embodies a similar principle. Gordon dribbles through half the game. Murray ran quickly to him and prepared to take over and hand the ball, but Zubac was almost near the three-point line. Zubac hurriedly retreated, and Dunn followed the attack, but slipped as Murray lured him to overdefense. Murray then turned around and used a spinning step and hit a backward jump shot. Although Zubac had a height advantage, his speed was not fast enough to block it. The effective round that locked the victory was once again started with Gordon as a cover for Murray. However, this time, Christian Braun blocked Zubac for Gordon in advance, forcing Bogdan Bogdanovic to intervene in the defense. Seeing this, the Nuggets immediately asked Jokic to come up and cover Murray because they knew the Clippers would have to switch defenses, which would allow Bogdanovic, who is far stronger than Harden, to face Jokic alone. So Dunn, who switched to Gordon, panicked. He rushed between Murray and Jokic to try to stop the pass to the inside, and Murray made the right judgment and passed the ball to Gordon who was completely open, who easily hit a three-pointer. This expanded the lead to 17 points, with less than three minutes remaining in the game. General.

such a performance, especially after Murray played such an incredible whole game, is exactly what the Nuggets need. If Jokic had been playing basketball from one to five, the Nuggets would never have been able to win four games in seven games. The Nuggets must know that at critical moments, they can trust other players on the team to play critical performances and make the right decisions. This is what happened in this game. Murray's performance was excellent, allowing the Nuggets to bet on him — not Jokic — with confidence, as the leader of their half-court offense. The Nuggets don't need to do this all the time. After all, we are talking about Jokic. Generally speaking, you want Jokic to decide on your game outcome. The Nuggets just need to know that when a creative defensive strategy can cause trouble for Jokic, they also have this option available.

Nuggets did not do this in Game 4. The Nuggets didn’t do that for most of the Jokic era. But the Nuggets did it in Game 5, which puts them one step closer to eliminating the Clippers and also allows them to become a potential opponent with a significantly more dangerous next round against the generally favored Oklahoma City Thunder.