2023-05-17 03:54:00
Rolando del Bosque | ESPN DigitalReading: 2 min.
With Game 1 between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers, the Western Conference Final began, which in its first chapter went to those from Colorado (132-126) who dominated the first half with an unstoppable Nikola Jokic, but who ultimately suffered due to to the adjustments that coach Darvin Ham made to keep the ‘Joker’ off.
These were some of the keys to victory for the Nuggets.
1.- Unstoppable Nikola Jokic.
During the first part of the game there was no way to stop Jokic, who had already signed a double-double and the Nuggets had built a lead of up to 21 points largely due to the dominance in the paint of the ‘Joker’, who led to his quintet to close the score of the first two quarters with a 72-54 partial.
Denver had 36 boards to 13 from its rival, of those 36, 23 were defensive to not allow the yellow and purple second chances. Of that total of 23 defensive boards, 16 were recovered by the Serbian center.
2.- Headlines with double digits.
Coach Michael Malone’s quintet had a better overall game and contribution from their starters, who all finished with double digit points, plus a contribution from Bruce Brown of 14 units coming off the bench, while on the Los Angeles side, Anthony Davis charged with the team in the first half, with 18 points and exploding in the second half to end the game with 40 points; However, the help of LeBron James came ‘late’ because until the first half the ‘King’ only added 11 units.
D’Angelo Russell and Dennis Schroder were left behind by leaving with eight and six points, respectively.
3.- Late adjustments by coach Ham
Darvin Ham adjusted the mark on Jokic late when he put Rui Hachumira on the floor along with AD to control the two-time MVP; Thanks to this, the Lakers dominated the last quarter 29-18 and came to put the game to three points with Austin Reaves in isolation, who with his 5-9 from the goal fed the Angelina illusion of equalizing the game at times.
Game 2 will take place Thursday at the same venue, the Nuggets’ Ball Arena.
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