The Nuggets seven-game winning streak was ended by the Bulls: What did Jokic cover for the team?

The Nuggets' seven-game winning streak was ended by the Bulls. First loss at home this season.

Jokic had his 8th triple-double in the 13th game of the season - 36+18+13 - but was bullied by the Bulls in the end:

Vucevic was misplaced and fed Hurt to shoot Jokic a three-pointer.

Jokic couldn't shake Vucevic from the top of the three-point arc, so he tried to play with Murray, but the ball was stolen.

Vucevic shot a three-pointer from Jokic.

ends.

Of course, all centers in the league take three-pointers. Vucevic was shot to death by Wenban before, and Wenban himself was chased by Curry. No surprise:

Today, the Nuggets were defeated by the Bulls as a whole and suffered from the loss of fewer guards.

The Nuggets started smoothly, but when Murray went down, Jokic led the second team and was reversed: because Murray went out, Hardaway could only count on Hardaway from the outside; after that, Murray led the second team himself, but was reversed even more severely by the Bulls.

When the starter returns, the Nuggets will steadily take the lead.

In the third quarter, it was the same as before: the Nuggets played well in the starting lineup, but came on the bench and were beaten by the Bulls by double digits; in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets started again to tie the game, and then Huerter and Vucevic came to vote for Jokic.

The starting five are invincible, but they can't do it without anyone: the Nuggets only have one Jokic and only one Murray.

The Nuggets are missing Braun today, which is particularly problematic. Of course, Braun is only fifth on the team in scoring, third in assists, and fourth in rebounds. Should the team be able to survive without him?

But Braun is one of the only two serious guards on the team, and Jokic is the garlic chili sauce next to this big piece of white meat.

He leads the defense, runs counterattacks, plays air cuts, and dunks Jokic's pass (the team's third dunker). He is an extension of Jokic's golf quotient: just like PJ Washington next to Luka in 2024, and Wiggins next to Curry/Dream Chase in 2022.

Braun actually concealed a truth about the Nuggets:

Jokic, Gordon and Kayo can all play the ball, but they are essentially forwards; apart from Braun, the only player in the Nuggets who can dribble and shuttle flexibly is Murray. Hardaway can shoot and he can shoot off the dribble, but he can only do so much.

This season, the Nuggets are ranked among the top three in defense, but they basically rely on limiting three-pointers and backcourt rebounds. Making mistakes and causing damage is not their specialty. The only one who can press hard from the outside is Braun. The Nuggets are ranked fourth in the league in terms of counterattack points that take advantage of the opponent's mistakes, and most of them come from Braun, a little pepper.

Without Braun today, the Nuggets played with extremely high intelligence, but they could not withstand the Bulls' back-and-forth pace.

Jokic is the first person in the world - yes, I said that - who can instigate the ball and finish the post-play perfectly, but he is inferior to Alexander and Luka in one point:

After all, he is not a defender with the ball.

Of Jokic's 13 assists today, 4 were launched as a ball carrier. This is where he is more like Bird than Magic: Magic and Bird are basically the two best passers in the 1980s in various reputations. Many people even think that Bird passes the ball better than Magic: Bird has a high number of assists with far fewer balls than Magic, only his assists come more from high and low passes.

The magician can continuously rely on his own dribbling to push the rhythm, catch the opponent's unstable footing and directly attack the opponent's flaws, or misplace the ball to break through.

Jokic is a master of passing skills, but after all, he is a seven-foot-long man. He cannot be expected to dribble fiercely and suddenly many times.

At the end of the day, Murray and he missed a two-hander, which is typical:

Jokic couldn't shake Vucevic in front of the basket, so he had to find Murray to play a two-man game, and then Murray's pass was copied.

In this era, it is no longer enough to rely on "single ball handler + long man + shooter group": the secondary ball handler is more and more important.

In the past few finals teams, the Thunder had Jaywee in addition to Alexander. When the Celtics won the championship, they had White and even Holiday in addition to the double Jay.

For many years, the Nuggets have relied on Jokic (and Gordon) passing, hiding the fact:

Their second defender besides Murray is Braun, the former Pope and Bruce Brown.

Everyone knows that the Thunder have a thin forward line but a large number of defenders, so the Thunder are not afraid of running back and forth and are more troublesome in position battles; the Nuggets are on the contrary: there are many forwards, and there are only one or two who can be used as defenders, so they are not afraid of position battles with the Nuggets. They can just run back and forth...

Of course, here it comes:

Rockets: Just be satisfied! Our front line is filled with mountains and seas, and the most defensive-minded kid can only hide on the bench for the time being!

Timberwolves: You have a defender-minded substitute, at least a young man! !