One round of the series, squeezing out two MVPs

G4 of the Nuggets and Thunder in the early morning, if you are not a Thunder fan, you will really feel very tormented if you stay up late to watch such a game.

In the first quarter of the game, the two teams played a score of 17-8, not that the defense of the two teams was suffocated, but simply out of shape. The Thunder are constantly losing rebounds, while the Nuggets are constantly throwing out simple shots. The Thunder's 17 points in a single quarter is low enough, and the Nuggets' 8 points in a single quarter is even more incredible. The two teams combined for 25 points in a single quarter, tying the all-time low.

The three points of the two teams today are also extremely ugly, the Nuggets once shot 0 of 16 three-pointers like the Timberwolves, 0 of 14 three-pointers in the first quarter, a large number of shots are on the outside, and a large number of open three-point shots are missed. And the Thunder's first 16 three-point shots only scored one. In the first 32 three-point attempts of this game, one was made.

In the final game, the Nuggets were 11-of-45 from three-point range and the Thunder were 10-of-41 from three-point range, and both teams shot exactly the same three-point percentage (24.4%). The Nuggets also shot just 31.2 percent from the field, and the Thunder shot just 35.6 percent even better. In a crazy iron game, the Thunder had the last laugh, where did they win? Bench seats.

On the Nuggets' bench, Wei Shao's shooting efficiency was poor in 2-of-12, scoring 6 points in the game, but this was already the vast majority of points scored by the Nuggets bench. The Nuggets scored a total of eight points off the bench, with the remaining two points coming from Watson, who played only nine minutes.

The Thunder's bench played its best game since the start of the series, with five Thunder players scoring in double figures and three on the bench. Caruso had 10 points, 2-of-5 from three-point range; Wallace had 11 points and was 3-of-3 from three-point range; Wiggins had 11 points and was 3-of-6 from three-point range. Most of the Thunder's three-point shooting came from this group of bench bandits, and Caruso's play on the defensive end has always been reassuring.

The Nuggets hit three-pointers at the beginning of the third quarter, once overtaking the Thunder, and led the Thunder by 8 points early in the final quarter. But after that, the Thunder's bench made consecutive three-point shots, and the Nuggets defense couldn't withstand such firepower at all, so they lost their advantage. With the bench score at 35-8, the Nuggets' starters may be better than the Thunder's, but the depth of the bench on both sides dictates the victory.

Since the start of the playoffs, the Nuggets have been playing with seven people, even six and a half people, and the seventh man, Watson, has only averaged about 10 minutes per game, and only played 9 minutes today. The Nuggets' starters are basically in a full state.

They played seven games in the first round, three more than the Thunder. The second round of the series was played every other day, and this game was less than 48 hours apart compared to G3, and the fatigue of the Nuggets finally exploded in this game.

Scoring just eight points in the first quarter was a good example of this, and they got through the opening fitness issues and fought back in the second and third quarters. By the end of the season, physical exhaustion has reached its limit. The most intuitive embodiment is that in the last 5 minutes of the game, the Nuggets made a total of 9 free throws, but only scored 3, including Jokic 1 of 4 and Gordon 2 of 5.

The Nuggets still had a chance to turn the game around, but a poor free throw and a five-second service violation after returning from a timeout wiped it all out. The magical Gordon is still hitting a magical three-pointer, but the Nuggets are at the end of their game today.

Jokic was squeezed dry again under the Thunder's iron bucket array, and I really don't know how much oil and water he has left in this pork belly. Today, he hit 7-of-22 from the field with 15 irons, 2-of-8 from three-point range, and 2-of-18 from three-point range in two consecutive games.

But I think the scariest thing for Jokic is not how much iron he hits, but how his passing is completely strangled by the Thunder. After four games, Jokic dished out 21 assists while accumulating 23 turnovers, a negative assist-to-turnover ratio, which is probably the first time for Jokic.

In the first eight games of the playoffs, Jokic averaged 26.3 points per game, shooting 50% from the field, 16-of-37 from three-point range, and dished out 9.6 assists and only 3.9 turnovers. However, in the last three games, Jokic averaged 21.3 points per game, shooting 33% from the field, 4-of-22 from three-point range, and averaging 5 assists and 5.3 turnovers per game.

The Thunder's three interior lines took turns to consume Jokic and paid a lot of fouls, but there were also a lot of moves on the verge of fouls, and the referees couldn't blow every round. The Thunder's perimeter is ready to wrap up Jokic at any time, cutting off his passing path, forcing Jokic to wear himself down further.

The Clippers only have one size Zubac who can interfere with Jokic, and although the Thunder don't have a center of Azu's size, they have the ultimate in defensive cooperation, and the advantage of the long rotation will grow as the series progresses.

Alexander, the other would-be MVP of this series, also seems to have been squeezed dry, and in the face of the Nuggets' joint defense, he wanted to solve the problem with three points, but in the last two games, he made 1 of 11 three-pointers, and lost all five of them today.

It's hard to say how good Alexander's performance was in this game, and he had a good shooting touch in the first half, but in the third quarter when he was overtaken by the Nuggets, Alexander only had one shot and scored one point from the free throw. In the decisive moment of the final quarter, his two unreasonable three-point shots and a mistake with a kick out of bounds almost caused a catastrophe.

If it was Porter Jr. and Gordon who saved Jokic in the last game, today it was the Thunder's bench who led this group of starters forward, and the depth of the roster allowed the Thunder to regain home-court advantage.

The good news for the Nuggets is that Jokic may be the best player of all time, having won all six of his career games, four of which have advanced to the next round. But the strangeness of Jokic in this series is also unprecedented.

How long the Nuggets' six-and-a-half-man rotation will last, no one knows. The more the series is played to the end, the greater the Thunder's advantage will definitely be, but in the bayonet playoffs, when the body can't bear it, willpower will take you out of the encirclement.