The perfect championship puzzle! How delicious is Caruso in the playoffs?

tiebreaker battle, the Thunder defeated the Nuggets 125-93.

In this game, the Nuggets, who played away, had the advantage in the start, and led by 10 points 26-16 one minute before the first quarter. However, from then until the end of the second quarter, the Thunder beat the Nuggets 44-20.

The Thunder continued to expand their advantage in the third quarter, and played another 37-26 in a single quarter. At the end of the third quarter, the Thunder had already led by as much as 25 points 97-72.

This is not over yet. In the fourth quarter, Alexander led the team to another 17-4 wave, directly hitting the game into garbage time. The score difference reached 42 points at one point.

Let's talk about the Nuggets first, there is no doubt that it is a tragic defeat.

Although the Nuggets have more experience in tiebreaking seven, the difference in rotation depth and physical reserves between the two teams is too big. Before garbage time in the fourth quarter, only Westbrook scored 6 points on the bench.

Core aspects, Jokic was targeted throughout the game, and it was difficult for every round from dribbling, passing to receiving the ball. In the end, he only made 9 shots, scored 20 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, and 5 turnovers.

The second in command, Murray, won 20+ in 4 games in the previous six games, and played the worst game in the series, with 6 of 16 shots and 1 of 8 three-pointers, and only scored 13 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists.

Porter Jr. continued the sluggishness of the series so far, making 3 of 8 shots, 0 of 4 three-pointers, and only scored 6 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist. Among the four core cores, Gordon is the most commendable.

In the life-and-death battle, Gordon had a choice to rest, but he still had a second-degree hamstring strain for 25 minutes, then scored 8 points and 11 rebounds, and 4 of them were frontcourt rebounds.

The second-degree hamstring strain is not a minor injury. Once, Harden, the Nets forcibly played on the court with this injury, led to a decline later. Statistics show that NBA players have to rest on average for a second-degree hamstring strain.

Although the final result is still regrettable, Gordon's performance so far in the playoffs is obvious to all. Without his three key goals, the Nuggets may have lost to the Clippers in the first round, not to mention the second round. After winning the championship in 2023, the Nuggets have fallen in the second round for two consecutive years, and the problems exposed in the past two years are very obvious, that is, the rotation depth is insufficient.

For this year, Jokic, Murray and Gordon's performance in the series is actually OK. Porter can drag the Thunder into the tiebreak, but the bench just can't continue - G6 is a good example. A Strauser stands out and can make the Nuggets a huge difference.

can only say that the Nuggets still have a lot of work to do in the offseason, and I hope they don't waste Jokic's peak.

Let's talk about the Thunder, this tiebreaker finally looks like 68 wins.

Before the tiebreak in this game, the two core cores of the Thunder were as follows:

- Alexander, averaging 28.8 points per game, the highest in both teams, but his explosiveness was slightly insufficient, his three-point shooting percentage was only 26.9%, and G3 and G4 were not good at both games, especially G3, with 18 points per game 22 shots in a single game

- Jewe, averaging 16.5 points per game, and a real shooting percentage of 45%, and his condition was particularly poor. Except for 32 points in a single game in G3, there was no 20+ in the other five games, and G6 even scored 6 points in a single game

Then in this tiebreak, Alexander and Jewe both stood up:

- Alexander played the best game in the series , 12 of 19 shots, 3 of 4 three-pointers, scored 35 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 0 mistakes, and 23 points in the second half, playing directly to the game

- Jewe's performance was second only to G3, 10 of 17 shots in the game, 2 of 5 three-pointers, 24 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. He scored 17 points in the second quarter, and was the biggest contributor to the Thunder's lag from behind to leading

Of course, the Thunder won more in lineup depth. Chett, Harten, Dort did a good job in defense, and Wiggins, Wallace, and Caruso broke the Nuggets' connection section - pay attention to one data. The Thunder team sent a total of 16 steals in this game, breaking the single-game steal record in the tiebreak battle from 1977 to the present.

The Thunder are a super steal defensive team in the regular season, averaging 10.3 steals per game and 106.6 points lost in 100 rounds. Both are the first in the league. As we said in this game, we just found the feeling of 68 wins in the regular season.

Here, we must talk about Caruso separately, which is really too strong.

In the whole game, Caruso played 26 minutes, made 5 of 7 shots, 1 of 3 three-pointers, scored 11 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. Note that his plus and negative value reached +40, the team ranked first.

Everyone knows that Caruso has good defense, but how many people can predict that his defense is so good that he can even defend Jokic alone? In this game, Jokic was entangled by Caruso's death from dribbling, passing, blocking and receiving.

The performance of Caruso's average of 10.4 points, 1.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting percentage of 45.6%/42.9%/66.7% in three events, and real shooting percentage of 59.9%.

Defensive end, he averaged 10.9 shots per game, the Nuggets' shooting percentage dropped by 7.9%, and the three-point shooting percentage dropped by 5.6%. Among them, the two people with the most time to defend their home defense are:

-Westrow, 18 minutes, 83 rounds, Westbrook made 4 of 11 shots, and only scored 9 points,

-Jokic, 13 minutes, 65 rounds, Jokic made 4 of 12 shots, and only scored 17 points, you read that right, Caruso, who is 1.96 meters tall and weighs 84 kg, actually made Jokic, who is 2.11 meters tall and weighs 128 kg difficult. This is probably not expected by many optimistic Thunder fans..

The data can also prove how important Caruso is in this round of series:

- 164 minutes Caruso was present, the Thunder could win 18.5 points in 100 rounds, 177 minutes when Caruso was away, the Thunder only won 2.6 points in 100 rounds, of course, Alexander is the well-deserved MVP in this round of series. He was photographed with a smile after four games after showing a smile, and averaged 31+5+6 per game, with a real shooting percentage of 66%, and led the team to 3 wins and 1 loss.

However, Caruso's existence cannot be ignored, just as Alexander said after advancing: "He (Caruso) is the kind of player born for big scenes. He is well versed in the true meaning of the game and always masters everything he has. Among all the players I have worked with, no one can do this better than him."

At this point, I can't help but recall how the Lakers lost Caruso in 2021.

In the 2021 offseason, Caruso became a free agent and hopes to stay in Los Angeles for 3 years and 30 million yuan, but due to salary pressure, the Lakers can only choose between renewing Caruso and Holden Tucker.

In the end, the Lakers chose to provide Horton Tucker with a three-year, 32 million contract, and then watched Caruso join the Bulls for 4 years, 37 million.

We all know what happened later. Horton Tucker was not successfully trained. He was sent to the Jazz after only one year of playing with the Lakers. Now he has a basic salary.

Caruso is getting better and better with the Bulls. Last year, he directly replaced Gideon in the offseason. He joined the Thunder this season, helping the Thunder win 68 times, and now he has reached the Western Conference Finals and is expected to win another championship.

Not to mention anything else, look at what Caruso did to defend Jokic. If the Lakers chose Caruso at that time, maybe they would not have won only one game when they met the Nuggets twice in the past two years.

Of course, the past cannot be changed, and no one must continue to move forward. Let’s talk about the Thunder, their goal has not been completed yet. Next, the Western Conference Finals will face Edwards and the Timberwolves. In this round of the game, maybe Caruso can still be seen shining.