Maybe the Lakers actually will attempt kidnapping Nikola Jokic at some point during this series.
First-year Los Angeles coach Darvin Ham quipped before Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals that the best strategy to defend Denver’s two-time MVP is to “catch him coming out of his house.” The Lakers didn’t deploy that trick in a 132-126 Nuggets win Tuesday night. But if Ham’s postgame comments indicated anything, it’s that anything is on the table — from the now-familiar coverages of Game 1 to the mysteries still up Ham’s sleeve.
“It’s not any one coverage that you’re going to be able to stay in versus that kid,” Ham said. “There’s no one person that’s going to stop him. It has to be done by committee. … You have to switch up matchups at times and you have to switch up coverages. We didn’t want to go too deep into the in-game adjustments. You know, it’s still that ultimate chess game.”
The Lakers have already shown their hand with one fascinating second-half adjustment. It started late in the third quarter then became amplified in the fourth as the visitors trimmed a 21-point deficit to 3.
After Anthony Davis guarded Jokic one-on-one most of the game, bench big Rui Hachimura matched up on him down the stretch, even with Davis still on the floor. It added an extra paint presence. Davis became a double-teamer and help defender when Jokic tried to take on Hachimura.
“We did end up liking it. Stayed with it for a while,” Davis said. “Maybe something we go to in Game 2. We obviously have to go back and look at the film, but just thinking about it right now, something that we like. Just to also have me roaming and things like that.”
Jokic finished Game 1 with 31 points on 12-for-17 shooting, 21 rebounds and 14 assists. In limited reps against the Lakers’ new look, he decelerated, shooting 0 for 2 with two turnovers in the fourth quarter when Hachimura was his primary defender and Davis was roaming.
“I was just trying to get in his knee,” Hachimura said. “It was a part of our game plan, and then we talk about it before the game. … The coaches told me that I’m going to guard Jokic, too. I think it was a good plan, and I think the second half, we did a pretty good job on him.”
Jokic being Jokic, he turned the new challenge into another, often better form of offense. In the second half, he had four assists against a double-team or a help defender sagging off a perimeter shooter, including a crucial assist late in the fourth quarter against the Hachimura coverage. The other three had resulted in Denver 3-pointers. This one ended in a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope driving layup to go ahead 129-124.
The central tension of how this series will unfold after Game 1 resides wherever the Lakers are putting bodies. Do you keep Jokic off-balance with double-teams but risk allowing the Hall of Fame-caliber passer to spot open snipers? Or hold your breath relying on one-on-one matchups?
Ham said Jokic “shoots 70 percent on those floaters — those short-range chip shots and floaters and hooks and little one-leg fadeaways.” So by committing increased help D toward Jokic to stifle his that 70% on 2-pointers, Ham and the Lakers were content living with the other option late in Game 1: The Nuggets shot 46.9% from three.
“He just makes everybody on his team better,” Lakers’ guard Austin Reaves said.
The other key element of how Los Angeles will handle the Serbian center going forward is his adaptability. That 0 for 2 against Hachimura in the fourth? Jokic also started the game 0 for 2 when taking on Davis one-on-one in Denver’s half-court offense. Davis effectively contested a driving layup then emphatically blocked a Jokic shot during a post-up attempt in the second quarter.
After those two stops, Jokic finished 3 for 3 when he challenged Davis one-on-one — 4 for 4 technically, but Jokic admitted his buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the third quarter was nothing but luck. (He also scored over Davis late in the third after Hachimura started on Jokic and Davis switched on.) Still, those numbers don’t include the times Davis lost track of Jokic off-ball as Denver guards’ seal-offs created open jumpers, or the times Jokic beat Davis on the offensive glass.
In other words, what worked at first suddenly didn’t work.
Ham is counting on the same being true for his Game 1 adjustment.
“We were comfortable with the results,” the coach said. “Gave us a chance to get back into the game. … If we need to go back to it, it’s there — but along with several other things that we didn’t unveil tonight.”
Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.
