Caruso emerged from the new force! The strength background of winning the third place in FMVP

As we all know, the current finals are tied 1-1.

Before the third game, the NBA officially released the latest FMVP rankings. The top two were without suspense - Alexander scored a total of 72 points in two games, firmly occupying the first place, followed by Halliburton, who completed a 0.3-second final victory in the first game.

However, the third place position is quite surprising - Caruso.

Yes, as a substitute, he actually surpassed the Thunder's secondary scorer, All-Star player and best second-defender Javi in ​​the FMVP rankings, as well as the new Eastern Conference Finals MVP and All-Star player Siakam.

may sound a bit exaggerated, but objectively speaking, it doesn't seem too much to put Caruso in the third place in the FMVP in the two finals that have ended.

In the first game before, the Thunder suffered a 15-point comeback from the Pacers. Caruso played for 28 minutes, made 3 of 8 shots, 1 of 4 three-pointers, 4 of 5 free throws, contributed 11 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, and had 3 steals and 2 blocks, with a plus-minus value of +2.

On the defensive end, Caruso performed very well. Although the offensive end was slightly inaccurate, the other two core members of the Thunder were more sluggish:

-Jewe, only 6 of 19 shots, 1 of 4 of 3-pointers, and only 17 points, Chett, only 2 of 9 shots, 0 of 1 of 3-pointers, and only 6 points, focusing on the second game. Caruso's performance was really outstanding.

Over the whole game, Caruso played 27 minutes, made 6 of 11 shots, 4 of 8 three-pointers, 4 of 4 free throws, and scored 20 points and 3 rebounds.

Especially in the second half, Caruso scored 11 points alone. Whenever the Pacers tried to counterattack, he and his teammates could always respond hard, which was in sharp contrast to the situation in the first game.

As far as Caruso is concerned, his score in the second highest in the team in the second game, only slightly inferior to Alexander. Even Jewish and Chet, who were in good shape, were not as good as him. Halliburton, the highest scorer in the Pacers, scored only 17 points.

So far, after two games, Caruso is the only player on both sides to score 20+ points except Alexander. His total score is 31 points, the same as Halliburton.

Obviously, Caruso is not known for his scoring ability. He has never won 20+ in the regular season throughout the season, but he has twice completed 20+ in the playoffs.

In addition to the second game in the finals, the other game was the first game against the Nuggets in the second round. In that game, he made 7 of 12 shots, 5 of 9 three-pointers, contributed 20 points, 6 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks, and performed extremely well.

Caruso's biggest feature is that he is good at handling major competition occasions.

In the regular season this season, Caruso averaged only 19.3 minutes per game, scoring 7.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals. He performed well on the defensive end, but there was no outstanding point in the attack. His shooting percentage was 44.6%/35.3%/82.4%, and his real shooting percentage was 56.8%. His three-point shooting percentage has dropped compared to the previous season.

However, after entering the playoffs, Caruso's performance was completely refreshed. In the 18 games so far, he averaged 23.1 minutes per game, scored 9.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals, with a shooting percentage of 46.0%/41.6%/80.0%, and his real shooting percentage was as high as 61.8%. His non-bottom corner three-pointers made a total of 20 shots, with 43 shots, and his shooting percentage reached 46.5%.

In addition to taking more responsibilities on the offensive end, Caruso still performed well on the defensive end, especially when playing against the Nuggets, he can not only double-team Westbrook and Murray, but also be responsible for Jokic, which allowed the Thunder to successfully defeat their opponents in the seven-game series. Dagnott played a huge role by allowing Caruso to defend Jokic.

Back to the finals, Caruso continued his hot feel to the playoffs so far, not only relieved Alexander's pressure on the offensive end, but also brought great pressure to the Pacers' backcourt players on the defensive end. In the series so far, Caruso has averaged 10 shots per game, causing Pacers players to hit 8.8% and three-point shooting percentage to hit only 20%.

Specifically for personal defensive performance, Caruso made 2 of 6 against Siakam, Nembhard made 1 of 4, Halliburton made 0 of 3-except Siakam was able to score by making fouls, the other two performed weakly under Caruso's defense.

Regarding the FMVP rankings, I think that as long as the Thunder can win the championship, this award is almost no longer suspense. Whether it is Caruso or Jevi, there is a certain gap compared to Alexander. Therefore, frankly speaking, there is not much difference between FMVP ranking third and fourth. The key to the problem is whether the Thunder can win the championship - although the Thunder is obviously stronger, after two games, the home advantage has been seized by the Pacers, and judging from the first game, the Thunder does not seem to be invincible.

In the future games, Caruso needs to continue to create pressure on the defensive end while scoring efficiently like the second game. There is no need to ask for 20+ in every game, just keep a double-digit score. If he can connect with the FMVP award, it can clearly show how amazing Caruso's strength is.