Caruso makes history! 40 plus or negative values ​​are used to guard Jokic, the Lakers regret it

The NBA's second round tiebreak battle was completely crazy! The Thunder defeated the defending champion Nuggets 125-93 at home, and returned to the Western Conference Finals after 11 years in team history. Behind this 32-point victory, the performance of substitute surprise Caruso completely stole the limelight.

This defensive player abandoned by the Lakers only played 26 minutes in this game, hitting 5 goals in 7 shots, including 1 of 3 three-pointers, efficiently scoring 11 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. What's even more exaggerated is that when Caruso was on the court, the Thunder beat the opponent by 40 points, directly setting a record of positive and negative for substitutes in the NBA tiebreak battle (the original record was Ginobili's +32 in 2005)!

After the game, when talking about long-term misalignment defense against Jokic, Caruso showed high emotional intelligence: "It requires fighting for a long time. Jokic is a history-level player, and his influence in the game is everywhere. You must always stay focused because he can tear you apart in a hundred ways. " Interestingly, the most successful restriction of Jokic in this game was not the Thunder's three inside players, but the defender who is only 1.96 meters tall.

This dramatic scene made Lakers and team reporter Trevor Ryan break the defense directly: "Letting Caruso away was definitely the stupidest operation in history! Every time he saw him break out, it was like slapping the management! "Time goes back to the summer of 2021. Caruso was willing to renew the contract with the Lakers for 30 million yuan in three years, but the management was stingy and was willing to give him an annual salary of 7 million yuan. What's even more magical is that they turned around and offered Horton Tucker a three-year contract of 32 million, which eventually forced Caruso to join the Bulls for 37 million in four years.

Now the 29-year-old Caruso has evolved into the league's top 3D. This season, not only has it been selected for the best defensive team, but its three-point shooting percentage has soared to 41.7%. On the other hand, Tucker, who was highly anticipated by the Lakers, was laid off employees and unemployed by the Jazz last summer. Seeing the former abandoned player shine on the Western Conference Finals stage, I wonder what Lakers boss Jenny Buss feels at this moment?