At 6:40 in the evening on March 27, the Blazers' home game against the Grizzlies is about to begin.

Players from both teams were already on the field. Aldridge saw that the other side was listening to Sun Ce saying that after grabbing the defensive rebound, he should pay attention to Whiteside who shot the ball quickly. Aldridge definitely couldn't hear what the other side was saying, but he didn't care.

What he cares about is that there is always a good center on the opposite side!

I don’t know where this guy came from. He scored 10 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks against Love, and 8 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks against Kanter. If he was lucky in the first game, he would have a stable performance in the second game.

.

Aldridge is so jealous!

Next to him, the center is Okafor, who averages 8 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game... and for him, this is the best center he has ever played with in his career.

There were Oden and Camby before, but neither of them even played a stable game in any season in the Trail Blazers. During the time when they were together, the center he partnered with actually averaged 3.6 points and 6 rebounds per game in his career.

Przbilla... actually means that he said a hundred times that he was unwilling to play center, but he has been playing center since his rookie season until now.

It wasn't until this year that Aldridge had more time to play power forward after Okafor averaged 8+10+2 per game. As a result, he performed the best performance of his career so far, leading the team with Lillard.

Rushed all the way to third place in the Western Conference.

Returning to the power forward position, he averaged 24 points, 11 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.2 blocks per game this season. Scoring has become easier. Not only did his average rebounds per game not decrease because of playing power forward, but it became higher because teammates were blocked.

!He is expected to be selected for the best team this season!

But look at the substitutes... After Okafor, who averages 29 minutes per game, goes to rest, he averages 37 minutes per game and still has to carry the center for about ten minutes.

On the opposite side of the Grizzlies, Gasol has been sent away, Valanciunas has been reimbursed, Gobert is still young, Yi Jianlian and Larry Sanders have just recovered from injuries and now have to reduce their playing time for the playoffs.

Prepare... but immediately signed back a center whose rebounding efficiency is comparable to that of DeAndre Jordan and Drummond.

That's similar to Olajuwon's perfect center body shape. Aldridge is drooling just looking at it!

"Do you want the team to bring him back? With Yi, Valanciunas, Sanders, Gobert and this guy, the Grizzlies have five centers. They will definitely have to trade away at least two after this season.

Well, this guy and Gobert, our team can always get one back at some cost, right?"

Aldridge was a little excited when he thought that there might be a tall and powerful center like Gobert or Whiteside next to him.

On the other side, Whiteside, who was listening to Sun Ce saying that he should pay attention to his teammates when grabbing rebounds, suddenly felt a chill. He turned around and saw that the power forward on the opposite side was looking at him with a gay look. If he

If you understand the idiom, you can see that it means salivating.

…

The Trail Blazers really don't care about their parents. No one voted for them in the All-Star starting lineup, and the bench coaches were unwilling to vote for them. In terms of live broadcasts across the United States, the Jazz received as many as 8 after the All-Star Weekend.

Live broadcast across the United States, the Trail Blazers added two extra games. The original scheduled and final extra games throughout the season totaled 11 games...

Tonight's game against the Grizzlies was not even broadcast live across the United States. The ratings for the Trail Blazers game have made all the major TV stations desperate.

The main reason is that the reputation of Portland Prison was too great at that time. Two generations of veteran stars Roy and Lillard have completely changed this team, but many old fans still have a fixed impression of them and just don't want to watch them.

Contest.

Moreover, they all say that the Timberwolves and Denver are so shameful that no star is willing to go there. It is the Trail Blazers that no one really wants to go to!

Even when Sabonis took charge and led a group of talented teammates to the Western Conference Finals to play the tiebreaker with the Lakers, no star came to seek cooperation with them, and the ones who hugged him were not great.

There is little movement in the Trail Blazers' free agency, let alone attracting attention.

But the Trail Blazers are really strong right now!

Coach Hollins has no intention of holding back against his old club and will go all out!

The starting lineup includes Sun Ce, Klay Thompson, Paul George, Amir Johnson, and Larry Sanders. The purpose is very simple, to defend to the death!

Amir Johnson fought hand-to-hand with Okafor at the basket, and Larry Sanders defended Aldridge from the mid-range.

The idea is good, but the Trail Blazers' starters and sixth man accounted for more than 80% of the team's points. It's really no joke. Just like the last time they played against each other, the Grizzlies were beaten by the Trail Blazers in the first quarter.

A wave of 31 to 21!

Coach Hollins' original plan was to see the situation, first send out a wave of defensive lineups, and then continue to use defensive lineups to consume, and finally replaced the core combination of Sun Ce, Richard Jefferson, and Yi Jianlian, with two pitchers.

Overwhelm the opponent.

However, the past three games against the Trail Blazers resulted in 2 wins and 1 loss, which made the Grizzlies too careless, especially since they only defeated the Trail Blazers once at home in the middle of this month. They forgot that the Trail Blazers are famous.

The home dragon!

The Grizzlies lost once to the Trail Blazers in their first three games, and that loss was in this arena!

Instead, the Grizzlies were defeated by the Trail Blazers! They fell behind by 10 points in the first quarter!

The Trail Blazers are really strong! France's Pippen Batum averages 7.5 rebounds per game, Aldridge averages 11 rebounds per game, and Okafor averages 9.8 rebounds per game. Under the leadership of their three brothers, the Trail Blazers have so far this season.

The average of 46.5 rebounds is third in the league, which is not much different from the Grizzlies' average of 47.2 rebounds per game and the Bulls' average of 46.8 rebounds per game!

Whiteside came on the scene in the second half of the first quarter and was unable to get any offensive rebounds from these three guys.

Moreover, the Trail Blazers, with the help of Batum, who averaged 13 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks per game, played very well on both offense and defense. Aldridge, Lillard, and Matthews can pass the ball.

The Trail Blazers not only rank in the top three in rebounds per game this season, but also rank sixth in the league in assists per game at 24.1, second only to the Grizzlies' 25.5 assists, the Spurs' 25.2 assists, the Lakers' 24.9 assists, and the Hawks'

24.9 assists, 24.5 assists for the Timberwolves!

The Grizzlies were very hurt in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Sun Ce began to fight to the death because he didn't use physical potions in the last game! There was really no chance in the last game because Paul George didn't play right.

The impact was too great for them.

But tonight everyone is together and we will definitely fight!

Next, we have to play the Warriors. If we lose another game, our lead over the Warriors will be only 1 game!

Sun Ce began to play hard without any effort, and the Grizzlies' overall performance improved a bit, but the Trail Blazers had long been accustomed to having three of the five starters dragging down two of them.

Sun Ce, who only scored 6 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist in the first quarter, scored 16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block in the second quarter, helping the Grizzlies chase the score to 52-59.

In the third quarter, Mo Williams, Matthews, Aldridge, and Batum came up together with white center Meyers Leonard, Lillard, Okafor, and Dorell Wright.

Rotate.

Under Sun Ce's 18-point performance in the third quarter, the Trail Blazers still scored 29-31. After three quarters, the Trail Blazers still maintained a strong 5-point lead at 88-83.

In the final quarter, the strongest lineup of Lillard, Matthews, Batum, Aldridge, and Okafor came on the scene and played the entire final quarter!

Sun Ce scored 14 points in the final quarter, helping the team score 25 points in a single quarter, while limiting the Trail Blazers to only 23 points.

But the Grizzlies, who were trailing by 5 points before the start of the fourth quarter, were unable to complete their comeback.

111 to 108, the Trail Blazers narrowly defeated the Grizzlies at home, raising their record to 51 wins and 19 losses, further widening the record gap with the Grizzlies, and giving the Grizzlies two consecutive losses.

The record was tied by the Warriors!

In this game, Lillard made 9 of 23 shots, including 3 of 8 three-pointers, 6 of 6 free throws, and scored 27 points and 6 assists; Aldridge scored 41 points on 15 of 24 shots, and Batum had 11 points and 4 rebounds.

11 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks, Matthews had 13 points, Okafor had 2 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks, Mo Williams also had 10 points...

This starting five + sixth man scored a combined 104 points... It is said that the Trail Blazers only rely on six people to win, and Sun Ce felt it this time.

Faced with the performance of his strongest six-man team, Sun's 54 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks were hard to withstand.

Moreover, the saddest thing is that he made 20 of 40 shots, including 5 of 13 three-pointers, plus 8 of 10 free throws, with a 50% shooting rate, and he still hit 20 irons...

…

…

Losing to 6 teams whose main players scored 104 points, Sun Ce was convinced of the loss. The opponent's starting lineup and sixth man were really too strong!

But Sun Ce is also a little puzzled, where are the rich Trail Blazers? As long as they have a few more high-quality role players in the starting lineup, they can compete for the championship!

But in this game, the Trail Blazers only played 8 players, of which Meyers Leonard only played 10 minutes, and Dorell Wright was no longer as brave as he once was.

The only effective substitute was Mo Williams. At other times, he relied solely on the starting lineup. Matthews, Batum, and Aldridge played the entire game.

Sun Ce admitted that they were very good, but this was the regular season, and when it came to the playoffs, he felt that this lineup would definitely not last!

After the game, Sun Ce, who returned to the hotel, curiously looked at the salary situation of the Trail Blazers and found that after the end of the season, the Trail Blazers could reduce their salary space to 50 million!

"Do they want to dig a superstar? Who are the superstars who are expiring in the summer? Duncan? By the way, there are Lowry, Parsons, Pierce and Deng. Bosh is also a free agent, and Gasol's contract has also expired.

Already..."

Sun Ce feels that the Trail Blazers have ideas. They want to form a giant combination. In addition to the core four of Lillard, Batum, Aldridge and Matthews, they also want to take advantage of Lillard and Matthews.

The bonus of Si's low salary is to bring back an All-Star caliber player.

But... Sun Ce thought about it if he was on a team with no future and wanted to change teams, would he go to the Trail Blazers?

The answer is no.

To put it into perspective, he has no dislike or dislike for the Trail Blazers and doesn't want to go there. The same goes for other stars, so Sun Ce really doesn't understand why the Trail Blazers suddenly start "picking" on role players.

…

The morning after the game against the Trail Blazers, Sun Ce followed the team to Oakland.

They have to play against the Warriors again. Tomorrow, the 29th, will be the fourth and last time the Grizzlies play against the Warriors this season.

The Grizzlies won their first three games, but those three games were all before the All-Star Weekend. At that time, the Warriors were in two stages. One was that David Lee was slow to integrate into the team's style of play, and the other was

During the period of pain after the Warriors lost their strongest player inside, in those three games, except for the third time Curry was beaten by Klay Thompson with 12 three-pointers in a single game, and the Grizzlies narrowly defeated them, the other two games
To be continued...