Chapter 1122 The final madness, the Lakers little thoughts
Each team has only 1 or 2 games left to play, and the door to the playoffs has been knocked open. In this last moment, the media is seizing the time to make crazy reports on the playoff seeded teams.
Under the media's momentum, the air throughout the league seemed to be filled with a strong smell of gunpowder, and all teams fell into final madness.
On April 11, many focus battles broke out in the East.
First, the Atlanta Hawks will face the Charlotte Hornets at home.
As for the Hornets, the lack of core player Kemba Walker made it very difficult for the Hornets to attack. As the opponent, the Eagles, all members were healthy, which destined the Eagles to lose.
Not long after the start, after the two teams tied at 16, the Eagles used a 15:6 spurt to establish their lead. Howard scored 10 points in the first quarter.
After the first quarter, the Eagles led 38:26.
In the second quarter, the Eagles went on a 12-0 spurt, once widening the point difference to more than 20 points.
At halftime, the Eagles led 63:44.
In the third quarter, the Eagles always kept the point difference above 20 points. In the fourth quarter, after Sefolosha led the team to launch a 12:2 attack wave, the Eagles were already 31 points ahead, which completely lost the game.
suspense.
In the end, the Hawks defeated the Hornets 103:76, ushering in a 4-game winning streak and locking in the sixth place in the regular season.
Howard contributed a double-double tonight with 19 points and 12 rebounds, and was named the best player of the game after the game.
Next is the contest between two playoff-level teams in the Eastern Conference: the Celtics VS Bucks at home.
This game did not live up to the media's publicity and the fans' expectations. It was a passionate game.
At the beginning of the game, Bucks player Antetokounmpo scored 7 points in a row, and Celtics player Horford immediately scored 3 goals in a row. The two teams started to attack.
Immediately afterwards, a three-point battle broke out between the two sides. After Crowder scored two three-pointers in a row, Maker dunked on Monroe and hit consecutive hooks. As Vaughn soared into a three-pointer, the Bucks led 11:0 by 12 points.
After Green scored 4 points in a row, Teletovic hit a three-pointer at the buzzer. The Bucks won the away game and ended the first quarter with a 36:25 lead.
Entering the second quarter, Celtics talented young player Brandon Ingram first made a fadeaway jumper and then a one-handed dunk, pulling his teammates back from their confused state and starting to frequently launch counterattacks.
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When the official timeout was reached, the score difference continued to be deadlocked at around 10 points.
After that, the team's boss "The Strongest 175 on Earth" Thomas made two free throws and then scored two three-pointers in a row. Johnson also made a layup. As Thomas made two free throws again, the Celtics went on a 14-2 run.
The climax ended the third quarter with a 57:56 lead.
In the second half, Beasley hit two jumpers, and Ingram also hit a mid-range jumper in response. The two teams started a tug-of-war, and the scores also took the lead alternately.
Seeing that the game was in an anxious moment, Johnson suddenly broke out, broke through and dunked and then hit a hard hit. After Monroe responded to the hook under the basket, Olynyk scored a three-pointer to help the Celtics lead 80:78 to end the third quarter.
In the final quarter of the game, after the two teams were in a stalemate, the Celtics bench suddenly broke out. Bradley dunked and layup. Olynyk, Crowder and Green scored three-pointers successively. Green dunked and then scored again.
With three points, the Celtics took a 24:2 lead to 21 points thanks to the crazy output of the bench gangsters, and finally won a 112:94 victory.
After the second game, their regular season record reached 54 wins and 27 losses, locking them in first place in the Eastern Conference.
In the whole game, Thomas had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists, Gerald Green had 18 points and 6 rebounds, Crowder had 16 points and 5 rebounds, Amir Johnson had 16 points and 5 rebounds, Horford had 12 points and 6 rebounds, Brandon...
Ingram scored 10 points.
Six Celtics players scored in double figures tonight. This performance made team coach Brad Stevens quite satisfied.
In his basketball philosophy, the team's offense must be played like this, rather than relying on one person to score crazy points while the others just watch the show.
The terrifying thickness of the Celtics' bench stunned the powerful players in the Eastern Conference, and their vigilance towards the Celtics reached a new peak.
The Miami Heat ushered in the final game of the regular season today. They sat at home to face the challenge of the menacing Washington Wizards.
In order to win the last chance of the playoffs, the Heat generals worked hard tonight. They tried their best one by one. Finally, they defeated the Wizards 110:102 at their home court and won the final game of the season.
A victory in a confrontation.
As for the Wizards, the team has already secured a spot in the playoffs in advance, so the Wizards coach directly put Wall and Beal in the backcourt on the bench. The Wizards' game strategy tonight is purely based on training.
Although they lost, the outstanding performance of the role players made the Wizards coaching staff quite satisfied, and also made the entire Wizards team look forward to the upcoming playoffs.
For the Heat, Dragic had 28 points and 5 assists, Whiteside had 24 points and 18 rebounds, and James Johnson had 12 points and 8 rebounds. The outstanding performance of the three was the key to the Heat winning the game tonight.
However, because the Pacers led by Paul George defeated the Nets in another game, the Heat had to regretfully lose the chance to enter the playoffs.
In the Western Conference, the most eye-catching game on the 11th is the powerful dialogue between the Lakers and the Warriors.
Since both teams belong to California, this game can also be regarded as a California Civil War.
The Lakers are located in Los Angeles, and they are one of the two traditional giants in the NBA. The team also has the Big Three combination of Kobe, Paul, and Sister-in-law, making it a natural traffic gathering place.
The Warriors are surrounded by the league's upstarts who have emerged in recent seasons, and have reached the conference finals of the Western Conference playoffs for two consecutive years. Although they eventually lost to the Trail Blazers led by Wang Zelin, no one can deny their strength.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! What’s more, they also introduced the league’s super scorer Kevin Durant last summer, and together with Curry, Thompson, and Green, they formed an unparalleled four-star space warrior.
Zhiqiu's offensive talent is exaggerated to the point of overflowing.
This all-American live broadcast quickly attracted the attention of all basketball fans around the world.
But when the game actually started, the fans felt a little disappointed because it turned out to be an anticlimactic game.
Throughout the first half, the visiting Los Angeles Lakers showed their intention to have a bayonet fight with the Warriors and would not withdraw their sheath until there was blood.
The opponent set up such a battle, and the Warriors were naturally prepared. Since the Lakers were regarded by the Warriors management as a potential opponent in the second round of the playoffs, Cole did not let the core players paddle in this game and played at a normal pace.
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After the opening, the two teams were tied at 8:8. Thompson and Curry hit three-pointers one after another, and launched a fierce offensive.
Afterwards, Curry and Durant hit consecutive three-pointers, and the two led the Warriors to launch a 13:2 attack wave, widening the point difference to more than 10 points.
As a last resort, Lakers coach Luke Walton requested a timeout to make adjustments.
After the timeout, Durant transformed into a death scythe and began to harvest the game. He scored 5 points in a row and 15 points in a single quarter, including three of three three-pointers.
Green also hit his first goal of the night, and all the Big Four scored.
After the first quarter, the Warriors once widened the point difference to 19 points, leading the Lakers 43:28.
After just one quarter, the Warriors' mercury-like offense stunned all the Lakers players.
It turns out that when your jump shot is strong enough, it can change the game.
Kobe and Paul's eyes were full of solemnity. They probably didn't say anything about how the Lakers' rhythm would collapse so quickly tonight.
No, to be precise, it was not that the Lakers' rhythm collapsed, but that the opposing Warriors went crazy from the start.
With 28 points in a single quarter, no matter from which perspective, the Lakers' game rhythm cannot be said to be broken, but rather quite satisfactory.
Unable to carry the stretcher, the whole team on the opposite side turned on their self-aim, and the three-point shot was as accurate as the built-in navigation system!
In the second quarter, the Lakers started with a 9:4 spurt, in which Kobe Bryant contributed 5 points, and the point difference was narrowed to 10 points.
The Warriors requested a timeout.
After the timeout, it was Durant again, who took the lead to score a jump shot to help the Warriors open up the situation.
When Durant hit a goal, it was like a chain reaction on the court. Curry immediately hit a logo three-pointer, and then Thompson hit a short-range jumper.
The Warriors once again strongly controlled the tempo on the court and easily suppressed the Lakers.
With 2 minutes and 11 seconds left in this quarter, Durant waved his sickle again and scored 7 points in a row, helping the Warriors end the half with a 14-point lead at 64:50.
Being behind by 14 points is not too much, especially in this era of data explosion that highly values offense. Logically speaking, the Lakers will definitely launch a counterattack again in the second half.
But what was unexpected was that when they came back in the third quarter, people were surprised to find that Kobe Paul and his wife had all put on jackets. Looking at this posture, it seemed that they were not preparing to play again.
"Are the Lakers planning to surrender now?"
The same idea suddenly flashed through everyone's minds.
As the game progressed, the Big Three of the Lakers looked like they had roots in their butts, sitting securely on the bench with no intention of uploading.
On the court, the Warriors already led the Lakers by a full 25 points.
At this moment, people finally believed that the Lakers had really surrendered.
This approach disappointed many Lakers fans. Many other spectators claimed that today's tickets were for nothing, especially the group of spectators who had bought from scalpers. They stood up from their seats and cursed at the Lakers bench.
Of course, the Lakers have their own reasons for doing this.
In other words, if the Lakers surrendered so decisively, they were trying to stop their losses in time?
Look at how exaggerated the Warriors' three-pointers were in the last game, reaching 60%!
Look at Kevin Durant's guys again. It's like he drank Scarlett Johansson's bath water tonight. He transformed into a humanoid Teddy on the court and kept firing. His firepower was exaggerated to the extreme. His scoring was like chopping melons and vegetables.
Same, can't stop at all.
Judging from the state of the Warriors' game tonight, if the Lakers want to win tonight, they can only achieve a comeback unless the Big Three are all 10 years younger, and Kobe, Paul, and his wife all regain their peak performance.
However, no one can compete with the enemy of time. The Big Three of the Lakers are too old after all. Even if they burst out in a short period of time, they can match the Lakers' offense, but as long as the front line is extended, their endurance will be far worse than that of young people.
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So during the halftime break, the Lakers, coaching staff and players decided to implement the second plan after some discussions in the away locker room.
Coming to challenge the Warriors today, the Lakers actually prepared two plans early on.
The first set is to fight if you can, preferably an upset.
If we can kick off the team's playoffs by upsetting the Warriors, it will be a way for the players to improve their morale.
In the NBA playoffs, competition is not only about hardware elements such as players' talent and strength, but also about software-level competition, such as desire to win, ability to withstand pressure, team morale, etc.
You see, in the history of the NBA playoffs, there has never been a shortage of weak teams with low regular season records defeating strong teams with better regular season records and ultimately advancing to the next round.
The past black eight, black seven, and black six cases are the best evidence.
But if they can't beat the Warriors, then the Lakers will have no choice but to launch their second plan.
That is, voluntarily give up the game.
This has two benefits. On the one hand, it can prevent the Lakers' veterans from expending too much physical energy. On the other hand, it mainly helps them pick opponents in the first round of the playoffs.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! This is actually a little thought from the Lakers.
The Lakers are currently ranked fifth in the Western Conference. If they follow this ranking, their first-round opponent in the playoffs will be the Houston Mosaics.
The main reason is that their ranking has dropped to sixth in the Western Conference, and then their opponent in the first round of the playoffs will be the San Antonio Spurs.
Compared to the Mosaic team, which has two super scorers with an unknown upper limit, the Lakers, after careful consideration, prefer the first-round opponent to be the San Antonio Spurs.
The Lakers and Spurs can basically be regarded as the two greatest teams in the 21st century.
In the first decade of the 21st century, from 2000 to 2009, the Lakers won four championships, the Spurs won three championships, and the Pistons, Heat, and Celtics each won one.
The two teams have won 7 championships in 10 years. If the championship in 2010 is also included, it will be 8 championships in 11 years. Their dominance is evident.
Since the Lakers and Spurs are both in the Western Conference, the two teams have fallen in love and killed each other countless times in the past decade or so. The final result is that both sides know each other's ins and outs.
Don’t forget, Kobe once had a nickname, called the Spurs Killer!
Prior to this, Kobe had met the Spurs in a total of 6 series in the playoffs, winning 4 of them.
In these 30 games, Kobe can be called an iron man. He averaged 42.7 minutes per game, scored 28.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists. His shooting percentage also reached 47.3%, which is comparable to the typical statistics of his personal career.
Compared with the previous year, there was a significant increase.
It is precisely because Kobe Bryant has defeated the Spurs many times in the playoffs and his personal statistics are quite luxurious that people call him the Spurs' number one killer.
Even Spurs coach Smarovich has publicly stated that Kobe is the player he thinks is the most difficult to release!
Taking into account the history of the two teams playing against each other, as well as Kobe's inexplicable mystical tendency to easily explode whenever the Spurs met, the Lakers immediately thought carefully and decided to pick the Spurs as their first-round opponent in the playoffs.
All Lakers players have purple and gold blood flowing in their bodies. Even though the league is now full of powerful players, they still have not given up their ambition to compete for the championship.