Chapter 235 Sweeping the Lakers for the first time in 38 years
On April 5, the Trail Blazers had no game, and when Wang Zelin and others were celebrating another two days of rest, a big surprise suddenly broke out in the league.
On the night of the 5th, the Lakers played at home against the Western Conference powerhouse, the Memphis Grizzlies. Nash continued to miss the game due to injury, and the two teams continued to fight until the last moment.
However, with Gasol's key goal, Howard's key rebound at the moment of life and death, and Kobe's two free throws with 4.7 seconds left, the Lakers narrowly defeated the Grizzlies 86:84.
Kobe played 43 minutes in this campaign and scored 24 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists on 10 of 23 shots. He has made 20 field goals in his NBA career, surpassing the number of NBA legend Elvin Hayes. He ranks third in the NBA's historical field goal shooting list.
6 bits.
The 35-year-old Black Mamba still maintains its sharp fangs, as if announcing to the world that his time is not over yet.
After this battle, everyone knew that compared to setting a new historical record, Kobe was probably more happy that the Lakers finally reached eighth place in the Western Conference.
With 40 wins and 36 losses, the Lakers relied on a 0.5 victory advantage to catch up with the Mosaic team led by James Harden and reach the threshold of the playoffs for the first time this season.
I remember that in the original time and space, the Lakers began to overtake at the end of the season, unseating the Jazz and Mosaic, and ranked seventh in the Western Conference after the regular season.
You know, at their worst time this season, the Lakers were ranked twelfth in the Western Conference...
And in this time and space, with the addition of Wang Zelin and the sudden emergence of the Trail Blazers, the Lakers still squeezed into the top eight... But after watching the Lakers' subsequent games, it seems that they are not very stable.
No. 8 will play the Clippers, No. 10 will play the Hornets, No. 11 will open the game back to back, and No. 13, No. 15, and No. 18 will face the Warriors, Spurs and Mosaic respectively.
Except for this year's No. 1 pick, the Hornets led by Anthony Davis, the other five teams are all ranked ahead of the Lakers.
There is no doubt that Kobe Bryant's team has returned to the top eight in the Western Conference. Countless Angel City fans rushed to spread the word, making the Clippers in the same city envious.
However, no matter how fierce the Lakers play, it has little to do with the Trail Blazers. Even if Kobe leads the team to win all subsequent games, it is impossible for the two teams to meet in the first round of the playoffs.
Soon, the regular season will be over, and the management of all teams is getting busier and busier. The same is true for Nel Orsi. He must start now to find the talented rookies that the team needs to select in June this year.
At the same time, the team's personnel structure for next season is also an issue he must consider.
The Trail Blazers' performance this year has exceeded many people's expectations. Wang Zelin, Aldridge, and Lillard, these three young people, are almost the definite core of the Trail Blazers in the next 3 to 5 or even 10 years. Nel Orsi has already made up his mind.
Determined to build a stronger team around the three of them.
Therefore, offseason transactions have become a top priority, and he has put far more effort into this aspect than the draft.
After all, the Blazers' management is not the Kings' management. If they don't train the talented player Tyrik Evans properly, they are always thinking about finding gold in the draft.
No matter how hard you try, you can still be more worthy of training than Wang Zelin and Lillard right now.
Not to mention, when Nel Orsi was looking for valuable players from other teams, the general managers of the other 29 teams were also looking for Trail Blazers players, especially Wang Zelin and Lillard.
The quotes ranked first and second on the list.
What shocked him was that Wang Zelin's offer was even higher than that of Aldridge, who had already proven himself... It was simply crazy!
Currently, at least 15 teams have inquired about the possibility of trading Wang Zelin. Most of the teams have offered conditions that Nel Orsi has to consider. They are purely to disgust people, but there are also a few of them.
A team with an attractive offer of 10 points.
Of course, Nel Orsi is not a fool. When he learned through data calculation that even if Wang Zelin did not play in the next 7 games, his data could be stabilized at 20 points and 10 rebounds, he completely gave up the idea of trading.
Because no matter from the perspective of personal data or future potential, Wang Zelin is better than Aldridge back then. Even against any rookie in the Trail Blazers, Wang Zelin is the best of his age.
Soon the Blazers management unanimously declared: Wang Zelin is not for sale to the team!
As soon as these words came out, several teams that really reciprocated their sincerity secretly regretted: It seems that they are not the Magic team!
Seeing that Wang Zelin is likely to be unavailable, general managers of other teams have set their sights on backup Lillard.
As of April 5, Lillard had played a full 75 games for the Trail Blazers in the regular season without playing a single game. Even when four players in the lineup were rested some time ago, Lillard refused the coach's request and insisted on playing.
The average playing time per game reached 38.8 minutes, ranking first in the league!
Thinking of the "excellent tradition" of the Trail Blazers, the outside world has to say with emotion, "Lee is a real man, and he has full attributes of endurance!"
Moreover, Lillard also averaged 17.6 points, 8.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game. His scoring average was second only to Wang Zelin's 22 points per game. His assists per game ranked first among the 12 rookies, and...I don't know how many rookie rankings there were.
The thousand-year-old second child.
As the regular season comes to an end, many media have started their classic program - rearranging draft picks.
This show must happen once every year, but fans love to watch it.
Mainstream American media, including ESPN, FOX, Sports Illustrated, Slam Dunk, etc., unanimously ranked Lillard as the third pick in the second draft, which is also the third overall pick, jumping directly from the eighth pick to the third overall pick.
three.
The second overall pick is Anthony Davis, the original No. 1 pick. After seeing this, you all know who the No. 1 pick is.
Wang Zelin!
Yes, Wang Zelin rose directly to the top spot from the original ninth pick, and almost no one questioned this.
Inexplicably, Wang Zelin gained another wave of popularity, and his fan base kept rising, making him feel a little good about ESPN for the first time.
The so-called draft rearrangement is essentially a waste of time. At first, few people paid attention to this matter. Later, due to the addition of ESPN, the draft rearrangement became more and more noisy and popular.
…
On April 6, the Trail Blazers faced the challenge of the San Antonio Spurs at home.
As mentioned earlier, the period near the end of the season is also the busiest time for the team, but... the busy one is the general manager. As a player, Wang Zelin’s first priority is to play every game for the team.
At present, he still cannot get involved in the construction issue.
Perhaps in the near future, when Wang Zelin's status in the team becomes higher and higher, and reaches a certain level, then he can have a say in team construction.
Many people say that as a player, James can influence the management, which is an act of transcendence. However, every player hopes that one day he can have the influence of James on the team.
Back to the game, both the Trail Blazers and Spurs have locked in their playoff spots in advance, but this does not mean that both sides will relax their vigilance. On the contrary, both the Trail Blazers and the Spurs regard each other as the No. 1 player in the playoffs.
One of the potential opponents in the second round.
em.......
Although this may be a bit offensive to other teams, both sides have strong confidence in the strength of their own teams and unanimously believe that the first round cannot stop their progress.
After the game started, both the Trail Blazers players and scouts from other teams on the sidelines could clearly sense the Spurs' desire to win.
Something is wrong, very wrong!
You know, before the Spurs wanted to lose a few more games, but now they want to win every game.
I really don't understand.
Spurs bench.
Feeling the various looks coming from the sidelines, Sima Weiqi remained calm on the surface and seemed to be a stable group, but in fact, he had already begun to MMP in his heart: You think I think, if that damn poisonous snake didn't suddenly feel the eighth, I would
This will happen!
All right!
No one expected that the Spurs team's sudden change in status was because the Lakers reached eighth place.
To this end, Simavici also held a meeting overnight to estimate the possibility of meeting the Lakers in the playoffs.
Not just because of Kobe's title of "Spurs Killer", look at what that old guy has done.
Averaged 27.8 points per game, ranking third in the NBA scoring list in the 2012-13 season. The second ranked player is Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant, who averaged 28.3 points per game. The first ranked team is the Knicks.
The star player, Carmelo Anthony, averaged 28.7 points per game.
What a familiar scene. It was like this last season. Kobe lost the scoring title by 0.1 points... Of course, some people said that Kobe didn't want to compete and gave up on his own initiative.
Kobe is one year older this year. In view of the Lakers' poor record, many people in the outside world are also claiming that Kobe is old.
But when the season was about to end, the people who had clamored before were dumbfounded. Who had ever seen a super scorer who averaged 27 points per game being called "old!"
Sima Weiji: "My old bastard!"
The sudden rise of the Purple and Gold Army made the Spurs, who were originally sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai, feel a little uneasy.
It is precisely because of this uneasiness that the Spurs urgently need a victory to calm their mood.
107:89, the Spurs beat Portland with 18 points.
The GDP combination scored 68 points on one occasion, plus 15 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals from the young master. After losing to the Thunder 100:88 in the previous game, they got a lot of blood from the Trail Blazers.
Facing Tim Duncan who had 19 points and 11 rebounds, Wang Zelin did not fall behind at all. In terms of statistics, he was even better, with 20 points and 13 rebounds.
But these are useless, the losing data is not worth mentioning to him.
Aldridge, another inside player of the Trail Blazers, has improved significantly. He scored 15 points on 7 of 13 shots, but it was far from enough. This performance was not enough to bring victory to the team.
Lillard, the last of the Trail Blazers' three young players, scored 13 points on 5 of 17 shots. He didn't score a single point in the final quarter and was a misfire.
This is actually a common problem among rookie players. Even Lillard cannot avoid it. After being stable for several games, he always has to go undercover for one game.
As for Wang Zelin...it turns out that he is a bad guy!
After sending away the Spurs, the Trail Blazers ushered in the challenge of the Dallas Mavericks.
This was the weakest opponent among the opponents at the end of the season. The Trail Blazers successfully controlled it, and this was inseparable from the cooperation of the Mavericks.
Up to now, the Mavericks have been determined to miss this year's playoffs and are preparing for offseason fishing in advance.
In a game without any suspense, the Trail Blazers led their opponents by at least 10 points from beginning to end. In the end, they defended their home court and won 112:91.
Another arena at the same time.
At the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the much-anticipated local derby begins.
Nash, the son of the wind, is still out due to injury in this game...
The old blacksmith said he was used to it.
At the beginning of the game, Griffin became more energetic as soon as he hit his sister-in-law. He caused a foul inside and made one of two free throws.
But then the Lakers' Stephen Blake and Judy Meeks hit consecutive three-pointers, Howard dunked under the basket, and suddenly launched an 8-0 offensive wave to take the lead.
For a moment, there was only one voice left in the Staples Arena - Go Lakers!
For the Clippers, it undoubtedly added fuel to the fire. Captain Paul took the lead to step up and score mid-range goals to stabilize the situation. Griffin and DeAndre Jordan succeeded in consecutive openings. The Clippers launched an 8:3 offensive wave to narrow the point difference.
At the end of the first quarter, the Clippers led the Lakers 30:25.
In the first quarter, Kobe transformed into a reasonable Kobe. He made 0 of 2 shots and didn't score a single point. However, he sent out 6 assists. Those who didn't know it thought Kobe was wearing Paul's No. 3 jersey.
It can be seen that Kobe wants to follow the playing style of the previous games: focus on organizing his teammates in the early stage, bite the score first, and then take over the game at the critical moment.
But how could the Clippers do what they wanted?
If we really have to choose a team that has the most in-depth research on the Los Angeles Lakers, it has to be the Los Angeles Clippers.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Clippers made an early effort. Jamal Crawford scored 9 points, beating the Lakers' second lineup and helping the team gain an 11-point lead.
When Kobe Bryant returned to the court, the Clippers head coach also quickly put the main lineup on the court. In the first round after Paul returned, he assisted Crawford for a three-pointer, helping the latter score 12 points in a single quarter.
The score difference is getting wider and wider, and the Black Mamba cannot sit still and spits out his fangs in advance, at the cost of a decline in offensive efficiency in the final quarter.
Entering the final quarter, the two teams immediately started a tug-of-war, but when Kobe had physical problems, the Lakers' offense instantly became a mess.
Paul and DeAndre Jordan continued to fire, helping the team expand the point difference to 15 points, and the game gradually lost suspense.
In the end, the Clippers defeated the Lakers 109:95. This was the first time in 38 years since the 1974-175 season that the Clippers swept the Lakers in the regular season. It was also the second time in the history of the Clippers that they swept the Lakers in a single season.
With this victory, the Clippers continue to rank third in the Western Conference, and the gap between the Trail Blazers and them remains unchanged.
As for the Lakers, they once again reached a critical moment of life and death, falling to ninth place in the Western Conference with 40 wins and 37 losses, and Mosaic rose to eighth place.
The Lakers' next opponent is the Hornets. After beating the Hornets, they will be the Portland Trail Blazers led by Wang Zelin. The strength of the Trail Blazers is almost the same as that of the Clippers. From the outside, the Lakers' chances of winning are slim.
But Kobe didn't agree.
For a ticket to the playoffs, he can be said to have played for his entire life, completely ignoring his old injuries.
For Kobe, no matter who his opponent is next, he will try his best, even if it costs everything.