Chapter 451 Sweep the Lakers and advance to the semifinals
The next two games will be in Los Angeles. The Trail Blazers will not train today. In the afternoon, everyone will take a flight to Los Angeles in advance. After arriving in Los Angeles, training will not begin until the next morning.
For the current Blazers, rest is far more important than training. Because to some extent, they can even consider their opponents in the next round.
There is nothing wrong with preparing for battle in advance.
Continuing to talk about the Clippers' series this year, Wang Zelin was very surprised. He remembered clearly that in the original history, the Clippers' opponent in the series should have been the Warriors, and they were defeated by the Warriors.
From the perspective of the original historical development, Stephen Curry will become the star of the Warriors this year. This is the season of his rise.
He was elected to the All-Stars for the first time in the regular season, led the team to the Western Conference semifinals in the playoffs, and was selected to the All-NBA Team for the first time in his career after the season.
But in this current history, everything is disrupted!
The Clippers' opponent became a mosaic and beat their opponent 2:0. This result was something Wang Zelin never expected.
To be honest, the Trail Blazers would rather face Mosaic in the second round than the Clippers, because the latter had their heads shaved by them in the regular season and played Mosaic, so they are naturally full of confidence.
Against the Clippers, it seems that no one in the Clippers trio has suffered injuries this year and looks unstoppable. Paul is even more likely to hit the Western Conference Finals.
However, Wang Zelin doesn't mind if his opponent becomes Paul.
In the regular season this season, the Clippers and Trail Blazers played against each other 3 times, with a record of 1:2. To be honest, that game, that game, would have been impossible if it weren’t for Paul’s incredible performance of 31 points and 16 assists.
, the Clippers will end up shaving their heads just like Mosaic.
Since he can't beat Mosaic, then against the Clippers, he must beat the Clippers until they fall down!
So, work hard, point guard god, I'll be waiting for you in the Western Conference semifinals, and then I'll kick you back into the endless abyss!
If you still want to touch the floor of the Western Conference finals, just dream.
…
April 26th.
After a night's rest in Los Angeles, Wang Zelin appeared energetically in the training hall booked by the team in advance on the afternoon of the next day, and began the final stage of preparations with his teammates.
After two consecutive wins in the series, the Trail Blazers directly pushed the Lakers to the edge of the cliff. If they lose again tonight, they will really not be far away from the cold.
After the game started, the process was pretty much what everyone imagined.
After returning to the Lakers' home court, the Lakers increased their damage and impact on the inside.
At the same time, tonight's referee seemed to have made a bet, targeting Wang Zelin in various ways from the beginning.
To put it bluntly, the Lakers are still working hard today, but their state is actually just like that.
It’s just that I can’t stand it and the Trail Blazers have to play 5 against 8 tonight!
In the first quarter, Wang Zelin, who received great attention from the referee, played 9 minutes in a single quarter and passively committed three precious fouls.
At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers left the field with a 6-point lead.
Speaking of which, this is probably the largest point difference the Lakers have ever led in a single quarter in the series between the two sides.
When the second quarter started, the Lakers were still determined to attack the paint. After the other players on the Trail Blazers adapted to the standard of penalties throughout the quarter, the game began to pick up.
However, Wang Zelin, who has not played for a long time, has made it difficult for the Chinese fans in front of countless TVs to devote their attention to the game.
A war of words broke out on the Internet.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk! Is this the pride of the Purple and Gold Army? He called himself three dads even if he couldn't beat him. How noble!"
"Today's penalty is really outrageous! We can understand why you want to send the Lakers out, but you can at least give it a try!"
"The ones upstairs, please remove them, I fucking don't understand! I really don't understand!"
The criticism on the referee's decision tonight and the league's decision to walk the Lakers became more and more heated on the Internet.
Fortunately, Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts still has two tricks up his sleeve. Seeing that tonight's game was obviously unfavorable to Wang Zelin, he is no longer obsessed with relying on Wang Zelin's super defense to protect the team like the previous two games.
Make progress while maintaining stability.
Halfway through the second quarter, Terry Stotts asked Wang Zelin, who returned to play, to change his style of play from the guardian of the penalty area to a high-position turret as an offensive transfer station.
Orders were also given to other players not to make any major physical contact during the defensive process, and to release some balls if they could. They did not need to defend as hard as in the past two games.
Because anyone with a discerning eye can see that tonight at Staples, the home court of the Trail Blazers, some actions that would not have been called a foul by the referee at the Trail Blazers' home court turned into fouls one by one.
Since we are not allowed to defend, let's attack!
After adjusting their strategies, the two sides started an offensive battle in the short half of the quarter.
Wang Zelin made 4 consecutive mid-range shots and hit 3 of them, plus 2 wonderful passes, which completely destroyed the Lakers' original lead.
Originally, D'Antoni was still chuckling because after the game started, Wang Zelin, who was in a foul crisis, only had 2 points, 2 rebounds and 3 fouls after the first quarter, which can be said to be the worst quarter in the world.
This caused D'Antoni to relax his defense on Wang Zelin a little when he came back from the timeout in the second quarter. He failed to discover in time that the latter's responsibilities in the team had changed, allowing him to get several open shots.
He didn't wake up until halftime, but it was too late.
At this time, the two sides were tied at 59:58, and the Trail Blazers were only 1 point behind the Lakers.
After the halftime break, in the second half, with the return of all the main players of the Trail Blazers, tens of thousands of Lakers fans in the stands found that the Trail Blazers seemed to have regained the offensive rhythm of the previous two games, and their home team was once again suppressed.
Go down.
Obviously, Wang Zelin's recovery in the second half of the second quarter completely suppressed the momentum that the Lakers had just started.
Just thinking about Wang Zelin's dominance of the game in the first two games, many Lakers players are almost losing their temper.
Once the energy is gone, the Lakers' inside attack will naturally become less lethal!
Even if the referee wants to help, he can't say anything!
After Wang Zelin scored two consecutive goals under the basket (the second goal was still 2+1), the morale of the Lakers was completely shattered...
The result was that he was taken away by the Trail Blazers in the third quarter.
At the end of the game, the Trail Blazers won the third game between the two teams with a 12-point lead, 115-103.
Wang Zelin played a total of 35 minutes in this game and made 9 of 15 shots. He scored the lowest 23 points in three games.
Of course, the rebounds were the highest in the game, with 14.
On the Lakers side.
Kobe scored a game-high 29 points, along with 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. Unfortunately, he still failed to lead the Lakers to a victory.
After the Trail Blazers beat the Lakers 3:0, the results of most of the games in the league were revealed.
In the West, Mosaic and the Warriors both pulled back a victory, and the battle with the Clippers and Thunder ended at 1:2.
As for the Spurs, obviously, the Spurs generals have not forgotten the tragedy of being hacked in the past. It was rare that they met the Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs, but they had to work hard to hit the smoking gun!
In the end, the Spurs 3:0 the Grizzlies. Like the Trail Blazers, they are very likely to sweep their opponents directly 4:0!
really.
The fact is as everyone expected. After the G4 game on April 28, the Trail Blazers and Spurs in the West, as well as the Heat in the East, all swept their first-round opponents 4:0 and became members of the first echelon to advance to the conference semifinals.
"As much as I hate to admit it, it's true. I'm old! The era of the Lakers is over!"
After his team was swept by the Trail Blazers, when countless media rushed to interview him after the game, the Black Mamba rarely "subdued"...
I never expected that one day, this guy would actually admit that he was old in front of the media.
This was the unanimous thought of the fans and players who learned the news on the night of the press conference.