Before taking the court, the Trail Blazers' championship enthusiasm quickly infected the entire Rose Garden Arena.
Soon, players from both sides took the field.
Trail Blazers: Lillard, Matthews, Batum, Aldridge, Wang Zelin.
Clippers: Rivers Jr., JJ Redick, Matt Barnes, Griffin, DeAndre Jordan.
As soon as the players from both sides met, one person's eyes were filled with despair and fear. This person was DeAndre Jordan.
Since the first meeting with Wang Zelin in 2012, he has been beaten by the opponent, and this has always been the case from the regular season to the playoffs.
Jordan was almost depressed when facing Wang Zelin. In this regard, he was not as good as Howard. The latter always got more defeated as he fought, and the more defeated he got, the more he fought.
What's even more terrible is that Clippers captain Paul has not recovered to a satisfactory level due to his left hamstring injury in the last round of tiebreaker. The Clippers officials have released news about Paul's first two games in the series.
However, Paul still wore a suit today, limped to the scene, and tried his best to cheer up his teammates.
However, if encouragement alone could work, I don’t know how many teams would have won the championship long ago.
Before playing, Wang Zelin took a look at the Clippers' lineup.
The player with the highest rating is Griffin, who has a rating of 89, and is only one step away from the realm of league superstars.
But because of damn injuries, he never took that step until the end of his career!
After Griffin finished the regular season this season, he averaged 21.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, making him the Clippers' best performer. In fact, since last season, he has surpassed Paul in scoring and became the Clippers' scoring leader.
, the overall performance is also the first in the team!
It is not difficult to understand why Griffin received more votes than Paul in the MVP voting in the past two seasons.
If development continues normally, Griffin will become the next captain of the Clippers, and even the most powerful forward in active service, and he is also very motivated.
Unfortunately, there is no if!
Because Clippers coach Rivers paid too much attention to DeAndre Jordan, he had to give up the offline space to pass to the small forward in isolation. Although he has developed very good skills, the Kings still feel sorry for him.
Obviously he can use his strong body to play basketball, but today he accidentally learned a fancy change of direction from the outside, causing his knee to be injured again and again.
In fact, if you compare Rose and Westbrook, whose playing styles are very similar, you can see that they were both violent rim-attacking point guards at their peak. As a result, Westbrook, who seemed to have a reckless style of play that only knew how to play straight up and down, actually failed in the absence of manpower.
Injuries are rare; on the contrary, Rose, who plays all kinds of exaggerations and plays in various directions, has been constantly hit by injuries throughout his career.
On the one hand, it can be attributed to the different resistance attributes of the two people, but on the other hand, the choice of the two people's playing styles in details is also particularly important.
Omitting Griffin, the rest of the Clippers seem much more ordinary. Jordan, who is rated 82, Redick, who is rated 77, Barnes, who is rated 75, and...
Forget it, there’s no need to talk more about the Clippers’ Crown Prince, who wants me to have a good father!
As the referee blew his whistle and threw the basketball high, the game officially began.
"Wang won the ball, but it felt like DeAndre was stunned. He didn't even jump."
"Maybe because there is no captain at the helm, he is worried that no one will feed him bread tonight."
On the Clippers side, no one expected that Jordan would fall ill at the beginning of the game.
"Quickly retreat!"
Paul was so anxious that he almost jumped.
But it was too late, the Blazers' offense was approaching like a tide, and the attack was left to Wang Zelin's control as usual.
After receiving the ball nearby, Wang Zelin singled out Griffin!
Although it was a little far away from the basket, the completed Clippers did not rush to double-team, because the Mavericks in the previous round had already set a wrong example for the other playoff teams.
"Wang, even if Chris can't play, the Clippers still have me! You just want to win!"
Griffin, who was under tremendous pressure today, lost his good temper as before and took the initiative to talk trash to Wang Zelin as soon as he came up.
After Wang Zelin glared at him fiercely, he dropped the ball, dribbled, hit with his back, and performed a series of combos. Griffin's steps began to loosen and he retreated step by step.
"Peng!"
Approaching the basket, all the wild power exploded, and Griffin was knocked away.
"boom!"
A powerful slam!
2:0!
"In the opening stage, Wang still had no solution. It seems that the Clippers have not found a way to limit Wang!"
"King of limits? Hey man, is this the biggest joke I've heard this year?"
Reggie Miller and Chris Webber, who was in charge of commentating this game, were suddenly excited by Wang Zelin.
Clippers offense.
Griffin's face-to-face singles, Aldridge in the low post, he dribbled the ball behind his back, quickly turned around and sneaked across the baseline, went to the basket and fired a violent dunk.
Short hands come from short hands, Griffin's bounce is really top!
"I told you, you can't win tonight!"
After scoring the goal, Griffin did not forget to continue to spray at Wang Zelin.
However, he saw a trace of regret in the latter's eyes.
What kind of strange look is this?
Are you looking down on me?
Griffin was stunned for a moment, and then his chest was filled with raging anger, and he decided to blow up the Blazers' inside line next.
Offensive and defensive transition, Blazers attack.
Seeing Lillard advance, Rivers Jr. stayed outside the three-point line. Lillard this season
40.2%, which is not even in the top ten, but if you consider the three-point production, he is second only to the Splash Brothers.
Thinking of the team report in his memory, Rivers, who has always been active in defense, calmed down and did not try to steal the ball.
Seeing the unnamed guard in front of him looking serious on defense, Lillard suddenly became interested and beckoned for a pick-and-roll.
The familiar Wang Li pick-and-roll!
Frightened by Wang Zelin's follow-up cut, the Clippers players immediately hesitated to defend the target. In the end, Lillard went straight in, penetrated the opponent's heart, and succeeded with a one-handed dunk.
4:2!
Clippers offense.
Rivers' old habit of being too sticky to the ball happened again. Redick finally ran out of space, but failed to catch the ball, resulting in the loss of the opportunity.
However, due to the head coach's power, Redick did not dare to say anything and continued to move without the ball.
Seeing the time passing by, Little Rivers neither shot nor passed, determined to pass Lillard.
When the countdown entered 10 seconds, Griffin couldn't stand it anymore, came to the high position on the left, and roared:
"Give me the ball!"
Little Rivers was angry after being yelled at, but when he saw that the person with him was Griffin, he quickly handed over the ball without thinking.
"Snapped!"
After receiving the ball, Griffin singled out Aldridge in the high post, still making all kinds of fancy moves.
With 4 seconds left, he used a turn and finally passed the defender.
"Snapped!"
Obviously Griffin was happy too early. Wang Zelin, who had been waiting for a long time, jumped up high and greeted him with a hot pot shot.
The ball flew all the way out of the sideline, causing a burst of exclamations from the crowd.
"I don't understand, why do you like to be so fancy? It's really a waste of your talent!"
Looking at Griffin who stayed where he was, Wang Zelin complained indifferently.