There were no surprises in the game against the Grizzlies, except for the duel between Wang Zelin and "White Bear" Marc Gasol.
The way the Grizzlies survive in the league has not changed over the years, it’s just one word—defense!
Since he just scored 58 points in the Aerospace City yesterday and fully unleashed his passion, Wang Zelin's offensive desire tonight was average. He only focused on grabbing rebounds and sending hot pot. On the offensive end, he would play two when he had the chance. If he didn't have the chance, he would provide support and support from the high post.
Defense...
The opposite of Wang Zelin is Aldridge. As soon as this guy met Zach Randolph, he immediately became energetic. After seeing that Wang Zelin had no desire to score, he took the initiative to take over the ball.
Unfortunately, Randolph's performance disappointed him. This former teammate looked a bit thicker and less flexible than a fat man.
After three quarters, the Trail Blazers easily took a huge 26-point lead at 79:53.
Wang Zelin was going crazy with rebounds. He grabbed 19 rebounds in three quarters, and also contributed 23 points, 4 assists and 4 blocks.
This kind of scoring output does seem average when compared to Wang Zelin.
However, Aldridge went crazy, scoring 41 points in three quarters, successfully breaking his career single-game scoring record.
Prior to this, Aldridge's career-high single-game score was 40 points against the Spurs during the 2010-11 regular season.
emmm, it deserves to be said to be a professional background board!
Among Wang Zelin, Aldridge would have scored 40 points three times in a single game during his time with the Trail Blazers, but now he only has one. And his highest scoring record should be 44 points. How could he meet this little butterfly?
.
However, he lost two 40 points in a single game in exchange for two championship rings. From this perspective, Aldridge actually made money.
Thanks to the outstanding performance of the Trail Blazers' interior duo, the final quarter of the game completely entered garbage time. Since Aldridge himself is not a player who cares much about statistics, for the sake of the team's three consecutive championship dynasties, he decided to protect his own health.
First of all, he rejected the suggestions of his coach and teammates, and decisively gave up the temptation to score 50 points in the first single game of his NBA career in the final quarter.
Even if he didn't play, Wang Zelin naturally didn't bother to go on the court to get a rebound. Anyway, he had gotten 20 rebounds in a single game enough times, and this game was not bad.
At 107:72, the Trail Blazers finally beat their opponents by 35 points in the away game and won easily.
After the post-game interview, Wang Zelin and his teammates left Memphis overnight and returned to Portland to wait at home for their last opponent before the All-Star Game the day after tomorrow.
Time flies.
On February 10th, the last game day of the first half of the Trail Blazers' season, the players were very excited.
I can finally take a vacation!
This year the Trail Blazers are participating in the All-Star Game. Wang Zelin, Lillard, Aldridge, Beverley, and Harrell will be on the weekend. Everyone else can have a day off.
There should have been Jokic, who was selected for the second-year rookie team, but unfortunately suffered an injury and has to rest for another two weeks. He is not expected to return to the team at the end of February.
Otherwise, he and Harrell can be selected for the rookie game together.
As a result, the Trail Blazers have two more rookies selected for the All-Star Rookie Game at the same time this year, which is not a big story. At the same time, it fully proves the excellent draft vision of the Trail Blazers management.
Unlike the owner of a certain team, his vision... understands everything.
Wang Zelin, Lillard and Aldridge are going to play in the All-Star Game, and Beverley is invited to participate in the skills challenge.
Originally, in order to create a gimmick, the league once invited Wang Zelin to participate in the dunk contest and Lillard to participate in the skills challenge, but both of them refused.
Just a week before the All-Star Weekend, Wang Zelin had completely integrated all of Dashuai Zhang's abilities. He secretly tried it on his private training ground and found that he could actually take off from the free throw line and dunk.
At that time, he was still thinking about accepting the official invitation and performing a feat of "even yellow people can fly" in the dunk contest.
But when he thought about it, the 2016 NBA Slam Dunk Contest was a legendary slam dunk contest, no less than the Millennium Carter and Tracy McGrady cousins and the "Flying Man" Jordan and "The Essence of Human Movies" in the last century.
Wilkins' class...
Speaking more broadly, the excitement of this slam dunk contest may even make it the best in history!
If he agrees to participate, his opponents will be the two dunk monsters LaVine and Gordon...
Forget it, this kind of blatant behavior of giving away people's heads is not suitable for him, Wang.
Anyway, I am still young, and "yellow people can fly too." At worst, I will wait until the future to draw some birds and animals, and it will not be too late to participate by then.
As for Lillard, the reason for his refusal is also very simple - not interested!
Yes, Director Li’s reply is so cool!
Anyway, he had a skill challenge to win the championship in his rookie year, and he had already had a taste of it, and this thing is not as addictive as the championship. Instead of wasting time, it is better to prepare for the main game performance with peace of mind.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, the team held a tactical meeting.
In today's game, the opponent is the Houston Mosaics, who have lost to them twice in a row before, so they must win.
The training tasks during the day were not heavy, only simple shooting training and tactical training were conducted, and then the players arranged their own time.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the pre-match warm-up is about to begin, and people from the Imperial TV station and ESPN TV station are here to do pre-match interviews.
There was a commotion for a while, but there was no specific interview content. The main reason was that the Trail Blazers were in the midst of a winning streak recently, and others couldn't find fault if they wanted to. The media could only follow Wang Zelin's wishes and complete the interview.
The whole process was easy and enjoyable.
After the people from both TV stations left, Wang Zelin and his teammates began to warm up and prepare for the game.
At 6:30 in the evening, the game between the Trail Blazers and the Mosaics started.
Today's Rose Garden Arena has a full attendance.
On the one hand, this game is the team’s last game before the All-Star Game. How could local fans miss it?
On the other hand, Nikola Jokic, who had not appeared at home for a long time, appeared on the team's bench after receiving two weeks of rehabilitation treatment.
Although he only appeared as a spectator, this was enough to make the fans ecstatic, because such a move was tantamount to a message revealed to the outside world that Jokic's return to the team is just around the corner.
"Let us welcome No. 36, 2.16 meter center, Wang Ze Lin!!!"
When the host shouted in a longer tone, the cheers in the arena reached their peak.
Although it is only the fourth season of his career, Wang Zelin has become the leading player of the Trail Blazers and a well-deserved totem figure of the team!
Perhaps no one expected that a young center from the other side of the ocean would actually lead the Trail Blazers to the most glorious chapter in team history in a short period of time.
The key is that this is just the beginning of a glorious chapter, not the end.
When the King of the Rose Garden Arena appeared in the center of the court, all the fans stood up and clapped and cheered like crazy.
"I don't know how long it will take until I can be like him!"
In front of the Mosaic team's bench, the bearded No. 13 had tears of envy on his face. At the same time, he had both expectations and confusion about the future of himself and the team.