In the second quarter, both sides made lineup adjustments.
For the Cavaliers, James, Irving, and JR continued to stay on the court, and the inside became TT and Mozgov.
The Trail Blazers are led by Wang Zelin and Lillard, partnered by Jokic, Carter and Moreau.
The game continues, the Cavaliers attack,
James had a strong desire to score. He came up with the ball and pretended to dribble, then fired a cold arrow and made a three-pointer. The opponent Morrow immediately interfered, but James still missed the three-pointer.
At 25:32, the point difference was narrowed to 7 points.
Then the Trail Blazers reacted. Carter received a pass from Wang Zelin in the corner and immediately took a quick shot and scored a three-pointer!
A veteran like Carter becomes more and more calm as he enters big scenes, and will never be as soft-handed as a young player.
The Cavaliers launched an attack, and James, who returned to the small forward position, had an advantage against Morrow. He beat Morrow with a back-up, then feinted and then turned back into the penalty area.
Unfortunately, Wang Zelin's big hand saw through it. James wanted to dunk, so he stepped forward and stretched out his hand to prevent him from jumping.
Seeing that there was nothing he could do, James suddenly stopped, turned around, and shot a fadeaway jumper, and the ball went hollow into the net.
Maybe it was the last-ditch battle that inspired James's little universe. He was like a Saint possessed by him, bursting out with endless fighting power, constantly using various weapons in his arsenal to score desperately.
Some scoring methods that he doesn't usually use much and whose hit rate is relatively average have become extraordinarily stable today.
After James scored 11 points in a row, the Cavaliers managed to equalize the score in the second quarter.
Only in this way, the Cavaliers' scoring must rely on James. Whenever he comes off the court, the Cavaliers' scoring will plummet or even stagnate.
When we came back in the second half, we saw that the two sides were tied. In order to make James less tired, Tyronn Lue chose to let him rest for another two minutes before playing.
In these two minutes, the Trail Blazers quickly expanded their lead to double digits.
In the third quarter, Lillard scored a three-pointer, as if to prove to the world that we are going to win the championship at home today.
There are also Wang Zelin's various offensive rebounds in the paint, as well as dunks 2 1...
James couldn't sit still for a moment and had no choice but to go into battle again.
Cavaliers possession.
Irving advanced to the frontcourt with the ball and passed it to James. The latter used the screen to lower his center of gravity and accelerate, rushing into the three-point line for physical confrontation, causing a defensive foul by Aldridge.
This surprised the fans at the scene. Even Aldridge's eyes were full of surprise. He looked up at the big screen and saw that it was just an ordinary defense, but he was called a defensive foul by the referee.
Both he and James were replaced after the same timeout, but he was called for a foul as soon as he came on, which made him confused for a while and expressed his dissatisfaction with the referee.
The reason for being so angry is easy to understand. When the team is in peak condition, once the main player is called for a foul, it will be greatly affected.
Besides, this is the home court of the Trail Blazers, and a defense of this level is simply not worth mentioning.
What's going on with these referees?
It's just not giving him the home whistle, but it's causing him trouble. It's a bit incredible when you think about it.
But after learning from the last loss, Coach Terry instantly realized that something must have happened during the halftime break that the Trail Blazers didn't know about.
Next, they must be careful.
Back to the game.
Surrounded by veteran superstars in the league, James' ability to understand the trend of the game is naturally among the best in the league. After realizing that the league did not seem to want this series to stop at Game 5, he began to consciously increase physical confrontation.
This led to less than 5 minutes into the third quarter, Aldridge, who was facing James, quickly received another foul.
Second time in a single quarter, fourth time in the entire game!
Not only Aldridge, but also other players were called for fouls, which made the fans at the scene feel dissatisfied. At this moment, something even more unexpected happened.
About halfway through the third quarter, during the Trail Blazers' attack, Aldridge received a pass from Lillard, cut to the basket, and planned to dunk hard to vent his displeasure.
Unexpectedly, James came out from the other side and shot out both palms, like two ghosts hitting the goalkeeper and nailing the basketball to the backboard.
Perhaps due to excessive sprinting, James could no longer control his body after blocking the shot. After colliding with Aldridge, the two fell to the ground at the same time.
"Bang!" x2
Just the sound of the body hitting the floor hard made the audience say "Wow", and everyone couldn't bear to look at it, because the sound alone made people feel very painful.
But the next moment...
"Ahhh!" Aldridge hugged his left leg, feeling in great pain.
The game was immediately suspended. Coach Terry and Orsi immediately called their medical staff, and their teammates rushed over.
At the same time, the referee went to the technical table after the game was suspended to replay James' defense.
James blocked the shot cleanly, no problem, and the two of them fell to the ground at the same time after colliding in the air. The only difference is that James could get up after falling to the ground because of his strong body resistance. It didn't seem like anything
thing.
Aldridge, on the other hand, is very unlucky.
After the team doctor examined the injury and communicated with Aldridge, he came to a preliminary judgment of the injury: Aldridge suspected of tearing the medial meniscus of his left knee!
As soon as the news came out, many people's expressions changed.
Aldridge is the power forward of the Trail Blazers and Wang Zelin's right-hand man. Now that he is injured, can the Trail Blazers cope with the following games with only the two giants?
It happened so suddenly that all the fans in the stadium started to get restless.
At this time, the Trail Blazers bench is in a state of gloom. Without Aldridge, their overall offensive strength will definitely be affected, but compared to this, everyone is more concerned about Aldridge's injury.
Torn medial meniscus of left knee?!
Although this is not a torn cruciate ligament known as the "Superstar Killer", it is undoubtedly a heavy blow to an All-Star insider in his prime.
Not to mention, Rose suffered a similar serious blow in the 2013-14 season. Just after returning to the market, he suffered a torn medial meniscus in his right knee.
Because of this injury, Rose once again suffered a season reimbursement and had to miss 76 games with the Bulls again.
At this moment, everyone became worried because they understood that a serious injury like this would not be cured in a day or two, and would even affect Aldridge's career.