The Warriors cleanly swept the Grizzlies in just four games. At the same time, other semifinal matchups were still in progress.
Another matchup in the Western Conference is between the Rockets and Clippers. This is a magical matchup, so magical that it can be recorded in history!
The Clippers' Paul defeated the Spurs in the first-round tiebreaker, which gave them a great morale and confidence.
The Rockets swept the Mavericks 4:1 in the first round. They are also full of confidence in this series.
The lineups of these two teams are very similar. The core of the Clippers is one inside and one outside. The inside is All-Star Griffin, and the outside is Paul, who is known as the point guard god. The same is true for the Rockets. Their core is also one inside and one outside.
The inside is Howard, and the outside is James Harden.
In terms of reputation, Howard of Warcraft is no worse than Griffin. The two of them are invincible in defense in the penalty area, one is domineering in dunks, one is the main offense, and the other is the main defense.
The same goes for Paul and Harden. Paul debuted earlier and is more famous, but Harden has been gaining momentum recently and has vaguely secured his position as the first point guard. Paul, on the other hand, cannot be called the first point guard because of Curry's presence.
There is one point guard, so the two are basically tied.
The two teams are similar in terms of role players and substitutes. Each has its own advantages. No one's advantages can completely overwhelm the other's.
So this matchup is very interesting.
Because the Rockets performed better in the regular season and were ranked second in the Western Conference, the series started first at the Rockets' home court.
For the Clippers, they have bad news, that is, Paul will miss this game.
Chris Paul left the game with 1:28 left in the first quarter of Game 7 of the series against the Spurs due to a hamstring injury, but he returned to the game in the second quarter and ultimately helped the team complete the game-winner.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers said in an interview after the game: "Yeah, I'm very worried. Someone on the team has to step up. With three minutes left in the game I thought - coach at this time
It's an interesting thought - if we can win this game, thank God we signed Lester Hudson because now we have two (point) guards. We were so close to signing the big one
Well, in that case, we really don’t have a defender. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind.”
Rivers continued: "Chris may not be able to play the first game against the Rockets, but this game is on Monday. If I had to guess now, I would say he can't play, but who knows."
Before the game started, Rivers announced that Paul would not play in the first game against the Rockets.
The opponent lacked a main player, which also made the Rockets feel very relaxed. In the first quarter, they beat the Clippers 25:19, leading by 6 points.
In the second quarter, the Clippers stepped up their offensive and scored 27:25 in a single quarter, regaining 2 points.
It seemed that the Rockets still had the advantage, but the Clippers started to feel better after the second half, especially Redick. He made 4 of 5 shots in a single quarter and scored 12 points. The rest of the Clippers also performed well, and they beat the Rockets.
37:27, surpassing the score in one fell swoop.
In the fourth quarter, the Clippers went all out and beat the Rockets 34:24, winning the game directly.
In the end, the Clippers defeated the Rockets on the road 117:101 and got a good start.
The result of this game was unexpected by many people. Without Paul, the Clippers performed so well. Six of their team scored in double figures, had 31 assists, 21 turnovers, and the three-point shooting percentage was as high as 41.9.
%.
On the other hand, the Rockets sent out 24 assists but made 23 turnovers. Harden alone contributed 9 turnovers.
If they lose this game, the Rockets will lose their home court advantage, which is very detrimental to them.
Winning an away game also gave Rivers the courage to let Paul recuperate, so Paul still did not play in the second game.
However, this time the Rockets did not give the Clippers a chance. Six of their team scored in double figures. Harden was extremely efficient, making 7 of 17 shots and 15 of 15 free throws, scoring 32 points.
Howard also scored 24 points, but he was troubled by the shark-cutting tactics. He took 21 free throws and only scored 8.
Griffin performed very well for the Clippers. He scored a game-high 34 points on 13 of 23 shots and had 15 rebounds.
In this game, the Rockets mainly won on free throws and rebounds. They scored 64 free throws in the game, twice as many as the Clippers. They also scored 54 rebounds, which was much more than the Clippers' 40.
In the end, the Rockets won 115:109, and the series score became 1:1.
Game 3 was played at the Clippers' home court. Paul returned in this game, and the Clippers' offense also performed very well. In the end, they defeated the Rockets 124:99.
In this game, the Rockets still had 6 players score in double figures, but their shooting percentages were not very good. Harden only made 5 free throws. Although Howard made 11 free throws, he only made 4 of them.
The first contributor to the Clippers' victory was Redick. He made 11 of 14 shots from the field and 5 of 6 3-pointers. He scored 31 points very efficiently.
The Clippers' second hero was Rivers Jr., who was also very efficient. He made 10 of 13 shots and scored the team's second-highest 25 points.
Game 4 was also a massacre. The Clippers performed very well at home and beat the Rockets 128:95.
Both teams had good shooting skills in this game, especially the Clippers' offense, which was even more difficult to defend, so the Rockets began to use the same trick against the Clippers. They began to cut down DeAndre Jordan and kept sending DeAndre Jordan to the free throw line.
In the end, Jordan made 14 of 34 free throws. One person made more free throws than the entire Rockets team.
In this game, 6 players from the Clippers scored in double figures, while 5 players from the Rockets scored in double figures. The fourth quarter became garbage time, and Howard only played 18 minutes in the game.
After winning this game, the big score in the series became 3:1. The Clippers' form is quite gratifying.
You must know that in the history of the NBA playoffs, the probability of a successful 1:3 comeback is only 3.5%. Whether it is based on historical experience or based on the performance of these two games, the Clippers can say that they have a chance to win.
The Rockets, who returned to their home court in Game 5, performed very well. Six of their team members scored in double figures. In the end, they defeated the Clippers 124:103, and the series score became 2:3.
In this game, the Clippers still relaxed their vigilance. Their three-point shooting was very poor. Redick made 1 of 8 shots and Barnes made 1 of 4 shots. The team made 9 of 35 three-pointers and the field goal percentage was only 25.7.
%.
More importantly, the Rockets grabbed 58 rebounds, while the Clippers only had 39 rebounds, which also cost the Clippers a considerable price.
Although the Rockets won the next game, the Clippers still didn't take it too seriously. After all, Game 6 will return to the Clippers' home court. In the previous two home games, the Clippers performed perfectly, which also made them not too serious.
Taking this defeat seriously also paved the way for subsequent losses.
