Chapter 878 [Tenacious]
Don't lose much, lose too many points. Rivers is a coach known for his defense, but he was also a little discouraged by his opponents' consecutive high scores. It's not good to fight defense, so it's still not good to fight offense instead.
In an interview, Rivers sighed: "We're not going to give up, we have to try to win when we come home." We had chances to win both games, we just didn't take them. ”
The reporter asked: "What do you think these two losses are?" ”
"It's mainly defense, we didn't do a good enough job of defending the Knicks' two interior lines, and I'll find a way to solve it in the next game." Rivers said.
In fact, there is also an interior offense, Jordan Jr.'s offense is too poor, and Griffin's ability to withdraw is not as good as the Knicks' three interior lines, which is difficult to solve. On Davis, he can step up the offense, but the defense will be worse.
The Clippers' interior is competitive in the league, but they are no match for the Knicks. The Knicks have another MVP on the outside, and in such a comparison, there are not many Los Angeles fans who are optimistic about the Clippers winning the championship, and they can only hope that Paul will beat Zhou Xuan, which is more like a luxury.
In the history of the NBA playoffs, a total of 16 teams have come back from 2-0 down, and only three teams have done so in the Finals. The odds of reversing a team that lost just five games in the regular season are obviously even lower.
Funnily enough, the news broke that the person who didn't care about winning or losing the least was owner Donald Sterling.
Now that the Sterling family's case over the governing rights is going on, a furious Donald has publicly lashed out at his wife, Shelly Sterling, and her attorney in court, saying he would never sell the Clippers and vowing to devote the rest of his life to suing the league.
In the farce, Raheem Sterling claimed that his wife had betrayed him and that he had not authorised her to sell the team. Shelly said on the witness stand that she loved Donald, but that he needed to get his Alzheimer's disease checked.
"I think for the sake of both of our health, he needs to go for this test, something must be wrong with it," Shelly said. He became more and more forgetful, slurred, grumpy, and would lash out for no reason. He's not the same person he used to be. ”
Stepping off the witness stand, Shelly tried to reach Sterling offstage, only to shout, "Stay away from me, you pig!" ”
The checks are a bit redundant and everyone knows that Sterling is not normal......
It's easy to understand that Shelly wants to sell the team, with the Clippers being expected to sell for a whopping $2 billion. The reason why it is so high is because Sterling, the owner's deposit, has affected the value of the Clippers.
In his first 30 years at the helm of the Clippers, Raheem Sterling played only three playoff games in total; It wasn't until 2008 that they signed a big-name player in the free agent market for the first time, Byron Davis, and it turned out to be an out-and-out garbage contract. Before the 2013-2014 season, they were one of only six teams in the league that did not pay the luxury tax, and they only paid $260,000 last season, which sounds incredible.
In short, the Clippers, who are troubled internally and externally, can only rely on their fighting spirit to compete with the Knicks.
The Sterling farce didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the fans, as tickets were sold out and the Clippers set a record for ticket prices for a game. Many Hollywood stars and Chinese people are present to watch the game, and it is not necessarily who they support.
When Paul joined in 2011, the Lakers players said it was ridiculous that the Clippers wanted to overwhelm the Lakers. But now, the Clippers do have a much higher popularity than the Lakers, and much higher. Since the Lakers lost to the Clippers by 48 points in the derby, missed the playoffs, and refreshed the lower limit again, Los Angeles fans have almost become Clippers fans. There is no doubt that they are the best team in Los Angeles.
When Zhou Xuan arrived in Los Angeles, he first went to Chloe Moretz's house in Beverly Hills as a guest, to be precise, it was a showdown to meet his parents. There are so many scandals outside, and they have to go back to China together in the summer, and they can't be ambiguous anymore.
Chloe's mother, Terry, and Chloe, the fourth gay brother, were at home and entertained Zhou Xuan, while Chloe's doctor's father went for surgery. Zhou Xuan brought a lot of gifts and had a pleasant conversation.
"Don't be inhibited, come to play often in the future, this kid likes you, we already know. We are not worried about your future development. Terry smiled.
"Thank you."
"She's headstrong at times, and you've taken care of her for a long time. Watching the news, sometimes I feel that you are already family, and your parents are very good to her, which makes us feel very relieved. Also, you handled Emma Watson's affairs well, if it were other young people, I'm afraid it wouldn't be as mature as you. Terry laughed. Mothers don't want their children to suffer, Zhou Xuan's approach makes her more satisfied, this is the best result.
Chloe laughed: "You're a good man, I didn't see your negative press, how did you do it?" ”
The fourth brother was a little gossipy, and Zhou Xuan satisfied his curiosity and talked about the peaceful breakup. Mainly due to geographical differences, Emma prefers to go back to London to develop rather than stay in the United States, and even in the United States, she wants to be in Los Angeles instead of New York. The two cities are too far apart.
The explanation will make Chloe's family feel more at ease, and they don't have to worry about the plot of the eight-o'clock soap show such as "rekindling old love" in the future. In the end, they said that Colo would stay at home for a few days, wait for the draft to go to New York, and go back to China with Zhou Xuan. The victory parade, the victory celebration party duì Kolo did not participate.
They want to see the reaction of the media, and then they will post relevant news on the Internet to see whether fans and fans support them more to be together or more to be separated. If it is the former, there will be no negative consequences for them to go to China together.
Chloe frowned, "I'm against it, it's too boring at home." ”
Terry smiled bitterly, "Could it be that you can't be separated for 10 days?" He often goes to play away games, and you will follow him in the future? ”
"Can't I follow? Anyway, it's a couple in the future, and I just like to watch him play. Chloe said pitifully.
"No more filming?"
"There's no good script."
"......" Terry realized what it means to be a woman, and her daughter used to be pestering her.
Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "Grace, will you accompany your parents at home first?" When we meet as soon as the celebration is over, you quietly go home, and the media doesn't know, and we don't go out, so they think it's good that they haven't met. ”
"That's fine." Kolo immediately smiled and clapped his hands with Zhou Xuan.
Terry couldn't laugh or cry, they wouldn't do anything special when they were stuffy at home, so be it.
On June 10, the third game of Knicks vs Clippers began.
The Clippers changed their opening lineup, with Crawford coming into the starting lineup and Barnes at small forward. The inside line is still Griffin and Jordan Jr.
The lineup started very aggressively, with Crawford as the main attacker, working with Griffin to block and pick-and-roll, and Paul waiting for three-point opportunities on the perimeter. Teammates can't play and then organize.
Jordan Jr. also played a role, and like Anthony Davis, he is good at side blocking, and if opponents like to shoot from the outside, that's when he can get his way.
Zhou Xuan knew this, and did not cut the ball to the outside line, Leonard and Matthews both ran and shot on the periphery. It was Bosh Jefferson's job to cut the air. Still, Jordan Jr. made the Knicks uncomfortable with his quick movements. He went out to interfere with the outside shot, turned around and took two big steps to block the inside. One ball glided on the side and jumped to the basket to block Jefferson's throw from behind, earning the crowd applause.
Paul fought this time, and the defensive end dealt with Bosh and Jefferson with a pull, and kept making small moves, trying to make up for the height gap. Back at the Clippers' home court, the referee blew for a little looser defensive moves, and if it weren't for the star, many of Paul's actions would have been fouls. Zhou Xuan also has this kind of defensive advantage, and the two can enter the best defensive lineup, which is related to small actions.
Griffin played as well as ever, keeping Jefferson defending, he pulled out to block and pick-and-roll, and the high post could catch the ball and misplace the offense. Let Bosh defend, and Griffin can rely on his physical advantage to force the basket.
The two sides fought to a 23-all tie in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Clippers fielded Collisson, Redick, Stephenson, Turkoglou, and Jordan Jr.
Originally, Crawford took the bench in the second quarter, but Collison had no chance to attack with the ball, and his advantages could not be brought into play. Rivers tries to unleash Collisson's ball-handling ability.
The Knicks bench Augustin is only 183CM tall, and he has no advantage over Collisson, Anderson has a bad hand today, blocking and displacing misplaced shots and hitting 3 irons in a row, and the Clippers quickly exceeded the score.
The Knicks didn't use foul tactics, and Rivers let Jordan Jr. continue to play. This arrangement also disrupted the Knicks' plans. Defensively, the Clippers increased their intensity and maintained their lead.
Jordan Jr. played the entire first half, and for a brutalist like him, the body was not a problem at all.
Zhou Xuan saw that his teammates were in a sluggish state, and began to increase his shots in the second half, relying on double cover to attack in a misplaced position. Teammates try to hit the basket as much as possible.
When you don't shoot accurately, it's easiest to shoot close to the basket.
The Clippers were very efficient offensively, and Paul hit two pull-up jump shots after the pick-and-roll, and relied on the off-ball cover to catch the ball and shoot a three-pointer.
The Knicks trailed by six points heading into the fourth quarter, Jordan Jr. consumed a lot of body, and D'Antoni didn't arrange foul play. Jordan Jr. was let go many times and couldn't help the team on the offensive end. Bosh continued to help his teammates break through the space.
Zhou Xuan broke through the point and played as usual, but the Knicks were dumb on the outside, shooting 6 of 27 three-pointers, the shooting rate was much lower than usual, and the final quarter did not improve.
Crawford suddenly had a convulsion, hitting three three-pointers in two minutes and hitting seven three-pointers throughout the game to lead his team to the score.
In the last minute, Matthews, Parsons, and Anderson took turns to miss three-point shots, and the game lost suspense.
Zhou Xuan scored 26 points and 10 assists to do useless work, and the Knicks lost 100-111.
The Clippers tied the score at 1-2, and fans saw another glimmer of hope.
Paul led the team to 17 points, 12 assists and 4 steals, with six players scoring in double figures, and the Clippers players showed their tenacity.