Chapter 220: Singing Sunset Red
The final All-Star starting list announced by the league is still making waves, and the NBA teams have long been engaged in the tight schedule. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info
On January 22, the Los Angeles Lakers sat at the Staples Center arena to welcome the challenge of the San Antonio Spurs.
This is the second time the Lakers have played the Spurs this season. The Lakers lost to the Spurs on the road on December 11 last year, and they may be more likely to win the game tonight when they are at home.
The Spurs' starting lineup is Tony Parker, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, David West, and Tim Duncan. Although Parker, Duncan, and Ginobili are back en masse, LaMarcus Aldridge missed the game tonight with a back injury, which is good news for the Lakers.
The Lakers' starting lineup for tonight has also been adjusted, with Nance Jr. coming into the starting lineup in place of Randle, and the remaining four being Jordan Clarkson, Yi Feng, Kobe Bryant and Roy Hibbert.
At the beginning of the game, the Lakers showed good form, Kobe Bryant and Yi Feng combined to score 9 points, leading the team to a 14-6 attack wave, showing their determination to defend the home court.
Then Leonard, the new core of the Spurs, began to work on the offensive end, scoring six points in a row, and Danny Green also came to the icing on the cake, hitting a three-pointer from the outside, and the Spurs quickly returned the favor with a 9-3 offensive wave.
With 4:24 left in the first quarter, the Spurs trailed by three points on the road, 20-23.
In the next round of offense, Ginobili hit a three-pointer to tie the score. Although Clarkson then scored a driving layup, the Spurs hit another three-pointer from Patty Mills on the next offense! Spurs also took the lead for the first time since the start of the game.
Then entered the rotation time, and the Lakers' rotation lineup failed to complete the task of overtaking, but was widened by the Spurs.
Whoever they are, as long as they get under Popovich, they will be tapped for usable talents.
For example, Spurs starting point guard Danny Green tonight, as a second-round pick in 2009, after he was drafted by the Cavaliers, he only played 20 games a season, averaged 5.8 minutes per game, and was immediately cut by the Cavaliers a year later. After coming to the Spurs, he slowly grew into a superb 3D player.
Popovich is so amazing, even if it is a waste material lineup, he can use it amazingly.
At the end of the first quarter, the Spurs led 33-31.
After the start of the second quarter, the two teams went back and forth, and the score on the court alternated, and the Spurs continued to maintain the lead.
It was only when we knew that there were 5 minutes and 11 seconds left in the second quarter that things took a turn. Yi Feng hit a three-pointer from the outside, setting off a wave of counterattack, Clarkson responded positively, broke through to make a layup, and Hibbert also silently hit a hook to make silent support. The Lakers scored 7 points in a row to overtake the score in one fell swoop. At this point, the score was 47:49 and the Lakers led by two points.
But after that, David West showed his strength and proved that he is indeed eligible for an annual salary of tens of millions, and the base salary to join the Spurs is just aiming for a championship.
He scored 8 points in a row on an inside and outside shot, and single-handedly offset the efforts of the Lakers during this period, rewriting the score to 55:53, and the Spurs regained the lead.
Before the end of the half, Yi Feng missed a three-point whistle from a long distance, and the score of the two sides was 58:55, and the Lakers trailed by three points at halftime.
The Spurs are missing Aldridge, and as a result, the Lakers are still behind at halftime, and it seems that they are missing a big man, and there is not much loss of strength for the Spurs.
Aldridge failed to play, relying on the play of David West, the performance of Duncan Sr., and the super tall Boban Marjanovic and others, it seems that Aldridge has also filled the vacancy.
But this was only temporary, and Popovich's ability to fill the void left by Aldridge in the first half so perfectly shows that his coaching level has really risen to the level of art. But he is not a god after all, it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and without a good hand, there is no way to have the last laugh after all.
If he can really combine David West, Duncan, Boban and others to play Aldridge's role, then the Spurs won't have to go to great lengths to recruit Aldridge last offseason.
After the start of the second half, the Lakers launched a counterattack. Yi Fengli scored 8 points on a sudden outside shot, plus a chance ball that was passed, which drove the whole team's performance, and in just three minutes, the Lakers played a wave of 14-5 second half start, just as perfect as the start of the first half.
At this time, the score of the two sides was 63:69, and the Lakers' lead came to 6 points.
As the arrow mission of the Lakers' counteroffensive, Yi Feng was valued by Popovich.
After the timeout, Yi Feng found that the defender had become Leonard. As one of the youngest Finals MVPs in NBA history, Leonard initially relied on defense to establish himself in the league. And after becoming a DPOY (Defensive Player of the Year) last season, Leonard's defensive skills have undoubtedly reached the top position in the league, maybe this is not his personal peak, but for those who are defended by him, Leonard last season is enough to suffocate.
Heavily targeted by Leonard, Yi Feng's efficiency was visibly affected. However, in order to limit Yi Feng, Leonard himself also needs to put in a lot of energy, and his power on the offensive end has also decreased.
Although the momentum of the Lakers was blocked, the Spurs were at a loss on the offensive end for a while, and the point difference still did not narrow. Popovich replaced Ginobili and prepared to let this "demon knife" do things.
Ginobili came into play, using a strange rhythm to break through, make a layup and draw a defensive foul on Hibbert, and finally hit the free throw.
Without Leonard's defense, Kobe Bryant also opened up, scoring 5 points on an inside-out shot to help the Lakers stabilize their position.
Seeing Ginobili and Kobe Bryant, the two old guys, couldn't help but start to itch a little. Although many parts of the French sports car have begun to age, as the heart of the engine, it has been beating vigorously.
Parker then used his most famous trick on offense, spinning the top and making three consecutive layups!
Parker's spinning top turned, turning very abruptly and predictably in the middle of the journey, and he didn't have to slow down at all when he turned. In his prime, this trick was a terrifying existence. If the defender is slower, he will find Parker disappear from view in the blink of an eye.
And what's even more terrifying is that after Parker Gyro turned around, he couldn't just barely stiffen and go to the basket. His core strength and balance control are perfect, and he is still able to control his body freely after turning, whether it is passing or layups, switching at will.
Unexpectedly, this competition suddenly turned into a group of "old people" competing to "sing "Sunset Red", you sang and I appeared, and the old guys had a lot of fun.
In terms of the number of old guys, the Spurs have an old GDP trio, and the Lakers only have two people, Kobe Bryant and Ci Shiping, so they have no advantage in numbers.
Fortunately, there are many young people on the Lakers' side, and they help at critical moments, and they don't let the old guys on their side suffer. At the end of the third quarter, the Spurs trailed by one point at 85:86.
The Lakers kept their firepower alive in the final quarter, with Clarkson's contribution particularly prominent. In the face of Parker, although he was quite embarrassed on the defensive end, Clarkson could also regain his presence on the offensive end, relying on his youth and strength, and bullying Parker's old arms and legs had no psychological burden at all.
The Spurs finally couldn't hide the hole in Aldridge's absence, and when they didn't feel good on the outside, they couldn't contribute to the output in time to allow the Lakers to extend their lead.
After that, although the Spurs tried to use counterattacks to score by strengthening their defense, the Lakers began to play steadily, reduce turnovers, and pursue a success rate. As a result, the two teams entered a stalemate, and the Lakers kept a lead of about 5 points, but they were not chased but could not pull away.
With 3:15 left in the game, the Spurs trailed by six points at 96:102.
Using their delicate combination and fluid transfer, the Spurs had an open three-point opportunity in the corner, which Danny Green seized and hit a three-pointer in the corner.
At 99:102, the Spurs chased the difference to 3 points, and the suspense of the game was still there. But Kobe Bryant suddenly went crazy at the last moment, shooting 3 of 4 three-pointers, which directly killed the game!
After a period of fun with a bunch of old guys in the third quarter, Bryant sat on the bench to rest, knowing that halfway through the fourth quarter, he was replaced by Byron Scott.
His three three-pointers directly brought the Lakers' lead to 10 points and directly stopped the Spurs.
At this point, the score was 101-111, and the Spurs, who were 10 points behind, were cornered as they only had 1 minute and 51 seconds left.
But the Spurs haven't reached the point where they can't see hope, and if it weren't for a direct steal on their out-of-bounds serve after they came back from a timeout, maybe the outcome of this game would have been very different.
After the steal, Yi Feng did not directly play a fast attack, he began to consume time. Seeing that the Spurs didn't come up to foul, he dragged out the time more comfortably.
Although the final shot was interfered with by Leonard and failed to hit, the Lakers consumed 21 seconds of time in this unexpected offensive right.
Although the Spurs, who are still behind, did not panic, their mentality was affected when they were in a hurry to score. In the final moments of the game, the difference was still not equal.
In the end, the Spurs lost the game 106-113 on the road.
Ginobili had 20 points, four rebounds and four assists, in addition to five steals; Leonard had 18 points and four rebounds, and also contributed three blocks on the defensive end; Parker had 15 points and five assists, and Duncan had 10 points and five rebounds.
On the Lakers' side, Yi Feng scored 29 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, Clarkson had 18 points and 3 assists, Kobe Bryant had 16 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, Randle had 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Hibbert had 10 points and 6 rebounds.
With the blessing of the home fans, the Lakers finally won a game against the Spurs, and in the four meetings between the two teams this season, the game was temporarily tied 1:1.
On January 23, just after playing the Spurs, the Los Angeles Lakers will play Portland again and challenge the Trail Blazers away.
This is the second meeting between the two teams this season, with the Lakers hosting the Trail Blazers on Nov. 22 last year and losing the game. This time, they just finished playing the Spurs, and the next day they had to cross most of the United States to play the Trail Blazers, and the Lakers were not in a good situation.
The starting lineup for the Lakers is: Jordan Clarkson, Yi Feng, Kobe Bryant, Julius Randle, Roy Hibbert
The starting lineup for the Trail Blazers is: Damion Lillard, CJ McCollum, Al Farouk Aminu, Noah Vonleh, Mason Plumlee
The Lakers took the lead early in the season, but as the game progressed, the Trail Blazers opened fire, with Aminu and McCollum taking turns hitting three-pointers, and they led the team to a 14-0 offensive climax.
With 5 minutes left in the first quarter, the Lakers trailed by as many as 12 points at 12:24, which shows the poor state of the Lakers, and they only scored 12 points in the middle of the first quarter.
With 4:3 left in the first quarter, Bryant scored two points with his signature turnaround jumper, which was his first goal of the game, and although the Moda Center Arena was the home of the Trail Blazers, Bryant's wonderful goal still won the unanimous cheers of the fans.
Kobe Bryant's goal also woke up the state of the Lakers players, Yi Feng broke through to the basket twice, Clarkson also hit a shot, the Lakers scored 8 points in a row, chasing the score to 20:26, only 6 points behind.
After that, the two teams each played several attacks, and the difference remained at 6 points. Gerard Henderson and Ed Davis each scored two points before the end of the first quarter, resulting in the Lakers trailing by 10 points at 28:38 at the end of the first quarter.
The Lakers' rotation had a good second quarter, which was a surprise for Byron Scott.
They were very aggressive on both ends of the floor, with Anthony Brown hitting a three-pointer and Louis Williams scoring six points on his own, leading an 11-4 comeback wave.
With 4:15 left in the second quarter, the Lakers trailed the score to 51:53 and trailed by just two points.
In the Lakers' subsequent offense, Yi Feng broke through McCollum and hit the basket directly, and Europe shook Plumlee and won the one-handed split!
With his exhilarating dunk, the Lakers finally equalized the score.
At halftime, the Lakers led the Trail Blazers by two points, 63-61.
The Trail Blazers' "two guns" scored 35 points in the first half, with Lillard scoring 18 points and four assists and McCollum scoring 17 points. It depends on their play that the Trail Blazers can score more than 60 points in the half.
Compared to the Trail Blazers, the Lakers scored more evenly, which can be called a multi-point flower, with four players scoring in double figures in the first half, Yi Feng 14 points, Kobe Bryant 10 points, Clarkson 11 points, and Louis Williams 12 points.
The Lakers played very well in the first half, especially in the second quarter. However, in the second half, they were affected by a poor schedule, especially in the fourth quarter.
Shortly after the start of the third quarter, Lillard scored five straight points and Plumlee also contributed five points to lead the team to a 10-2 spurt.
But the Lakers didn't throw in easily, with Bryant hitting two jumpers and Randle also contributing six points. The scores of both sides are still tight. Throughout the third quarter, both teams were in a stalemate.
But in the fourth quarter, the Lakers suddenly lost their spirits, their offensive state was completely devoid, and their defensive end was not able to lift their spirits. Lillard turned on the attack mode at this time, scored 15 points in a single quarter, and led his teammates to play a wave to take away the game.
In the end, the Lakers lost the game 105-118 on the road. (To be continued.) )