The situation in the East and West soon became clear, with the Western Conference semifinals in two groups, the Clippers vs. the Trail Blazers, and the Spurs vs. the Warriors; In the two groups in the East, the Pacers vs. the Nets and the Heat vs. the Wizards.

To Xiao Hua's disappointment, only one of the eight sets of matchups in the first round reached the tie-break, which was a series between the Raptors and the Nets.

In the end, the Nets were still experienced enough to be more skilled, and successfully won the life-and-death battle in Toronto and entered the next round.

The game between the Clippers and Trail Blazers begins in Stamp on May 5.

For the Trail Blazers, after selecting Oden in 2007, the era they expected to belong to the Trail Blazers has not yet arrived.

Injuries to Oden and Roy have made it all a blur.

However, the pace of the Trail Blazers' rebuilding is indeed impressive, and the underdog's older rookies Lillard and Aldridge have become the team's new core and have been playing for a long time.

Before the start of the playoffs, many people were more optimistic about the Rockets, but they didn't expect the Rockets to be so vulnerable and end the playoff journey in a very embarrassing and ugly way.

And the Trail Blazers made it to the semifinals with confidence, ready to challenge the 70-win Clippers.

Li Liang has been training very actively and hard these days.

He doesn't care at all about who makes it to the semifinals between the Trail Blazers and the Rockets.

In his eyes, the only opponent in the West is the Spurs, and he doesn't care about the Thunder.

Defeated!

And I never expected that the thunder would fall into the hands of the warriors.

This Warriors team really has two shots, and the cold-blooded pitching ability shown by Curry and Thompson in the series has made people see the new power of the NBA.

And every time he plays against the Warriors in the regular season, Li Liang can feel the vigorous potential of this team.

In the future, they will definitely be a powerful force in the west.

Do you want to join them?

Li Liang hasn't thought about it yet, and he doesn't want to think about next season for the time being.

After a few days of training like a normal player, the semi-finals are about to begin.

On the evening of the 5th, the Staples Center was full again.

For the Clippers, this is definitely the closest they have come to the division finals.

I always lost the semifinals before, and the semifinals were about to become a curse for the Clippers and Paul.

In the locker room before the game began, the Clippers players were silent, and only Rivers was talking.

As a championship coach, Rivers understands the importance of confidence in a team.

No matter how well you play in the regular season, if you lose confidence in the playoffs, you can lose.

The Cavaliers and Pistons are good examples.

The Clippers are not a team with confidence, they need morale, they need confidence.

But no matter how much Rivers said, it couldn't compare to Li Liang's words.

Before going on the court, Li Liang stood up and said to everyone: "We have won this series, believe me, Portlanders are vulnerable in my opinion." We should be preparing for the Western Conference Finals. ”

Li Liang is undoubtedly a little arrogant when he says this.

But in competitive sports, if you are not arrogant, can you say, "We are open to the pioneers?" ”

No team can match the Clippers this season, not the Heat.

Li Liang needs to let his teammates know this.

As a player with rich experience in the playoffs and finals, for Li Liang, a mere semi-final is a goal?

When it was time to warm up on the field, Li Liang did not forget to joke with Paul, "Watch me take you into the West and touch the floor of the West Decision." ”

Paul smiled and didn't speak, he was a player who was blocked from the Western Conference Finals three times, and the Western Conference Finals, a name that even made him feel magical than the Finals.

Of course, without Li Liang, this magic would continue to increase.

The game was played at 7 p.m. PT, with the Clippers wearing a white jersey at home and the Trail Blazers wearing a black jersey tonight.

The Clippers' starters are unchanged, while the Trail Blazers' starters are Robinson, Aldridge, Batum, Matthews and Lillard.

This is a very competitive starting lineup, which can be said to be quite good in terms of functional configuration and player ability.

Before the start of the game, the Trail Blazers players were also full of confidence, after all, the 4:1 elimination of the seemingly strong Rockets gave the Trail Blazers the confidence to wrestle with the super team.

Lillard even went so far as to say in his pre-game interview, "The Trail Blazers don't have a chance to win against the Clippers, and I think in a way, we're the better team." ”

It's good to have faith, but it's not good to have a lot of faith.

At the beginning of the game, Jordan Jr. won the ball in the jump ball, and the offense started from the Clippers.

The first attack of the opening game was initiated by Paul.

After repeated pick-and-rolls, he dribbled into the interior and missed the throw.

Immediately following the Trail Blazers counterattacked, Batum's layup was also interfered with and missed.

Li Liang also launched a counterattack immediately after getting the backcourt rebound, and in the face of Matthews' defense, a pull-up jump shot on the wing hit a two-point shot, which also caused Matthews' defensive foul.

Penalties are to be imposed!

Matthews' defense against Harden in the first round can be said to shine.

With his close-knit defense, endless harassment and high-intensity physical confrontation, Harden, who shot 45 percent from two-point range in the regular season, plummeted to 37 percent and 29 percent from three-point range.

In contrast, Li Liang's two-point shooting rate in the first round was 46%, and the three-point shooting rate was maintained at a high level of 44%.

Of course, this has something to do with the Clippers' better backcourt configuration, but it also shows that Matthews' defense is really effective.

It's just that in the semifinals, Matthews wanted to deal with Li Liang with the same method as Harden, but it didn't work.

Not to mention anything else, Li Liang first has an absolute advantage in height, 10 centimeters taller than Harden.

So what tricks Matthews wants to use again, he has to consider Li Liang's arm span and shot point.

Of course, against Li Liang, the Trailblazers mainly use Batum.

But Batum also has a problem - he will be guarded by Li Liang in the attack.

Li Liang's defense is still very famous in the league, and he is known for being cunning, treacherous, and "bullying the weak and fearing the hard".

What does it mean to bully the weak and fear the hard?

That is to say, if you are a super attacker, such as Anthony and Durant, Li Liang probably doesn't have much to do with you.

If there is a way, it is also crooked.

But if you're not a super attacker, just an ordinary offensive player, then I'm sorry, Li Liang will definitely bully you.

The reason is also very simple, because Li Liang's defense is very solid, very solid.

He has been trained step by step from various tasks and training in the system.

Unless you have the skills and talent to surpass this solid defensive ability, then if you want to explode on Li Liang's head, it will be really too difficult and too difficult.

If a player like Brewer wants to score 51 points on Li Liang's head, it is impossible, and 15 points are sky-high.

It's the same with Batum, he is also an important 3-and-D player in the Trail Blazers, but every time he meets Li Liang, he will be deflated.

Just the first shot was interfered with under the basket and almost hit the hat.

After Li Liang hit the serve, the Trailblazers attacked for the second time, and Batum didn't dare to attack by himself.

Handed the ball to Aldridge and missed the low post attack.

Griffin, on the other hand, relied on frontcourt rebounds to score a goal and opened the game 5-0.

The Clippers were in great shape tonight.

In fact, it was not bad, after five minutes in the first quarter, the Clippers beat the Trail Blazers 10-0.

The Trail Blazers didn't score for a full five minutes.

And on the Clippers' side, if it weren't for Li Liang's hand not opening, it would definitely not be just a 10:0.

The Clippers players are still a little puzzled, how do they feel that the Trail Blazers don't seem to be as strong as the Mavericks?

The two teams have similar personnel structures and similar offensive tactics, as Stotts was an assistant coach with the Mavericks and helped the team win a championship in 2011.

But the Trailblazers differ from the Mavericks in a few points.

The first is defensive experience, the Trail Blazers players are still younger after all, and the defensive and game experience is not as old as the Mavericks.

Lillard blew the cowhide before the game, but as soon as the game started, he was a little confused, and Paul was defending 3 shots and 0 shots.

Second, the Trail Blazers' starters are younger and more balanced, but the bench is not as good as the Mavericks.

If the weak team wants to go down to the strong team, the substitute must play at a super level and provide key assistance.

As a result, after 10:0, Stotts switched to the second lineup and wanted to improve the offensive situation.

Okay, as a result, Griffin went off the court on the Clippers' side, and Li Liang changed to the position of power forward, and his hand opened at once.

After the timeout, he first wrapped up Lillard with Paul on the defensive end and forced Lillard to make a turnover.

Then he received a pass from Paul on the counterattack and hit a three-point shot at the top of the arc, 13-0.

Only then did the Trail Blazers players know that this is the Western Conference semifinals, and the opponent is the league's first Clippers.

After Li Liang scored the goal, he wiped his hand on his chest and said to Lillard, who passed by: "Enjoy it, there is not much time." ”