In the playoffs, Li Liang is becoming more and more arrogant.

But in front of Lillard, Li Liang just wants to be arrogant.

The two were rookies in the same year, and last year's competition for the best rookie was not without fierceness.

And Lillard is also a very flamboyant person, every time he plays against the Trail Blazers, Lillard and Li Liang have to fight.

Of course, the Trail Blazers have lost more than 20 games, and Li Liang has lost more than 20 games in the past two years.

In fact, the two have a lot in common, such as being a senior rookie, and they are relatively mediocre in terms of external conditions.

The bounce, speed, and power didn't make people shine in any way, and Lillard was a little worse, and his height was not good.

But when they really get to the playing field, they can only see their advantages in the process of the game.

Accurate jump shots under high confrontation, excellent game feeling, superb basketball IQ, and excellent scoring explosiveness.

Scoring explosiveness shows that a player has superior talent on the offensive end and will explode in special situations.

In his rookie season, Lillard's three-point shooting was second only to Li Liang and ranked second among rookies.

As an underrated rookie, Lillard has a strong fighting spirit, but at first he aimed at Anthony Davis, but now the target has changed, it is Li Liang, the person he needs to chase hard.

After hearing Li Liang's words, Lillard immediately returned the favor on the offensive end.

He and Aldridge completed a pick-and-roll combination, and then hit a mid-range jumper at the top of the arc to finally break the Trail Blazers' scoring drought.

At this point, six minutes into the first quarter, the Trail Blazers scored their first goal.

Subsequently, Paul and Jordan Jr. blocked and missed mid-range jumpers.

The Trail Blazers' defensive strategy in the opening game was to bet on the Clippers' poor outside hand.

When they were defending against Paul's blocking, they adopted the strategy of adduction, and the big player blocked Paul from retracting inside, not giving Paul the opportunity to pass inside and let Paul shoot.

Batum stared at Li Liang even more, not giving him a little space.

In fact, the Trail Blazers bet was not wrong, the shooting touch of the Clippers in the opening game was really average, otherwise they would not have scored only 13 points in six minutes.

It's just that the Trailblazers themselves feel worse.

After Paul hit two mid-range shots, the shot missed from mid-range.

It's also a minor issue with Paul's shooting, and his scoring isn't explosive.

In terms of shooting percentage, Paul's mid-range shooting percentage is very high, higher than that of Kevin Durant.

But judging from the course of the game, it will be found that Paul's mid-range shooting is more scattered.

On the one hand, it has to do with his shot selection, his offense and playmaking are always interspersed.

On the other hand, Paul is not as good as the real scorers in terms of ability to score in a row, or in determination.

He rarely had that feeling of coming, scoring four or five goals in a row and crippling the opponent.

Stotts just saw this, and would rather let Paul shoot a few more points than let Paul attack and organize interspersed to drive the whole team.

This is also a more traditional way of thinking about dealing with a core point guard team like the Clippers.

It's just that the Clippers not only have Paul, but also Li Liang, and Li Liang is the real core of the Clippers now.

It's not that Stotts doesn't know this, he doesn't know how to target Li Liang, and the first game is still based on one defense and one marking.

Then Li Liang used his performance to tell Stotts that one-on-one marking was no longer useful to him.

The Trail Blazers gave the ball to Ade to play a single, and it was Jordan Jr. who defended Ade, and Li Liang went to keep an eye on Lopez.

Ade's one-handed hook didn't hit after turning to the middle, and Li Liang stuck Lopez to grab the rebound in the backcourt.

Then Li Liang dribbled the ball across the half court, and Batum naturally followed closely to defend, which was Jordan Jr. who came up at the right time to make a cover.

Li Liang first handed the ball to Little Jordan, and then ran empty-handed, and Little Jordan returned the ball to Li Liang at the top of the arc.

Li Liang took the ball at the top of the arc, shot one step away from the three-point line, and hit a three-point shot!

opened, Li Liang's three-point feel opened.

Stotts didn't feel good and immediately called another timeout.

It's only been two minutes since the last pause.

Stotts is not just worried about Li Liang's three-point shot, he takes a more long-term view.

He knew that as soon as Li Liang's three-point shot opened, the Clippers' offense was likely to blossom in full bloom.

After Griffin went off the court, it was Crawford who came off the bench, and the Clippers played one big and four small.

The space on the court is particularly open, and the offense is wide open and close.

And Li Liang's three-point shot is a key to the Clippers' rapid offense.

As soon as the door opens, the tide of attack will rush in.

So Stotts's timeout was timely, when the difference was not too big and it was not yet irretrievable.

At the end of this short timeout, Lillard held the ball and went inside, causing a foul on Jordan Jr. and going to the free throw line.

A clever move, the Trail Blazers now need to score and the pace of the game needs to slow down.

Subsequently, the Trail Blazers adopted a defensive strategy of putting Paul, and Paul broke through the middle and missed the shot.

Robinson got the backcourt rebound, the Trail Blazers pushed back and Matthews made a foul under the basket.

This Trailblazer and Rockets played a series, okay, you don't learn, you learned a lot of free throws?

Sure enough, those who are close to Zhu are red and those who are close to ink are black, and those who are close to Rockets will make free throws.

Matthews hit one of two free throws, the Clippers immediately pushed the counterattack, Paul hit the basket directly, and gave the ball to Li Liang, who followed up, and Li Liang then passed the ball to Crawford on the wing, but Crawford missed the three-point shot.

The Clippers can't score all the time, either.

On the Trail Blazers' side, relying on two free throws and two relatively successful defenses, the situation was stabilized.

Although the score is still a lot behind, at least it will not be collapsed in the first quarter.

At the end of the first quarter, the two sides were tied at 29-19, and the Clippers led the Trail Blazers by 10 points.

In fact, the Trailblazers are still very capable of playing the wind ball, and they almost started the game against the Rockets in the first round, and stayed up all the way to the fourth quarter, and finally they were able to turn the tables.

This is also the offensive characteristic of Stotts's tuning, the so-called Flow, which uses the time of the first few quarters to run in, and when it is smooth in the last quarter, it is difficult for the opponent to block.

In 2011, the Mavericks' offense was his tuning, and the most impressive thing about the Mavericks that year was the final moment of the Jedi counterattack, they scored in the last few minutes of the offense in more than one game to complete a big comeback, which is due to Stotts, the offensive coach.

So falling behind by 10 points in the first quarter seems nothing to the Trail Blazers, who are confident that the outcome will not be known until the final quarter.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Mo Williams, who came off the bench for the Trail Blazers, hit a pull-up jumper.

The difference was chased to within 10 points.

Griffin then made another step violation in the attack.

The Trail Blazers relied on Robin Lopez's frontcourt rebounds to score two points, and the score gap narrowed further.

But the joy of the Trail Blazers players did not last more than 10 seconds, Odom passed the ball quickly and pushed the counterattack, and the ball was distributed to Crawford in the bottom corner, a big vacancy, Crawford hit a three-point shot!

The second team of the Clippers still adheres to the word "fast", and every player can push and counterattack by himself when he gets the ball, and even organize the offense.

Odom, Livingston, Crawford, Griffin.

To put it mildly, the so-called style of play with Li Liang as the core is actually a style of play with everyone as the core.

Because Li Liang's own organization is like that, but Li Liang's ferocious three-point firepower will make every player's organization easier, and the space will be opened.

Now even if Li Liang is not on the court, the first reaction of every player on the field after getting the ball is not to hand over the ball, but to find a way to advance, and then look for offensive opportunities to pass the ball, or attack by himself.

Such a Clipper attacking by the whole people is the most terrible Clipper.

Subsequently, the Trail Blazers scored one more point from the free throw from Dorrell Wright.

But immediately Odom received the ball in the low post and made a layup on a back-to-back pass to a hollow-cut Livingston.

After a season of hard workout, Odom has been training with Li Haohao every day, and his condition has recovered greatly.

He quit drugs, quit Kardashian, and wanted to play well in Los Angeles.

Although he is no longer at his peak and is no longer the left-handed magician, his current form is enough to shine in the playoffs.

Then, the Trail Blazers were fighting, and the court started to get a little messy.

Mo Williams chose a pick-and-roll again and shot straight from mid-range, but missed.

The Trail Blazers started to play more and more easily, without much tactical movement, and shot when the opportunity came out.

This would have been the essence of Flow's tactics, and it worked quite well against the Rockets in the first round.

Because the Rockets are just like that for the team's defense, and more importantly, they fight offensively, the Rockets can't actually fight the Trail Blazers, and their outside shooting is not so good.

The Clippers are different, you fight with the Clippers to attack, and that is to find death.

Especially for fast-paced offense, once the Clipper gets up, it will be a full-speed aircraft carrier, and you don't need to send out the plane, and you will be killed if you collide.

The Trail Blazers, who were still a little closer to the score at the beginning of the second quarter, quickly turned sharply.

The Clippers came off the bench to play a 12-3 offensive wave from the Trail Blazers to stretch the margin to more than 15 points.

Stotts could only call another timeout, feeling that this timeout was not enough.

The Clippers haven't called a timeout until now, Rivers, you can help you, but you can also call one.

I'm sorry, Rivers is still better than Mike Brown in this point, leading it, what is it called a timeout.