For the YY of this part of the Lakers fans, Richard is a little speechless, and it can be seen that they still don't want to tear off the fig leaf of the Lakers' weakness......

Looking at the lineup, the Lakers' lineup is really speechless, if all positions are at their peak, it is definitely a super galaxy battleship.

But the flowers will lose and they will get old, and none of the Lakers' current starting five-man lineup is still at its peak, and there are varying degrees of decline compared to the peak.

Lakers fans are used to the strength of the Lakers, so at the moment they are still holding a fluke mentality, thinking that the Lakers have a chance to break out of the first round of the playoffs.

Richard is too lazy to bother with these fans, and it won't be long before the facts prove that the Lakers will definitely not be the opponent of the Clippers.

……

The real headache for Richard right now is the Spurs.

The Spurs suddenly and strangely slipped to fourth place in the West at the end of the regular season, and Richard wouldn't believe it if there was no reason for this.

The biggest possibility is that Popovich felt that the Clippers were more difficult to deal with than the Trail Blazers, so he voluntarily gave up the third place in the West, so that they would not meet the Clippers in the first round or the second round.

The only chance for the two teams to meet is in the Western Conference Finals.

……

This is naturally good news for Richard, at least he doesn't have to deal with an old coach like Popovich in the Western Conference semifinals.

However, according to Richard's estimate, if the Clippers want to achieve decent results this year, they will definitely have to play the Spurs in the end.

Don't look at the Trail Blazers' regular season record is stronger than the Spurs, but Richard feels that the Trail Blazers may not be a match for the Spurs.

……

On April 17, the first round of the playoffs officially began.

The Clippers didn't play on the first day, with the Spurs vs. Warriors and the Trail Blazers vs. Rockets on the first day of the West.

The Warriors' record is not particularly different from the Spurs, but as soon as the game starts, the gap between the two sides is immediately reflected.

Not long after the start of the fourth quarter, the Warriors collapsed across the board, and Mark Jackson had a hand in coaching newcomers, but he was a little bit off the hook in terms of on-the-spot coaching.

In the face of this collapsed situation, Mark Jackson is also powerless, and can only continue to fight the main force and have a chance to survive.

In the end, the Spurs defeated the Warriors with a score of 113-92 at home and won the first win of the playoffs.

The performance of the three newcomers of the Spurs in this game can be called inexplicable, Jimmy Butler is not very outstanding on the offensive end, but the defensive end is definitely DPOY level.

Middleton and Kemba Walker both played on the bench, but they both played more than 20 minutes, playing quite good offensive efficiency, even better than the performance of the old demon knife and the old Parker.

……

Another set of Western Conference playoff matchups, the result made fans a little dumbfounded, the eighth in the West Rockets actually beat the Trail Blazers in an upset.

James Harden, the current big man of the Rockets, was bought by the Buccaneers before.

Jordan thought that there was really no salary to renew the rookie on the bench, so he simply sold Harden to the Rockets.

Sold by Jordan, Harden is naturally quite unhappy, and when he participates in the Rockets' press conference, Dialect himself will become the cornerstone player of the Rockets and will lead the Rockets to rise......

This was directly regarded as a joke by many fans, and even the fans of the Rockets themselves felt a little funny.

A bench player from another team who just joined the Rockets and wants to be the cornerstone? That's a bit too much.

But this season's performance of Harden directly shut up these people who laughed at him, averaging 25.3 points per game, which seems to be the level of the league's first-line scorers.

In this game against the Trail Blazers, the reason why they were able to win narrowly in the end was because of Harden's explosive play.

In addition to scoring an astonishing 34 points in this game, Harden also made three fouls by the Trail Blazers inside, which directly led to Oden's six fouls just over halfway through the fourth quarter.

It is precisely because of Oden's stance that the Rockets have more opportunities to impact the basket.

At the moment, the head coach of the Rockets is McHale, not the later D'Antoni, and this Rockets team is not as crazy obsessed with shooting threes as it was later.

The Trail Blazers lost in an upset, not to mention the fans, and even Richard didn't expect it......

However, this loss is actually a good thing for the Trail Blazers, at least it can make them cheer up and value every opponent.

Judging from the overall strength of both sides, the rocket will definitely be eliminated in the end, after all, the black eight thing is not so easy to appear.

……

On the second day of the playoffs, it was finally the turn of the Clippers and Lakers to match, and countless Los Angeles fans were looking forward to it.

But the game was just played for less than three minutes, and Kobe Bryant twisted his ankle directly during a breakaway, and then was helped back to the locker room by his teammates.

This situation is obviously not expected by anyone, this round of the series has just begun, and the Lakers big boss is injured?!

In fact, Kobe Bryant didn't even play for these three minutes under normal circumstances, and he tore his Achilles tendon in the penultimate game of the season, and he didn't play in this year's playoffs at all......

It was precisely because of Kobe's absence that the Lakers were swept out of the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs.

Howard faced Duncan Sr. in this series, and he really didn't get the slightest bargain, mainly because he was targeted by Popovich.

Howard averaged nine free throws per game, but he was only able to hit four......

If it weren't for Howard's terrible free throws and Kobe's absence, the Spurs probably wouldn't have swept the Lakers so easily.

……

Now that Kobe Bryant is injured, Richard feels weird in his heart.

Although he is very sure of taking out the Lakers, he is certainly not as sure as he is now.

Richard was 70% sure of killing the Lakers before, and now with Kobe's absence, Richard is 100% sure.

……

Many Lakers fans on the sidelines sighed, although this is the home court of the Clippers, but there are also a lot of Lakers fans on the scene, no less than Clippers fans.

Kobe Bryant is injured, and this game is basically out of suspense.

……

When Kobe Bryant was on the court, he attracted a lot of defense on the Clippers' side because of his huge containment.

And Kobe Bryant was not there, Brother Bread took Blake, the three-pointer on the bench, to replace Kobe's position, Blake naturally does not have the same containment as Kobe, and Thompson can arrange it clearly.

When Kobe Bryant was off the court, the two sides played back and forth, and then, the balance of victory was clearly tilted in favor of the Clippers.

This is not the most deadly, and when the number of fouls on the Clippers' side runs out, Richard directly sacrifices a long-lost shark slashing tactic to Howard.

In fact, two years before O'Neal retired, as O'Neal's free-throw shooting percentage skyrocketed, the shark slashing tactic was no longer used.

This year, Richard suddenly used it, which directly made Howard cry bitterly, and he made six free throws in the first quarter and only hit two.

Mike Brown's original swarthy face turned out to be a little pale......

He knew that this series was over, and in the face of the devilish Richard, in the absence of Kobe, it was really difficult for them to have a chance to compete with the Clippers.

Not only is this series over, but Brother Bread feels like his coaching career with the Lakers is also over.

……

"Doot toot!" The referee blew the whistle for the end of the match.

Howard made 15 free throws in this game, but only hit five of them, which made many Lakers fans at the scene feel the urge to scold.

Can free throws be so bad? 33.3% free throw percentage? It's just terrible.

The significance of the shark-slashing tactic is not only to send players like Howard to the free throw line, but more importantly, to reduce Howard's chances of touching the ball.

Even Richard has to admit that Howard's destructive power under the basket is really amazing, especially after grabbing the rebound, playing a second offense, which is quite threatening.

Now because of the shark slashing tactics, Howard is tied up on the court, and naturally he can't play his best.

With a final score of 103:89, the Clippers won by 14 points.

Judging by the scores of the two sides, the pace of this game is really a bit slow.

There's no way, the Lakers' twin-tower system, even if you want to, can't be fast.

……

The day after the Clippers won over the Lakers, the Spurs and Trail Blazers won one after another.

The Nuggets also defeated the Thunder in the first game and won the game.

……

Kobe's injury was also reported, and many fans originally felt that it looked like it was just a sprain and there should be no big problem.

But the results of the examination were shocking, Kobe Bryant torn Achilles tendon, not only can he not play in this series, but whether he can play next season is a matter of two words.

It may happen to some young players, and it won't be a big problem, but in the case of the old man Kobe, there is a direct injury such as a torn Achilles tendon that completely makes a player's career fall.

What it means to have a torn Achilles tendon, it goes without saying that fans are well aware that Kobe's career is about to come to an end.

……

Richard led the Clippers and did not give the Lakers any chance to fight back, and swept the Lakers with a score of 4:0 at Staples Arena to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.

And the Nuggets are also a big score of 3:1 at the moment, and they are close to qualifying.

The Thunder is still too tender, although the combination of Wei Shao and Lefu is good, but it is still not enough in front of the old and spicy George Carr, the series has played four games, and Wei Shao has averaged an astonishing 5.5 turnovers per game......

It's amazing, but it's not amazing, at least Richard isn't surprised at all, after all, Wei Shao has the feat of averaging 6 turnovers per game in the playoff series in the future.

Another three days passed, and the Nuggets finally won the Thunder on their home court, eliminated the Thunder with a score of 4:1, and advanced to the Western Conference semifinals.

The Spurs have already swept the Warriors, and the Trail Blazers also defeated the Rockets with a score of 4:1.

Since then, all four teams have appeared in the Western Conference semifinals.

The current situation is actually quite favorable for the Clippers.

The three teams of the Trail Blazers, Spurs and Nuggets, a fool knows that they must be the weakest chickens of the Nuggets, and now the Clippers can meet this weakest opponent, which is naturally a good thing.

Speaking of which, Popovich wouldn't be unaware of this, but because of the fact that they had tempered their newcomers, the gap between their regular season record and the Clippers and the Trail Blazers was a bit big, and there was little hope of catching up with these two teams, so Popovich retreated and chose a Trail Blazer who seemed easier to deal with in his opinion.

Richard had too many means, and Popovich certainly didn't want to run into Richard too soon......