Ahead of the Lakers and Rockets results, another matchup in the Western Conference semifinals has been brought forward.

The Spurs eliminated the Clippers with a total score of 4-2 after losing the first game and losing home-court advantage.

The reason for the Clippers' loss was simple, Paul injured his elbow in Game 5, withdrew from the game, and announced that the season was forbidden.

Without Chris Paul, the Clippers have no hope of winning.

Although Austin Rivers put up a desperate resistance in place of Paul, he couldn't stop the Spurs from taking the series at the Staples Center.

And just a day later, the Lakers advanced in Staples, and the fates of the two teams are always staggered like this.

However, for the Thunder and the Warriors, whether it is the Spurs, the Clippers, the Lakers, or the Rockets, they are just a passerby in the playoffs.

Both sides only have each other in their eyes, and they are waiting to meet in the West Finals as soon as possible to decide the ownership of this season's championship.

As for the east?

There is only one knight in the east.

For the Warriors, the Cavaliers are still very much worth paying attention to.

For the Thunder, both Durant and Westbrook will surely want revenge on James.

But for Li Liang, beating James is basically equivalent to winning the championship.

After all, all three championships were won by stepping on James's corpse.

James is indeed the strongest and strongest opponent Li Liang has ever faced.

But when encountering the strongest, Li Liang himself can always become the strongest (open hanging).

The time is suddenly in May, on May 1, the Western Conference semifinals, the first game of the Thunder vs. Lakers will be played in Russian City.

At this time, it was just a day after the Lakers' first-round series ended, and the Thunder had already taken a week off.

The Lakers are a little tired, but the players are in a tight game.

The problem with the Thunder players being physically fit is that they may not be in the game.

The game kicked off at 7 p.m., and the first quarter proved that a long break is not necessarily a good thing for the players.

The Lakers beat the Thunder 7-0 at the beginning of the game, and at 25:20 in the first quarter, they led the Thunder by 5 points.

Li Liang came off the bench in the middle of the first quarter and failed to completely turn the situation around, because his own state was average.

Two three-point shots from the outside missed and there were two passing errors.

And the Lakers are in good shape, and Leonard is in good shape after the first round.

He scored 11 points in the first quarter and shot 100 percent from the field.

One of the important reasons is that Scott no longer let Leonard defend Li Liang, and the main defense of Li Liang has become another person - Kobe.

That's right, Scott also endured and asked Kobe, who was about to retire, to defend against Li Liang, who was one size older than him.

Of course, Kobe Bryant is not a single defense, but the whole team defends Li Liang together, and Leonard is required to play against Roberson in defense - then basically he has no pressure on his single defense.

Then Kobe Bryant played against Li Liang and asked Lefu to defend Durant, and Leonard was asked to help defend Durant or Li Liang.

This trick really worked in the first quarter.

Kobe Bryant can indeed defend a forward line that is one size bigger than himself, such as defending James is Kobe's usual job.

In the case of concentration, his movement and prediction are top-notch.

As long as Li Liang gets the ball, Kobe Bryant will be entangled, and then Leonard and Hibbert will be on standby.

Throughout the first half, Scott's defensive alignment really worked, and the whole team felt good, the Lakers also led the Thunder by 4 points in the first half, and the two sides reached 49:45.

The score is low enough.

At halftime, Donovan knew he had to make adjustments.

The Lakers' defensive style of play is really something, giving full play to Leonard's defensive advantages, and making up for Hibbert's bulkiness to a certain extent. And give Leonard more energy to handle the ball on the offensive end.

The shortcoming of this defense is also obvious, that is, if Li Liang and Durant open unlimited singles and the two are connected, Leonard will be indifferent.

For the Thunder, the top priority is to get Durant and Li Liang back to shooting.

In the first half, both of them had poor shooting, Li Liang shot 1 of 4 three-pointers, and Durant shot 0 of 3.

I rested at home for a week, and I don't know what I was doing every day.

Whether it is Kobe Bryant defending Li Liang or Lefu defending Durant, they are all misplaced.

Li Liang has an advantage in height and strength over Kobe, and Durant has an advantage in speed and flexibility over Lefou.

These two advantages, neither of them used well in the first half, but they played not very smartly.

Donovan harshly criticized the pair in the dressing room, asking them to play more flexibly in the second half.

Li Liang didn't refute anything this time, he knew that Donovan was right, he did play a little rigid in the first half, this is not his style, this is Kobe's style.

Could it be that because he was defending, he was pulled to the same level?

Quite possibly.

After the start of the second half, Li Liang started directly.

This pseudo-substitute is no longer disguised.

The Thunder have no special tactics and routines on offense, to be honest.

When you have both Li Liang and Durant, just give them the ball to deal with.

As for Westbrook, when he exists as a supplement and doesn't let him do the CPU, it's definitely the best.

Before serving, Li Liang and Durant discussed tactics, and after deciding, both nodded and threw themselves into the third quarter of the game.

The routine discussed by the two is also very simple - blocking and dismantling.

There is no team in the league that can deal with Durant Lean's pick-and-roll.

If you want to crack their blocking and pick-and-roll play, you need the joint efforts of the forward group.

Only the Warriors in the league are up to the mark, and the Cavaliers are barely up to the mark.

As soon as the second half came up, Durant held the ball, and Li Liang cut outside after blocking and dismantling.

Love was directly blocked, and Kobe Bryant could not switch to Durant.

The middle was empty, Leonard came over to help defend, and Durant distributed the ball to Robertson in the bottom corner - this is perhaps the Thunder's biggest offensive weakness.

But Robertson still made a decisive shot in front of the huge vacancy and hit a three-point shot!

When Robertson started hitting three-pointers, the Thunder's offense showed a resurgence.

Then on the defensive end, the Thunder started to work up the intensity.

If the Thunder's offense doesn't need to be tuned, then their defense is the work of Donovan and Mike Brown, and it's the foundation of their championship challenge.

The key to the Thunder's defense is Li Liang, Durant and Robertson.

All three are tall forwards, tall and long-armed, with excellent movement ability, assistance defense, single defense, and card position, each with its own merits and no obvious shortcomings.

Adams and Westbrook just need to concentrate on their own business, and the rest of the defensive problems, all three of them can pretty much help out.

Of course, Westbrook was always thinking about helping out with rebounds or something.

In the playoffs, Li Liang did not allow Westbrook to rush to the three-second zone to grab rebounds, allowing him to concentrate on interfering with the opponent's backcourt on the outside.

The Thunder's defense as a whole is a 1-3-1 formation, with Adams sitting under the basket and easily getting out of the hole. Westbrook stayed outside the three-point line and didn't rush to the basket to grab the rebound.

Then Durant, Robertson, and Li Liang walked between the three-second zone and the three-point line, constantly interfering and hitting the ball carrier.

A lot of pinching, delays, steals, and high-intensity physical confrontations are the basis for the Thunder to win 73 wins.

The biggest flaw on the Thunder's defensive end comes from Adams' poor mobility and defensive options after blocking.

If the Thunder's center wasn't Adams, but a more mobile interior lineman, their defense would be even more terrifying.

With such defensive intensity, the Lakers quickly couldn't bear it.

If Kobe Bryant were thirty years old, he would have the ability and intelligence to deal with a defense like the Thunder.

Now he only has wisdom and consciousness, and his body can't keep up at all.

As soon as the intensity came up, Kobe Bryant's main control began to make consecutive mistakes.

The Thunder took the opportunity to launch a 12-2 offensive shockwave that swept the Lakers in one fell swoop.

Li Liang hit two shots in a row from the outside three-pointer, and the fast-break counterattack dunk under the basket also caused Leonard's foul and hit a free throw.

One person scored 9 points in a row.

Then Durant was in the positional battle, and after blocking and dismantling, he pulled up and hit a three-point shot directly.

In the third quarter, the Lakers stopped the Lakers with four three-pointers.

Scott watched the Thunder's rapid attack, and his brain was a little big for a while.

How can I deal with this?