Until the morning of May 18, the Nuggets began recovery training, mainly tactical drills, to target the Trail Blazers.

The focus is on offensive drills, and after McDyce's injury, the Nuggets' positional battle has undoubtedly been weakened, and someone has to take on the scoring load.

There wasn't much training on this day, and the confrontation was not intense, so it was a simple training session.

Apart from

In the afternoon, the Nuggets began to watch the Trail Blazers' game videos, especially the regular season video of the Nuggets and the Trail Blazers' matchup.

When it comes to the playoffs, players must be familiar with the style of their opponents in order to better increase their winning percentage.

Although the coach is important, it is the players who play after all, and many times the plan cannot keep up with the changes, so it is important for the players to understand the general style and tactical changes of the opponent, and even if there is an accident, they can be prepared to deal with it temporarily.

Due to the lack of time to recuperate, D'Antoni disbanded the team by 3pm to allow the players to recharge for the evening's game.

At the same time, he also politely refused interviews with many reporters to prevent them from disturbing the players.

Seven p.m., Moda Center!

Founded in 1970 and joined the NBA, the Trail Blazers went 49-33 in the 1976-77 season, winning their first playoff title under Bill Wharton.

Since then, the Trail Blazers have maintained their status as a strong team in the West, especially in the 1989-90 and 1991-92 seasons, when the Trail Blazers reached the Finals twice, but unfortunately lost both.

From 1990 to the present, the Trail Blazers have entered the playoffs every year and are also one of the strongest teams in the league.

After coming to the away team's locker room, Van Exel's was amazed: "The away team's locker room is so luxurious, or the Trail Blazers are generous, unlike the Jazz and Celtics who can't even turn on the heating!"

"No way, they have a thief and a rich boss!" Fordson pursed his mouth, in fact, he was very envious of the Trail Blazers.

The owner of the Trail Blazers is none other than Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, and is also the world's top richest man.

After Paul Allen moved into the Trail Blazers, the Trail Blazers had to pay the luxury tax every year. For example, this year's salary cap is just 30 million yuan, the luxury tax is 35 million US dollars, and the total salary of Trail Blazers players this year is 54.44 million, which is also the second most salary expenditure team this year.

The first place is the New York Knicks, whose total player salary this year is close to 60 million.

With the support of Paul Allen, the Trail Blazers were able to assemble such a luxurious all-star lineup.

Compared to Paul Allen, the Nuggets are very poor, not even exceeding the salary cap, let alone the luxury tax.

It didn't take long for the Nuggets to get ready to enter, and the Moda Center was instantly filled with boos, which is also the usual practice on the road.

Soon, the Trail Blazers players began to take to the court one by one, and the arena began to fill with cheers from the fans.

After preparing for the pre-game warm-up and other preparatory activities, the Trail Blazers' home game against the Nuggets is about to begin!

Nuggets starters: Ji Liang, Fortson, Williams, Billups and Van Exel.

After McDyce's injury, this naturally became the Nuggets' strongest lineup. But as a result, the replacement lineup is bound to be weakened.

Trail Blazers starters: , Sabonis, Raheem Wallace, Brian Grant, Isiah Ryder and Damon Stoudeyer.

The Trail Blazers have a strong lineup, and they are among the top players in the league in terms of forward and guard line.

In addition, the height difference between the two sides is very large, and the Trail Blazers surpass the Nuggets in all the positions except for the 'flying squirrel'.

Sabonis 221 cm, Raheem Wallace 211 cm, Grant 206 cm, Ryder 196 cm.

The difference in height makes the Nuggets very disadvantaged.

Under the organization of the referee, he began to enter the jump ball link, looking at Sabonis in front of him, Chi Liang felt a lot of pressure.

Among the foreign players in the NBA, Sabonis is undoubtedly one of the standouts.

This is one of the best centers in the world in the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, and even if he only joined the NBA at the age of 31, he is still a real top center.

After the two sides were ready, the referee threw the basketball vertically into the sky, and when the basketball began to fall, the two jumped up one after another.

Sabonis didn't bounce as well as Ji Liang, but with the advantage of height and reach, he took the lead and pulled the ball to Stadamire.

After half-time with the ball, Stadamyre tried to break through, and he was quick and extremely flexible.

Typically, Stoudmeire is similar to Van Exel, both are short players and both are known for their speed.

In terms of speed, Van Exel was not as fast as Stadameyer, but not much inferior, and for a while Stoudammire was difficult to get rid of, so he had to pass the ball to Wallace.

Compared to Studamayre, Wallace was much easier, no way, Fortson was too short, Wallace lifted the basketball lightly, and flew Fortson.

Before Fortson could hit the ground, Wallace stepped forward and scored two points with a one-handed smash.

Roar~

After scoring a slam dunk, Wallace pulled his jersey and let out his trademark roar.

"Rahim, defend back!"

At this moment, Sabonis's voice rang out, and it turned out that the Nuggets served quickly and wanted to launch a fast break.

Compared to the Trail Blazers, the Nuggets are indeed a lot worse in height, but their speed and agility are more dominant.

After a quick serve, Van Exel and Billups flew on both wings, and Ji Liang's pass quickly crossed the half court and was picked up by Van Exel.

It's just that the Trail Blazers were obviously on guard, and Stoudamire and Ryder returned to defense quickly, and with their interference, the Nuggets' offense ended in iron.

Ryder grabbed the defensive rebound and handed it to Stoudeyer, and the Trail Blazers continued to press the tempo to attack.

This time, Sabonis caught the basketball with his back to him, and the rest of the Trail Blazers scattered to give him room to play alone.

Boom~

The first impact, Chi Liang's chest was stuffy, and he only felt a strong surge, and he didn't retreat with all his might.

Sabonis was a little surprised by Ji Liang's strength, he weighed a full 132 kilograms, and Ji Liang was not a heavyweight at all.

The next moment, Sabonis began to unleash all his strength.

Boom~

The second impact, Chi Liang couldn't bear it anymore and couldn't help but take a step back.

It was also at this time that Sabonis completed the turn, pressing Ji Liang with his left hand, and with a slight hook of his right hand, he easily hooked the ball into the basket.

For this ball, Chi Liang said that he was very weak, his height, weight, arm span and strength were all at a disadvantage, and it was extremely difficult to limit Sabonis.

The Nuggets also wanted to serve quickly, but were interfered with by Ryder, blocking the Nuggets' strategy of wanting to play a fast break, forcing the Nuggets to fall into a positional battle.