Chapter 571: The Warriors' Third Quarter
Ye Xuan sat on the sidelines and watched Durant's still somewhat incomprehensible back-to-back jumper shot, and couldn't help but want to complain in his heart, you are so strong that you still run to this kind of championship-level team to hug your thighs, if it weren't for me, then you wouldn't be allowed to win a championship? If this precedent is set, then the league will not play in the future, the strong teams will be stronger, the weak teams will be weaker, and no two MVP players on a team will be embarrassed to enter the playoffs.
Spit and complain, Ye Xuan still attaches more importance to Durant on the court, but Durant is still a mortal after all, and he is not like Ye Xuan's systematic help, so in the more than a minute after Ye Xuan came up, there were continuous shooting misses and defensive leaks, so Kerr also waited less than two minutes to replace him.
The rhythm of the Lakers in the second quarter is still very good, although the Warriors' state of Curry has recovered, but firstly, Ye Xuan's combat effectiveness today is really exaggerated, and secondly, because Klay Thompson still has not found the feeling of offense, so the Warriors can still barely maintain the score without being pulled away by the Lakers, and there is no way to effectively chase points.
In the first two minutes after Ye Xuan came up, he didn't attack much, but focused on organization and defense, Curry's sudden return also made Ye Xuan need to consume more energy when defending him, but after the opponent replaced Durant, Ye Xuan came to the end, and directly handed over the responsibility of letting go of Curry to Solomon Hill, and then began to focus on offense.
And Ye Xuan, who was completely liberated, also played a good role as an offensive arrow, as soon as he came up, he used his personal ability to shoot a one-on-one singles step-back three-pointer, and then quickly started after Gasol grabbed the backcourt rebound, and scored two points again with Gasol's long pass, and in an instant, the score difference that had been stalemate for a long time was stretched to 12 points.
However, the Warriors' style of play is still the same, using the rotation and off-ball running after the block to find opportunities to shoot, Curry also shot three points again after hitting the iron again, and Green actually hit a three-point shot in the transition offense in the next offense, this ball should have been Randle to make up for Green, but Randle shrank inward for the first time, and as a result, Green was given an opportunity to shoot in the open position.
Fortunately, the Lakers' offensive efficiency is no worse than that of the Warriors, Ye Xuan immediately used Gasol's blocking and demolition into the restricted area during the offense to cause Klay Thompson's foul, which is already Klay Thompson's third foul in this game, although Clay is a fixed-point shooter and off-ball attacker in the Warriors, but his defense is also very much needed by the Warriors, so Klay Thompson's third foul came so early, which still made the Warriors a little injured.
However, they had no choice but to replace him with Ian Clark, who had more average combat effectiveness, and by the way, David West was also replaced, and Durant was replaced with a few minutes of rest. At the end of the substitution, Ye Xuan hit both free throws, suppressing the opponent's momentum of chasing points, and the shooting rate of both teams decreased in the next few rounds, even Ye Xuan also hit the iron for two consecutive rounds, and on the Warriors' side, Durant was not able to continue the feeling in the first quarter and the first half of the second quarter.
But just when everyone thought the game should be like this in the second quarter, Curry broke out again, first using Clark's block to shoot a step-back three-pointer. Then he hit a chase three-pointer as he switched offense, narrowing the gap to just three points with the final minute of the second quarter.
Fortunately, at this time, the Lakers still had Ye Xuan on the court, and they returned to the position of defending Curry in time, and responded with a throw-off after a breakthrough on the offensive end, barely suppressing the opponent's momentum of chasing points, just when Curry was still ready to continue to try three-point shooting, it was Ye Xuan, using his arm span and bounce, to successfully take Curry's stepback three-point risk, and when he was about to go, he successfully sent a wonderful pass to Solomon Hill, and the difference was stretched back to 7 points.
In the second quarter of the game, there was only one last offensive time left, the Warriors pressed the time to the end, and made a pass with two seconds left, and Iguodala, who received the ball, did not fail in his mission, and steadily shot the two-point shot, the two teams almost played a five-five game in the first half, and the Lakers barely led the opponent by 5 points with Ye Xuan's super play of 38 points in the two quarters.
At halftime, Coach Wharton Jr. first praised the performance of the Lakers generals in the first half, summarized the opponent's state today, and arranged the matters that need to be paid attention to in the second half of the game.
The time of halftime passed in a flash, and the second half of the game officially began, and the Warriors began with a different formation, scum Pachulia did not appear on the court, and David West was replaced. In this way, although the Warriors are not a five-man lineup, they still have similar projection capabilities to the five-small lineup. Although the defensive ability of this lineup has decreased due to David West's slow pace, it can still effectively defend the opponent's offense through constant rotation and quick changes.
The Warriors served in the backcourt, Curry quickly advanced to the front court after getting the ball, and then when Ye Xuan was still directing his teammates and didn't pay attention to Curry's side, two direct consecutive changes of direction shook Ye Xuan away, and Curry, who broke into the inside, did not give the opponent's interior player a chance to be unprepared, and easily threw the ball in one step inside the free throw line.
On the Lakers' side, Ye Xuan still controlled the basketball to the frontcourt, and then handed the ball to Randle at the top of the arc, and after receiving the ball, Randle also wanted to use the change of direction to pass Green in front of him, but Green is also the best defensive player, how can you shake away so easily. In the end, Randle's breakthrough was fruitless, and he could only pass the ball back to Wade, but Wade's offense was not opened today, and the same was true for this round, and the rebound was collected by David West after a two-step break.
After grabbing the rebound, West quickly handed the ball to Green next to him, and although Green's passing skills are not as good as Ye Xuan Paul and others, they are certainly not worse than Gasol, and directly found Klay Thompson who was rushing in the front court with a long pass, Tang Shen dribbled two steps after receiving the ball to dunk, Ye Xuan chased after him, and finally caught up with Klay Thompson when he was about to jump, and the two jumped up at the same time, but just before Ye Xuan could press down the basketball in the opponent's hand, The referee's whistle next to him sounded, and Ye Xuan looked confused when he landed, but after thinking about it, he understood, and he didn't say anything.
Tang Shen walked to the free throw line and steadily hit both free throws. The Lakers served in the backcourt, and after Ye Xuan came to the front court with the ball, he didn't want to find physical contact and make a foul, but used Randle's blocking to directly come to a step-back three-point shot, but this time Ye Xuan's luck was not good, the basketball flew out after a lap in the basket, and Gasol struggled to grab the rebound on the inside, and was sentenced to an inside rebounding foul.
It's only been 1 minute since the opening, and the Lakers have already committed two fouls, and the situation is instantly a little unfavorable for the Lakers, and the worse news is still to come, Klay Thompson doesn't know if he used those two free throws to find his touch, and he immediately used the running position of the bottom line to find an opportunity to shoot in the right bottom corner, Curry's pass was delivered in time, Klay Thompson hit a three-point shot, and the difference between the two teams was completely erased.
After that, the Lakers' offense began to be a little chaotic, Ye Xuan controlled the ball and came to the front court to break through and give the ball to Solomon Hill, Hill shook a shot and continued to break through, after the ball was given to Randle, he hesitated, this hesitation gave the opponent the opportunity to return to the defensive position, Randle had no choice but to pass the ball to the outside again, Wade held the ball and saw that the offensive time had passed for 19 seconds, and he could only force himself, and after breaking through two steps inside, he threw his hand and shot iron.
After Green grabbed the backcourt rebound, he quickly launched a counterattack, although the Lakers' retreat was fast, and did not give the opponent a chance to attack quickly, but this offense still allowed the Warriors to score, Durant directly and decisively singled Solomon Hill after receiving Green's pass, and used his arm span and height advantage to score two points on a step-back jumper, at this time the Warriors finally achieved the first lead of the game after more than two quarters of the game, The audience at the scene also cheered and celebrated, and Wharton Jr. secretly screamed badly, so he could only call a timeout to breathe a sigh of relief, and at the same time replaced Randall with Hibbert.
This is actually the first head-to-head meeting between Hibbert and David West since leaving the Pacers, and it was either when Hibbert played when David West was injured or that time David West played, Hibbert was pressed to the bench. However, the protagonists of this game are not the heroes of the two Pacers championship-winning periods, but Ye Xuan and the Big Four of the Warriors.
After losing two consecutive rounds of offense, Ye Xuan felt that he needed to score a goal to stabilize the morale of the army, so this round he borrowed the block of Hibbert, who was replaced, and forcefully entered the Warriors' restricted area, and faced Durant who came to make up for the defense, and came to make a difficult 360-degree air turn to avoid the opponent, and then folded the layup to hit the ball.
But then the Warriors' offense immediately returned, after Curry controlled the ball to the front court, after passing the ball to Green, he began to run without the ball, and Klay Thompson was not idle, and began to run without the ball, the off-ball running of the two accurate shooters made the Lakers' defensive line completely disrupted, after several changes of defense, the Warriors seized the opportunity to hand over the ball to Durant, and at this time the person responsible for defending Durant was actually Wade, Wade's height defense Durant was naturally very difficult, The opponent easily hit the ball with a back-to-back jumper.
In the next few rounds, the Lakers' offense was barely using Ye Xuan's point to play, but the Warriors were different, Durant and Klay Thompson broke out one after another, consecutive hits and shots, Hibbert's role at this time was a little small, he had no way to pounce out to defend, he could only guard the inside, and this role of guarding the interior line was infinitely reduced under the opponent's accurate projection, so it took less than three minutes to play, the Lakers were beaten out of the timeout again, and Hibbert was replaced again, The Lakers were directly replaced by Speights, and at the same time, Wade was also replaced by Clarkson.
The third quarter of the game was less than 5 minutes old, and the Lakers went from a slight lead to a huge crisis now, first of all, the Lakers only scored 7 points in these five minutes, and the opponent scored as many as 18 points, and the Lakers' timeout was also consumed by the opponent a lot, so if it goes on until the final battle in the fourth quarter, there may be no timeout to use.
And the most embarrassing thing is that the Lakers' two consecutive timeouts were all used to adjust their tactics, which is tantamount to negating their previous tactics, which is also a big blow to the team's morale. Fortunately, their core is Ye Xuan's hanging, after returning from the pause, Ye Xuan immediately took advantage of Speight's cross-running position with himself to get the opportunity to shoot, Gasol's pass was immediately sent, Ye Xuan pulled up a three-point shot, and in the ball, the difference was narrowed to 3 points.
However, the Warriors also seemed to be hanging up, and they also replaced David West with Iguodala during this pause, and Iguodala came up, although Ye Xuan shot a three-pointer in the first round, but when he turned around, he immediately received a pass from a teammate with the ball in the high post near the position where Ye Xuan hit the three-pointer just now, and then hit the shot steadily.