Chapter 555: Easy Lakers vs. Tough Others
This game between the Cavaliers and the Pacers has also created a lot of data that makes it difficult to break through other games, such as Lao Zhan's playing time, which is as high as 54 minutes, which is simply exhausting, so Lao Zhan has also repeatedly eaten some tangerines and other things on the sidelines to replenish energy, of course, this situation also appeared in Irving and Pickled Pepper at the same time, they also played a full 51-52 minutes today, you must know that even in the regular season, There are very few people who can play a full 48 minutes in a game, and the last time he played a full 48 minutes was back in 2013 with the Bulls, when Tom Thibodeau, who is good at playing the main team, let Jimmy Butler play the whole game against the Spurs for the team's record, and after the game, Jimmy Butler revealed that his leg actually had muscle spasms in the fourth quarter, but in the end he just used the timeout to spray some medicine and persisted.
In this game, Lao Zhan and others also had varying degrees of cramps after holding on to the second overtime, but fortunately, one thing is that they did not play the regular time directly in one breath, and they still got a lot of rest time halfway, so they were able to persevere in this super long marathon battle. Of course, there are some terrible records, the two teams combined for 261 points in the playoffs, which should be unprecedented, and of course, Lao Zhan's super triple-double of 50 points, 16 rebounds and 13 assists in the playoffs is also unique in the history of the playoffs.
In addition to Lao Zhan, Pickled Pepper also scored 51 points and 14 rebounds in this game, so this is also the first time in the history of the playoffs that two players scored 50 points in the same game, in fact, two people from both teams were sent off in this game, as many as 6 people were fouled 5 times, if there is another overtime, it is estimated that no one from both teams can appear on the court.
However, for the league, this game is indeed a very good publicity point, many fans in the United States feel that basketball is not as exciting as football, and this game can change that view a little. So the news that the Lakers had taken a 2-0 lead the next day was basically not found on the news, and almost the entire page was devoted to promoting this great battle between the Pacers and the Cavaliers.
When the focus of the whole people has shifted to the East, the focus of the battle on the West side is also quietly going on, the second game between the Pelicans and the Warriors is much worse than the anxiety of the previous game, this game The two teams have not had an alternate lead in points since then except for the opening of the game, the Warriors have completely burst out of their full strength in this game, and they also have a certain advantage in the home game, so from the first minute of the game, they have been leading their opponents until the end of the game, They still lead their opponents by 12 points, and after winning this game on their home turf, the Warriors finally breathed a sigh of relief, after all, they were defeated by their opponents in Game 1, so because of the situation of falling behind, if this game is anything else, then this series will be very difficult.
The Pelicans lost the second game, and the Raptors won again in the Celtics game, still a small point difference, still a difficult confrontation, the two teams once again played to the last minute, but this time the Raptors are no longer DeRozan, but another core of their backcourt - Lowry, Kyle Lowry only scored a total of 21 points in this game, but in the last minute and a half, he scored 7 points alone, successfully completed his personal redemption, Helped the Raptors win again against the Celtics on the road. In fact, the main reason for the Celtics' loss in this game was Thomas Jr.'s hip injury, which caused him to be injured, so that the Celtics instantly lost their main outside firepower, and their finishing ability at critical moments also dropped by a level.
The third game of the second round soon began, the Lakers visited San Antonio, after the difficulty of the last game, the mentality of the Lakers generals has undergone some changes, at least the attitude towards the opponent has become a lot more serious, so although the Lakers still did not play very easy in this game, but it can't be described as difficult, scoring 63 points at halftime, and letting the opponent only score 49 points, this is the Lakers' performance in the first half, and in the second half, I don't know if it's because Jefferson was injured or what's going on, the Spurs directly replaced the main inside, and as a result, the interior line also began to be broken by the Lakers, and the Lakers finally took three and a half quarters to finish the opponent, and the last six minutes of the game became garbage time, and the Lakers also managed to get the match point.
From the perspective of the situation, after the Spurs lost the first game at home, it is estimated that most of their morale was suddenly lost, and no team in history has ever succeeded in turning the tables in the case of 0:3, which made their self-confidence deeply hit, in fact, in the second game, the Lakers team led by Ye Xuan completed the turnaround when they were ahead of most of the half, and the hearts of Ade and others did not report too much confidence in winning, and the stability shown by the Lakers team also surprised them very much. Especially Ye Xuan, even if the core players of other teams can play more than 37 minutes per game, they will always have some games with a bad hand, and then they are forced to start choosing to pass after repeatedly missing shots, but Ye Xuan doesn't seem to be like this, he never worries about his own feel, so he can always help his teammates find the feeling of offense in every game, and then use his personal ability to constantly make trouble for the opponent's defense. And you can also stand up and complete key shots at critical moments, this kind of opponent is too difficult to deal with.
And the fourth game, for the Lakers is unexpectedly easy, the last game was replaced Jefferson was not replaced because of tactical relations, but because of a muscle strain, although this injury only needs three to five days of rest to heal, but this also made him miss the fourth game with the Lakers, without Jefferson, this game is simply not too happy for Gasol, Gasol with 19 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in the half, this game was completely liberated, David Lee's defense is nothing but a void for Gasol, Gasol often turns his back to clean David Lee, and Ade doesn't switch guards with David Lee or anything, because he is also struggling to deal with the Lakers' various breakaways and Randle's catch-and-shoot from time to time.
So the Lakers finally defeated the Spurs in San Antonio very easily, so as to eliminate the opponent with a score of 4:0 cleanly, this elimination has a lot of impact on the Spurs, this feeling of being defeated by the opponent I believe they will not feel good, especially Ade, for Aldridge, he left the Trail Blazers to come to the Spurs, just to be able to become a strong contender for the championship, but now it seems, The team still hasn't been able to make any real progress.
Unlike the Lakers, who easily eliminated the Spurs, the other three sets of games turned into difficult battles, in which the Raptors had already won two straight games on the road, forcing the Celtics into a desperate situation, but just like the Celtics did in the first round, after losing two home courts, they began to fight back, first in the third game Horford alone 37 points and 12 rebounds, and Valanciunas was directly knocked down, thus directly breaking the Raptors' interior defenseIn the fourth game, the Celtics became more and more proficient, and the play of Crowder and Avery Bradley also overwhelmed the Raptors, so on their home court, the Raptors lost the game again, and this game seemed to have brought the garbage brothers back to their original shape, in this game, the two combined 42 shots, but only 39 points were scored, and the two were not strong in other data, The combined 11 rebounds and nine assists weren't enough for them to beat the multi-point Celtics, so the Raptors, who were showing off on someone else's home court, became a home bug after returning to their home court, losing two consecutive home courts, and they also lost their hard-won advantage.
As for the remaining two sets of games, it is even more difficult, the Cavaliers and the Pacers, in the first two games of a total of four overtime games, the third game was almost dragged into overtime again, the scores of the two teams staggered, in this game, the two teams alternated the lead as many as 23 times, Pickled pepper in this game is obviously also doing his best, after all, since he entered the league shortly, he has been being compared with James, After that, he was eliminated by James's team several times in the playoffs, and it wasn't until Ye Xuan's arrival that he successfully eliminated Lao Zhan, and now that Ye Xuan is gone, he needs to prove himself again and prove that he can beat Lao Zhan.
So the performance of the pickled peppers in this game is as good as ever, but unfortunately this time the Cavaliers' performance is also not bad, and this time it is not only James and Irving who stood up, the most critical point is that their third big man Love has a wonderful three-point shot today, and he basically hit many test shots on the outside, and hitting 5 fatal three-pointers in the half also made the Pacers miserable, coupled with the sudden awakening of TT today, the Pacers lost a lot of backcourt rebounds on their home court, This made their defense even more difficult.
The Pacers are a little embarrassed, although they rely on the super play of pickled peppers and have been biting the score, but the iron man also has times when he is tired, plus he has consumed a lot of physical strength in the last game, so this made him also affected by physical fitness in the final stage of this game, playing 38 minutes and scoring 47 points, which is all that pickled peppers can do at this intensity in this game, and the Pacers finally did not score a point for various reasons in the last minute or so, In the end, he was only able to give the Cavaliers a valuable victory on his home court.
However, just when the Cavaliers began to celebrate their success in regaining their home-court advantage, the Pacers gave them a heavy blow in the fourth game, Lefou's crosshairs were no longer as accurate as the third game, and Pickled Pepper was still so desperate, and the Pacers' performance improved compared to the previous game, Hood's 16 points were very critical for the Pacers. In the fourth game, the Pacers finally won their first home game of this series 105-99, which not only successfully rewrote the big score to 2:2, but also made the Cavaliers feel the pressure.
On the Western side, the Lakers have defeated their divisional semifinals opponent after four games, but the game between the Pelicans and the Warriors is not so simple, the two teams moved to New Orleans after the first two games were tied 1-1, and what the Warriors didn't expect at all was that the Pelicans played very well in the third game, including Anthony, who struggled in the second game, and the Big Four took turns firing, which directly made the Warriors panic, plus Curry is still a little lost in this game, although Durant carried the banner of offense, but Klay Thompson's inaccuracy at this point made the Warriors lose the opportunity to turn the tables on the opponent's home court, the third game of the semifinals, and finally ended with the Pelicans winning on their own home court, 114:102, which is also the largest score gap among all the games in their group of matchups.
The fourth game after that, in fact, is somewhat similar to the third game, the Pelicans Big Four are still hot, not only Holiday and Anthony have three points, even Brother Thick Mei and Kaoshen have hit more than one three-pointer, but unlike the previous game, this game they were not able to contain the Warriors' traditional double guns, although Durant's offensive efficiency plummeted in tactics such as packing, but the Splash Brothers broke out collectively in this game, and the two teamed up to score 13 three-pointers, which directly stunned the Pelicans, defeated the Pelicans 104-98 at the opponent's home court, and successfully rewrote the score to a 2-2 draw.