Chapter 548: Playoffs Round 1 Briefing
The first round of the game continued, and the Lakers still won the opponent very easily in the second game, but after coming to Memphis, the Grizzlies used their home court advantage to start causing trouble for the Lakers, and soon after the start of the third playoffs, the Grizzlies used the inside line to open up the situation on their home court, Gasol Jr. and Randolph, who did not play very well in the last two games, suddenly broke out in this game, and Randolph contributed 14 points in a single quarter in the second half of the second quarter, One of the five consecutive shots also made the Lakers fall behind by more than ten points in an instant.
But just when the main players of the Grizzlies were ready to win the game in one go on their home court, Ye Xuan stood up and gave them a slap in the face, first breaking through into the interior to make Randolph's foul, and then chasing three points after a steal, blowing the horn of the Lakers' counterattack, the Grizzlies did not have Tony Allen to contain Ye Xuan's play, which made the Grizzlies' overall defense also affected to a certain extent, of course, Ye Xuan's performance has just begun here, After that, two consecutive three-pointers closed the gap to 5 points, and then after Conley used the pick-and-roll to break into the interior line, he came out from the side, and a big hat directly stunned the opponent.
After the third quarter of the game, the Lakers lost more than ten points in the first two quarters of the game, but the Lakers basically wiped out the difference in this quarter, and after the last quarter, it was Ye Xuan who used his pass to tear apart the opponent's defense, and three consecutive assists helped the Lakers score 8 points, and one of them had an assist that made Wade play a 2+1 on the inside, this time 2+1 not only successfully helped the Lakers overtake the score, but also made Randolph carry the fifth foul of the game, This made the Grizzlies unable to continue to use him for the next few minutes, and after replacing Randolph, the Lakers' interior pressure instantly decreased a lot, and Gasol also took advantage of this opportunity to have a good two minutes, a three-point shot and a mid-range shot, helping the Lakers to pull the difference apart.
Very similar to the first quarter of the first game, the Grizzlies had a crash in the fourth quarter of this game, losing to the Lakers by 12 points at 19:31 in a single quarter, and the final score was also lost at 112:105, at which time the Lakers had won three consecutive cities in the playoffs, rewriting the score to 3:0.
The Lakers' side has basically confirmed the promotion, and the teams that have won the same 3:0 as the Lakers are the Pelicans, Pacers and Cavaliers, all three of which have won the first three games and won the first round of the playoffs. The other rounds were a bit bumpy.
After the Warriors won two consecutive games on their home court, they came to Oklahoma for the third game, and as a result, they felt collectively inaccurate in this game, not only Curry and Thompson lost their crosshairs, but even Durant, who had been with the Thunder for 9 seasons, was actually unfamiliar with the basket on this field, of course, this has something to do with the endless boos on the spot, although the Thunder fans also booed Durant during the regular season, but they obviously did not boo so much during the regular season, This time, as long as Durant touches the ball, whether it is ball control, ball holding, or simply grabbing a rebound, it will attract a wave of boos, and the Warriors are obviously a little out of the way in the face of this special pressure.
Of course, the main reason for their final loss is that today's Wei Shao is indeed very accurate, after the whole game, Wei Shao shot 17 of 29, and the shooting rate did not look very high, but he made 7 three-pointers in this game, and then there were 11 free throws, 9 of which were hit, and he scored a total of 50 terrifying data, although this is still some distance from the highest score in the playoffs, but this is already the highest score in the playoffs, and he played 44 minutes in this game, In addition to scoring 50 points, there were 11 rebounds and 4 assists, which can be regarded as a change of direction to forcibly extend this Qiong Yao drama by another game.
And the Rockets also lost two games in a row on their home court, and forced a city back in San Antonio, Harden's game is exactly the same as Wei Shao's game, the same 29 shots hit 17 shots, but Harden's three-point shot did not shoot so much, and in the end he relied on 14 free throws to get 51 points, the most terrifying thing is that this game and the Thunder's game are the same day, think about it, If the Thunder hadn't given up Harden because of the two million a year, how terrifying would the current Thunder team be.
The same as the bottoming out team on the Western side, the Celtics ushered in good news, after being stupid by the Bulls in the first two games, in the third game, the Bulls' core point guard Rondo announced a broken thumb and announced the reimbursement of the season, which made the Bulls lose 80% of their combat effectiveness in an instant, although the Celtics also had a lot of bad news, such as Thomas Jr.'s sister died, such as Thomas Jr.'s butt injury again. However, Thomas Jr.'s fighting spirit is still worthy of praise, and while suffering the loss of his family, he still attended the team's playoffs, and finally led the Celtics to a recovery in Game 3.
Time is three days back again, and by this time the Lakers have easily eliminated the Grizzlies from the tournament, and the four-game series, The Lakers won an average of 14.5 points per game, which is basically a crushing situation, although the black and white bears do still have a certain deterrent effect on the inside, but their play is also a little out of step with the pace of the times as Randolph ages, coupled with the absence of Tony Allen, Conley was completely blown up by Ye Xuan, the Grizzlies' season can only end so embarrassingly, and what makes them even more embarrassed is that this season they renewed Conley's contract with an annual salary of 3000, plus the money is afraid of something (Chandler Parsons) of more than 20 million contracts, so their salary next season will not allow them to continue to bring in players, even the existing players can't all stay, so the era of black and white bears making the western princes frightened should be completely over after the end of this season.
At this time, the teams that have already qualified, in addition to the Lakers, there is also a Pelicans team in the West, and the Cavaliers and Pacers in the East have also swept their opponents in the first round and successfully advanced to the next round. And the fifth game of the first round is also coming to an end, after the Warriors lost the game in the third game, they also summed up the lessons, and did not leave any chance for the Thunder in the next two games, and finally defeated the Thunder 4:1 to successfully enter the next round, in this round they still have some losses, Livingston's season reimbursement makes the Warriors' current bench not as strong as before, and Green's current technical fouls are also on the verge of exploding, If he gets two more technical fouls in the next game, he will be suspended for accumulating technical fouls.
In addition to the Warriors, the Spurs also solved their opponents in the fifth game, the Rockets slumped again after the madness of the third game, Harden's offensive options were questioned, and his leadership ability was also attacked by a lot of media, coupled with the embarrassment of the team's loss, Harden is not having a good time now, but overall, the Rockets can enter the playoffs in the West with this lineup, and also get the home court advantage, which is already very valuable, So this season can't be considered a failed season for the Rockets.
So far, in the first round of the playoffs, there are only two groups of matchups left to be played, and these two sets of matchups are teams in the East, it can also be seen from here that the current development trend of the league is not very ideal, the gap between the rich and the poor is too large, and then the gap between the two teams in the playoffs is too big, and then let the game lose suspense prematurely, in fact, not only this season, the previous three seasons are basically this rhythm, the Western Spurs Warriors crush other teams, In the East, the Cavaliers and Pacers crushed other teams, and only after reaching the division finals will there be some highlights gradually.
However, it is estimated that the pattern of the league will change again next year, and the 76ers in the east are likely to rise strongly, after all, their champion Simmons will make a strong comeback next year, and in the west, it is already a three-legged stand, and the choice of Paul's whereabouts next season is also likely to turn another team into a championship contender, such as the Spurs, if they get Paul, then the game in the west will be very good.
As for this season, the league has nothing to do but secretly manipulate it, so that the matchup that everyone is looking forward to can be played in the final moment to attract the audience. For example, the matchup between the Thunder and the Warriors in the first round was the league's contribution, and the Thunder were able to win the third game between the two teams, in addition to Kai Weishao's 50 points, the referee's frequent whistle in the final quarter was also a key reason.
Among the remaining two sets of matchups, in fact, the game between the Celtics and the Bulls has ended since Rondo was injured and replaced in the third quarter, and the Celtics have won three games in a row after losing the first two playoff games, and now they are leading 3-2, and the Bulls should have no chance in the last game, because the Bulls after Rondo's injury have played very badly in the last three games, losing to the Celtics by more than 15 points per game, In other words, these two teams have simply become a rivalry of different levels with one less Rondo.
As a result, the Celtics still didn't give the Bulls any chance in Game 6, defeating the Bulls 108-91 to eliminate the Bulls and advance to the next round. At the same time, the game between the Raptors and the Wizards was finally decided, and the Raptors eliminated the Wizards with a score of 4:2 when the Raptors were full of personnel and the main team was playing normally.
In fact, the current lineup of the Wizards is very embarrassing, their main firepower is on the outside, whether it is Beal or John Wall, whether it is Porter or Markieff Morris, they are basically players in the position of guard and small forward, and the only interior pillar Gortat's performance this year is a bit unsatisfactory, which is why the Wizards finally lost the game.
In fact, the combat effectiveness of the Raptors is still better than that of the Wizards, after all, if the two brothers Lowry and DeRozan play normally, then their combat effectiveness is still very objective, but it is a pity that their playoffs in the first two years were all sleepwalking, so there will be a derogatory nickname like the garbage brothers.
At this point, the first round of the playoffs is basically over, and the first round of this year is indeed very unpleasant, except for the Spurs and the Rockets, the game ended too quickly, so everyone was a little surprised, and the other matchups were basically the results that everyone could expect, but at this time, the second round of matchups also came out, and in the second round, several sets of matchups seemed more attention-grabbing.
The first is the least followed matchup, the second round between the Raptors and the Celtics, these two teams are honestly not interesting, in terms of the number of fans, these two teams have also received the least attention in recent seasons, in terms of stars, the stars of the two teams are also relatively low in popularity, and they are not as scary as the attention of several other teams.
And another set of matchups in the East, it seems very interesting, the Cavaliers and the Pacers, the two rivals, met again in the playoffs, the year before last, the Pacers relied on Ye Xuan's stunner to eliminate the Cavaliers, so as to advance to the finals, and that season was also the most unwilling playoff trip that Lao Zhan has lost in the past seven seasons, after all, the two main players of the Cavaliers that season were reimbursed for the season because of injuries. However, the Pacers did not win the championship in the end that season, because of Ye Xuan's injury, the Pacers lost to the Warriors 4:2 in the Finals.
In the following season, the Pacers experienced a lot, and they traded all their champions, from Hibbert to Ye Xuan, except for pickled peppers, only Masimmy was still in the team, and their performance in the regular season was not bad, which made the management at the time very inflated, but they didn't expect them to collapse in the playoffs, and they were simply vulnerable in the game with the Cavaliers, and in the end they were easily eliminated by the Cavaliers, and this time they lost, It also directly caused a series of operations by the Pacers this season.