Chapter 373: Enter the finals again
In fact, the 76ers' bench is still very strong, thanks to the memory of Chang Wei's previous life, Arenas needless to say, Oku was also the main center of the Western Giants Jazz in his previous life, and his three-point shot made countless opponents cry bitterly.
So when the 76ers' bench lineup suppressed the Celtics, Chang Wei was not surprised, because their strength was strong enough, and the last game was not played just because they wanted to win and were afraid of losing. As long as they can let go of the baggage in their hearts, it is completely fine to blow up the substitute lineup on the opposite side, even if they still have the main players among them.
By the time Brown switched to the main lineup, the 76ers were already leading 52-34, which was a huge advantage they had barely played in previous games. With 6 minutes and 21 seconds left before the end of the first half, it would not be a dream to stretch the margin to more than 20 points, so it might be able to turn the rest of the game into garbage time.
The Celtics were naturally reluctant to raise their hands in surrender, and they tried to fight back under the leadership of Pierce, but it was a pity that Brown replaced Lewis with Teylon Hill as the main player, and he and Dyle Porter made the basket a no-fly zone. Of course, the Celtics also tried to score inside, but after being capped once by Hill and Hellam Porter, respectively, they lost the resolve to score under the basket and had to choose to shoot farther away from the basket.
Obviously, they forgot their shooting touch in the locker room in this game, except for Walker and Pierce, the other people's shots were almost all iron, and they couldn't play more than one point in the last game. The Celtics are easy to deal with in a duo mode, with Bale and Hill facing Pierce and Walker respectively, and it won't be easy for them to score.
As expected, by the time the whistle blew at the end of the first half, the 76ers had a 21-point lead, arguably their easiest half of the series. Brown was pleasantly surprised, and while he thought it was normal for the players to be 20+ ahead at the moment, it was far beyond what he had expected before the game.
At half-time, he went out of his way to praise a few players in the dressing room who had a really good first half, well, in fact, according to his standards, he praised all the players in the team who had played. However, Brown has no intention of exploring why they are able to play at the top of their game, and it is enough for the manager that the players play well.
Chang Wei stood aside and smiled silently, he knew that this actually had a lot to do with the few players he had chatted with before, and the players he had named before had played well in the first half. Needless to say, Reed was the team's leading scorer in the first half, scoring a total of 17 points on 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the three-point line, and was the biggest contributor to the team's big lead over the opposition.
Bell had just four points and two rebounds, but he also contributed two steals and one block, and with his all-out defense, Pierce shot just 4-of-13 in the first half, including 4 three-pointers. If it weren't for Bale's restriction on Pierce, it might be that the 76ers would need more people to pack when Pierce was single-handed.
The performance of the three rookies was equally satisfying, Arena Nasri scored 10 points on a burst outside shot, and was the leading scorer on the bench, and under his leadership, the 76ers' benches were able to firmly suppress their opponents; Oku also contributed 2 three-pointers from outside the three-point line, although the score was not much, but it made the Celtics dare not ignore such an outside heavy gun; Bowler was a little better, taking on the responsibility of protecting the basket well, scoring six points on 3-of-4 shooting while grabbing eight rebounds, including three in the frontcourt, and overwhelmingly overpowering the Celtics' center on the inside.
Of course, it's not that the rest of the 76ers' players are rubbish, but the performance of these guys has changed a lot from the last game, and they have been very helpful to the team. If it is changed to the level they showed before, then the 76ers will not be able to lead by a big score, and if they can not fall behind, even if other players play 200% output.
In the second half, O'Brien's continuous deployment of troops failed to make the team recover the disadvantage, the hole they dug for themselves was too big, not to mention that the 76ers players played very calmly, even if they waved, they still had enough capital to wave, not to mention that now their mentality is unprecedentedly relaxed, and they can naturally play a more desperate performance of throwing Celtics players.
Although the two sides were tied in the third quarter, the Celtics could not accept this fact because it meant that they did a lot of useless work for the entire 12 minutes of the third quarter. Now they are still trailing by more than 20 points, but there is only one final quarter left to tie or even overtake them. However, it has come to this point, how can the 76ers give them another chance? The goal of eliminating opponents and reaching the finals is in front of us, as long as you hold on to the last 12 minutes.
In order to express his determination to completely defeat the opponent, Brown not only did not change the bench at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but instead sent the team's strongest offensive lineup, and even pulled Bell down to maximize the team's offensive firepower. After taking a big lead, the 76ers players were in good shape, and after a wild bombardment, they completely broke the morale of the Celtics, and at the same time stretched the difference to nearly 30 points, turning this battle that should have been evenly matched into a slaughter!
More and more Celtics fans got up and left the court, and those who stayed behind also shed unwilling tears, originally thinking that the team they supported this season had completed a revival, but the 76ers used the slaughter to tell them to think too much. Chang Wei knows that the rise of the Celtics this season is nothing more than an accident, and they will soon fall back into the slump, if nothing else, until Angie poachs Ray Allen and Garnett to form a big three in the future, they will be able to complete a short-lived revival.
And now, they are just a stepping stone for the 76ers to reach the Finals for two consecutive seasons, and the ultimate meaning of this series is to prove how strong the 76ers are. The final score was 107-89, and the 76ers' late substitution allowed the Celtics to recover a point, but it wasn't enough for them to change the outcome of the game. As the defending champions, the 76ers finally returned to the Finals to compete for the O'Brien Cup in their second season, but the Lakers and Spurs are currently in a fierce battle, and they don't know who their opponents will be for the time being.