In a blink of an eye, it is April 12th, the Lakers set off for New Orleans again, to challenge the Pelicans, who have been performing very scarily recently, after trading Cousins to the team, the Pelicans have lost two games so far, one is in a direct battle with the Warriors, which makes them one step further on the road to the second place in the West, and the other is an upset loss to the Jazz, who are not particularly strong in combat, but in March, they and the Warriors have another matchup, They won the opponent, and they also won back-to-back victories over the Pacers and Cavaliers, who are in the top three in the East, so the Pelicans' current combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

In particular, they also defeated the Lakers in early March, so in this game, the Lakers need to put 100% of their energy into proving that they are not really afraid of the Pelicans after forming the Big Four. The game started soon, Brother Thick Mei easily defeated Gasol in the jump ball, Holiday slowly controlled the basketball to the front court, and then immediately handed the ball to Cousins's hands, ready to let Kaoshen single, although Gasol's defense will cause some interference to Kaoshen, but Kaoshen is the league's No. 1 center in the eyes of the media after all, using his strength advantage to hit the back into the penalty area, and then turn around and hook the ball into the ball.

Looking back, the Lakers immediately launched a counterattack, Ye Xuan quickly held the ball and advanced to the front court, and without waiting for his teammates to settle down, he directly took advantage of the gap when Holiday had not stepped forward to defend closely, and directly pulled it up as a three-point shot, and the ball hit. This is how the Lakers deal with teams with strong interior lines, using quick offensive and defensive transitions to make the opponent's interior players out of position and the like, after all, if everyone falls into a positional battle, the Lakers will be a very disadvantaged side, but if the opponent does not complete the position, then the Lakers will have some advantages in terms of mobility and other aspects.

Looking back, the Pelicans were immediately ready to continue to use the inside attack to make trouble for the Lakers, but this time they underestimated the speed of the Lakers' rotation and the bag, as soon as the ball was passed to the hands of Kaoshen, it immediately attracted the two of them, and Kaoshen also immediately passed the ball out, but the Lakers' rotation was very good, and did not give the Pelicans point guard a chance to shoot, after three consecutive passes, the ball returned to Holiday and then stopped the ball again, because there was no chance to shoot, In desperation, Holiday could only hand the ball to Anthony, who was pulled out from the outside to ask for the ball, hoping that Anthony could play one alone, but due to the limited offensive time, Anthony's shot finally came to an end.

At this time, the advantage of the Pelicans' inside line was reflected, Brother Thick Eyebrows jumped high and slapped the ball out, Holiday immediately hoisted the ball into the inside line again after getting the basketball on the outside, and Brother Thick Eyebrows turned directly to the basket after receiving the ball and hit the ball. The Lakers' defense has actually done a good job, but the height of the interior line is still too far behind, but fortunately, today's Lakers team's performance outside the three-point line is very good, Ye Xuan quickly advanced to the front court and directly sent the ball to the hands of Solomon Hill near the bottom line, Hill shook a shot, shook the defender and then dribbled a step inside, and then shot the ball into the middle shot, and the Lakers still led by one point.

In the next few rounds, the Pelicans' shooting rate was seriously tested, although Kaoshen and Anthony Davis were able to grab offensive rebounds many times to complete the second offense, but their offensive shooting rate was a little unsightly, in fact, this is mainly because the Lakers' rotation and wrapping are doing well, of course, there is another reason, the Lakers do make the Pelicans a little tired on the offensive end, just like the last time they met, In the first quarter, the Lakers shot well, so they were in the lead and didn't give the Pelicans a chance to chase back the difference.

In this way, the two teams played slowly until the second half, and soon after the start of the third quarter, the Pelicans organized another wave of powerful offense, just like the last time the two teams faced off, this time they were also ready to give the Lakers a heavy blow in the third quarter, trying to recover the difference in the third quarter.

However, unlike the last game, in this game, the Lakers team has a full-blooded Ye Xuan in charge, and he doesn't give the opponent the slightest chance at all, you play a single inside line, and my side immediately shoots a three-point shot on the outside, and you use the block to shoot in the middle of the shot, I still use the firepower on the outside to suppress you, you use your height advantage to grab the rebound in the front court, and then score a second offense? I'm sorry, but I can only make one more three-pointer to show my apologies.

Under the Lakers' unreasonable three-point shooting rate, the Pelicans gradually began to be unable to play, the main reason is actually that their rhythm between offensive and defensive transitions is still not very good, not as easy as the Lakers, and at the same time they are more casual in the control of shooting opportunities, basically Anthony, Brother Thick Eyebrows and Kao Shen The rhythm of who holds the ball and who attacks, too many singles also make their success rate decline a little, if the state is okay, they can still win the game, But once two of them don't feel good at the same time, then the Pelicans are not as good as everyone thinks.

The results speak for themselves, and the Lakers successfully defeated the Pelicans by hitting 17-of-32 three-pointers on the road, which can be regarded as revenge for being easily defeated by the opponent in the last time the two teams met. At the same time, after this game, the Pelicans can only settle for third place in the West, and have no chance to overtake the Warriors, because even if the Warriors and Lakers lose the game in the next game, their final record is still one win higher than the Pelicans.

And for the Lakers, after their game, in fact, this season's regular season is basically over for them, in the last game, the Lakers are basically not ready to send the main lineup to meet them, after all, not only can their record easily ensure that they have always had home court advantage in the playoffs, and even the 73-win record created by the Warriors last year is now successfully broken under the Lakers' wave of 11 consecutive wins, Even if they lose to the Warriors in their next game, they will still be able to enjoy the first-place regular season record in league history with 74 wins.

On the thirteenth, the Lakers' home court, Stamp Center, the Lakers ushered in the Warriors, the Warriors actually played here, and they also knew that the situation was basically clear, so the win or loss of the last game was also not too important to them, so the Lakers sent all the substitutes at the same time, the Warriors also played the last game with a full bench lineup, if the Lakers lost the game in the last game, Maybe the Warriors will send the main team to the Lakers in order not to break the record of the best regular season record in the history of the league, but since the record is a foregone conclusion, the Warriors simply rotate the main force that they say.

The bench lineups of both teams are actually relatively powerful in the league, but unlike the Warriors, the Lakers' bench lineup also has stunned young people such as Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Zubac and convulsions like Nick Young, so even if they know that this game is garbage time, their attitude to play is still like a life-and-death battle, and they play happily, so after playing for a while, the Lakers unknowingly led by more than 15 points.

The final result is naturally self-evident, the Lakers finally relied on the excellent performance of Nick Young, who had also had an excellent performance with Clarkson's convulsive performance of 32 points, and easily defeated the Warriors, who were also all substitutes, and ended the regular season of the season perfectly, the 75-7 record also improved the 73 wins of the Warriors last year and increased by two games, the tragic Warriors were very embarrassed, they worked hard for this record last year, and finally because the regular season was too focused, So in the finals, they were still physically exhausted, causing the team to lose the championship, and the result was that the odds of 73 wins that they had worked so hard to get were only maintained for 1 season, and they were surpassed by the Lakers.

And in fact, this is not the most embarrassing thing for the Warriors, the most embarrassing thing is that they are now in second place in the West, so the first opponent they will face in the playoffs will be their opponent in the Western Conference Finals last season, and Durant's original club,—— the Thunder. This is not good news for the Warriors, although in terms of strength, the two teams are indeed far apart, but when facing the Thunder team, they need to consider a lot of things, the two teams have met four times this year, the Thunder team is 1-3 and is at a disadvantage, but as long as the two teams fight, then the Thunder team will be as active as playing chicken blood.

Among the four encounters, the number of clashes between the two teams on the court was 11 times, and there was a time when Wei Shao was directly put down by the scum Pachulia when he held the ball at the top of the three-point line, and that time almost made the scene out of control. And against the Thunder, they will also consume a lot of strength, not only because the opponent will become more focused when facing the Warriors, but also because the opponent in the Warriors' game has become more aggressive, and the defense has become more stubborn, so this is not a good thing for the Warriors.

Of course, this is only one of the bad news, and the other bad news is that in this way, their opponent in the second round of the playoffs is likely to be the Pelicans, who are ultimately ranked third in the West, and their new Big Four combination makes the Warriors have to be more relaxed, in the first round, the Thunder will consume a lot of energy, and in the second round, they will meet such a difficult team, and the Warriors' playoff journey looks really difficult.

Here I have to talk about the matchup in this year's playoffs, the Lakers, the first in the West, will face the Grizzlies who are ranked eighth in the first round of the playoffs, this time the matchup is not only a playoff matchup, but also a matchup between the two Gasol brothers, in fact, there is news that after Paul Gasol's contract expires next season, he is likely to choose to retire directly, and his brother Mark Gasol is likely to leave the Grizzlies and come to the Lakers to make up for his brother's shortcomings. Overall, though, almost everyone in this matchup felt that the Grizzlies didn't stand a chance, especially with Tony Allen still out injured.

The second Warriors in the West will face the Thunder, which has already been said, and the opponent of the third Pelicans in the West is the team that has improved the most significantly after the trade this season - the Jazz, they reached the playoffs this year and ranked sixth in the West. As for the battle for fourth and fifth in the West, it was between the Rockets and the Spurs, and in the end the Spurs finished in fifth place in the West because they were unable to hold their position at the end of the season and were overtaken by the Rockets.

As for the East side, it is much simpler, first of all, the Celtics in the East are facing the Bulls, who are ranked eighth in the East, and the Bulls have Rondo and Jimmy Butler this season, and they also have a good player like Mirotic, so the position of eighth in the East is barely reasonable. The Cavaliers, who are second in the East, faced the Bucks, who ranked seventh in the East, in the first round of the playoffs.

As for the Pacers, who are third in the East, it is no surprise that they are facing the Hawks who are sixth in the East, well, it is still the Hawks, since Ye Xuan's first season, the Hawks have been eliminated by the Pacers in the playoffs, Ye Xuan was like this when he was there, and now Ye Xuan has been traded to the East, but the Hawks still haven't gotten rid of the shadow of the Pacers. And the last group of matchups, the Raptors vs. the Wizards, and the garbage brothers vs. the Wizards, are all backcourt combinations, and they also have certain highlights.