Chapter 606: Swept Ambition and Tenacious Knights
Ye Xuan's words made little Wharton feel very reasonable, so on the way back to the locker room, he discussed with Ye Xuan how to deal with the difficulties of the next game, so after the three of them returned to the locker room together, Ye Xuan also gathered all his teammates, and then came to a combat mobilization, "Brothers, guys, everyone did a good job tonight!" We've shown those Clevelands how good we are, and you're all MVPs tonight! ”
After Ye Xuan finished speaking, everyone in the locker room cheered loudly, and Ye Xuan then said, "Hey, guys, we encountered a provocation from a local reporter when we went to the press conference just now, you know, we are the winners, but the people here don't give us enough respect, we should give them enough to fight back!" In the next game, whether the opponent chooses to resist stubbornly or choose to raise his hands and surrender, I hope you can cheer up, because in the next game, we will win the championship at the opponent's home stadium! Let the opponent take a good look at our strength! ”
There was another shouting from the crowd, and there was a lively scene in the Lakers' locker room. After another ten minutes in the locker room, the excited players of the Lakers left the locker room to return to the team's bus, and then left for the hotel, where they will spend about a day and a half, although they can also go to the rental arena for training and the like, but obviously at this moment, it is undoubtedly very difficult to borrow the arena in Ohio.
Time came to June 11th, the two teams rekindled the fire in the Quick Loan Center arena, and the Lakers players in the locker room before the game were also extremely excited, because they already had the match point in their hands, and as long as they won one more game, they would be able to win the coveted championship.
The Cavaliers' locker room, compared to the Lakers, is more serious, they are in a bad situation now, if they also lose this game, then it will undoubtedly make the Cavaliers be tied to the pillar of shame, you must know that in the last 20 years of history, there have only been two Finals sweeps, and one of them was LeBron James was swept out by the Spurs when he led the Cavaliers to the Finals in 2006, if they lose this game, Then not only the Cavaliers, but James, the active No. 1 player, will also be hung on the pillar of shame in history, so James will definitely do his best in this game as in the last game, just seeking one victory.
Soon the game began, Tristan Thompson jumped high and slapped the basketball to Irving, after Irving received the basketball, he handed the ball to George Hill, Hill immediately passed the ball to James after controlling the ball to the front court, James received the ball and called Love to help block and dismantle, after the block, James broke through and caused a foul by Solomon Hill, who was responsible for chasing the defense, and James walked to the free throw line in less than 10 seconds of the opening game.
Hitting the first free throw steadily, James eased his emotions a little, and then threw the second free throw, and the Cavaliers took a two-point lead. Looking back, Ye Xuan and Wade on the Lakers' side also played a delicate cooperation, after Wade ran without the ball, he cut into the Cavaliers' interior line, Ye Xuan's pass was also immediately delivered to him, Wade half-turned in the air to avoid Tristan Thompson's block, and then hit the ball with a backhand layup.
The shooting rate of both teams at the beginning is very good, and it can be said that there are back and forth, and in a blink of an eye, it has come to the time of the TV pause in the first quarter of the game, although the Lakers played very well, but they are still behind by 4 points, the reason is that the scoring efficiency of the Cavaliers is too exaggerated, before the TV pause, the game between the two teams was only 6 and a half minutes, and the score of the Cavaliers has almost reached the scoring level of the original quarter of the game, With a whopping 24 points, the Lakers led by 4 points, which is not to blame for the Lakers' poor defense, mainly because the Cavaliers' outside players today were full of firepower, and after Love came up, he shot two of three three-pointers, plus George Hill's two shots and Irving's two shots, the Cavaliers hit a total of four three-pointers, in addition to James's several breakaway points, the Cavaliers' offensive efficiency was terrifying.
On the Lakers' side, although they are behind, they still have some advantages on the court, but sometimes they fail to seize the opportunity to catch up with the score, Solomon Hill's three-point shot and Ye Xuan's 2-of-6 shot are also one of the main reasons why they are behind.
After the timeout, the Lakers also made personnel adjustments, replacing Wade and Larry Nance Jr., with Clarkson and Randle, who was barely good at the end of the last game. The Cavaliers, on the other hand, traded George Hill and Tristan Thompson for Richard Jefferson and Kyle Korver.
The game continued, and the Lakers immediately organized a wave of powerful counterattacks after coming back, first Ye Xuan took the lead, taking advantage of the opponent's defensive line to retreat more sharply and directly hit a super long three-pointer, narrowing the difference to one point, and then after Korver hit a three-point shot, he used a breakthrough point to help Clarkson hit three points again.
Three consecutive three-pointers made both players have to expand the defensive formation more when defending, but in the same way, the players of both teams are very good because of their hands, so they are very good on the offensive end, even if the defense has been expanded, but the three-point shooting rate of both teams is still high.
The first quarter of the game ended in a blink of an eye, the two teams actually combined for 87 points in the first quarter, the Lakers temporarily trailed the opponent by 5 points at 41:46, the score of the two teams also created the most exaggerated record in the history of the league in the first game of the Finals, and it was also because of the offensive firepower of these two teams, all of which were biased towards the outside, and today's hand was so good that it exploded, which made the game play like the All-Star Game, and there was no defense at all.
During the first intermission, the Lakers had another small meeting, and Ye Xuan was discussing something with Lao Ke and Wharton Jr., while looking up to observe his teammates from time to time. At the end of the intermission, the game continued to start, unlike the previous game, the Cavaliers did not let Lao Zhan continue to insist on playing in this game, but the Lakers continued to put Ye Xuan, who played the first quarter of the game, on the court.
And the Cavaliers found the feeling when they played the Pacers, the bench lineup led by George Hill and Tristan Thompson, who had just been replaced with George Hill, actually played back and forth with the substitutes led by Ye Xuan, Ye Xuan was beaten a little anxious, but there was no way, the opponent's hand was great, which made Ye Xuan simply unable to find a chance to narrow the point difference, and after Ye Xuan played for two minutes in the second quarter, he was unwilling to be replaced by Wharton Jr., Lao Ke on the sidelines was talking to Ye Xuan with a hippie smile, and after Ye Xuan got off the court, he also laughed with Lao Ke on the side, and it could be seen that although the Lakers' score had been behind, they were not impatient.
If you think about it carefully, it's actually right, in the past three games, the Lakers basically fell behind in the first half, and the real thing to watch was the third quarter of the game, so now the Lakers are only five or six points behind, this point difference is not a problem at all, the last game fell behind by 14 points into halftime, isn't it still in the third quarter to basically chase the difference back?
The game continued in the second quarter, and the diversity of the Lakers' offense was something that the Cavaliers couldn't catch up with, but as long as the Cavaliers kept on their three-point firepower, then even if the Lakers played a trick, there was no way to narrow the difference, which was probably a legendary trick, and about the weakness of the third quarter, the Cavaliers also had some calculations, and they didn't replace James and Irving until the fourth minute in the second quarter. In order to give them enough physical strength to help the team get through in the third quarter.
In the blink of an eye, the second quarter of the game went on for five minutes, and at this time the Lakers replaced Ye Xuan again, when he was off the court, Ye Xuan was actually a little anxious, but he was suffering from the fact that the physical recovery potion had been used up in the last game, and the strengthening potion CD was used last time, the start time of that game was 7 o'clock in the evening, and the start time of this game was 6 o'clock in the evening, so according to this algorithm, when the potion CD was good, the game was already about to reach the second half. Therefore, Ye Xuan could only play as usual in the first half, and then waited until the second half began to look for opportunities to have a big outbreak.
However, after Ye Xuan returned to the court, he immediately protected the team's defense, and after Owen broke through with the ball, he gave the ball to the outside Korver, and when he wanted to help Korver hit three points again, Ye Xuan successfully capped Korver's shot from the side, although it was not the kind of block that directly fanned off, but this time the block also successfully turned the opponent's three points into three non-sticks, Gasol picked up the basketball and immediately launched a long pass fast attack, and now the Lakers' awareness of the fast break is very good, In addition to Clarkson, who has been substituted, Ye Xuan, Wade and Nick Young are all good at the fast break, and even Larry Nance Jr. is also running up in the fast break.
This ball is Gasol's long pass to Wade, who has been started in advance, and then Wade quickly advanced to the front court and passed the ball to Larry Nance Jr., who quickly followed, so that the latter showed off his dunk talent on the stage of the NBA Finals, a 360-degree turn with both hands and dunk, although this is the opponent's home court, but it still caused a burst of amazement.
However, the Cavaliers' response came immediately, the Cavaliers served in the backcourt, Owen slowly controlled the ball and came to the frontcourt, Ye Xuan did not give Owen any chance to sneak attack, and immediately posted it to Owen to carry out an oppressive defense, although Owen's confrontation ability this season has improved compared with last season, but there is no good way to face Ye Xuan's oppressive defense, so he can only pass the ball to James on the side, and Solomon Hill is also solemn in front of James, After receiving the ball, James took a step back and came to a step away from the three-point line, and then made a decisive three-point shot, the basketball smashed in the center of the rebound, and then rebounded into the basket.
Seeing this kind of fairy ball, Ye Xuan's heart refused, and he shouted in his heart, do you want to be so accurate!! You must know that Ye Xuan himself has the help of the big killer of the system, so the three-point shooting can be maintained at about 45%, but the Cavaliers' three-point shooting rate today is really a bit too exaggerated, including James's point, all of them actually exceeded 50% of the shooting rate, and now with his own feel, Lao Zhan actually came to this kind of difficult goal at this time, which is simply a bit shocking.
Fortunately, the Lakers' hand is not bad, Ye Xuan once again controlled the ball and came to the frontcourt, in the face of George Hill's defense, Ye Xuan directly chose to force a breakthrough, using his speed to pass George Hill, Ye Xuan faced Richard Jefferson who came to make up for the defense, and immediately looked back at the moon, and gave the basketball to Solomon Hill on the outside, Hill shook a shot after receiving the ball, and then went to the side, and then shot the ball with a decisive three-point shot, which was regarded as a response to James's three-point shot just now.
In the next two minutes or so, the two teams still did not have the slightest intention of declining, you hit a throw, I immediately hit a small hook, you hit a three-pointer, then I will definitely give you back a 2+1. In the last three minutes of the second quarter, the scores of both teams have broken through the 70-point mark, of which the Cavaliers have scored 75 points, while the Lakers have just scored 70 points, and the difference is still 5 points, but in terms of efficiency, the Cavaliers are much higher than the Lakers.
The main reason why the Lakers can still have a tight score in this situation is that they have rebounds and steals, although the opponent's shooting rate is higher than that of the Lakers, but their shots are not as many as the Lakers, although the Lakers interior players are not the type of tall center, but the backcourt rebounding protection is good, so when playing in this state, the Lakers are 17:12 ahead of the opponent by five, and the steals are also 4:2 ahead of two, The Lakers took six more shots than their opponents back and forth, which was able to barely maintain the margin at about five points.