Chapter 563: Losing the Home Field Advantage
As the game continued, the mentality of the Lakers players began to change, being pressed by the opponent like this, making them gradually a little confused from the initial self-confidence, and this change also made their performance in the game worse and worse, although Ye Xuan and several other experienced players are still persistent, but players such as Clarkson, who played the playoffs for the first time, showed a plummeting trend in their performance on the court.
Wharton Jr. saw that the situation was not right, so he was forced to call a timeout again, and after this timeout, the Lakers could only temporarily abandon Clarkson and Randle, because the performance of the two under heavy pressure was really unsatisfactory, and on the contrary, Nick Young's heartless character played a role at this time, he was not affected by the score falling behind a lot, and he was still able to play a good effect on the court, if it weren't for his defense, which was indeed a little too poor, Then the Lakers can treat him as the main force.
The game continued, because the opponent's state today was indeed too perverted, so Ye Xuan also had to use his strongest form, in the third quarter of the game There were about 4 minutes left, he had to swallow the large physical recovery potion when the ball was dead, and the Warriors also made a substitution, and after the substitution was over, they suddenly found that Ye Xuan's state was a little different.
Although the Warriors led by 19 points, they still didn't dare to be careless in the face of the team with Ye Xuan, so after the substitution, they still had Clay Thompson and Green on the court to lead the benches to play. And Ye Xuan opposite them started his own crazy scoring mode, he scored 26 points in the first quarter of the game, and the state of the Lakers in the second quarter was a little wrong, so he has been trying to help his teammates get back to their feelings, so he only scored 11 points in a single quarter, but in the third quarter, he still couldn't let his teammates get back to their state, so he can only restart the scoring mode in the first quarter, and before, he only scored 9 points in this quarter of the game.
However, in the next three minutes or so, Ye Xuan's sudden outburst did make the Warriors feel what is called the league's top scorer, first in the face of Clarke, who defended himself more than a meter away from the three-point line, and then forced a three-point shot against Green's supplementary defense after breaking through Ian Clark, although the penalty of this ball made the Warriors a little dissatisfied, but this kind of ball that can be judged or not awarded generally at home teams will get some preferential treatment, So it can't be considered a black whistle or something.
The Warriors were a little panicked by Ye Xuan alone for a while, but fortunately, Kerr was a person who understood, and immediately called a timeout, on the one hand, to cool down Ye Xuan's hand, and on the other hand, to arrange the key defense for Ye Xuan. After the timeout, the Warriors replaced Durant, who had a rest of less than three minutes, in order to have a point on the offensive end that could be against Ye Xuan, and this arrangement did make the Lakers' momentum of chasing points stagnant.
Although Ye Xuan can still continue to help the Lakers score, the Warriors can also find some scoring opportunities, so although Ye Xuan slashed 12 points in the last three minutes of the third quarter, the Lakers still trailed the Warriors by 13 points at the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter of the game began in a blink of an eye, the Lakers still continued to let Ye Xuan play, which felt somewhat similar to the Cavaliers in the East, and if they were undecided, they would go to James, and the Lakers would basically let Ye Xuan play alone for a long time if they were indecided, the Lakers served in the backcourt, Ye Xuan controlled the basketball and came to the frontcourt, facing Iguodala who led the defense, Ye Xuan decisively chose to break through directly, but the Warriors did not dare to relax Ye Xuan's defense at all, and immediately Green came over to make up for the defense. Ye Xuan didn't have a choice to pass the ball, and after leaning on Green, he changed hands in the air and threw the ball, and the ball hit!
Looking back, the Warriors immediately wanted Durant to return one, but Durant's shot did not hit this time, and Hibbert also accepted the rebound. In the next round, Ye Xuan chose to play singles again, and after forcibly using his body to pass Iguodala, Ye Xuan directly faced Draymond Green's defense and made a one-handed split, Green was interfered with by Hibbert on the way to make up the defense, and it was too late to step forward to defend, not only did not interfere with Ye Xuan, but also made himself a background board.
Turning around, the Warriors still let Durant attack with the ball, facing Hill's defense Durant did not miss again this time, after two consecutive changes of direction, he suddenly pulled up a long-distance mid-range shot, the basketball hit steadily, after hitting this ball, Durant's score in this game has unconsciously come to 30 points, although it is much worse than the monster who has scored more than 50 points on Ye Xuan's side, but it is already a good enough playoff scoring performance.
And Ye Xuan's side still did not give up chasing points, after the ball came to the front court, an emergency stop after a change of direction started to accelerate again and successfully got rid of Iguodala's defense, and then faced Thompson who was about to dunk, but Thompson wanted to foul but was not resolute, but gave Ye Xuan a 2+1 opportunity, Ye Xuan, who was held by Thompson with one hand, threw the ball to the basket with the other hand in the air, and the ball went in!
After the ball was hit, Ye Xuan also got a chance to add a penalty, and the penalty was also shot, and the difference between the two teams was narrowed to 8 points, which is no longer a problem for the Lakers, who are ranked first in the league in terms of scoring ability, and Ye Xuan's performance of covering all the Lakers' 9 consecutive offenses during this period of time also shocked the audience.
After the free throw, the Warriors were forced to call a timeout, they can't lose this game, and they don't dare to lose, because once they lose this game, whether it is from the opponent's morale or their own mentality, there will be a big change, especially in this game, the Warriors once led the opponent by 19 points.
At the end of the timeout, the Lakers replaced Wade and Gasol here, obviously preparing to start the final showdown, for the Warriors, this is not bad news, because after Wade Gasol comes up, Ye Xuan's offense may not be so resolute, and he may choose to pass the ball after the package, and the shooting rate of other players on the Lakers team today is of course much better for the Warriors than letting Ye Xuan attack the basket.
However, they still underestimated Ye Xuan's determination to score. In the next offense after the pause, although Ye Xuan was caught by the two after breaking through, he still did not choose to pass the ball, but forcibly carried Curry to the basket and hit the ball. Twice plus one, this time the difference has been narrowed to 5 points, the Warriors up and down like a big enemy, fortunately at this time Thompson stepped up, ambushed near the bottom corner for fifteen seconds, and then Curry used the block to break through the ball and hit a three-point to help the Warriors stabilize the morale.
Ye Xuan's side has been unable to keep up with his physical strength after ten consecutive rounds of singles with the ball, so in the next round, Ye Xuan can only pass the ball to Wade after bringing the ball to the front court, letting Wade attack with the ball, and he is a vertex pitcher to take a little rest. The rhythm of the offense was also suppressed, and it wasn't until the offensive countdown reached 8 seconds that Wade began to seek a breakthrough, but his hand was indeed a little bad today, and Thompson, who defended him, was indeed a better defensive player among the scoring guards, so in the end, the Lakers' offense still failed to succeed.
The Warriors started to fight back with Green grabbing a defensive rebound. After Green grabbed the backcourt rebound, he slowly controlled the basketball and walked to the front court, Ye Xuan was assisting Curry in defense at this time, but it didn't mean that he would always follow Curry's side, see the opportunity, and directly cut off Green's pass to Durant, and then strode towards the Warriors' halfcourt, Durant behind him chased after him, but Ye Xuan also knew that Durant had the ability to chase hats, so after rushing through the half, Ye Xuan deliberately slowed down some speed, and Durant had to slow down. But at this time, Ye Xuan suddenly accelerated again, and when Durant re-accelerated, it was too late, so he could only watch Ye Xuan make a layup with a low hand and score two more points.
You must know that there are still 8 minutes left in the game, and the Warriors, who once led by nearly 20 points, now have an advantage of only 6 points, which makes them a little flustered, coupled with the mistake just now, which makes them suffer some impact in the next two rounds, which leads to their failure to hit the ball in the end, and on the Lakers' side, Ye Xuan's physical strength is finally insufficient, although he hit a mid-range shot again in these two rounds, but at the same time, he wasted a chance to shoot, And in that round, Ye Xuan almost made a mistake and was stealed by the opponent, if it weren't for Wade next to him to catch the stabbed ball in time, the Lakers would have fallen behind by more than 7 points.
When there are 6 minutes left in the game, the Lakers are now gradually narrowing the gap to 4 points, although the Warriors are also constantly scoring, but their defense in this quarter of the game is much worse than the previous quarters, so the difference is constantly narrowed by the Lakers.
But fortunately, at this time, Ye Xuan's physical strength has been almost consumed, and in the next two or three minutes, Ye Xuan also felt that his physical strength seemed to have reached the limit, and there would even be a situation where his wrist could not be used when he shot, so he had no choice but to start passing, and this also gave the Warriors a chance to breathe. Curry also took the opportunity to hit his second three-pointer of the game, and the balance of victory gradually tipped in the Warriors' side.
Although Ye Xuan still insisted on appearing on the court, he knew that his physical strength was not much longer than the success rate of forcing a single, and finally after holding the ball again and breaking through the ball, Ye Xuan fell on the court, although it was not injured, but it was a thigh cramp, everyone knew that Ye Xuan had burst out all his energy in this game, but the shooting rate of the Warriors today was much better than the previous game.
The fans of Stamp Arena watched Ye Xuan being helped into the players' tunnel by the team doctor, and they were silent for a while, after Ye Xuan left the court, the only stable scoring point on the court of the Lakers was gone, although in the next few minutes, Wade and Gasol's ball-holding offense began to improve a little, but it was still too late, and the Lakers finally lost the second game of their Western Conference finals 131-123, and the big score was also a 1-1 draw against the opponent.
The most eye-catching performance in this game is naturally Ye Xuan, who played for 42 minutes, although he played for 42 minutes, but in fact, he only got the opportunity to rest two minutes after the start of the second quarter of the game, and he stayed on the court for the rest of the time, and the last few minutes of rest was also because of his thigh cramps and had to go back to the locker room to deal with it, but unfortunately, when his cramps eased, the game was over. In the 42 minutes of playing time, Ye Xuan made a total of 32 shots, which is why he was so tired that his legs cramped, and these 32 shots also returned to a super high score of 61 points, of course, 11 points came from free throws, 11 free throws were all hit, Ye Xuan's shooting rate was very high in this game, but in the end it still failed to help the team win the game.
On the Warriors' side, the Big Four combined to score 96 points, and the whole team scored 131 points, all of which set a number of historical records, and their three-point shooting rate today reached a terrifying 19-of-34 shooting, more than 50 percent. Of course, the biggest problem of the Lakers in this game is this, they were unable to contain the opponent's scoring on the defensive end, and the offensive end was slow to find the rhythm of the game, and in the end they could only let Ye Xuan force the top cylinder alone, and finally they could only fight until the muscle cramps and left the court. After the game, the media also began to analyze rationally, judging from the current state of the Lakers, they may not be able to cross the mountain of the Warriors.