Unlike other games, this one was the quietest before the game because there were really too many entanglements between the two teams. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Whether it is Tang Shuai's previous season with the Clippers, or the relationship between the two head coaches, or the two teams in the same city, in short, there are no grievances in this round of the series, some are just competitive, and fans choose more neutrality, they just want to see who can break into the Western Conference Finals after the pure matchup.

After the two teams entered the court, Tang Shuai went over to greet the Clippers players.

Another highlight of this game is that this is a matchup between Paul and Don Shuai, a former Clippers starter and bench.

"Don't keep your hands, play hard, I don't want others to say that I won dishonorably." After Paul and Tang Shuai hugged, he said with a smile.

"So are you." Tang Shuai responded with a smile.

The two men said hello and returned to their respective halves, and the game was about to begin.

After returning to half-time, Tang Shuai and other teammates gathered around Billups to listen to the final tactical plan before the game.

Although there are a lot of entanglements with the Clippers, he is still very clear on and off the court, he didn't want to show mercy, in fact, the Clippers can eliminate the Rockets, the strength and state are not weak, and playing with all your strength is the greatest respect for the opponent.

Just when the coaches of the two sides began the final arrangement before the game, the starters of the game were shown on the big LED screen on the scene.

The Lakers' starting lineup has not changed much from the previous games, with Cousins and Yi Jianlian on the inside, Mike Dermott at small forward, and Tang Shuai and Westbrook on the outside.

On the Clippers' side, Paul and Booker played together on the outside, with last year's top pick Ingram on the front line and Randle and Jordan Jr. on the inside.

In terms of paper strength alone, the Clippers are not much weaker than the Lakers.

It was Cousins and Jordan Jr. who jumped the ball, and the confrontation between the two top centers in this game was also particularly interesting.

Cousins was still a little more physical, using his reach advantage to get the ball back into the Lakers' half.

There was a burst of excited cheers from the audience, and the Lakers won the right to attack first.

Tang Shuai advanced to the front court with the ball, and the defender of him was Paul.

Paul didn't say much, just took a pose, his eyes glued to his shoulder.

It can be seen that he, like Tang Shuai, has no intention of staying.

However, Tang Shuai did not mean to attack at the beginning.

Whether it was with the Clippers or the Lakers, because the team's offense was all dominated by him, he was needed to charge in almost every game.

But now with Westbrook and Cousins, he clearly doesn't need to overexert his stamina in the first place.

He beckoned Yi Jianlian to come out and make a block, and used the breakthrough to contain the defense and then distributed the ball to Cousins in the diagonal side, Cousins hit Randle with his back, and turned around to shoot after playing.

Randle plays with his body, and he was originally tall, but he was like a small interior in front of Cousins, and there was no room for interference by the pressure of raising his hand.

"Bang!"

Cousins hit the board, but he squeezed past Randle and grabbed the offensive rebound, then forced a dunk to score.

There was a burst of excited cheers at the scene, this is really a super insider.

Although Knoll was also excellent before, compared to Cousins, the domineering on both offensive and defensive ends is not on the same level.

After scoring, Cousins was also quite excited, and yelled at Randle.

His first trip to the playoffs was passed to the Western Conference semifinals, and his playoff debut is getting more and more excited.

The Lakers chose to attack inside as soon as they started, and the Clippers just did the opposite, after using Randle to contain Cousins, Ingram made a block for Booker on the outside, Paul's second pass passed, and Booker opened his hand to hit a three-point shot.

After Don Shuai was traded, Booker has now developed into a top-notch outside lineman, and his strength and role on the offensive end are close to that of the Warriors' Klay Thompson.

The Lakers were playing, and this time Tang Shuai chose to break through to Westbrook, who cut the basket and directly pressed Booker's tough layup to score.

Booker's offense was good enough, but the defense was still a little worse.

Coming back, Booker shot another three-pointer from the outside, but this time he lacked some luck, and the shot jumped out of the basket and the rebound was grabbed by Cousins.

In the opening two rounds, you can see the strategy of the two sides in the opening, one main attack on the inside line, and the other main attack on the outside line.

The offensive center of gravity on both sides does not affect each other, and the success rate is also good, what fans see is the excitement of the two sides, but there are not many confrontations.

This process lasted for three full quarters, and at the end of the third quarter, the Lakers led 98-89 thanks to Cousins' excellent performance of 20 points and 12 boards.

After seeing that playing from the perimeter alone was not enough to guarantee a victory, Kassel adjusted his tactical focus.

In the fourth quarter of the bench, he deliberately left Randle on the court, and cooperated with the big white Aldridge to continue to kill on the inside.

The move quickly worked, with the Lakers' bench inside Gasol and Harkless both weak offensively and defensively, and the Clippers took advantage of the opportunity to catch up in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter.

Billups saw that the momentum was not right and followed up to replace Cousins.

With such an adjustment, the confrontation between the two sides has also rapidly escalated.

Randle's offense, crashing into Nance Jr. on the inside and preparing for a dunk, was pulled down by Cousins.

After being pulled down, Randall pushed Cousins, and Cousins also pushed back without showing weakness, although there was a fine of 500,000 hanging over his head, but at this time, it was not Cousins.

Fortunately, the referee was on the sidelines at this time, and the two were quickly separated, and the final penalty was only for Cousins' pull to foul.

Although there were no technical fouls, it also reflected the change in the situation on the court, and as the game got closer to the crunch moment, the intensity of the confrontation between the two sides also increased.

After two more minutes of play, the two sides were still in a stalemate, and neither was able to pull away the score.

At this time, the coaches of both sides coincidentally changed the main force in advance.

The game also entered the decisive moment.

As soon as he came up, Tang Shuai realized that it was different from the first three quarters, and he was obviously more active on the offensive end after he came up.

The Lakers' offense, after Tang Shuai advanced to the front court with the ball, he gave the ball to Westbrook, and then cut inside, Westbrook returned the ball, and after receiving the ball, he faced Jordan Jr.'s defense, and hit a quick stop throw.

Looking back, the Clippers played a tactical match, and Randle received a pass from Paul at the free throw line and made a jumper, but Yi Jianlian's defense was in place, and his shot was ultimately fruitless.

When he returned to the frontcourt, Tang Shuai successfully deceived Paul with a pass feint, followed by a three-point sudden cold arrow.

Paul reacted to the distraction a beat slower.

"Huh!"

Tang Shuai hit another three-pointer.

On the Clippers' offensive round, Paul got an open cut opportunity with a beautiful rebound run, and Booker passed the ball with a flick of his hand.

"Smack!"

Unexpectedly, Tang Shuai successfully judged the point of the ball and broke the ball.

After it was broken, Tang Shuai attacked quickly, and the players of the Clippers couldn't keep up, so they could only watch him rush to the frontcourt.

Tang Shuai deliberately boosted the team's morale, jumping one step inside the free throw line, and jumping was a 360-degree turn dunk.

Reflecting the flashes of magnesium lights in the sky, Tang Shuai was like an eagle with wings spread, smashing the ball into the basket with one hand, and the people followed and shook on the basket.

Cassel reached out and called a timeout.

"Tang Shuai! Tang Shuai! ”

The audience cheered excitedly.

After leaving the opportunity to perform to his teammates in the first three quarters, in the fourth quarter when both sides were anxious, Tang Shuai personally played a wave of 7-0 offensive to help the home team instantly open up the difference.

That's what fans expect from top stars.

After the timeout, the Clippers began to use a bag defense against Tang Shuai, who was Tang Shuai's initiation coach in the NBA, and he had his own understanding of defending Tang Shuai.

However, as soon as the Clippers' bag came up, Tang Shuai made a beautiful pass to Mike Dermott on the outside, and the latter's outside three-pointer went up and down, instantly helping the team to stretch the difference to more than 10 points.

Cassel shook his head helplessly on the sidelines, it was obvious that his understanding of Tang Shuai was a little behind.

Seeing that Tang Shuai put enough pressure on the team at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, Paul finally chose to stand up at this time, and he hit a difficult backward shot against Tang Shuai's defense.

Tang Shuai showed no mercy, but Paul's experience and shooting judgment were superb, and even with the death-wound defensive package, he couldn't stop the ball.

This shot was a sign that Paul kept trying to make shots on the offensive end of the ball in the following rounds, and the success rate was quite good.

However, the Lakers are obviously more dominant in terms of overall strength, and the point difference has always remained around 8 to 10 points.

"Huh!"

Paul hit another three-pointer to help the Clippers close the score to six points.

But at this time, time was running out, and the Lakers won the game directly after pressing a wave of rhythm.

When the final whistle blew, Paul watched the score for a long time.

He scored 10 points in a row in the last few minutes of the final quarter, but he still couldn't stop the team's defeat.

Seeing that Paul hadn't moved for a long time, Tang Shuai didn't celebrate with other teammates, but went over to pat this old friend.

Paul barely managed to squeeze out a smile, hugged Tang Shuai, and then left the arena.

Looking at Paul's slightly lonely figure, Tang Shuai couldn't help but sigh.

The Lakers formed a triumvirate after acquiring Cousins, and the team is on the rise, while the Clippers have weakened after him and Griffin left, and it is inevitable that they will enter a period of decline.

It's like two lines in opposite directions, one up and down, and there is a meeting point at this moment.

Paul's mood at this time is perhaps best understood only by himself. (To be continued.) )