The Minnesotans apparently believe that, too, and so they flocked to the arena for the opening game of the playoffs, hoping to see the team win the game, considering that they hadn't tasted the playoffs in 12 years since 2004. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

After a brief warm-up, the scene quickly entered the opening introduction, and when the Timberwolves started, especially when Towns was introduced, there was a roar of excitement.

The Timberwolves' starting lineup was the same as in the regular season, with Rubio and LaVine on the outside, Wiggins on the front, and Towns and Kerr Aldridge on the inside.

This lineup, if it had been a year ago, would have been nothing at all, but with the rise of Wiggins and Towns this season, coupled with Thibodeau's ironclad defensive system, the competitiveness shown is not the same as last year.

The Lakers, for their part, also continued the lineup at the end of the regular season, with Noll and Gasol on the inside, Ruel Deng at small forward, and Tang Shuai and Batum on the backcourt.

After the final warm-up, the starters from both sides came on one after another.

"Do you want to win?"

"Yes, I'm going to win!"

At this moment, Tang Shuai heard Noll bow his head and talk to himself, beating his chest with his hand to cheer himself up, he walked over and patted him on the shoulder, the two of them looked at each other, and then walked on the field together.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's cheer on our team at maximum volume!" The DJ shouted after the players from both sides came on the field.

The scene suddenly erupted in a tsunami, and the fans drove away the chill of Minnesota with frantic shouts.

Downs and Wiggins stretched out their hands to signal to the audience, and the cheers from the audience were even louder.

It was Downs and Noll who jumped the ball.

The moment the referee's whistle blew, Towns pulled the ball back to the Timberwolves' backcourt.

The Timberwolves got their chance to attack first!

The crowd erupted in cheers, and the excitement of returning to the playoffs was already making Minnesotans feel tired.

Rubio took control of the ball to the frontcourt, beckoned his teammates to run, saw the opportunity to give the ball to Wiggins, Wiggins hung to the inside line, and Downs directly chose to hit Gasol with his back.

Gasol's form has dropped a lot since returning from injury, and Downs pressed him with strength to take two steps inside, followed by a beautiful side, and then turned and shot directly with a hook hand.

Gasol was pressed to the death at this time, and the interference was limited.

"Bang!"

Downs' hook hit the basket and rolled straight into the basket.

There was a burst of cheers from the audience.

Towns scored the Timberwolves' first point in the playoffs in more than a decade!

“defnse！ defense！ ”

A deafening shout rang out at the scene.

Tang Shuai held the ball and pushed forward, and when he arrived in the front court, he beckoned Noel to block and dismantle.

However, just when he was blocking and dismantling, Wiggins and Downs directly wrapped it out, quite decisively, and the two of them tacitly blocked the sight behind them.

Tang Shuai was forced to pass the ball to Batum on the outside under pressure.

From this defensive arrangement alone, you can see Thibodeau's ability, and he is definitely one of the best in this regard.

After Batum beckoned Gasol to settle down, he hit the ground in one, Gasol hit Aldridge with his back, and shook off the opponent with a few beautiful moves to hook the basket at close range.

At this moment, Downs flashed from the oblique side, and without explaining any reason, he directly gave a big blow to the face.

The basketball fanned down and fell into Gasol's hands, and Gasol pushed Downs inside to get back up.

"Smack!"

Aldridge, who was passed by him, poked the ball in his hand away.

The ball fell into LaVine's hands, and the Timberwolves played a defensive counterattack.

The Lakers quickly retreated, Rubio passed an unbelievable pass, shook his hand and made a long pass without looking at people, and after the basketball flew out of his hand, it passed through Batum's crotch and went directly to LaVine's hand, LaVine took the ball and went directly to the heavens, and sent the ball to the basket with a one-handed heavy dunk.

The cheers on the scene went up further, and the continuous performance of the home team has completely set the entire stadium on fire.

The Lakers' offense, Tang Shuai held the ball and pushed forward, he looked at the reaction of his teammates at this time, Gasol did not change his expression, but Noll and Batum were already a little nervous, and even Deng seemed to be a little at a loss.

It can be clearly felt that the Lakers players who were under pressure before the game have obviously affected their mentality at this time.

Tang Shuai held the ball to the front court and glanced at the Timberwolves' defense.

It's like a 2-1-2 defense, but it's not so targeted, like a net that can be contracted and opened at any time.

He beckoned Gasol to the free-throw line, where he handed the ball and cut to the basket.

However, as soon as he entered, the Timberwolves' defensive center of gravity shrank directly to him.

The hand he was about to reach for the ball was forcibly retracted, and his off-ball state was focused on defense, and Thibodeau was really ruthless.

Gasol saw that the Timberwolves' defensive center of gravity was brought over by Tang Shuai, and he relied on Aldridge to play the top defense of him, and directly made a pick-up after turning.

But at this time, Downs came out from the diagonal side again, and almost blocked his shot again.

"Bang!"

Gasol's shot bounced off the basket with Downs' interference, and the rebound was grabbed by the latter.

With two rounds in a row defending against Gasol's offense, Downs' improvement this season has definitely been a leap forward.

The Timberwolves won the ball again, and when it came to the frontcourt, Wiggins stepped back and hit a jumper.

They beat the Lakers 6-0 in the opening game.

Billups stood on the sidelines with his chin in his hand, and when Tang Shuai dribbled past him, he suddenly shouted to Tang Shuai, and then made a killing gesture.

Tang Shuai nodded, and then advanced to the frontcourt, this time he did not let Gasol to the free throw line, but directly let him pull to the three-point line.

When Gasol has the ball, he runs from the right-wing three-point line to the left-wing three-point line and then says hello.

Gasol made a through pass, and after Tang Shuai received the ball, a lubio who chased him after him was in a virtual way, and then accelerated to the basket.

When he was about to get to the basket, he went straight to the basket.

"Smack!"

His layup was blocked by Aldridge's hard foul, and the foul action was a bit harsh.

Tang Shuai glanced at Aldridge.

Aldridge was teammates with him before on the Clippers, but he didn't expect to be ruthless at this time.

Come to think of it, but he didn't react much, the NBA is like that, not every former teammate can be friends, and there are not many comic leagues like Stephenson.

He took a deep breath and walked to the free throw line.

There was a frantic noise from the scene, and he calmed down, and under pressure he hit two free throws to help the Lakers score their first point.

In the next few rounds, Tang Shuai gave up the main attack with the ball at the behest of Billups, and instead borrowed his teammates' passes to make kills on the inside, and made consecutive free throws to renew the team's points.

However, these points are a drop in the bucket compared to the situation on the court, and the Lakers players are a little too nervous, and they are timid on the court, and even a veteran like Batum can go to the bridge with an empty basket after receiving the ball.

After entering the rotation in the first quarter, the Timberwolves played with home momentum and led by an absolute 21-9 lead.

The players were all glazed over after the game, and it was clear that they themselves didn't understand why they played so badly.

"The Timberwolves' youngsters don't have stage fright at all, and I suddenly feel like they can even steal two or three wins with the Warriors." Commentator Chris Webber couldn't help but praise the Timberwolves after seeing their performance.

After the two sides came off the bench, the Lakers' bench group did not take much advantage, Bjelica, Shabazz Mohammed and others were full of impact, and after the first quarter, the Lakers had fallen behind 19-37, with a score of 19 points, even setting their lowest score of the season.

During the inter-interval pause, Billups made some adjustments to the lineup, and he sent out players such as Mike Dermott, Landry, and Bynum, who were not afraid of the field, and among the starting five, except for Tang Shuai and Gasol, the other three were sitting off the court.

Mike Dermott used to play under Thibodeau, and he dared to shoot on this occasion, not to mention Landry, although these people are a little less capable, but they dare to fight and dare to play, under the leadership of Tang Shuai and Gasol, they are much better than at the beginning.

After Tang Shuai and Landry blocked, Landry dismantled the ball and went down, Tang Shuai hit the ground to the past, and Landry scored directly against Pekovic's defense.

And on the defensive round, Mike Dermott chased from the three-point line to the interior in a stunned situation when he was already out of position, and finally rewarded Mohammed with a block.

This attack and defense made Thibodeau, who was standing on the sidelines, couldn't help but be a little moved.

It was under this momentum that the Lakers launched a frantic comeback at the beginning of the second quarter, and by the halfway point of the second quarter, they had chased the score to 30-43.

However, Thibodeau obviously won't let the Lakers play so smoothly, and after seeing the team's offensive and defensive losses, he directly put Towns on the court.

The effect of this move was immediate, Downs was very threatening on the defensive end, and the attack in the low post made people vaguely see the shadow of Shifo Duncan, and the play was super stable.

The Lakers were much weaker on the court, and when the Timberwolves changed their starters back, the difference was quickly stretched back to 32-50, and their trailing score had returned to 18 points.

In one match, Donshuai distributed the ball to Mike Dermott, who hit an open three-point iron, Towns grabbed the defensive rebound and launched a fast break, and Wiggins made another layup to stretch the margin to 20 points.

After seeing that his teammates were not in the state, Tang Shuai also let go, regardless of the Timberwolves' bag, and directly chose to play hard.

Thanks to his super-notch prowess, whether shooting or free throws, he turned into a scoring maniac from the bottom four minutes of the second quarter to the end, and scored 12 points on inside and outside shots.

But even with such a crazy scoring show, the Lakers still trailed by as many as 15 points at halftime, 44-59.

At the end of the half, Tang Shuai couldn't help but look up at the score on the field, and then at the frustrated teammates.

This game, with internal and external troubles, is much more difficult than expected. (To be continued.) )