Chapter 60: Broken Dreams

The Clippers are set to host the Thunder on March 6, and the Clippers have almost lost their pants before that, and as the playoffs get closer and closer, all teams are trying to fight for a better playoff spot, and the Clippers' playoff hopes are getting slimmer. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

From January 31 to March 6, the Eastern Conference Player of the Week is LeBron James, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade; The Western Conference Player of the Week is Westbrook, Carlos Boozer, Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki. It was also Griffin's first Player of the Week award.

February's Player of the Month was voted by LeBron James and Carlos Boozer, the Jazz had a good record in February, and Boozer also averaged a two-double-double per game; Needless to say, LeBron James has not had a substitution since the start of the season.

For the Clippers, the Thunder is an opponent that must be won, if they win the Thunder, the Clippers can still rush to the playoffs, but if they lose, there will be a three-win gap with the eighth place in the West, and there is only a theoretical possibility of entering the playoffs.

Dunleavy's feelings about Griffin now are amazing, it is because of this young man that the Clippers have signs of rise and have a qualitative change, but it is also because of him that the stupid executives gave up the playoffs and used the team record to practice for Griffin.

Admittedly, this is very good for Griffin, using the actual game to increase the ball for Griffin, he got used to the core of the game and made progress earlier, but Dunleavy thinks this is unfair, and the other players who have also put in the effort, as well as the coaching staff, these efforts can easily be defined as sparring.

Dunleavy was hard to accept, but Griffin was indeed the most talented young man he had ever seen, not only talented, but also very peaceful, without a trace of arrogance and rebelliousness, and he also respected himself as a manager, and he could see the desire to win in his eyes.

You can only take one step at a time, so let's start over next year if you can't do it!

There were some changes to the Thunder's starting lineup tonight, with Kostic not in the starting line-up and young Serge Ibaka coming up as an inside starter. That's what Thunder player Jeff Green suggested, using Ibaka to defend Griffin.

This lineup is obviously very mobile and will be very fast to change, but the disadvantage of the interior line is also obvious, the height is not enough, especially Chris Kaman, who is obviously a cut higher, Dunleavy arranges the tactics of the main line, looking for opportunities to share the ball, Griffin mentioned high to handle the ball.

This is the regular tactic of the Clippers in these games, Griffin handles the ball and gives full play to his characteristics, Griffin from the initial panic to slowly get used to it and then to the current adaptation, although the team is losing, but Griffin is also improving rapidly, but he has not yet realized that this is at the cost of hurting the team.

As one of the few matches of the day, ESPN decided to broadcast this dynamic matchup live.

Ibaka jumped to beat Carman, Wei Shao directly took the ball and a through ball to Sefrosa, and the Swiss Army Knife faced Gordon's defense and made a direct fast-break layup, which looked like a very stable fast-break.

However, Griffin came from behind and dunked the ball heavily on the rebound! Although this wave of fast break was fast, when Griffin was completely up to pace.

This is also a reflection of the improvement of Griffin's defensive awareness, which used to be a rebounding grab. If the Thunder wants to play the Clippers, they have to play slow, although the Clippers also like to play fast, but you can't beat the Thunder if you play fast, and you can't enter the rhythm of the Thunder.

So the Clippers used the inside line to open up the situation, Carman played Green alone on the inside, and used his feet and height to successfully single Green in a row, but the Thunder were not in a hurry, and the offensive end continued to cover without the ball to get shooting opportunities.

Carman held the ball low again, and the Thunder still didn't mean to wrap it, but this time Carman's hook didn't hit again. Griffinka opened Ibaka and dunked the ball into the frame with one hand.

"I have to say that Griffin's rebounding awareness and his strange power are a perfect combination, from Carman's shot to Griffin's hand, Blake let Ibaka follow his own rhythm the whole time."

Griffin gave the inside line to Carman, and he held the ball near the free throw line high, and when Griffin held the ball, the outside line broke through through the block and pick-and-roll, attacked the basket when he had the opportunity, and chose to share the ball when he didn't have the opportunity. This is also a new tactic developed by Dunleavy.

Griffin received the ball and observed his teammates' running position on the spot, Ibaka took a step back directly to block the route, Griffin saw this and shot directly, such a decisiveness scared Ibaka, but fortunately the ball failed to hit.

"It seems that he still didn't hit the shot, which scared me."

But then Ibaka was not lucky, in the face of the vacancy, Griffin did not hesitate to shoot directly, hitting two mid-range jumpers in a row, which made the Thunder coach a little uneasy.

"Plug it up, you can't give him space to shoot."

However, when Ibaka pounced, Griffin's killing move also showed his fangs, and with a very fast first step, Ibaka was so sudden that he couldn't find the north, and the consequences of Griffin's breakthrough were very serious, thanks to the core power of the pervert, unless it was a ruthless foul, the possibility of 2 plus 1 was extremely high.

Griffin finally realized the benefits of getting better at shooting, and in the face of unprepared opponents, it was quite a little incomprehensible, and the reason was that Griffin's physical condition was too good, and the opponent was afraid of his inside killing.

So the Clippers caught the Thunder off guard, and when it came time to rotate the lineup, the Clippers led by 6 points at 27:21. The Clippers' second lineup is without Telfair, but with more Steve Blake and Outlaw, and Cavaliers veteran Gooden; The Thunder's second team is naturally Harden's, and Harden has been adapting better and better to the NBA recently, and his average data per game has also increased.

The Clippers bench is all chaotic, and Thunder Harden is like a beacon in the Thunder bench, not only stable output but also reasonable distribution of the ball, the position is a scoring guard, but the excellent overall view gives Harden the ability to play a two-way guard.

As Harden stepped back and hit a three-point shot, the Thunder officially overtook the score, Dunleavy frowned, and now the Clippers' bench is worse than before, and even the only bench player who can attack with the ball has been removed.

Davis didn't return to the court to continue to rest, Blake used as a turret on the court, and the ball could be handled by Griffin anyway. Griffin is now handling the ball at a much higher level than before, at least not so much that he doesn't feel overwhelmed by the bag.

As Dunleavy expected, after returning from the timeout, he began to pack Griffin's low post to prevent Griffin from shooting, and as soon as Griffin broke through, he immediately helped Ibaka to help defend.

As a result, Griffin's assists were on the rise, and by the end of the second quarter he had five assists, which was more than the average number of assists per game, and Durant's three-point hit before halftime dragged the deficit back to within 10 points.

If Griffin can play steadily like this every game, he is definitely a superstar, he can score and grab the key to the board and handle the ball, Dunleavy also has to admit that Griffin has a strong learning ability, just talking about shooting, the season has not yet ended, although it is likely that today is just a dumpling, but it is much better than not even having dumplings before.

At the beginning of the second half, Dewey began to play, Westbrook not only succeeded in consecutive kills inside, but also assisted Durant's jump shot. The Clippers were a little breathless, and the rhythm was uncontrollably fast, and by the time the players on the court reacted, the difference was only 2 points.

Dunleavy kept yelling "don't worry" off the court, but the lack of an experienced playmaker on the field was a headache, and it was hard to keep your sanity when the athletes were excited.

But still in the starting lineup, Griffin used his threat to assist Gordon for a three-pointer and Carman for a 2-pointer. However, the Thunder did not believe in evil and stubbornly defended Griffin, and as the game progressed, the physical strength of teammates decreased, and the shooting rate also decreased, and the Thunder's strategy was successful.

Dunleavy immediately put Griffin in the low post to bring Carman out, which was similar to the start of the season, except that Griffin has evolved now and Ibaka's defensive pressure is much greater.

From his panting and sweating, it was clear that Ibaka's stamina was close to the limit, and Scott Brooks had to put Kostic on top for a while. It turned out that it was the right choice to use Ibaka to defend Griffin, Kostic couldn't stop Griffin at all, and in the face of Griffin's strong inside attack, Sestic couldn't stop it at all, and Griffin's strong shot made Sestic's defense useless.

But the Thunder have Kevin Durant, a tall and long-handed super scorer who is averaging 30 points per game this season. No matter how your Griffin side turns the river and the sea on the inside, I can pay you back when I come back, so the Clippers' score difference can't be opened at all.

By the 7th minute of the fourth quarter, Griffin had not rested for nearly 20 minutes, and his physical strength was fine, but Griffin's offensive stability had decreased a lot, and Durant had little time to rest on the Thunder's side, and Harden had also played, and the Thunder starters with physical reserves were obviously more efficient.

"This game is very exciting, Clippers rookie Blake Griffin has now scored 33 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists in a quasi-triple-double, in fact, from the perspective of the court, Griffin's performance is far from what the data can show, it can be said that he is fighting against the Thunder on his own."

"I agree with you, this is probably the best game Griffin has played this season, he has the ability, the difference is the consistency of this performance, look at LeBron, Wade or Kobe Bryant next door, they have been driving the team like this almost every game. But I'm still amazed at Griffin's potential, and in time he's going to be a game-changer for the league. ”

The commentary is very nice, but it changes the league landscape, hee-hee, at least not now, because now Griffin can't even decide the outcome of a game. With the Thunder twin stars teaming up to score another 10 points, the Clippers finally couldn't stop it, losing 116-108 at home.

The Thunder's Durant scored 44 points and 9 rebounds, Westbrook scored 27 points, Harden scored 17 points, Ibaka had 9 points and 8 rebounds, and Green scored 13 points; Griffin of the Clippers had a super triple-double with 38 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists, Gordon 24 points, Davis 11 points, and Rasu Butler 13 points.

After losing this game, the Clippers were also drifting away from the playoffs, but Griffin, who played such statistics in this game, once again broke many records for rookie stats, and countless praises came to him after the game.