Chapter 25: The Battle of Paul
The Hornets that are about to play against are still strong, there are many more people who can play than the Clippers, and there are Chris Paul and sharpshooter Peja outside, and Wester and Okafor inside, with a dry bench, the combat effectiveness is still considerable. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info
However, with the same schedule as the Grizzlies, before the game against the Clippers, the Hornets also challenged the Lakers away yesterday, and the Black Mamba scored 31 points to refuse defeat, and then the Hornets, who did not want to lose 2 in a row, also rushed to the Clippers with great momentum.
Every time the Clippers are victims of the strong Lakers, every team on the road trip to California thinks, "The Lakers are too strong, just play it, you can win by playing the Clippers anyway." ”
Although the Clippers will be very unhappy, they can only endure it now.
Today's game is still broadcast by NBATV, the Clippers are still only a weak team in general, and there are no big names in the team.
Paul is of course a big name, but yesterday ESPN just livestreamed the Hornets vs Lakers, so this game was not broadcast live.
When the time was about to be around, Griffin, who was still warming up, saw his girlfriend Giulatine sitting in his seat with a few good friends to greet him, and not far away was the Little Smith family.
Put down the basketball in his hand and went to the audience to look at Smith Jr., and the surrounding crowd saw that some players actually came to the audience, and many fans poured in.
David West, who was warming up on the court, smiled at Paul beside him, "This little champion is really good, and he has been in the limelight in the audience." ”
Paul saw Griffin smiling and picking up little Smith, who was also smiling, and looked back and said, "This is not a showmanship." ”
Before returning to the court, he nodded to Juliadine, and before the game was played, he ran to the audience to find his girlfriend, and if this happened, he would probably be criticized again.
Today's jump ball was not Kaman but Griffin, Dunleavy also wanted to see if Griffin could jump over the big center, but he was obviously more worried, Griffin, whose height and arm span had already increased a little, picked the ball over with a huge advantage.
"Blake Griffin's physicality is really good, Okafor jumps high enough and has long hands, but Griffin still wins easily, and more importantly, Griffin is really fast and then jumps high, and I don't think Griffin has too many opponents in the flying event."
The Clippers' home commentator Dunn Sr. praised Griffin without hesitation, his own children are amazing.
Griffin silently paid attention to Paul, who had to be teammates in his previous life, and Paul was black and strong, methodically directing the run, and his face was full of fortitude and calmness.
Accidentally Paul found Peja's open three-point shot, turned around Davis to drop the ball to Griffin, Griffin stood in a three-threat position, pretended to break through the left side, and after Okafor's center of gravity pressed on the left side, Griffin immediately turned around with the ball and made Okafor clean!
There was no one in front of him, and of course Griffin couldn't let go of this opportunity, collecting the ball, jumping, and the basketball completely crossed an arc and was dunked into the basket by Griffin!
"Oh!! Check out what our Griffin did with Okafor! A nice guard move that completely teased poor Okafor, and then a perfect big windmill slam dunk! Damn basketball reporters, look at this ball! ”
played such a wonderful shot in the opening game, all the Clippers players were excited, Giulatin had already released her screams completely, and Smith Jr.'s excited little face was red.
However, Paul was not affected at all, in the cheers of the Clippers' home court, he borrowed a pick-and-roll to hit a jumper, in fact, Griffin is very suitable for blocking and pick-and-roll tactics, but now in the team, Davis's own impact is not enough to attract enough defense, and Gordon is more borrowing blocks to score points, and there is no good judgment between passing or shooting.
Paul happens to be the master, and a simple block can score points for himself or help his teammates score points, and the Hornets' offense has become very smooth under his combing.
Basketball is a natural sport, physical fitness, court vision, etc., but every superstar is based on their own physical conditions to practice one or more simple basketball technical moves to perfection, they can still use those technical moves to score under high-intensity confrontation, and others can't, it's as simple as that.
In the final minute of the first quarter, Griffin grabbed an offensive rebound and scored a foul on David West, and after hitting a free throw, the margin was reduced to nine points, making the scene less ugly.
In the rotation phase of the second quarter, the Hornets' thick bench lineup played a role, Armstrong, Posey, Thorton and Wright all scored, but fortunately, the Clippers' Telfair and Rasubatarer performed well, and White Smith on the inside also played a good role in the meat shield, so that the score did not pull away further.
Dunleavy changed the main lineup 2 minutes early, but instead of replacing Byron in the playmaker, he sent Novak, a 3-point sharpshooter who has had a reduced playing time this season.
It was a lineup without a guard, relying on the low post to attract the defense and then play the rotation ball, but the results were wonderful, Griffin scored six straight points, two offenses at a basket, a rare mid-range shot and a big dunk.
Not only that, but Gordon and Novak also fired in a row, and in just 2 minutes, they played a wave of offensive climaxes, and Queen Bee Paul immediately came on the court with a substitute.
The queen hit a step-back jumper and a three-pointer to stop the bleeding as soon as she got on the court, and then the two teams entered a tug-of-war, but the Hornets held a solid 6-8 point lead.
Dunleavy sighed secretly off the field, his team has the spirit and hard work, but in the face of this kind of team with lineup advantages, he is really dead, and he can only hope that the players on the field will play bravely or the opposing players will play abnormally.
However, it is obvious that the probability of the Hornets playing abnormally with Paul is still very low, at least the Clippers have not met it, and they have been playing steadily, even if the Clippers accelerated the offensive rhythm in the final quarter, the Hornets did not rush, but seized the opportunity to hit the Clippers several counterattacks.
With Brown's outside three-point shot, the Clippers, who were 12 points behind the Hornets with 2 points remaining, decided to give up the game, meaning that after a few rounds, Dunleavy withdrew the main lineup, and Griffin walked back to the bench with some frustration.
In this game, Griffin scored a career-high 34 points on 14-of-19 shooting and scored 15 rebounds, which was higher than the opposite West and Okafor combined.
The Clippers' lineup is actually very good and completely powerful, but Griffin feels that the team is too scattered, playing very casually, and does not have a complete team tactical system, and it is easy to be held down and rubbed when encountering such a well-trained team.
Another factor is that Griffin wants to dedicate a victory to his girlfriend and Smith Jr., but that doesn't happen.
Paul took the initiative to find Griffin as he walked out and gave him a heavy hug, "Hey boy, played really well, don't be too frustrated, you're still young, you have unlimited potential." ”
Griffin's heart moved after reacting, "Thank you Chris, if you have the opportunity, come to the Clippers, I'll be your little brother!" I'm going to keep improving, we have a lot to do. ”
This time it was Paul's turn to be stunned, I had seen Biao, I had never seen such a Biao, I just came to encourage the newcomer, this kid is good, and he recruited himself directly, although he was also a little dissatisfied with the inaction of the Hornets management.
"Hi Blake, today you played really well, got the best stats of your career so far but we still lost, do you think we weren't positive enough, what needs to be improved?"
'The team lost, my good stats don't mean anything, I'm proud of my team-mates, we're all playing well, we're still young, we've got plenty of time to grow, please keep supporting us.'
"Okay, I think the fans must be hopeful for you. Today we saw a beautiful lady and the child you hugged, what is their relationship with you? ”
"The beautiful lady is my girlfriend and we are very affectionate. As for the little boy, his name is Tony Smith, a little guy who loves basketball, but unfortunately he has leukemia, but he is still optimistic about the treatment, and I hope that all those who can can help this cute little guy. ”
"I think the Smiths will thank you for being so kind, thank you for the interview, and hope the team gets better and better."