Chapter 116: Reaching the Western Conference Finals
While the Lakers have grown into the league's offensive king, Dawn has certainly made important contributions, but his real role is to integrate these young talents into the team, allowing each of them to maximize their strength under the team's tactical system. The Lakers haven't realized yet www.biquge.info need to share the burden of their local leadership and playmaking, but players have been unconsciously making such efforts as the team has grown.
Only by integrating into the whole can you truly reflect the full value of a player. Not only for the team's trump card, but also for every player in the team. Passing, cooperating, these are the basic qualities of a professional player. It's just that after Dawn came to the Lakers, these players seemed to have opened their minds and did better than ever.
Although Liming is still dominating the team's offensive organization, it is actually getting more and more like a thousand pounds. When the day comes when the Lakers can really free their ace from the task of offensive organization, the young team will really mature, and the championship will not be far from them.
Now. They're still a little tender. Therefore, the pressure on Dawn, who is maintaining the strongest attack power and taking on the task of attacking and organizing the team, is still very high.
The game continued to develop towards a stalemate and stalemate. Both coaches have done everything they can to increase their team's advantage, but we are still strong and the situation has not changed. Occasional fluctuations in the situation were quickly adjusted by the coach on the underdog. And quickly get back on track with the confrontation.
In the first half, the two sides were dead.
At the end of the third quarter, the two sides still did not decide the winner.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the aces of both sides, who had been on the court for nearly thirty minutes, appeared on the court at the same time. No one will give their opponent the slightest chance. Curry's strong physicality is well known throughout the league, and playing the full game will have no problem with him. And what is not known is. Dawn's relatively short and thin body contained no less energy than the other party. The aces on both sides are in high spirits and strive to win.
The competition was so fierce that the audience at the scene was breathless. Wins and losses are only a fraction of a centimeter. The game is played to this extent depending on whose luck is better. Nearly 20,000 fans at home cheered for the Lakers to emerge from the stalemate by an extremely narrow margin at a critical time. When Dawn hit the last three-pointer, the whistle blew at the same time.
115:110。 The five-point advantage ensured the Lakers' victory in this game.
The second game was played in Los Angeles. The two sides battled hard for another 48 minutes, and this time the Warriors pressed harder. There was no winner in 48 minutes of playtime, and the two sides fought again in overtime, and the Lakers once again won the game by virtue of their home court advantage in the last minute.
After two games, the Lakers led 2-0 and the situation was very good. No fanatical fan, no matter how avid, could not have predicted that their team would get off to a 2-0 start in the second round of the Western Conference before the playoffs began. Lakers fans went crazy, and sports media columnists and basketball celebrities sighed again and again: "It's crazy." When will the Lakers' magic end? "As for the pledge of the young leader of the Lakers to play the Lakers in the finals again, people are not skeptical at this time but are beginning to calculate the feasibility.
The Warriors didn't lose confidence in reaching the Finals because of the two losses. Back at home, the Warriors rallied and vowed to get the score back. Horsemen also do their best to support their team. It was still two evenly matched battles, and it was still fiercely stalemate until the last minute, but this time the luck was no longer on the Lakers' side. History repeats itself, with the home team winning the game twice by a narrow margin.
The big score suddenly became 2:2.
The four games were filled with gunsmoke and darkness. The two teams are evenly matched, and the two aces are against each other. The situation in the west suddenly became confusing, and it was reasonable for anyone to win the final victory.
Dawn has no time to care about the situation in the West at this time, two consecutive defeats on the road have wiped out the Lakers' previous advantage, although the team's morale has not been hit, but if they can't regroup at home to beat the opponent, the young Lakers will sooner or later lose their breath and panic first.
After returning to the home court, the Lakers played passionately with the cheers of the home fans, and the leader of Dawn continued the excellent form of the previous games, leading the team to victory with a powerful offense. The intense situation split up in the second half of the fourth quarter. In the face of the Lakers' suddenly strengthened defense, the Warriors missed consecutive shots with sluggish hands. The Lakers jumped on the momentum and established that winning was the advantage in one fell swoop.
At home, the Lakers are in the next game. Lakers fans celebrated, but the euphoria didn't last long, and the Warriors returned to their home court to turn the tables again, 3-3, and the two sides had to play a crucial battle of life and death.
The seventh battle of life and death in the West was held in Los Angeles. If you win, you will be promoted, and if you lose, you will be eliminated and go home, and the cruelty of the playoffs will be interpreted to the extreme at this time. For the Lakers, a strong team that is too young. This pressure was borne by them for the third time, and their only advantage left was at home (the NBA later changed the format to the 12121 format for the playoffs). The Lakers have yet to lose at home in this season's playoffs. Even in the tournament, the Lakers' home record is also one of the best in the league.
Once the game began, the situation was the same as in the previous six games, with neither side able to achieve a decisive advantage. The situation is deadlocked. Despite their best efforts, both sides were unable to break the stalemate and gain the upper hand.
Stalemate, stalemate, fierce confrontation. This situation is a great test of the psychological endurance of the players on both sides. The Lakers' ground players showed great resilience in the cheers of the home fans, and they never showed any weakness.
This kind of fierce competition is always decided at the last minute of the game. Curry hit a shot that put the Warriors in the lead. But it saved the Lakers a 5-second chance.
150:106。 The Lakers trailed by 1 point.
The last chance to attack will undoubtedly go to Dawn. Returning to the court after a timeout, the Warriors, who were desperately defending, stalked Dawn to the death. No matter how he moves, there are always people sticking to his left and right without giving him any chance to touch the ball. But the Lakers' coordinated routine for the final offense paid off, and the basketball flew toward their leader after a series of pick-and-rolls.
The moment Dawn received the ball, the situation around him fell into his mind without any mistakes. When the basketball is in hand, the right hand is gently pressed down, "Smack!" The basketball that had just flown into his hand slammed into the inside line, and a figure on the inside line jumped high after receiving the ball and dunked the ball into the basket.
Li Jing!
Beautiful pass, fatal blow! With this goal, the Lakers won the battle of life and death and advanced to the Western Conference Finals as a rookie in the playoffs.
The Lakers' ugly duckling myth has reached its peak at this point. And Dawn's stunning performance in the second round of the Western Conference became the hottest topic in the entire league.
……
This year's Western Conference Finals were a bit of an upset, not the Spurs, but the Thunder. The Thunder made a big show this year, knocking out the old Spurs and advancing to the Western Conference Finals. In addition, in the East, the little emperor LeBron James is still the same as before, unstoppable, and Wade and Boss reached the Eastern Conference finals, while his old club Cavaliers, because of the poor performance of Irving and Loew, stopped in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Of course, they are also the ghosts of the Heat.
To get back to the point, the Western Conference Finals have been completely launched in the expectations of people all over the world.
In mid-May, the game between the Lakers and the Thunder team began, because the Lakers were young, and the Thunder had no way to think about it, and they were very inexperienced, so they were the Thunder team first two cities, because the Thunder Shuangshao is the king bomb, the Lakers team is 4 two, and they can't beat it for a while, and then Coach Wharton adjusted his tactics, and the Lakers changed the previous tactics with one shot, and the king was dismantled, as a result, the Lakers team won three wins, and seeing that the game was about to win, the Lakers could get the ticket to the finals. But I found it by accident.
Li Jing sprained his ankle in the sixth game and missed the sixth game because of Li Jing's absence. Liming and others had no intention of fighting, and finally won the game by the Thunder and entered the tiebreaker, and at this moment in the East, the Heat team successfully broke through the boundaries and won the Bulls with a 4-0 attitude, and got the ticket to the finals.
But fortunately, Li Jing was diagnosed by the doctor as not a serious injury, and he could play smoothly in the seventh game. The Lakers breathed a sigh of relief. A group of kids vowed revenge, and their former boss, Kobe, also decided to do his best to win the last game, a fierce game is coming, who can enter the finals! It's the next game.
The pre-match media overwhelming publicity offensive, this game has already been hyped to the extreme. As the highlight of the second round of the competition, tickets for this game are hard to come by. This is one of the reasons why the number of fans traveling with the Lakers has dropped dramatically.
Before the game, everyone on the Lakers team could cause thunderous applause from the audience, shouting their famous cheers. As the league's strongest team and the most offensive team, the Lakers' popularity is indeed beyond the reach of opponents.
While the two sides were warming up, Dawn paid special attention to the Thunder's No. 0 player. During the Lakers' pre-game tactical training, Dawn simulated him.
Thunder No. 0 Westbrook, a black player, has a slightly thin body, slender hands and feet and looks very flexible. The team's second scorer. At the request of the coach, he played point guard, and after the transformation, he quickly became the center of the team and the core hub of the offensive and defensive transition.
As a guard over 190 tall, Westbrook will not be inferior to the opposing tall players on the inside. As a point guard who was born as a small forward, Westbrook has a strong desire to attack. Once you have the opportunity to break inside, you can always create enough problems for the opponent's inside: either attack directly yourself, or take advantage of the situation to pass the ball after messing up the opponent's defense. Create scoring opportunities for teammates. This is similar to the Bulls' ace guard Rose. However, it is not yet known how much the difference in strength between the two people is.
Playing against a well-known master is usually the fastest way to gain fame. Westbrook is the NBA's premier guard. If you can perform well in the duel against them, your momentum will suddenly rise to the top. The NBA scouts will look the other way, too. Strong people are always confident enough. Dawn is confident that he will not be inferior to any of them. All he needs is to prove himself in the game and then step into the NBA and become a superstar.
As a strong team with a tradition of being a central striker. The Thunder's advantage is still on the inside. Although the Thunder have rarely recruited outstanding center students in recent years, they have a tradition of excellent center training. The Thunder still produced quite good center talent. The center player wearing the No. 9 jersey, Ibaka, is the real ace of the Thunder. This year, he has become one of the best centers in the NBA. It can be said that he is basically in the same class as Howard.
The two inside and outside of Serge Ibaka and Westbrook are the capital of the Thunder's reach for the Western Conference Finals this year, and they are also the source of confidence when they face the Lakers.
The game began with the eagerly awaited attention of the fans outside the stadium.
After jumping the ball, the Thunder took possession first. The Lakers' defensive formation is a three-two mixed defense. Clarkson and Dawn were on the outside, while Li Jing, Mozgov and Lore Deng were on the inside. Of course, this kind of position is not fixed, in the defensive tactics based on the bag and the joint defense. It is predictable that the five players on the field are constantly shifting, filling in and assisting in defense.
Westbrook dribbled to the three-point line and was confronted by a defense of Clarkson's height and size. Dawn is just around the corner. Dealing with this kind of defense, the Thunder have quite a mature combination routine. The left shooting guard stabbed in diagonally and crossed left and right with Westbrook - pick-and-roll cover. Westbrook, who shook off Clarkson, met Dawn's defense on the way to the inside. Everywhere he went, but not step-by-step, Dawn almost escorted Westbrook into the interior after controlling his breakout speed.
Inside, Mozgov and Lore Deng are on the lookout.
In basketball, they don't defend themselves with their main scorers and opposing scorers, either because they are trying to conserve their stamina or because they are reducing fouls. In short, the inside basket between the two sides is not a direct dialogue between Li Jing and Ibaka. Defending Ibaka is the Lakers' defensive power forward Lore Deng. Mozgov is on the left and Li Jing is on the right, so when Westbrook bursts inside, he faces a tall and strong Mozgov. This is also a defensive tactic that the Lakers simulated and practiced between them.
Since Westbrook's breakthrough speed had already limited Dawn, when Mozgov faced Westbrook, he encountered almost a stationary Westbrook. A defender who has lost his impact and the opposing center face off on the inside, and the result is predictable. When Mozgov raised his hand, Westbrook's vaunted interior attack power was completely out of play.
In the field of the center, it is no wonder that the defender does not lose in the way of the center!
After all, Westbrook is not an ignorant person, and he can't get rid of it by feints and pass the ball immediately. The basketball returned to the outside line, and the forward who received the ball on the outside quickly made a quick match with the shooting guard, and after two long passes, Ibaka, who moved to the outside limit position of the right penalty area, received the ball, turned his back to the basket and singled Lore Deng, turned around and shot with one hand, and the basketball was deflected out of the basket. Mozgov confiscated the rebound.
The Thunder's first offense failed.
While the Thunder fans were still lamenting Ibaka's missed shot, the Lakers had launched a counterattack. After grabbing the rebound, Mozgov immediately looked for Dawn. When the crowd saw Dawn's raised right hand, they immediately threw the ball with one hand.
Dawn jumped up in the crowd and grabbed the ball in his hands, his eyes catching the situation on the pitch at the same time. As the Thunder's blocking player struggled to stop him from breaking through, Dawn made a move that stunned his opponent. Wrong steps, turns, and the basketball is covered with one hand behind the back. As the Dawn Basketball was behind him, a white figure swept past him like a whirlwind. The bodies are staggered, and the basketball appears in the hands of the Bose figure. And the Thunder players who followed the pursuit blocked Dawn behind.
Ground blocking and demolition in sports battles!
It was Li Jing who caught the ball!
Li Jing did not catch the ball, and quickly rushed two steps without dribbling the ball, and pushed the ball vigorously with both hands, and the basketball flew to the basket after drawing an arc. The figure rabbit under the basket rises and falls, grabs and dunks the basketball into the basket!
Clarkson! It was Clarkson who completed the dunk!
Strike back with lightning speed! Everyone in the NBA knows that the Lakers are fighting back at an astonishing pace. The Thunder also made a lot of preparations before the game, but when it came time to actually face the Lakers. Their players were still stunned.
Three passes, two catches. From passing to scoring, the basketball completed the offense without touching the ground.
A subtle fit.
There is no doubt that this goal is the product of the overall coordination of the Lakers. All four of them showed outstanding individual ability. Dawn's back-to-back cover pass response was repeated over and over again on the TV screen, and was cited as a classic by the commentator's continuous exclamation.
"Yay!" High-fived Xiangqing, "Dry and beautiful!" ”
As soon as the Lakers opened, they gave the ambitious Thunder players a slap in the face!
Ibaka's face didn't make a wave, but Westbrook had a dark face and a bad face. The two ace players of the Thunder team immediately distinguished themselves in terms of psychological quality.
Serve, counterattack! Westbrook, who was dribbling the ball in the same position, was once again exposed to the same defense. This time he didn't choose to break through, ran after a quick pass, and made a pick-and-roll with his teammates before appearing at the three-point line on the right sideline. In his run, the Thunder's basketball passes from the outside to the inside and from the inside to the outside. Two quick passes from beyond the three-point line were out of reach of Lakers players, and the basketball came at the same time as Westbrook took a position in the corner. Catch. Westbrook's front is flat. Facing the basket, he hesitated for a moment, took two steps in the direction of the basket, and then made a jumper, and the basketball flew high and then grazed the net and fell into the basket.
The moment he received the ball, Westbrook suddenly felt that the basket was far away and he was not sure of the shot, so he chose to shoot from closer range.
The so-called feel is like this, if Westbrook reluctantly shoots a three-pointer after receiving the ball, it is probably not enough!
However, a guard does not have the accuracy to shoot from the outside for the time being. That's pretty good news for the Lakers. Li Jing, Clarkson, Liming and the others all had a gleam in their eyes, and their expressions were as if they were obtained.
Counter-attacked. This time it's positional offense and defense.
Outside the perimeter, Dawn got a breakthrough opportunity with Clarkson's assistance, and the Thunder players tried to learn from Dawn to defend Westbrook to control Dawn's speed, but his opponent easily got rid of the tight press and walked away with a sharp stop and turn. When the interior defender pounced to fill in the position, he saw the basketball bounce off his feet and into the basket. In the chaos of the basket, Mozgov hooked up to send the basketball into the basket.
Only two people were involved in this attack, and the high individual quality of the players was evident.
Offensive and defensive castling. Westbrook with the ball tried to break through again, and Dawn repeated his old trick to escort Westbrook, who had slowed down, to Mozgov. Westbrook's tried and tested routine of breaking through the interior and attacking the basket seemed to be stuck in a quagmire this time, and the feeling of not being able to exert his strength was extremely uncomfortable.
In the face of Mozgov's attempt to attack the basket can only be self-inflicted, Westbrook has not lost his mind, and after barely protecting the basketball from snatching it, he laboriously passed the ball out under the response of his teammates, and after two passes on the periphery, forward No. 10 finally delivered the ball to the hands of Ibaka on the inside before Li Jing stopped it. Singled Lore Deng again, and this time Ibaka succeeded.
He is worthy of being the top center player in the NBA. Mozgov praised in his heart, looked at the time on the chronograph and thought to himself: 30 seconds, I hope you can be so patient next time!
Compared to the Lakers, who completed a positional attack in ten seconds, the Thunder were a little slower.
……
There were no waves in the first quarter. The Lakers didn't widen the gap and clearly had room to spare. After the fifth minute, he took turns to take a break. And the Thunder were not able to seize the opportunity to overtake. Of course, the performance of the players on the field is also remarkable, but the smooth cooperation between the three is rare.
Westbrook and Serge Ibaka have shown quality to match their respective positions in the team. (To be continued.) )