Chapter 122: The Second Battle
At the beginning of the second half, Jonny did not continue to play, and he did need to rest after playing the first half, but Jonny did not expect to rest until the end of the game.
It turned out that the Hornets couldn't hold on, and the defense of Jonny in the first half consumed most of their energy, and in the second half, Anfernee Hardaway, who had been tepid, began to rampage, coupled with the addition of Denis Scott and Darryl Armstrong, the Magic defeated the Hornets in one fell swoop in the third quarter, and Jonny won the game without playing in the second half.
Jonny was a little surprised to win the game so easily, is this the playoffs? Jonny felt that the game was too easy to win, and it didn't quite feel like the playoffs he imagined. The playoffs he imagined were the kind of games that were very intense, and it was difficult to tell the winner until the last minute.
As he left the field, Jonny and Glen Les exchanged a malicious greeting and whispered, "We only need 3 games to get rid of you." A soft murmur made Glen Les furious.
"There are 3 games left! It's not certain who wins and who loses! Jonny turned away, leaving Glen Les with a feeble shout.
His clamor is indeed very weak, after all, the Hornets lost by 27 points in this game, this kind of score can be called a hanging, and the next game wants to turn the tables, at least from the face of it is unlikely.
In this game, Jonny only played half a game, scored 19 points, plus 3 rebounds and 6 assists, which is very efficient. The best performer on the Magic team was Anfernee Hardaway, who played in three quarters of the game, scored 28 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and a quasi-triple-double. The best performer on the Hornets' side was Glen Les, who played in more than three quarters and scored 27 points, scoring more than Jonny, but shooting far less than Jonny.
And the big win of the Magic game also made the media one-sided, originally they were more optimistic about the Magic, and now the Magic defeated the Hornets on their home court, there is no need to say anything more in this situation, the Magic is determined to advance! This is the headline of many magazines and newspapers, and in their opinion, there is no suspense about the promotion of magic.
And the Hornets' boast of solving the Magic in four games before the series started is now also seen as a joke, four games? Will the Hornets be able to win three straight games to knock out the Magic? It's impossible to look at it.
The Magic side easily divided the winner and loser, but the duel between the bull and the bullet was not as easy as imagined, and the bullet fought tenaciously until the last moment, and finally lost by 8 points. In the West, the SuperSonics easily beat the Timberwolves, and the Lakers faced the Trail Blazers, which was a little more difficult, but in the end, the Lakers won the game. This is the end of the first game of the first round of the playoffs, and all the teams in the top half have won.
The Magic had a day off in Orlando, and the Hornets were at home again after a day, before this game, the Hornets were quiet, they didn't shout any more rhetoric, maybe it was the fiasco in the first game that stimulated them, and in the Amway Arena, the Hornets players looked cold.
The players of the Magic are very relaxed, and the media has been saying in the past two days that the Magic will win, the Magic has advanced ahead of schedule, etc., and the Magic has long been not worried about their promotion. And Ricky Adrubatu also began to smile after the last match, he had always felt that he had chosen the wrong opponent, but the wild victory in the last game made Riczy Adumbatu feel that his opponent was the right choice again.
The game continued to be played at Amway Arena, in 1997 NBA first round format was still 5 games 3 wins and 2 losses, such a format was very unfavorable to the side with a poor regular season record, and this game continued to be a live broadcast arranged by CCA-V, the last live broadcast of Magic against the Hornets, so that CCA-V gained super high ratings, and a large number of Johnny fans poured in, which made CCA-V taste the sweetness and start a live broadcast of the Magic game.
"Hello everyone, I'm NBC commentator Craig Sager, and I'm excited to give you the second game of the Eastern Conference first-round playoff Magic vs. Hornets, and I'm next to my partner Kevin Harlan, and the game is going to start soon" And in the United States, people are also watching NBC channels to follow this game. In this game, NBC once again fielded a commentary combination of Craig Sagar and Kevin Harlan.
"This is the second game of the series between the Magic and the Hornets, in the first game that ended the day before yesterday, the Magic beat the Hornets by a big score, showing the huge gap between the two teams, and the Hornets don't have much hope in this game, but for the sake of wanting to see a good game, we still hope that the Hornets can come up with something different."
The game has already begun, and Anfernee Hardaway is loitering outside the three-point line with the ball.
And Jonny looked at the player defending him in front of him, a little stunned. The Hornets have changed to defend Jonny again, Tony Smith, the little guard who defended Jonny in the regular season, has come to defend Jonny again, it seems that in order to learn the lessons of the previous game, Tony Smith is very close to Jonny, and compared with Rafael Addison the day before yesterday, Tony Smith is a little more flexible.
And the more flexible Tony Smith is marking Jonny, the purpose is naturally obvious, that is, to follow Jonny all the time, compress Jonny's space, and make it difficult for Jonny to receive the ball or shoot.
However, after the training of the last game, Jonny has gradually become familiar with the confrontation in the playoffs, and Jonny, who has been strengthened physically, is still a little uncomfortable in the face of the aggressive defense of the shorter Tony Smith, although he is still a little uncomfortable, but his performance has been very good, at least much better than the previous game.
The Magic's offense was resolute, and the success of the last game allowed the Magic to continue to carry out the policy of the previous game. However, at the beginning of the game, Jonny noticed that Tony Smith seemed to be pushing a little too hard, and the whole person was attached to himself, and Jonny found that it became difficult to catch the ball.
However, Jonny has gradually adapted to this high-intensity confrontation, Jonny squeezed hard, and then quickly flew back to run, so he got rid of Tony Smith and got space to catch the ball. However, Tony Smith was also quick to react, and he quickly pounced.
As if he had already guessed that Tony Smith would post it again, he turned around and made a back dribble, then turned around 360 degrees, erased Tony Smith, and when Tony Smith couldn't react, he shot directly and hit a mid-range jumper!
"Jonny Lee's mid-range shot, in, Tony Smith is already trying his best to defend, but unfortunately Jonny Lee is too buggy!"
After Jonny scored this goal, he defended reflexively, and the last game Magic won by relying on their defense, on the offensive end they relied too much on Jonny's play, and on the defensive end, they blocked several arrows of the opponent.
And this time, the Magic felt a little different, the Hornets' attack was also very resolute, the ball turned in a circle, and it went to Glen Les's hands, Doug Christie defended in place, but Glen Les's shot was very resolute, and this goal actually went in!
Magic immediately smelled an indescribable smell, as if this game would not be as simple as the last one.