Chapter 129: The sweep is just around the corner
――As Lin Fei made a three-pointer at halftime, the Los Angeles Clippers at home took a 17-point lead, such a point difference added a lot of pressure to the Nuggets, the atmosphere in the visiting team's locker room at halftime was extremely depressing, while the home team's Clippers' locker room was very relaxed, but their relaxation was not used to celebrate their big lead but to try their best to relax themselves, and strive to continue to face the game with 100% spirit in the second half.
After the start of the second half of the game, the Nuggets still found that there was still no way to contain the Clippers' offensive, and Lin Fei frequently used his breakthroughs and fake shots to send assists to his teammates after the start of the second half, when the Nuggets' defensive center of gravity began to bias to cut off the passing route between Lin Fei and his teammates, Lin Fei turned on his personal offensive mode again, and scored eight points in a row to expand the Clippers' lead from 15 points to 20 points. Even if Anthony started to recover in the second half, even if Billups had the same hot touch as he did in the first half, he couldn't recover from the fact that the team was behind by 20 points, and the Clippers had a 26-point lead over the Nuggets by the end of the third quarter.
"This is a **naked massacre, and it will also shatter the illusions of Denver people, Black Eight? The Denver people themselves slapped themselves in the face. Barkley said at the end of the third quarter.
"That's true, the Nuggets players obviously didn't think of the current situation, now what they have to do is to keep their mentality, don't be too anxious, work hard for a few more minutes in this game, if you still can't get the score close to 20 points, it is better to give up this game completely, and use the rest of the time to exercise and train the bench, the gap between the bench lineups between the two sides in this game is obvious." Jeff Van Gundy gave advice to the Nuggets.
George Carr's look of disappointment was palpable, but he decided to fight again for the full twelve minutes of the fourth quarter, and at the beginning of the fourth quarter, all five main players were on the floor, and the Clippers were all bench lineups, and when Anthony and Billups teamed up to chase six points, Lin Fei returned to the court.
As soon as he got on the court, Lin Fei directly threw an unreasonable three-point shot on the top of Deng Tai Jones's head, and then the offense and defense switched, Lin Fei once again predicted the success and directly stole the Nuggets' horizontal pass to complete the fast-break dunk, pulling the difference to 25 points.
Then Anthony's shot brushed out of the frame, and the Clippers quickly turned defense into offense, Lin Fei, Andre Miller and Artest played a perfect match, and finally Artest, who had a slippery baseline, made an easy layup, and the game completely entered garbage time.
The entire Staples Center was filled with happy smiles, and all the pre-game saliva vanished at this moment.
At 112:85, the Los Angeles Clippers shocked the league with a 27-point victory.
Lin Fei contributed 32 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds to the Clippers, and also added a little chip to his own regular season MVP, although the media's support for Lin Fei to win the MVP is far behind LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
The big win in Game 1 will undoubtedly be a big morale boost for the whole team, especially for this relatively young Clippers team.
'We just tried to do the best we could, we showed that we can do it, and it wasn't a win for me alone, it's everyone's hard work that got to where we are. This is what Lin Fei said in an interview after the game.
After the game between the Clippers and the Nuggets, another playoff game in the West was played between the Clippers' fellow brothers Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Hornets, and after two and a half hours of play, the Lakers at home beat the Hornets 113-100 to get off to a good start to the playoffs, and Bryant scored a team-high 28 points and 8 assists.
At the same time, two games were played in the East, one against the defending champions Celtics, the second-place champion in the East, against the young Chicago Bulls, and one against the Orlando Magic against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Green Shirts without the "Wolf King" Kevin Garnett were attacked by the Bulls led by the champion Lang Derrick Loss at home in the North Shore Garden of the TD in Boston, and the game was extremely intense, Pierce missed one of two free throws in the final minute to win the regular season, and in the final minute of overtime, Ray Allen missed a three-point shot, and the Bulls won 113-110, while Derrick Rose's career playoff debut made history with 36 points and 11 assists.
The other game was also up and down, the Philadelphia 76ers, who were 18 points behind, staged a big comeback, and chased the points frantically in the fourth quarter, and the star Iguodala scored the winning goal when there were 2.8 left, and finally the 76ers won 100-98 away against Orlando.
Two days later, Staples Arena continued to welcome the challenge of the Denver Nuggets, and the Nuggets, who were striving for victory, started with high morale, and the Nuggets once had a solid upper hand with morale, and after Billups shook off Andre Miller's jumper, the first quarter ended and the Nuggets took a six-point lead.
In the second quarter, there were 8 points and 28 minutes in the second quarter, Lin Fei faced Anthony's defense and hit a direct stop-and-go jump shot, and then successfully broke through Dundee Jones's defensive layup, and then gave Anthony a hot block, and Lin Fei, who grabbed the defensive rebound, used his speed to tear apart the Nuggets' hastily woven defense and then dunk successfully, one person scored six points in a row to turn the situation of falling behind by ten points into four points.
Although the Nuggets strengthened their marking, and even adopted double or even multi-person packing, Lin Fei, who entered the state, had no one to stop the fouls, three-pointers, breakthroughs, and shots as if he was showing his personal offensive means, Lin Fei single-handedly helped the Clippers change the situation of falling behind in the score, when the Clippers who were fighting at home at the end of the first half, they led the Nuggets by 4 points, and in the second quarter, Lin Fei scored a terrifying 24 points and only missed one shot.
Lin Fei's madness in the second quarter was like a wake-up technique, and the Clippers began to fully recover in the second half, although the Nuggets fought back and scored frequently under the leadership of Billups and Anthony, but the Clippers hit four consecutive three-pointers from the outside to control the Nuggets' counterattack momentum.
However, at the end of the third quarter, after Lin Fei went off the court, the situation on the court changed again, Dundee Jones, who was responsible for defense, scored 3 empty three-pointers in a row to close the score of the Nuggets' backwardness, but the Nuggets' counterattack was not long, and Lin Fei, who re-entered the court after Mike Dunleavy asked for a timeout, turned on his personal offensive mode again, first ran to receive a pass from Chalmers and hit a three-point shot, and then scored an aerial relay dunk under the basket, and when the third quarter ended, the Nuggets trailed the Clippers by a full ten.
In the first three quarters, Lin Fei, who frequently turned on the personal offensive mode, encountered a physical crisis, at this time, the function of physical recovery training was fully reflected, just like in the regular season, when Lin Fei rested on the bench for five minutes, he was replaced by Mike Dunleavy, Lin Fei, who had recovered his physical strength, once again became a bug-like existence, and when there was one minute left in the game, Lin Fei retreated to the three-point line and jumped out of the three-point line, and Deng Tai Jones's defense failed again, With this goal, the Clippers stretched the margin to 10 points, and with one minute left in the game, the 10 points difference ensured the victory for the Clippers.
110:103, a four-point win allowed the Clippers to successfully defend two home courts, leading 2-0.
In the history of the NBA, in the best-of-seven series, the team that fell behind 0-2 won the series only 14 times, and the other 226 times ended in defeat, indicating that the probability of a comeback after falling behind 0-2 is only a pitiful 5.83%, although the data is only a reference, it undoubtedly shows how difficult the Nuggets' road to the first round of the playoffs is.
"The Nuggets Holiday Is About to Begin" -- that's the headline of the Los Angeles Times' sports section.
"Game 3 is only a win" -- that's the headline of the Denver Post, and it's true that if the Nuggets can't win the Clippers at Pepsi Center at home Game 3, they will face a 0-3 situation, and then it would be a miracle to turn the tables around, so Game 3 became a top priority.
On April 24, 2009, the Nuggets welcomed the Los Angeles Clippers at Pepsi Center at home, and with the help of more than 20,000 fans, the Nuggets burst out with great combat effectiveness, and the inside line beat Tyson Chandler up, and Chandler had to rest after two fouls in just five minutes in the first quarter, and Roy Hibbert, who replaced Tyson Chandler, was a rookie, and the heavy responsibility of Hibbert performed very badly, and when the first quarter ended, the Nuggets led by as many as 12 points at home, Such a lead and the momentum shown by the whole team made the fans very satisfied.
However, there are always people who will not satisfy the people of Denver, Lin Fei, who played the first quarter, continued to play in the second quarter, and once again turned on the personal mode, three consecutive unreasonable three-pointers narrowed the difference at once, and Lin Fei's three points were like opening a magic box for the Clippers, and the Clippers completely threw away the bad feeling in the first quarter.
Lin Fei willingly became the team's offensive transporter, and after the end of the first half, the Clippers took a two-point lead, while Lin Fei handed out eight assists.
In the second half, the Clippers continued to move forward with interest, and the Nuggets, despite trying as hard as they could, dominated the interior, but still could not stop the Clippers' ferocious firepower, and when the third quarter ended, the Clippers extended their lead by ten points.
In the final moments of the fourth quarter, many fans at Pepsi Center had already left, and they couldn't believe their eyes, and the wonderful start of the 12-point game was not a victory but a glaring defeat.
"Lin, it's Lin again, breaking through with the ball, and Dundee Jones' defense looks a little embarrassed in front of Lin's breakthrough." With the voice of the commentator, Lin Fei successfully broke into the interior, attracted the bag and sent a pass, helped McRoberts complete the dunk, and also got 14 assists to set a personal playoff record, and the Clippers also sealed the win.
3:0, the Nuggets are already out of most of their bodies, and the sweep is just around the corner.
(To be continued)