Chapter 49: Counterpoint Lillard
"Li Tian's performance today is really good, if he can get such an opportunity every night, maybe Li Tian can really play."
"Scored the highest 14 points of the two teams at halftime, is Li Tian going to run for 20 today?"
At halftime, Li Tian's performance today is attracting heated discussions among domestic fans, after scoring 10 points in the first quarter of the first quarter, in the second quarter, Li Tian scored 4 points in 2 of 3 shots in the last four and a half minutes, which allowed him to score 14 points in the half, and such a score was the highest of the two teams.
Before this, there was almost no broadcast of the game about the king in China, and even if there was a broadcast, Li Tian would not necessarily play, speaking of which, it was the first time that so many domestic fans watched Li Tian's game.
And Li Tian's performance is naturally a little unexpected by domestic fans, after all, purely from Li Tian's previous playing data, neither the playing time nor the data on the field are too outstanding.
Relatively speaking, Li Tian's performance did not surprise the Kings fans at the scene, since the game against the Thunder, Li Tian has had some very good performances from time to time.
Li Tian is naturally very satisfied with his performance, but he feels a little regretful that in the first half, he has not had the opportunity to play against Lillard, and he has always remembered what Lillard said before the game.
"Hopefully there will be chances like that in the second half!" After halftime, coming to the side of the court from the locker room, Li Tian muttered in his heart.
The first half was a relative stalemate between the two teams, with the score at 53:55, and the Kings led but the lead was very small. At the start of the second half, the stalemate was not broken because neither team could find the attacking feeling.
After halftime, both teams seemed to have lost their shooting touch, and although both sides seemed to play the court, neither team was able to complete the offense, and neither team scored for nearly three minutes, much to the dismay of the Kings fans on the spot.
In the middle of the court, Thomas dribbled to the halfcourt and did not choose to pass, and after signaling Thompson to come forward to block the pick-and-roll, Thomas rushed into the three-point line with the help of cover. Wobbling from mid-range and finding a bit of space from JJ Hickson's defense, Thomas threw the ball out on a pull-up jumper.
Thomas did a very good job of shaking or shooting the ball, the only thing he didn't do well was failing to put the ball in the basket.
"Bang!" The basketball smashes on the hoop.
"Bang!" Immediately after, another louder voice rang out.
DeMarcus ...... Cousins! At this time, the DJ shouted loudly.
After the basketball popped, Cousins pressed Aldridge on the inside to complete the dunk, igniting the dreary scene and finally breaking the deadlock on the spot.
For the next few minutes, the margin hovered between two and five points, with the Kings failing to widen the margin and the Trail Blazers failing to complete the comeback.
As we entered the final five minutes of the third quarter, there was a sudden change in the court.
Batum, who transferred the ball to the outside after Lillard broke through to the interior and encountered a trap, the Kings' players immediately rushed over to make up for the defense, but Batum transferred the ball to Matthews at this time, and the Kings' defense was disrupted at the moment, and after Matthews received the ball, no Kings player could keep up.
Matthews hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 67-67.
The Kings wanted to launch a quick counterattack, and Thomas beckoned for the ball as soon as Cousins got the ball on the baseline. Cousins sent the ball out, and Lillard suddenly swooped out to steal the ball.
After getting the ball, Lillard rushed straight to the basket, and the basket was completely defenseless at this time, and Lillard easily dunked.
At 69:67, after the Trail Blazers scored five points in a row to complete the comeback, the Kings had become behind, and seeing this, Jim Ain immediately stopped hesitating and called a timeout.
"The Kings lost points too quickly, and they were overtaken at once, so let's see if the Kings' coach will make any adjustments after the timeout...... Okay, the timeout is over, let's take a look, the king really made an adjustment, and Li Tian is on the court! ”
Jim Ain replaced Li Tian, who was in very good offensive form in this game, and replaced Thomas, while on the inside, Robinson came on to replace Hayes, who had played before.
"Tick!" As Thorton sent the ball to Evans on the sidelines, Li Tian also began to run actively, just now in the timeout, Ain assigned him a very simple task, actively run to disrupt the opponent's defense, and if there is a chance, he will shoot decisively.
For Li Tian's destructive power, the Trail Blazers had a full understanding in the first half, and after seeing Li Tian running at this time, not only Matthews followed closely behind, but the rest of the Trail Blazers players also assisted in blocking it.
But on the King's side, under Jim Ain's arrangement, the players also covered for Li Tian one after another, especially Robinson, who had a tacit understanding with Li Tian, came on the court, and the quality of the cover was higher.
After a lap in the half, Li Tian flashed space in the middle distance on the right side to receive Evans' pass.
Li Tian's shooting after receiving the ball in the first half left a deep impression on the Trail Blazers players, and after seeing Li Tian receive the ball, Matthews, who followed closely, immediately pounced, and JJ Hickson on the other end also stepped forward and raised his hand to defend.
Ignoring the two defenders who were rushing towards him but still had a distance, his eyes were staring at the basket in the distance, and Li Tian threw the ball against the defense of the two.
The basketball came out of its hand and fell straight into the basket as if it had been accurately calculated.
"Huh!" Two point hit!
At 69:69, the king tied the score again! Li Tian also raised his score to 16 points at this time, a statistic that obviously attracted the attention of domestic commentators.
"Li Tian scored his 16th point, and before that, his highest score was 15 against the Thunder, and if Li Tian maintains this offensive form, he should be able to score 20 points today."
"It's okay, the feel is still there!" In the field, the corners of Li Tian's mouth were slightly raised after completing this goal, as long as the shooting touch was still there, combined with his off-ball running, he was not worried about not getting an offensive opportunity.
The Trail Blazers attacked, Lillard and Aldridge broke through after blocking, Evans was blocked by Aldridge and was unable to keep up at the first time, and when he followed the defense, he was blown a foul by the referee.
"Tick!" Immediately after, the referee blew the whistle again, and the Trail Blazers made a substitution.
Eric Mayno replaced Aldridge, and the Trail Blazers head coach actually changed to a large and four small lineup at this time.
After seeing this lineup, Li Tian's eyebrows furrowed, Eric Mayno should play the point guard position after he came on the court, and in this case, Lillard would be promoted to point guard......
"Finally a chance to align!" Staring straight at Lillard, Li Tian walked over quickly.
Stopping in front of Lillard, Li Tian felt the fighting spirit bursting out in his body, and he wanted the other party to remember him and pass this game!
At the same time, domestic fans also noticed this scene and began to speak in the chat room.
"Li Tian and Lillard are in the opposite position."
"It's finally in the right place, Lillard is good, but Li Tian is also in good shape and performance today."
"Li Tian, kill him, he will know you!"
(PS: Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the lights are here to wish you a happy Mid-Autumn Festival and a happy family!) )