Chapter 147: Stalemate
"Tick!" Despite calling a timeout not long ago, Rivers had to call a timeout again.
The momentum of the king in this section is too strong!
The 13-point difference was tied in the blink of an eye, and at this time, it was only four and a half minutes before the start of the second half, and in four and a half minutes, the Clippers themselves only scored 4 points, but the Kings scored 17 points.
In this section, the king's offense swept away the unhappiness of the first half, almost every goal must be scored, and he played a quick counterattack in a row, and he scored in a few seconds.
Rivers was also very dissatisfied with this, and when the players came to the sidelines, he couldn't help yelling at the players: "Retreat quickly, follow your own players, damn it, how can that guy have such a big empty space!" Blake, Andre, stick to the guy who grabbed the rebound, don't let them pass the ball out of the first place to get a quick counterattack......"
Rivers also understands that the Kings can play a quick counterattack, on the one hand, naturally because of the problems of their team's retreat, but in the final analysis, it is because the team's offense is not playing well.
Readjusting the lineup, Rivers replaced Dudley, who had a bad hand in the game, with Crawford.
At the other end, Li Tian and others were greeted and praised by their teammates, and Adelman began to lay out tactics after praising the players' performances.
"Tyrek, Andre, if you have the chance, continue to push quickly, but the opponent will definitely pay attention to the defensive pass, so we have to be careful not to make mistakes at the back. If we can't find a quick counter-attack, we start to change our offensive tactics, DeMarcus, you mentioned high ......"
Adelman also knew that the Clippers would definitely put a lot of effort into defending their team's defensive counterattack in the future, so during this timeout, he spent more effort on the offensive tactics of the position.
The timeout called out by the Clippers ended, and the players of the two teams returned to the court, because the score was tied, and the atmosphere on the scene was far less enthusiastic than before.
The Clippers took the lead on offense, and Paul controlled the ball steadily, and he knew very well that this shot was important for the Clippers, not just to get the team back ahead, but also to improve the team's morale.
It's Paul and Griffin's blocking again, the Clippers' most commonly used tactic, after Griffin blocked Evans, Paul once again entered the three-point line, and this time, he began to accelerate from outside the three-point line, so that Thompson, who came out of the delay, could only change his defense and move towards the basket.
Whether it is Iguodala or Li Tian, they dare not casually shrink to the inside to assist in defense at this moment, and the two are opposite Crawford and Redick at this time, both of whom have high lethality on the outside.
The task of helping the defense fell to Cousins, who moved to the right of the three-second zone, ready to assist Thompson in defending Paul, but Paul turned his eyes to Jordan Jr.
Seeing this, worried about the cooperation of Paul and Jordan Jr., Cousins was busy stopping and preparing to withdraw the defense.
Seizing this opportunity, Paul suddenly rushed forward and threw a shot, hitting the board.
The fans in the stadium were relieved to see the ball hit the rebound and fall into the basket, and the team finally finished the offense, at least so that they didn't have to worry about falling behind immediately.
The Clippers players on the court were not so easy, with one side arranging for someone to delay the King's serve, while the rest of the players rushed to the halfcourt to retreat. Rivers deliberately emphasized the need to defend the Kings' quick counterattack during the timeout, and they naturally did not dare to be careless at this moment.
Under the Clippers' pressing defense, the Kings' counterattack did not work, and with Adelman's reminder and tactical arrangement, the Kings players on the court were well prepared for this.
After Evans controlled the ball outside the three-point line, Cousins immediately mentioned receiving the ball on the right side of the free throw line, taking the Clippers' best interior defender Jordan Jr. out of the restricted area and completely emptying the baseline.
Evans, who completed the pass, quickly cut to the basket, and beside him, Chris Paul followed closely, blocking between Evans and Cousins, not giving Evans a chance to catch the ball and attack the basket directly.
Evans' cut was originally only the first attempt of the King's attack, and he was not able to get a direct offensive opportunity, Evans turned to the left middle distance to stand near the baseline, and at the same time, Li Tian, who was originally in the bottom left corner, began to run along the baseline.
In the next second when Evans stood still, Li Tian appeared on the bottom line with Redick, and with the help of Evans's cover, Li Tian successfully threw Redick away, and then rushed into the three-second zone.
Paul's first change of defense followed Li Tianchong back to the three-second zone, Li Tian saw that Paul followed so closely, so he didn't try to catch the ball in the three-second zone, and continued to rush to the right, he ran to the side of Thompson, who was covering the middle distance on the right, and continued to rush forward almost against Thompson's body.
Paul, who was following closely behind, saw that if he continued to run from this side, he couldn't stop Li Tian from catching the ball at all, so he immediately flashed sideways to the other side of Thompson, and Griffin immediately flashed out from Thompson's side to delay Li Tian's run.
Paul's idea is very good, if he moves from the line, he is closer to Cousins, not only can he continue to block between Li Tian and the opponent, once Cousins passes, he even has a chance to cut the ball directly.
However, his assumption was quickly shattered, and when he rushed past Thompson's side, he was shocked to find that Li Tian's figure had disappeared!
Reverse run! As soon as he rushed past Thompson, seeing that he was about to be pasted by Griffin, Li Tian suddenly stopped and ran back and rushed to the basket again!
At this time, Paul was rushing past Thompson, and his vision was completely blocked by Thompson and Griffin, and he didn't notice it at all!
"Beautiful reverse run, Li Tian ran back to get rid of Paul and cut inside, the basket is empty again, chance!"
"Oops!" After the domestic commentator clearly restored the scene that happened on the field, Paul also reacted quickly, although he didn't see what happened, but he could guess the approximately, but at this time he was obviously powerless to stop Li Tian's attack.
Running back into the three-second zone, Li Tian took Cousins' pass, and at this time, the Clippers' basket was empty!
Although there is no space for Li Tian to jump to complete the dunk, there is still no problem with completing a layup, and after grabbing the ball with his right hand, Li Tian easily lays up, and the two points are in hand!
At 66:66, the two teams were tied again.
The scores of the two teams began to rise alternately, and the Clippers significantly strengthened their defense after that timeout, and the Kings did not have the opportunity to play a quick counterattack, and the shooting percentage was no longer as perverted as it was at the beginning of the second half.
However, with the revival of Li Tian and Iguodala's outside shooting touch, the King's positional offense has been completely revitalized, and even if the Clippers' subsequent offense has improved, the Kings have not fallen behind.
On the other end, the success rate of the Clippers' offense also began to increase, and they gradually stabilized their position. Seeing that the situation was stabilizing, the two sides began the normal rotation of the lineup again.
82:82 draw, the third quarter ended, the two teams tied again, this quarter, the Kings dominated 35:22. As the biggest change for the team, Li Tian scored only 6 points in the first half, and scored 12 points in a single quarter in this quarter.
The Kings' bench players also played well, and although Thomas's offensive form was still not good, with the active fighting of Middleton, Robinson and this year's rookie McClymer, they still made them equal to the Clippers' bench lineup led by Crawford.
After entering the fourth quarter of the game, the two sides continued to stalemate, even if the main lineups of the two sides returned to the court, the score was still extremely close, and the score difference was not more than 3 points.
This situation continued to the end of the fourth quarter.