"We're going to have to have a more objective assessment of this Portland Trail Blazers!"

Here's the headline from ESPN after Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. Just like Kenny Smith gave a very pertinent evaluation of the "four cores" of the Trail Blazers when commenting on this game, thinking that they are very complementary.

ESPN agrees that the Trail Blazers are underrated.

It's even more underrated than their regular season finish of third place in the West.

In fact, before the start of this series, most of the media was more optimistic that the Hornets could win and meet the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

What I didn't expect was that it was the Trail Blazers who got the match point.

Even the Warriors, for their part, said it was a surprise.

And in the group of "Ohio Four", Mike Conley said very confidently: "Li Wan, see you in the finals!" ”

Before the start of the Eastern Conference Finals the next day, the media also asked Li Wan, would he look forward to playing against the Trail Blazers on the stage of the Finals?

Li Wan nodded without hesitation: "Man, there's nothing to ask about, no one expects something like that to happen......"

In fact, what Li Wan wants to say is that this is already one of the few things in this alliance that can still make him feel excited.

However, if he said this, it would be easy for some people to figure out his thoughts, so Li Wan did not say this.

That night, the Eastern Conference Finals officially began.

Before the Eastern Conference Finals, the NBA officially announced this year's regular season MVP award.

However, this final prize is also the most suspenseless grand prize of the season.

Li Wan averaged 60 points per game in the regular season, far exceeding Chamberlain's "miracle" performance, if he can't win this award, then who else can win this award?

In the cheers of the Age of Discovery, Tatum appeared in front of Li Wan with the regular season MVP trophy.

When Li Wan won this award, the cheers of the scene filled the entire arena.

It was a historic moment, and when Lee won the regular season MVP trophy, his tally of regular season MVP trophies reached six, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most regular-season MVP trophies in NBA history.

And this year's he ......

Only 31 years old!

became the player with the most regular season MVP and Finals MVP trophies......

What is a "GOAT"?

didn't need Li Wan to put a crown on his head, and there were a few sheep cries.

Li Wan subconsciously glanced up......

I thought the gate of heaven was opened!

Everyone in the Raptors watched quietly as Li Wan stabilized his godhead and added another brilliant diamond to the No. 1 throne in the NBA, but there was a desire to win in his eyes.

Although the game has not yet started, their Raptors' progress and strength this season have been recognized by the outside world, but judging from the support of this series, they have almost no support, and all the media believe that the Columbus Explorers must enter the finals.

This made them very unhappy, and it also made them full of motivation to overthrow the Columbus Explorers at this moment.

The game will start soon.

The big screen on the scene gave the starting lineups on both sides:

"Columbus Explorers: No. 1 Levan, No. 2 Wiggins, No. 3 Carmelo Anthony, No. 4 Sabonis Jr., No. 5 Adams;

Toronto Raptors: Lowry at No. 1, DeRozan at No. 2, Paul George at No. 3, Ibaka at No. 4, Mark Gasol at No. 5; ”

Adams managed to jump to the ball for the Columbus Explorers.

Levan got the ball up front and Paul George intercepted it.

Among the current wing players, Paul George still has something on his side of Leewan's defense.

At least there won't be any distractions.

Li Wan decisively called for a block, and after bypassing the cover, he made a shot at the top three-point position of the arc

Paul George didn't have time to step forward, Mark had to step forward, and Levan grabbed him and lunged forward as well, rushing straight to the basket next to him.

In just one step, Mark Gasol was left behind, 1v1 facing Ibaka, his "hesitant step" made Ibaka stunned in place, and then added it, and completed the layup against Ibaka.

Ibaka followed Li Wan's layup, but could only watch Li Wan put the basket into the frame.

There is no way, if he was still in the Thunder team, he should have been able to keep up with Li Wan's movements, but now his explosive power is less than half, and he can't keep up with Li Wan's speed at all.

2-0！

The Raptors counterattacked, as soon as Paul George got the ball on the wing, Li Wan came up, George originally planned to use the "three threats" to force Li Wan back, but as a result, Li Wan dodged him and waved his hand, directly bullied him forward, and forcibly confronted him. forced him to turn around and press his shoulders against him, barely stabilizing his figure.

Shaking his head slightly, Paul George showed a little helplessness.

He is so powerful this season, averaging more than 25 points per game, but in front of Li Wan, he still seems so constrained.

Is this the sadness of the same era as the "God of Basketball"?

However, he immediately cheered up, turned around again, the expression in his eyes became resolute, he accelerated his dribbling speed, and suddenly changed direction in front of his body, trying to force a breakthrough.

But the entanglement time between the two men had come to 5 seconds, and Li Wan's "Death Entanglement" badge came into play, and he reached out more resolutely and cut the ball down with precision.

The moment Paul George realized that the ball was out of his hands, he also turned to attack and defense, trying to snatch the ball back, but Li Wan's dribbling was very smart, especially when the degree of body movement reached the maximum at the moment, and he could not pose a threat to the ball.

"Hurry up and get out of the way!"

The Raptors head coach's impatient shouting brought Paul George back to his senses.

But at this time, it was too late, and Li Wan held the ball and went straight to the basket.

"Phew!"

Split the buckle with one hand, detonating the entire arena.

Even on the stage of the Eastern Conference Finals, Li Wan still scored 4 points in less than 1 minute.

If this is the end of the game, it will not be 192 points!

How else to say that this is Li Wan's "crazy season"!

Barkley emphasized again: "This is the real peak of Li Wan, and the ones we have seen in the past are the peak of Li Wan that we thought they were!" ”

Paul George was a little frustrated.

This season, Li Wan's "super god" performance was watched by everyone, but as soon as he came up, he was suppressed so badly by Li Wan, he really didn't expect it. I thought that his progress this season was enough to get a little closer to Li Wan!

I didn't expect it......

If you can't do it alone, you can only count on the whole team!

The Toronto Raptors followed the original plan and came up with a defensive formation against Li Wan.

It was this formation that came out much earlier than the Raptors head coach originally expected, which not only made him a little more worried...... After all, this is Li Wan, and his 12-year career has proven that no defensive lineup can trap him all the time. So even if his lineup has a bit of an effect, and he uses it from the beginning, will there be a situation of "a little use, but the effect doesn't last long"?

The Raptors' defensive style is also very simple, the entire outside defense is spread out, not giving Li Wan the opportunity to shoot three-point shots, and the interior line uses Ibaka to assist in defense, and Mark Gasol to defend the way, allowing Li Wan to pass the ball more.

In the eyes of the head coach of the Raptors, if Li Wan passes 20 passes, and the Columbus Explorers also win in the end, then he will admit it!

Being killed by the entire Columbus Explorers is better than being killed by Li Wan alone, right?

And......

Judging from the statistics of the team members of the entire Columbus Explorers regular season, this is completely the season in which Li Wan carried the whole game alone, and it is really hard to say whether the others can have the form of last season.

It's just that the Raptors head coach forgot one thing......

This season's "three-second zone" has been re-expanded.

This makes the speed of Mark Gasol's top defense now, and it can't keep up with Li Wan's movement speed at all.

Let's just put it this way, when Adams comes out to block and dismantle for Levan, and after Levan goes around the cover and stands at the top of the arc, what are you Mark Gasol going to do?

If you come up, you will be wiped by Li Wan as you have just done just now, but if you don't come up, then Li Wan can also shoot a three-point shot without hesitation.

It would have to be a more mobile interior player to step up with Adams.

The head coach of the Raptors also noticed this situation, and switched the positions of Ibaka and Marc Gasol at that time, and let Ibaka go out, although he lost his explosive power, but he must move faster than Marc Gasol.

But "you have a good plan, I have a wall ladder", Li Wan saw that after the opposite side was replaced by Ibaka, after holding the ball and bypassing the cover, he was not in a hurry to make up for the defense in Ibaka, and immediately made a choice.

Instead, let his teammates pull away and give him space to play alone with Ibaka.

So ......

Only the world where Ibaka was injured was reached!

At the end of the first quarter, the head coach of the Raptors insisted on using Ibaka to supplement Li Wan's defense, and the result was that Li Wan scored 24 points in a single quarter, with a shooting rate of 70%!

Basically, it's just a shot.

Even later, Li Wan played two difficult shots.

Because at this time, the lead of the Columbus Explorers also came to nearly 10 points.

And if those two difficult goals are finally scored, the difference will even come to about 15 points.

So when Li Wan's two difficult shots failed to score, the head coach of the Raptors subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

It's scary!

He didn't expect that his arrangement would be useless.

Actually, if it was last season, this set of arrangements would definitely be useful, because the interior line does not require so much mobility. Marc Gasol could have waited behind the free-throw line for Lee Wan to "throw himself into the net".

After the "three-second zone" was re-expanded, the interior line had to stand in front of the free throw line directly before the free throw line, or else he had to stand in the elbow area on either side. But the problem is that the free throw line is too far from the basket, and standing in this position, it becomes very difficult to defend the inside.

In short, it can't stand at all.

Kenny Smith made a bold guess: "I think there's a good chance that Tatum is also a fan of Lee Wan!" ”

Otherwise, how could it be possible to change the "three-second zone" to its original appearance as soon as it came up?

Although Li Wan still won the "three consecutive championships" after the "three-second zone" was reduced, from the perspective of the scene, there are still some restrictive methods, and Li Wan still has to have a trade-off, whether to attack by himself or let his teammates attack.

It's different now, what is the Raptors' defense, but Li Wan can still grasp the Raptors' poor legs and feet and explosive power to continue to hold the ball alone.

Turn the match into "I'm going to fight you alone"!

During the bench rotation time, the Raptors came out with a fierce man "Van Jordan" and hit three-pointers in a row, but fortunately, there were also fierce men on the bench of the Columbus Explorers, and Brogdon, who almost won the "Best Sixth Man" award, came up, and he also just took out the feeling in the microwave oven, and responded to the goals of "Van Jordan" in a row.

The point difference has been in double digits, and when Li Wan plays, everything is over.

Paul George tried his best to make it difficult for Li Wan, but Li Wan didn't entangle him at all, and directly called his teammates to block and dismantle. Constantly singled out the Raptors' interior players.

In the end, on the home court of the Columbus Explorers, Li Wan shot 24 of 32, 9 of 12 three-pointers, and 9 of 9 free throws, scoring 66 points, 17 rebounds and 6 assists, helping the Explorers beat Toronto 126-109, 17 points, and defended the Columbus Explorers' first home court in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The big score is 1-0!

After the game, Paul George shook his head slightly, and the helplessness on his face was overflowing.

He felt powerless from the beginning, and after this game, he felt like he immediately went home and fell asleep, not wanting to think about anything. It's really perverted!

His performance in this game was actually not bad, and he finally scored 30 points, but the problem is that compared with Li Wan's 66 points, the gap is still too big.

Moreover, he didn't have much impact on Li Wan on the defensive end at all, but Li Wan caused him a lot of trouble, and he used 24 shots for these 30 points......

You must know that Li Wan took more than double his score, and only 8 more shots than him.

The pressure was so great that at this moment, he could only shake his head.

In the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Raptors still did not change their formation, they still adhered to the tactics of the first game, they did not change the formation, and the Explorers, as the winning side, had no reason to change the formation.

It was Li Wan's singles, who scored 60 points in the second game in a row, helping the team rewrite the score to 2-0!

The Toronto Raptors came to Columbus with a desire to win, but in the end, they didn't get their way.

Dwayne Casey didn't have too much criticism in front of the camera: "We've done everything we can, but this is Li Wan, even if there are times when you think you've done everything, you still can't win the final victory, which has happened many times in this league!" ”

He also had an all-or-nothing move, but since someone else had used it, he didn't expect it to work wonders.

Let's put it this way, some series aren't over yet, but the pit can be buried first.