bigabreads Chapter 130 Gentleman Sweeping
Chapter 130 Gentleman Sweeping
Chapter 130 Gentleman Sweeping
G1 won the first game with a big score at home, which is gratifying news for everyone on and off the Clippers.
However, the No. [-] in the West is playing the No. [-] in the West, and there is no way to win the game at home. That's outrageous!
After winning G1, the Clippers did not relax their vigilance and celebrated wildly. It was just that after a small gathering in the hotel that night, they began to practice methodically the next day.
"Tomorrow's game must be won. We strive to end this round of the series within five games, so as to allow more time and energy to study the opponents in the next round."
On April 4, before the Clippers' daily training, Dunleavy said this to the Clippers players.
The Clippers played so well in the regular season this year, obviously not satisfied with only winning the first round of the playoffs.
Although it is very likely to meet the defending champion Lakers in the next second round, judging by the regular season record, the Clippers are not without hope of defeating the Lakers and getting close to the Western Conference Finals.
Just a few days ago, Dunleavy was still dreaming. He led the Clippers to win the Western Conference Finals, reached the Finals, and tasted the sweetest victory of a season.
It's a pity that just after winning the championship trophy, the dream ended because of being too happy.
There is no time to daydream now, but it is necessary to win the first round as soon as possible.
The time soon came to April 4, and G20 between the Clippers and the Thunder started quickly.
Today's Thunder performance is still so ignorant, so slow.
As soon as the Clippers came up, they played a 5-0 spurt, forcing Thunder coach Scott Brooks to call a timeout and rearrange tactics.
However, the tactics did not produce any effect. In the end, Durant repeated his singles and finally scored a long two-pointer.
However, it's useless. Durant alone can't beat the game.
The Thunder need others to step up, especially Westbrook.
However, Westbrook doesn't seem to have much desire to attack today.
Perhaps G1 was too obsessed with offense, which had a bad impact on the team. After the game, the coach and teammates pointed out the problem.
Because he is still relatively young and able to listen to other people's opinions with an open mind, Westbrook changed his style of play this game, focusing on organization, trying to do his job as a point guard.
Westbrook is indeed right to play this way, at least the Clippers fans on the field think so.
18 to 25, after the first quarter, the Clippers took a 7-point lead.
Judging from the scores in the first quarter alone, the Clippers actually didn't play very well.
They scored 5 points at the beginning and only scored 20 points later. This also shows that the Thunder improved their defense in the back and the Clippers' offensive efficiency dropped rapidly.
Fortunately, the Thunder's offense did not open up. Under the serious defense of the Clippers, they did not even score 20 points in a single quarter.
Defense won the championship, but also because the Clippers' defense was better, and the Clippers took the lead from the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Thunder obviously paid more attention to offense, but at this time, Lu Yi found a chance and made two three-pointers.
In two rounds back and forth, Lu Yi scored 6 points in a row, and the point difference suddenly widened to 10 points.
"Defend, defend, defend!" Scott Brooks kept clapping his hands on the sidelines, reminding the Thunder players on the field.
However, to tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall, if you want to lock in Lu Yi, you have to double-team more. In this way, the rest of the Clippers stepped forward again.
Now the Clippers point guard is a duo of Iverson and Baron Davis, and because Lu Yi basically played the first half, Gordon couldn't get a second.
Of course, the effect of doing so is still very good.
The Clippers' tactics start from the point guard, and the ball is in the hands of the two point guards.
Once the Thunder increase their defense against Lu Yi, Iverson and Beard, who are good at breakthroughs, will find more offensive opportunities.
Even with the two bottom corners of the Clippers and the basket, there are some easier scoring opportunities.
After the first half, the Clippers, who only played a seven-man rotation, scored 4 points or more.
As for Lu Yi, Iverson and Beard, the three core players all scored more than 10 points.
In contrast to the Thunder, only Durant scored more than 10 points with a large number of shots, and others scored more than 5 points, but the support is obviously not as strong as the Clippers.
52 to 65, the point difference in the first half has been stretched to 13 points.
The game was developing in the direction the Clippers had envisioned in advance, but entering the third quarter, Westbrook suddenly went into a rage, and as soon as he came up, he stopped outside the three-point line and shot confidently.
The Clippers fans stood up from their seats, a little worried that Westbrook could score this goal.
If the goal is scored, the point difference will be reduced to 10 points.
Fortunately, Westbrook's ball did not go towards the basket, but flew towards the timer on the basket with a bang.
The timer was smashed, it didn't fall off, and it didn't get smashed crookedly.
But the on-site referee had to suspend the game and let the on-site staff check the current situation of the timer.
After all, on-site referees will also look at the timer to judge the attack time. In many cases, the timer is related to the direction of the game.
Now is the playoffs, so we must be more rigorous.
It was for this reason that the game was interrupted for a short time, almost a long timeout.
Through the on-site inspection of the equipment, it was found that there was no problem with the timer.
Just when the fans at the scene were making fun of Westbrook's three-pointer and hitting the timer, Westbrook suddenly intercepted Iverson's dribble, followed by a fast break, and went to the basket for dunks.
It is rare for Iverson to be intercepted in a matchup. I didn't expect Westbrook, who was ashamed and courageous, to suddenly come out and do something.
"My, my." Iverson apologized to his teammates.
Although only two points, but this kind of mistake should not be.
Iverson is the Clippers' most experienced player in the playoffs. Anyone on this team can be allowed to make mistakes, only Iverson can't.
"Don't blame yourself, fight slowly, we are all human beings, we all may make mistakes, we must tolerate each other and make progress together, and only then can we go further."
Lu Yi stepped forward to meet Iverson and took the initiative to settle the matter.
The score is still ahead, one turnover, no big deal.
The Clippers resumed their offense. The third quarter should have been Lu Yi's performance, but the Thunder's defense against Lu Yi was still very tight.
At this time, the Thunder's defense is somewhat polarized. Either pull out from the outside to defend against Lu Yi, or shrink inside to prevent Iverson or Beard from rushing to the basket.
After the Clippers played a few times and the scoring efficiency was not high, Lu Yi quickly commanded: "Chris, come out, come out!"
Lu Yi called Kaman to come out to help him pick and roll. As long as one person is blocked and Lu Yi is not double-teamed, he can take a step inside the three-point line and shoot a long two-pointer or a half-block basket.
Although these two areas are not Lu Yi's fixed points, Lu Yi's mid-range attributes are also fully filled.
As long as Lu Yi can run out of position, shoot quickly, and no one blocks the shot, even if there is an open shot, the hit rate must not be too bad.
"Go in, go in again, today's Lu Yi played like Michael Jordan!"
In the third quarter, Westbrook was getting better. After hitting the timer, he seemed to have opened up the two lines of Ren and Du. Before Lu Yi broke out, he had already scored 8 points on 5 of 10 shots.
Although the scoring efficiency is not high, it is already very good and tough to have such a scoring performance while the Clippers are hitting iron again and again and the offense cannot be used.
However, at this moment, Lu Yi suddenly found a way to win. With the help of Kaman's pick-and-roll, he kept getting rid of the defenders and went to the middle distance for singles.
In today's era when playoff star singles are advocated, Lu Yi's style of play just fits the aesthetics of current fans.
Although Lu Yi's three-pointers caught people's attention again and again until he was shocked, the shock of consecutive mid-range shots was not bad at all.
In particular, Lu Yi relied on the middle distance, cut the flesh with a blunt knife, and threw Thunder to death little by little. The damage to Thunder's overall morale was also visible to the naked eye.
After Lu Yi scored 12 points in a row, although Lu Yi temporarily handed over the ball due to physical problems, the Thunder did not take the opportunity to narrow the score. Instead, they fought with the Clippers to stalemate the situation.
In the last 2 minutes of the third quarter, Lu Yi, who was still on the court, continued to attack with the ball and called a pick-and-roll.
Although Kaman is already sitting off the court, Scola can also cooperate with Lu Yi to play the pick-and-roll.
Even the Thunder felt that Lu Yi was going to repeat the same trick, so the insiders had to save when Lu Yi broke into the three-point line.
When this happened, Lu Yi seized the opportunity and passed the ball backhand to Scola, who was under the basket, creating two easy dunk opportunities for Scola.
The Clippers who stabilized in the third quarter are equivalent to grasping the victory of the game in advance.
In the fourth quarter, Lu Yi finally had some rest time. The Clippers played half a quarter without Lu Yi, and the point difference was still more than 15 points.
Just after Lu Yi re-entered the field, the Thunder withdrew their main force and surrendered ahead of time.
There is no way not to admit defeat, there is a gap in strength, not to mention that Lu Yi has found a way to break the Thunder's defensive strategy.
You know, Lu Yi didn't shoot that many three-pointers in this game.
The middle distance in the third quarter alone almost killed the Thunder.
In the second half of the fourth quarter, the Thunder's main force has played 378 minutes.
If he continued to play for the last 6 minutes, he would only be slowed down due to lack of energy, and would be shot by Lu Yi continuously with three-pointers.
It was Lu Yi's huge shooting threat and stable to terrifying shooting ability that forced the Thunder to retreat.
The Thunder's move is also a better way to fight for the rest of the next two days, hoping to get back a game when they return to the home court.
April 4, Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma.
The series between the Clippers and the Thunder has reached the third game.
If the Thunder can't improve in today's game, they may be taken away by the Clippers 4-0.
Thunder players themselves also know that today's game must be a last stand.
With a 2-0 start, G3 seemed to be the battle of Tianwangshan.
If you can't beat it, you will be swept away, but if you can beat it, you still have a chance.
The united Thunder really broke out. Durant and Westbrook scored 54 points and won the crucial G7 by 3 points.
Immediately following April 4, the Clippers in an away game did not disappoint the fans in Los Angeles.
G4的卢易也爆发了一波，全场27投13中，三分8投6中，罚球8投8中，正好砍下40分。
It was also with the help of Lu Yi's crazy scoring performance that the Clippers once again won a playoff victory with a 13-point advantage, pushing the score of the two sides to 3-1.
And two days later, the Clippers who returned to Los Angeles also satisfied owner Sterling.
If the Clippers continue to score 2 points at the Thunder's home court, there will be no home game with a full house and a full house today.
Without this game, who should I turn to for the less money I earned?
One more home game and one more game income.
Sterling, who doesn't care about the championship, actually looks forward to the Clippers losing the game tonight.
However, Dunleavy did not agree to Sterling's excessive demands.
How to play tonight's game, or how to play.
After all, as a head coach, if he can lead the team to win the championship, will it be difficult to find another job?
No, on the contrary, not only will it be easy to find a job, but you can also sign a big contract.
Of course, even if the Clippers can't make it to the Finals this year, as long as they can perform better in the second round, or even the Western Conference Finals, it will not be difficult for Dunleavy to find another job.
And working under the most stingy boss in the league, not to mention whether he was tired or not, the salary alone was quite chilling.
Once there is an opportunity to find another job, Dunleavy will definitely not miss it.
It is precisely because of this that Sterling does not have much influence on Dunleavy now.
Closer to home, on April 4, at the Staples Center, the game between the Clippers and the Thunder reached a critical moment.
As soon as the game came up, Kaman helped the Clippers jump to get the ball. However, the Clippers failed to score in the first wave of offense. Instead, they were counterattacked by the Thunder and lost two points first.
Fortunately, the Thunder relaxed after scoring two points.
Looking back, Iverson made a fast break and immediately got the two points back.
After that, Durant wanted to continue to build an advantage for the team, but missed the opportunity because of Ariza's defense.
Looking back, the Clippers once again used the fast break to force a tactical foul from the Thunder, and then Lu Yi called two pick-and-rolls in a row, and finally found a chance to complete a mid-range shot.
brush--
The goal was scored, 2 to 4, and the Clippers led the entire game, and that's how it started.
After Lu Yi tasted the sweetness and continued to call the pick-and-roll, the Thunder's defense soon had problems.
As time went by, the Clippers not only stabilized the situation, but also slowly widened the gap.
The Thunder also knew that this was not going to work, so they had to rush to shoot a few three-pointers and gamble their lives.
If the fate is hard enough and the three-pointer is used to catch up with the point difference, then maybe the Thunder have a chance to move the score back and bring the game back to Oklahoma.
However, it is obvious that if you lose your life bet, you will lose completely.
The league doesn't pay much attention to three-pointers these days, and the Thunder's three-pointers are not particularly stable.
G5 bet on three-pointers, if they can't make the first few shots, then don't even think about making subsequent shots.
Soon, the Clippers further widened the point difference at a faster speed by protecting the defensive rebound and then pushing the fast break.
The first half has not yet finished, and the point difference has approached 20 points.
Perhaps the mentality exploded. In the third quarter, although the Thunder did not shoot three-pointers indiscriminately, many players rushed inside to get blocked, one after another, just like calabash babies.
In this way, before the third quarter was over, Lu Yi left the game early to rest.
After all, the opponents in the second round have long been waiting for work in Los Angeles.
As early as two days ago, the Lakers easily swept their handpicked opponent, the Jazz, with a 4-0 record.
In other words, when the Clippers solve the Thunder, the second round of the playoffs will soon start.
89 to 110, the Clippers once again won the Thunder by a big score and bid farewell to the first round of the playoffs with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss.
(End of this chapter)