owlsbooks Chapter 584 New forces
Chapter 584 New forces
Chapter 584 New forces
Without accident, the Clippers easily killed the Lakers and entered the Western Conference Finals of this year's playoffs.
This is almost everyone's expectation. The young Clippers are extremely strong, and the only team in the West that can stop them seems to be the Thunder.
But the Clippers had no accidents, but the Thunder had an accident. Their opponent in the first round was the young Golden State Warriors.
The Thunder played smoothly in the first two games, leading the Warriors 2:0, and saw another round of easily eliminated opponents in the series.
As a result, in the third game, the Thunder was strongly blocked by the Warriors at the Oracle Arena and returned in a big defeat.
But this is harmless, losing an away game, the overall strength of the Thunder is still dominant.
But in the fourth game, the Thunder suffered a fatal injury. Russell Westbrook, who had always been an iron man, collided with Draymond Green during the game and seriously injured his knee.
After that, Westbrook never returned to the court. The Thunder, which lacked the core generals, completely lost their rules on the court. They were taken away by the Warriors in a wave of offense and lost another game.
The series was tied 2:2, and the Warriors evened the series.
After the game, Westbrook underwent an MRI examination, which turned out to be a very serious meniscus tear, and he was directly declared out for the season.
Westbrook's reimbursement basically announced the early end of the Thunder's season.
Even if they can beat the Warriors and reach the semifinals, they can't go further in the playoffs without Westbrook.
And how could the young Golden State Warriors let go of the opportunity to step on Thunder's corpse and move on?
In the crucial battle of Tianwangshan, the two sides contributed an extremely exciting double overtime battle in this year's playoffs.
Damian Lillard scored 22 points, Klay Thompson scored 30 points, and the two sides fought fiercely to the last moment.
Kevin Durant was exhausted and missed a mid-range lore shot at the last moment. The Thunder lost 114:115, with a gap of 1 point, and lost the Tianwangshan battle at home.
Although Durant scored 44 points in this game, without the assistance of Westbrook, the overall strength of the Thunder has collapsed, and the morale of the team has dropped sharply.
On the contrary, the Warriors' morale was boosted by this, and they returned to Oakland in Game 100. The Warriors did not give the Thunder a chance, 95:[-], suppressed from beginning to end, and sent the champion favorite Thunder back to their hometown.
Since the Warriors entered the semifinals in 2007 when the Mavericks entered the black eight, they reached the conference semifinals again and successfully completed the black seven.
Although there was an element of luck in winning this round of the series, and the opponent lost the general, the performance of the Warriors is still very exciting.
If they don't win Game 0 and fall behind 3:[-], the Thunder may still win the series even without Westbrook.
The Warriors seized the opportunity, and their young players showed tough combat effectiveness at critical moments. It is clear that a new star in the league is rising.
In another first-round series, the Grizzlies played against the Spurs, and at the same time showed people the rise of new forces.
The two sides fought seven games in the first round, and the first four games were tied 2:2. In the fifth game, the Grizzlies won Tianwangshan in San Antonio.
But the tenacious Spurs successfully dragged the series into the tiebreaker in Game [-], and the two sides had to decide the winner in San Antonio.
Just when people are generally optimistic about the Spurs playing at home, in the tiebreaker, Griffin and Conley burst out with huge energy.
格里芬第七战砍下29分14个篮板，还有6次助攻，康利拿下25分9次助攻。
However, Rudy Gay, who was once the Grizzlies general and was tossed between the Heat and the Spurs, went undercover at a critical moment.
In the end, the Grizzlies won the tiebreaker 97:93, successfully entered the second round, and joined forces with the Warriors.
The second and third teams in the Western Conference were unexpectedly dropped in the first round.
It shows that the new forces have announced their rise since the beginning of this season, and the two teams are fighting for the places to enter the division finals.
The Grizzlies have never entered the conference finals in history, and the last time the Warriors entered the conference finals was in 1976.
The two teams fought, and the Grizzlies had the upper hand. After all, since 2009, the Grizzlies have relied on Griffin, Jordan Jr., and Conley to reorganize. The season is time for success.
The Warriors have just entered the right track this year, and they have successfully completed their mission by killing the Thunder in the first round, and they have no more ideas.
But the two sides still played extremely fiercely, and it was another round of tie-breakers. In the seventh game, the Grizzlies relied on their home court advantage and ramped up their intensity crazily.
In the end, they had an ugly defensive battle, 85:83, won the series with a slight advantage of 2 points, and successfully reached the Western Conference Finals.
When the Grizzlies won the game, the entire FedEx Arena was boiling, and the Grizzlies broke into the conference finals for the first time in history.
Blake Griffin burst into tears after winning the victory. Although it is not a championship, it is already a great honor for the Grizzlies to reach the conference finals.
Most importantly, the Grizzlies' opponent in the Western Conference Finals will be the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers betrayed their faith and did not use the No. [-] pick to choose Griffin's hatred. He still remembers it in his heart and never forgot it for a moment.
It is precisely because of this humiliating experience that Griffin settled down after entering the league and devoted himself to honing his skills.
Memphis is far less noisy than Los Angeles. The fans here are simple and loyal. Together with Jordan, who is also from the Clippers, he can concentrate on improving himself.
General manager Wallace also built the team around Griffin as the core to give full play to Griffin's versatility.
In the first two rounds of the series, Griffin averaged 22 points, 10 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game, quite an all-around performance.
At the same time, the Grizzlies' magic weapon is their defense. So far, they are the team with the least points per game.
They have Jordan at the center position, and Conley, Tony Allen, and Tyshawn Prince in the backcourt.
This is a team that plays defense to the extreme, and the burden of offense is mainly on Griffin's shoulders.
Griffin's broad shoulders carried everything, and he became the most popular sports star in Memphis.
The attendance of the Grizzlies has also reached new highs year after year because of Griffin's arrival. He alone saved the Memphis ball market.
Now, he finally led the Grizzlies to a breakthrough and came to the division finals to face the enemy Clippers.
After the team arrived in Los Angeles, when the Grizzlies were adapting to the venue, Griffin said: "I think we will definitely take away a victory in Los Angeles and then return to Memphis."
There are not many players who dared to boast like this before the game. Griffin dared to say this.
Of course, the sports media will not let go of this opportunity to hype, and the attention of this round of the series is also full.
Everyone's eyes are fixed on the Western Conference Finals, to see how these two new powers will fight to the death.
At the same time, the Eastern Conference playoffs on the other side are relatively boring.
Starting from the 11th season, for three consecutive years, the Heat and the Cavaliers met in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The last time the two teams met in the conference finals for three consecutive years was back in 1980.
80, 81, 82, for three consecutive years, the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics met in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Philadelphia has 2 wins and 1 loss, but did not win a championship in the finals, and lost all to the Lakers.
But the Celtics, when they met the Rockets when they won, Bird won a championship.
Now the Heat and the Cavaliers have also become the Eastern duo.
The Heat were eliminated by the Cavaliers for two consecutive years before.
This year they form the Galaxy Battleship, and they are bound to enter the finals and win the championship.
In the first two rounds, the two teams went smoothly and hardly encountered any decent resistance.
Teams such as the Bulls, Pacers, Celtics, and Knicks cannot pose a decent threat to the two teams.
The only one that played well was the Nets, who bit off two wins from the Cavaliers in the semifinals.
But that's all, the Cavaliers still entered the Eastern Conference Finals without any risk, and once again competed with the Heat.
However, it can be seen that after the transformation of the Cavaliers, they regained their vitality in the regular season, but in the playoffs, under the high-intensity confrontation in the Eastern Conference, they were a little uncomfortable.
Especially James, Steve Kerr asked him to play the fourth position in the regular season, allocate his own possession of the ball, and give more to Irving, Green and others to dominate the offense.
He performed well at first, but when it came to the intensity of the playoffs, he gradually revealed his original shape, and he still returned to the familiar third-position perimeter ball-handling style of play.
No way, the intensity of the game has increased, and players will still use their best and most accustomed style of play.
Cole had no choice but to return the ball to James after discussion in a team meeting.
In this way, the Cavaliers passed the first round smoothly, defeated the Nets, and then simply defeated the Knicks in the semifinals.
Although the Cavaliers reached the Eastern Conference Finals, the bad news is that Steve Kerr's control over the team is declining.
Originally, he and James cooperated well, and with Min Congda suppressing behind him, James worked hard to improve towards the fourth position playmaker.
It's a pity that some things really can't be changed. After holding on for most of the season, James couldn't help it after all in the playoffs.
Because the point forward is so big, the defensive pressure is too great, and the offensive data is not good, the core position of the team feels that it is shifting towards Irving.
Irving's tactical core role is becoming more and more obvious, and James feels that he is becoming a tool man.
Of course, James couldn't allow this, and he didn't care what Min Congda said, or what happened to the Cavaliers' record.
Anyway, he still has to play with the ball and control the game in the way he is used to. Didn't he also successfully reach the Eastern Conference Finals?
In terms of ability, James is indeed very strong, he can bring the team to a good height, and his ability to abuse food is first-rate.
However, Steve Kerr felt a little disheartened, because according to James' style of play, the Eastern Conference Finals may not pass the Heat.
Even if you can beat the Heat, do you think you can beat the current Clippers?
Cole knew that it was time to find a way out for himself.
(End of this chapter)