Chapter 379: Win the first victory, pursue the victory
How could Lou Williams miss such an excellent opportunity? He immediately took two steps, jumped towards the basket, and made a layup with a low hand to send the basketball to the basket.
Worried that his layup would be blocked by a defensive player, he deliberately used a lever to lay up.
However, he never imagined that just his action of pulling the lever, which delayed the layup time by about half a second, would cause him so much trouble.
At the moment when he was laying up, a figure rushed from his side, jumped up suddenly, and directly pushed the top of Lou Williams' dunk onto the backboard.
It's Wang Feng!
The Impostor Master Badge is activated!
"not good!"
The faces of James, Leonard and others changed drastically. Unexpectedly, Wang Feng, who was holding James just now, could actually catch up with Lou Williams who had already cut into the basket.
This block not only shattered the Clippers' offense, but also allowed the Lakers to directly gain the ball.
Since the Clippers had been deliberately playing against the clock, there were only 26 seconds left in the game, and while they were in a daze, another 2 seconds had passed.
"Return to defense quickly!"
James didn't have time to think about it and shouted immediately.
After the Lakers' 24-second attack, there will be 2 seconds of attack time left for the Clippers. As long as they can prevent the Lakers' attack in this round, fall behind by 1 point, and then complete the attack within 2 seconds.
Killer.
This is the tactic James came up with in the blink of an eye.
The Clippers quickly returned to defense, while Leonard moved closer to Wang Feng to prevent Wang Feng from directly attacking with the ball.
But at this time, Wang Feng will not choose a fast break. He will also leave time until the last minute like the Clippers just did, not leaving too much time for the Clippers to attack.
Slowly dribbling the ball across half court and standing at the top of the arc, Wang Feng made a gesture to open up the singles. All four Lakers players on the court pulled out to the outside, because all of them, including center Lopez, had three-point shooting.
With his ability, the Clippers had no choice but to follow suit, leaving the inside completely empty.
As a result, a one-on-one situation between Wang Feng and Leonard was directly formed.
In this game, Leonard has defended Wang Feng many times, but the defensive effect is not very good. Although he has successfully reduced Wang Feng's outside shots, his mid-range jump shots and breakthroughs to the basket are still lacking.
There was nothing Leonard could do.
At this moment, everyone was holding their breath and all the fans in the audience stood up and looked nervously at the field. Everyone knew that the next attack was likely to directly determine the outcome of the game.
Time passed minute by minute, and soon, the attack time entered the final 6-second countdown.
As if he had timed it, Leonard suddenly approached Wang Feng at the 6-second countdown and used his best close-pressing defense.
Faced with Leonard's pressing, Wang Feng remained calm and calmly turned his body to protect the basketball on one side. At the same time, relying on his strength and explosive power that was stronger than Leonard's, Wang Feng rushed towards the Clippers penalty area.
.
While holding the ball to break through, Wang Feng was also observing the situation on the field from the corner of his eye.
The moment he broke through, James on the other side moved. He immediately gave up on Ingram, whom he was responsible for guarding, and rushed towards Wang Feng.
James is betting that at the last moment, Wang Feng will not choose to pass the ball even if faced with a double-team defense, but will continue to act recklessly.
At least in all the Wang Feng game videos they have watched before, Wang Feng rarely took the initiative to pass the ball in the last 2 minutes.
James made the right bet. With the blessing of the key shooter badge, Wang Feng would not trust anyone in the last 2 minutes, not even his teammates.
Wang Feng, who was rushing towards the basket, suddenly stopped suddenly and then immediately took off.
"Another pull-up jump shot?"
Leonard, who was beside Wang Feng, immediately followed Wang Feng and took off, stretching his arms as far as possible in an attempt to block Wang Feng.
James from the other side also rushed over and jumped from the other side of Wang Feng.
The Clippers' dual-core team is currently defending Wang Feng alone.
But even so, Wang Feng still took action.
In order to avoid being blocked, Wang Feng deliberately raised the height of his shot. The angle of the basketball shot was very high. However, even so, when the basketball reached its highest point and began to fall, it was still pointed towards the basket accurately.
It fell and crashed into the net.
"Whoa!"
In an instant, the whole audience burst into cheers.
"Beautiful quasi-win! Wang Feng forced a shot against the defense of James and Leonard, as if to tell the opponent that even if you play together, you are no match for me!" In the CCTV sports live broadcast room, Yu Guiding
The pitch was raised and he shouted passionately.
"With this shot, the Lakers' score has reached 117, leading the Clippers by 3 points! There are only 3 seconds left in the game, and now the Clippers have one foot on the edge of the cliff.
", they can only try to tie the score with a three-pointer, and then they can continue the showdown with the Lakers in overtime."
The Clippers called a timeout.
Neither James nor Leonard looked very good.
I fought hard for a whole game, but this is the result now.
But it's not over yet, they still have one last chance!
"The Clippers will definitely shoot three-pointers next. We only defend three-pointers and let them break through the basket. They only have 3 seconds to attack and don't have much chance to adjust their shots!"
Lakers head coach Walton also became nervous at this time.
Now that the Nets' main point guard Irving is out for the season, the Clippers are the Lakers' strongest opponent on the road to winning the championship. As long as they can overcome this mountain, no matter which opponent in the finals is the Nets or the Bucks, the Lakers' winning rate
All very high.
No matter what, you must defend against the opponent's three-point attack in this round!
…
After the timeout, the two teams that returned to the field had their lineups adjusted. Both teams replaced their centers with more mobile outside players.
The Clippers' goal is naturally to enhance the team's shooting points for three-pointers, while the Lakers' goal is to have better mobility to defend.
Clippers Harrell serves from the sideline.
James and Leonard both stood inside and ran toward the two three-point lines at the same time.
Wang Feng did not hesitate and chose to chase Leonard out.
Neither James nor Leonard are excellent three-point shooters, but their three-point shooting percentages are still slightly different.
James' three-point shooting percentage in the regular season this season is 34.9%, while Leonard's is 36.6%. The latter is even better, and considering the impact of physical exertion on the touch, the younger Leonard has better physical strength
Germany is also more likely to be the candidate for a decisive blow.
Of course, the more likely possibility for the Clippers is that whoever Wang Feng is guarding will let the other player make a tying shot.
But in this case, Wang Feng has no choice. He can't influence the clone, so he can only choose the one with a higher shooting percentage, and then bet that James misses the shot.
To put it bluntly, even if James makes a perfect shot, it actually doesn't matter, because the key shooter badge will also be effective during overtime, and he is still the bug-like existence who can make whatever shots he makes.
In contrast, James's physical fitness is no longer enough to support his efficient performance in overtime. How can Leonard alone be Wang Feng's opponent?
The Lakers actually won 99 percent of the time.
Sure enough, Harrell chose to pass the ball to James. In 3 seconds, James only had time to adjust his posture, and then he immediately jumped up and forced a shot against Butler's defense.
The basketball flew toward the basket, and then... "Bang!"
James missed his three-point shot, the basketball bounced high, and the buzzer sounded at the end of the game.
117:114, the Lakers defended their home court in the first game of the Western Conference Finals, defeating the Clippers with a 3-point advantage and getting off to a good start.
It is worth mentioning that since last season, the Lakers have never lost the opening game of a series in the playoffs.
"We're a little bit unlucky, there's nothing we can do about it."
James, who failed to make the winning shot, shook his head and sighed helplessly.
In this game, James actually performed very well.
A huge triple-double with 36 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists. Judging from the statistics alone, James' performance is no different from Thanos James during the Cavaliers days in previous years. But those who have watched the game will understand that James is indeed an old
.
It is also a luxurious triple-double data. In the past, James obtained it under the high-intensity defense of many opponents.
But in this game, most of James' points were "stolen" unknowingly, such as fast break points after the Lakers made mistakes, and layups with the help of teammates' pick-and-roll cuts.
It's not that this kind of scoring is unimportant, but when the game reaches a critical moment, James can no longer stand up and turn the tide like before.
James' dual-core partner Leonard scored 44 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. His performance was not inferior to that of James. The two of them combined for a total of 80 points, 23 rebounds and 19 assists, which is very exaggerated, but even so, they could not win for the Clippers.
victory.
Because Wang Feng’s data performance on the other side is even more exaggerated.
By scoring 9 points in the last 2 minutes, Wang Feng played a full 44 minutes and scored 50 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists.
A 50+ triple-double is extremely rare in the league's playoff history.
In addition to Wang Feng, Butler also played more than 40 minutes for the Lakers. Although he mainly defended Leonard on the court, he still showed his ability to attack tough situations at critical moments, scoring 27 points.
6 rebounds and 6 assists.
In addition, Ingram scored 18 points for the Lakers. Although Kuzma and Lopez did not score in double figures, they used their range on the offensive end to create space.
These are all important reasons why the Lakers were able to win the game.
…
The defeat in the first game did not cause the Clippers to suffer a big setback. On the contrary, many fans expressed their acceptance of such a result.
Although they are all in the Staples Center, it is the home court of the Lakers after all. The arena is full of Lakers fans, and it also has a certain home whistle advantage.
But even with these advantages, the score between the two teams was stalemate until the last moment. If Wang Feng hadn't played superbly and the Clippers missed two opportunities at the last moment, it would be hard to say who would win.
If they can win like this on the road, wouldn't the Clippers have an advantage when they play at home?
Times have changed.
In the past games between the Lakers and Clippers, whether it was at home or away, the result was no different from the Lakers' home court. As the most popular team in the league, the Lakers' fan base is quite terrifying, and their fans are all over the world. Compared to
Under the circumstances, the Clippers' foundation is so bad that even if the two teams' derby is the home court of the Clippers, most of the supporting fans present are also Lakers fans.
But with the arrival of James last season and Leonard joining this season, the situation is different.
As the most popular top star in the league, James alone can rival several NBA teams in popularity, and Leonard is also one of the few top superstars in the league. The two of them have brought a large number of fans to the Clippers.
, this also allows the Clippers to be slightly more confident at home when facing the Lakers.
For an important game like this in the Western Conference Finals, it is not difficult to gather more than 80% of the home fans.
It's just that if the Clippers want to make Staples Center their home court, they must first get through the remaining away game.
Facts have proved that this is not easy.
On May 16, G2 of the Western Conference Finals continued. After the battle between the two teams in G1, this game was another fierce confrontation. The Lakers defeated the Clippers again with 116:111, and the total score reached 2:0.
.
The Lakers won this game more easily than in the first game. The main reason was that Leonard felt bad in this game. He only made 8 of 22 shots in the game, with a shooting percentage of 36%, and scored 24 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.
James scored 29 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, a near-triple-double, which was slightly lower than the previous game. But there was nothing that could be done about it. With Leonard feeling bad, the Clippers had to rely on James, who was being guarded by Wang Feng.
Attacking tough situations is a difficult task in itself. Being able to score 29 points against Wang Feng with a shooting rate of nearly 50% without the help of his teammates is actually an outstanding performance.
For the Clippers, it was not Wang Feng who scored the highest score on the team, but the No. 2 player Jimmy Butler. With 33 points, he was not only the Lakers' highest scorer on the offensive end, but also guarded Lonzo on the defensive end.
The Nader effect is also very good.
Regardless of whether Leonard had poor touch or some other reason, at least it looked like he was being suppressed by Butler during the game.
This also made many Butler fans feel proud.
Now when it comes to small forwards, the general rankings in the league are Wang Feng, James, Antetokounmpo, Durant, Leonard, George...Butler is ranked behind these people, and even new players in the league have not played in them.
Zion Williamson in the game is ranked higher than Butler in some media magazines.
In this game, Butler faced off and suppressed Leonard, which proved that his strength is definitely not inferior to these top strikers.