Chapter 406 The Western Conference Finals, Fighting the Warriors Again
The Clippers were eliminated, and the Western Conference finals matchup became Lakers VS Warriors.
It has been seven years since the 2014-15 season, when the Warriors led by Curry reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time and successfully won the Finals.
Seven years is enough time for a lot of changes to occur. The once powerful teams in the league have completely changed. Including the Warriors, they have also changed from the arrogant Universe Warriors who once had three championships in four years to now only the Warriors.
The team with three veterans Curry, Thompson and Green staying on.
Among the current players in the league, only LeBron James, an evergreen player in the league who has led his team to the Finals for seven consecutive years and won the championship three times, can achieve such an achievement as the Warriors.
No one expected that with Durant leaving the team, the Warriors, who almost fell from the clouds to the bottom, could still maintain a very strong competitive level. Although the elimination of the Clippers involved some luck, luck is not part of the strength.
Woolen cloth?
In another time and space, in the season when Leonard won the championship with the Toronto Raptors, it was also because the Warriors were full of injuries and Durant and Thompson both suffered serious injuries that they won a championship trophy.
Now facing the Warriors, Leonard is also injured. This can be regarded as retaliation, right?
Wang Feng thought with peace of mind.
But in fact, in this time and space, the direct beneficiaries of Durant's injury in 2019 were Wang Feng and the Lakers who were playing in the Western Conference Finals with the Warriors at the time.
It was precisely because of Durant's injury that the Lakers eliminated the Warriors in that series and reached the finals. They defeated the Toronto Raptors led by Leonard and won Wang Feng's first championship trophy as a core player.
Two years have passed, and today, both teams are in the Western Conference Finals, but the situation of the two teams cannot be the same.
The Lakers have a strong team, Wang Feng is in full swing, and Jimmy Butler also made his debut after recovering from injury in the last game of the second round.
On the other hand, the Warriors are not in good shape after seven fierce games with the Clippers.
Although they were lucky enough to win the game due to Leonard's injury, the Warriors were still very exhausted, especially the team's No. 2 player Clay Thompson, who always continued to play despite injuries.
Because of Wang Feng, Thompson was lucky enough to avoid a major injury that seriously affected his career. He escaped a major disaster. However, in the past two seasons, Thompson has continued to suffer from various minor problems.
The game attendance rate is only about 80%, which is not as high as Curry.
However, it is better to treat minor injuries and illnesses than to be directly reimbursed for two years.
But this result directly benefited the opponent Lakers.
Butler's recovery condition is very good and he has fully recovered. Apart from being a little raw after not playing for a few months, there is no difference from half a year ago.
Regarding the outcome of the Western Conference Finals showdown between the Lakers and the Warriors, the outside world believes that the Lakers will be the victor.
The same is true for the odds of the game. The odds of the Lakers entering the Finals are much lower than those of the Warriors.
People's guess was correct.
On May 14, in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers easily won their first victory at the Warriors' home court.
The Lakers' starting five are Wang Feng, Butler, Ingram, Kuzma and Lopez.
The Warriors are Curry, Thompson, Alec Burks, Green and center Willie Cauley-Stein.
Among the Warriors' starting lineup, Burks and Stan are just ordinary rotation role players with limited strength, but there is no other way. This is the most suitable lineup that the Warriors can currently put together.
The current Warriors' tactics are somewhat similar to those of the original Warriors in the 14-15 season. The five small lineups of death have not yet been fully formed, and there is no Universe Warriors who later joined Durant. The offensive tactics mainly revolve around the Splash Brothers or Curry's super strength.
To carry out with outside shooting ability.
In the game against the Lakers, the Warriors' tactics were the same.
However, from the beginning, the Warriors' tactics could not be implemented because the Lakers directly arranged for Wang Feng to guard Curry.
There is no doubt about Curry's offensive ability. He averaged 30+ points per game this season. This is the second consecutive regular season in which he has averaged 30+ points per game. He is one of the players with the strongest offensive ability in the league today.
But Wang Feng's defensive ability is really too strong.
Moreover, Curry did not have an advantage in any point when facing Wang Feng. His height, weight, jumping, strength and even the speed that defenders rely on to survive when playing small and large are all at a backward stage.
What's even more terrible is that Curry's best three-point long-range shot was completely defeated by Wang Feng's defensive badge.
As long as Wang Feng can form effective interference in time before Curry takes action, even if he just dangles it in front of Curry's eyes, the effect of the badge will be activated, greatly reducing Curry's hit rate.
In addition, Curry's other big killer move, the quick shot with the help of the opponent's cover, is not easy to use with Wang Feng.
It is also a purple Hall of Fame level pick-and-roll dodger badge that can help Wang Feng quickly bypass any defense. Even with Curry's shooting speed, he cannot avoid Wang Feng's defense.
Curry is restricted by Wang Feng, and Thompson is in poor condition due to injury. The only one in good condition among the Big Three is Draymond Green, who is not good at offense. How can we play in this game?
In the first quarter of the game, the Lakers scored 33 points, while the Warriors only scored 25 points.
In the second quarter, the Lakers scored another 31 points and the Warriors scored 23 points.
At halftime, the score between the two teams was 64:48, and the point difference had reached 16 points.
The Splash Brothers made 4 of 13 shots and 3 of 10 shots. Neither of their shooting percentages were online. On the contrary, Green, who had performed so poorly in the previous rounds of the series that he was like an undercover agent, made 4 of 6 shots, including 3 of 5 three-pointers and 4 of free throws.
4 gets 15 points.
But with Green's ability, this is already the limit.
As the game entered the third quarter of the second half, the point difference further widened to more than 20 points.
Such a huge point difference made the Warriors home fans extremely disappointed, and head coach Steve Kerr also felt very helpless.
A clever woman cannot make a meal without rice.
Unexpectedly, once his family had a great business, and Curry and Durant took turns taking turns to attack him as he pleased, he would one day face this kind of predicament.
Curry was suppressed by Wang Feng throughout the game. What he needed was a player who could share the pressure on the offensive end and attract Wang Feng's attention.
Thompson himself is capable of the task, but he is unable to do so due to his injury. The team cannot find a second player who can take on this important task. What can be done about this?
…
A few minutes into the fourth quarter, the Warriors took the initiative to replace all their main players and gave up their struggle.
116:94, the Lakers defeated the Warriors at home by 22 points.
In this game, Butler, who returned from injury, showed off his talents. He made 12 of 22 shots in the game and scored 31 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, the highest score in the game.
Wang Feng did not compete with Butler for the limelight. He focused more on dealing with Curry on the court and successfully locked Curry up. As a result, he made 7 of 19 shots in the entire game, with a shooting percentage of 36.8% and only scored 19 points.
.
Wang Feng casually handed over a luxurious triple-double of 24 points, 18 rebounds and 14 assists.
In just one game, the Warriors exposed many problems.
The team's originally good defense has disappeared, and the offense relies heavily on Curry. More importantly, an existing flaw has now become more serious-that is, the protection of rebounds.
The Warriors, who are accustomed to using a five-death small lineup, are not good at protecting rebounds.
In the years when Wang Feng was still there, the Warriors also had Bogut, Pachulia, McGee and other experienced blue-collar centers protecting the rim.
But now, the team only has center Stan, who joined the league in 2015, to protect rebounds.
This is indeed a player positioned as a defensive blue-collar center, with the ability to protect rebounds, but his experience and ability are still not good enough.
This also led to Wang Feng grabbing a full 6 offensive rebounds in the Warriors' penalty area in this game.
The Lakers' big victory over the Warriors has clearly shown the gap in the competitive level of the two teams.
If Thompson is healthy and Curry and Green are both hot, the Warriors may still have a chance to compete with the Lakers, but it is absolutely impossible now.
…
On May 16, G2 of the Western Conference Finals was still at the home court of the Warriors. The Lakers won again 114:111, with the score reaching 2:0.
Curry rebounded from the previous suppression in this game. He made 11 of 22 shots and scored 37 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.
After all, he is the league's top superstar. Although Curry's touch was still affected by Wang Feng in this game, making only 4 of 14 shots from beyond the three-point line, he decisively gave up attacking from the outside and began to attack the basket with the ball.
Wang Feng's defensive shock badge is only effective for outside shots, and Curry's breakthrough attack with the ball is more aimed at drawing fouls.
Curry, who was at home and put everything aside, took 14 free throws and made 12 of them.
If it were just to deal with the breakthrough Curry, Wang Feng would have no problem. Although the Death Coil Badge is only gold level, with Wang Feng's speed and agility of 94 and defensive awareness of 91, he can completely prevent Curry from dying.
But there was nothing he could do if he got fouled. His stronger body and tougher confrontation than Curry actually became weaknesses under the home whistle.
After being called for two consecutive defensive fouls, Wang Feng was so disgusted that he stopped guarding the breakthrough Curry very seriously. Anyway, Curry's real threat is the three-pointer. It doesn't matter how he wants to play under the basket.
The result was also the same. Although the point difference between the two teams was not large in this game, the Warriors never had any hope of winning.
Although Curry scored 37 points, apart from him, the Warriors only had Thompson's 24 points and Green's 16 points in double figures.
Wang Feng scored 35 points, 17 rebounds and 8 assists in this game, and once again grabbed 5 offensive rebounds in front of the Warriors interior players.
Butler and Ingram also both scored 20+ points, as steady as old dogs.
They lost both home games and went to the Lakers' home court with a score of 0:2. No matter how you look at this game, the Warriors have no hope.
"It looks like we can finally see a fierce battle between dragons and tigers in this finals."
Many people who were not fans of either team but simply watched the fun became a little excited.
In the Western Conference, the Lakers are about to qualify, and in the Eastern Conference finals, the situation is also quite clear.
Reaching the Eastern Conference Finals are the Brooklyn Nets led by Durant and the Milwaukee Bucks led by Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo.
In the same two home games, the Nets successfully defended the game and defeated the Bucks in thrilling fashion in both games.
Durant also had an advantage in the showdown with young star Giannis Antetokounmpo, scoring 41 points, 8 rebounds and 36 points, 11 rebounds in the two games respectively, completely overwhelming Antetokounmpo with 29 points, 14 rebounds and 33 points, 15 rebounds.
And it's not just Durant who is in the advantageous matchup. In the two matchups of Irving vs. Wall and George vs. Middleton, the Nets also have the advantage.
In the competition between the Big Three and the Big Three, the Nets won comprehensively, and shooting guard Dinwiddie and former All-Star power forward Blake Griffin on the bench also had outstanding performances. The Nets also performed well in the substitute rotation lineup.
won.
With a 2:0 advantage, the Nets have half a foot in the finals. As long as no players are injured, the finals will be a showdown between the Lakers and the Nets.
This is the first time in four years since the Warriors' Curry, Durant, Thompson, Green, and the Cavaliers' James Wangfeng and Irving Love's top lineups that the two teams have a luxurious Big Three configuration in the Finals.
This description is not an exaggeration at all.
In the 17-18 season, the Warriors won the championship, defeating the Cavaliers who had lost Wang Feng and Irving and were left with only James struggling to support them.
In the 18-19 season, Wang Feng led his team to the finals for the first time as a core player, defeating Leonard's Menglong team.
In the 19-20 season, Wang Feng's Lakers faced the Milwaukee Bucks led by Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo.
In the two years since the Lakers won the championship, the Lakers' lineup is indeed good, but Ingram is still in the growth stage and has not yet been regarded as a qualified member of the Big Three. The Lakers are more often called the dual-core team of Wang Feng and Butler.
line-up.
This is even more true for Leonard's Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo's Bucks, who are even called single-core teams. After all, Lowry, Siakam, Middleton and others were playing with their cards at the time.