Li Kaiming grabbed an offensive rebound and scored the first goal for the Wizards. This made the fans at the McI Center very excited. It was a good start for the Wizards.
However, the cheers of the fans did not last for one quarter, and the rhythm of the game was slowed down by the Eagles.
Li Kaiming tried his best to reduce singles in the first quarter, take reasonable shots, and focus on the team. He originally thought that this would make his teammates perform better, but the facts still show that Li Kaiming thought too much...
Without Li Kaiming taking the initiative to shoulder the offensive firepower, it would be difficult for the rest of the Wizards to get good shooting opportunities when faced with the Hawks' playoff-level defense. Moreover, this group of people who have rarely played in the playoffs also discovered that this season In the postseason, even the referees' penalty scale became larger. Many fouls that would have been called in the regular season were completely ignored by the referees in the playoffs.
Referee: Foul? Any foul, as long as it doesn't kill someone, it doesn't count as a foul!
The Wizards players have been playing shooting basketball for a whole season, and they are still shooting basketball under the penalty standards of the regular season. Suddenly faced with such strong defensive pressure and penalty standards, except for a few performances in the playoffs, Okay, the rest of the people’s legs are so scared!
The successful jump ball and first score at the beginning of the game did not allow the Wizards to become the leading team. On the contrary, after the first quarter, the Wizards trailed the Hawks by 8 points 25-33!
It can be seen from the Wizards' single-quarter score that their offense has not been used at all. In the regular season, the Wizards basically score more than 25 points in a single quarter. In many cases, they can exceed 30 points. When they feel good, they can even exceed 25 points. 40 marks.
However, in the playoffs, everything changed!
Even Li Kaiming himself was much less efficient than in the regular season. He only took 4 shots in the first quarter, hit 2 goals, and scored 4 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.
Among the others, except for Hinrich who scored 5 points and 2 assists on 2 of 3 shots in a single quarter, and Blatche who scored 4 points, 4 rebounds and 1 block, Nick Young and Sun Yue were so good that they made a total of 1 of 6 shots in the first quarter. In the game, he scored 2 points, 1 rebound and 3 turnovers, which completely became the breakthrough point for the Eagles.
In addition to their abnormal performance on the offensive end, the Wizards' defense is also full of loopholes as always. After all, this defense has been played for a season, can they expect to suddenly become stronger in the playoffs?
The Eagles' two stars, Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, completely outplayed Nick Young and Sun Yue in the first quarter. They scored 8 points in one quarter and 5 points in the other, and their shooting percentages were more than half.
After seeing the Wizards' performance in the first quarter, A. Smith, who was sitting in the ESPN live broadcast room, shook his head and sighed.
"I thought these guys could last at least half a game, but they were defeated by the Eagles in one quarter! What else is there to watch in this series? It's over!"
Even Barkley, who has always supported Li Kaiming, no longer has enough confidence in the Wizards. "It seems in the first quarter that this group of young men from the Wizards are completely unable to adapt to the scale and confrontation of the playoffs. They have poor touch and appear They made a lot of mistakes...Oh, the veterans of the Eagles taught them a hard lesson!"
The game started quickly in the second quarter. The Eagles came up with a rotation lineup. Because the Wizards were lagging behind, Sanders did not dare to take Li Kaiming off, but others still needed to rest, so Li Kaiming once again brought the five foreigners. The lineup is on the field, except that the small forward position of the five-out lineup is now replaced by Josh Howard.
Sun Yue's performance on the court is indeed very active, and he is very daring to shoot, but his talent lies here. In other words, Potian is just a second-round pick. Against a quasi-All-Star guy like Josh Smith, he can perform both offense and defense. Duan was beaten and suppressed, unable to fight back.
Sanders originally thought that he could at least recover a little bit by using his killer five-way lineup to rotate on the opposite side, but the reality was still beyond Sanders' expectations.
No one on the back line can match the best sixth man like Jamal Crawford, and Crawford is also a player who is very good at drawing fouls. The five-out lineup played for half a quarter, and the team started. Point guard Hinrich received his third foul, and Sanders had to replace him quickly.
The five-out lineup lacked an important space point. Hudson, who came in as a substitute for Hinrich, faced a big scene like the playoffs and almost peed on the court floor. He was the first to dribble halfway. On the court, Li Kaiming just turned his head and glanced, and this guy was directly intercepted by Crawford. The most damning thing was that this guy couldn't control his hands while defending Crawford's fast break, and the former made a 2 +1!
After this goal, the Eagles widened the point difference to 12 points. In other words, during the period after the Wizards took out their ace and five outsiders, the point difference not only did not narrow, but also grew wider.
The Wizards fans at the mcI Center were so stunned that many fans even started to leave!
Li Kaiming was also anxious. If he continued to play according to the tactics, the score difference at halftime would be 20 points. He had to take action!
So in the next half quarter, Li Kaiming activated his singles form and began to constantly ask for the ball in singles. However, no matter how he performed, the opposite Hawks remained unmoved and kept letting Horford defend him. Never double-teamed.
Horford also has a lot of experience in the playoffs. After a quarter and a half of testing, he has figured out the referee's standards tonight. So when defending Li Kaiming, in addition to legal defensive actions, small-movement harassment also used out.
Under such a defense, Li Kaiming's efficiency is not as good as in the regular season. Although he can still maintain about half of his field goal percentage, this score is obviously not enough for him to play a team by himself.
What's more, Li Kaiming doesn't dare to completely take over the ball. The best situation is to open it up first and then lead his teammates, so as to form a virtuous cycle.
However, Larry Drew, the head coach on the opposite side, seems to have completely understood the Wizards' idea, which is to let Horford guard Li Kaiming alone. If you can, you can kill me alone. Looking back, Joe Johnson on the Hawks' side is holding on to him alone. Nick Young plays.
Even though Li Kaiming started the playoff mode, he was unable to make a comeback in the end. The Hawks defeated the Wizards 109-89 to win G1.
Li Kaiming played for 41 minutes and made 14 of 26 shots, including 2 of 6 three-pointers and 4 of 4 free throws. He scored 32 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.
In the ESPN studio, A. Smith looked at the back of Li Kaiming walking towards the tunnel, shaking his head and reiterated his point of view, "The Wizards are still too young. They don't know what the playoffs mean. You average 33 points per game in the regular season. Are the points great? In the end, basketball is a team sport. Maybe you can still score 30 points in the playoffs, but you can only get data. Maybe Li Kaiming should learn how to help the team win instead of just focusing on it. Get the data yourself…”
Regarding tonight's game, Barkley said, "In my opinion, there is no problem with Li Kaiming's performance. He is still the same as in the regular season, scoring 30 points in one game. This kid has done a good job. But What I want to say is that this is far from enough. His teammates cannot provide him with any help at all. They can only do two things on the court. In addition to making constant mistakes, Li Kaiming needs to do this if he wants to win. More……"
After the game, Li Kaiming did not attend the post-game press conference, but left the arena directly.
The first playoff game in his life gave him a blow. Since entering the league, whether it is the first summer league game, the first preseason game, or the first regular season game, he and the Wizards have been able to withstand doubts. His eyes won the game.
At least so far, he hasn't experienced any major setbacks.
Success for too long will make people forget that success is just accidental and failure is the main theme. Otherwise, why is failure said to be the mother of success?
At the end of the game, Li Kaiming was also very angry and helpless. He would also complain in his heart, why are these teammates so rubbish? As long as there is one who is in normal condition, they will all play tonight.
But on the way home, Li Kaiming figured it out.
These teammates have tried their best. They are at this level. You cannot blame them just because you lose the game and expect them to become stronger. This is unrealistic.
As long as they try their best on the court and don't act, that's enough.
Instead of blaming teammates, it is better to think about how to play in the next game. Anyway, it will definitely not be played like today.
Losing one game is hard enough, losing two games in a row? impossible!
When he got home, Li Kaiming found that his uncle, aunt, Jiang Shan and Elliot Williams were all waiting for him at home, and everyone looked at him with concern.
Li Kaiming smiled and said, "What are you looking at? Are there flowers on my face?"
Williams came up and patted Li Kaiming on the shoulder and said, "Li, it's just a game. Don't take it seriously. This series is still early!"
"Yes, Kai Ming, we all believe in you. It's just a small setback at the beginning. It will get better in the future." Aunt and uncle looked at each other and then said.
Jiang Shan walked up and took Li Kaiming's hand, "Kaiming, you are the hero in my heart. I believe you can reverse it!"
Seeing his relatives and friends caring so much about him, Li Kaiming's nose felt a little sore, "You guys, really, do I look like the kind of person who will be knocked down immediately? Winning first is not winning, standing at the end That’s the winner!”
Williams immediately started grinning, "Let me tell you! How can this guy be defeated so easily? This is the guy who watched the water cooler for a whole year!"
However, public opinion was not so friendly. After the Wizards lost the first game of the series, the Hawks defeated the Wizards and swept the Wizards 4-0. There was a lot of talk, and it has become a consensus in the basketball circle!
"If two teams are evenly matched, it's hard to have a 20-point difference in a game."
However, these remarks had no impact on Li Kaiming at all, because he had turned off social media before the playoffs and focused most of his attention on training.
Now the Wizards no longer have the home court advantage, and the next game is crucial. If they go away with a 0-2 score, this series will be in danger.
The next game must not be lost!
