After a few rounds of fighting at the beginning, the Trail Blazers clearly had the upper hand.
When Wang Zelin grabbed this precious offensive rebound and indirectly assisted Matthews to hit a 3-pointer from the corner, it seemed as if a switch was turned on.
When passing by the backcourt sideline, more than 2,000 Chinese fans in the audience chanted Wang Zelin's name in unison, injecting a new force into Staples.
Wang Zelin smiled and waved to all the fans in the stands, thanking them for their support and love.
Every time he stands on the field, as long as he can hear the cheers and support from the sidelines, he knows that he is not fighting alone!
"Beep~ Sir, serve quickly."
It wasn't until the referee blew the whistle that Griffin and the others realized that they were in a basketball game... and they were still lagging behind!
Clippers attack.
After Paul took possession of the ball after halftime, he began to direct his teammates to move, and then made tactical gestures. After Griffin picked and rolled, he went crazy quickly, and Aldridge turned around reflexively to keep up.
But Paul did not throw the ball, but made a change of direction by changing hands behind his back. Anyway, at the moment when Lillard's center of gravity shifted laterally, he turned around with Lillard as the axis, and succeeded in breaking through so easily.
As the number one active point guard in the league, Paul is not only the only offensive link-up player in the league, but his personal offensive ability is also at the top level among players at the same position in the league, and he also takes into account defense.
The reason why he is called the "God of Point Guards" is based on multiple considerations.
For now, Lillard is still a long way from Paul's level.
Paul got inside quickly, but the Blazers were not slow to react either. Since Jordan basically had no basket and left the three-second zone, he was like a tiger without teeth. Wang Zelin boldly let him go and rushed towards the penalty area.
Faced with the blockage of a big guy who was more than a head taller than him, reason told Paul that it was time for him to stop.
Sure enough, Paul made an emergency stop, picked a very tricky angle, and evaded Wang Zelin's right hand with a high throw, which rebounded into the net.
The role of the captain is not only reflected in controlling the general direction. When necessary and when it is necessary to attack, his ammunition is definitely the most abundant in the Clippers, and he poses the most lethal threat to the opponent.
Let's talk about it. When all the Clippers players are put together and compared in terms of their ability to attack critical moments, Paul is the only one that can be counted on.
Among the starting five players, Jordan has no independent offensive ability at all. Griffin can average 20+ per game this season. He seems to be powerful on the offensive end, but in fact his methods are limited.
The most important thing is to rely on extremely abnormal physical fitness. He uses his strength to eat up most opponents, works in the penalty area, and has a very high shooting percentage within three feet.
But three feet away...
You know, Griffin averaged 22 points per game in his rookie season, but his scoring declined year by year in the next two years. The reason why he is able to hit a new high of 24 points per game this season is largely due to the fact that he averaged more than 8 free throws per game. Has a stable shooting percentage year after year.
As for the shooting guard and small forward positions, JJ Redick is only a catch-and-shooter. Darren Collison also has limited independent offensive capabilities and is good at fixed-point shooting.
Therefore, why is it that the Clippers are as strong as tigers in the regular season every year? When they encounter tough problems in the playoffs, they are the first to be weak...the lack of strong enough attacking points at critical moments is their biggest shortcoming.
Even for Paul, in the playoffs, his technical style and height are destined to make him unsolvable.
In the 183 height range, when it comes to offense, there is only one answer!
Therefore, although Paul continued to score goals later in the first quarter, Coach Terry never paid attention to it.
After all, a player whose career highest score in a single game is "only" 43 points is destined to be unable to solve a game on his own.
To a certain extent, Paul's attributes are a bit like Durant's. Both of them are so stable that they "lost" their bursts.
At the end of halftime, Paul had 14 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal. His personal statistics were extremely luxurious, and he only made one turnover. His assist-to-turnover ratio was so efficient that he had no friends.
But when Clippers fans looked carefully, they were not in the lead. The scoreboard clearly showed 56:48, and the Trail Blazers were already 8 points ahead of them.
Look again, Jordan scored only 2 points in the half...
In the last game against the Timberwolves, Giffen scored 32 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals against Love. His performance tonight was quite poor. At the end of the half, he only scored 6 points, 4 of which were still Got it via free throws.
By the way, Kevin Love scored 45 points, 19 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal in that game, once again serving as the leader of the empty attack group.
And if this trend continues, Kevin Love will soon become the new leader of the league's air-cutting group, and he will be the kind that others can't match.
After all, in the field of data collection, I am afraid that few people can surpass Kevin Love during the Timberwolves period.
Just last season, Kevin Love set a career-high single-game score of 51 points in a game against the Thunder!
And it was a huge double-double with 14 rebounds.
But what's the use?
In the end, the Timberwolves lost to the Thunder's king combination 140:149.
To be honest, in Wang Zelin's impression, there may be only one person who can surpass the current Kevin Love, and that is the next Wolf King in the future-Karl Anthony Towns.
Well, it can also be seen from this that the Timberwolves are always "experts" in making mistakes!
Back to the game.
The second half started quickly, and the two sides changed sides to fight again.
Jordan, who has no independent ability, found Wang Zelin and met his natural enemy. The secondary attack after grabbing the board that was barely possible in the past is gone. Except for the occasional cut-in to catch the ball and a few dunks, the offensive effect is approximately zero.
Griffin is better. Against Aldridge, his strength is an advantage.
After three quarters, Griffin made a splash, scoring 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists, sharing some responsibilities for Paul.
However, Griffin could score 8 points, and Aldridge's performance was also not bad, because Griffin just couldn't guard him.
7 points, 2 rebounds in a single quarter and 1 block for Clippers substitute small forward Matt Barnes. The performance of the two can be said to be evenly matched.
The problem is, Aldris's number of shots and shooting percentage are much higher than Griffin's. After three quarters, he scored 13 points and hit 5 goals in only 9 shots.
Griffin, who has been vigorously cultivated by the Clippers, was unceremonious in his shots. He scored 14 points in three quarters, but took 13 shots and only hit 4 goals.
Yes, Griffin is actually the player on the Clippers who takes the most shots. On the contrary, Chris Paul takes three fewer shots than him.
This situation has continued since Paul joined the Clippers one year ago.
That's right, for the Clippers management, how can outsiders compare to their own children.
Therefore, the Clippers played three quarters and not only failed to narrow the score, but instead allowed the Trail Blazers to widen the gap.
At the beginning of the last quarter, Coach Terry went straight to the game. He originally thought it was a Clippers game. The two sides went back and forth and attacked each other. The fans at the scene were happy to watch.
Unexpectedly, he underestimated the strength of his own team and overestimated the Clippers.
Unknowingly, this Trail Blazers have become one of the few top teams in the league. The only ones who can compete with them are the Heat and Pacers in the East, and the Spurs and Thunder in the West.
The Clippers are still the same, as strong as they are strong, but the impression they give people is always a little bit different.
Therefore, when the Trail Blazers suddenly increased their defensive intensity, directly to the playoff level, it instantly made the Clippers feel uncomfortable collectively.
Except for Paul's quick adjustment, both Griffin and DeAndre Jordan were stuck in a long struggle.
How iron is it?
At the end of three quarters, the Clippers were 76-98, 12 points behind.
In the fourth quarter, the Clippers' team's scoring statistics only accounted for 13 points, of which 6 points were contributed by Paul.
The Trail Blazers' scoring in the last quarter was not as high as the first three quarters, only 5 points more than the Clippers, but it was enough to kill the opponent.
The score was 89:116, and the Trail Blazers beat their opponents by 27 points on the road.
When two teams that rely heavily on the inside meet, the weaker one is destined to be beaten to death by the stronger one.
This is what happened to the Clippers tonight!
