The next two games are in Los Angeles. The Trail Blazers did not train today. In the afternoon, everyone took a flight and arrived in Los Angeles early. After arriving in Los Angeles, training will begin the next morning.
For today's Blazers, rest is far more important than training. Because to some extent, they can even consider their opponents in the next round.
There is nothing wrong with preparing for war in advance.
Continuing to talk about the Clippers' series this year, Wang Zelin was very surprised. He remembers clearly that in the original history, the Clippers' opponent in the series was supposed to be the Warriors, and they were defeated by the Warriors.
From the perspective of original historical development, Stephen Curry will become the star of the Warriors this year. This is the season of his rise.
He was selected as the All-Star starter for the first time in the regular season, led the team to the Western Conference semifinals in the playoffs, and was selected to the All-NBA Team for the first time in his career after the season.
But in this current history, everything is disrupted!
The Clippers' opponent became a mosaic and beat their opponent 2:0. This result was something Wang Zelin never expected.
To be honest, compared to the Clippers, the Trail Blazers would rather their opponent in the second round is Mosaic, because the latter had their heads shaved by them in the regular season and played Mosaic, so they are naturally full of confidence.
Against the Clippers, it seems that no one in the Clippers trio has suffered injuries this year. They look unstoppable. Paul is even more likely to hit the Western Conference Finals.
However, Wang Zelin doesn't mind if his opponent becomes Paul.
During the regular season this season, the Clippers and Trail Blazers met three times, with a record of 1:2. To be honest, in that game, if it weren't for Paul's incredible performance of 31 points and 16 assists, the Clippers would have ended up shaving their heads just like Mosaic.
Since he can't beat Mosaic, then against the Clippers, he must beat the Clippers until they fall down!
So, work hard, point guard god, I'll be waiting for you in the Western Conference semifinals, and then I'll kick you back into the endless abyss!
If you still want to touch the floor of the Western Conference Finals, just dream.
…
April 26th.
After a night's rest in Los Angeles, Wang Zelin appeared energetically in the training hall booked by the team in advance on the afternoon of the next day, and began the final stage of preparations with his teammates.
After two consecutive victories in the series, the Trail Blazers directly pushed the Lakers to the edge of the cliff. If they lose again tonight, they will really not be far away from the cold.
After the game started, the process was pretty much what everyone imagined.
After returning to the Lakers' home court, the Lakers increased their damage and impact on the inside.
At the same time, tonight's referee seemed to have made a bet, targeting Wang Zelin in various ways from the beginning.
To put it bluntly, the Lakers are still working hard today, but their state is actually just like that.
It’s just that I can’t stand it and the Trail Blazers have to play 5 against 8 tonight!
In the first quarter, Wang Zelin, who received great attention from the referee, played 9 minutes in a single quarter and passively committed three precious fouls.
At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers left the field with a 6-point lead.
Speaking of which, this is probably the largest point difference the Lakers have ever led in a single quarter in the series between the two sides.
At the start of the second quarter, the Lakers still firmly attacked the inside. After the other players on the Trail Blazers adapted to the penalty standards throughout the quarter, the game began to pick up.
However, Wang Zelin, who has not played for a long time, has made it difficult for the Chinese fans in front of countless TVs to devote their attention to the game.
A war of words broke out on the Internet.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk! Is this the pride of the Purple and Gold Army? You call yourself three dads if you can't beat him. How noble!"
"Today's penalty is really outrageous! We can understand why you want to send the Lakers out, but you can at least give it a try!"
"The ones upstairs, please remove them, I fucking don't understand! I really don't understand!"
The criticism on the referee's decision tonight and the league's decision to walk the Lakers became more and more heated on the Internet.
Fortunately, Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts still has two tricks up his sleeve. After seeing that tonight's game was obviously unfavorable to Wang Zelin, he was no longer obsessed with relying on Wang Zelin's super defense to ensure the team's steady progress like the previous two games.
Halfway through the second quarter, Terry Stotts asked Wang Zelin, who returned to play, to change his style of play from the guardian of the penalty area to an offensive transit station + high-position turret.
Orders were also given to other players not to make any major physical contact during the defensive process, and to release some balls if they could. They did not need to defend as hard as in the past two games.
Because anyone with a discerning eye can see that tonight at Staples, the home court of the Trail Blazers, some actions that would not have been called a foul by the referee at the Blazers' home court turned into fouls one by one.
Since we are not allowed to defend, let's attack!
After adjusting their strategies, the two sides started an offensive battle in the short half of the quarter.
Wang Zelin made 4 consecutive mid-range shots and hit 3 of them, plus 2 wonderful passes, which completely destroyed the Lakers' original lead.
Originally, D'Antoni was still chuckling because after the game started, Wang Zelin, who was in a foul crisis, only had 2 points, 2 rebounds and 3 fouls after the first quarter, which can be said to be the worst performance in the world.
This caused D'Antoni to relax his defense on Wang Zelin a little when he came back from the timeout in the second quarter. He did not discover in time that the latter's responsibilities in the team had changed, allowing him to get several open shots.
He didn't wake up until halftime, but it was too late.
At this time, the two sides were tied at 59:58, and the Trail Blazers were only 1 point behind the Lakers.
After the halftime break, in the second half, with the return of all the main players of the Trail Blazers, tens of thousands of Lakers fans in the stands found that the Trail Blazers seemed to have regained the offensive rhythm of the previous two games, and their home team was once again suppressed. Go down.
Obviously, Wang Zelin's recovery in the second half of the second quarter completely suppressed the momentum that the Lakers had just started.
Just thinking about Wang Zelin's dominance of the game in the first two games, many Lakers players are almost exhausted.
Once the energy was gone, the Lakers' inside attack naturally became less lethal!
Even if the referee wants to help, he can't say anything!
After Wang Zelin scored two consecutive goals under the basket (the second goal was still 2+1), the morale of the Lakers was completely shattered...
The result was that he was taken away by the Trail Blazers in the third quarter.
At the end of the game, the Trail Blazers won the third game between the two teams with a 12-point lead, 115-103.
Wang Zelin played a total of 35 minutes in this game and made 9 of 15 shots. He scored the lowest 23 points in three games.
Of course, the rebounds were still the highest in the game, with 14.
The Lakers side.
Kobe scored a game-high 29 points, and also had 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. Unfortunately, he still failed to lead the Lakers to a victory.
After the Trail Blazers beat the Lakers 3:0, the results of most of the league's games were revealed.
In the West, Mosaic and the Warriors both regained a victory, and the battle with the Clippers and Thunder ended at 1:2.
As for the Spurs, obviously, the Spurs generals have not forgotten the tragedy of being hacked in the past. It was rare that they met the Grizzlies in the first round of the playoffs, but they had to work hard to hit the smoking hammer!
In the end, the Spurs 3:0 the Grizzlies. Like the Trail Blazers, they are very likely to sweep their opponents directly 4:0!
really.
As everyone expected, after the G4 game on April 28, the Trail Blazers and Spurs in the West, as well as the Heat in the East, all swept their first-round opponents 4-0 and became members of the first echelon to advance to the conference semifinals.
"As much as I hate to admit it, it's true. I'm old! The era of the Lakers is over!"
After his team was swept by the Trail Blazers, when countless media rushed to interview him after the game, the Black Mamba rarely "subdued"...
I never expected that one day the old guy would admit in front of the media that he was old.
This was the unanimous thought of the fans and players who learned the news that night.
Times have really changed!
