The referee's technical foul call made the audience booed.
Countless Timberwolves fans stood up and shouted at the referee, and even some Timberwolves players walked up to the referee to appeal.
The appeal is of course invalid.
After all, the referee is the biggest on the court. In order to maintain the authority of the referee, even if a wrong call is made, the league can only apologize afterwards, but the result will never be changed.
Such examples are not uncommon, so Zhao Feiyang did not even appeal.
McCollum was also very unhappy after being hit. He walked over and tried to argue with Zhao Feiyang. The two stood together. McCollum originally thought that he would be stronger than Zhao Feiyang, but now after careful observation, he discovered that Zhao Feiyang was not only stronger than At 1.91 meters, he is taller and his body looks stronger.
But this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is the indifference shown on Zhao Feiyang's face. The expression that he can do it at any time is completely different from McCollum's attitude of just going up and theoretically.
"Dude, what the hell are you doing?"
"Are you trying to cause a foul on purpose? Is this still a basketball game? I don't know why you are targeting me like this?"
McCollum didn't dare to say harsh words, and his attitude quickly softened. Zhao Feiyang was so angry that he didn't answer him a word at all.
call out.
The referee whistle sounded.
Timberwolves head coach Norman Thomas was afraid that Zhao Feiyang would continue to be impulsive, so he simply replaced him.
At this time, the second quarter is coming to an end, and Zhao Feiyang, who received a technical foul, really has no need to stay on the court.
With all the fans watching, Zhao Feiyang walked off the court.
The game continues on the court.
After a free throw, the Trail Blazers continued to attack.
There was not much time left, and the first half of both sides ended quickly.
Beep.
After the timer sounded, Zhao Feiyang also walked towards the player tunnel with his teammates. Before leaving, he took a special look at the timer. When he saw that the score between the two sides was 51 to 57, Zhao Feiyang couldn't help but sigh quietly.
After losing their two core defenders, the situation the Timberwolves will face will only become more difficult.
At the same time, unlike the depressing atmosphere in the Timberwolves locker room, the Trail Blazers were absolutely delighted.
In the locker room, Lillard, the core of the team, was thinking about the next situation with McCollum and other teammates, and head coach Terry Stotts also took the time to lay out targeted tactics.
Beep.
The second half comes.
Players from both sides return to the court.
The Timberwolves did not make much adjustment. Ricky Rubio still played the No. 1 position, and Zhao Feiyang returned to the No. 2 position.
The Trail Blazers replaced the team's main lineup in advance, and it seemed that they planned to take the opportunity to open up the score between the two sides.
call out.
The game continues.
As soon as the Trail Blazers came up, Lillard advanced with the ball. The difference from before was that this time the Blazers' rhythm accelerated significantly.
After halftime, Al Farooq came up from the wing to cover Lillard. Lillard dribbled the ball from the right and rushed into the two zones.
McCollum was not idle at this time, and kept running towards the bottom corner, attracting Zhao Feiyang to follow and defend, while distracting the attention of other Timberwolves players to him.
Especially at the last moment, McCollum shouted and asked Lillard for the ball. This move disturbed Dwight Howard and others under the basket. After they hesitated for a moment, Lillard had already rushed into the basket with the ball. Layup shot.
Uh-huh.
The basketball fell steadily into the basket.
It was the Timberwolves' turn to fight back.
Rubio held the ball through the half. He was very steady as before and never took risks in the process of advancing.
After halftime, Rubio organized an attack at the top of the arc. Zhao Feiyang came up from the wing to respond. Andrew Wiggins was also looking for opportunities in the bottom corner.
It seemed that the Timberwolves' movement was working, but no one expected that in the next second, when Rubio was about to pass the ball, Lillard, who was marking him, suddenly slapped him in the face.
Snapped.
The basketball falls out.
Rubio was accidentally intercepted by Lillard.
After stealing the ball, Lillard reacted very quickly and immediately went up to win the ball. When he ran towards the half court with the ball, Rubio, who was intercepted, also quickly caught up to cover the defense.
The two reached the penalty area one after another. The moment Lillard jumped up, Rubio also pounced on him.
However, Rubio failed to block Lillard's shot. Instead, he slapped him on the hand and received a whistle from the referee.
call out.
When the referee's whistle sounded, Lillard's layup also fell steadily into the basket.
Two plus one.
The scene was filled with sadness.
Many fans shook their heads and sighed.
"No! Ricky can't stop Damien! He is no match for Damien!"
"Not to mention Ricky, even if Zach comes to guard him personally, he may not be able to restrain him... The only one who can really stop Damien is Zhao..."
"But asking Ricky to guard McCollum won't work...and his offensive ability and shooting won't work either. Putting aside his organizational ability, Ricky also has many problems on the offensive end... "
On the field.
Lillard received the referee's pass and made the free throw steadily.
Uh-huh.
The ball went in.
It was the Timberwolves' turn to fight back.
This time, Zhao Feiyang directly signaled to Rubio to dribble the ball. Rubio understood the situation and gave the ball to Zhao Feiyang.
As a result, what is unexpected is that before halftime, Lillard and McCollum came directly to double-team Zhao Feiyang.
The sudden attack by the two caught Zhao Feiyang off guard. Fortunately, Zhao Feiyang reacted quickly and took advantage of the gap left by the opponent to throw the ball out.
Snapped.
After receiving the ball, Rubio is unmarked. He can choose to break through or shoot.
But after he observed the situation on the court, Rubio finally chose to shoot a three-pointer.
boom.
His three-point shot bounced out of the basket.
There were sighs on the sidelines.
Fortunately, the rebound was picked off by Adrian. After getting the ball, he smashed the ball towards the other side of the basket. Howard jumped high and directly jumped to catch the rebounded basketball and dunk with both hands to complete the offense. .
The game goes on.
As time went by, the Timberwolves' disadvantages on the court became more and more obvious. Although Rubio has a good ability to organize offense, he was made miserable by Lillard's defense.
Moreover, in order to restrict Zhao Feiyang, the Trail Blazers took special measures to double-team, and at the same time, they also let Rubio go to let him take more shots.
Rubio's three-point shooting percentage is really terrible.
Therefore, he could only transfer the ball to other people. Fortunately, after Zhao Feiyang was double-teamed, there were other positions where he could play. Whether it was Howard or Wiggins, they were able to maintain the team's offensive status for the time being.
However, the Trail Blazers also took advantage of this opportunity to gradually open up the score.
Zhao Feiyang did a great job guarding McCollum. Under his strict defense, McCollum only made one two-pointer in the third quarter and missed all other shots.
But Lillard is different!
Rubio was unable to restrain him, and was even frequently beaten by his breakthroughs and three-pointers. Lillard also used his scoring ability to help the team open the point difference to double digits.
By the end of the third quarter, the score was 86-73.
The 13-point gap makes the Timberwolves' situation look even worse.
Seeing the situation become like this, the team's head coach Norman Thomas also quickly made adjustments.
During the break, Coach Norman adjusted the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Zhao Feiyang once again moved to the No. 1 position to restrict Lillard. Rubio was replaced by another defender Shabazz Muhammad.
Muhammad's statistics are similar to Rubio's, but his height and weight are more advantageous than Rubio's. He can not only play the second position, but also move to the third position. Therefore, letting him mark McCollum is undoubtedly a method that can be tried.
call out.
The break is over and the final quarter begins.
Timberwolves offense.
Lillard discovered that after Zhao Feiyang switched to the No. 1 position again, he became as cautious as before. When Zhao Feiyang took the ball to attack, he quickly followed up to restrict Zhao Feiyang.
The two met each other, and Zhao Feiyang's offensive level was completely unmatched by Rubio. Lillard subconsciously stretched out his hand to interfere, but Zhao Feiyang took the opportunity to shake him away and rush into the two zones.
After entering the two zones, Zhao Feiyang pretended to pass the ball to Howard, but in fact he just used this move to interfere with the opponent's judgment.
Sure enough, the opponent mistakenly thought that Zhao Feiyang was going to pass the ball, and when he moved toward Howard, Zhao Feiyang seized the opportunity and rushed into the penalty area.
boom.
Zhao Feiyang raised the basketball with both hands and scored with a dunk.
It was the Trail Blazers' turn to fight back.
Lillard advances with the ball.
This time is different from the situation in the third quarter. Lillard faced Zhao Feiyang's marking. After halftime, he seemed to be eager to prove himself. He ignored other teammates' calls and started attacking alone with the ball.
The two faced each other, and Lillard tried to shake Zhao Feiyang away with a change of direction. After getting out of position with Zhao Feiyang, Lillard dribbled the ball into the two zones.
Seeing that the basket was crowded and teammates in other positions had no suitable opportunities to catch the ball, Lillard made a judgment in a short time and decided to make a pull-up jump shot in front of the penalty area.
However, just as he jumped up, a figure suddenly pounced from behind.
The person coming was none other than Zhao Feiyang. He jumped up high and slapped Lillard's shot away.
Snapped.
Such a crisp goal also made many fans dumbfounded.
Lillard himself didn't expect Zhao Feiyang's reaction to be so quick!
The basketball rolled down, and Zhao Feiyang was the first to pick it up again.
After getting the basketball, he held the ball and sprinted towards the half court. Lillard followed closely and tried to give him a chasing shot. Unfortunately, Zhao Feiyang did not give the opponent a chance at all and jumped directly when he was approaching the basket. One-handed chop.
Facing Zhao Feiyang's explosive physical fitness, Lillard could only watch as Zhao Feiyang dunked the ball into the basket.
boom.
The ball went in.
Zhao Feiyang's point-chasing action officially begins from this moment!
