Despite the unpleasant incident of Pachulia stepping on his feet, the Timberwolves continued to devote themselves to the battle after experiencing the rest time before the last quarter.
call out.
The break is over and the fourth quarter finally arrives.
At this time, the score difference between the two sides was still tight, and the Timberwolves were not pulled apart.
The ball is released.
The Golden State Warriors attack with the ball.
Stephen Curry dribbled the ball across half court.
As soon as it passed, Curry sprinted towards the basket under the cover of Draymond Green. Adrian Ennis on the wing rushed to cover up, but unfortunately he was a step too late. Curry ended the pass early with a throw. fighting.
Uh-huh.
The basketball fell steadily into the basket.
The Minnesota Timberwolves counterattacked after scoring a goal.
Ricky Rubio dribbled the ball past half-court and rushed to the right. Zhao Feiyang stood in the bottom corner to respond. After Rubio was blocked, the ball came to Zhao Feiyang. Zhao Feiyang did not take a reckless shot, but made a quick pass to Serge Ibaka under the basket.
Ibaka held the ball in singles, forced the ball away from Green and then threw the ball.
boom.
The basketball almost hit the basket and bounced off the rim. Fortunately, Ibaka reacted quickly enough and snatched the basketball away immediately.
After getting the rebound, he no longer chose to take the shot himself, but passed a long pass to Zhao Feiyang in the bottom corner. Zhao Feiyang took advantage of the situation and shot directly.
Uh-huh.
A three-pointer fell firmly into the basket.
The super cores of both sides began to exert their strength. Both Curry and Zhao Feiyang maintained an extremely oppressive offense. However, an unfavorable situation for the Timberwolves soon emerged. After all, the Warriors not only have Curry, they also have a super striker like Kevin Durant.
In the next few minutes, Durant gradually took over the ball from the Warriors and began to control the game. Whenever Curry is unable to play, he will step forward and take over without hesitation.
The Warriors attack.
Curry held the ball and advanced to the half court. When he tried to use the cover of his teammates to hit in, Zhao Feiyang quickly blocked him. Curry started to shake while dribbling, but unfortunately Zhao Feiyang's close defense made him unable to move at all for a while.
Snapped.
Curry didn't insist and quickly gave the ball to Durant.
Durant stood on the right, holding the ball with one hand and marking Andrew Wiggins who came up. The two met each other, and Durant used a change of direction to easily shake Wiggins away. After passing by, his body rushed towards the basket. But just as Wiggins subconsciously moved towards the basket, Durant pulled away. Record the fadeaway jump shot.
Uh-huh.
A clean mid-range shot scored steadily.
The replay on the big screen made the fans watch it carefully again. Everyone can see that Wiggins' defense is adequate, but even so, it can't stop such a strong Durant.
"Adrian, seize the opportunity to go up and double-team."
"Don't give Kevin any chance to make a move."
Interim coach Eric Stotts on the sidelines shouted to Adrian on the court.
Adrian understood and nodded towards the latter.
Soon, it was the Warriors' turn to attack again.
This time, while Wiggins was marking Durant, Adrian suddenly appeared on the wing. Durant noticed Adrian's appearance, but still did not pass the ball.
After getting the ball, he still chose to force a single when faced with a sudden double-team. After shaking continuously, he pulled away and shot directly.
Wiggins jumped up first, and Adrian rushed from the wing to try to interfere with Durant's shot. However, neither of them could stop his attack.
Uh-huh.
Durant's shot was completely unsolvable and fell firmly into the basket again.
At this point in the game, there were less than 3 minutes left before the end of the last quarter. Even though Curry didn't score many points at the last moment under Zhao Feiyang's close defense, Durant's strong performance still allowed the Warriors to surpass the Timberwolves unknowingly.
When there were only 50 seconds left in the game, the score between the Timberwolves and the Warriors was 113 to 126. The 13-point gap between the two sides made the victory almost no suspense.
At the last moment, interim coach Eric directly chose to replace Zhao Feiyang.
"Coach Eric, why did you replace me? We still have a chance..."
"No. Zhao, we have already lost! This time we have no chance... You have a good rest first, we still have time to catch up..."
Although Coach Eric has always respected Zhao Feiyang, cooperated with him, and even flattered him at some times. But Coach Eric is different from others. The occasional flattery is within his bottom line. In addition, Zhao Feiyang is also a very polite person, so this kind of flattery is purely for the two parties to get along better.
But when it comes to major decision-making issues, Coach Eric has never been the kind of person without opinions. This was one of the main reasons why Zhao Feiyang was willing to support him and decided to help him rise to power.
Beep.
The sound of the live timer stopping sounded.
The score between the two sides finally came to an end.
In the end, the score between the Timberwolves and the Warriors was 116 to 128. The 12-point gap finally allowed the Warriors to take away the victory at the Timberwolves' home court.
After winning the game, the Warriors cheered from top to bottom, while the Timberwolves were dejected.
The players all looked frustrated. From the super core players like Zhao Feiyang to the team's substitutes like Tails, all of them were very disappointed because of the loss to the Warriors.
Under this situation, the team's interim coach Eric is very optimistic. After everyone returned to the locker room, he called all the players together to cheer them on.
"Guys, don't cry in despair!"
"You have to know that no one in their lineup today is absent... But we are different. We have Zach and Derek who have not returned... Even so, we only lost by more than a dozen points."
"Is this nothing to us? Remember last year in the finals, didn't we also lose? But we came back in the end! The gap between us and the Warriors is not that big, you don't have to be depressed. , on the contrary, you should take advantage of this loss to encourage yourself to keep working hard..."
Coach Eric is really comforting.
After he said a few words, the emotions of the Timberwolves players quickly recovered. Obviously, after experiencing a championship chase, the players are no longer as vulnerable to one or two failures as before!
At the same time, the day after the Timberwolves lost to the Warriors, a middle-aged man was welcomed into the office of Memphis Grizzlies general manager Dale Clifford.
This person is none other than former head coach Tom Thibodeau who left Minneapolis.
After being fired by the Timberwolves, although Thibodeau received a certain percentage of salary compensation. But for him, one of the best coaches in the league, such compensation is nothing at all. The blow to his reputation is truly fatal.
He doesn't lack money, what he lacks is enough attention-grabbing and impressive results.
This experience with the Timberwolves is undoubtedly the biggest failure in his coaching career.
"Coach Tom, welcome to Memphis!"
"Your team just lost to the Warriors yesterday, oh! What a pity game! It can be seen that the Timberwolves' defense has indeed improved under your training. I really don't know why they fired you?"
Team general manager Clifford stood up and said that he even reached out to shake Thibodeau's hand.
The two are old acquaintances, having worked together in the Bulls many years ago, but Thibodeau was not the Bulls' head coach at that time, and Clifford was only a department manager for the Bulls at that time.
After not seeing each other for many years, the former has become a famous NBA coach, and the latter has become the general manager of the Grizzlies.
To some extent, both of them can be considered minor achievements.
"Dale, that's not my team!"
Thibodeau reminded him as he reached out and shook his hand.
"What are you planning to do by calling me here? It's not just to let me join your assistant coaching team, right? I'm sorry, if that's the case, then I won't agree... If you were to be the head coach, didn't you just change Hasn’t the head coach been here for a long time?”
Thibodeau showed a curious side.
Clifford was not in a hurry and patiently explained the team's current situation to Thibodeau.
It turned out that after the Grizzlies' campaign ended last season, the team management had already had the idea of replacing the then team coach Dave Joerger.
The Grizzlies have been trying to reach the Western Conference Finals in recent seasons. Although they have worked hard and made various internal transactions and reinforcements, the team's record has still not improved.
Especially last season, after the team spent a lot of money to recruit some players, the team was only killed in the first round of the playoffs and was swept. This is simply intolerable to the team management.
In addition, the fans were not satisfied with the coaching of coach Dave Joger, so the Grizzlies came up with the idea of replacing the head coach.
After an offseason search, they found David Fizdale as the new team coach.
The arrival of Fizdale has given the team a completely new look, and their record this season is also good. So far, they have been hovering in seventh or eighth place in the Western Conference, and have not fallen out of the playoff ranks.
However, no one expected that coach Fizdale would recuperate due to illness in this relatively good situation. His departure left a vacancy in the position of head coach, and the team management could not put the team at risk just to wait for him. regardless of.
Then, naturally, we can only quickly find someone to replace him and continue to hold the Grizzlies' carriage towards the playoffs.
It was also at this time that Thibodeau, a famous coach who once led the Bulls to first place in the Eastern Conference and had just been fired, undoubtedly entered their sights.
After much deliberation, the Grizzlies management decided to invite Thibodeau to coach.
