CIATB Chapter 398 But the pit can be buried first
Chapter 398 But the pit can be buried first
"We have to have a more objective evaluation of this Portland Trail Blazers!"
That was the headline on ESPN after Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.Just like when Kenny Smith explained the game, he gave a very pertinent evaluation of the "four cores" of the Trail Blazers, thinking that they are very complementary.
ESPN also thinks the Blazers are underrated.
Even more underrated than their regular-season No. [-] seed in the Western Conference.
In fact, before the start of this round of the series, most of the media were more optimistic that the Hornets could win the final victory and join the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.
Unexpectedly, it was the Trail Blazers who got the match point.
Even the Warriors said that this is surprising.
In the "Ohio Four" group, Mike Conley said confidently: "Li Wan, see you in the finals!"
Before the start of the Eastern Conference finals the next day, the media also asked Li Wan, would he look forward to playing against the Trail Blazers on the stage of the finals?
Li Wan nodded without hesitation: "Dude, there is nothing to ask, no one expects something like that to happen..."
In fact, what Li Wan wanted to say was that this was already one of the few things in this league that could excite him.
But if he said that, it would be easy for some people to figure out what he was thinking, so Li Wan didn't say it out loud.
That night, the Eastern Conference finals officially started.
Before the Eastern Conference finals, the NBA officially announced this year's regular season MVP award.
But this final grand prize is also the least suspenseful grand prize this season.
Li Wan averaged 60 points per game in the regular season, far surpassing Chamberlain's "miracle" performance. If he still can't win this award, who else can win this award?
Amidst the cheers from the Age of Discovery, Tatum appeared in front of Li Wan with the regular season MVP trophy.
When Li Wan won the award, the whole arena was filled with cheers.
This is a historic moment. After Li Wan won the regular season MVP trophy, his number of regular season MVP trophies reached 6, tying with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and becoming the player with the most regular season MVP trophies in NBA history. players.
And this year he...
Only 31 years old!
He became the player who won the most regular season MVP and finals MVP trophies...
What is "goat"?
Li Wan didn't even need to put the crown on his head, just as he heard a few sheep bleating.
Li Wan looked up subconsciously...
I thought it was open!
Everyone in the Raptors watched quietly as Li Wan consolidated his godhood and added another brilliant diamond to the NBA's No. [-] throne, but there was a desire to win in their eyes.
Although the game has not yet started, the progress and strength of the Raptors this season have been recognized by the outside world, but judging from the support of this round of the series, they have almost no support. The final is definitely the Columbus Explorers.
This made them very upset, and it also filled them with the drive to overthrow the Columbus Explorers at this moment.
The game will start soon.
The big screen at the scene gave the starting lineups of both sides:
"Columbus Explorers: Li Wan at No. [-], Wiggins at No. [-], Carmelo Anthony at No. [-], Sabonis Jr. at No. [-], Adams at No. [-];
Toronto Raptors: Lowry at No. [-], DeRozan at No. [-], Paul George at No. [-], Serge Ibaka at No. [-], Marc Gasol at No. [-];”
Adams successfully jumped to possession for the Columbus Explorers.
Li Wan took the ball to the frontcourt, and Paul George intercepted it.
Among the current wing players, Paul George still has something to do with Li Wan's defense.
At least there will be no disturbance at all.
Li Wan decisively called the pick-and-roll, and after bypassing the screen, he made a shooting action from the top three-point position
Paul George didn't have time to step forward, Mark could only defend forward, and Li Wan grabbed him and rushed forward, and rushed directly to the basket from beside him.
With just one step, Marc Gasol left behind, facing Ibaka in 1v1, his "hesitating step" made Ibaka stunned in place, and then added it, and finished against Ibaka basket.
Ibaka kept up with Li Wan's layup, but he could only watch Li Wan put the basket into the basket.
No way, if he was still in the Thunder team, he should be able to keep up with Li Wan's movements, but now his explosive power has been reduced by more than half, and he can't keep up with Li Wan's swiftness at all.
2-0!
The Raptors counterattacked, and as soon as Paul George got the ball from the flank, Li Wan stepped up. George planned to use "three threats" to force Li Wan back, but in the end, Li Wan dodged him and waved his hand, directly bullying him. In front of him, he forcibly confronted him.It forced him to turn around and lean on his shoulders, only then managed to stabilize his figure.
Shaking his head slightly, Paul George showed a little helplessness.
He has been so good this season, averaging more than 25 points per game, but in front of Li Wan, he still looks so restrained.
Is this the sorrow of being in the same era as the "God of Basketball"?
But he cheered up immediately, turned around again, his eyes became determined, he accelerated his dribbling speed, and suddenly changed direction in front of his body, trying to break through forcibly.
But the entanglement time between the two has reached 5 seconds. Li Wan's "Death Coiled" badge came into play, and he reached out his hand more resolutely, and cut the ball off precisely.
The moment Paul George realized that the ball was out of his hands, he also turned from offense to defense, trying to get the ball back, but Li Wan's dribbling was very agile, especially when the degree of body mobilization reached the maximum at this moment. Unable to threaten the ball.
"Retreat quickly!"
Raptors head coach Paul George regains consciousness by yelling impatiently.
But at this time, it was already too late, and Li Wan went straight to the basket with the ball.
"Bah!"
One-handed dunk, detonated the entire arena.
Even on the stage of the Eastern Conference finals, Li Wan still scored 1 points in a row in less than 4 minute.
If this is the whole game, it will not score 192 points!
In other words, this is Li Wan's "crazy season"!
Barkley emphasized again: "This is Li Wan's real peak period. What we have seen in the past is what we thought Li Wan was at his peak!"
Paul George is a little frustrated.
Everyone saw Li Wan's "super god" performance this season, but he really didn't expect to be suppressed so badly by Li Wan at the beginning.Originally thought that his progress this season was enough to bring him closer to Li Wan!
I didn't expect...
If you can't do it alone, you can only count on the whole team!
According to the original plan, the Toronto Raptors took out a defensive formation against Li Wan.
It was this formation that came out much earlier than the head coach of the Raptors originally expected. This not only made him a little more worried... After all, this is Li Wan. His 12-year career has proved that he has no defense The lineup can always trap him.So even if his lineup has some effect, if it is used from the beginning, will there be a situation of "somewhat useful, but the effect does not last long"?
The Raptors' defense method is also very simple. The entire outside defense is spread out, and Li Wan is not given a chance to shoot a three-pointer. On the inside, Ibaka is used to help defend, and Marc Gasol's top defense allows Li Wan More to pass the ball.
In the eyes of the head coach of the Raptors, if Li Wan passes 20 passes and the Columbus Explorers win in the end, then he will admit it!
Being beaten to death by the entire Columbus Explorers team is better than being shot to death by Li Wan alone, right?
and……
Judging from the team member data of the entire Columbus Explorers regular season, this is a season in which Li Wan carried the entire game by himself. It is hard to say whether other players can have the same state as last season.
It's just that the Raptors head coach forgot one thing...
This season's "three-second zone" has been re-expanded.
This makes Marc Gasol's defense speed unable to keep up with Li Wan's movement speed.
Let's put it this way, when Adams came out to play a pick-and-roll for Li Wan, and Li Wan bypassed the screen and stood at the top of the arc, what should you do Marc Gasol?
If it came up, it would be wiped by Li Wanxiang just like before, but if it didn't come up, then Li Wan could also shoot a three-pointer without hesitation.
A more mobile inside player must follow Adams to stand up.
The head coach of the Raptors also discovered this situation, and then switched the positions of Ibaka and Marc Gasol, and asked Ibaka to follow. Although he did not have the explosive power of the past, his moving speed must be Faster than Marc Gasol.
But "you have Zhang Liangji, I have a wall ladder", Li Wan saw that after Ibaka was replaced on the opposite side, after holding the ball to bypass the screen, he was not in a hurry to defend Ibaka, and immediately made a shot choice .
Instead, let his teammates pull away and give him space to play singles with Ibaka.
As such...
Only Ibaka's injured world has reached!
At the end of the first quarter, the head coach of the Raptors insisted on using Ibaka to defend Li Wan. As a result, Li Wan scored 24 points in a single quarter and his shooting percentage was as high as 70%!
Basically there is a shot.
Li Wan even played two difficult shots later on.
Because at this time, the lead of the Columbus Explorers also came to nearly 10 points.
And if those two difficult goals are finally scored, the point difference will even come to about 15 points.
So when Li Wan failed to make two difficult shots, the head coach of the Raptors subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
This is really scary!
He didn't expect that his arrangement was useless at all.
In fact, if it was last season, this arrangement would definitely be useful, because the inside line does not require so much mobility.Marc Gasol could have waited for Li Wan to "snap himself" behind the free throw line.
After the "three-second zone" is re-expanded, unless the inside line is directly in front of the free throw line, or it has to stand in the elbow areas on both sides.But the problem is that the free throw line is too far from the basket. Standing in this position, it becomes very difficult to defend the inside.
In short, I can't stand at all.
Kenny Smith made a bold guess: "I think Tatum is probably also a fan of Li Wan!"
Otherwise, how could it be possible to change the "three-second zone" back to its original appearance as soon as it came up?
Although after the "three-second zone" narrowed, Li Wan still won the "three consecutive championships", but at any rate, judging from the scene, it is still a bit restrictive. Li Wan still has to make a choice, whether to attack by himself or Let teammates attack.
It's different now, the Raptors are defending well, but Li Wan can still grasp the problem of the Raptors' bad legs and poor explosive power inside and continue to play singles with the ball.
Turn your match success into "I'm all alone against all of you"!
During the rotation of the bench, the Raptors came out with a fierce man "Van Jordan" who hit three-pointers in a row. Fortunately, the Columbus Explorers also had a strong man on the bench. As soon as Rogdon came up, it was just like taking it out of the microwave oven, and he responded to the goals of "Van Jordan" continuously.
The point difference has been in double digits, and when Li Wan plays, everything is over.
Paul George tried his best to create difficulties for Li Wan, but Li Wan didn't bother him at all, and directly called his teammates' pick-and-roll.Constantly singled out the inside players of the Raptors.
In the end, at the home court of the Columbus Explorers, Li Wan made 32 of 24 shots, 12 of 9 three-pointers, and 9 of 9 free throws. He scored 66 points, 17 rebounds and 6 assists. The Trail Blazers beat Toronto 126-109, 17 points, to secure the Columbus Explorers' first home game in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Big score 1 to 0!
After the game, Paul George shook his head slightly, the helplessness on his face was beyond words.
He felt powerless from the beginning, and after the game, he felt like he went home immediately and fell asleep without thinking about anything.It's really too perverted!
His performance in this game was actually not bad, and he finally scored 30 points, but the problem is, compared with Li Wan's 66 points, the gap is still too big.
Moreover, he did not have much impact on Li Wan on the defensive end, but Li Wan caused him a lot of trouble. For these 30 points, he used 24 shots...
You must know that Li Wan scored more than double his points, and only made 8 shots more than him.
The pressure was so great that at this moment, he could only shake his head besides shaking his head.
In the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Raptors still did not make any changes, and they still insisted on the tactics of the first game. They did not change their formations, and the Explorers, the winning team, had no reason to change their formations.
It was also Li Wan's singles, scoring 60 points in the second consecutive game, helping the team rewrite the big score to 2-0!
The Toronto Raptors came to Columbus with the desire to win, and it just didn't work out.
Dwayne Casey faced the camera and did not criticize too much: "We have done everything we can do, but this is Li Wan, even if you face him sometimes, you think you have done everything , but still can't win the final victory, this has happened many times in this alliance!"
He also has a desperate move, but because other people have used it, he doesn't expect any miraculous effect from this move.
Let's put it this way, some series are not over yet, but the pit can be buried first.