NBA opening draw to twilight Shaquille O'Neal

Chapter 229 Spurs: Who still has dreams?

"Hey King, look, you scored two of the five best goals in all games yesterday! That's really cool!"

Wang Zelin, who hadn't woken up on the big bed in the hotel, was woken up by Lillard who lived in the same room.

"What are you doing! Haha!
Don't bother me if you don't want to catch up on sleep! "

After playing for a full 34 minutes last night, Wang Zelin still felt a little tired between his brows after waking up.

Fighting against a strong defensive team like the Grizzlies is a torment, and it's still an away game. It's really easy to make people physically and mentally exhausted, and it's inevitable to sleep a little longer during the day.

"Okay, okay, it's my fault, okay?"

Lillard smiled and shoved the tablet over.

Wang Zelin took the tablet and flipped through it casually, and the content of the sports section was just as he expected.

In the center of the board is a picture, which is the heroic posture of himself when leading the fast break. The headline of the report: "From Yao to Wang, the traditional craftsmanship of the Chinese center!"

What a traditional craft?
You are a traditional craft...

Your whole family is a traditional craft!

Wang Zelin's head was full of black lines instantly. He couldn't imagine what kind of strange mood the Chinese fans on the other side of the ocean felt after seeing this report.

"Look, I'm also on the headlines!" Lillard leaned over and said excitedly.

"Okay buddy, don't get excited. After washing and changing clothes, let's go down to have breakfast first. There will be more opportunities to make headlines in the future."

Seeing Lillard's excitement about being on the headlines, Wang Zelin didn't find it strange. Few young people can resist the temptation of flowers and applause.

Lillard in his rookie period has shown a mature temperament, but after all, his expression management is not as mature as later.

As a rookie, it is definitely a commendable thing to be on the headlines of the famous Los Angeles Times.

"You think I'm you, and the headlines will go up as soon as they say it."

"No, you're wrong about this," Wang Zelin turned his head, "It's usually someone who begs me to do it... I like to be passive!"

"roll!"

……

In the trip to Memphis, the Blazers finally maintained the lead created in the third quarter to the end.

At 99:81, the score of the two teams is a bit lower than the average data per game, but the quality of the game contributed is not low at all.

But well.

This is for some senior fans who like to study the game in depth. What most fans prefer to see is always a hearty offensive confrontation rather than a rigid defensive battle.

Advocating offense seems to have become an increasingly clear theme in the NBA.

And time will tell them that blindly engaging in offense will inevitably usher in bitter fruit in the future.

Of course, this is a later story, so it is inconvenient to mention it now.

开拓者的36号15次出手11次命中，以超高命中率得到全队第二高的24分，外加14篮板5盖帽4助攻。

Under the background of such dazzling data, the 6 mistakes are naturally not so prominent.

"This is a tragedy. We were completely abused by our opponents, but what I want to say is that this is also a lesson. He made me and my players more aware of our own shortcomings. Next time we meet, we will become stronger."

When interviewed by TNT reporter after the game, Grizzlies coach Hollins replied very seriously.

灰熊队今晚表现最出色的是扎克兰多夫，13投8中罚球4中4，得到20分10篮板。

But success is also a black bear, and failure is also a black bear.

Facing the Blazers' double-teaming strategy, Zach Randolph's countermeasures were very fatal, sending a career-high 7 turnovers.

It has to be mentioned here.

So far in his career, Zach Randolph has made 7 turnovers in a single game, and there have been 9 such moments in total. Last night's game against the Trail Blazers was the 10th.

So, should I say he is stable, or stable...

Except for Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol contributed the team's second-highest 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Mike Conley sent 14 points. In addition, there is no fourth person who scored in double figures.

In contrast, in addition to Wang Zelin's 24 points for the Blazers, Lillard contributed a team-high 25 points, including 9 of 6 three-pointers, and he single-handedly beat the Grizzlies' back line on the offensive end.

For the remaining players, Aldridge scored 14 points, Batum scored 11 points, Matthews and Conley Terry on the bench both scored 10 points.

Facing the Grizzlies, which are known for their defense, the Blazers still scored in double figures with 6 players, and gradually their state last night was at its peak!
……

The next day.

"Get up in the morning and embrace the sun..."

Humming the magical tune, Wang Zelin came to the arena.

After playing the Grizzlies, the Trail Blazers got two days off.

Take a look at the upcoming schedule...

There are still 10 games in total, although most of the opponents are strong teams in the playoffs, the Knicks, Bucks, Bulls, Eagles, Nets in the East, Thunder, Warriors and Jazz in the West...

But the only ones that can really threaten the Trail Blazers are the Knicks and the Thunder.

Among them, there are two back-to-back games. Generally speaking, the schedule in March is still acceptable.

The Blazers are currently 43 wins and 20 losses, ranking fourth in the Western Conference. The remaining 19 games are steady and steady, and they strive to win at least 7 games to reach 50 wins, so the playoffs should be stable.

According to the wild posture of the top eight or even top ten in the Western Conference this year, with less than 45 wins, there is no ticket for the playoffs at all.

In fact, the original history is so cruel.

The Lakers, ninth in the Western Conference, fought back in the last month, surpassed the obstacles of the Jazz and Mosaic, and raised their record to 45 wins and 37 losses at the end of the regular season, which was the same as Mosaic's record, but because the Lakers were slightly better in the contest between the two teams, they successfully ranked seventh.

Judging from the current situation, the Trail Blazers have a high probability of missing 60+ games in the regular season. If they can't get 60 wins, how can they hit the first place in the West.

Now that the regular season is a foregone conclusion, the Blazers have to turn their attention to the not-too-distant playoffs.

Who will play in the playoffs?

It has become the number one problem for the Trail Blazers to be discussed at present.

Since the 21st century, the NBA has had several classic cases of challenging opponents.

The most recent time was that the Grizzlies deliberately released water in the 11th season. They lost the game and fell to eighth against the disabled Spurs. The final result was as they wished and successfully completed the feat of black eight.

It must have been cool enough at the time, but in the future...

The impact was the kind that the Spurs generals saw after the Grizzlies beat them to death.

If you choose to plan ahead, the fifth-ranked Grizzlies are very likely to become the Trail Blazers' opponents in the first round of the playoffs.

The Grizzlies are well-known for their difficulty. Even if they are lucky enough to beat them, [-]% of them may lose a layer of skin. In the second round, it is easy to cause players to be exhausted.

The typical "kill one thousand enemies, self-damage eight hundred!

Thinking about it this way, it would be a wiser choice to try my best to overtake the Clippers and rise to third in the Western Conference, and strive to turn the first-round opponent of the playoffs into the Denver Nuggets.

The Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets have played against each other three times this season, with a record of 2:1, and the Trail Blazers are slightly better.

Through the strength analysis of the system space, Wang Zelin is very clear that neither the Nuggets nor the Grizzlies have superstar players with a score of 90 or above.

The lesser of the two evils.

Instead of facing the Grizzlies, he is more willing to face the Nuggets, even if the latter has the devil's home court advantage.

As a player, he can think of this, and it is estimated that the coaching staff is the same. Terry Stotts and his coaching staff are probably also struggling with this matter at the moment.

Maybe it's time for a team meeting.

……

Time passed quickly, and in a flash, another day passed.

On March 3th, the Trail Blazers played against a strong enemy at home - the New York Knicks.

The Knicks currently have 41 wins and 22 losses. They are the second team in the East besides the Heat to break through 2 wins.

What's more, the Trail Blazers received good news before the start of the war. Knicks star Carmelo Anthony continued to miss due to injury, and insider Tyson Chandler did not come back.

Tonight, the reason is to bring "Nervous Knife" JR Smith to lead 5 old men over 35 years old to meet the enemy.

Not really.

Kent Thomas, the oldest active player in the league.

Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, Jason Kidd...these are all veterans from many years ago.

The youngest and most powerful player on the team is Iman Shumpert, who was selected by the Knicks last year. He averaged only 9 points and 3 rebounds per game.

Facing the Blazers who were like wolves and tigers, the Denver Nuggets quickly lost their will to fight and had no desire to struggle.

Wang Zelin played very calmly against Kenyon Martin, the former insider of the Nets Trident combination. He scored 28 points, 19 rebounds and 10 blocks in 3 minutes.

The Blazers eventually defeated the Knicks 111 to 95 and won three consecutive victories.

After the game, Wang Zelin said bluntly: There was no pressure at all in this game, so easy!

Not long after sending the Knicks away, on the 17th, the Blazers ushered in a challenge from the Detroit Pistons at home.

No, this should not be called a challenge, but a unilateral failure to figure it out to seek abuse.

14 wins and 49 losses ranked No. 11 in the Eastern Conference. The Pistons' bad plan is still not professional enough.

Look at the Magic, in the first year when Howard was sent away, he decisively started to perform badly, and won the position of Eastern squad leader with 1 wins and 9 losses.

Even vice-president Charlotte Bobcats' 11 wins and 50 losses are hard to come by.

In order to give the Pistons a helping hand... 108:75, the Blazers won 4 consecutive victories with tears in their eyes.

After three consecutive home games, the Blazers ushered in a wave of five straight away.

On the 19th and 20th, the Blazers' Eastern Expeditionary Army officially set off and easily won the 76ers and Bucks sacrifice flags, with a record of 46 wins and 20 losses.

em... wait.

This is 46 wins!

This is the third in the West!
The smoothness of the schedule exceeded the expectations of the coaching staff. In the blink of an eye, the team has won a wave of 6 consecutive victories.

Even more unexpected things happened to them.

On the 22nd and 24th, the Blazers visited Chicago and Atlanta successively. After beating the Bulls and the Eagles, they returned to the West with 8 consecutive victories.

Seeing that the team is about to break through 50 games, the Trail Blazers fans were overjoyed, and many media followed suit.

"The Blazers like to mention 8 consecutive victories!" and "Heat's record-breaking 25 consecutive victories" made the headlines of the major media that day.

No one expected that at the end of the season, the Portland Trail Blazers would score the most points.

The other 28 teams wept with joy when they learned about it. After a long time, someone can finally steal the headlines from the Big Three of the Heat.

Since February 2013, 2, when the Heat defeated the underdog Bobcats, it officially kicked off the prelude to a mighty winning streak.

10 wins in a row... Trifle.

15 wins in a row... sprinkle water.

20 consecutive victories... some people can't sit still.

22 consecutive victories... the entire league, and even the entire basketball world will explode.

在此之前， NBA历史最长，连胜榜单上的头两名分别是1971~1972赛季由贝勒爷和张2万带领湖人创下的33连胜、以及07~08赛季由姚麦组合带领马赛克创下的22连胜……

After the 22-game winning streak, the Heat's every move has attracted the attention of countless people until the current 25-game winning streak.

Before the season, no one expected that after the championship season, the Heat would once again be sublimated, and their dominance was even better than in the first championship season.

And now, there is actually a team that can pull out its teeth, and can take part of the headlines from the headline bully of the Heat, making other teams scramble for the championship.

However, just in Portland, the Trail Blazers coaching staff was impatient.

I can't win like this anymore!
……

Back to Portland on the 25th.

After lunch, Wang Zelin came to the team training hall.

Now the situation in the west is getting clearer.

The San Antonio Spurs, which started the season like a tiger, gradually reined in their edge after the All-Star break. The successive rotations of the GDP combination caused the Spurs to drop from the first place in the Western Conference to the second place.

Unlike young teams, the Spurs, which are mostly veterans, set their sights on the playoffs early, and for this reason, they have carried out player physical reserve work in advance.

In the regular season competition for rankings, the Spurs said that they had already had enough, and it was time to give it up to those young people, as long as everyone showed face and gave up the final O'Brien Cup.

Youdao means that the man is affectionate and the concubine is interested!

Under the half-push and half-down of the Spurs, the Oklahoma City Thunder youth team made a brave blow and completed the summit of the Western Conference on March 3.

With 50 wins and 17 losses, following the Miami Heat in the East, it became the second team in the league to break through 50 games.

The Thunder is different from the Blazers, they cannot give up the top spot, and unless the Wang Bo team hurts one of them, it will be difficult for the Blazers to catch up to the other side.

Therefore, it is difficult for the Blazers to grab the No. [-] throne in the West.

Then, the Spurs with 49 wins and 18 losses have become the most likely target for the Blazers to surpass.

More importantly, the Spurs' recent games have been somewhat intriguing.

Losing to the Dallas Mavericks, 91:92, can only be regarded as a bitter defeat.

But what does the next loss to the Timberwolves mean?
Only G played in the GDP combination. What's even more outrageous is that he only played 22 minutes, shot 10 of 2 shots, and scored 20 points tearfully with a 7% shooting rate.

Faced with such a poor performance of Demon Sword, Sima Weiqi, who has always been very easy to expose, was cheerful, like a Santa Claus.

In this game, not only Duncan and Tony Parker, but even the team's new core Leonard was reluctant to release it. In the end, at 107:83, the Spurs completed the warmth achievement.

It was after this night that the No. [-] and No. [-] in the West switched positions.

Now the Spurs are blatantly revealing a piece of information to the outside world...

Who still dreams?
Say something quickly.

If you dare say it, I will give it away!
In fact, the Spurs did not say a word.

Even if you don't tell me, I will send it.

Not really.

Playing against the Cavaliers on the 23rd, this time it was Duncan and Kawhi's turn to lead the team, and the bench even had a demon knife to fight. As a result, it took four quarters of fierce fighting to win the game by 4 points.

After the game, Sima Weiqi looked like a dead horse, as if the Cavaliers were the winners.

If it weren't for the fact that the Cavaliers are really not strong, I am afraid that the Spurs' current record has been tied with the third Trail Blazers.

The Spurs' coquettish operation stunned all the melon eaters, especially the Blazers' management, and instantly became vigilant.

Those old fritters are going to do something!

Therefore, with a short two-day rest day, the coaching staff hurriedly held a meeting.

What is going to be the second in the West?
Or third in the West?

It's all in the next meeting
……

　I just found out that the exemption is restricted, and those who have the conditions can vote for it, I am very grateful.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)