NBA opening draw to twilight Shaquille O'Neal

Chapter 238 Sweeping the Lakers for the First Time in 38 Years
On April 4th, the Trail Blazers did not have a game, and when Wang Zelin and others were celebrating and got another two days of rest, a big melon suddenly broke out in the league.

On the night of the 5th, the Lakers played at home against the Western powerhouses, the Memphis Grizzlies, and Nash continued to miss this game due to injury. The two teams fought until the last moment.

However, with Gasol's key goal, Howard's key rebound at the moment of life and death, and Kobe's two free throws in 4.7 seconds, the Lakers finally beat the Grizzlies 86:84.

此役科比出战43分钟，23投10中得到24分5篮板9助攻，NBA生涯投篮命中数达到10986个，超过NBA名宿埃尔文海耶斯的10976个，在NBA历史投篮命中数排行榜上位居第6位。

The 35-year-old Black Mamba still maintains its sharp fangs, as if announcing to the world that his era is not over yet.

After this battle, everyone knew that Kobe was probably more happy that the Lakers finally reached the eighth place in the Western Conference than to set a new historical record.

With 40 wins and 36 losses, the Lakers surpassed the Mosaic team led by James Harden by virtue of a 0.5 win margin, and touched the threshold of the playoffs for the first time this season.

I remember that in the original time and space, the Lakers began to overtake at the end of the season, pulling down all the Jazz and Mosaics, and ranked seventh in the Western Conference after the regular season.

You know, when the Lakers were at their worst this season, they were able to rank No. 12 in the West...

And this time and space has more Wang Zelin, and one more sudden emergence of the Blazers, the Lakers still squeezed into the top eight... But after watching the next few games of the Lakers, it seems that they are not very stable.

8号打快船、10号打黄蜂、11号背靠背打开作者、13号、15号、18号的对手分别是勇士马刺和马赛克。

Except for the current No. 5 pick, the Hornets led by Anthony Davis, the remaining five teams are all ranked ahead of the Lakers.

There is no doubt that the Kobe Bryant team returned to the top eight in the West, and countless Angel City fans rushed to spread the news, making the Clippers in the same city envious.

However, no matter how hard the Lakers play, it has nothing to do with the Blazers. Even if Kobe leads the team to win all the games after that, it is impossible for the two teams to meet in the first round of the playoffs.

It won't be long before the end of the regular season, and the management of all teams is getting more and more busy, as is Neil Orsi. He must start now to find the talented rookies that the team needs to select in June this year.

At the same time, he must consider the team's personnel structure for the next season.

The performance of the Trail Blazers this year has exceeded many people's expectations. The three young men Wang Zelin, Aldridge, and Lillard are almost the core of the Trail Blazers in the next 3-5 or even 10 years. Neil Orsi has made up his mind to build a stronger team around them.

Therefore, the offseason trade has become the top priority, and he has put more effort into this aspect than the draft.

After all, the Blazers' management is not the Kings' management. The talented player Tyreke Evans is not trained well, and he always thinks about panning for gold in the draft.

No matter how hard it is to scouring, it can be more worthy of training than the current Wang Zelin and Lillard.

Not to mention, when Neil Orsi was thinking about valuable players from other teams, the general managers of the other 29 teams were also thinking about Trail Blazers players, especially Wang Zelin and Lillard, whose offers ranked first and second on the list.

What shocked him was that the quotation for Wang Zelin was even higher than that of Aldridge who had already proven himself...it was crazy!
At present, at least 15 teams have successively inquired about the possibility of trading Wang Zelin. More than half of the teams offered conditions that were not only considered by Neil Orsi.

Of course, Neil Orsi is not a fool. When he learned from data calculations that even if Wang Zelin does not play in the next 7 games, he can stabilize the data at 20 points + 10 rebounds. The idea of ​​trading was completely dead.

Because no matter in terms of personal data or future potential, Wang Zelin is better than Aldridge back then, and even any rookie when he was against the Trail Blazers, Wang Zelin was the best one at his age.

Soon the Trail Blazers management unanimously declared: Wang Zelin is not for sale of the team!

As soon as this remark came out, several teams that did report their sincerity secretly regretted: It seems that they are not the Magic!

Seeing that there is a high probability that Wang Zelin will not be able to get it, the general managers of other teams set their sights on Lillard, the spare tire.

As of April 4th, Lillard played a full 5 games for the Trail Blazers without landing a game in the regular season. Even when the starting lineup had a four-man rotation some time ago, Lillard refused the coach's request and insisted on playing. At the same time, his average playing time reached 75 minutes, ranking first in the league!

Reminiscent of the "excellent tradition" of the Trail Blazers, the outside world has to sigh with emotion, "Li is a real man, and the attributes of tolerance are full!"

而且，利拉德还贡献了场均17.6分8.2助攻3.5篮板，场均得分仅次于王泽林的22分、场均助攻位列12届新秀球员第一、以及……不知道多少期新秀排行榜的千年老二。

As the regular season draws to a close, many media outlets began their classic program-rearranging the draft picks.

This show must be held once every year, but the fans really like to watch it.

The mainstream media in the United States, including ESPN, FOX, Sports Illustrated, and Slam Dunk, unanimously ranked Lillard as the third pick in the second draft, that is, the No. 2 overall pick, jumping directly from the eighth pick to the third pick.

The second place is the original No. [-] pick Anthony Davis. Seeing this, I hope you all know who the No. [-] pick is.

Wang Zelin!
Yes, Wang Zelin went straight to the top from the original ninth overall pick, and few people questioned this.

Inexplicably, Wang Zelin picked up another wave of popularity, and his fan value soared, which made him feel good about ESPN for the first time.

The so-called draft rearrangement is essentially a pain in the ass. In the beginning, few people paid attention to this matter. Later, due to the addition of ESPN, the draft rearrangement became more and more noisy.

……

On April 4, the Blazers ushered in the challenge of the San Antonio Spurs at home.

As mentioned earlier, the period when the season is about to end is also the busiest time for the team, but... the general manager is busy. As a player, Wang Zelin's first task is to play every game for the team. He still can't get involved in team building.

Perhaps in the near future, when Wang Zelin's status in the team is getting higher and higher to a certain level, then he will be able to speak in terms of team building.

Many people say that James, as a player, can influence the management, which is a transcendent behavior. They don't know that every player hopes that one day he can have the influence of James in the team.

Back to the game, both the Trail Blazers and the Spurs have secured their places in the playoffs in advance, but this does not mean that both sides will relax their vigilance. On the contrary, both the Trail Blazers and the Spurs regard each other as one of the potential opponents in the second round of the playoffs.

em. . . . . . .

Although this may be a bit offensive to other teams, both sides have strong confidence in the strength of their own teams, and agree that the mere first round cannot stop their progress.

After the game started, whether it was the Trail Blazers players or the scouts of other teams on the sidelines, they could clearly perceive the Spurs' desire for victory.

Something is wrong, something is wrong!
You know, the Spurs wanted to lose a few more games before, but now they want to win every game.

I really don't understand.

Spurs bench.

Sensing all kinds of gazes from the sidelines, Sima Weiqi appeared calm and calm, but in fact, he had already started MMP in his heart: You think I think, if it wasn't for that damn poisonous snake suddenly feeling eighth, I would be like this!
Ok!

It is estimated that no one thought that the sudden change in the status of all the Spurs was because the Lakers broke into eighth.

For this reason, Simavich also held a meeting overnight to estimate the possibility of meeting the Lakers in the playoffs.

Not only because of Kobe's title of "Spurs Killer", look at what that old guy has done.

He averaged 27.8 points per game, ranking third in the NBA scoring list in the 12-13 season. The second place was Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant with an average of 28.3 points per game. The Knicks star Carmelo Anthony ranked first with an average of 28.7 points per game.

What a familiar scene, it was like this last season, Kobe lost the title of scoring champion by 0.1 points... Of course, some people said that Kobe didn't want to fight and took the initiative to give up.

Kobe is one year older this year. In view of the poor record of the Lakers, many people in the outside world also publicized that Kobe is old.

But when the season was coming to an end, those who clamored before were dumbfounded. Who has ever seen a super scorer who averaged 27 points per game be called "old!"

Sima Weiqi: "My old Nima!"

The sudden emergence of the Purple and Gold Corps made the Spurs Corps, which was originally sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai, feel a little uneasy.

It is with such unease that the Spurs urgently need a victory to soothe their mood.

107:89, the Spurs blew Portland with 18 points.

GDP组合联动出场合砍68分，外加少主面瘫佬的15分7篮板3助攻3抢断，继上一场100:88输给雷霆后，从开拓者身上回了一口血。

In the face of Tim Duncan with 19 points and 11 rebounds, Wang Zelin did not lose the wind in the slightest. The statistics were even better, with 20 points and 13 rebounds.

But these are useless, and the loss data is not worth mentioning to him.

Another inside player of the Blazers, Aldridge, has obviously recovered, scoring 13 points on 7 of 15 shots, but it is far from enough. This performance is not enough to bring the team victory.

Lillard, the last of the Blazers' three young players, scored 17 points on 5 of 13 shots. He didn't score a point in the final quarter and went straight to misfire.

This is actually a common problem of rookie players, even Lillard can't avoid it. After several games have been stable, there will always be one undercover game.

As for Wang Zelin...it turns out he is a B!

After sending the Spurs away, the Blazers ushered in the challenge of the Dallas Mavericks.

This is the weakest of a bunch of opponents at the end of the season. The Trail Blazers managed to handle it to death, and this is inseparable from the cooperation of the Mavericks.

So far, the Mavericks have confirmed that they will miss this year's playoffs and are preparing for offseason fishing in advance.

In a game without suspense, the Blazers led their opponents by at least 10 points from beginning to end, and finally defended their home court with 112:91 and won the victory.

Another arena at the same time.

At the Staples Arena in Los Angeles, the high-profile intra-city derby kicked off.

Nash, the son of the wind, is still out due to injury in this game...

The old blacksmith said he was used to it.

At the beginning of the game, Griffin got excited as soon as he hit his sister-in-law. The inside line caused a foul and made two free throws.

But then the Lakers' Stephen Blake and Judy Meeks hit consecutive three-pointers, Howard dunked under the basket, and suddenly played an 8:0 offensive wave to take the lead.

For a while, there was only one voice left in the Staples Arena-Go Lakers!
For the Clippers, it is undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire. Captain Paul took the lead to stand up and score a mid-range goal to stabilize the situation. Griffin and Jordan succeeded in consecutive vacancies.

At the end of the first quarter, the Clippers led the Lakers 30:25.

In the first quarter, Kobe turned into a reasonable team. He made 2 of 0 shots and scored no points, but sent 6 assists. Those who didn't know thought that Kobe was wearing Paul's No. 3 jersey on the opposite side.

It can be seen that Kobe wants to follow the style of play of the previous games: focus on organizing his teammates in the early stage, bite the score first, and then take over the game himself when it is critical.

But how can the Clippers do what they want.

If you really want to choose a team that has the deepest research on the Los Angeles Lakers, it must be the Los Angeles Clippers.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Clippers made an early effort. Jamal Crawford scored 9 points, blasting the Lakers' second team and helping the team get an 11-point lead.

When Kobe returned to the court, the head coach of the Clippers also quickly put the main lineup on the court. Paul assisted Crawford with a three-pointer in the first round after returning, helping the latter score 12 points in a single quarter.

The point difference is getting bigger and bigger, the Black Mamba can't sit still, and spits out his fangs ahead of time, but the price is a decline in offensive efficiency in the final quarter.

Entering the final quarter, the two teams immediately staged a tug-of-war, but when Kobe had physical problems, the Lakers' offense instantly became disorganized.

Paul and Jordan continued to fire, helping the team widen the point difference to 15 points, and the game gradually lost suspense.

最终快船以109:95击败湖人，这是自从1974~175赛季之后，快穿38年来首次常规赛横扫湖人，也是快船队史上第2次单赛季横扫湖人。

With this victory, the Clippers continue to rank third in the Western Conference, and the gap between the Blazers and them remains unchanged.

As for the Lakers, they once again came to a critical moment. With 40 wins and 37 losses, they fell to ninth in the Western Conference, and Mosaic rose to eighth.

The Lakers' opponent in the next game is the Hornets. After the Hornets, they will be the Portland Trail Blazers led by Wang Zelin.

But Kobe didn't agree.

For a ticket to the playoffs, he can be said to be playing with his life, completely ignoring his old injuries.

For Kobe, no matter who the next opponent is, he will do his best, even if he gives everything.

(End of this chapter)