lakers championship

Chapter 424 Absolute Dominance

On the morning of the 12th, ESPN's official Twitter released the predictions for the results of the first round of the playoffs.

For the Lakers and Timberwolves, 21 experts all chose the Lakers to win, and 19 of them believed that the Lakers would advance 4-0. Only Kevin Arnolds and Andrew Han believed that the Timberwolves would win the next game.

The reason Kevin gave was: "The Lakers may be able to limit Towns in two or even three games, but it is difficult to achieve all restrictions in all games. Once Towns opens up on the offensive end, the Lakers cannot restrain him inside."

The reason Andrew gave was: "The combination of Jimmy Garwiggins has the opportunity to put pressure on the Lakers outside. If the Timberwolves are behind 0 to 3, there is a high probability that a victory will erupt."

What the two said did not arouse too much discussion. Anyway, the Lakers won, entangled in 4 games or 5 games, it is difficult to arouse the interest of fans, but many NBA celebrities forwarded it.

Garnett wrote: "Minnesota will remind pundits that analysis and practice are two different things."

Marbury wrote: "Wiggins will show his absolute talent in the playoffs!"

Cassell wrote: "The Timberwolves will be the dark horse in this playoffs!"

Unfortunately, the retweets of the three Timberwolves celebrities still failed to arouse much discussion.

O'Neal retweeted and wrote: "Jimmy Butler dragged the two No. [-] picks and finally made it to the playoffs. They are so excited. If Butler doesn't renew his contract next year, what will they do!"

...

On the morning of the 14th, the Lakers officially submitted the 13-man roster for the playoffs to the league. Thomas Bryant and Zubac lost the selection.

At 10:9000 p.m., the Staples Center officially opened for admission. About [-] minutes later, the stadium was full of more than [-] people, and there were still many fans who could not buy tickets. They set up tents outside the stadium, men and women. Young and old, in groups of three or five, watched the game on mobile platforms such as mobile phones.

In the arena, in the TNT live broadcast area, the four of O'Neill were chatting and laughing, conducting pre-match analysis one by one.

When the time came to 7:30, Ernie put away his smile and asked, "In this round of the series, which team are you more optimistic about? Please tell your reasons and don't answer from the perspective of fans."

"Ernie, let's not do this, you are too official..." Barkley shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands with embarrassment, "Even if I analyze the Lakers game from a rational point of view every time, they will face the Timberwolves unless they suspend 4 players. Otherwise, they will win no matter what they fight, and there will be absolutely no suspense."

"Yes, we should talk about the Jazz and Thunder now." Kenny nodded in agreement, "Let's talk about the winners of these two teams and whether they might cause trouble for the Lakers."

"Whether it's the Thunder or the Jazz, they can win at most one game under the Lakers." O'Neal glanced at his mouth with disdain on his face, "It's the Spurs' team with strict discipline and clear tactics that can easily bring trouble to the Lakers."

"So, all three are optimistic about the Lakers' victory?" Ernie pushed his glasses and pretended to be confused, "Then let's enter a commercial..."

...

At 7:40, all the players were ready in the Lakers locker room.

Wharton walked among the crowd, put his hands on his hips, and smiled.

"Guys, tonight we begin our playoff journey again. It's been a long, difficult journey, but all the same, we will take back many precious memories. No matter what the outside world says about us, the coaching staff and I will always Together with everyone, we will earnestly play every game, no matter we win or lose."

After Wharton finished speaking, Kobe took the lead in applauding, then got up and walked among the crowd.

"I never thought I'd have a chance to compete for a championship again, so if you make too many turnovers, I'm going to curse, if you're too bad on defense, I'm going to curse, if you're too bad on offense, I'm going to curse you. But if you play enough Well, no matter who, no matter when, no matter what the result is, I will be the first to applaud you! Of course, if I am not good enough on both offensive and defensive ends, you can also scold me, but you will not see this I'll do my best!"

After Kobe finished speaking, the whole locker room was tense and excited, and everyone turned their attention to Tianyang.

Tianyang got up and walked among the crowd.

"I hope everyone will go all out like Corvo, but don't have any scruples. I will always stand behind you. If you miss the ball, I will get it back for you. If you miss it, I will stop it for you. I will give you the ball back. In the end, I am not humble anymore, we will win the championship this year!"

After Tianyang finished speaking, the crowd surrounded him, with a dozen or so hands raised together, shouting in unison.

"The Lakers Championship!"

...

At 7:45, Kobe led the team, and the Lakers players entered the court from the player tunnel.

Every time the DJ calls out a name, the Staples Center fans call out a different nickname.

After all played, the pre-game ceremony began, and the choirs selected by the two children's organizations in the North Los Angeles area, "Out of School Mutual Aid" and "Frotherhood", led the singing of the national anthem.

After the ceremony, the starting player lists of the Lakers and Timberwolves were displayed on the big screen at the scene.

Rondo played point guard against Teague; Tianyang played shooting guard against Butler; Ingram played small forward against Wiggins; Randall played power forward against Gibson; McGee played center forward against Face Downs.

At the beginning of the game, the ball was jumped on both sides. Towns took the lead in touching the ball and moved it to the Timberwolves side.

Teague picked it up and took it to the frontcourt, walked to the top of the arc, handed over to Gibson and handed over the ball; Randall pulled directly beyond the three-point line, and he was very fast around the wall, forcing Gibson to dribble to the left Butler rushed to the left 45 degrees, took the pass from Gibson and wanted to break through, but Tianyang also quickly bypassed the wall to catch up, and he could only pass the ball back to Teague.

Seeing that it was difficult to get a chance from the outside line, Teague hurriedly beckoned; Towns knew how to step forward to do a pick-and-roll and set up a wide human wall; Rondo could not quickly bypass the human wall, so McGee decisively switched defenses.

Teague speeded up and rushed to the basket, but McGee chased sideways, raised his left hand high, and blocked it like a GPS positioning; at the same time, the players of both teams shrank to the inside. One lap back to beyond the three-point line.

At this time, in the low position on the left, Towns faced Ingram, which was an excellent misplacement.

With only 4 seconds left in the attack time, Teague hesitated a little and passed the ball in.

Towns caught the ball and hit with his back, but Ingram didn't push it hard, so he withdrew directly.

Downs didn't have much time to do too many technical moves, so he hurriedly turned around and hit the rebound.

Snapped!Ingram nailed the big hat and grabbed the basketball in his hand. After landing, he observed the situation sideways and saw that Tianyang had already rushed to the center line, and he swung his arm and made a long pass!
Tianyang saw where the basketball landed, accelerated and took two steps to catch the ball, but collided with Butler in the air, and both of them fell to the ground!

The referee didn't blow the whistle, and the two stood up at the same time. Butler was in a better position and kept the ball in his hands.

Seeing this situation, the fans at the scene sighed.

But before he could sigh, Tianyang stretched out his hand like a ghost, slapped the basketball out of Barrett's hand, grabbed it with his left hand, and then dribbled the ball behind his back to his right hand. With both feet on the ground, he rushed towards hoop.

At this time, the other players of the two teams had turned back and ran to the backcourt. Tianyang rushed to the free throw line with the ball alone, and started a three-step layup against Butler's interference, and finally pulled the bar in the air and dunked with a backhand!
2+1!Kobe stood up and waved the towel on the bench!Nearly [-] fans cheered in unison at the Staples Center!
Barkley swallowed his saliva, and said with bright eyes: "In the first round, the five players of the Lakers showed extremely strong defensive ability, which is why so many people think that the series will be 4-0. , because the Lakers have absolute dominance."

(End of this chapter)