The NBA playoffs officially began, in the 7th and 8th places in the East, the Nets relied on Irving's excellent performance, successfully defeated the Cavaliers, to get the 7th place in the East, the first round will meet the Green Army, and the Clippers will go to the road to challenge the Timberwolves.
The Timberwolves finished seventh in the regular season, and the record was much ahead of the Clippers, but because George and Powell returned near the end of the regular season, the Clippers' strength was greatly increased, and the playoffs were full of suspense, and the Timberwolves may not be able to win the Clippers at home.
Sure enough, under the command of Tyrone Lue, the Clippers opened a blockade defense of Downs, resulting in the latter finding nothing, and although Edwards personally scored 7 points in a row, the Timberwolves still trailed 7-12! Back from the suspension, Beverley broke the scoring drought with 3 points, but the Clippers were not polite at all, and under the continuous impact of Reggie and Powell, they once widened the point difference to nearly 10 points. Fortunately, in the final stages, the Clippers offense finally pulled back, and McDaniels hit a 3-pointer to chase the point difference to 6 points.
Russell found the form, personally cut 5 points in a row, Powell, Reggie hit 3 points in a row to hold the advantage, but Edwards was not polite, 2 3 points are still colored, the Timberwolves offense is getting smoother and smoother, constantly narrowing the score gap! At the end of the second quarter, Russell continued to erupt, personally standing up and scoring 9 points, turning the situation on the court in one fell swoop, and the Clippers scored 2 points in the half.
Entering the second half, the 2 teams strengthened their defense on the field, and only relied on free throws to get 1 point in the opening 2 minutes! Fortunately, in the middle of the stalemate, George found the feel, led the Clippers to break the deadlock with one pass and one shot, and then joined hands with Reggie to shoot 33 points to help the Clippers regain the initiative! The Timberwolves tried to fight back led by Russell, but George remained brave, scoring 17 points on 5-of-8 in the quarter to help the Clippers hold a six-point lead.
Reid hit a 3-pointer, Mann sent a 2-degree block, and then a dunk stabilized the situation for the Clippers! Towns is still in no state on the court, shooting is not good, and even when he grabs rebounds, he is blown foul, resulting in 6 fouls leaving the court directly! But unexpectedly, after Towns went off, the Timberwolves instead entered the state, Beasley, Russell hit 3 points in a row, directly overtaking the score, and then Edwards inside the line dunk, and Russell both hit 3 points, directly establishing a 6-point advantage.
At the critical moment, George's 3 points clippers retained hope, but Reggie dropped the chain, forced a break through the basket and missed, thus wasting the Clippers' opportunity to counterattack, and finally the Timberwolves narrowly defeated the Clippers 109:104, successfully took the 7th position in the West, and entered the playoffs.
Reversal, reversal, reversal, timberwolves and Clippers' 7th battle was really fierce, and the 2 teams played wonderfully! On the Timberwolves side, Russell scored 29 points, Edwards scored 30 points, and the two became the team's winning heroes, leading the team to beat the Clippers to the playoffs. George also played well, scoring 34 points, and Powell scored 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting, but the 2 men failed to defend the Victory for the Clippers.
The Clippers lost this game, and in addition to not restricting Russell and Edwards, Reggie was also a big mistake! Reggie has become the absolute boss of the team in the case of the Clippers' lack of soldiers this season, and he is also the hero of the Clippers to get the 8th, but in this game against the Timberwolves, in the case of George, he still puts himself in the position of boss! He made 18 wild shots, only hitting 7 goals and making five turnovers.
Especially in the most critical moments, George's 3 points gave the Clippers the hope of a comeback, but Reggie blindly singled and forced a layup missed the team's last chance, and Reggie was undoubtedly the sinner of the Clippers' loss.
7 of 18, but he regarded himself as the boss, Reggie's wayward pit in this game hurt George, but the Clippers lost more than that, and Tyrone Lue also miscalculated.
Against the Timberwolves, Tyronelu's tactic was to strangle Downs to death! The latter as the Timberwolves' scoring king, rebounding king, the core of both ends of the attack and defense, there is nothing wrong with strangling him, this game Towns in the Clippers' defense, only 11 points out of 3 of 11, but also 6 fouls to leave, the Clippers strategy has been successful. But they prevented Towns, but missed Edwards and Russell, treating the Timberwolves as a single-core team, which is also a major reason for the Clippers' loss.