After the end of this season's NBA regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers have become the laughing stock of the entire league, sitting on the star-studded James, Thick Brow Brother and Westbrook's core lineup of the Big Three, coupled with the Hall of Fame level Howard and Anthony assisted, the Purple and Gold Army can not even break into the top ten in the West, so that all fans are stunned, in contrast, the Los Angeles Clippers, who have long lived in the shadow of the Lakers, have won the respect and recognition of all fans with their excellent performance. In the case that Leonard did not play a game in the season, and Paul George was frequently absent, they relied on a group of role players to lock in the eighth place in the West after the end of the regular season, and repeatedly staged a big reversal in the case of a big score behind, which won them the reputation of the king of reversals!
But because the league still follows the play-off mode this season, which means that the Clippers need to win at least one playoff victory to qualify for the playoffs, in the first playoff, the Clippers missed the perfect opportunity to get, in the Timberwolves core Towns the whole game staged infernal situation, the Clippers did not perform well in the final quarter, allowing the Timberwolves to reverse the victory with the Seventh Place in the West to break into the playoffs, fortunately, the Clippers still have a chance to redeem themselves, That is to win the life-and-death battle with the Pelicans, but from the perspective of the two sides' regular season record and alignment advantage, it is not easy for the Clippers to beat the opponent, and it is likely that like their own city rivals, the Lakers, they will not be able to go home early in the playoffs to fish!
In another playoff in the West, the Spurs squeezed out the Lakers after the regular season, and encountered the Pelicans who got McCollum on the trade deadline and greatly improved the team's strength, who won the Spurs with McCollum's bravery and won the opportunity to challenge the Clippers.
While the Pelicans were not as good as the Clippers in terms of rankings, and the regular season felt far less good for fans than the Clippers, the Pelicans had a 3-1 record in four direct conversations between the two teams, including the team's record of poor performance before McCollum.
The main reason for the Pelicans to be able to face the Clippers to have a certain advantage is the strength of big center Valanciunas, the big Varan has a very comprehensive personal offensive ability, not only can play strong points under the basket, but also has a stable three-point projection ability, and the Clippers' main center Zubac, physical confrontation can not take advantage, resulting in its inability to contain the score of the big Varan on the inside, and once Valanciunas pulled to the outside line to project three-pointers, Zubac's footsteps made it completely unable to interfere with the opponent, That's why the Pelicans were able to rely on Grand Varane's performance to take advantage of the direct conversations in the regular season.
And after trading mcCollum, the Pelicans' outside strength has improved significantly, he and Ingram have a strong personal scoring ability, but also can maximize the attention of defense, and after attracting the bag, they can also send a pass to the opponent in the empty position, let them go to the end, this game playoff once again encountered the Clippers, the inside advantage is still there, the outside strength has been significantly improved, and the possibility of them blocking the King of Reversals outside the playoffs is very large!