Six members of the team scored in double figures, and the Hawks beat the Hornets! Ingram McCollum scored 59 points, Pelicans Lick Spurs!
The whole team blossoms more! Eagles easily weed out wasps
In game two of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Hawks were challenged by the Hornets, who ranked tenth in the East, at home. As last season's East Conference Finals team, this season's Hawks are currently reduced to playing a play-off that many fans did not expect before the start of the season, and their opponents, the Hornets, is a dark horse team in the East this season and once rushed to the top eight in the East. In short, the losing side in this game will be eliminated directly, and the winning side will play a third playoff game with the Cavaliers.
In the first quarter of the game, although the Hornets rebounded to take the lead, the Eagles quickly played a wave of 16:3 in the middle of the game to lead the first quarter with a 32:23 lead. In the second quarter, the Hawks maintained a 10-point lead or so, and at halftime Money still led by 8 points. In the third quarter, the Eagles were still in hot form, playing a crazy offensive wave of 27:8 under the blossoming of the whole team, and once extended the lead to 27 points. In the final quarter, the Eagles continued to play a small climax of 8:0, the point difference had reached more than 30 points, the game quickly became garbage time, and finally the Eagles won 132:103.
The eagles were able to win this game in large part because of the team's multi-point blossoming offensive state in this game. Six of their team scored in double figures, with Trae Young scoring a double-double of 24 points and 11 assists and Hunter scoring 22 points. It is worth mentioning that in the first half of this campaign, Trae Young's performance was actually not good, only 3 of 13 shots at the end of the half, only 8 points were scored, and the team did not establish much of a lead. Fortunately, in the second half of the game, he adjusted in time, and under the leadership of 14 points and 4 assists in the third quarter of the game, the Eagles finally locked in the victory in the first three quarters.
The Hornets, who have seen the hope of the playoffs this season, collapsed across the board in this game, with team supernova Ball scoring only 9 points on 3 of 13 shots in the first half, and finally he had 26 points and 8 assists on only 7 of 25 shots in the whole game. Bridges, who had improved so much this season, lost in this game, scoring only 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting and being expelled from the game after two consecutive technical fouls in the final quarter. Rozier scored 21 points on just 8-of-22 shooting. In short, almost the entire Hornets' offensive status in this campaign is very sluggish, in stark contrast to the multi-point blossoming opponents.
After a big win in this game, the Eagles will advance to the third playoff, competing with the Cavaliers for a place in the last playoff, and both sides will have to do their best to compete. The Hornets, on the other hand, were eliminated in the playoffs for two consecutive years, and they also swallowed a fiasco in last season's playoffs, which is undoubtedly a big blow to their self-confidence.
"Double" combined 59 points! The Pelicans narrowly beat the Spurs
In the second play-off game in the West, the pelicans, the young team at home, have a challenge from the spurs who are also young in this season's lineup, and although they are in tenth place in the West, many fans are actually optimistic that the Spurs can win because of the old and spicy head coach Popovich. The Pelicans, who have undergone a major change this season, have become more mature after having McCollum, and the team also has an offensive core on the organizational end, and the winning side will enter the third playoff to compete with the Clippers for a playoff spot.
In the first quarter of the game, the Spurs took the lead and took the lead with a small 8-2 surge, but the Pelicans quickly overtook the score with the play of Ingram and McCollum, entering the second quarter with a four-point lead. In the second quarter, McCollum ushered in a big explosion in this quarter, scoring 19 points in the single quarter and helping the team establish a double-digit lead to enter the second half with a 61:50 lead. Yi Bian fought again, and the Pelicans continued to widen the point gap at the beginning of the third quarter, and still led by 17 points in the third quarter. In the final quarter, the Pelicans led by 21 points in the opening stage, and the Spurs came back in form to close the gap to single digits 16:1, but Ingram's consecutive points in the final moments helped the Pelicans win 113:103.
In this game, the Pelicans' two-gun outside was once again the key to the team's win. McCollum played 32 minutes, scoring 32 points, 3 of 5 of 23 three-pointers, and scoring 32 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists, and 19 points in the second quarter helped the team establish an early lead. Ingram played 29 minutes in this campaign, scoring 27 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists on 11 of 19 shooting, including 10 points in the fourth quarter, and relying on the inexplicable shot in the last moment to help the team withstand the counterattack to lock in the victory. Valanciunas also played well in this campaign, scoring a big double-double with 22 points and 14 rebounds.
For the Spurs, such an ending is undoubtedly uncomfortable, after all, they have lost the first game of the playoff for two consecutive years, and they have lost to their opponents for two consecutive years. Although they also had five players in the team scoring in double figures, the offensive efficiency of the two main players, Murray and Johnson, was not ideal, with the former scoring only 16 points on 5-of-19 shooting, and the latter scoring only 15 points on only 6-of-20 shooting. Although the Spurs once saw hope of winning in the final quarter of the game, it was too late, and finally missed the playoffs again.
In the next playoffs, the Pelicans will compete with the powerful Clippers for the final playoff spot, when both McCollum and Ingram will face a lot of challenges. However, it is not easy for them to be just one step away from the playoffs, after all, for most of the regular season, they have fallen out of the top ten in the West, and it was not until the arrival of McCollum that helped the team reach the ranks of the playoffs. If they can beat the Clippers next, they will return to the playoffs after many years. And the Spurs, who have missed the playoffs for many consecutive seasons, have lost the playoffs again this season, and they must find a way to change the team's lineup in the offseason.