Someone in the NBA has to represent Los Angeles, right?
But the Pelicans did not believe in evil, and successively cut off the hopes of the Lakers and Clippers, and the New Orleans Youth Army became the fourth team in history to start with a 1-12 loss but snatched a playoff ticket.
Ingram aside, including Russell, who helped the Timberwolves break through, the hopes of the Purple And Gold Era can finally raise their eyebrows.
The Clippers, who drank cold water and stuffed their teeth, could not escape their fate after all, Leonard and Kennard could not return from the line of fire, George triggered a health and safety agreement, and Lu Guiding gathered the residual buff again.
The crew's three military lives in the third quarter staged a good reversal, once erasing the point difference to lead to 13 points, but the final quarter collapsed into a scoring drought again, or got the familiar "end of the crossbow" script.
The Pelicans' outside threats are limited, and both outside attackers are more inclined to break the game from mid-range than to three-pointers, and this game has 6 of 22 three-pointers (rookie Murphy has four yuan), and the team's poor space environment has given Lu guidance a place to sacrifice multi-front iron cable series.
- The Clippers wantonly emptied the outer line and hoarded troops inside the forbidden zone;
Several consecutive changes of defense, easy not to give CJ or Ingram the opportunity to misalign, set a bottom line trap to decisively pinch; collect rebounds and immediately push the conversion, the Clippers in the third quarter by defending the attack to make up for the lack of offensive development capabilities of position warfare.
Unfortunately, the main offensive resources are stretched, and the continuity of the forward defense can not be guaranteed, which is a long and difficult problem throughout the Clippers' season, even if the advantage is significant, it has to control the use of personnel time.
As for the Pelicans, who were caught off guard, and not to mention the limitations of the squat pit, the low-post heavy hammer Valanciunas only scored 8 points, the blocking cover wall attribute failed to be full, and the league's few second-time offensive players ended the disorder or even lost two free throws.
The Pelicans had no choice but to lower their height to match the opponent's small lineup, just with Nance Jr. playing the Odd Soldier, taking into account the mobile protective frame, changing the elasticity and rebounding, ending in one, and the five-position attribute of the small ball array that was not fully utilized during the Blazers period came in handy;
Coupled with the Pelicans' rookies also living up to expectations, Jones + Alvarado + Murphy performed their duties, and the management's draft vision was verified.
Ingram is finally in this familiar arena, proving how good the old charts are, even if it does not qualify as an All-Star and does not prevent breaking the doubts, he will be greeted by the baptism of career playoff debut.
The Clippers fought until they ran out of food, and each of them could afford the words "although defeated", enough to walk out of the game with their heads held high.
Even after three consecutive years of suffering, it seems to retain a bright future - trading Powell and Covington before the trade deadline (the expiration contract has bird rights), dealing with Ibaka's tax avoidance for air, and the Clippers' championship window is not this season.
The only slight regret may just be that Director Lu mistook the rotation in the decisive period with the Timberwolves, and the result was a good game.
In fact, the Nuggets Murray, who suffered the same injury as Leonard, underwent surgery in April last year (Cay Jr. was nearly three months behind him) and has not yet had a clear recovery schedule, and frankly there is no possibility of a comeback.
"Hoping for plums to quench thirst" does have its special significance in some periods, after all, the Clippers can not immediately announce Leonard's season reimbursement, at key points to disturb the military's heart, but you can't always expect to rely on the remnants of the game to turn the tables and go smoothly.
George and Powell have been in the battle for a long time, and the cost of returning to re-run-in cannot be ignored, the latter as a new signing and the Clippers' defensive system integration, including the tacit understanding of the communication of the change of defense, there are still many problems, and the role positioning of the offensive end can not be finalized overnight.
From the perspective of the Clippers' lineup revision, the offseason will do some necessary load reduction operations to try to optimize the lineup, whether to cut a certain forward advantage to tilt inside and out needs to be further discussed, with the ship management far beyond the same city team operating standards do not have to worry.
Do your best, obey the destiny, control what you can do, and firmly believe that the hard-working people will not fail to live up to the heavens, and one day they will be able to break the curse.
Thanks for your attention, welcome to discuss, Azhe is willing to "ball" with you to get the truth, all the way to the end of the world.