On April 18, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs ushered in several heavy games today, and the Nets of the seventh place in the East and the Celtics in the second place in the East in the early morning played a thrilling game, but the Pelicans on the West side had no backhand power against the Suns in the West.
Today's game the Suns are also all-out, sent the strongest playoff lineup, the last difficult to win the Clippers into the playoffs of the Pelicans is obviously no experience, in the face of the old hot Suns began to be powerless, the first quarter only scored 16 points, the Suns feel that they have not yet exerted strength, but also scored 28 points.
Facing the defensively excellent Suns, the Pelicans in addition to the Warblers, other players like McCollum and Vallan are sleepwalking. Indeed, this set of duels is really the most disparate group in the entire playoff team. It is true that no one is optimistic about the Pelicans when the two teams meet, but it is also hoped that this youth team can win one or two games like the Timberwolves.
After the start of the second quarter, the Pelicans still could not find the feel of the offense, the defense could not be defended, there was no point of accuracy outside the three-point line, and the mid-range was also repeatedly iron, fortunately, the Suns did not play a very good offense. In this section, several of the Suns' main players did not play well, and did not show their best form except for Ayton.
Ayton did play a very good competitive state in this half, on the inside line can be described as a smooth play, the sense of existence is very strong, the opposite Valan is very stable, the inside line can be said to be completely exploded, this half pelicans only got 34 points behind the Suns 19 points, although the Suns only got 53 points.
After the start of the second half, the Pelicans' young players seemed to have finally been woken up again, and the last scene was almost a collapse after the Clippers were overturned in the third quarter, but fortunately the head coach woke up the players in time. This third quarter faced a situation that may collapse again, the Pelicans were also put to death, in this quarter played a rare offensive feel, Murphy, Marshall began to fight for the team, a variety of defensive counterattacks also played out, this time they instead held the sun, so that the opponent did not have 30 points again, only got 26 points, but he scored 37 points on the opponent, 11 points in the single quarter, just 8 points behind into the key decisive moment of the fourth quarter.
I have to say that the strength of the sun league first is indeed not blown, they are not the clippers of the last game, Phoenix with Paul and Booker sitting will not easily give up the victory to the opponent, and sure enough, even if the whole team feels bad today, the Suns still did not give the Pelicans the opportunity to fight back again in the fourth quarter.
As soon as the fourth quarter began, the Suns took control of the situation, and in the third quarter, the Pelicans' main players such as Yingge and McCollum rested, but the opponent was a very solid lineup depth, and this wave of rhythm was grasped by the Suns, directly with 7 minutes and 26 seconds left, playing a 18:12, and once again widening the point difference to more than 2 digits.
Although the Pelicans head coach made timely adjustments in this game, but in the face of the old hot sun after all, the strength of the injured players is different from it, and there is a gap in the strength of the players, not to mention that Paul is there, holding such a good advantage in hand, how can the Pelicans have the opportunity, today's São Paulo can be said to once again let the fans see what is the real god of point guards, whether it is the god outside the three-point line or the mid-range, this game is extremely reliable, directly covering up the nominal boss of the team Booker without any sense of existence.
The Pelicans could not close the point difference again in the face of the sun, and as the game time approached, they also chose to surrender their weapons, although they lost this game, they still saw a lot of bright performances against the Pelicans, and looked forward to the second showdown between the two teams!