Tatum pressed the whistle to cut the air, and the Celtics narrowly beat the Nets by 1 point! The whole team is not in good shape, and the Bulls lose the Bucks to open the door black! Sao Paulo 30+10, the Suns lightly win the Pelicans for the first victory!
Tatum whistles the kill! The Green Army narrowly beat the Nets by one point
The Nets' series against the Celtics is arguably one of the most interesting series in the first round of the entire Eastern Conference, on the one hand, the strength of the two teams is very close, the Green Army has a double probe combination and the Nets have an Oudu combination, which is undoubtedly a strong dialogue. On the other hand, the two teams have a long history of feuds, and last season the two sides met in the first round of the series, and the Nets eliminated their opponents 4:1. Coupled with Irving's presence, this series can be described as a lot of highlights.
The first match between the two sides began at the home of the Green Army, and in the first half of the game the two sides played a difficult game, and the half-time was tied 61-61. In the third quarter of the game, under the leadership of the double tandem combination, the Green Army began to grasp the initiative on the field, once leading by 15 points and entering the final quarter with an 11-point lead. In the final quarter, the Nets under the leadership of Irving blasted a 17:2 small climax in the front section to reverse the score, the game soon entered a tug-of-war, although with Irving hit the key three-point Nets still led by one point at the critical moment, but Tatum hit the empty cut in the final attack to complete the whistle,114 opener, and the Green Army won the opening red at 115:114.
In this campaign, both teams can be said to have played their own characteristics, making the game exciting from the beginning. In the Green Army, their four main players all played well, scoring 20+ points together, and Tatum shot 9 of 18 from the field, including 7 of 3 three-pointers, cut a team-high 31 points with good efficiency, and delivered a comprehensive stat of 4 rebounds and 8 assists, and made a layup in the final moment through a quick air cut. Brown, Smart and Horford all scored 20+ points with excellent offensive efficiency.
One of the biggest focuses of this game is undoubtedly Irving, who has returned to the Green Army's home playoffs again, and under the pressure of the whole game, Irving has played an extremely outstanding performance, scoring 39 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists on 10 of 12 three-pointers in the game. In the final quarter, Irving slashed 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting to help the team complete the rebound, and hit a key three-pointer in the last minute, almost helping the team change its fate.
Durant did not feel good in this game, although he also scored 23 points, but only 9 of 24 shots in the game, including only 1 of 5 three-pointers, in the final moment it was because Durant failed to kill the game and the team lost.
The whole team is in a slump! Bull negative buck
In the series of sixth in the East against third in the East, the Bulls were challenged by defending champion Bucks. Although the winning gap between the two sides is not too large, many fans are not optimistic about the Bulls due to their dismal record against strong teams in the regular season. For the Bucks, their road to defending their title has also become extremely difficult this season, and the first round against the Bulls is also a big challenge.
In the first quarter, the Bucks took the lead in getting into form and played a strong start of 21:7, while the Bulls fell into a slump at the beginning, trailing by 13 points in the first quarter. In the second quarter, although DeRozan's form has picked up, the point difference is still hovering around 10 points, and the Bulls are still behind 43:51 at halftime. The Bulls began to find their form in the third quarter, and as the Bucks Antetokounmpo fell into a foul crisis, the Bulls hit a 11-0 surge to overtake by five points. In the final quarter, the game entered a white-hot stage, the two sides came and went without giving in to each other, and as the big Lopez scored consecutive points in the final moments, the Bulls hit the iron again, and the Bucks finally won 93:86.
In this game, the Bulls once again reflected the characteristics of the regular season against the strong team, the team's shooting rate was only 32.3%, and the three-point shooting rate was only a shocking 18.9%. Among them, DeRozan only had 18 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists on only 6 of 25 shooting in this campaign, LaVine only scored 18 points on only 6 of 6 three-pointers in 19 shooting, and although Vucevic scored a large double-double of 24 points and 17 rebounds, he also shot only 9 of 27 and missed a key empty layup that eventually led to the team losing the game.
For the Bucks, their performance on the defensive end was excellent, allowing the Bulls to score only 86 points as a team, and although their offensive efficiency was also not at their best, shooting only 26.3% from three-point range, they undoubtedly outperformed the Bulls at key moments. In the next game, if the Bulls can't win, they will return home in a very passive situation.
Sao Paulo 30 points and 10 assists! The sun takes the opening red
At the end of the regular season, the Pelicans successfully completed the rebound and advanced to the playoffs, and in two consecutive games in the playoffs, they beat the Spurs and Clippers to advance to the playoffs. However, their opponent in the first round of the game will be the best team in the league this season, the Suns, who have been waiting for a long time to play the Pelicans at home.
In the first quarter of the game, the Suns have already taken the lead in double digits. In the second quarter, the Suns continued to widen the point gap as they fought, and the Pelicans led the Pelicans 53-34 at halftime. Yi Bian fought again, and in the third quarter, the game suddenly changed, and the Pelicans chased the point difference to single digits at one point in the end of the quarter, and still launched a counterattack in the first half of the final quarter. But helplessly, Paul was too strong, and as he hit three consecutive three-pointers in the first half of the fourth quarter, the point difference was reopened, and the Suns finally beat the opponent 110:99.
Paul once again showed the style of the league's top point guard in this game, this time he played 35 minutes, 12 of 16 shots, including 6 of 4 three-pointers, cut 30 points with shocking efficiency, and delivered 7 rebounds and 10 assists, which was extreme at both the point and organizational ends. In the final quarter, when the Pelicans were about to recover the point difference, Paul hit three consecutive three-pointers in 150 seconds, plus a breakthrough layup to score 11 points, and slashed 19 points in a single quarter, completely killing the Pelicans' hopes of overturning in the cradle.