Yesterday the Minnesota Timberwolves played against the Phoenix Suns, after Durant, who was injured in the pregame warm-up, ushered in a comeback, belatedly making his debut in front of Suns fans.
Although it feels cold to the touch, the sun wins after all.
After 48 minutes of fighting, the Suns went 107-100 to consolidate their fourth place in the West after two straight wins.
For the Timberwolves, losing away from home is a very demoralizing thing.
In the final moments of the game, the Suns held the lead by a narrow margin, still firmly grasping the situation, and the "intervention" of the referee inevitably made people suspect of manipulating the game...
In the end, the situation on the field seemed to be in favor of the sun -
When the Timberwolves successfully defended off the Suns' offense, and the ball switched to prepare for the offense to further narrow the point gap, the whistle sounded without losing time -
Gobert covers the foul!
Or after the Timberwolves score a goal, the Suns respond with a goal...
As a result, the point difference that was still within catchable range was finally maintained, and the untimely whistle hit the Timberwolves again and again...
The feeling of powerlessness that couldn't beat the game lingered, and in the end, the Timberwolves lost to their opponents...
But the only thing that is certain is that looking at the scale of referees blowing penalties this season, that sense of powerlessness is not only for the Timberwolves yesterday...
Looking back at the Timberwolves Suns, Timberwolves center Gobay was blown 4 illegal covers at key moments, which is somewhat bizarre...
In the post-game interview, Gobert was even more blunt that the referees were helping the Suns win, he understood that they were not a big market, everyone wanted to see Durant enter the playoffs, Curry enter the playoffs, James enter the playoffs...
Comparing the total number of free throws made by both teams, the Suns made 27 free throws, while the Timberwolves only got 12, almost crushing...
Coincidentally, yesterday the Bulls traveled to Chicago to challenge the Bulls, and finally the Purple Gold beat the Bulls 121-110 today to win the game.
With another win on the ball, the Lakers' record grew to 38-38, and the second time of the season was a five-percent tie, and the record was also equal to the Pelicans.
Due to the dominant head-to-head record, the Lakers beat the Pelicans to move up to eighth place in the West.
The two teams also have a huge disparity in the number of free throws, with the Lakers making 30 free throws and the Bulls only 13, which is also crushing.
It is worth mentioning that so far this season, the Lakers lead the league in free throws, 411 more than their opponents, far ahead of the second-place Knicks (+193).
Look at Reeves' free throw treatment before James' return, simply playing an All-Star under the "shelter" of whistles again and again.
But how did he get those free throws?
When Reeves breaks through, there is often a whistle as soon as he touches the defender, which is not too easy...
Before the Lakers Suns, Reeves shot 6 of 10 from the field, including 12 of 13 free throws and scored 25 points and 11 assists.
During that time, Rivers once beat Tatum, Lillard and others on free throws, leading the league...
With so many free throws, is it really Rivers' skills that he fought hard again and again to win them...
Gobert risked a fine to say that, is it really just because of the defeat and did not choose to say it...
After the Lakers retired from home yesterday, James said after the game that they had four scoring threats in their starting lineup, which allowed defenders to lose one over the other...
But without the "help" of the referee, I wonder if the Lakers' starting scoring threat will be more than half as powerful...