The Knicks defeated the Kings 120-109, and I have to say that this game was really against the sky. Both the Kings and Knicks are in a crucial battle for the cards, and neither team wants to concede. One wants to stabilize the top eight in the west, and the other wants to stabilize the top four in the east. From the beginning of the first quarter, the Kings exploded, Fox was a god, he was unreasonable three-pointers and mid-range shots, the Kings played a 23-11 start, and the first quarter has led by 15 points. The Knicks were using multiple timeouts to no avail.
In the second quarter, Fox came up and fired, and the Kings had already smashed the game. But at the critical moment, the pair of Hart and Brunson became the savior of adversity. The two scored 19 points in a row to lead the team back to a 15-point gap. The Kings were adjusted to a basket by Sabonis, and Keegan Murray made a three-pointer to stop the bleeding. But Brunson didn't stop, and a couple of three-pointers chased eight points in the half. The Kings were already on the line, and Fox and Murray were no longer silent in the second half, as they went on an 8-2 run to stretch the margin to 10 points. But the Knicks could always respond, and it was Brunson and Hart again, and the two teams were tied in the third quarter.
The Knicks no longer gave a chance in the final quarter, and a wave of 17-2 surge completely devastated the game. The king experienced what it was like to be in heaven and hell. On the Kings' side, Fox tried his best to score 29 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, and Sabonis had 17 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. The Knicks had 35 points and 11 assists, Hart had 31 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, which was a help for his old club Lakers, in addition to DiVincenzo with 21 points and Bogdan with 12 points. The happiest people in this game are undoubtedly the Lakers fans. The Kings are eighth in the West, and after today, they are 0.5 wins behind the Lakers.
The Lakers were still stuck in the second half of the play-offs with the Warriors, and now they are only 0.5 points away from the eighth king. With the next schedule, the Lakers overtook the Kings with a handle. Recently, the Lakers' state is incredible, the thick eyebrows are very healthy, the offense and defense are integrated, and the feeling of winning the championship in 20 years is the most important thing is that James's state is not like a veteran who is about to be 40 years old. According to statistics, James averaged a terrifying 27 points, 7.5 rebounds and 9.1 assists per game after the All-Star break, and his three-point shooting rate reached an astonishing 48.2%.
To tell a horror story, James' average stats and shooting percentage per game this season are even more efficient than the 20 years when he won the championship and the year the Cavaliers won the championship. James has really beaten the years, and it seems that the million-dollar maintenance cost this year is still cost-effective. And the Lakers also have a good adjustment, after Ham lifted Hachimura to the starter, the Lakers' combat power has skyrocketed and has the strength to compete for the championship. Because since February 4, the Lakers have a 19-8 record in the games where Hachimura has been a stable starter, with a winning rate of 70.4%.
As far as the current Lakers are concerned, the top two in the West must not be scared to death? Recently, the Pelicans and Kings have plummeted and have entered the play-in zone. Among them, the Pelicans are a little better than the Kings, because the Kings are likely to go ninth, and no matter how bad the Pelicans are, it should be unlikely to be overtaken by the Warriors. So squeezing the Kings to ninth, and the Lakers going to play eighth or seventh play-in games will be the final script. Let's analyze the final ranking of the playoffs should be: 1 Nuggets, 2 Timberwolves, 3 Thunder, 4 Clippers, 5 Mavericks, 6 Suns, 7 Lakers, 8 Warriors.
At present, the first Timberwolves and Nuggets are not easy to say, and the other positions should be very stable. The Lakers played the playoffs to lock up seventh again, and the Warriors won two play-in games to lock into eighth. Last season, the Lakers and Warriors contributed a lot of commercial revenue to the league. In the first round, the Lakers black seven Grizzlies, the Warriors black six. Then in the second round of the Lakers and Warriors battle, the league made a lot of money. The ideal matchup this year is for the Nuggets to go first and let the Warriors play. The Timberwolves went to the second place to let the Lakers play, and then the Thunder and the Suns battled, and the Mavericks vs. the Clippers The Big Three were directly full. Last year, everyone didn't believe that the Lakers would make a black seven, and it did. This year's Zhan Mei is in better shape than last year, and the top two in the west are like sitting on pins and needles.