Playoff preview: Lakers fight Pelicans again Are they really planning to desecrate the god of basketball?
By the time you see this post, the NBA play-offs may have already begun.
In theory, these game-winning games are a breeding ground for dreams and upsets, but the reality is often harsher than the theory, and the play-off format has been going on for three years, with 12 teams from the East and West ninths giving up their vacations to get here, and only three of them have made it to the playoffs, and none of them have made it to the first round. But even so, people still cherish these hard-won opportunities to make the headlines of a mid-table team one day, and in that sense, the man who invented the play-offs is a genius indeed.
I'll make some good news here and make a little prediction. Of course, the game may not go the way I imagined, but imagining the game itself is a pleasure.
eagle
Good news
Hawks
Judging by the Hawks' roster and Quinn Schneider's coaching ability, they should have been a top-six team in the East, but the league's fifth-to-last defense, a host of injuries and poor chemistry plagued them for an entire season. Even if Jalen Johnson, Saddiq Bey and Okongu are all sidelined through injury, the Hawks can outperform LaVine without them in terms of offensive talent with just two shots in the backcourt and Bogdanovic
bull
。
As long as DeAndre Hunter can cause DeRozan a little bit of trouble, the Bulls' offense will get jerky. The Hawks are one of the fastest teams in the NBA this season, and if the Bulls' shooting percentage can't go up, give them too many opportunities to fight back, and let the Hawks open their hearts, the pace of the game will be completely controlled by the Hawks.
Good news for the bulls
Bulls
The probability of such a scenario as above is not very high, as it will be difficult for the Eagles to maintain defensive intensity for 48 minutes in a game. Frankly, the Hawks weren't supposed to be a playoff team in the first place. It's just that the other brothers in the East are too hungry, and the Hawks really can't go any further, so this team has a strong spirit to play such a play-off game. Judging from the content of the Hawks' overly casual games at the end of the regular season, perhaps this team has already had a holiday within the team.
Trae Young did make a comeback, but his comeback may not be a bad thing for the Bulls, who have won one and lost two of their three games against the Bulls this season, with Trae Young not playing the only one he won. A proactive, quick, and intelligent defender like Caruso is Young's natural enemy, and if he doesn't get a good shot, he only brings a negative effect to the team.
The Hawks are certainly more talented than the Bulls, but the Bulls look more like a serious team — especially after LaVine is out for the season. DeRozan is their core, Koby White is the rising backcourt star, responsible for launching some offense when DeRozan is tired, and Vucevic is still the same familiar Vucevic as we know, with role players like Caruso, Dosunmu, and Darren Terry filling their roster with little talent but being good enough and rarely overstepping their authority to climb out of the sinkhole of the 5-14 opening game. And their opponents have been discussing breaking up the team for a whole season, maybe just trying to wait for a Timing to type out GG on the keyboard.
Result prediction: Bulls win
Reason for prediction: Believe in the god of basketball
Heat
Good news
Heat
After a tumultuous season with the Heat finally welcoming back healthy Herro and Butler before the play-in tournament began, is this season a team that has suffered injuries but still has 46 wins compared to last year's 44-win team?
Most of the teams in the bottom half of the East are facing
Philadelphia 76ers
Teams of this level are at a loss, but the Heat not only have the courage and wisdom to fight against the 76ers, but even retain the experience of beating them.
Embiid played against him in the penultimate game of the regular season
magic
He appeared to have sprained his left knee in the game, left the field briefly, and missed the final match
Nets
of the game. If Embiid can't stay full, Adebayo has more ways to limit him, as he did in the 2022 playoffs.
Finally, even if the Heat failed to maintain the heat of last season's playoffs this season, and Butler's regular season production declined, people still habitually believe that "Jimmy in the playoffs" can do something in the most critical games - the play-offs should be this kind of "most critical game".
It's generally hard to pin our wins on the ethereal metaphysics of "temperament", unless the person just did it last year.
Good news for the 76ers
Sixers
Even without Embiid, Nurse has a good fit for the 76ers. If it weren't for the absence of Embiid for most of the season, the 76ers wouldn't have been on the play-in roster anyway. Considering that both the Bucks and the Cavaliers are deliberately losing to avoid it, its very existence is a dimensionality reduction blow to the remaining three teams in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The 76ers just fell here by accident, and they are not at the same level as the other three teams.
The Heat, as last year's overall runner-up, are certainly not easy opponents to beat, but they do have slipped from last year. With Vincent and Strus out to make up for them, Duncan Robinson and Josh Richardson out injured, Caleb Martin out of luck, Rozier and Herro looking incompatible, the Heat only ranked 25th in the league in offensive efficiency all season and second from bottom among all playoff and playoff teams, and it's hard to imagine the 76ers losing to such a team, especially when they have Embiid.
When Embiid plays, the 76ers have a 31-8 record this season. Attendance aside, he had a monster season averaging 34.7 points, 11.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game, successfully making everyone forget his ugliness in last year's playoffs for a while, but if he loses to the Heat in the playoffs, everyone's memory module will be activated quickly.
Mr. Embiid, you don't want to be poked in the back for the rest of your life, do you?
Result prediction: 76ers win
Reason for prediction: Not at all at the same level
king
Good news
Kings
Compared to last season's playoff matchup, Curry is significantly older this season. His scores, rebounds, assists, steals, and true shooting percentage have all declined to varying degrees this season, and he often makes all sorts of inexplicable mistakes at key moments in the game. In addition to Davian Mitchell this season, Mike Brown has also unearthed another defensive stalwart, Keon Ellis, who has enough pieces to give the 36-year-old Curry every minute of close care. And as we all know,
hero
It's Curry's team, and if Curry can't step up, the Warriors can't win.
The interior alignment is also an advantage for the Kings. Looney played a great role in defending Sa in last year's playoffs, but he has suffered a noticeable decline this season, averaging the lowest 16.1 minutes per game this season in nearly four years, losing his starting spot in the middle of the season and even being dropped by Kerr in some games. Tress Jackson-Davis, who replaces Looney in the rotation, may be able to rely on his energy and athleticism to gain the upper hand against most opponents, but that set may not work for Sax. Without Looney's top defense and crucial frontcourt rebounds, would the Warriors still have caught the Kings in last year's playoffs?
Good news for the warriors
Warriors
Just a few weeks ago, the Kings looked like they were holding a solid sixth place in the West, and then they lost their heavy sixth man, Marrick Monk, and Kevin Huerter, the starting guard for most of the season, losing seven of their final 11 games of the season, and then they were reduced to playing this "Win or go home" game against the Warriors.
The four games the Warriors played against the Kings this season were all in the early part of the season, when the Kings had a full lineup and the Warriors did not have a fixed rotation. One thing these games have in common is that they are all very intense. From last year's first-round meeting in the playoffs, when the two sides were staggered to a tie-break, the Kings and Warriors were very close in all games.
After a season of tuning, we're now going to see the best Warriors of the entire season in the play-in tournament, with 26 wins and 12 losses in the second half of the season and just two losses in the final 11 games of the season. After a cooling-off period off the bench, Klay looks to have rediscovered his crosshairs, and Wiggins has regained his vitality. Add to that Kuminga, Podemski and Tres Jackson-Davis, who have been impressive this season, Chris Paul and Dream who are shooting 39.5 percent from three-point range, and the Warriors have a clear advantage in terms of roster depth.
And in terms of stars, I think it's enough to mention: Curry scored 50 points in the seven-tie at Golden One last year. He may have slipped quite a bit this year, but he's still Curry after all.
Result prediction: Warriors win
Reason for the prediction: The Warriors are in better shape overall
Lakers
Good news
Lakers
When talking about this group of duels, I believe everyone has a basic judgment: if all members are healthy, the three armies will die,
鹈鹕
It's really not a match for the Lakers.
Among the most used weapons in the Pelicans' positional warfare, Zion's one-on-one is James's toy, the Pelicans' four or five positions that can be effective against most opponents play a role in playing the Lakers, Ingram, who has just returned from a knee injury, will have some offensive threats, but he is not known for his speed, and the Lakers will not suffer a particularly big loss when they use Hachimura to match, and Varland's thick eyebrows to health will not pose any threat and will block the space, so it is better not to do it. On paper, the Lakers are the kind of opponent the Pelicans don't want to play. And it's true, the Pelicans lost three of their four regular season meetings with the Lakers, and all of them were fiasco.
Good news for the Pelicans
Pelicans
It's been an up-and-down season for the Pelicans. After a 4-6 start, the Pelicans improved and reached the semifinals of the midseason tournament before being blown out by the Lakers in the semifinals. After that, Zion began to learn from the pain, and the Pelicans were in fourth place in the West for a long time without Ingram. As a result, they inexplicably lost five more games in a six-game home streak at the end of March, and people began to suspect that they might not make the playoffs, only to win four in a row and avoid the play-offs by winning their last regular season game.
Whenever you think the pelicans are doing it, they will always pull their hips inexplicably. But when you really feel like they can't do it, they always come back. Today's game will be Zion's first appearance in the playoffs and play-in tournaments, and the game two days ago was a big blow to him, but I'm sure he'll make adjustments because they've been the whole season. The Pelicans' goal is clear, and that is to do it all.
The situation for the Lakers could be more complicated than for the Pelicans. The winner of this game will go on to challenge the Denver Nuggets, while the loser will have a chance to play the Thunder. Given the Lakers' recent encounters with these two teams, even American netizens and commentators have begun to question whether the Lakers will let go of the first game.
Of course, I don't think the Lakers will subjectively let go of the first game because the risk is too great. But there are some things that are not subject to human will. Is James tired again?Is Busheyebrow's back injury completely healed?As long as they have the idea of "putting it off" and feel that they still have a way out, many disadvantages that can be ignored when they are fully focused will start to bother them.
The Pelicans only have the Lakers in their eyes, but the Lakers are looking farther away.
Reason for prediction: If everyone thinks you're blaspheming the god of basketball...... Then you'd better really blaspheme