Discuss the review | When you are a lone ranger, you are not a "lone ranger" at all

It's only about basketball

2024-05-12 10:37Posted in Beijing Sports Creators

In the semifinals G3 between the Mavericks and the Thunder that ended in the early morning, the Mavericks won at home and took a 2-1 lead in the series.

This set of duels was played to the third game, and basically both sides played with open cards. The three stars on the court, Alexander, Doncic and Irving, were all treated as packed, especially the Thunder's defense of Doncic, which can be described as "heartbroken".

As soon as Doncic gets the ball, the Thunder will pile up as many defenders as possible on the strong side and completely empty Jones and Washington on the weak side. The Mavericks also had a similar strategy, encircling Alexander and letting go of Giddey and Dort, who were not shooting well.

The Thunder gave Doncic enough physical confrontation, and Doncic's knee can be said to have always had problems in this series, and his knee bleed more than once in the last game, but Doncic always stayed on the court and persisted.

In today's tragic matchup, Doncic was injured many times, and was elbowed to the face by Alexander while defending; After fighting for the ball in the air with Dort, he fell to his waist and then fought for the ball; Dort raised his foot and kicked Doncic directly when he grabbed the cover, which was really big.

The Thunder didn't give Doncic any respite on the court at all, and Doncic was 7-of-17 from the field and 1-of-4 from three-point range, finishing with 22 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Under such a fierce confrontation, Doncic did not intimidate at all, and grabbed the ball in the scramble several times in the last quarter, playing very "blue-collar".

With Doncic's "sandbag", Irving will definitely face a relatively better defensive environment, and Irving once again saved the team in the final quarter. Irving was 10-of-17 in the game and 4-of-4 in the final quarter to finish with 22 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

Irving scored eight points in the first half and 14 in the second. In the face of the Thunder's close-to-hand defense, Irving can also continue to respond with difficult goals. The breakthrough throw that killed the suspense of the game in the last minute, Jalen interfered with it with his hands and blocked it with his lower limbs, which actually formed a foul but the referee didn't blow it, Owen directly passed Jalen and threw it, and God's left hand reappeared in the rivers and lakes.

In fact, there are very few such "one-on-five" moments, most of the time Irving plays extremely reasonably, and after Doncic voluntarily gave up the stage in the final quarter, Irving began his performance. Sometimes you even think that Irving would be better if he played a little more solitary. But after coming to the Mavericks, reasonable became a label on Irving's court.

Today's Lone Ranger is not a "Lone Ranger" at all. Irving and Doncic both took 17 shots, with the team's most shots being P.J. Washington. He scored 27 points on 11-of-23 shooting and 5-of-12 three-pointers, the team-high for the second straight game.

Eastern Europe is very resolute in feeding Washington today, passing it whenever it sees Washington empty. Even if Washington's three-pointer today was nowhere near as magical as the last one, he still kept shooting, and Washington himself fought for it and became the role player who decided the game.

In the face of Washington's 27 points, the Thunder felt a little bit of a poor donkey, and even used the trick of cutting Lively in the final quarter. Lively's free throws are really not good, just 50 percent. But today, 12 free throws and 8 hits, the Thunder's plan fell through again.

Alexander scored 31 points again today, 10-of-23, and the 3-pointers he was released shot 2-of-3 efficiently, which is not bad. It doesn't make much sense for Alexander to take on more possession in this game, and the key is to see if another player who is let off can respond like Washington did.

This kind of relentless hand-to-hand combat will undoubtedly continue until the end of the series, and it's also a question of how long Doncic's knees can hold up. But fortunately, Doncic now knows how to decompress himself and no longer blindly take care of everything.

The Thunder are the top seed and the Mavericks are the fifth seed, but now, the Mavericks have become the more dominant side in this matchup.

The 32-year-old Irving, who bears the last glory of the older generation of stars, continues to move forward.

View original image 176K

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•