Discussing the rematchup|Genius matchup, Doncic entered the Western Conference for the second time in his career, and Alexander needs to do better

Qing Yang said

2024-05-19 14:10Posted in Anhui Sports Creators

Young Alexander and Thunder, the season is over.

They failed to take advantage of the 17-point lead of 77-60 in the third quarter, and finally lost their forward spirit in the Mavericks' home stadium with the shouts of "Referee Sucks", and were overtaken in the fourth quarter, leading and falling behind again, and finally being killed by free throws.

Alexander, who scored 36 points and had eight assists, fouled P.J. Washington on a three-pointer at the end of the game, and was finally killed by free throws 116-117 to stop 2-4 in the semifinals.

This season, they are doing well! But could have been better!

If this outcome is known, perhaps the Thunder management will be ruthless in the middle of the season and compete with the Mavericks for P.J. Washington and Gafford

These two were supposed to be the Thunder's bag.

Also went to the Hornets to buy the bottom, the Mavericks chose Washington, who was young and strong, and threw 23 three-pointers in this round of the series, while the Thunder chose Hayward, who was already 35 years old and only played 15 minutes in this round of matchups without scoring a point?

Gafford is even more exaggerated, the Mavericks have run out of first-round picks as chips when they make an offer, and it was the Thunder who generously donated their 24 first-round picks to make a 28-year first-round swap with the Mavericks, and assisted the opponent to get the muscle center.

And these two plus Lively, the three tall forward brothers have become the biggest strategic advantage of the Mavericks over the Thunder in this round of the series.

What's even more interesting is that Lively was also given to the Mavericks by the Thunder.

In last year's draft, the Mavericks cut off the Thunder's favorite Carson Wallace, forcing them to replace Lively in the 12th round, and by the way, they also ate Bertans' garbage contract.

In this game, Lively scored 12 points and 15 rebounds (4 frontcourt rebounds), plus or minus +26, helping the team maintain the pressure on the inside in the most difficult time in the third quarter, which led to a big comeback in the second half.

Compared with Alexander's mistakes in this game and Daigneault's hesitation, perhaps the biggest responsibility for this year's loss is the Thunder management.

It was they who persistently made it easier for the Lone Ranger to act, and finally created this opponent who killed him.

And when it comes to this game, the Thunder also lost tenaciously and regrettably.

They opened the game with Jalen opening the scoring, Dort hitting back-to-back three-pointers, and Holmgren shooting from the outside to quickly take a 16-6 lead.

But Doncic responded quickly, hitting two three-pointers in a row, Irving followed up with another mid-range shot, 16-12, and then it was Alexander's turn to take over.

This year's playoffs, or the entire '23-24 season, Alexander did this, opening the game with a wedding dress for his teammates, and then taking over when things didn't go well.

0-of-1 in the first half, 3-of-4 in the second half of the quarter, and 7 points on 3-of-4 in the second half, plus Jalen White Horse Changsha's big three-pointer, the Thunder ended the first quarter 30-23.

The second quarter began with a thrilling superstar kill.

Alexander has taken over completely, and now it's his showtime, and Doncic has been motivated by him.

The two constantly demonstrate how modern basketball super-attackers can torture defenders. You make a dry pull-out shot, I step back for three points, you use the block to cover and assist your teammates for three points, and I will quickly make a long pass to the accurate point.

Doncic's three-pointer gave the Mavericks a 42-40 lead, but Alexander immediately assisted Holmgren for a dunk, and then Isaiah Joe and Wallace hit back-to-back three-pointers, and Alexander hit another stand-up single-hander.

In the superstar matchup, the Thunder's supporting players stepped up first, but gradually opened the score, and they had a 64-48 lead at halftime.

Alexander had 14 points and 2 assists in this quarter, which was perfect.

In the second half, Alexander assisted Holmgren and Jalen to score layups in succession, but fortunately, the dunk king Derrick Jones on the Mavericks' side suddenly felt hot and scored 8 points in a row to ensure that the score was not pulled away.

But when Jalen broke through again to make free throws, Mavericks head coach Kidd began to fight and replaced Gafford with Lively.

He teamed up with Eastern Europe with Jones and Washington, and the five-man duo lasted almost all of the next games.

The projection of this lineup is not very good, but the height is exaggerated.

In addition to Irving, the shortest on the court is Jones, who is 1.98 meters tall, with an average height of 2.01 meters. On the Mavericks' side, except for Holmgren, the tallest is Alexander at 1.98 meters.

Holmgren's on-hand shot from Alexander's assist extended the margin to 77-60, but the Mavericks had already made their way by this time.

Jones clung to Alexander and Lively to protect the restricted area and frantically collected rebounds, while Doncic and Irving's perimeter sweeps were determined to choke the Thunder's three-pointers.

In the next six minutes, the Thunder scored just four points from the free throw line. The Mavericks, on the other hand, relied on one unreasonable three-pointer after another from the Eastern European combination to chase down 81-76, and the game returned to the rhythm of fighting for each other.

It was Alexander who came to break the game, and he made another mid-range shot to stabilize the situation, followed by another step-back three-pointer and a mid-range shot to stretch the margin to 88-78 again. But the Mavericks still didn't give up, Doncic made two free throws, Jones made two free throws, Jones completed a three-point fast-break after a steal, scored 11 points in a single quarter, and chased it to 83-90 in the third quarter!

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Mavericks were more powerful in the home cheer.

Doncic assisted Jones Jr. for another three-pointer, and then he and Irving each hit a one-on-one. Isaiah Joe responded with a three-pointer, but Lively's pie and Irving's three-pointer tied it at 97-97.

The gods only scored 2 points in each of the first two quarters, but scored 18 points in the second half to show the true colors of the top killer again.

But the Thunder also had a strongman to step up, Jaylin Williams first grabbed a rebound and assisted Holmgren for a dunk, and then assisted Jalen to score a dunk, he is the second highest on the team after Holmgren, and Coach Daigneault has been overwhelmed by Kidd's tall lineup before putting him on the court.

Lively dunked Holmgren to complete 2+1, 101-103, and the Mavericks always had someone to breathe a sigh of relief for them.

Alexander hit another shot to stabilize the difference, but the Mavericks' height advantage was unstoppable, and Lively again emphasized that the rebound in the front court was one of two free throws, and the second rebound was grabbed by Washington, and Doncic assisted him to hit a three-pointer, 105-105.

Then Doncic hit a mid-range shot to overtake, Jalen also hit a three-pointer, Irving also responded with a long-range shot, and Alexander followed up with another breakaway to hit the board, with 2 minutes and 47 seconds left, 110-110, both sides were on the edge of the cliff.

Doncic found Washington again for a three-pointer, and then Jones hit an extreme turnaround jumper to stretch the score to 115-110, and the Mavericks had victory in sight.

But Alexander didn't give up, he first stepped back to grab a three-pointer, hit a free throw, and then assisted Holmgren for a dunk, and the Thunder once again led 116-115.

With 20 seconds left, Doncic staggered back to the bottom corner of the left corner after being blocked, and Washington, who scored nine points in the fourth quarter of the game, received the ball in the last moments, and he nodded away from Alexander with a false flick, and was about to shoot the last three-pointer, when the Thunder boss who had flown past put his hand on the basketball and his shooting hand, and there was no doubt about a three-point foul. Even the Thunder's life-fighting challenge didn't change the fact that he made three free throws.

The clever Washington hit the first two free throws to take the lead, and then the third missed the last time to wear out the final time, and the Thunder reluctantly lost 116-117.

This is a life-and-death battle between victory and defeat and both sides doing their best.

The Thunder fought for a win on the road, trying everything they could to contain their opponents, but ultimately lost in their size and size. The full-court rebounds were 31-47 and they lost 16, and the 14 frontcourt rebounds were even more painful.

The Mavericks survived the adversity of falling behind by 17 points at one point, Doncic 29+10+10 once again showed his invincible all-round skills, and Irving scored 18 points in the second half to maintain his exaggerated record of 14-0 in the promotion game.

And Washington, Jones, and Lively have each become indispensable members with their own efforts.

If you talk about the game alone, the person who has to stand up and be responsible for this game has to be the core of the Thunder, the banner, and their boss Alexandre.

He scored 36 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks on 14-of-25 shooting in this game, and 32 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks in the entire series, shooting more than 50% overall and 55% from three-point range, and only 12 turnovers in total.

As a 25-year-old who played in the playoffs for the third time in his career and for the first time as the absolute core, it was already very good, after all, this time he no longer had Lowe and Paul by his side

But in fact, he really should do better, if he takes Kobe Bryant and Wade as the standard when he was young.

He's not like Doncic, who doesn't have a top assassin by his side, Irving. Holmgren and Jalen Williams are still too immature, and Dort is not Ray Allen or Klay Thompson.

In a way, he has to be "core + assassin" on one shoulder.

And in this sixth battle of life and death, he still seems too selfless. At least four times in the game, he chose to pass to a teammate in the gap when he had already had a good shot, and ended up missing the shot, and they ended up losing by just one point.

Alexander must understand that in this life-and-death battle, leaders sometimes have to carry the responsibility on their shoulders, rather than leaving his teammates who earn less and are not as high as him to take responsibility.

In today's game, he should go and score 40, 45 or even 50 points.

He's already very good, so good that most people think.

But for a leader who needs to lead a young team with an average age of less than 25 and who didn't make the playoffs last year, to reach the Western Conference finals, the Finals and even win a championship, he can't do enough.

When Kobe Bryant and Wade were young, when they were really in the playoffs, they would firmly let their teammates pull away and then tell everyone

"Give me the damn ball and I'll take you to the cut."

Hopefully, this defeat will make Alexander understand this.

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