Bishop of the Devil

Richard was a little speechless about the YY of these Lakers fans. It can be seen that they still don't want to tear away the fig leaf that the Lakers are weak...

Looking at the lineup, the Lakers' lineup is really nothing to say. If every position is at its peak, it will definitely be a super Galaxy battleship.

But flowers will fade away and people will grow old. No one in the Lakers' current starting five is still at their peak. Compared with their peak period, they have all declined to varying degrees.

Lakers fans are used to the strength of the Lakers, so at this moment they still have a fluke mentality, thinking that the Lakers have a chance to break out of the first round of the playoffs.

Richard is too lazy to care about these fans. It won't take long for facts to prove that the Lakers will never be a match for the Clippers.

…

The real headache for Richard right now is the Spurs.

At the last moment of the regular season, the Spurs suddenly and mysteriously dropped to fourth place in the Western Conference. If there was no reason for this, Richard would not believe it.

The biggest possibility is that Popovich felt that the Clippers were more difficult to deal with than the Trail Blazers, so he took the initiative to give up the third position in the Western Conference. In this way, they would not encounter the Clippers in the first or second rounds.

The only chance the two teams will meet is in the Western Conference Finals.

…

This is naturally good news for Richard. At least he doesn't have to compete with a seasoned head coach like Popovich in the Western Conference semifinals.

However, according to Richard's estimation, if the Clippers want to achieve decent results this year, they will definitely have to play against the Spurs in the end.

Although the Trail Blazers have a better regular season record than the Spurs, Richard feels that the Trail Blazers may not be the Spurs' opponent.

…

On April 17, the first round of the playoffs officially started.

The Clippers did not play on the first day. The first day in the Western Conference was the Spurs against the Warriors and the Trail Blazers against the Rockets.

The difference between the Warriors' record and the Spurs' record is not particularly big, but as soon as the game starts on the court, the gap between the two sides is immediately apparent.

Not long after the fourth quarter began, the Warriors collapsed across the board. Mark Jackson was good at training newcomers, but he was a bit incompetent at coaching on the spot.

Faced with this collapsing situation, Mark Jackson is powerless and can only continue to fuck the main force to gain a glimmer of hope.

In the final game, the Spurs defeated the Warriors with a score of 113:92 at home and won their first victory in the playoffs.

The performance of the Spurs' three rookies in this game was unbeatable. Jimmy Butler didn't stand out on the offensive end, but his defensive end was definitely at DPOY level.

Middleton and Kemba Walker played as substitutes, but they both played more than 20 minutes and played quite good offensive efficiency, even better than the performance of Lao Yaodao and Lao Parker.

…

Another Western Conference playoff matchup, the result made the fans a little dumbfounded. The eighth-ranked Rockets in the Western Conference unexpectedly defeated the Trail Blazers.

The current head coach of the Rockets, James Harden, was bought by them from the Buccaneers.

Jordan thought that he really didn't have the salary to renew the contract with the newcomer on the bench, so he simply sold Harden to the Rockets.

Harden was naturally quite unhappy after being sold by Jordan. When attending the Rockets press conference, Fang Yan said that he would become the cornerstone player of the Rockets and lead the Rockets to rise...

These words were directly regarded as a joke by many fans, and even the Rockets' own fans found it a bit funny.

A substitute player from another team who just joined the Rockets and wants to become a cornerstone? This is a bit too much to say.

But Harden's performance this season has directly silenced those who laughed at him. He averaged 25.3 points per game, which is already the level of the league's first-line scorer.

In this game against the Trail Blazers, they were able to narrowly win in the end because of Harden's explosive performance.

In addition to his astonishing performance of 34 points in this game, Harden also caused three fouls on the Blazers' insider Oden, which directly caused Oden to leave the game with six fouls just halfway through the fourth quarter.

It is precisely because of Oden's stance that gave the Rockets more opportunities to attack the basket.

The current head coach of the Rockets is McHale, not D'Antoni later. This Rockets team is not as crazy about shooting three-pointers as it was later.

The Trail Blazers lost unexpectedly, not to mention the fans, even Richard didn't expect it...

But this loss is actually a good thing for the Blazers. At least it can cheer them up and pay attention to every opponent.

Judging from the overall strength of both sides, the Rockets will definitely not be able to escape being eliminated in the end. After all, Black Eight is not that easy to appear.

…

On the second day of the playoffs, it was finally the Clippers' turn to face off against the Lakers, and countless Los Angeles fans were eagerly looking forward to it.

But the game lasted less than three minutes. Kobe directly sprained his ankle during a breakthrough, and was then supported by his teammates as he walked back to the locker room.

Obviously no one expected this situation. This series has just begun, and the Lakers boss is actually injured? !

In fact, Kobe didn't even play these three minutes under normal circumstances. He tore his Achilles tendon in the penultimate game of the season and didn't play in this year's playoffs at all...

It was precisely because of Kobe's absence that the Lakers were swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the Spurs.

In this round of the series, Howard really didn't get any advantage when facing old Duncan, mainly because he was targeted by Popovich.

Howard averaged 9 free throws per game, but he could only hit 4...

If it weren't for Howard's poor free throws and Kobe's absence, the Spurs probably wouldn't have swept the Lakers so easily.

…

Now that Kobe is injured, Richard feels strange.

Although he was very sure of killing the Lakers, he was definitely not as sure as he is now.

Before, Richard was 70% sure of defeating the Lakers. Now with Kobe's absence, Richard is already 100% sure.

…

Many Lakers fans on the sidelines sighed. Although this is the home court of the Clippers, there are also a lot of Lakers fans present, no less than Clippers fans.

Kobe is injured, and this game is basically no longer suspense.

…

When Kobe was on the court, because of his huge containment power, he attracted a lot of defense from the Clippers.

And Kobe was not present, so Baker took the three-pointer Blake on the bench to take Kobe's place. Blake naturally did not have the same restraint as Kobe, and Thompson could arrange it at will.

When Kobe was off the court, the two sides fought back and forth, and then the balance of victory clearly tilted towards the Clippers.

This was not the most deadly thing. When the Clippers ran out of fouls, Richard directly directed Howard to use the long-lost shark-cutting tactic.

In fact, speaking of it, two years before O'Neal retired, as O'Neal's free throw shooting percentage skyrocketed, the shark-cutting tactic was no longer used by many people.

This year, Richard suddenly used it, which directly caused Howard to complain. He made six free throws in the first quarter and only made two.

Mike Brown's originally dark face actually showed a hint of paleness...

He knew that this series was over. Facing the devilish Richard and without Kobe, it was really difficult for them to have a chance to compete with the Clippers.

Not only is this series over, Brother Bread feels that his coaching career with the Lakers is also over.

…

"Beep!" The referee blew the whistle to end the game.

Howard took 15 free throws in this game, but only hit five of them, which made many Lakers fans at the scene have the urge to curse.

Can free throw shooting be so bad? 33.3% free throw percentage? It's just unreasonable.

The significance of the shark-cutting tactic is not only to send players like Howard to the free throw line, but more importantly, to reduce Howard's chances of touching the ball.

Even Richard has to admit that Howard's destructive power under the basket is really amazing, especially when he grabs a rebound and plays a second offense, it is quite threatening.

Now because of the shark-cutting tactic, Howard is tied up on the court and naturally cannot perform at his best.

With the final score of 103:89, the Clippers won by 14 points.

Judging from the scores of both sides, the pace of this game is indeed a bit slow.

There is no way, the Lakers' twin-tower system cannot be fast even if they want to.

…

The day after the Clippers beat the Lakers, the Spurs and Trail Blazers defeated their opponents.

The Nuggets also defeated the Thunder in the first game and got off to a great start.

…

Kobe's injury was also reported. Many fans originally thought it was just a sprain and there shouldn't be any big problem.

However, the results of the examination were shocking. Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles tendon. Not only was he unable to play in this series, but whether he could play next season was a matter of debate.

Maybe this kind of thing happens to some young players and it won't be a big problem, but when it comes to the old man Kobe, an injury like an Achilles tendon tear that completely ruins the player's career appears.

It goes without saying what a torn Achilles tendon means. Fans know very well that Kobe's career is about to enter its final period.

…

Richard led the Clippers and did not give the Lakers any chance to counterattack. They swept the Lakers with a big score of 4:0 at Staples Center to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.

The Nuggets currently have a big score of 3:1 and are very close to promotion.

The Thunder are still too young. Although the combination of Westbrook and Love is good in combat, it is still not good enough in front of the veteran George Karl. After four games in the series, Westbrook averaged an astonishing 5.5 turnovers per game... …

It's amazing, but it's not amazing at all. At least Richard is not surprised at all. After all, Westbrook will have the feat of averaging 6 turnovers per game in the playoff series.

Another three days passed, and the Nuggets finally defeated the Thunder at their home court, eliminating the Thunder with a score of 4:1 and advancing to the Western Conference semifinals.

The Spurs have already swept the Warriors, and the Trail Blazers also defeated the Rockets with a score of 4:1.

All four teams in the Western Conference semifinals have since appeared.

The current situation is actually quite favorable for the Clippers.

Among the three teams, the Trail Blazers, Spurs and Nuggets, even a fool knows that the Nuggets are definitely the weakest. Now that the Clippers can meet this weakest opponent, it is naturally a good thing.

Speaking of which, Popovich will not know this, but because of their previous training of newcomers, the gap between their regular season record and the Clippers and Trail Blazers is a bit big, and there is no hope of catching up with these two teams, so Popovich Povich settled for the next best thing and chose the Blazers, who he considered easier to deal with.

Richard has too many tricks, and Popovich definitely doesn’t want to meet Richard prematurely...