Bishop of the Devil

Another set of matchups in the Western Conference semifinals was in full swing. The Trail Blazers became cautious after losing a victory to the Rockets in the first round.

The Trail Blazers' talent is quite strong, and the cautious Trail Blazers are still quite difficult to deal with.

In the end, the Spurs won with a difficult score of 4:3.

In this round of the series, Duncan actually did not lose at all when facing Oden, causing many fans to shout that he is an old monster...

When asked who is the number one center in the league today, some people may mention Yao Ming's name, but most fans will think of Oden first.

After joining the Trail Blazers, Oden's statistics were fully released. Especially last season, Oden averaged crazy statistics of 25.2 points, 13.8 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game. I am afraid that only O'Neal in his peak period can produce similar statistics. Come.

Even under this situation, the old Duncan still did not fall behind at all in the process of facing off against Oden, which is really incredible.

In addition to Duncan's unreasonable display of power, Jimmy Butler also played an important role in limiting the Blazers' main outside attack point Granger.

Because of Jimmy Butler's excellent defense, Granger only averaged 18 points per game in this series.

Although it is quite a lot, but compared to Granger's true level, it is naturally an abnormal performance.

…

Jimmy Butler has indeed exerted amazing energy in the hands of Popovich, and has gradually become a player that cannot be ignored in the league's forward and defensive lines.

To say that the most powerful small forward players that have emerged in the past two years are undoubtedly Leonard and Jimmy Butler.

In fact, the styles of these two people are somewhat similar. They both started on defense, and the offensive end was not outstanding at first...

…

After much anticipation, Richard finally got to meet the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.

To be honest, the Clippers are definitely in the right place at the right time and have a lot of inherent advantages over the Spurs.

First, with a better record than the Spurs, the Clippers will have an extra home court advantage.

Secondly, the Clippers have swept their opponents in two consecutive rounds to advance, and the Spurs have just finished a tiebreaker. Naturally, the old guys in their team cannot rest so easily.

Occupying these two advantages, many fans are optimistic that the Clippers can get tickets to the finals.

…

"Li, I didn't expect that we would meet on the stage of the Western Conference finals so soon. It's really unbelievable." Popovich said hello to Richard with a smile during the warm-up session.

"Greg, do you believe this?" Richard laughed.

If Popovich didn't expect the two teams to meet in the Western Conference Finals, Richard wouldn't believe it even to death.

Popovich's words can't even be trusted with a punctuation mark.

…

"Seriously, Lee, who do you think can win this round of the Western Conference Finals?" Popovich turned serious and asked Richard.

Richard waved his hand, "Of course I hope our Clippers can win, but I think it won't be that easy."

"But if I'm honest, I think your Spurs have a better chance."

"There's no reason, it's just a feeling." Richard said with a smile.

Popovich laughed and did not continue to ask. In fact, he also felt that the Spurs had a better chance of winning.

…

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

The starting players from both sides began to appear.

What Richard and all the fans didn't expect was that in tonight's game, Popovich actually came up with a starting lineup that they had never used before.

Duncan, Diaw, Middleton, Jimmy Butler and Kemba Walker, the French sports car Parker was actually put into the substitute lineup like the demon Ginobili.

Richard is a little pained. If Popovich does this, the depth and thickness of the Spurs' bench will be a bit scary.

Parker, Ginobili, Wu Sheng, Danny Green, Mills...

Such a bench lineup is one of the best in the league. I am afraid that the bench lineup of the Buccaneers coached by Richard was even more luxurious than this one.

However, the strong bench lineup naturally brought some problems. The performance of the Spurs' backcourt trident at the beginning was not particularly good.

After all, they are all newcomers, and they have never been in the starting lineup. Now they are suddenly directly started in the Western Conference Finals. Everyone will be a little nervous.

Especially Kemba Walker did not produce the effect Popovich wanted.

By the time halfway through the first quarter, the Clippers were temporarily leading by five points.

Faced with the five-point difference, Popovich didn't seem to care at all. He called a timeout and replaced him with a strong player on the bench.

The appearance of Ginobili and Parker directly revitalized the Spurs' offense and curbed the Spurs' falling behind. With two minutes left in the first quarter, the two sides were still five points apart.

Several players in the Clippers' starting lineup had already played for ten minutes in the first quarter, so Richard naturally had to make substitutions.

But this change didn't matter. In just two minutes, the Spurs recovered the five-point difference.

In the second quarter of the game, Richard did not dare to be careless and could only let the starting lineup play as much as possible. There was no way, as long as the Clippers replaced the substitutes, the team would immediately collapse...

It doesn't mean that Richard has no reliable substitute players at all, such as Ben, Damascus and Thomas.

But as soon as Thomas was put on the court, he immediately became the focal point of the Spurs' backcourt offense!

If Ben comes on the field, the effect is not very good. His current state is far inferior to Duncan, and he is completely abused by Duncan when he comes on the field.

As for the big horse monkey, it is good. Now the only player on the bench that Richard can rely on is the big horse monkey.

…

"Beep!" Richard finally heard the referee blow the whistle to end the game.

This game may be regarded as the most painful game that Richard has played since he entered the league. He is looking forward to the end of the game all the time.

Although the Clippers narrowly won by three points in this game, Richard was not happy at all, because this game completely overdrafted the physical fitness of the team's main players.

The playing time of several starting players all reached more than forty minutes!

Maybe it's okay to play for more than 40 minutes in two games, but you have to know that this is a seven-game series. If you continue to play like this, sooner or later there will be injury problems.

Although Richard has an injury scroll in his hand, the injury scroll cannot save an emergency, and it will take twenty-four hours for the players to recover.

Once a player gets injured in the first three minutes like Kobe did, Richard's series will be completely over.

With no one available and players injured, it would be surprising if Richard could win this series against the Spurs.

In the blink of an eye, the second game of the Western Conference Finals began, and this time the Clippers players were tortured unspeakably. They played for more than forty minutes, and their faces turned pale from exhaustion.

In this second game, although the Clippers still maintained their home court, the situation has become quite serious.

In the end, the Clippers' undefeated streak in this year's playoffs was finally broken at home in the Holy City.

The Spurs narrowly defeated the tired Clippers by four points at their home court.

When the fourth game of the Western Conference Finals started, the first half was not over yet. Klay Thompson, the Clippers' main offensive point, fell unsteadily when he shot under the defense of Danny Green and sprained his ankle.

Because of Thompson's absence, the Clippers were completely defeated in this G4.