NBA opening draw to twilight Shaquille O'Neal

Chapter 553 Only 10 games away from 3 consecutive victories

After a night of fighting, the Trail Blazers defeated the Clippers 101:93, winning 6 consecutive victories and continuing the winning streak at the beginning of the new season.

Judging from the configuration of each position, the Los Angeles Clippers are definitely a team with excellent offense and defense in the league. If you really want to pick one flaw, it is that their overall defense on the field is weak, far inferior to the Trail Blazers.

Chris Paul at the No. 1 position is defensively leveraged and has been selected to the best defensive team of the season all year round.But JJ Redick, who couldn't stand the Clippers' starting second position, and Jamal Crawford, who started at the third position, were full of colanders on the defensive end.

Coupled with Griffin at the fourth position, the defense is also average, and Jordan often needs to wipe his ass.

In contrast, among the Trail Blazers' starting lineup, even Lillard, who has the worst defense, can already be called a qualified level of defense in the same position in the league.

After all, this Lillard is not the Lillard in the original time and space. In the original time and space, if the Trail Blazers want to win, they must rely on Lillard to take care of the offense.

As a rookie, even an older one, as an ordinary fan watching the game, it is difficult for you to ask Lillard to take care of the offense while also doing a good job of defense.

Not everyone is like Jordan. When he first entered the league, he was a full-level number, with both offense and defense.

Therefore, when Lillard no longer needs an all-encompassing offense on the court, and has plenty of time and energy to focus on defense, it is not so difficult for him to develop a defense above the qualified level.

The same goes for Aldridge.

With Wang Zelin, Aldrich's defensive ability is also stronger than himself in the original time and space, and there is no defensive colander at all.

The strongest lineups of the two sides have a one-on-one dialogue. Except for Paul, who has a slight advantage at the No. [-] position, the Clippers are basically weaker than the Trail Blazers in other positions.

Without the interference of additional uncontrollable factors such as off-court factors, player explosions, etc., it is completely reasonable for the Clippers to lose this game.

After all, relying on Paul and carrying two colanders, it is simply unrealistic to want to pull up the defensive height of the Clippers' outside line.

Speaking of which, since Paul entered the league, he has won 4 first-defense and 1 second-defense honors in the selection of the best defensive team. It is no exaggeration to say that he is the gate of perimeter defense.

However, in front of this so-called "outside line defense gate", a further positioning is needed, that is, the outside line defense battle at position 1.

In terms of defensive influence on the field, Paul, who has been selected to the best defensive team many times, is actually not far behind Wang Zelin, who has been selected once in the first defense and once in the second defense in his career.

This is no nonsense.

After all, basketball has always been a sport for adults.

The defensive influence of a player on the field increases with the position. Most of the time, a team's defensive system is supported by people in positions 4 and 5. For the remaining players in positions 1, 2 and 3, they only need to defend their opponents well.

This is also one of the reasons why more than half of the No. [-] picks in so many drafts are inside players in the long history of the NBA for half a century.

Of course, defensive masters like Air Jordan and Glove Payton, who can compete with players in other positions across positions, need to be discussed separately.

But what you need to know is that Paul's external defense ability is definitely not as good as his predecessor Payton. Even Payton can't have unimaginable defensive influence like many inside players on the court, let alone Paul!

Looking at this game, the Clippers feel like a weakened version of the Trail Blazers in all aspects.

Say they are strong, they must be strong.

But if they are really strong enough to win the championship, it seems that they are a little bit worse.

On the court, except for Paul's stable performance, 4 of 2 three-pointers, 15 points, 7 assists and 21 steals on 10 of 3 in the game, the other Clippers players can basically be said to be out of order.

Jordan made 6 of 1 shots and only scored 5 points in addition to free throws. Griffin was fine, with 17 of 7 shots in the game, scoring 16 points and 8 rebounds in the team second only to Paul.

But don't forget, he is an insider, but his shooting percentage is actually not as good as that of the outsider Paul. It is conceivable how bad his efficiency is tonight.

This game directly opened up the current predicament the Clippers are facing!
The Clippers are an absolute playoff-level strong team, but while being strong, they reveal a hint of mediocrity.

Because the Clippers lack a burst point that can provide stable firepower regardless of the opponent's defense at critical moments.

At the end of the first half, at 54:50, the Clippers were only 4 points behind the Blazers. As long as they scored two more goals in the second half, they might be able to tie the score.

However, the reality is very difficult to achieve. Paul experienced it, Griffin tried his best, the substitutes also tried their best, and the defensive end also tried their best to defend.

But sometimes one or two balls are missing, just the last shiver is missing...

Just can't get hard!
The point is that this problem has plagued the Clippers for more than a year, and it has not been solved for several years.

And what do they do next?

On the bench, I looked lonely at Paul, who was playing the Blazers, and couldn't find any solution.

"...Hurry up and consider changing teams!"

Suddenly, he remembered what Wang Zelin said at the beginning of the game.

Could it be that he really wants to consider changing teams?

At this moment, Chris Paul felt a bit of regret about the five-year 5 million gold contract he just signed with the Clippers last season.

Perhaps, this contract was really signed too early and too long, so that the bond between himself and the Clippers team became deeper and deeper unconsciously.

……

……

On the other side.

Wang Zelin didn't know about Paul's complicated mood after the game, and of course he wasn't interested in knowing.

After winning the away game in Los Angeles, on the night of the 8th, after Wang Zelin finished the press conference, he flew back to Portland with the team before he had time to celebrate.

In this game, Wang Zelin played 31 minutes...

This should be the longest game he has played in the new season.

Of course, the data gained is also impressive.

20投13中，罚球7中7，砍下了全场最高的33分外加17板4助攻和4盖帽。

Without any suspense, he was elected the best player of the game!
On the plane, he skipped it directly. Tomorrow's back-to-back opponents, the Denver Nuggets, looked at the upcoming schedule.

After the Nuggets, they played against the Hornets at home and went away to Denver to fight against the Nuggets.

And then, another three consecutive home games!

There is one thing to say, the Trail Blazers' schedule can be described as beautiful juice during the period from the start of this season.

Of course, he also understands that they are happy now. After the All-Star Game, there must be a devilish schedule waiting for them.

They all have to pay back sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)