I just play ball

Chapter 457 Three Illusions in Texas Come True
After losing to the Clippers, the Lakers started the last three-game trip of the 14-15 season.

In the first stop in Sacramento, the Kings had already lost their playoff qualifications. Cousins ​​announced that he was sidelined due to injury. The new head coach George Karl chose to play casually. The Lakers only arranged for Li Yue and Kobe to play 3 minutes in each game.

In the end, with the wonderful performance of Clarkson and Davis, the Lakers defeated the Kings 102 to 92.

That night, the entire Lakers team took a special plane overnight to Denver to challenge the Nuggets in back-to-back away games. The main players, including Iguodah and Landry, all chose a truce.

The Lakers returned to the Staples Center in the last stop of their three-game streak, and once again faced their rivals in the same city, the Clippers.

Originally thought it was just a formal game, but it turned out that the Clippers really defended and played, it seems that because the win is only one more than the Grizzlies, they want to keep the fifth place in the Western Conference, avoid the first round against the Warriors, and increase the probability of advancing to the second round. If they advance smoothly, their opponents in the second round will most likely be the Lakers, so they can have a preview of the playoffs in advance, and they can make money without losing money.

After a few minor fouls, the Lakers team got bored and went all out to fight against it.

I thought, at the end of the second quarter, Griffin twisted his ankle at 90 degrees while fighting for a rebound, and the Clippers' momentum was severely hit. The Lakers unknowingly played a 16-0 attack wave and finally won. 20 points.

After two days of rest, the Lakers sit at home and face the visiting Mavericks.

The eighth ranking of the Mavericks in the Western Conference has been determined. The two teams are equivalent to staged a playoff match in advance. The Mavericks attacked at the beginning, but the Lakers did not deliberately strengthen their firepower. In addition, Rondo made 12 of 9 shots explosively, and the final score was 116 to 120. lose.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban watched the game and was overjoyed when he was interviewed by reporters after the game.

"The current situation reminds me that before the second round of the playoffs in 11, fans, commentators, ESPN and other media, almost everyone thought that we would lose to the Lakers, even if we took a 3-0 lead and had an absolute advantage. There are also many people who think that the Lakers can complete the first super comeback in NBA history, and history is repeating itself."

Mavericks forward Parsons reposted the interview video on Twitter, commented: "I know stereotypes are human nature, I must remind everyone that we are the only team that has won the Lakers twice this season, maybe now we are talking about winning and losing It's early days, but anyway, we're not the kind of team that can be beaten at will, and you're going to see Dallas rise."

There was no response from the Lakers. The last two games against the Kings and Timberwolves of the season were easily won. With a record of 73 wins and 9 losses, the 14-15 season ended perfectly, and the Staples Center added two more championship banners.

After all the games in the league have been played, the Western Conference regular season rankings are finally determined, and the first round of the playoffs will be announced.

The Lakers ranked first against the eighth Mavericks; the Warriors ranked second against the seventh Spurs; the Rockets ranked third against the sixth Grizzlies; According to the league's established rules, it finally ranked fourth in the West, against the Clippers, who won 51 wins but ranked fifth in the West.

Many media immediately came up with pre-match predictions that had already been prepared. As far as the Lakers vs. Mavericks is concerned, according to the statistics of enthusiastic fans, except for the local media in Dallas, no other media thinks that the Mavericks may win, and even the local media in Dallas , The predictions given for the wins are only 6 games and 7 games, but the media that predicts the Lakers' victory basically wins 4 games or 5 games, and even ESPN has no commentators who think it is necessary to play 7 games for the effect of the program. field.

For the game between the Lakers and the Mavericks, the gaming company made a bet that the Mavericks will win with super high odds. As long as you put in 100 dollars, you can hope to get 1 dollars, but the number of buyers is always zero, and even gamblers are unwilling to believe that the Mavericks ox.

As the Lakers' potential opponents in the second round, the Clippers and the Trail Blazers received a [-]-[-] split. Most of the reasons for choosing the Clippers were Paul's seasoned experience and the Clippers' more experience in the playoffs. Riffin may not be able to play due to injuries, and even if he plays, he will not be able to reach his best condition. The Blazers have hope to advance.

Compared with the controversy over who can advance to the Blazers or the Clippers, fans almost unanimously believe that the two teams, no matter which one advances, cannot escape the situation of being blasted by the Lakers, because the Blazers face the Lakers. The backcourt disadvantage is too great, The Clippers have too much of a forward disadvantage against the Lakers. Even if the two teams fit together, they can only draw with the Lakers.

With the end of the regular season, ESPN and other media also announced their predictions for the major awards. Li Yue was consecutively elected as the MVP of the regular season with an absolute advantage, and was selected as the best first team and best first defense. The best defensive player of the year also ranked fifth .

...

According to the schedule, the Lakers have two days to prepare, and the coaching staff chose to take a day off.

On the afternoon of NO.16, the whole team gathered at the training base to hold a pre-match analysis meeting. The main content was to watch the video, go through the Mavericks' common play and defensive routines, and arrange basic coping strategies by the way.

After the video was played, Nick Yang yelled: "Their level is too low, they are not good enough to play!"

Li Yue and others smiled knowingly, and Wharton called up a few data tables and began to explain.

"At the beginning of this season, the Mavericks' offensive efficiency was once as high as the second in the league, which is second only to us, so they once ranked third in the Western Conference, but their defensive performance was slightly poor, resulting in several regrettable losses."

"In December last year, the Mavericks traded for Rajon Rondo in order to solve their defensive problems. This allowed their points per 12 possessions to drop from 104.8 to 100.7, but their offensive efficiency dropped sharply from 113.6 to 105.1."

"After many studies, the main reason is that Rondo lacks outside shots, and Rondo controls players a lot, which leads to the loss of Monta Ellis, the original outside main attacker. On the contrary, when Harris is the point guard, the Mavericks score more efficiently. high."

Li Yue nodded when he heard the words. Ellis claimed to be the second best player in the league back then, so it was difficult for him to adapt to playing without the ball. What's more, the off-ball master Ray Allen didn't have a good time with Rondo. The Mavericks' choice of trade is simply ridiculous. .

"This change caused the Mavericks' winning rate to drop by nearly 10% in the second half, and after a while of defensive optimization, they fell into a stretched state. Because of the existence of Rondo, the Mavericks fought on their own. If they hadn't performed well enough in the first third of the schedule, they would have fallen out of the top eight in the West."

"So we can strategically empty Rondo, focus on marking other Mavericks players, and compress the inside space..."

In more than ten seconds, Wharton finished talking about the coping strategy.

Li Yue turned his head left and right to observe, and found that all his teammates showed extremely relaxed expressions. Even Kobe, who has always been serious, did not raise any objections. The Mavericks are really weak. become a fact.

(End of this chapter)