Junior Basketball says

Chapter 456
Originally, the Timberwolves thought their second opponent would be another Los Angeles team, the Clippers. However, the fifth-ranked Nuggets eliminated the Clippers with a big score of 6 to 4 after 2 games to advance to the second round.To be honest, the fourth and fifth teams are the most likely to have a combination of inferior and superior. In terms of regular season records, the two sides are almost the same, and the strength is naturally between them.

The reason why the higher-ranked Clippers lost in this round was largely because their commander Paul was restricted by Iguodala. For the Clippers without a second playmaker, Paul was suppressed. It means that the team's tactical coordination cannot work well.The Nuggets' offensive firepower is very fierce. Under such circumstances, it would be strange for the Clippers not to lose!

As the outside core of the Timberwolves, Xu Hao will naturally enjoy the treatment of Iguodala's close guard, but he didn't take this matter to heart.The two sides had already played against each other at the London Olympics last summer. Xu Hao felt that Iguodala's defense would hardly affect him too much. He just needed to pay attention to it and avoid making mistakes.

After two days of rest, the Timberwolves faced the challenge of the Nuggets at home.Having said that, the Timberwolves have a psychological advantage against the Nuggets. They achieved a 4-3 overwhelming advantage in the 1 games in the regular season. The only time they lost was because Jordan was absent due to injury. The defensive inside line was directly rushed to pieces by the Nuggets.However, this time the Timberwolves were able to maintain a complete lineup and their goal was still to sweep their opponents and advance directly.

With this in mind, the Timberwolves took the lead from the very beginning of the game, and the Nuggets' defense was full of loopholes for Xu Hao.They were not a team that was good at defense, and now Iguodala, the outside gate, can't play the role he should have. It took less than half a quarter for the Timberwolves to establish a double-digit lead. .

However, the Nuggets did have a lot of scoring points. Seeing that the point difference between the two sides was getting wider and wider, Lawson and Miller began to work together to score points.They constantly let Wilson Chandler and Farid pull into high screens, creating opportunities for them to constantly hit the basket. Although their size is considered small for their respective positions, they can still be strong with their speed. Eat DeAndre Jordan.

However, the Nuggets kept scoring but were still unable to close the score. Their defense was really terrible, and they still played a small lineup with a short height.Especially Faried, this energy-filled "half-orc" is really good in physical fitness, but he is a rough guy in defense. Basically, he relies on his physical fitness to complete it.Thanks to the continuous breakthroughs of Rubio and Kirilenko, Xu Hao got a lot of shots from outside.

In this game, Xu Hao has decided to hand over the task of organizing to his teammates, and just score points with all his strength, which was also agreed by McHale.He has always believed that Xu Hao has the potential to become a super scorer, but in the Timberwolves' tactical system, he needs to organize the offense with Rubio, which hinders his offensive performance to a certain extent.

This time, McHale wanted to see Xu Hao's scoring ability under the opponent's targeted defense. Anyway, the overall strength of the Nuggets is not as good as the Timberwolves. It doesn't matter if Xu Hao is on the court. The strength of other players can be fully understood .

Of course, Xu Hao's performance did not disappoint the coach and teammates. He played the entire first quarter, scored 9 points on 6 of 18 shots from beyond the three-point line, and also sent 3 assists to help the team score a single quarter 42 points, and extended the lead to 15 points.The home fans have been cheering loudly on the sidelines, causing a lot of psychological pressure on the visiting team players.

In the second quarter, Xu Hao only rested for 2 minutes before reappearing. When he replaced Ellington, Nuggets coach Carl’s face changed. He seemed to see Xu Hao’s efforts to defend against his own players. The next crazy scoring scene.

In many cases, the more you are afraid of something, the more you will come. As soon as Xu Hao came on the court, he received a pass from Sheved and made a three-pointer at the top of the arc.The next game has become Xu Hao's three-point show. Regardless of whether there is a defender in front of him, he can easily throw the ball into the basket from various positions beyond the three-point line. Leading the next step up.

The Nuggets couldn't resist this wave of three-point frenzy at all. At the end of the half, they were already behind by 21 points.In the second half, the Timberwolves' players obviously started to play under McHale's instructions. Basically, every round would not be shot until the last moment, but this still did not affect their scoring efficiency. At the end of the three quarters, they still maintained a 17-point lead. .

Although the Nuggets' top scorer, Lawson, made consecutive breakthrough layups at the beginning of the fourth quarter, helping the team narrow the point difference to single digits, but Ellington and Ridnour's three-pointers allowed the Nuggets to overtake the score The dream has completely come to nothing.In the end, the Timberwolves won a 121-99 victory at their home court, taking the lead in making a good start to the Western Conference semifinals.

Before the game, everyone knew that there was a clear strength gap between the Timberwolves and the Nuggets, but after all, they were the first in the Western Conference versus the fifth in the Western Conference. Unexpectedly, the Nuggets suffered a 22-point defeat as soon as they started. This is too exaggerated. .

But soon the Timberwolves used practical actions to tell everyone that the 22-point victory may be just accidental, but the difference in strength is actually inevitable.The second game was still at the Target Center. This time the Timberwolves won by 15 points and went to the away game 2-0.When the other matchups between the East and the West seemed very anxious, the Timberwolves VS Nuggets were simply a breath of fresh air.

The Denver Plateau is a difficult away game for any team. The Timberwolves seemed very uncomfortable in the first away game, trailing the opponent by 9 points at halftime.Fortunately, Xu Hao stepped forward in the third quarter and scored 22 points in one quarter, helping the Timberwolves regain the lead, and kept it until the end of the game, winning the match point without any risk.

0 to 3 is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the Nuggets. They no longer expect to reverse the situation and advance, as long as they can lose with a little dignity, after all, this is their home court.However, the Timberwolves did not intend to give them this opportunity. The players who had adapted to the thin oxygen of the Denver plateau behaved like tigers coming down the mountain in the fourth game. Although they did not have the terrifying lead before, their ability to control the situation on the court was still there. Even better, they suppressed the Nuggets from beginning to end, allowing the opponent only a pitiful 88 points in the entire game, which is incredible for a team like the Nuggets.

Sweeping opponents in two consecutive rounds brought the outside world's praise to the Timberwolves to the peak. Everyone thought they could easily reach the finals, then beat the Heat, and won the championship for the second consecutive year, but did things really go so smoothly?
(End of this chapter)