Chapter 631 Thunder's Life and Death of the Pelican (3rd Update!)

Jokic's injury recovery is progressing well, but there is still a long time before his comeback.

The performance of Biyombo and McGee during this period will become very important for the Pelicans.

The last month and a half of the season is also critical for the Pelicans.

The previous wave of ups and downs narrowed the record gap between the Spurs and them, and now there is only a gap of 3 wins.

Once there is a big ups and downs, they are likely to be squeezed from second to third by the Spurs.

Second and third, it seems that it is only a difference in ranking, but if both teams reach the second round of the playoffs, it means home court advantage.

The Pelicans certainly don't want to lose this if they face off against the Spurs.

So in every next game, they will definitely go all out.

On March 8, the day of Women's Day, the Pelicans and Clippers ushered in the last match of the season.

According to the results of discussions with Tang Tian, ​​Williams gave McGee about 10 minutes of playing time, and he also handed over an excellent statistic of 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.

The Pelicans finally won the game steadily, extending the winning streak to five games.

Two days later, the Pelicans played against the Kings again. They overwhelmed the Kings and finally defeated their opponents and won 6 consecutive victories.

Karl and Cousins ​​got into a heated altercation on the bench during the quarter break.

It can be seen that one of the two will definitely leave next season.

On the second day after playing the Kings, the Pelicans faced the Jazz back-to-back.

The Jazz played extremely tenaciously in this game, and Whiteside didn't have much advantage against Gobert.

The two teams also stalemate until the last moment. In the end, Ingles hit a fairy ball to kill the Pelicans and also ended the Pelicans' 6-game winning streak.

This game also showed the disadvantage of Jokic's absence, and they scored 20 to 40 on the bench.

Three days later, the Pelicans ushered in their final match of the season against the Spurs.

In this game, the Pelicans are not only inferior to the bench, but also have poor outside shooting. The Spurs' shrinking defense makes it extremely difficult for the Pelicans to score.

In the end, the Pelicans suffered a wave of losing streak, and the Spurs also changed their regular season record to 1 to 3, avoiding being swept away.

...

These few games have also become the epitome of the Pelicans' one and a half months.

They won more than they lost, but the impact of Jokic's absence is obvious.

After half a month has passed, the Pelicans' record is 59 wins and 22 losses, which is the same as the Spurs' record.

Because of the advantage of the head-to-head record, they temporarily rank second in the West.

At this time, the last game becomes extremely critical.

The opponent in the last game of the Pelicans is the Thunder.

The Thunder are now ranked eighth in the Western Conference, but they are only 1 game ahead of the ninth Lakers, and they are also 1-2 behind in the record against the Lakers.

The opponent of the Lakers' last game is the Warriors.

Matchups like this make ranking incredibly complex and subtle.

If the Pelicans win the Thunder and the Lakers win the Warriors, the Lakers will squeeze out the Thunder at the last minute and become the eighth in the West.

On the contrary, any result other than this situation, the Thunder will continue to rank eighth.

The Pelicans are going to compete with the Spurs for second, and they will definitely win the last game, while the Warriors are now locked in the league's first place, and there is a high probability that their main force will not play in the last game.

In this way, the only possibility for the Lakers to advance has become a high probability event.

In the locker room of the Thunder team, after the daily training session, the players went home one after another.

The captain of the team and the leader of the locker room, Nick Collison, was studying the schedule in the locker room at this time.

Durant was recovering from an injury. At this time, he returned to the locker room after doing some training in the weight room.

Seeing that Collison was still there, Durant walked over to chat with him with a smile.

When Durant joined the Thunder, Collison was on the team. Now that so many years have passed, the team is gone, and only Collison is left.

They also have a very good relationship.

Chatting and chatting, the two naturally talked about the playoffs.

Durant looked depressed when he talked about this.

Although he is currently injured and unable to play the game, he still cares about the team. Now the team's hits are in the hands of the Pelicans and Tang Tian.

That feeling really made him very uncomfortable.

"Kevin, you and Stephen seem to have a good relationship. Can you ask if it is possible for the Warriors to win the Lakers in the end?"

Collison said suddenly.

From another perspective, as long as the Warriors can beat the Lakers, whether the Pelicans can win the Thunder is secondary.

"Let me ask."

Durant nodded.

In fact, to be honest, the Warriors also have reasons to win the Lakers.

This season, the Warriors' record is 67 wins, which has set a record for the best record in the team's regular season history.

Recording this kind of thing must be higher, the better, 68 wins are better than 67 wins.

After parting ways with Collison, he called Curry.

The two had already kept in touch with each other during the All-Star Game last year.

"No, Kevin, I won't play the last game."

But Curry's answer directly poured a basin of cold water on him.

"Why? Don't you want to hit a higher regular season record?"

Durant was a little bit unwilling to give up.

"That doesn't matter, I'm getting ready for the playoffs that start right away."

Curry's answer was straightforward, 67 wins is already a record, so winning one more game is not that important.

It's not that they have a chance to beat the Bulls' 72-win regular season record.

Durant was helpless to hear this.

Curry over there listened, and then remembered the current situation of the Thunder.

"Actually, Kevin, if you are interested, you can consider coming to Golden State to play with me after the contract ends. I think we will be a good match."

Curry said on the phone.

Now everyone knows that the salary cap will rise sharply in the summer of 2016, when the Warriors have enough salary space to sign a maximum salary contract.

Durant's contract will just expire at that time, which is an absolute good opportunity.

Two people who admire each other play ball together.

Three top shooters, they will make a dynasty.

Durant froze for a moment when he heard this, but immediately rejected Curry.

He can't leave Oklahoma, he is a man of principle, he will not run back and forth like James.

Winning their championship with Westbrook in Oklahoma is the result he wants.

After hanging up the phone, he was still in a daze, his heart was firm, but he didn't know why when Curry recruited him, he had a momentary heartbeat.

He shook his head immediately.

Curry won't play in the last game, unless the Lakers cheat themselves, otherwise the Lakers win over there is a foregone conclusion.

In this case, whether the Thunder can advance to the playoffs really depends on the face of the Pelicans.

It's the goddamn fucking league schedule.

Thank you Xi_ren for your reward.