Chapter 1793 Another Victory, the Legend Continues
An unusual first half!
Just when everyone was accustomed to the Lakers using JK's explosion as the benchmark for winning, Gasol broke out without any warning.
It was said that there was no warning because it was based on his previous performance.
Gasol's playoffs this season are the ones in which he has scored the least points. In the previous few games, he only averaged about 11 points per game, which is not in line with his ability. And throughout this year's playoffs, the Lakers undoubtedly have the JK double star. Along the way, Kobe Bryant, who averaged 30+ per game in the first two rounds, has now averaged 40+ triple-doubles per game. This is the core of the Lakers in people's minds.
In G1 with the Mavericks, except for Gasol's outstanding performance for a few minutes in the last quarter, there was no doubt that Nowitzki was suppressed in the first three quarters, and the suppression was miserable.
And his unexpected missed two free throws in the last 20 seconds made him a hot topic after the game. People don't care if you saved the team before, people will only stare at your mistakes. If you don't let go, even if this mistake is made up for by Ji Feng, it will be useless.
"The Lakers have no one inside." This sentence began to circulate on the Internet again.
Bynum said that he is used to it. He is not an All-Star. He is only the fourth or fifth scorer on the team, so he does not have to take on greater responsibilities. His performance is enough, so it doesn’t matter who he is talking about. More needs to be said.
This will of course sting. In fact, within the Lakers, everyone understands the importance of Gasol. He is the best support point at the fourth position in this era. As we all know, the Lakers have Ji Feng, a passing master, but What cannot be ignored is Gasol's role as a second passer. The one-block screen he made with Ji Feng on the line is the Lakers' tactic with the highest success rate. With Gasol's support, Ji Feng's passing threat will increase. A level, and when Ji Feng can't handle it, Gasol can also be a very good finishing point!
Gasol can break out of the frame, has a wide shooting range, and has excellent defensive awareness. Gasol only sacrificed some of his scoring data because of JK's strength and switched to doing some blue-collar work.
Blue-collar work is tiring and often invisible, but for the sake of the team, Gasol has shouldered all of this as always, so he is the proper No. 3 figure in the Lakers.
But being nice doesn't mean having a bad temper. After the first game, although he didn't say it, everyone knew that Gasol was holding his breath in his heart. Ji Feng also promised him that he would try his best to create scoring opportunities for him in the second game.
Gasol originally refused. He was a good player and could not do anything to affect the team's tactical arrangements for his own sake. He just said that he would perform better than the last game, but he did not expect that in this small game, Niu's tactics are exactly what he wants!
They double-teamed Ji Feng and Kobe in the first half. It was basically inhumane. As soon as they held the ball, they immediately defended and broke through. Not to mention the three-person double-team, they also used all kinds of fierce moves. Come out, the scene is very intense!
In order to defend Ji Feng, Carlisle even did not hesitate to use Dirk to frequently assist in defense. You must know that Dirk usually does not need to do such a thing, but tonight the Mavericks did not care. They just wanted to strangle Ji Feng. A little bit, and Kobe naturally can’t let it go!
However, the Mavericks miscalculated. Such defense did make it difficult for JK to score, but they ignored Gasol who wanted revenge. Gasol was really too accurate tonight. He just caught the ball and threw it. The ball is more accurate than the other. If he hadn't missed a free throw in the first half, Gasol would have hit 100%!
In addition, Bynum felt equally good tonight and scored 14 points at halftime. On the contrary, the Mavericks, who invested a lot of energy on the defensive end, became the lagging side!
"Well played, brother! Last night's game was not in vain!" At the end of halftime, Ji Feng and Gasol gave a hard high-five in front of the tunnel, and then celebrated with a group of shoulder-bumps.
It's cool. Although Ji Feng only scored 9 points in the half and had almost no outstanding scoring performance on the offensive end, which was very different from his performance in the previous game, Ji Feng sent out 13 assists in the entire half, including a full 7 were passed to Gasol, which means that only one of Gasol's 8 mid-range shots was not a pass from Ji Feng.
The old Grizzlies duo of Ji Feng and Gasol finally connected in the playoffs!
"It's cool! Let's keep going in the second half!" Gasol also played HIGH, and his depression was wiped away in this half. He scored 23 points in the half, which was his career high in a playoff half.
The Mavericks were a little scratching their heads. They had not expected the sudden explosion of the Lakers' twin towers, which directly disrupted their plan. If Terry and Barea hadn't had a good touch in the first half, they jointly made 5 three-pointers. points, maybe the difference will be even bigger now.
But now they are in a bit of trouble. With Gasol's touch, he can't justify letting him go short again. But once he goes short, if JK also opens up, then it will be completely unstoppable.
Carlisle faced such a dilemma.
Sometimes he really wants to complain. Damn it, the Lakers have so many people who can play ball. They suppress one and another and let others live!
However, he just thought about it. When Ji Feng replaced Odom, he also laughed at the Lakers for taking the wrong medicine. The result now proves that the Lakers are in the atmosphere. Now who doesn't envy the Lakers for only using one Odom? In exchange for Ji Feng, you must know that Dolan has stated in the media countless times that he would give up the Knicks, even Stoudemire, and Anthony for Ji Feng!
Well, Carlisle thinks he can accept this deal. Who doesn't want someone like Ji Feng to be the cornerstone of the team.
But what he needs to deal with now is Gasol's explosion.
After careful consideration, Carlisle felt that he would not make any major changes to his tactics for the time being. He would just let Dirk devote more of his energy to the offense and not double-team easily.
However, at the beginning of the third quarter, Gasol used a dunk and a very cool hook to tell Carlisle that his tactics were completely wrong.
This is a very beautiful tactic. Gasol is standing in the low post. Ji Feng passes the ball in and pulls away. Gasol turns left and pulls back. He scores the ball with his right hook. Dirk has nothing to do with this ball. .
This goal was also Ji Feng's 15th assist and Gasol's 27th point.
At this time, Carlisle had decided to give up the pincer attack on Ji Feng, and instead assisted and interfered with Gasol, who was feeling explosive.
However, before the tactics could be changed, Ji Feng made an incredible three-pointer from 2 meters away from the top of the arc!
Marion was still looking back. Who would have thought that Ji Feng would just pull it up and throw it away?
This thing is unreasonable for him!
At this moment, Marion really felt as if he was possessed by Director Zhang, and only the three words "unreasonable" flashed in his heart.
This ball also made Carlisle look livid. This ball was unplayable!
He could only give up changing tactics. Ji Feng's ball was too scary. He thought Gasol was better.
But there are limits to good things. Gasol contributed 10 points in this quarter and scored 33 points and 8 rebounds in the three quarters. The Lakers also entered the fourth quarter with a 78-73 lead.
And this 5-point advantage was maintained until the end. In the fourth quarter, the Mavericks were struggling between flanking and not flanking. Instead, Gasol and Ji Feng scored consecutively. Ji Feng's assists quickly reached 20. And Gasol also scored his 40th point of the game with a layup!
109-100, the Lakers finally defeated the Mavericks with a 9-point advantage, adding another victory to the Western Conference Finals!