The Strongest Bishop in the NBA - Chapter 484
c477 this game is too difficult
After some pleasantries, the game officially began.
In the jump ball stage, Hao Peng beat Jokic almost easily. After the Lakers point guard dribbled the ball for half court, he immediately lobbed the ball to Hao Peng who was standing inside.
The Bucks are so strong that the head coach of the Lakers racked his brains and couldn’t think of any good way to fight against them. In the end, he had no choice but to use the only ultimate move-Hao Peng.
No way, among the five positions of the Lakers on the field, only center Hao Peng has an absolute advantage, including the other of the Lakers’ twin stars Jimmy Butler also lost to Durant in the small forward matchup .
If you want to win, or to be more realistic, if you want to lose without being so ugly, you can only rely on Hao Peng.
After receiving the ball from the bottom line, Hao Peng dribbled twice with his back, turned around and shook Jokic’s center of gravity, and then scored easily with a low layup.
At the current stage, Hao Peng has an absolute dominant position in the inside line of the entire NBA. Not to mention that Jokic is still far from reaching the super center who can compete for the MVP of the regular season in the future. Even if Jokic reaches the peak of his level, He is definitely not Hao Peng’s opponent.
On the other hand, Wang Xiao naturally knew how difficult Hao Peng, who had used the David Robinson growth template card, was, and it was impossible to entangle him inside.
Durant, Antetokounmpo, and Thompson’s perimeter troika was fully fired, attacking the Lakers’ perimeter with all their strength. The Lakers, whose perimeter level was already below the league average, couldn’t stand it at all, and were pressed unilaterally.
In the first quarter of the game, the two teams fought until 29:22. The Bucks led by 7 points at home, of which Durant scored 11 points, Antetokounmpo and Thompson scored 5 points each.
As for the Lakers, 17 of the 22 points in a single quarter were scored by Hao Peng in the paint.
Not only that, Hao Peng’s offense put tremendous pressure on Jokic, who accumulated two fouls in the first quarter and ended up early.
However, even so, the Lakers were still absolutely passive in the game, especially when Hao Peng took a break in the second quarter, the situation became even more one-sided.
In the second quarter, the score between the two sides was 31:24, 60:46 in the half, and the point difference has been stretched to more than double digits. Even if Hao Peng regained his glory in the third quarter and scored 14 points again in a single quarter, the point difference is still inevitable continue to be stretched.
About five minutes into the fourth quarter, the Lakers had fallen behind by more than 25 points. The head coach had no choice but to replace Hao Peng Butler and others, giving up the game early.
In the end, the result of the first game of the finals was the Bucks 121:98, beating the Lakers by 23 points.
Although this was the result that many people had already expected, many people still sighed when the cruel reality was in front of them.
As the head star of the Lakers, Hao Peng has done his best in this game.
17 points in the first quarter, 8 points in the second quarter, 14 points in the third quarter, and 4 points in the fourth quarter. He scored 43 points, 19 rebounds and 5 blocks. He ranked second in points, rebounds and blocks. team first.
This performance seems to once again confirm that Hao Peng is already the league’s number one center forward.
But basketball is not a one-person game after all.
For the Bucks, Durant scored 31 points and Thompson scored 24 points among the three outsiders. Antetokounmpo, because of his poor shooting ability, broke through and hit the basket and was restrained by Hao Peng’s basket defense. The decline, but still scored 16 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists.
Just three outside players have already contributed 71 points to the Bucks!
On the outside of the Lakers, only Butler scored in double figures, and Butler only scored 15 points on 4 of 13 shots.
The huge gap in the lineup made it impossible to see any suspense in the game between the two teams.
The same is true.
In the second round of the finals, the Lakers lost again, 108:89, and they still couldn’t make it to the last moment before surrendering.
Hao Peng scored a quasi triple-double with 36 points, 16 rebounds and 9 blocks, but was sent off for 6 fouls at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
In this game, Antetokounmpo and other outside players changed their style of play and began to attack the basket. At first, Hao Peng was given a hot pot education, but how can he not get his shoes wet when he often walks by the river? The number of fouls went up unconsciously as the blocks were blocked.
Hao Peng’s blocking data was almost in double figures, but he was sent off early because of this. Without Hao Peng guarding the basket, the Lakers would only lose faster and worse.
With a total score of 2:0, the Lakers have half-stepped on the edge of a cliff.
After the game, the head coach of the Lakers said bluntly that if they continue to lose in the next home game, then the Lakers’ road to the finals has basically come to an end.
That being said, both the head coach of the Lakers and the fans of the Lakers all know that the road to the finals of the Lakers has come to an end as early as when they knew that their opponent was the Bucks.
Most Lakers fans are still very happy and satisfied with the performance of the Lakers. After all, when they were at the bottom of the league last season, who would dare to imagine that the Lakers would go all the way to the finals in the new season?
The ability and potential shown by Hao Peng made them very excited. Butler also proved with his strength that he is a qualified second-in-chief. The next thing the Lakers need to do is to continue to improve the team lineup and strive to attract a superstar in the summer Join to form the standard configuration of the Big Three, and then continue to challenge the Bucks.
The current Bucks are as strong as they are strong, but they cannot last long.
The reason is simple, the salary cap.
This summer, Antetokounmpo will inevitably renew his contract with the Bucks with a maximum salary. As a result, the Bucks will have three maximum-salary players, Durant, Thompson, and Antetokounmpo.
The team’s cap space will be filled by these three players in an instant.
And next year, the rookie contracts of Embiid and Jokic will also expire. With the current level of the two, they must also have a maximum salary to stay.
In other words, even if the time comes, even if you plan carefully, or even pay the luxury tax, the Bucks can only keep one of the two.
Although the Big Four composed of Durant, Antetokounmpo, Thompson and one of Jokic or Embiid is also a super combination that is extremely rare in history, it is still much stronger than the current situation.
As a traditional giant in the league, the Lakers have the capital and ability to build a luxurious lineup around Hao Peng in the past few years that is not inferior to the Bucks.
The Lakers in such calculations have ignored a problem, or they have selectively ignored this problem.
Bucks head coach Wang Xiao.
Whether it was the Wizards a few years ago or the current Bucks, they were actually selected and cultivated by Wang Xiao himself.
Now that he has cultivated more than a dozen All-Stars, who can guarantee that he will not be able to select players at the All-Star level?
No one in the management of the Lakers is willing to think about this issue, because once they really think about it, this game will be too difficult to play at all!