Coach: Coaching the Grizzlies at the beginning, playing the bantam

Chapter 161 Advancing to the Finals!Lu Yong: I am optimistic about the promotion of the Magic Cavalry Battle;

At the press conference, a reporter asked Lu Yong to talk about Durant's performance.

Lu Yong said with a smile: "Kevin played a wonderful individual performance. The offensive team can always trust him. The singles tactics arranged by the coaching staff for him were executed perfectly. As you can see, one-on-one The Blazers have no one to guard against him."

The reporter asked again: "What do you think of the Sonics' performance tonight?"

"It needs to be improved. As a team whose goal is to win the championship, it is a kind of sadness that it failed to defeat the opponent in a single quarter." Lu Yong said jokingly.

In fact, the Sonics' performance tonight was almost perfect, and both stars and role players played their own characteristics.

Durant's unsolvable singles, Noah's penalty area defense, Teletovic's three-pointer, and "Martial Saint" Jackson's all-around.In the eyes of the fans, the performance of the Sonics is impeccable, even Lu Yong thinks so.

The reporters raised their cameras to take pictures after hearing the words. Lu Yong's words were extremely arrogant. Although there were jokes, they were enough to show his determination to lead the team to win the series.

Lu Yong really didn't pay attention to the Blazers. The young players of the Blazers are very talented, but the lineup is not neat, and Batum was poached by him. Roy and Aldridge can play singles with their personal abilities. , how could it be possible to win?

In this round of the series, the Blazers are lucky if they can win a game, and the chance of advancing is infinitely close to zero.

Except for the Spurs in the West this year, the Supersonics are not afraid of anyone.

It's a pity that the old Spurs capsized in the gutter and were knocked out by the Trail Blazers in the semifinals. This is fate.

The only thing Lu Yong needs to pay attention to now is to protect the players and avoid injuries. Otherwise, even if he reaches the finals as he wishes, it will be a waste of money for the Eastern Conference.

The Supersonics players were also very confident in the interviews, and they all felt that the team could easily advance to the finals.

Durant said: "We have the best lineup background in the league. Everyone is united to hit the championship. We firmly believe that the Sonics will win the championship. With Lu Shuai behind the scenes to make suggestions, everyone is very relaxed. We only need to play well and don't Consider other issues."

Noah also smiled and said: "I am very happy to play under Lu Shuai. Without him, I would not be selected as an All-Star. He is a genius. Under his leadership, the Sonics will win the championship sooner or later. No one in the team has ever questioned this. .”

On the 21st, the second battle between the two sides still started at the Seattle Arena.

Lu Yong continued to arrange Durant as the core offense, playing one-on-one with Fernandez easily and happily, scoring 12 points in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, McMillan finally changed his strategy. He brought forward defender Outlaw on the court and strengthened his defense against Durant.

Outlaw's single defense ability is really good, and Durant is much better than Fernandez.But no matter how good this guy is, he's just a role player, far from a monster like Kirilenko, and he can't restrain the MVP-level Adu at all.

Outlaw's appearance made the Blazers' sluggish offense even more constipated. After only playing for more than 4 minutes in the second half, he was replaced by head coach McMillan and dared not use it anymore.

The Blazers themselves are at a disadvantage. The double-digit points difference behind the Sonics can only be forced to strengthen the offense. Blindly emphasizing the difficulty of defending and chasing points is like a dead end with no end, which is wrong anyway.

As the "Martial Saints" Jackson and Teletovic broke out in the second half, the Blazers were quickly defeated, and the situation was over for another three quarters.

In the end, 115 to 102, the Sonics easily won, leading 2 to 0.

After two seasons of running-in, the Sonics' offensive fluency has been very good. Even if the Blazers have improved their defensive strength, players can still score through a large number of conductive balls.

When Gasol Jr. played, the space and range of the Supersonics were improved to the extreme. The most important thing is that Gasol Jr. can not only pull the outside to score, but he is also a DPOY-level penalty area gate on the defensive end. Where Gasol is at his best.

Except for his scoring explosiveness, he has almost no weaknesses all over his body.

The big score is 0 to 2 behind, and the pressure on the Blazers has increased. Although Roy and Aldridge can score 20+ points per game, the shooting percentage is generally not high. No other teammates stand up to attack In the case of assistance, it is not an opponent of the Supersonics at all.

In the first two games of the Western Conference Finals, the Blazers' starting center Przybilla had the most hip performance. In the first two rounds of the series, he averaged 3.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 2 blocks per game.

However, in this round of the series against Noah, Pulzbila's four statistics have shrunk, averaging only 2.5 points, 4 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 1 block per game. The starting center on a conference finals team.

McMillan has not used him since the second game, and his playing time was shortened to 14 minutes, gradually marginalized.

Worst of all, Channing Frye, who was entrusted to replace him, also performed mediocrely. His average of 8 points and 3 rebounds per game looks good at first glance, but his shooting percentage is less than 40%, which is simply a kind of sadness.

Oden's season reimbursement not only shattered the dreams of Portland fans, but even the management's championship plan was also affected.The center position has always been a problem that the Blazers have not been able to solve. If Oden stays healthy after entering the league, the Blazers may really have a chance to compete with the Sonics.

It's a pity that Portland's center curse is too evil. From the moment Oden was selected by the Blazers, his fate was doomed.

Back at home, the Blazers have been clinging to the point difference in the first three quarters with the blessing of the home whistle, but in the end they still failed to beat the Sonics, losing 107 to 112.

Four of the Trail Blazers team scored in double figures, and Frye broke out unexpectedly. He made 6 of 4 three-pointers and scored 12 points and 4 rebounds.

罗伊、阿尔德里奇也发挥不错，分别砍下26分4篮板3助攻、22分11篮板2助攻。

It's a pity that the Sonics' offensive firepower is even stronger. Durant has 31 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block. He made 17 of 11 shots and performed outstandingly.

诺阿10投7中，罚球6中4，砍下18分14篮板5助攻1抢断2盖帽，打爆了开拓者内线，刷新季后赛单场得分新高。

Szczerbiak's 17 points and 6 rebounds are not amazing, but his three-pointers made 5 of 3 shots and played steadily. This round of the series has not shown his hips.

The three All-Star players all performed well, but the Blazers were powerless and failed to win the game for a long time.

After the game, McMillan no longer considered the matter of leading the team to comeback. Instead, he approached the management and made the idea of ​​poaching someone from the Supersonics in the summer.

Teletovic's performance in this round of the series exploded, averaging 15.4 points per game and shooting 46.3% from three-pointers.

McMillan was a pitcher when he was a player, and he also pays attention to offense as a coach.A striker like Teletovic is very appetizing to him. He hopes that the Blazers can recruit people in the summer to strengthen the team's striker.

In the fourth game, the Blazers, who had a last stand, launched an extreme counterattack.

With "Yellow Mamba" Roy scoring 11 points in the final quarter, he won the game in a thrilling manner, rewriting the total score of the series to 1 to 3, and giving the already disappointed Portland fans hope again.

It's a pity that before the Blazers fans were happy for too long, the Supersonics poured cold water on the life-and-death battle of G5.

A 110 to 85 victory, 4 to 1 sent the Blazers home fishing, the first to advance to the finals.

Five members of the Sonics team scored in double figures. Durant played steadily with 27 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, and did not bury the honor of the regular season MVP.

The performance of big center Pulzbila is still extremely bad. He played 11 minutes, made 4 of 0 shots, 0 points, 3 rebounds and 2 turnovers.

What Purzbila is most fortunate is that the contract expires in two years, otherwise, based on his performance in this year's playoffs, he would be so high or low that he would make himself a basic salary and ruin his career with his own hands.

Roy also struggled in this performance. If it wasn't for backup point guard Bayless who scored 15 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists unexpectedly, the Blazers would have lost at least 30 points.

At the press conference after the game, McMillan did not comment too much on the game, but only wished the Sonics their return to the finals after many years, saying that the Blazers will make a comeback next season.

The head star Roy was asked about the ownership of the championship in an interview. He said depressedly: "The Supersonics are very strong. They have All-Star players on both ends of the offense and defense. The firepower of the bench is the key to winning. I don't know the East Whichever team can beat them, I think the Sonics have a better chance of winning this year."

On the Supersonic side, after receiving the division championship trophy on the spot, Lu Yong took the players to the press conference, and was surrounded by reporters as soon as he entered the venue.

A reporter asked Lu Yong: "Which team in the Eastern Conference do you think can reach the Finals this year?"

Lu Yong thought for a while and smiled: "I am optimistic about the Magic. Although LeBron James is very strong, Dwight is the best defensive player this year. The defensive system built by the Magic with him as the core just restrains the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers are currently 2 The situation is unfavorable after losing 3 to Tianwangshan. I don’t think they can win two games in a row. Maybe the Cavaliers have a chance to drag the series into the tiebreaker, but the Magic’s advancement to the finals is a certainty.”

LeBron James played the best performance of his career in the playoffs this year, averaging 35.3 points, 9.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game.But as Lu Yong commented, James in the 1.0 period relied entirely on breakthroughs and counterattacks. He made 33.3% of his three-pointers and averaged only 1.7 shots per game.

"Warcraft" Howard is best at defending against opponents' breakthroughs. When James encountered his style of play and was restrained, he played very uncomfortable in the Eastern Conference Finals series, scoring all by mid-range shots and free throws.If it weren't for the average of 15.7 free throws per game, the Cavaliers would have been swept away, and winning a game is considered a hard game.

The reporters took pictures one after another after hearing the words, and couldn't wait to see James' reaction after learning about the evaluation.Before the Eastern Conference finals were over, Lu Yong sentenced the Cavaliers to death. This kind of prediction is absolutely bold.

(End of this chapter)