1154: Harden's stepping stone
The atmosphere at Moda Center on April 24 was somewhat heavy.
Although it hasn't been long since the fanatical summer, the fans of the Trail Blazers are not excited at all.
Because soon, this fanatical summer will have nothing to do with them.
On the court, McCollum made another iron shot. He has made 12 shots today, but only hit two of them.
Obviously, the complete defeat affected McCollum's self-confidence. This led to his game being very ugly today.
The NBA playoffs in the 16-17 season have been going on for several days. At this time, the total score of the Grizzlies and the Trail Blazers in this round of the series has become 3-0.
Since losing to the Grizzlies in the first game, the Trail Blazers have almost given up struggling. In the second and third games, the Grizzlies also beat the Trail Blazers 11 points and 14 points respectively.
Today is the fourth battle between the two sides and the Trail Blazers' farewell performance this season.
It is very unfortunate that the Trail Blazers have not even won a single victory in the playoffs this season.
Perhaps because of the final defeat, McCollum performed very poorly today.
Not to mention the difficult shots that Wade made, McCollum couldn't grasp even several open shots.
So much so that today's game lost its suspense almost after halftime.
Yesterday, espn held a vote online to let fans choose the most exciting and boring series in the first round.
The battle between the Bulls and Celtics in the East is considered to be the most intense and most eye-catching in the first round.
The match between the Grizzlies and the Trail Blazers was directly elected as the most boring series with unanimous votes!
What does it mean to be elected unanimously? The vote rate of the other options is directly 0%!
Today's game undoubtedly fully demonstrates the boredom of this round of series.
In the second half, the ratings of the game began to plummet. If the Trail Blazers fans were not heartbroken by the money of this ticket, they could have used a few TV cameras, and they would probably have been exposed long ago.
"I have to say that the gap between the two sides is really big, and it is not at the same level at all. In fact, there are not many teams in the entire league who are on the same level as the Grizzlies."
On the commentary stage, the pioneer legend Bill Walton was almost dozing off. If he didn't say a few more words, he might really fall asleep.
"Yes, yes, this round of series is just a massacre. By the way, Bill, you said that there are not many teams in the league at the same level as the Grizzlies, are the Rockets included?" Beside Bill Walton, his partner brought up a topic that was very popular recently!
Since Bill Simmons and Houston media started a war, the war between the two sides has not stopped.
When the Rockets took a 3-1 lead with an overwhelming advantage over the Clippers, Houston's media and fans became even more arrogant.
Some people think that the Grizzlies can definitely crush the Rockets easily like the first round.
But some people also believe that the Rockets can be defeated this year and Harden can move towards the ranks of superstars this year!
So much so that the destined encounter between the Grizzlies and the Rockets in the next round of the game has become a topic of heated discussion among fans.
Since the result of this game has been finalized, it is better to talk about the two teams that will advance to the next round in advance.
"Houston Rockets? Well... they do have more possibilities, but..."
Before Bill Walton could finish speaking, the electronic beeping sounded at the end of the game.
Walton hurriedly started to make a post-match summary, so he did not continue the topic just now.
But in fact, he wanted to say: "The Rockets do have more possibilities, but they still have no chance of winning."
※※※
4-0, the Grizzlies swept the Trail Blazers cleanly! Speaking of which, this is the first time that the Grizzlies swept and won in the playoffs after two years!
The last time the Grizzlies swept their opponents and advanced, it can be traced back to 2015.
Coincidentally, the opponent who was swept out by the Grizzlies that time was also the Trail Blazers...
The booing in the Moda Center was not loud, and even some cheers could be heard sporadically.
It seems that Trail Blazers fans also knew at first that they had almost no chance to beat the Grizzlies, so they didn't blame the home team too much.
Link stood up from the bench and hugged his teammates one by one.
Compared with last year, this year's competition is much easier and much smoother.
Link still remembers that when he played the first round last year, he was already pushed to his limit.
The first round was just over, and I was extremely tired.
But this year, after the first round, Link was still in good health.
There is garbage time for four consecutive games, which means Link doesn't have to fight for 40 minutes in each game.
This will be more beneficial to the Grizzlies' next path.
Link said he won't be fighting the Trail Blazers for six more games this year, and he did what he said.
"Let us congratulate the Grizzlies on becoming the second team in the league to advance to the second round. Now, the Warriors and the Grizzlies have advanced to the semi-finals with a total score of 4-0. I wonder if the two sides will meet in the end!"
Bill Walton looked at the current matchup. In the West, only the Warriors and the Grizzlies could sweep their opponents to advance with a total score of 4-0.
In the playoffs, the dominance of these two teams is undiminished.
After returning to the locker room, Link celebrated with his teammates for a while, then took out his cell phone and looked at it.
As expected, he received many blessing messages from people.
Kobe, Grant Hill, Butler and many others sent their blessings as soon as possible.
But among all of them, Link discovered a very strange guy - Leonard.
"Congratulations, Link. I will do my best to get it done as soon as possible, remember our agreement."
Link really didn't expect that Leonard would send a text message to him to congratulate him.
It seems that that "face paralyzed man" is actually not that cold.
"Thank you, come on, man." Link replied, then put away his phone with a smile.
If this year's Western Conference Finals can really play a big game with the Spurs, it will probably be very interesting.
At that time, the series may become the same as 10 years ago, with the scores of both sides only 80 points throughout the entire game.
But before that, the Grizzlies and the Spurs had to put down their respective opponents first.
On the Spurs, after advancing, they will immediately start confronting the Warriors.
On the Grizzlies, the next opponent is the Houston Rockets. Link doesn't think that the Clippers can complete the reversal when they are behind 1-3.
Seeing Leonard so motivated, Link couldn't wait.
It seems that the next round of the series will have to be a quick battle!
Link can't wait to pass the level quickly, while Rockets also hope to make trouble.
The day after the Grizzlies advanced, the Rockets seemed to have received a signal, and suddenly exerted force and brutally sank the Clippers 118 to 87!
This is the biggest difference between the two sides in five games!
Harden scored 42 points in this game, as if he was deliberately waiting for the Grizzlies to advance and then quickly followed.
Unfortunately Chris Paul became Harden's stepping stone, but Harden was not satisfied with this.
Paul is no longer the person who was the one who called the wind and rain in the league. This stepping stone is not high enough and not strong enough.
What he needs now is a stepping stone that is tall enough to hold himself into the top ranks of the league!
And Link can just meet such needs.
This time, Harden was serious.
Chapter completed!