Chapter 864 Superstar Comeback
Chapter 864 Superstar Comeback
After the All-Star break, with only one day off, the Warriors rushed to Portland to start a new game.
After experiencing the oscillation period after trading Drexler, this season, the Trail Blazers seem to have gradually come out of the confusion after losing Drexler and began to regain their strength.
With the growth of Clifford Robinson and the joining of Avidas Sabonis, the strength of the Trail Blazers has improved significantly this season. Although the improvement in record is not obvious, but entering the playoffs, That is equivalent to entering a cow farm to find milk to drink, and holding it in hand.
In this game, against the Warriors at home, the Blazers gave the Warriors a lot of trouble.
Maybe it's because they haven't recovered from the All-Star Weekend. Li Weisi and Richmond are not in a good state tonight. They seem to have forgotten their touch in San Antonio, and missed many must-have shots.
The train runs fast, all relying on the headband, the team leader and the second player are playing like this, it is naturally difficult for the whole team to perform well, so as soon as the first quarter came up, the Blazers took an 11-point lead.
The Warriors only scored 16 points in the first quarter, and Li Weisi scored 5 points on 1 of 2 shots.
However, in the second quarter, the Warriors regained their touch, but unfortunately the point difference was never close. At halftime, they still trailed 44:56.
The turning point happened in the middle of the third quarter. The Trail Blazers, who were playing well, suddenly lost power. The Warriors seized the opportunity and immediately narrowed the score. By the end of the third quarter, they had successfully tied or even overtaken the score.
If Sabonis hadn't hit a hook before the end of the third quarter, bringing the two teams back to the same starting line, then the Warriors are likely to enter the fourth quarter with a lead.
After entering the fourth quarter, the score between the two sides was still tight. Clifford Robinson and Rod Strickland of the Trail Blazers performed super-level and hit a total of 3 three-pointers in this quarter. , so that the Warriors' attempts to widen the gap several times went bankrupt.
In this way, the two sides fought until the last moment, and the score was still inextricably linked. Until the last attack, Li Weisi broke through and attracted the double-teaming of the three Blazers players. At the most extreme moment, he passed the ball to Michael · finley.
Finley stepped on the gas pedal after receiving the ball, drove to the basket as fast as he could, and made a layup so fast that the rest of the Blazers didn't even notice when he completed the layup.
Finley has grown rapidly. After half a season, his progress is very obvious. Due to the successive injuries of Mullin and Kukoc, Finley got more opportunities to play.
After the All-Star Game, Nelson finally made up his mind to use Finlay to replace Jaylen Rose as the starting small forward.
Although Finley has just entered the league, his shooting ability is not outstanding and cannot be compared with Jaylen Rose, but he has vitality that Rose does not have. He can run, jump, and rebound. As for the three-pointer , Among the Warriors' starters, there are some who can shoot three-pointers.
As Finley's first start tonight, his performance was very impressive, scoring 14 points and 7 rebounds, and hit the most critical goal.
With the Blazers missing the lore, the Warriors finally defeated the Blazers 100:98 and won their first victory after the All-Star break.
It seems that although the Blazers are growing, his road to recovery is still very long.
Just after defeating the Trail Blazers, the Warriors returned to San Francisco that night to face the Celtics who came from afar the next day.
The former giants of the Celtics are now in disarray. Although they barely made it to the playoffs last season, they immediately showed their true colors in this season. As of now, their record has reached 18 wins and 31 losses. The distance from the eighth in the east is nowhere in sight.
Therefore, against the Warriors tonight, from the very beginning of the game, the Celtics were tightly suppressed by the Warriors, without the slightest ability to resist.
The Warriors beat the Celtics 29:17 in the first quarter, and expanded the score to 61:45 at halftime. It seems that only this game has lost the suspense of the game.
However, in the second half, an accident happened. When Li Weisi was laying up, he was poked in the eye by Dana Barros who was defending him.
Barros's eyes, which were full of sweat and dust, could be seen without looking at how dirty they were. Therefore, Li Weisi's eyes were so swollen that he couldn't open them on the spot. Nelson was so frightened that he quickly replaced Li Weisi and asked the team doctor to treat him.
Even in the fourth quarter, Li Weisi felt that his body could continue to play, but Nelson did not let Li Weisi play again.
Without Li Weisi, the Warriors immediately lost their backbone. Although Cassel has good organizational skills, he still cannot replace Li Weisi's role.
Therefore, in the third quarter, the Warriors could still resist. In the fourth quarter, the Celtics immediately launched wave after wave of offensives, quickly eroding the Warriors' lead.
Even 1 minute and 15 seconds before the end of the game, the score was tied.
However, fortunately, even without Li Weisi, the Warriors still have Richmond. This shooting guard who is at the peak of his career is far from being comparable to the Celtics.
Richmond first used a turnaround jumper to re-establish the lead for the Warriors, and then assisted Divac to hit a mid-range jumper in the offense.
In this way, although Rick Fox of the Celtics hit a three-pointer at the last moment, the Warriors finally defeated the Celtics 106:103 at home.
However, despite winning the game, Li Weisi had to rest for at least a week because of his right eye injury, and he could only return to the court after the eye was completely relieved of inflammation and swelling.
This kind of minor illness caused the Warriors to plummet in the next week's game. Although in these four games, Richmond averaged 28.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game, the team still only Achieved a record of 1 win and 3 losses.
Although the losers were all strong teams like the Spurs and the Supersonics, this result still reflects how much the current Warriors team relies on Li Weisi.
Although Richmond is very good, it is obvious that relying on him alone cannot lead the team to victory.
Fortunately, Li Weisi's injury was not serious. After 8 days of recuperation, he finally returned to the field on February 2, and this game also attracted much attention. Even before the game, fans and The media was once worried about whether Li Weisi could catch up with this game.
Because, in this game, the Warriors' opponent is the Lakers, and Li Weisi will also meet his old opponent, Magic Johnson.
(End of this chapter)