The situation in the east and west quickly became clear. In the two groups in the Western Conference semi-finals, the Clippers vs. the Trail Blazers, the Spurs vs. the Warriors; in the two groups in the East, the Pacers vs. the Nets, and the Heat vs. the Wizards.

What disappointed Xiao Hua was that in the eight-group duel, only one group played to tiebreak, which was a series between the Raptors and the Nets.

In the end, the Nets were so experienced that they were more skilled and successfully won the life-and-death battle in Toronto and entered the next round.

The Clippers and the Trail Blazers game started on May 5 in Stamps.

For the Trail Blazers, after choosing Oden in 2O7, the era they expected to belong to the Trail Blazers did not come.

Oden, Roy's injury made everything go to a bubble.

However, the Trail Blazers' reconstruction is indeed amazing. Older rookies Lillard and Aldridge became the new core of the team together and quickly achieved results.

Before the playoffs began, many people were more optimistic about the Rockets. Unexpectedly, the Rockets were so vulnerable and ended their playoff journey in a very embarrassing and ugly way.

The Trail Blazers entered the semi-finals with confidence and were ready to challenge the Clippers with 7O wins.

Li Liang has been very active and hardworking in training these days.

He doesn't care at all about who can reach the semifinals, the Trail Blazers or the Rockets.

In his eyes, the only opponent in the West is the Spurs, and he doesn't take the Thunder seriously.

Defeated!

And never expected that the Thunder would fall into the hands of the Warriors.

The Warriors really have two tricks. Curry and Thompson showed the cold-blooded pitcher ability in the series, allowing people to see the new power of nBa.

Moreover, every time he faces the Warriors in the regular season, Li Liang can feel the vigorous potential of this team.

In the future, they will definitely be a powerful force in the West.

Do you want to join them?

Li Liang hasn't thought about it yet, and he doesn't want to think about next season for the time being.

After a few days of training as seriously as an ordinary player, the semi-finals are about to begin.

On the evening of the 5th, the Stamps Center was full again.

For the Clippers, this is definitely the closest they have to the division final.

I always failed in the semi-finals before, and the semi-finals were almost cursed by the Clippers and Paul.

Before the game started, in the locker room, the Clippers players were silent, only Rivers was talking.

As the champion coach, Rivers knows the importance of confidence to a team.

No matter how good you play in the regular season, once you lose confidence in the playoffs, you may fail.

The Knight and the Piston are all good examples.

The Clippers are not a confident team. They need morale and confidence.

However, no matter how much Rivers said, it was not as good as Li Liang's words.

When he was about to play, Li Liang stood up and said to everyone: "We will win this series. Believe me, the Portlanders are vulnerable to me. We should prepare for the Western Conference Finals well."

Li Liang's words were undoubtedly a bit arrogant.

But in competitive sports, you can't be arrogant, can you say, "We and the Trail Blazers are playing 55?"

No team can play 55 against the Clippers this season, and the Heat can't do it.

Li Liang needs to let his teammates understand this.

As a player with rich playoffs and finals experience, for Li Liang, is it a mere semi-final game considered a goal?

When he was warming up on the court, Li Liang did not forget to joke with Paul, "Let me take you into the Western Finals and touch the floor of the Western Finals."

Paul smiled and said nothing. He was a player who was blocked outside the Western Conference Finals three times. In the Western Conference Finals, this name made him feel magical even than the Finals.

Of course, without Li Liang, this magic will continue to increase.

The game was held at 7 p.m. Pacific time, with the Clippers wearing a white jersey at home, and the Trail Blazers wearing a black jersey tonight.

The Clippers have not changed, while the Trail Blazers are Robinson, Aldridge, Batum, Matthews and Lillard.

This is a very competitive lineup. From the perspective of functional configuration and player abilities, it can be said to be quite good.

Before the game started, the Trail Blazers players were also full of confidence. After all, eliminating the seemingly strong Rockets 4:1 gave the Trail Blazers confidence to wrestle the arm of the strong team.

Lillard even said shamelessly in the pre-match interview, "The Trail Blazers are not without a chance of winning when facing the Clippers. I think to some extent, we are a better team."

It is a good thing to have confidence, but it is not good to have confidence.

At the beginning of the game, Jordan Jr. won the ball in the jump ball, and the offense started from the Clippers.

The first attack started with Paul.

After repeated pick-and-rolls, he dribbled into the inside and missed the throw.

Following the Trail Blazers counterattack, Batum's layup was also disturbed and failed to hit.

After Li Liang got the backcourt rebound, he immediately counterattacked. Faced with Matthews' defense, a winged jump shot made two points, causing Matthews to make a defensive foul.

You need to be punished!

Matthews' defense against Harden in the first round can be said to be shining.

His tight-fitting defense, endless harassment and high-intensity physical confrontation made Harden, who had a two-point shooting percentage of 45% in the regular season, plummeted to 37%, and his three-point shooting percentage dropped to 29%.

In comparison, Li Liang's two-point shooting percentage in the round was 46%, and his three-point shooting percentage was maintained at a high level of 44%.

Of course, this is related to the Clippers' better backcourt configuration, but it also shows that Matthews' defense is indeed very effective.

But in the semi-finals, Matthews wanted to deal with Li Liang by using the method of dealing with Harden, but it didn't work.

Not to mention anything else, Li Liangxian had an absolute advantage in height, 10 cm higher than Harden.

So what tricks Matthews wants to use to consider Li Liang's arm span and attack points.

Of course, when dealing with Li Liang, the Trail Blazers mainly use Batum.

But Batum also has to face a problem - he was guarded by Li Liang during the offense.

Li Liang's defense is still very famous in the league, and is famous for being cunning, treacherous, and "polling the weak and afraid of the strong".

What is bullying the weak and afraid of the strong?

That is to say, if you are a level attacker, such as Anthony and Durant, Li Liang will most likely not have much help to you.

If there is a way, it will be a wrong way to make up.

But if you are not a level attacker and are just an ordinary offensive player, then I'm sorry, Li Liang will definitely bully you.

The reason is also very simple, because Li Liang's defense is very solid and very solid.

He practiced it step by step from various tasks and training in the system.

Unless you have the skills and talent of solid defensive ability, it is really too difficult to make it happen to Li Liang.

It is impossible for a player like Brewer to score 51 points on Li Liang's head, and 15 points are the best.

The same is true for Batum. He is also an important 3D player in the Trail Blazers, but every time he encounters Li Liang, he will be defeated.

The first ball just now was that the basket was interfered and almost got hit.

Afterwards, Li Liang hit the ball and the Trail Blazers made a second attack, Batum didn't dare to attack by himself.

He handed the ball to Aldridge, and the low post was not hit.

On the other hand, Griffin relied on the frontcourt rebound to score a goal, starting with 5:o.

The Clippers are in good shape tonight.

In fact, it was more than just good. After five minutes of the first quarter, the Clippers beat the Trail Blazers 1o:o.

The Trail Blazers didn't score for five minutes.

On the Clippers, if Li Liang hadn't felt the touch, he wouldn't have been just a Clippers player and was still a little puzzled. Why do you feel that the Trail Blazers seem to be as strong as the Mavericks?

The two teams have some similar personnel structures and their offensive tactical styles, because Stotts was an assistant coach at the Mavericks, helping the team win the championship in 2011.

But at what time the Trail Blazers are different from the Mavericks.

The first one is defensive experience. Trail Blazers are still younger after all, and their defense and game experience are not as old as the Mavericks.

Lillard bragged before the game, but he was a little confused as soon as the game started, and Paul defended himself against 3 shots.

Secondly, the Trail Blazers are younger and more balanced, but the substitute is not as good as the Mavericks.

If a weak team wants to defeat the strong team, the substitute must play at a level and provide key support.

As a result, after 1o:o, Stotts replaced the second team and wanted to improve the offensive situation.

OK, Griffin came out of the Clippers, and Li Liang moved to the power forward position, and his touch suddenly became clear.

After the timeout, Lillard was double-teamed with Paul on the defensive end, forcing Lillard to make a mistake.

Then he received a pass from Paul in the counterattack, and made a three-pointer from the arc, 13:o.

The Trail Blazers players now realize that this is the Western Conference semi-finals and that the opponent is the first Clippers in the league.

After Li Liang scored, Kobe rubbed his hand on his chest and said to Lillard, who passed by: "Enjoy well, there is not much time."
Chapter completed!