Chapter 408: Chapter 408: Lack of Playoff Experience, Trail Blazers Lose
In the second half, Gentry made another adjustment to the lineup.
Wade Dong, Durant, Green, McGrady, and Carter were on the court.
Stotts was completely baffled by Gentry's decision-making. Curry and Thompson had both performed well in the first half, so why did Gentry bench them?
The game began.
McGrady received a pass from Wade Dong beyond the three-point line, facing Batum's defense. He made a pull-up three-pointer!
60:53!!!
Given McGrady's shooting ability, making a three-pointer was normal, and the Trail Blazers remained calm.
Gortat had already run to the frontcourt, while Matthews stayed back to inbound the ball. He casually passed the ball to Lillard. ❇✼
But!
With his back to Lillard, Wade Dong suddenly turned around and appeared in front of Lillard with incredible speed, stealing the ball.
"What... just happened???"
Lillard and Matthews were still processing what had occurred.
McGrady had already dashed towards the basket. Wade Dong slammed the ball onto the ground, and as it bounced up, McGrady caught it in mid-air and slammed it home!
"Bang!!!"
This dunk left everyone in awe. McGrady had performed a similar dunk during the Slam Dunk Contest years ago.
Now, as a veteran, McGrady recreated that iconic dunk from the Slam Dunk Contest in a playoff game.
"Wow!!!"
"Wow!!!"
"Wow!!!"
After a brief silence, the arena erupted with deafening cheers.
...
In the Chinese live broadcast room.
Zhang, "Oh ho ho~ What just happened?"
Yu Jia, "That dunk almost made me feel like I was back in 2000. It's hard to believe that fourteen years have passed, and McGrady can still pull off such a dunk!"
Zhang, "It's truly amazing and hard to believe. Carter also had a windmill dunk in the first quarter."
Yu Jia, "These veterans always bring us surprises."
Zhang, "It's all thanks to Wade Dong's influence. You know, I'm good friends with Wade Dong, and we've even had meals together."
Yu Jia, "Hahaha... I saw Lillard was stunned."
Zhang, "???"
He was talking about having meals with Wade Dong, but Yu Jia didn't respond and continued discussing the game...
...
Even Wade Dong was surprised by McGrady's dunk!
He didn't intentionally slam the ball to the ground to assist McGrady, but McGrady's dunk was a stroke of genius.
"Ah!!!"
After the successful dunk, McGrady clenched his fists and roared towards the sky.
"Awesome!"
Wade Dong pushed McGrady's chest and then put his arm around McGrady's shoulder, shouting to Gentry on the sidelines, "Old Jin, take this guy out of the game! He's stealing my spotlight today!"
62:53!!!
The Suns were now leading by 9 points.
The Suns' full-court press in the third quarter was a defensive strategy that the Trail Blazers struggled to adapt to, completely disrupting their offensive rhythm!
Within the first five minutes, the Suns had extended their lead to over 15 points. Stotts began to suspect that the Suns had installed surveillance cameras in the visiting team's locker room, as their tactics seemed to be known by the Suns.
He had specifically instructed the team to reduce turnovers!
However, against the Suns' one-on-one full-court defense, the Trail Blazers committed numerous turnovers.
Stotts called a timeout, but it didn't have much effect. With five minutes left in the third quarter, Curry, Thompson, Yi Nan, Whiteside, and McCollum entered the game!
The recipe was different, but the taste was still familiar: full-court press!
"This is the biggest problem with young teams."
Gentry tightly held his thermos, looking worried for the world, "Lack of playoff experience leads to poor adaptability, and once they lose their offensive rhythm, everything falls apart."
"Especially when facing a genius coach like you, right?"
Wade Dong couldn't help but joke.
However, Gentry didn't blush and even nodded seriously, "Yes!"
The bench lineup led by Curry had weaker individual defensive capabilities compared to Wade Dong's group. Still, the Trail Blazers wouldn't keep their starters on the court the entire time. When the Suns substituted their bench players, Stotts also rested Lillard, Aldridge, Batum, and Gortat.
The Trail Blazers' bench!
They couldn't stop Curry from scoring. In less than five minutes, Curry made 5 out of 7 shots, scoring 13 points, and twice assisted Yi Nan with alley-oops.
89:67!!!
At the end of the third quarter, the Suns had extended their lead to 22 points.
...
"Beep!!!"
As the referee blew the whistle, the game ended.
The final score was 116:93!!!
In the first game of the second round of the playoffs, the Suns defeated the Trail Blazers by 23 points at home.
Game statistics:
Wade Dong: 26 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists, 5 steals, 4 blocks.
Curry: 29 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks.
Durant: 21 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.
Lillard: 31 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks.
Aldridge: 21 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.
Gortat: 23 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 0 steals, 3 blocks.
...
In addition to Wade Dong, Curry, and Durant, three other Suns players scored in double digits: Thompson with 10 points, McGrady with 11 points, and Carter with 10 points.
With a ten-man rotation, six players scored in double digits!
The remaining four players were Yi Nan with 4 points, McCollum with 3 points, and Whiteside with 2 points. The only Suns player who didn't score was Green, and his stats were quite interesting: 0 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks.
"666~"
"666~"
"666~"
As soon as Green returned to the locker room, his teammates started teasing him.
Warrick somehow obtained a large poster of Green and changed his jersey number to 666 before pasting it on Green's locker.
Not only that, but Green's lips were also painted into a semi-circle with a red marker, making him look very happy.
Upon closer inspection, it was found that Green's eyes were also written with the number '666' using a pen.
"Who the hell did this?!"
Green felt that this joke had gone too far, and he was ready to beat up the prankster.
Wade Dong raised his eyebrows, "You look like you're about to hit someone."
"Yes."
Green nodded and looked at Wade Dong with a pitiful expression, "Brother Dong, please tell me who did this?"
"Well..."
Wade Dong stroked his chin, "What if I did it?"
"Then you did a great job!"
Green immediately backed down and rolled up the poster, "I'm going to keep this poster as a collection. Tomorrow, I'll apply to the league to change my jersey number to six hundred and sixty-six."
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