The Spurs and the Hornets were battling fiercely; though the scores were lopsided, each game was a delight to watch.
The Lakers, on the other hand, had a tough time, losing their home-court advantage in the first playoff game for being careless, with a score of 78 to 86. Although they managed to win back home-court advantage with consecutive wins in G2 and G3, the games were still agonizing, scoring 81-75 and 91-86 respectively. These three games felt like a throwback to seven years ago, during the NHC era when high-post defense was not allowed to reach over.
When Zhang Yang saw the scores between the Lakers and the Grizzlies, he too felt a chill run down his spine.
In the last 20 regular-season games, the Grizzlies allowed an average of only 93 points per game, whereas the league's average scoring during this period was 101.2. One could imagine how tormenting the Grizzlies' defense must have been.