The strongest unicorn in basketball

Chapter 108 Be Educated
Only two days off after the end of the regular season, the playoffs officially began.

The Thunder are located in the west, how can the current situation be messed up?
Not only the Thunder, many teams in the West officially determine their regular season rankings after the last game.

In the end, the Spurs ranked No. 61 in the West with 21 wins and 59 losses, the Thunder came second with 23 wins and 57 losses, the Lakers came third with 25 wins and 57 losses, and the Mavericks came fourth with the same 25 wins and [-] losses, followed by the Nuggets, Trail Blazers, Hornets and grizzly.

The poor Grizzlies, with 46 wins, can only rank eighth in the West.

The Rockets, who lost their daughter Zhao Riyue, ranked ninth with 43 wins and 39 losses. You know, this result is placed in the East, and it can be ranked sixth in the East.

Then came the Suns, Jazz, Warriors, Clippers, Kings and Timberwolves.

In terms of record, in fact, the No. 11 Jazz has 39 wins and can enter the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

Compared with the west where the competition is so fierce, the east is very clear.

The Bulls have achieved a record of 62 wins and 20 losses, not only the first in the Eastern Conference, but also the first in the league.

Thanks to the Spurs' injury problems at the end of the season, Rose was directly promoted to the altar.

The Heat, which owns the Big Three, ranks second in the East with 58 wins and 24 losses, and the third is another Celtics team with the Big Three.

Four to eight are: Magic, Eagles, Knicks, 76ers and Pacers.

It is worth mentioning that the eighth-ranked Pacers have only 37 wins.

After that, the nine to fifteen players who did not make the playoffs were: Bucks, Bobcats, Pistons, Nets, Wizards, Raptors, and Cavaliers.

Therefore, the Thunder's first-round opponent has also been announced, and it is the New Orleans Hornets with "Queen Bee" Paul!

Now 26-year-old Chris Paul is at the peak of his career. This season, he averaged 15.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game, and won the steals title with 2.4 steals.

On April 4, the second day after the start of the NBA playoffs, the Thunder played against the Hornets at home.

I thought that the second head of the Hornets, David West, was reimbursed for the season due to a torn cruciate ligament in his knee in March, and the Hornets would be a soft persimmon.

But no one expected that in the first game, the Hornets showed their poisonous needles and pierced the hearts of every Thunder fan.

In fact, as long as there is Paul, the Hornets are not a weak team. What's more, the Hornets don't only have one Paul!
At this time, the time has entered the last minute of the game, the score on the field is 1:105, and the Hornets lead by 100 points.

This is indeed an unacceptable fact.

The entire game was ups and downs, from the beginning until the end of the first half, the Hornets have maintained the lead.

But in the third quarter, the Thunder seemed to wake up, and it took only one quarter to overtake the score.

However, in the fourth quarter, all the members of the Hornets were soldiers, as if even the passing dogs of the Hornets had to shoot one shot before leaving in the Thunder's position!
In this case, no matter how hard the Thunder tried, they were always overwhelmed by the Hornets.

At this time, Paul was leisurely holding the ball to waste time, and Westbrook, who was defending him, was concentrating on defending the ball.

As long as this goal is defended, the Thunder still have a chance. Although the 5-point difference is not small, with the strength of the Thunder, there is every chance to catch up.

But the premise is to defend the ball!
When the attack time came to 8 seconds, Okafor in the penalty area finally started.

Emeka Okafor, who beat Howard to win the best rookie, is only 29 years old now, but he is as old as 39 years old. Even Paul, the master cake feeder, couldn't understand him.

At this time, he came to Westbrook to play a pick-and-roll for Paul.

Paul broke through on the left side and ran into Li Pu, who was waiting for work.

Because of Paul's passing, Westbrook did not pursue Paul, and could only let Paul play Li Pu in singles.

At this moment, Li Pu, it is impossible to say that he is not nervous!

As his debut in the playoffs, Li Pu's performance tonight was quite mediocre, as if he had hit a rookie wall all of a sudden.

The audience scored 11 points and 9 rebounds, and the rare rebounds did not even hit double figures.

Of course, the main reason for this is that Li Pu failed to adapt to the intensity of the playoffs.

It is said that the game against the Lakers in the regular season is a preview of the playoffs, and Li Pu also thought it was like this at the time.

However, who would have thought that the Thunder won that game too easily, and the Lakers had no chance to give Li Pu strength. (Li Pu: Blame me?)

So, when Li Pu really stood on the floor of the playoffs tonight, he realized that the playoffs were completely different from what he had imagined.

Faced with the Hornets, who were reimbursed by the second-in-command and ranked seventh in the Western Conference, they played so hard, which was really beyond Li Pu's expectations.

At this moment, every time Paul dribbles, every time a basketball slap hits the floor, it seems to hit Li Pu's heart.

When Paul just hit the pick-and-roll, the offensive time was running out, and facing Li Pu at this time would not be too cumbersome.

I saw Paul lower his center of gravity and change direction to the right, which immediately deceived Li Pu's defensive center of gravity to the left. Immediately afterwards, he saw that Paul's right hand did not catch the ball, but made a one-handed crotch dribble with his left hand. The ball completely played Li Pu.

Immediately afterwards, Paul directly chose a step-back jumper after receiving the ball.

Li Pu was deceived and tried his best to rush over to block the shot, but it was still a step too late. Paul threw a basketball, flew out from above Li Pu's big hand, and then went straight into the basket.

"Bang!"

This flimsy shot was a goal that sealed the victory. At this time, there were more than 30 seconds left before the end of the game, and the point difference was as much as 7 points. No matter how hard the Thunder team chased, they couldn't catch up!

Not everyone can score 35 points in 13 seconds.

"Oh? Someone was guarding me just now!" After scoring the goal, Paul said provocatively to Li Pu.

Hearing this, Li Pu was very annoyed. He has always been the one to criticize others, when will it be the turn of others to criticize himself?

If it weren't for rational control, Li Pu would have turned into Master Rondo by now, opened the sky with one punch, and turned into a dragon!

"I hope you can still laugh in the end!" Li Pu had no choice but to say this when he knew that this matter could not be done.

"Let's finish this game first!" After finishing speaking, Paul left without entanglement with Li Pu.

Seeing Paul leave, Li Pu stomped his foot hard, the friction between his new shoes and the floor was harsh.

Paul hit the winning goal in front of him, which not only made his rookie debut come to naught, but also made his playoff debut a joke, and even added black material to the competition for the best rookie.

"Damn 58 guns! Let's wait and see!"

In the end, Durant missed a shot, and Westbrook intentionally fouled and sent Paul to the free throw line. With two free throws, Paul scored 33 points, 14 assists, 7 rebounds and 4 steals tonight, leading the Hornets to 109:100 Beat the Thunder.

A big surprise broke out!

　and also!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)