The strongest unicorn in basketball

Chapter 114
Lip's extra penalty hit did not arouse the Hornets' vigilance.

Not long after, the Hornets fouled Lip again.

Going to the free throw line again, Li Pu no longer felt nervous before.

With the most relaxed mentality, he made two free throws, and the point difference that was narrowed before came back again.

Coach Monty, who saw this scene, was extremely entangled in his heart at this moment. Li Pu's free throw percentage is getting higher and higher, should he cut it?

More importantly, the number of fouls committed by the main players is increasing, how many times can they support it?
After that, the Hornets tried a few more times, and Li Pu actually made 6 of 4 free throws, which made the Hornets' slashing tactics completely invalid.

In fact, in this quarter, the small score of the two teams was tied at 22, and the Hornets did not lose.

But it's not enough, and they have huge holes to fill.

The total score of the two teams has reached 60:81, and the Hornets are still 21 points behind.

Entering the final quarter, Harden and Green played for more than 3 minutes with a substitute, and the point difference was always hovering around 20 points. It seemed that the Hornets had no ability to recover.

Seeing that there is no hope of chasing points, the Hornets did not replace the starters in the end. The Thunder also replaced Harden and Green, and even replaced Lin Shuhao and Bai Ade.

最终比分为78:106，雷霆队28分大胜黄蜂，将系列赛大比分扳成了1:1。

Throughout the game, Li Pu became the team's biggest hero. He played 32 minutes, made 11 of 9 shots, 14 of 9 free throws, scored 27 points, added 15 rebounds and 4 blocks.

You know, this is the data that Li Pu only played for three quarters.

Except for him, neither Durant nor Westbrook scored 20 points.

For the Hornets, Paul only scored 20 points and 8 assists tonight, which was in stark contrast to the previous game.

With the end of the game, the two teams will move to New Orleans next.

As a seaport city in southern Louisiana and also the largest city in the state, it has a particularly developed economy.

However, due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the population here fell by half.

Today, the city's population is only over 37, and it is the second major city in the Ugland whose urban population has dropped significantly after Detroit.

It is worth mentioning that that year, the Hornets had to relocate part of their home games to Oklahoma City due to the destruction of the arena by the hurricane. Paul.

It was also that year, after Oklahoma fans saw NBA teams, they became more and more eager to own a team of their own, so there was the Thunder.

All of this is an arrangement of fate.

However, the Thunder who came to New Orleans were not welcomed by the locals.

In this life-and-death playoffs, don't even think that the opponent's fans can entertain you warmly. It's fine to have a party outside your hotel or have a party in the middle of the night.

On April 4, the third game between the two teams was held at the New Orleans Arena.

That night, the arena was packed with 18500 people.

Li Pu also came here during the regular season, but compared with the playoffs, it is a completely different world.

Amidst the uproar of the audience, the game officially began.

As soon as they came up, the Thunder turned their backs and played extremely proactively.

First, after Westbrook and Li Pu picked and rolled, they flew and dunked directly, and then Durant hit a three-pointer against Ariza.

Li Pu even grabbed 3 offensive rebounds and sent 2 blocks in the first quarter.

On the other hand, although the Hornets played very hard, facing the Thunder's defense, the offense was still very difficult.

After the first quarter, the Thunder led the Hornets by 30 points at 23:7.

After entering the second quarter, the Thunder's offensive efficiency began to decline, but the Hornets did not seize this opportunity and were still unable to break the Thunder's iron cylinder.

By the end of halftime, instead of getting closer, the score was even bigger.

After the start of the second half, the Hornets' offense finally recovered.

Under Paul's tandem, Belinelli and Ariza, and even Paul himself, also hit three-pointers one after another.

But in this section, Li Pu broke out.

He made 5 of 5 shots in a single quarter and scored 11 points, helping the team withstand the Hornets' chasing points.

But after the fourth quarter, the Thunder team worked hard and quickly expanded the point difference to more than 20 points. Finally, when the game was still 6 minutes away, they clocked out early.

The score was finally fixed at 100:86, and the Thunder beat the Hornets again.

Li Pu played 34 minutes and scored 18 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks.

On April 4, the third battle between the two teams was still going on in New Orleans.

In this game, the Hornets finally found their home form at the beginning of the game.

Trevor Ariza and Belinelli finally got it right. The two teamed up and scored 5 three-pointers in the first quarter, leading the Thunder by 32 points at 23:9 in the first quarter.

It seems that everything in the game is going on at the rhythm of the first game.

Unexpectedly, in the second quarter, the Thunder's outside line seemed to be on the hook. Not only Harden, Green, and Durant were able to make three-pointers, but even Li Pu made one. (Li Pu: What is Meng?)

So, in the second quarter, the Thunder beat the Hornets 31:19, and at the end of the first half, they even led the score by 3 points.

In the second half, no matter how hard the Hornets tried, the score not only didn't seem to be approaching at all, but got bigger and bigger, and finally the score was fixed at 106:90.

The Thunder won another big victory, and the big score in the series has reached 3:1.

What's even more frightening is that the next game will be at Thunder's home court.

At 4:26 p.m. on April 8, U.S. time, Chesapeake Energy Arena, the first round of the playoffs, the fifth game between the Thunder and the Hornets, officially kicked off.

Different from the previous game where the two teams opened and closed their offenses as soon as they came up, this game started with a low shooting percentage and a very tight defense, which made the two teams slamming each other at the beginning of the game.

I thought that this kind of iron fight would end after a while, but I didn't expect this fight to be the entire first half.

After halftime, at 40:34, the Thunder led by 6 points.

This kind of score, in later generations, is the score of a quarter of the game, but now it is indeed the entire first half.

Fortunately, after entering the second half, both sides began to recover, especially the Thunder, Durant was almost unstoppable.

Although Durant's three-pointer is still not open, but he is the "golden king of law", and he has never heard of a foul.

Under Durant's explosive penalty, the Thunder scored 29 points in a single quarter, opening the point difference to more than 10 points in one fell swoop.

In the fourth quarter, although the Hornets still did not give up, Li Pu's blocks and rebounds at critical moments helped the Thunder interrupt the Hornets' momentum of chasing points. The final score was fixed at 98:80, and the Thunder once again Get a big win.

4:1, successfully eliminated the Hornets and entered the second round.

(End of this chapter)