One Thousand Three Hundred and Seventy-Two. Kobe Is Very Strong in the Western Conference Finals!

Superstars are very sensitive to the emotional changes of their teammates. For example, Duncan, the star of the Spurs, who the Grizzlies met in the last round, often tried his best to play a good ball at certain moments because he felt that his teammates' emotions were fluctuating in a bad direction, so he wanted to use his performance to drive his teammates, and he succeeded.

Paul, one of the four best players in the regular season this season, is also very sharp in this regard. After advancing to the frontcourt, he and Josh Smith screened and broke through to the mid-range to play small against big. Facing Yi Jianlian's switch defense, he stepped back and made a long two-point shot!

Superstars only need one ball to make their teammates feel how powerful he is. Leonard is a player with strong psychological quality. He immediately cheered up and invested in defending Sun Ce. He knew that his current strength was not enough to compete with Sun Ce, but he had two strong big brothers!

Paul's ability to play small against big is indeed excellent, but whether the Lakers score or not makes no difference to the current Grizzlies. When Paul shot, Sun Ce, who was back under the basket, immediately picked up the ball and retreated to the baseline to pass the ball to Nash, who immediately instigated his teammates to counterattack.

In the eyes of Nash or the entire Grizzlies team, the Lakers are no worse than the Spurs, so they are as hardworking as the Spurs when playing against the Lakers. Klay Thompson, Yi Jianlian, and Jimmy Butler are trying hard to find scoring opportunities in fast breaks, while Sun Ce is mainly focused on containment. He just scored 5 points in a row to increase his personal single-quarter score to 10 points, and he is a huge threat.

Klay Thompson got a chance to catch the ball and shoot. After receiving the pass from Nash with the help of Yi Jianlian's screen, Klay Thompson made a three-pointer from the right sideline!

21 to 15, the Grizzlies are leading by 6 points!

The Lakers also counterattacked immediately, but the Lakers were suppressed by the Grizzlies for half a quarter. The dual cores of Paul and Josh Smith were a little uncomfortable and accelerated suddenly. In the counterattack, Josh Smith received an alley-oop pass and missed it. In turn, Yi Jianlian counterattacked and dunked to get two points.

The Lakers called a timeout, and the Grizzlies scored 4 goals in a row and played a wave of 10 to 2!

The Lakers were a bit confused. They hadn't done anything yet. The Grizzlies were so irritable that they were ready to attack regardless of anything. They didn't care about the defensive position after the attack. For example, if Klay Thompson's three-pointer didn't go in, because Sun Ce was in the top arc area and Yi Jianlian went to pick and roll for Klay Thompson without the ball, the Grizzlies had no offensive rebounds and couldn't affect the Lakers' counterattack. They were like gamblers who were desperate.

But Klay Thompson made the shot, but Josh Smith's alley-oop shot didn't go in.

15 to 23, the Lakers were 8 points behind the Grizzlies. This was a very bad situation. Old Bickerstaff didn't replace Kobe immediately, but called a timeout to rearrange the tactics and adjust the rhythm of the players from the tactical aspect.

Fighting offense,

The Lakers ranked first in the regular season in terms of average points per game, and they were tied 2 to 2 in the competition with the Spurs. They were not afraid.

On the Grizzlies side, Coach Hollins made a judgment that the opponent would definitely not start from the defensive end. The opponent's overall defense throughout the game was similar to that of the Spurs. Even at the critical moment, the defense was not as good as the Spurs with Duncan. They were both one-on-one defense, and the difference between the point guard and the center was very large.

Next, the opponent would definitely choose to fight on offense, and they had to continue the state they had played in the past one and a half minutes.

…

As Coach Hollins expected, after the timeout, the Lakers launched a fierce counterattack, but the Grizzlies also fought back with all their strength.

The Lakers' offense was indeed fierce, and they were stronger than the Grizzlies in positional warfare. After all, there was the duo of Paul and Josh Smith, which was one of the strongest pick-and-roll duos in the league's positional warfare offense.

Relying on Sun Ce and Klay Thompson's two consecutive three-pointers in the last minute of the first quarter, the Grizzlies maintained a 5-point lead and entered the intermission with a 5-point lead over the Lakers 34-29.

Scoring 21 points in half a quarter... This is too strong for the Grizzlies, even with a running and gunning lineup.

The main reason is that the Grizzlies treated the Lakers as the Spurs in this quarter, and the offensive and defensive lineups tried their best. Who let the Lakers play so well in the first half of the quarter? They tried their best to defend, and relied on the outstanding performances of Sun Ce and Randolph on the offensive end, but they were still tied by the Lakers.

This made Sun Ce and his teammates seem to see the opponent Spurs in the last round, so the running and gunning lineup played very hard.

Mainly, it was still based on the 10-2 wave of 4 consecutive goals, and 11 points in the next 4 minutes, which was also played very well. With the Lakers' hard counterattack, the Grizzlies maintained a 5-point lead.

The point is that the Lakers' performance in the first quarter was not as strong as the Spurs. Even if the Lakers counterattacked with all their strength, they could not play an invincible offense like the Spurs in the first quarter.

But in the second quarter, the Lakers were stronger than the Spurs.

After the intermission, the Lakers sent out a lineup of Blake, Meeks, Kobe, Jamison, and Earl Clark.

Kobe showed his hidden fangs in the first half of the first quarter. With Blake's steady organization of offense, he led two pitchers, Meeks and Jamison, and Earl Clark, the poor version of Odom, continued the offensive firepower of the first quarter!

Compared with the Spurs' offensive in the second quarter, the Lakers were obviously better.

Sun Ce was replaced after two minutes of rest. In terms of the Grizzlies' outside containment, no one in the team is stronger than Sun Ce. With Sun Ce, a teammate who can play multiple positions, Nash can organize the offense better.

Relying on Kobe's 9 points in the first half of the quarter, the Lakers scored 18 to 14 points in the first half of the second quarter before the official timeout, 47 to 48, and the Lakers narrowed the gap to 1 point!

After the official timeout, the Grizzlies' Sun Ce, Jimmy Butler, Paul George, Randolph, and Larry Sanders came on.

On the Lakers side, Paul and Josh Smith returned, and reappeared with Kobe, Metta World Peace, and Jordan Hill.

In this half of the quarter, Randolph had to play alone or contain the opponent, and Sun Ce had tried his best.

Fortunately, Randolph had a big advantage in this regard. Sun Ce got a chance to cut in and hook the ball from close range. Jimmy Butler and Paul George also scored 5 points. At the end of the first half, the Grizzlies were 62 to 63 behind the Lakers. Although they were overtaken by 1 point, at least they were not far behind the Lakers, who had 4 players scoring in double digits at halftime.

Kobe is really strong in the Western Conference Finals!

He only scored two points in the first quarter, but 18 points at the end of the first half. He scored 16 points in the second quarter alone. The containment helped the Lakers score 34 points in the second quarter alone!