NBA's King of Talking

Chapter 684 Sweeping Through Warriors to Advance

The Warriors and Clippers engaged in a high-scoring offensive battle, resulting in a back-and-forth affair. The Clippers aren't afraid of high-scoring games; they won last season's Western Conference Finals despite struggling to contain Jokic, largely thanks to their offense. Their offense, like their defense, is among the league's best. Jia Fei, who played point guard this season, is lagging behind his brother in the scoring title race, but that doesn't mean his scoring ability has declined; it simply means it has.

If you want to go on the offensive, then come on!

Jia Fei and Paul George were on fire in the first quarter, while Klay Thompson was still affected by injury, playing inconsistently on offense and struggling with lateral movement on defense, making it difficult for him to defend Paul George.

The Flying Pepper duo scored 25 points in the first quarter alone, while the team as a whole only managed 30 points.

The Warriors scored 32 points in the first quarter and are currently leading the Clippers.

However, during the rotation phase, Brunson's second unit dominated the opponent's second unit, helping the team reverse the score.

After the starters returned, both sides continued to attack each other, and the score was tied at 65 before halftime, with both sides in excellent attacking form.

However, the situation changed dramatically in the third quarter. The Clippers suddenly increased their defensive intensity, and the Warriors began to miss many shots and commit numerous turnovers.

The Clippers easily scored by counter-attacks and by targeting several key weaknesses in the opponent's offense, winning the quarter by 15 points.

The Warriors collapsed in the final quarter, and the Clippers won easily, taking a 3-0 lead in the series!

The Warriors' fate is sealed. In NBA playoff history, no team has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit to win a series. Even coming back from a 1-3 deficit is extremely rare.

Of course, the Warriors have a history of coming back from a 1-3 deficit to win a series, and they've also been overturned after leading 3-1, but those are things of the past. For such a low-probability event to occur, the two teams' strengths can't be too disparate. If someone has dominated you for three games, and you still think you can win four in a row and come back to win? That's ridiculous!

The Warriors have been hyping up "Klay Thompson in Game 6," but for Klay to become Buddha, the prerequisite is that you have to play until Game 6! They're already down 0-3, do you think they can hold on until Game 6 and wait for Buddha to return?

Even the Clippers' and Jia Fei's haters believe the Warriors are beyond saving. They've given up on the Warriors and are preparing to find a new "dad" to take down the Clippers. Before giving up, they didn't forget to angrily criticize the Warriors as utterly hopeless, unable to even scratch the Clippers, and truly too weak.

On May 31, Game 4 of the Clippers vs. Warriors series.

The Warriors have reverted to their starting lineup with Cup Cat, essentially revolving around just Cup Cat and Puer. Kerr is indeed out of options; back in the day, with Durant on his team, he'd smash the whiteboard during the "death five hours" and constantly show off. Now, he's finally facing this "nothing to cook without ingredients" predicament.

Warriors fans are also speechless at Kerr's insistence on using the small-ball lineup, even though its defense is terrible. They find it ridiculous. Is that all he can use? The bench isn't just for small-ball players. The Clippers' interior defense is mediocre, so why not use a larger lineup? Why not drive to the basket more often instead of just passing the ball around and then taking a single, kite-like shot from the outside?

But the fans' complaints didn't affect Kerr. Of course, he really had no choice. He had used the big lineup before, in Game 1, but they were crushed in one quarter, which made him completely give up on the big lineup.

In this game, the Warriors players had lost all fighting spirit, and they easily lost, ending their season.

The Clippers swept the Warriors and advanced strongly to the second round, taking a solid first step towards completing their great four-peat!

Several other matchups in the West are still ongoing, with the Clippers' next opponent being the winner between the Nuggets and the Mavericks.

The Nuggets-Mavericks series is a matchup between Jokic and Doncic, but based on current performance, the Nuggets are still the stronger team. The Mavericks rely too heavily on Doncic, and once his energy levels drop in the second half, they can't beat the Nuggets.

In comparison, the Nuggets have a more balanced roster, with consistent scoring options both inside and outside the paint.

However, the Nuggets, with their stronger overall strength, ultimately prevailed, meaning that one of the Western Conference semifinal matchups will be Clippers vs. Nuggets.

Another matchup has been announced: Lakers vs. Suns.

The Clippers and Nuggets will meet in the playoffs for the second year in a row. The last time they met was in the Western Conference Finals, and this time it's the semifinals.

If we're talking about who the Clippers' toughest player to beat is, it's definitely Nikola Jokic. But if we're talking about which team the Clippers' toughest opponent is, it's not necessarily the Denver Nuggets.

The Nuggets' performance this season has been inconsistent, largely due to the injury of their starting point guard, Jamal Murray.

Without Murray, Jokic has to shoulder both the responsibility and the burden, which is somewhat overwhelming for him.

On June 4th, Game 1 of the Clippers vs. Nuggets series officially began.

The starting lineups for both teams have been announced. For the Clippers, it remains the same: Jia Fei, Paul George, Bridges, Grant, and Olynyk.

The Nuggets' starting lineup is quite interesting. Center is Jokic, power forward is Aaron Gordon, and small forward is Michael Porter Jr., but the two guards are a bit lackluster. One is the 178cm tall Argentine guard Campasio, and the other is Austin Rivers, the son of former Clippers head coach Lee.

To be fair, Campasso is an excellent guard, but that's only true in FIBA. In FIBA, the rules and playing style effectively conceal his height disadvantage. But in the NBA, against a team with five players over 2 meters tall playing a five-forward style, how do you hide him?

Jia Fei is very good at spotting players, making it easy for him to find Campasso, so the only option is to double-team him. But if you double-team, are you willing to accept the risk of being blown out by the Clippers' three-point shooting?

Moreover, Jokic isn't like Anthony Davis who can single-handedly defend a whole area; he himself needs outside players to help him defend. Do you really expect this guy to defend you and cover for you? Do you want to exhaust him?

Moreover, the other guard, Austin Rivers, is not that great defensively. He's fine guarding the point guard position, but when you ask him to guard the opponent's small forward position, his height is a disadvantage.

Among the Nuggets' starting five, Aaron Gordon is the only truly solid defender, but even he can't guard everyone.

Aside from defense, the Nuggets' offense doesn't offer as much spacing as one might expect. While Jokic can shoot threes, his interior partner, Aaron Gordon, is inaccurate from beyond the arc, essentially being left open. Porter is somewhat inconsistent; he can hit a series of pull-up jumpers when he's on fire, but misses several at a time. Doc Rivers' son has never been a good jump shooter, and Campasso will likely struggle to even get a shot off, given that his opponents are all at least 20cm taller than him…