Chapter 254 Continue the winning streak

Author: A hint of divination

Chapter 254 Continue the winning streak

March 21, Sleep Train Arena, Sacramento.

Under warm cheers, players from both sides walked onto the court, and a much-anticipated regular season game was about to begin.

The Kings, who are sixth in the Western Conference, will face the Spurs, who are first in the Western Conference, at home.

After completing five consecutive away games in the Eastern Conference, the Kings defeated the Timberwolves and Wizards successively, extending their winning streak to 13 consecutive victories.

With this wave of winning streak, the Kings' record has been further improved, and their ranking has been chased to sixth in the Western Conference.

At the same time, the Thunder's record has declined slightly recently, and they were overtaken by the Spurs. Now they have become No. 1 in the Western Conference with a one-game advantage.

If the Kings were eighth in the Western Conference and just on the edge of the playoffs, now they are sixth in the Western Conference and have truly entered the playoffs.

This is a complete surprise for fans.

Now the team's 13-game winning streak is already the longest winning streak in the league this season. Whether the Kings can continue their winning streak depends on tonight's game!

This will be their biggest challenge on their winning streak!

The Spurs, which have completely completed their transformation, have gradually regained their strength as a championship-winning team since last season.

In the Western Conference finals last season, they unfortunately lost in six games against the Thunder.

This season has made a comeback, and as the season progresses, the team is playing more confidently.

The Spurs' starting lineup tonight is: Tony Parker, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Tim Duncan and Thiago Splitter.

The Kings' lineup also continues the regular lineup: Bledsoe, Butler, Middleton, Giannis and Lip.

When the referee threw the basketball into the sky, Lip pushed Split to pass the ball to Bledsoe.

Splitter was a rookie selected by the Spurs with the 28th overall pick in the first round of 2007, but it was not until the 2010-11 season that he officially entered the NBA from Europe and was considered an older rookie.

Unlike most white European centers, Split's skills are not refined, even a bit rough, and he lacks the ability to shoot from long distances. However, he is not afraid of confrontation, can finish offense at the basket and draw fouls, and can protect the basket and top.

He lives in the low post and is a qualified blue-collar center.

However, the low-post defense he relies on for survival has no effect at all in front of Li Pu.

Li Pu held the ball and hit Split with his back. Regardless of height, weight, or wingspan, no one could match Li Pu.

After Li Pu turned around, he completely deceived Split with just a hook movement. Then Li Pu didn't move his pivot foot, reached forward with his right foot, and passed Split with a beautiful dreamy step.

A clean one.

But when Li Pu made a layup, Duncan's defensive help arrived immediately.

Popovich had long known that it was impossible to defend Lip with just one Split, so he arranged for Duncan to be on the court to help defend.

Duncan is indeed a defensive master. Although he has never won DPOY in his career, this is not his loss, but the loss of DPOY.

His timing and positioning to help defend were just right. As long as Li Pu made a strong pass, he would definitely be blocked.

But fortunately, Li Pu saw through Duncan's help defense immediately, and after taking off, he passed the ball from Duncan's waist.

Just when Duncan and Li Pu fell down at the same time, behind him, a thin dog flew with the ball and dunked, and smashed the ball into the basket through Duncan!

This thin dog is none other than Giannis!

As the season progresses, Giannis' performance gets better and better.

Especially in the dozen games after the All-Star Game, he averaged 14.5 points and 11 rebounds per game. Unfortunately, his performance in the early part of the season was really bad, otherwise he could even compete for this year's Rookie of the Year!

When returning to defense, Lip took the initiative to reach out and give Giannis a high-five.

Lip was very pleased with Giannis' performance.

Although he knows that Giannis today is far from the person he was at his peak, his current performance is at least able to not hold him back on the court.

Just take the ball as an example. If it were Patterson or Muscala, they might shoot directly, but Giannis can rely on his physical fitness to dunk through people.

He may seem clumsy, but he is actually very smart and knows how to make the most of his strengths and avoid his weaknesses.

More importantly, on the defensive end, the other two do not have Giannis's defensive ability and vitality.

When it was the Spurs' turn to attack, they saw a dazzling array of passes, constantly tearing apart the Kings' defense.

However, to be honest, the effect is not very good.

Faced with the Spurs' passing and cutting, the Kings resorted to a pseudo-infinite defense.

The reason why I added the word "false" in front of it is mainly because Bledsoe is not tall enough to cover the No. 1 position.

Bledsoe's physical fitness is indeed very strong, and his defensive ability is also very oppressive, but after all, he is only a little over 180cm tall, and he is completely unable to fight against insiders who are often over 210cm.

In this aspect, there is a big gap between him and Westbrook.

And it is precisely because of his weakness that the Kings are unable to fully utilize the original unlimited switching defense of the Thunder.

So, we saw that under continuous pick-and-rolls, Danny Green created shooting opportunities through off-ball pick-and-rolls.

Duncan's support put the ball in Green's hands immediately, and Green raised his hand and shot.

It's a pity that the ball missed in a completely wide open situation!

It seems that Green's touch was a little bad tonight.

The basketball bounced out of the basket. Giannis immediately went to block Duncan's position, but Duncan pushed him away.

There is a huge difference in weight between the two, which is obvious.

But Giannis is not afraid of Duncan at all and still clings to Duncan.

Taking this opportunity, Li Pu's long arms intercepted the rebound directly from the air!

Li Pu also experienced what it was like to partner with Ka Feng.

After protecting the rebound, Lip immediately passed the ball to Bledsoe.

Bledsoe immediately rushed out like an arrow from a string.

Speaking of Bledsoe's impact, he is naturally inferior to Westbrook. No, as soon as he came to the frontcourt, he encountered Leonard's defense.

Leonard, who has entered his third season in the league, has become more and more terrible in defensive ability, almost reaching the DPOY level. He is the core of the Spurs' perimeter defense.

Faced with this situation, Bledsoe immediately handed the ball to Butler who followed up.

However, Leonard reacted extremely quickly and immediately abandoned Bledsoe and caught up with Butler.

At this time, Butler looked back at the moon and passed the ball back to Bledsoe.

Speaking of which, although Bledsoe is better than Serena Westbrook, there is one thing he is better than Westbrook, and that is his three-point shooting percentage.

Especially now that he is playing next to Lip, his shooting rate this season has reached 38%, which is already the shooting rate of an elite three-point shooter!

"Whoa!"

Facing an empty defense, Bledsoe made an easy hit!

The Kings opened the game 5-0.
Chapter completed!