The Lakers, in particular, can be said to have had balloon stars, and the veteran stamp album has collected all the old guys who had some influence in the last 10 years but have not yet retired, but whose strength has declined sharply, in order to make a last ditch effort.

In the eyes of fans, a lineup like the Lakers is naturally very strong and looks like a championship.

Moreover, their performance in the regular season was quite good, beating the Clippers twice, and their players are experienced, so the playoffs should go smoothly.

In fact, the league's style of play is in the process of transformation, and the importance of offense is becoming increasingly prominent.

In particular, David Stern's early retirement and Adam Silva's coming to power accelerated this transformation.

Silva urgently hopes that the league will have a major change in its overall style compared to the past.

It has been proven that defensive battles cannot bring ratings, and offense can attract fans more.

The 2005 Spurs vs. Pistons Finals was a bloody lesson.

Of course, this change is relatively slow and will not change immediately.

Especially in this year's regular season, the team's points per game have actually decreased.

Due to the shortened season, the players' condition was average and the team's tactical coordination was poor.

But in the playoffs, this change began to gradually appear.

The competition is still very fierce, but scores in the hundreds are commonplace.

In several games between the Clippers and the Spurs, the score exceeded 100 in each game.

Ten years ago, it was normal for two teams to score 80-90 points in the playoffs. Scores in the 70s were common. Breaking 100 points was rare.

When offense is emphasized more and more, the overall score increases, the pace of the game accelerates, and the role of stars and veterans will be relatively weakened.

Your experience and contribution in a few offensive and defensive rounds are not that important anymore, especially since some of the previous generation's passing stars lacked fixed-point three-point capabilities and became a flaw in supporting roles.

Moreover, the offensive pace is fast, and it is easy for veterans to fail to keep up with the pace, as there are too many rounds to run.

Unlike in the late 1990s and early 21st century, due to the small offensive space, the prevalence of superstar singles, and the slow pace of the game, sometimes in positional battles, you just need to stand still and watch the core attack alone. Now this situation is becoming less and less, and you must move.

Participate in pick-and-roll, pass-and-cut coordination.

Especially with the prevalence of pick-and-roll cooperation, it will become more and more obvious for veterans to find it difficult to integrate into the system and not be as easy to guide as young players.

Almost starting in the past few years, the NBA's lineup construction method of core players + veteran stars will gradually be eliminated by history and relegated to the past.

Of course, many people have not yet realized this at this time and maintain good confidence in the Lakers.

As a result, just one day before the semifinals between the Clippers and Thunder began, the Lakers faced the Memphis Grizzlies at home.

Facing the combination of Griffin and DeAndre Jordan inside, the Lakers were completely shocked.

Griffin, who struggled in the first round, scored 25 points in the first game against the Lakers in the second round.

Jordan scored 5 points, 11 rebounds, and blocked 3 shots, leaving Bynum disgraced.

Of course, what really played a decisive role was the Grizzlies outside line, Tony Allen + Butler + Mike Conley, who used defense and three-pointers to defeat the Lakers.

In the end, the Grizzlies stole the victory at Staples with a 95:90, 5-point advantage in the first game, which surprised NBA public opinion. The Lakers actually lost to the Grizzlies in the first game?

This aspect makes people begin to re-examine the potential of the Grizzlies and the abilities of Griffin.

Theoretically, this is Griffin's second season, but he has already demonstrated high competitive skills and court intelligence in the game.

Obviously, the Grizzlies devoted all their efforts to cultivating Griffin and it was quite effective.

Wallace followed Min Chongda's advice and did not train Griffin to be a pure finisher at the basket or a scoring machine. Instead, he focused on developing his coordination, ball-handling abilities, especially mid- and long-range shooting abilities.

This was very effective on the offensive end in the game against the Lakers, making the Lakers' defense very uncomfortable.

With the exception of DeAndre Jordan, four of the Grizzlies' starting five have mid-to-long-range shooting ability, and it's not just a matter of "having" it, but when they really shoot it, they can make you uncomfortable.

How did the Lakers die last season? They were killed by the Mavericks' four capable starters.

In the early years, it was good to have three starters in this role, and some even had only two. For example, in the 2007 Spurs, the only ones who could truly stabilize the long-range shooting were Ginobili and Bowen, and Parker was half of them.

Now, three is standard, four is normal, and five is also available!

And what can the Lakers do? Paul and Kobe, these two together can only be counted as one and a half.

If they continue to follow the traditional path, can they really make it to the finals and win the championship?

After Phil Jackson played the first game of the semifinals, he felt more and more in his heart that times had really changed.
Chapter completed!