Pelican won’t come down if it tops the list in the West, nor can the sun come.
In today’s top battle between Pelicans and the sun, Pelicans who lacked short-term soldiers won with 128-117. The seemingly double-digit victory was actually full of twists and turns: several times of entanglement in the first half, the Pelican pulled to 16 points in the third quarter, and was caught up by the Suns again. In the last 5 minutes, it surpassed.
In the whole game, the two sides took the lead as many as 11 times alternately, mainly in the first half, but after the Suns tied in the last 5 minutes, Zion and the ruling ability were stimulated, there were three explosive dunks in the last 5 minutes-Zion reduced his dunks relatively this season, but he deducted four times in the match against the sun, in the last 5 minutes, he brought the audience into 2K world again, and the final button was 360 degrees single arm big windmill.
Zion scored 35 points, a new high in the season. What is more striking is that the Pelicans, who won 6 consecutive victories, have taken the lead in the sun. Now they have reached one and a half games and the Suns have fallen to the third place, at the same time, it was exceeded by the grizzly bear who won 5 consecutive victories.
These are the two rival teams who fought in the first round of last year’s playoffs. At that time, the Sun was being optimistic. They played Pelican 3-1 in the regular season and advanced to 6 games in the playoffs. Today’s reunion, the status of the two teams turned upside down.
This year’s Western pattern is indeed chaotic. The first six playoff areas are quite different from previous years: there are four young teams, among which Pelican and grizzly bear rank in the top two, with only half-time gap; the King who didn’t make the playoffs in 16 years and the Jazz who thought they would mess up ranked fifth and sixth; The strong team Sun has been in decline recently and has lost three consecutive games, they only won one more goal than the fourth nuggets.
Paul took a break for 14 games due to injury. Under Booker’s leadership, they started a 6-game winning streak after a little trouble. They were in good condition and ranked first in the West. But the Sun’s injuries were more common, and this comeback fell again. After losing to the Rockets, they recently encountered a very difficult schedule, so they lost to Mavericks, Celts and Pelicans one after another.
Paul’s return did not prevent the Suns from losing in a row, either 4 points for the Green Army or 24 points for the Pelican. This is mainly because Booker looks in a wrong state. He scored 92 points against the bull and the rocket, but the next four games averaged only 15.8 points, and none of the 3 consecutive defeats scored 20 points.
It can be seen from the game of pelican that Booker was listless and had no mind. The whole game was only 14 points. In the fourth quarter when the Suns were chasing the score closely, coach Monty only took him less than 5 minutes and didn’t shoot once, not taken. No one knew what happened to Booker. No reporter dared to ask him after the game, and no one explained to the coach and team members.
This all-star, who has always claimed the support of Mamba’s spirit, had several scenes confusing in the last few minutes: at 2 minutes 27 seconds, Booker missed the bottom line and sneaked little Nance, not only was the rebound in the front court taken away, moreover, he also grabbed the ball from behind and fouled the opponent to free throw; He was not in the tactics at all, only waiting for the ball at the far end, never taking the initiative to attack, and did not touch the ball for several rounds; paul once took the ball under the basket and prepared to pass it to him, but Booker didn’t take the initiative to ask for the ball. Two meters away from three point line, Paul had to turn over and jump into it; Then he gave mccorum three points of space, although the ball didn’t enter, Booker didn’t actively guard against the follow-up McCullum, which led McCuller to grab the backboard in the front court again, and his teammates came up to guard against it, missed Marshall in the bottom corner of the far end and threw it into three points, let Pelican gain a huge lead with 120-112.
Coach Monty saw that after calling for a pause, he had to replace Booker with Payne rarely. At last he was not on the court at 1 minute 50 seconds. I have always admired Booker very much, but I also want to hear his explanation of his performance. If there is no explanation all the time, then the mystery brought by this state and performance will be as doubtful as if they were out of the playoffs.
In sharp contrast to Booker’s performance, Pelican has a group of players who dare to fight, especially on the bench, Alvarado, Marshall and little Nance and other substitutes jointly scored 51 points. By contrast, the Suns will be defeated, and the replacement will only add up to 29 points.
Pelicans were also suffering from injuries this season, especially Ingram and Herbert Jones, which have been out of battle for many consecutive games. If we only rely on Zion and mecolem, they will never climb to the chief of the West.
Alvarado was particularly eye-catching in the first battle. He scored 16 points in the first half and contributed 20 points. Although he was less than 38 points in beating the Nuggets, he scored 20 + for the second time this season. In the second quarter, Alvarado was full of passion as soon as he played, throwing two three points in a row, contributing 11 points in a single section.
As the most popular draft show now, Alvarado wrote 38 points of Pelican’s young pioneer team history record for the Nuggets, making Jose! Jose! Jose!” The shouts resounded through the stadium. Last season, he became famous only by hiding in the bottom corner and secretly breaking serve after scoring goals. This season, he also showed strong aggressiveness in attack, with an average score rising from 6.1 points to 9.6 points, three-point shot percentage increased from 29% to 39%. This man who can’t play the main force in the summer league is building his own label.
More importantly, the passion he showed on the court can not only motivate his teammates, but also let more people draw strength from the little people. Before he became famous last season, a video became popular. It was Russell of the Timberwolves who asked his teammates, “Can This Man vote?” Alvarado answered “I can vote” and threw it into three points.
With Alvarado’s substitute and role player performance, Pelican makes people more believe that they can do something big this season.
When the season didn’t start, Pelicans were generally favored: Firstly, it was because of the return of Zion that as long as the team was healthy, the strength of the team could be greatly increased; Secondly, the arrival of micorem greatly improved the team’s projection ability; third, Pelican had its own “three Giants” and completely got out of the inferiority and depression when losing Davis.
Up to now, Ingram’s appearance has been incoherent due to injuries. They have had two periods of injury suspension. The color of the “big three” is not obvious, but the role lineup is impressive. From Alvarado to Murphy, from Marshall to rookie Dyson Mike Daniels, there are different people coming forward in every game. As a result, they have enviable bench depth. With Ingram’s return, Pelicans will greatly increase their grasp of dominating in the West.
This big-mouthed bird can swallow the Suns who have eliminated them. The next ambition is to swallow the whole West.
Su Qun column