152 Couldn’t Get up for a Long Time

In the third quarter.

The Trail Blazers once again put on their full starting lineup, and Zhang Jun became the team's first offensive point.

Zhang Luo's connection was staged again.

The Trail Blazers still hadn't solved Zhang Jun's destructive power on the offensive end.

Just as Nate McMillan and Monty Williams in the Trail Blazers' coaching booth were preparing to celebrate the upcoming victory, Chris Paul, the only opponent on the court where the Trail Blazers had a big disadvantage, began to explode.

He first completed a mid-range jump shot against Aldridge, then a three-pointer from outside the three-point line directly hit the basket, followed by a step-back dribble three-pointer and another fast break layup.

In just 4 minutes, Paul made 7 of 8 shots, 4 of 4 three-pointers, and scored a terrifying 18 points.

These 18 points directly wiped out the Trail Blazers' efforts throughout the game and achieved a reversal.

"Oh my god, Chris Paul led the Hornets to a 24:12 offensive high groove in less than 4 minutes."

"Chris Paul, the top point guard of the young generation, will be a player who can play the traditional point guard style at the peak."

"He can pass, attack, defend, and finish. He will be one of the most versatile point guards in history. You can hardly find any weaknesses in him."

Paul's outbreak also brought great pressure to the Trail Blazers.

Nate McMillan threw away the tactical board and all the team tactics. He stared at the players in front of him and said.

"Give the ball to Zhang Jun, OK?"

The fourth quarter.

Zhang Jun blew the horn of counterattack.

The outside line easily broke through Peja Stojakovic's defense. Facing layers of help defense in the inside line, he threw his body into the air continuously, passing or forcing, and the entire Hornets' inside line was upset.

Tyson Chandler had 5 fouls, David West had 4 fouls, and Zhang Jun went to the free throw line 10 times in the last quarter.

During a round of offense, Paul switched to Zhang Jun.

Facing Paul's defense, Zhang Jun was very smart to use his back turn to completely protect the ball while moving. Paul knew that it was difficult to defend the opponent as Zhang Jun expected, so he made a desperate attempt to steal the ball.

Whoosh!

He was still passed!

Paul had no choice but to look at Zhang Jun who was ready to make a layup. He directly used a small trick to clamp Zhang Jun's arm in the opposite direction and threw him to the ground.

Bang!

Zhang Jun fell heavily to the ground, and the referee blew the whistle at the same time.

"This foul is a bit heavy."

"Chris Paul, the league's famous king of small tricks, is also the reason why short players like him can survive on the court and play so well."

"Chris Paul's nickname is Dirty Luo. He is the dirtiest point guard in the league recognized by Gary Payton."

Kenny Smith and Barkley on the commentary desk were complaining about Paul's intentional foul just now, and the latter also raised his hand to indicate to the referee that he did foul on the ball just now.

However, Paul did not have any intention of apologizing to Zhang Jun. Instead, he directly crossed his knee.

This action directly angered all the players of the Trail Blazers. Luo Yin was the first to rush over and pushed Paul angrily.

"Who are you humiliating, you little dwarf?"

"Don't think you are a veteran because you have entered the NBA a few years ago. You are still on a rookie contract now."

Paul did not resist after being pushed. He fell to the ground with a painful look on his face, then covered his back and looked at the referee and shouted.

"He fouled, look at me."

Zhang Jun, who was pulled up by his teammates, hurried to pull Luo Yin, but it was too late. The referee did not hesitate to call a technical foul on Luo Yin.

Paul, who succeeded in his evil plan, stood up naturally and smiled and clapped his hands.

"Crawford, beautiful call."

Aldridge and Zhang Jun kept pulling Luo Yin. The latter also knew that he was tricked by Chris Paul and was called a technical foul by the referee for no reason.

"I know I was a little impulsive, but I just can't swallow this breath. Look at Paul, he's still laughing happier than anyone else. It's really a success."

"He really deserves a beating."

Zhang Jun stared at Chris Paul. This guy has a lot of tricks on the court. He especially likes to tease those players with bad tempers. Every time he successfully angers his opponents and makes them get punished by the referee, he feels very accomplished.

"Kobe said this is Chris Paul's ultimate desire to win, and he also respects his opponent's desire to win."

"But I won't respect Paul's desire to win, but destroy it!"

The fourth quarter ended quickly.

Zhang Jun missed the last three-pointer.

Chris Paul, who played well tonight, helped the Hornets win a game with difficulty.

108:105.

"Chris Paul scored 31 points, 6 rebounds and 12 assists tonight. He is definitely the biggest contributor to the Hornets' victory."

"But what I want to ask is, can Chris Paul make 6 three-pointers every night?"

"Can he have such efficient shooting performance every night?"

"I don't believe it."

"The next game will be moved to the home court of the Portland Trail Blazers, which will be a big challenge for the Hornets."

"Before the start of this series, everyone was commenting that the Hornets were the stronger team, but judging from these two games, the Hornets, who couldn't guard Zhang Jun, have always been at a disadvantage."

Barkley and Kenny Smith both had different feelings about this series after watching both games.

They discovered that the strength of this Trail Blazers team depends entirely on Zhang Jun. As long as Zhang Jun is invincible on the offensive end, then this Trail Blazers team will be the most feared opponent of all teams.

As for the Hornets, even though they are the team with the most solid forward reserves in the league, such forward reserves are obviously useless when defending Zhang Jun.

Barkley said with certainty: "Defending Zhang Jun requires the kind of top perimeter defender, a player who can not be at a disadvantage against Zhang Jun in terms of speed, strength, and height."

"I can't count five players like this in the league."

In Kenny Smith's view, this is a very understandable situation. After all, Zhang Jun is the league's scoring leader. If a few forwards like the Hornets can defend him, then he is not the league's scoring leader.

Kenny Smith said: "My biggest concern right now is that the Hornets and Chris Paul succeeded in arousing the anger of the Trail Blazers players in this game tonight."

"The venue will be moved to Portland next. The guys there are all bandits, and the Hornets probably won't get any good results."

...........

May 8th.

Portland.

"Destroy New Orleans!"

"Send Dirty Roques home!"

The anger of the fans affected everyone in Portland. Even a dog on the street would angrily rush over and curse when seeing the Hornets bus coming.

Steve Patterson never expected that the Trail Blazers would tie the Hornets and completely suppress the opponent on the court.

In the last game, if it weren't for Chris Paul's sudden outburst, the Trail Blazers would have returned home with a 2:0 lead.

Steve Patterson simply couldn't believe that the Trail Blazers, who once struggled to even make the playoffs, now have hope of reaching the Western Conference Finals.

"The speed of reconstruction is simply too fast. It's like taking an elevator. It goes up in a whoosh."

"Also rising are the Trail Blazers' attendance this season and playoff ticket revenue."

"This season, the Trail Blazers are probably going to make a lot of money."

Moda Center Arena.

The game started with the roar of the fans.

Luo Yin started playing very aggressively.

He blamed himself for the team's loss in the last game. If he had not been given a technical foul by Paul and allowed the opponent to go to the free throw line, it is likely that the Trail Blazers would not have lost the last game.

After the game, all media guests commented that the technical foul was the turning point of the entire game.

Luo Yin directly knocked Maurice Peterson to the ground during the offense, and the latter was also whistled for a defensive foul.

Being knocked over by Luo Yin again and being called for a foul, Morris Peterson was almost anxious to death. He sat on the ground for a long time and refused to stand up. His feet shook repeatedly on the ground, like a spoiled little girl.

"Is it wrong? I was knocked over and a defensive foul was called on me?!"

The referee was too lazy to pay attention to him. Who said you can't call a defensive foul if you are knocked over? If you say that the defensive players fall to the ground and dive at any time, then the offensive players will not be able to play.

The referee directly warned Maurice Peterson with his eyes that he was suspected of obstructing the normal progress of the game, and the latter quickly got up.

Luo Yin's tough performance allowed him to score 11 points and 3 rebounds in the first quarter, and led the Trail Blazers and Hornets to a 26-26 tie in the first quarter.

"That's a really good thing for the Trail Blazers."

"They were not afraid of the Hornets in the second, third or fourth quarters. They were just afraid of falling behind too much in the first quarter."

"The Hornets will face a big problem next, a problem they have been facing in the first two games."

"How on earth are we going to defend Zhang Jun, the league's leading scorer this season?"

The second quarter begins.

The Hornets took Tyson Chandler early and wanted to limit Zhang Jun's efficiency in rushing the frame.

As a result, after seeing Tyson Chandler play, Zhang Jun became more and more excited and the ball went towards the basket.

His impact is much greater than Luo Yin. Tyson Chandler has almost no better way besides fouling and allowing Zhang Jun to score.

Barkley said: "Among all the post players I noticed, the one who is most efficient in defending Zhang Jun is Howard, the Eastern Conference player."

"If you want to help guard Zhang Jun, you can't be tall or strong. You have to be able to jump and not move too slowly. Only in this way can you guard Zhang Jun."

"Currently, Zhang Jun is only Howard's inside nemesis. Other than that, no other inside player in the league has an easy time facing Zhang Jun."

Hornets head coach Byron Scott knew that it would be difficult for them to limit Zhang Jun's offense on the offensive end, so he quickly replaced Paul and let the Hornets go to attack the Trail Blazers.

In the last game, Paul successfully stole the ball, and Zhang Jun was simmering with anger. Now that he saw Paul coming up, he took the initiative to pick and roll and then confront Paul.

This scene surprised Barkley at the commentary desk.

"Chris Paul is a player on the league's best defensive team. Even though he is short, his personal defensive ability is not bad, and his body is very strong."

"What does Zhang Jun mean by switching positions to play Paul? This is obviously not a very good matchup."

Zhang Jun lowered his center of gravity.

Although Chris Paul is smaller, he still takes two steps back to defend. He knows that Zhang Jun rarely shoots from long distance, so at this time, he is not worried about Zhang Jun's sudden cold arrow.

call!

Zhang Jun still chose to break through. The first step was very fast. Paul still wanted to steal Zhang Jun. After all, the opponent's body is tall and the center of gravity of dribbling is high. A small man like Paul can easily steal the opponent.

However, Zhang Jun is very smart, and his basketball IQ is also very high. He uses the most common method of protecting the ball for big players. He turns his back while dribbling and uses his body to block the defender, making it difficult for the opponent to attack. Ball steal.

Paul has also seen many such ball protections. He was very smart and immediately lifted up when Zhang Jun turned around to get the ball from the side. But what he never expected was that Zhang Jun did not slow down when turning with his back. Whoosh? He hit the basket directly.

boom!

He can also force his battle ax to snap!

"With his physical talent, he really deserves to be the top pick this season."

"Zhang Jun's physical talent is even better than Kevin Durant's. He has the ability to explode in an instant. This can already be seen when he can dunk on inside players at every turn."

Buckley commented.

Being able to maintain the matchup advantage of physical talent in the NBA, the world's strongest basketball league, is enough to show Zhang Jun's outstanding talent. Barkley quickly remembered his talent that no one could match when he entered the NBA. His big With a slap on the butt, all opponents will be bounced away, so he is nicknamed the Flying Pig and is a very strong low-post singles master.

Paul and Tyson Chandler were stuck in place at the same time, somewhat helpless about the ball just now.

Tyson Chandler did not forget to say: "I said it in the first two games, this guy will not slow down when he breaks through and changes direction. As you can see, he is very abnormal."

Chris Paul quickly recovered and said: "I will never let him break through me so easily again, absolutely."

Tyson Chandler was stunned, and soon understood how Paul would defend Zhang Jun, and then sighed.

"Zangluo is coming again."

Next round.

Zhang Jun singled out Paul again from the outside. He wanted to use his actions to tell the opponent that all tricks are useless in the face of absolute ability. He wanted to destroy Zangluo's playing style.

It was still a breakthrough, or it was still protecting the ball during the game. When Zhang Jun was about to turn around, Paul, who knew that he could not keep up with the opponent, directly put his feet on Zhang Jun's path this time.

"Ouch, shit!"

Both Zhang Jun and Paul fell to the ground. The referee thought that they tripped during the confrontation, so no penalty was issued.

Zhang Jun, who was lying on the ground, got the ball out in time. When he wanted to get up to catch the ball, Paul pinned Zhang Jun under him and couldn't get up for a long time.