The Clippers returned to Los Angeles with a score of 1-3, and in all the next games, the defending champions were only allowed to win and not lose.

In a brief interview at the airport, Ji said: "The feeling of being held with three match points in your hand is like being held at gunpoint. ”

On May 9, the fifth game of the Spurs VS Clippers, Ji Guoyi led the main force to play steadily, the bench bandits Dragic and Old Hill broke out today, and the Clippers who returned to their home court defeated the Spurs 100-90 and won the fifth game of the series, rewriting the overall score to 2:3.

In this way, the next away game will be the belated battle of Tianwang Mountain.

Ji Guoyi continued to decline in scoring today, playing 43 minutes and scoring only 20 points, but in addition to scoring, he also contributed 12 rebounds and 5 assists and 5 steals.

The core of the Los Angeles team seems to be stuck in a kind of strange circle, often they have difficulty winning games when they score high.

Ji Guoyi's 20 points were only the second on the team, but 5 steals played a key role, and in the fifth game he allowed Duncan to score only 10 points.

Old Dunleavy finally came up with something interesting in this game, he actually asked Ji Guoyi to go around the front to defend Duncan and Randolph, and received miraculous results, I have never heard of anyone using such a great interior line to deal with Duncan.

In addition to making Ji Guosha go around today, the Clippers also used Jordan Jr. and Ji Guoyi to partner together for a long time.

The task assigned by the elder Dunleavy for Jordan Jr. today is to help defend the Spurs' lob, and he doesn't need to worry about the opponent's feints today, Jordan Jr. can jump as much as he wants. But it has to be a straight up and straight down. You must not pounce on it. This greatly reduces the risk of foul making.

Duncan and Randolph fell a big heel on Jordan Jr.'s defense today, and this guy is like heeling to compete with you in the high jump, and the jump is called a high jump!

But here's the problem, Duncan and Randolph have a hard time taking advantage of Jordan Jr.'s reckless defense to make fouls, and people stand in a reasonable collision zone and jump vertically to block, which is a very clean defense.

The Spurs' embarrassment is that although Jordan Jr.'s jump block is extremely brainless, Duncan and Randolph will have to wait for him to fall from the top point before they can shoot. Their attack was delayed for a moment. And as long as he waits for such a blink of an eye, Ji Guoyi can return to the defensive position with a turn, and he can use his long arms to block behind. Even if O'Neal is surrounded by two seven-foot insiders under the basket, I am afraid that he will not dare to say that he will definitely be able to get the basketball into the basket.

Randolph and Duncan only scored 25 points in the fifth game, and the Spurs lacked interior output, and it would be a fool's dream to beat the Clippers again.

In this game, if the Spurs want to find a most hated opponent, then in addition to Ji Guosha, who contributed 5 steals, it is undoubtedly the 39-year-old Hill. The veteran has already confirmed that he will retire at the end of the season. He is in better form than many players in their early thirties.

At almost every turning point in the fifth war, the old Hill can be seen. Except for two three-pointers in the fourth quarter that were enough to put the game in the coffin. When the Spurs narrowed the score to 5 points in the third quarter, it was also Hill Sr.'s unexpected breakthrough and successful three-point shooting, helping the Clippers regain the advantage to 8 points, which was also the turning point of the Spurs' counterattack.

The Clippers won one more game, stubbornly pulling the score to 2:3, and for a while no one thought that the Spurs had won, and the two teams were now only one game away.

Three hours later, the New York Knicks faced the Chicago Bulls on the road, and the Bulls won 98-92 in the battle of the Kings Mountain, eliminating the New Yorkers 4-1 overall.

In the fifth game between the Knicks and the Bulls, both sides were generally successful on the defensive end, and neither allowed the opponent to score more than 30 points in a single quarter in the first three quarters, but their own offense was affected, and the Knicks exposed the defects of the offense relying too much on outside jumpers and weak bench strength.

In recent years, teams that have dominated the outside jumper have struggled in the playoffs, and few teams have relied on shooting to get far, even the Knicks now have a big three, and they can't win if they can't create enough threat in the restricted area.

Speaking of which, the Knicks are not a pure jump shooting team, and all three of their stars can break through with the ball, but unfortunately in this battle, they can only choose to frequently shoot on the outside in front of the Bulls' impregnable interior defense.

In the 5th game, the Knicks had a lot of ups and downs, and they could still lead the Bulls in the first half, but the Knicks only scored 16 points in the third quarter, and the shooting was frequently ironed, and the Bulls took the opportunity to throw off the score.

The Knicks' main problem today is a lack of aggression, they rarely get to the basket to make fouls, and perhaps they put too much energy on the defensive end, causing them to become average even the best offense.

In this game, the two teams took about the same number of shots, but the Bulls made 25 of 30 free throws, while the Knicks made 15 of 22 free throws, and this alone was down by double digits.

Another dead end for the Knicks is that they don't have one or two reliable bench forces, and the Knicks bench players only scored 19 points in the whole game, compared to 30 points on the Bulls' side, which is too huge.

After the day's game, there will be another death in the East, and the Knicks Big Three will follow in the footsteps of the Heat Big Three, and these two teams can now form a U.S. men's basketball team to impact the U.S. Championships, and they won't have much to do in the next few months anyway.

On May 10, the Dallas Mavericks sat at home to win against the young Thunder.

For the Thunder, this is a battle of life and death, and defeat means the end of the season.

The Mavericks suffered a loss in Oklahoma two days ago, and in that game, the Mavericks missed 19 shots from inside the restricted area, and the Thunder's two mobile interior players made the Mavericks' two foreign interior players a little embarrassed.

"No player can hit more than 50 percent all the time." Coach Carlisle was very open to the failure of the last game, Yao Ming shot 4 of 15 in the fourth game, which was really not good, but Yao Ming shot 35 of 51 in the first three games of the Western Conference semifinals, which seemed even more unreasonable, so no one took Yao Ming's bad performance to heart.

This battle of life and death. The Thunder wanted to save themselves. I also want to prove myself. The Clippers, who they've always wanted to overtake, have won two games in a row, and they want to see how good they are and if they can survive the same adversity.

Durant's state today is still very average, Marion's defense against him is very good, coupled with the outside defense and Yao Ming's insistence on the restricted area, the performance of the small schoolbag in the entire series can hardly be called qualified, but the Thunder bench led by Harden performed well, and the beard hit 4 three-pointers in the first half. The Mavericks trailed by 10 points at halftime.

The Thunder's offense mainly relied on Westbrook and Harden, Kidd was a little embarrassed against Westbrook, and the Mavericks' defensive strength was focused on Durant, and there was much less consideration for Westbrook, and he scored 20 points in the first half.

However, in the third quarter, Westbrook's shooting percentage began to decline, and it should be said that this was the case throughout the series, Westbrook usually played well in the first half, but in the third or fourth quarter, his shooting percentage began to decline. But at this time, Wei Shao. He often doesn't choose to give the basketball to someone else, and he will hit the basket again and again. Then pour on the inside line of the calf's tightly armed.

The Thunder was counterattacked by the Mavericks again in the third quarter, and Yao Ming shot 5 of 6 inside in the third quarter, helping the Mavericks overtake the score in one fell swoop.

Willis finally handed over the basketball to Harden in the fourth quarter, but in the face of Nowitzki and Terry's turns, the young Thunder once again lost control of the game.

Kidd's scheduling of basketball allows Westbrook to look up to, the Mavericks have a lot of offensive points, Yao Ming, Nowitzki, Terry, Marion can all play offensive roles, Kidd will arrange the order in an orderly manner, the Mavericks' games rarely have a scoring drought, they always have someone to stand up and score, and the stability makes the Thunder desperate.

The Thunder missed consecutive shots at key moments in the fourth quarter, failed to shoot in 5 minutes, the Mavericks struck while the iron was hot, Terry made a layup with 2 minutes left in the game, and the Mavericks took a double-digit advantage of 96-86, and the Thunder still couldn't find their senses after that, so they had to surrender.

On May 10, when the Thunder also announced that they would go home to fish, only the Clippers were still struggling in the entire league, and they had already turned over half of their bodies.

Western Conference - Los Angeles Clippers 2:3 San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks 4:1 Oklahoma City Thunder.

Eastern Conference - New Jersey Nets 4:0 Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls 4:1 New York Knicks.

A day later, the Clippers arrived in San Antonio, winning or losing, and it would be the last time the Clippers would be in San Antonio this season.

"What did I say before?" Ji Guo was ashamed to see the Heat, Thunder and Knicks get out one after another, and the fox brother faced the media with a proud face before the game. "We're alive again, and you know what 2:3 means? That means the pressure will be on them, and once we win this game and return to home in Game 7, who have the better chance of being eliminated? ”

I don't know if Ji Guoyi's words are psychological warfare, anyway, whether it is psychological warfare or not, his words are just as unpleasant.

"We're not working for the bullshit semifinals now, so what's the appeal of that thing to us?" Ji Guozhi asked again, his expression was very disdainful, today's pre-game press conference was about to become his family's opening again.

"A week ago, all I heard was that the Clippers were down 3-0, that there could be no more miracles, that the defending champions were dead, and so on...... At that time, no one thought we still had a chance, everyone was waiting to see us swept and to see the Treble joke. When Ji Guoyan said this, he sneered, "But I said, miracles are used to be created by me, what no one has done before, I will complete it one by one, who is in favor and who is against?" ”

The reporters in the audience were all expressionless, and said in their hearts that there are so many slots in your words, we really don't know how to oppose it, so it's okay to just say what you say.

An hour later, Ji Guoyi saw Ginobili on the field, and the first thing he said was: "Bald, I won't mention your baldness today, give you a chance to defeat me, what do you think?" ”

Ginobili looked up and stared at Ji Guoyi for a long time, and finally sighed: "Fucked-again......" (To be continued......)