One Thousand One Hundred and Fifty Four: Harden’s Stepping Stone

On April 24, the atmosphere at the Moda Center seemed a bit heavy.

Although we're not far away from the frenzy of summer, Trail Blazers fans are anything but excited.

Because soon, this crazy summer will have nothing to do with them.

On the court, McCollum struck again. He has taken 12 shots today, but only hit two of them.

Obviously, the complete defeat affected McCollum's self-confidence. This made his game today very ugly.

The 16-17 NBA playoffs have been going on for several days. At this time, the total score of this series between the Grizzlies and Trail Blazers has become 3-0.

Since losing to the Grizzlies in the first game, the Trail Blazers have almost given up struggling. In the second and third games, the Grizzlies also defeated the Trail Blazers by 11 points and 14 points respectively.

Today is the fourth game between the two sides and the Trail Blazers' farewell performance this season.

It's a pity that the Trail Blazers couldn't even win a single victory in the playoffs this season.

Perhaps because the defeat was already decided, McCollum performed very poorly today.

Not to mention the difficult shots taken by Wade, McCollum was unable to grasp even several open shots.

So much so that today's game almost lost its suspense after halftime.

Yesterday, ESPN held a poll online for fans to choose the most exciting and boring series in the first round.

The battle between the Bulls and Celtics in the Eastern Conference was considered the most intense and exciting in the first round.

The game between the Grizzlies and Trail Blazers was unanimously voted the most boring series!

What does it mean to be elected unanimously? The vote rates for the other options are directly 0%!

Today's game undoubtedly vividly demonstrated the boredom of this series.

In the second half, the game's ratings had begun to plummet. If Trail Blazers fans weren't heartbroken about the cost of this ticket and the fact that they could get some TV shots, they would probably have run out of money long ago.

“I have to say that the gap between the two sides is indeed huge.

Not on the same level at all. In fact, there are few teams in the entire league that are at the same level as the Grizzlies. "

On the commentary table, Trail Blazers legend Bill Walton almost dozed off. If he didn't say a few words, he might actually fall asleep.

"Yes, yes, this series is a massacre. By the way, Bill, you said that there are not many teams in the league that are at the same level as the Grizzlies. Are the Rockets included?" Bill Walton Beside him, his partner brought up a very hot topic recently!

Ever since Bill Simmons started a war with the Houston media, the war of words between the two sides has never stopped.

When the Rockets took an overwhelming 3-1 lead over the Clippers, the media and fans in Houston became even more arrogant.

Some people believe that the Grizzlies can easily crush the Rockets like they did in the first round.

But some people also believe that the Rockets can go dark this year and Harden can move towards the ranks of superstars this year!

So much so that the destined meeting between the Grizzlies and Rockets in the next round has become a hotly discussed topic among fans.

Now that the result of this game has been decided, it is better to talk about the two teams that advance to the next round in advance.

"Houston Rockets? Well... they do have more possibilities, but..."

Before Bill Walton could finish speaking, the electronic buzzer sounded at the end of the game.

Walton hurriedly began to summarize after the game, so he did not continue the topic just now.

But in fact, what he wanted to say was: "The Rockets do have more possibilities, but they still have no chance of winning."

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4-0, the Grizzlies swept the Trail Blazers cleanly! Speaking of which, this is the first time after two years that the Grizzlies have swept and won in the playoffs!

The last time the Grizzlies swept their opponents to advance was back in 2015.

Coincidentally, the opponent that was swept out by the Grizzlies was also the Trail Blazers...

The boos in the Moda Center were not loud, and some cheers could even be heard sporadically.

It seems that Trail Blazers fans knew from the beginning that they had almost no chance of beating the Grizzlies, so they didn't blame the home team too much.

Link stood up from the bench and hugged his teammates one by one.

Compared with last year, this year's competition was much easier and smoother.

Link still remembers that when he played in the first round last year, he was already pushed to the limit.

The first round had just ended, and everyone was extremely tired.

But this year, Link was still full of energy after the first round.

There is garbage time in four consecutive games, which means that Link does not have to play hard for 40 minutes in each game.

This will be more beneficial to the Grizzlies going forward.

Link said he wouldn't play the Trail Blazers in another six games this year, and he once again meant what he said.

"Let us congratulate the Grizzlies for becoming the second team in the league to advance to the second round. Now, both the Warriors and the Grizzlies have advanced to the conference semifinals with a total score of 4-0. I don't know if both sides can win in the end. Meet!"

Bill Walton looked at the current matchup situation. In the Western Conference, only the Warriors and Grizzlies could advance by sweeping their opponents with a total score of 4-0.

In the playoffs, the dominance of these two teams has not diminished.

After Link returned to the locker room, he celebrated with his teammates for a while, then took out his phone and looked at it.

Not surprisingly, he received many messages of congratulations from people.

Kobe Bryant, Grant Hill, Butler and many others immediately sent their blessings.

But among all of them, Link discovered a very strange guy-Leonard.

"Congratulations, Link. I will do my best to get it done as soon as possible, remember our agreement."

Link really didn't expect that Leonard would send him a text message to congratulate him.

It seems that the "facial paralysis guy" is actually not that cold after all.

"Thank you, come on, man." Link replied, then smiled and put away his phone.

If we can really compete with the Spurs in this year's Western Conference Finals, it will probably be very interesting.

By then, the series may become the same as it was 10 years ago, with only 80 points scored between the two sides after the entire game.

But before that, both the Grizzlies and Spurs have to defeat their respective opponents.

On the Spurs' side, they will immediately start confronting the Warriors after being promoted.

As for the Grizzlies, the next opponent is the Houston Rockets. Link didn't think that the Clippers could complete the comeback when trailing 1-3.

Seeing Leonard so motivated made Link impatient.

It seems that the next round of the series must be decided quickly!

Link can't wait to clear the level quickly, while Rocket is also looking forward to making trouble.

The day after the Grizzlies were promoted, the Rockets seemed to have received a signal and suddenly exerted their strength to brutally sink the Clippers 118-87!

This is the biggest difference between the two sides in five games!

Harden scored 42 points in this game, as if he was deliberately waiting for the Grizzlies to advance and then quickly follow up.

The unfortunate Chris Paul became Harden's stepping stone, but Harden was not satisfied with this.

Now Paul is no longer the man who dominated the league. This stepping stone is not high enough or strong enough.

What he needs now is a stepping stone tall enough to propel himself into the top ranks of the league!

And Link can meet exactly this need.

This time, Harden means it.

All the hatred accumulated during the regular season will be settled in the playoffs!

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