On March 5, Beijing time, the fierce matchup in the NBA arena continued, and the Los Angeles Clippers went non-stop to the away road to challenge the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks are on a winning streak of five games, but the absence of their starting duo – Antetokounmpo and Middleton – against such a strong team – certainly adds more suspense to the game.
As soon as the game began, the two sides started an unusually close competition, and the scores went up alternately. The Clippers led a wave of counterattacks led by Harden at the end of the first half, which gradually widened the score, however, the Bucks recovered quickly in the second half, and with the excellent play of Portis and Lillard, they successfully made up for the economic disadvantage, and even narrowed the gap to single digits in an instant. At this time, the tense and exciting atmosphere of the game reached its peak, and the whole Clippers team was in chaos in an instant, and the Trail Blazers seized the opportunity to launch a 15-0 offensive wave to establish the victory. In the end, despite the Clippers' all-out counterattack, they still lost to the Bucks with a score of 106-113.
After the game, the Bucks announced that their winning streak had broken to six, and they beat the Timberwolves, 76ers, Hornets (twice) and Bulls to jump up to No. 2 in the East. Throughout the process, the Bucks' sturdy defense has been their winning formula, with many opponents scoring under 100 points. Even without Antetokounmpo, the Bucks were able to take advantage of their interior height advantage, and they held a 46-38 rebounding advantage with the Clippers, who paid a heavy price for the Clippers' small lineup. Portis, who came off the bench, seemed to have been blessed by his brother, slashing 28 points and 16 rebounds; As for Lillard, he seems to see George as a thorn in the side, angrily scoring 41 points, grabbing four rebounds and four assists, and it was also the first time in his career that he scored 40+ against the Clippers.
The Clippers ultimately failed to come back from behind, and fatigue was undoubtedly a factor that was hard to ignore. By analyzing the free throws made all over the court, it can be seen that the Clippers lack bench depth. Judging by the Clippers' Big Three who hit 11 of their 19 free throws combined, they missed a full eight free throw attempts. The two players who just beat the Timberwolves in the last game, Kahe Jr., performed extremely sluggishly in this game, with Ka Jr. only scoring 16 points from 19 shots, and Pokobe Bryant hitting only 2 of 8 shots, barely scoring 6 points. Harden and George, on the other hand, were cold in the previous game and quickly returned to normal in this game, where they combined to add 58 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. After the game, several core players of the Clippers took the initiative to take responsibility, and captain Harden confessed: "Our later small lineup was confused in the final part of the game, and even started to wonder who to send to cover up, so we need to solve these problems ourselves." Another player, George, was direct: "It's a shame that we let the victory slip through our fingertips." As for the team's leader, Xiaoka, his response was more subtle, but he also expressed their determination to improve their concentration and prepare for the next game in better condition: "We can't be stuck in a predicament because of a defeat, on the contrary, we should improve our concentration and focus on the next opponent's challenge." ”
Looking at the other statistics, at the beginning of the season, when the Clippers were still leading in the fourth quarter, their record of results was very impressive, with a staggering 31-1 record combined. However, in recent weeks, the Clippers have been facing headwinds in the fourth quarter, just five days ago, they also led by 21 points against the Lakers in the fourth quarter. In this regard, coach Tyronn Lue was a little helpless when talking about the reason for the team's collapse in the final quarter, saying: "We were struggling with our shots, we were fouling a lot, and we didn't do well on the inside and didn't handle the transition attack well. On the contrary, the opponent showed more and more aggressive attacking aggression in the game. Fundamentally, the brilliance of this game was that Tyronn Lue was too obsessed with a small lineup, which led to a blow to the defensive ability and once the offense fell into a quagmire.