CHAPTER 1346: CHAPTER 538: THE NEW ’GREEN FORMULA’ (PART 4)

Outside of the Lakers’ Three Giants, the other players scored 12 points!

Single quarter 37 to 35, the Lakers narrowly won the Warriors by two points in the third quarter, 106 to 104. Both teams scored over 100 points in three quarters again.

Going into the final quarter, both teams’ scores plummeted.

Stars can sustain the intensity, but it’s truly difficult for role players to keep up, even Thompson struggled, let alone others.

This quarter became an individual showcase for Curry, Durant, Zhang Yang, Harden, and DeRozan.

Curry was the first to exert himself, although he didn’t achieve the ideal result of suppressing the opposition’s Three Giants, he did manage to reduce Durant’s consumption in the first half.

Durant, who scored 15 points in the third quarter, scored double digits again in the final quarter, joining Curry to lead the team in a heated exchange with Zhang Yang, Harden, and DeRozan!

With 6.7 seconds left, Zhang Yang hit a crucial mid-range shot, widening the gap to 3 points, with the Lakers leading 135 to 132. In the final moments, Durant went one-on-one and passed the ball to Curry, who ran out of Thompson’s screen, caught the ball, and sank a buzzer-beating three-pointer.

Regulation time ended in a 135 tie, entering overtime!

Curry scored 42 points, and Durant scored 37, combining for 79 points in regulation time, giving their all to withstand the Lakers’ Three Giants and dragging the match into overtime, which then led to Zhang Yang’s overtime frenzy!

Budenholzer made a bold decision. Harden and DeRozan were indeed tired during regulation time. Thompson scored only 19 points in regulation time, partly due to his state not being as good as in Game 1, and also because DeRozan was relentlessly chasing him.

Harden was exhausted defending Curry too.

So Budenholzer opted to pair Reed and Boyan with Zhang Yang in overtime.

With the assistance of Louis Williams, Boyan, West, and Zubac, Zhang Yang scored 13 points in overtime, shooting 5 out of 7, including 1 out of 1 for three-pointers and 2 out of 2 in free throws, outscoring the opposing team’s total of 9 points by 4 points!

Combined with Zubac’s one floater, the Lakers won overtime 15 to 9!

First quarter 6 points, second quarter 15 points, third quarter 8 points, final quarter 12 points, overtime 13 points. Zhang Yang played 45 minutes tonight, shooting 31 out of 18, including 8 out of 14 for three-pointers and 11 out of 10 for free throws...

In the first three quarters, Zhang Yang ’only’ scored 29 points, tightly suppressed by Curry’s 35 points in three quarters, but in the final quarter, he crazily chased with a score of 12 to 7, and overtook strongly in overtime with a score of 13 to 4, finally reaching 54 points in a single game, surpassing Curry’s 46 points, becoming the top scorer of the game!

Zhang Yang broke the highest single-game score in this season’s playoffs set by James last night, leading the Lakers to another crazy 150 points through overtime, narrowly defeating the Warriors with a score of 150 to 144, taking a 2 to 0 lead in the series!

...

The date is June 1st, two days of rest later, the Lakers and the Warriors battle again, at 8 pm at the Oakland Oracle Arena for the 3rd game of the finals.

In the first quarter, the Lakers seized the momentum as visitors, leading the Warriors by 1 point, 30 to 29.

This is the first time both teams’ shooting percentages in the first quarter are below seventy percent in this Western Conference Finals.

In the last game, the scoring had already shown a declining trend for both teams.

For Zhang Yang, Curry, Durant, Harden, and DeRozan, both head coaches couldn’t think of a way to contain them unless they resort to disregarding everything and double-team.

But for the others, they could think of some ways, enhancing physical exertion is a very good strategy.

Like Thompson, who was given special attention by the Lakers’ Coach Team, he was restricted, scoring only 19 points in 42 minutes in Game 2, and didn’t even score in overtime.

However, this heightened focus on Thompson also provided better attacking space for Curry and Durant.

Regarding the side effects of targeting Thompson, the Lakers’ coach and key players feel they can accept, anyway, Curry and Durant can’t be stopped, at least they can prevent the opposing third point from exploding like in Game 1, even if they have the ’Three Giants correct way open’, they will still find it harder.

Coming to the second quarter, the Warriors, fighting on their home turf, struck first, achieving 34 to 31, overtaking the Lakers by 2 points to enter halftime.

After halftime, the Lakers pressed the Warriors again with 29 to 28, although they didn’t overtake the score, they didn’t let the Warriors extend their lead, staying close with a score of 90 to 91 entering the final quarter.

However, the Warriors surged again in the final quarter, with a 0 to 2 home deficit, losing one more game here would spell disaster. Thompson, heavily targeted in Game 2 and the first three quarters tonight, exploded, scoring 4 out of 4 three-pointers in one quarter. Although he only scored 12 points, he contributed to creating better offensive conditions for Curry, Durant, and the substitute McKie.

In the final quarter, the Warriors suppressed the Lakers with 33 to 29!

Curry 31 points, Durant 34 points, Thompson 24 points, overcoming Zhang Yang’s 33 points, Harden’s 26, and DeRozan’s 25, the Warriors defeated the Lakers 124 to 120, clawing back a game, with the series score now 1 to 2!

However, despite the Lakers losing Game 3, their post-game evaluation was surprisingly good — very solid! Regardless of how well the Warriors attacked or how fiercely they defended, the Lakers consistently scored around 30 points each quarter, averaging out to 30 points per quarter.

This made the media and fans recall last year’s second-round Spurs team... and the Lakers, who play a similar system, clearly have a higher ceiling! And this isn’t speculation, the Lakers have already demonstrated it in Games 1 and 2, scoring a total of 300 points across two games!

The date is June 3rd, after one day of rest, the Lakers and Warriors battle again at Oracle Arena.

Thompson, who was fierce two nights ago, fell into a slump tonight, shooting 5 out of 14 for 13 points. Meanwhile, Curry, who had played fiercely for two consecutive games, also performed averagely tonight, shooting 9 out of 20 for 24 points.

Durant maintained a good state with Curry’s wholehearted contribution, achieving 11 out of 20 with high accuracy, scoring 35 points, the highest in the game, but his teammates, fatigued after three continuous matches with the Lakers, collectively faltered tonight, only scoring 104 points in total!

On the opposite side, the Lakers, as predicted by the media, stabilized their scoring, with 32 in the first quarter, 28 in the second, 30 in the third, and 28 in the final quarter...

Zhang Yang scored 26 points on 10 out of 19 shooting, Harden hit a new high in this Western Conference Finals with 33 points, and DeRozan scored 25, leading the team to a steady victory of 118 to 104 over the Warriors, making the series score 3 to 1!

After the match, a dispute occurred on the Warriors’ bench.

Zhang Yang, who was celebrating with teammates and preparing for a post-game interview, curious, moved closer to eavesdrop, unexpectedly hearing a ’new formula’!

Durant, who scored the highest points and achieved the highest shooting percentage among the team’s main scorers tonight, complained after the match about his teammates missing open threes.

The hot-tempered Green directly retorted, "Isn’t it your fault? If you hadn’t come, we’d definitely win the championship this season!

If you hadn’t come here, Harden and DeRozan wouldn’t have gone to play hometown basketball with Jack. They should have failed, and it’s all your fault, leading to the hometown Three Giants!"