Playoffs Time! After an exhausting, exhausting, chaotic season, the long-awaited moment has finally arrived. Here we are, the Playoffs are there, and today, at the hour not for coffee but for dessert, there will be very, very heavy with the entry into the running against the Suns … of the defending champion, the Lakers . Chris Paul vs LeBron James: hey, hey, like we meet… but for the first time in the Playoffs.
« The sky is yellow like the Lakers A great philosopher once said. And that’s why, as reported Bleacher Report, let’s meet for the first time in thirty years with a favorite spot 7 (the Lakers) against a spot 2 (the Suns) at the bookmakers. The Lakers start with an odds of -150, that is to say that if you bet 150 euros you will only win 100, and some are already starting to place a ticket on the Angelinos who retain … their title, this which would undoubtedly be one of the greatest collective statistical feats in history. But we are not there yet since we are only at the beginnings with this first round of the 2021 Playoffs between Los Angeles and Phoenix. Two players will also meet on this occasion for the first time face to face at this time of the year, and they must both know this great philosopher cited above who also once said ” I dream of a diamond ring like Allen and Carmelo“, That is to say what Chris Paul says to himself every morning while shaving, and” i’m not a gamer, i’m the game“That is to say what LeBron James thinks to himself every morning while trimming his beard.
Come on, we are talking to you about a time not so distant but that the under 20s cannot know. In the summer of 2015, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade are together on vacation. One image, that of D-Wade’s wife Gabrielle Union, alongside her husband, LBJ and CP3, all on a banana-shaped boat, circles the NBA planet. Despite the absence of Carmelo in the photo (probably taking the photo), the “Banana Boat” materializes the friendship between the four NBA superstars, hard core of Team USA’s gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Everyone has claimed at one time or another their desire to form ZE superteam, the one where they would be united under the same jersey and ready to conquer a ring between friends like pigs. Wade’s retirement in 2019 definitely ended that dream, which saw every possible and unimaginable rumor of trades to make it come true. And on May 23, 2021, two members of the Banana Boat, LeBron James and Chris Paul, will therefore find themselves opponents for the first time in the Playoffs. The opportunity for the King to slip a nice little word to his banana boat companion, before the reunion on the floor of the PHX Arena.
LeBron, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony who are present for the last game of Dwyane Wade’s career ???????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/t8JdLxLlfx
– TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) April 11, 2019
“It will be comparable to facing Rajon Rondo or Draymond Green in the Playoffs. It’s the same because they are extremely intelligent players and fierce competitors at the same time. As soon as I faced Rondo in the past, I knew that I had to evolve at my best technically, but also psychologically. Same thing with Draymond and the Warriors. So this experience with these two is clearly going to help me because I know Paul is a competitor and a player with a big basketball IQ. “
– LeBron James at ESPN.
Truce of reunion LBJ / CP3, the duel will also and especially that between the Suns and the Lakers. And a Suns / Lakers in the Playoffs, you have to go back a few years to find the last one since it was obviously in 2010, in the Final of the Conference. LA then won 4-2, thanks in particular to a buzzer beater unlikely of Metta World Peace Metta Sandiford-Artest Ron Artest in Game 5, synonymous with a definitive blow to the heads of Alvin Gentry’s men. Ten years later and after having frequented the bottom of the Great League, the Suns are reborn like the Phoenix phoenix thanks to the work of Monty Williams, who put Arizona back on the map of the United States. Against all expectations, it is the Suns who will have the status of hierarchical superior in this series, after an exceptional season concluded with only one victory for the best team in the League, the Jazz (52-20). Phoenix has lost only three times in its last twelve regular games and the Lakers suffered a soft patch in late April-early May, with just two wins in ten games. The City of Angels has accused the blow of the sores of Anthony Davis and LeBron James and without its two top names, it obviously lacks the essence (literally and figuratively) of Frank Vogel’s team. The Lakers nevertheless remain on six consecutive victories including one not at all given against the Warriors in play-in, completed by a game winner ten yards and blind from the King.
The James-Davis gang and the Paul-Booker gang have faced each other three times this season, for two wins from this last one. LBJ had planted 38 points in early March but could not do anything against the quintet (Saric, Bridges, Ayton, Booker, Crowder) at least fifteen points from the Suns. At the end of March, the Arizonians had done it again with a Deandre Ayton (26-8-2), a Devin Booker (26-9-4) and a Chris Paul (11-10-13) in legs, but during a match where the LA star duo had been conspicuous by their absence. The last showdown between Phoenix and Los Angeles was ten days ago, when The Unibrow had all shaved in its path by finishing in 42-12-5 for a large victory of its own 123-110.
End clap for this preview of this series between reigning champions and budding champions. Who will take the ascendancy by winning this Game 1? We will see but one thing is certain: it is indeed one of the posters – even THE poster – the most attractive of this first round of the 2020-21 Playoffs.
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