Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

As the regular season progresses, all teams have begun to notice the changes in the Timberwolves' techniques and tactics.

Compared to last season, the Timberwolves played more as a team this season. Often in a game, almost all teammates were able to have outstanding performances.

Along with this change, the scoring data of Martial Arts, the star player who was highly expected by Minnesota fans, showed a significant decline compared to last season.

Sharing the ball with teammates will inevitably lead to a decline in personal scoring data. In fact, Wu Dao was already prepared for this when he agreed to Coach Philip's team reform.

One game may not show anything, but as the regular season progresses, both opponents and Timberwolves fans have noticed this.

Wu Dao's average points per game also dropped from 30+ last season to around 25 points per game. As the Timberwolves played more and more games, Wu Dao's data samples increased, and his average points per game also stabilized.

This average score per game is not high among all the top stars in the league, but it is not low either. This data is exactly what a top star should have.

But for Minnesota fans, Wu Dao's scoring performance obviously did not meet their expectations.

Although Wu Dao's personal scoring data has declined significantly compared to last season, the Timberwolves' dominance in this season has already begun to show at the beginning of the season.

Since the start of the regular season, the Timberwolves have shocked the entire league with a 17-game winning streak.

The team that gave the Timberwolves their first defeat was the Utah Jazz, led by two bad guys, Karl Malone and Stockton. This game was actually very brutal. Even during the regular season, the Utah Jazz's playing style did not change at all.

For them, the playing field is a battlefield. Whenever their players step onto the battlefield, they are ready to fight their opponents to the death.

Timberwolves coach Philip took the initiative to give up the head-on confrontation with a team like the Jazz. In his opinion, it doesn't make any sense whether the team can maintain its winning streak.

What's the point of constantly refreshing the time synchronization records?
After all, the Timberwolves' ultimate goal is still the championship. Before entering the playoffs, Coach Philip doesn't want to take any risks at all.

After strategically giving up the game against the Jazz, the Timberwolves went on a ten-game winning streak. In these 10 games, even super teams like the Lakers and Rockets lost to the Timberwolves.

Although the Timberwolves only won those tough games by a narrow margin, the nearly 30 victories after the start of the season are still a great encouragement to Minnesota fans.

The Timberwolves' strength is not a flash in the pan. Everyone can see that the Timberwolves are stronger in the new season than last season.

With the blessing of consecutive victories, the decline in martial arts data was also ignored by many people.

Of course, the media reporters in the industry naturally saw the technical and tactical changes of the Timberwolves. When the Timberwolves easily won 30 games and lost 1, a media reporter asked Wu Dao the following question during the post-match press conference:

"Budao, your Timberwolves' performance is very good, but our fans have also noticed that your personal scoring data has dropped significantly compared to last season."

"Can you tell us what the reason is? Is it because of Charles Barkley's joining that your team's status has been shaken? So that you can't shoot freely in the game?"

The reporter who asked Wu Dao is from the Los Angeles Times and he asked a very targeted question, intending to sow discord within the Senlin team.

Naturally, no one took his superficial questioning seriously. He knew too well how dirty the hearts of people studying journalism were.

Facing the questions from the Los Angeles reporter, Wu Dao smiled and replied:

"For me personally, the most important thing is not how many points I can get in this game, but whether the team can successfully defeat the opponent at the last moment."

"After all, the winner of two teams is determined by the score of both teams. Even if I can score 50 points in a game, what's the point if the team can't win?"

Wu Dao's answer seemed a bit official, and it was obvious that such an answer could not satisfy the media reporters on the scene.

"Your personal score may not be tied to the team's victory, but your personal data and personal honors are closely linked."

"You were the scoring champion and the Finals MVP last season, but other than that, you haven't received many honors."

"Based on your current statistics, you probably won't be able to win the regular season MVP and scoring title this season. Isn't that a pity at all?"

"We noticed that your scoring efficiency is not low. If you score with all your strength, you will be very competitive whether it is MVP or scoring champion."

"Does personal honor have no value in your career?"

The reporter's words secretly poked Wu Dao's lungs.

For a player, especially a top player, personal honor is actually very, very important. If Wu Dao retires one day, when fans evaluate his historical status, they will always put his personal honors and compare them with stars of different eras.

No personal honor, not even the qualification to sit at the table.

"The record we have played as Timberwolves is there for all to see."

"Haha, maybe it's their loss if they don't give me those honors."

"I feel like I don't need to prove anything to the fans anymore. No fan will doubt my ability. Now I have only one goal, and that is to win consecutive championships!"

When Wu Dao finished speaking, some media in the venue were also infected by his emotions and applauded softly.

Upon seeing this, the Los Angeles Times reporter sat back on his stool with an expressionless face and stopped talking.

The attitude that Wu Dao showed in front of the media reporters made the Timberwolves have stronger cohesion. All the players were united and performed better and better in the second half of the regular season. The team's cooperation became more and more tacit, and the connection between the players became closer and closer.

When the 98-99 regular season came to an end.

The Timberwolves set an unprecedented regular season record with 72 wins.

The Timberwolves' terrifying regular season record also allowed them to rank first in the Western Conference, making them the biggest favorite to win the championship that season.

The terrifying regular season record made every Timberwolves player full of confidence in the upcoming playoff journey. Barkley, who has entered the end of his career, even played at his peak in several games under the stimulation of the winning streak.

The Timberwolves made it to the playoffs, and their subsequent performance in the playoffs was in line with the initial predictions of many industry insiders.

First, they easily swept Barkley's old team, the Suns, with a 3:0 wave, and then in the second round of the playoffs, they faced the Houston Rockets in the same half of the division, and swept the reorganized Houston Rockets with a 3-1 wave.

The combination of Pippen and Olajuwon was completely useless in front of the Timberwolves. In four consecutive games, Pippen was completely suppressed by Wu Dao and did not have any outstanding performance at all.

Olajuwon, who was in serious decline, was unable to put up a satisfactory performance in front of the young Kevin Garnett and others. Although Garnett's personal ability may not be comparable to that of Olajuwon today, he has helpers in the interior. The consumption of Wallace and Barkley is a heavy burden for Olajuwon.

He was already old and frail, and in the intense playoff competition, his physical strength was simply not enough to support him to play the entire game.

The Timberwolves lost that game out of friendship, at least that's what the Timberwolves players thought. After all, Barkley came from the Houston Rockets, and it was a bit embarrassing to sweep the Rockets out so easily.

Timberwolves management refuses to admit they were involved in gambling
While the Timberwolves easily advanced to the Western Conference Finals, the other half of the Western Conference also determined their next opponent after a fierce battle.

San Antonio Spurs.
What no one expected was that this year's Spurs were so strong that they could easily sweep the Lakers team that defeated the Jazz 3-2.

O'Neal was defeated by the Spurs' twin tower system under the siege of Duncan and David Robinson.

It is worth mentioning that, just as happened in the original time and space, the Rodman they recruited did not fit in well with the team, or it can be said that a team like the Lakers simply does not have the soil for a maverick like Rodman to survive.

The Lakers traded Rodman midway through the regular season.

The Timberwolves management actually had the idea of ​​bringing Rodman to the team, but considering that the team's inside lineup was already strong enough and the relationship between Barkley and Rodman was not good, they thought about it and decided to give up, not wanting to take any risks because of Rodman.

The Spurs are a good enough opponent, and the fact that they can sweep a team like the Lakers shows their strength.

But when such a super strong team met the Timberwolves, they were like a chicken and a dog and were easily destroyed by the Timberwolves.

The twin tower system has no effect at all in front of Wudao. None of their outside players can defend Wudao. When on the court, he often only needs a pick-and-roll from Garnett, Barkley or the wing, and Wudao can easily get rid of his opponent and shoot a three-pointer.

Wu Dao's three-point shots are at the top level in the league in terms of both production and hit rate. Other stars' three-point shots may not be able to kill the game, but Wu Dao's three-point shots can do that.

In the games against the Spurs, the Wolf King, who had been somewhat silent, finally showed his fangs.

In Game 1, Wu Dao scored 35 points and led the Timberwolves to a 97:88 victory.

In Game 2, the Timberwolves had already grasped the Spurs' weakness. Wu Dao scored 44 points in a single game and easily led the team to win the game 103:87.

In G3, he scored 46 points; in G4, he scored 53 points.

After one round of series, when facing the Spurs, Wu Dao's average score even exceeded 40 points, directly sending away the Spurs who had high hopes from San Antonio fans.

It was not until this time that the fans truly realized the horror of Wu Dao. He was not declining as some media reporters said. As long as Wu Dao wanted, he would still be the sharpest blade in the league.

And Wu Dao's performance in this round of the series also turned Karl Malone, who just won the regular season MVP a few days ago, into a clown.

The Timberwolves defeated the Spurs without any bloodshed and once again stood on the stage of the finals. Their opponent in the finals was the Bulls, who had just completed the reconstruction and fought hard to break out of the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls, with Michael Jordan, Chris Webber and Latrell Sprewell as the core of the team, are very strong.

However, since the team completed its reconstruction this season, the running-in between the players was not as smooth as expected.

Although Michael Jordan has a high reputation in the league, he is also known for his bad temper.

However, Michael Jordan has one advantage, that is, for the championship, he will lower his attitude as much as possible to valuable players. During the Bulls' iron triangle period, Michael Jordan also made a lot of efforts to stabilize Pippen's emotions, and his efforts were even greater than those of the team management.

However, a person's character is very difficult to change. Even though Michael Jordan tried hard to restrain himself when getting along with the core players, the character traits he inadvertently revealed also caused considerable friction with the madman Latrell Sprewell.

It was not easy for the Bulls to make the playoffs. Unlike the fierce competition in the West, the competition in the East was much weaker. The Bulls were able to make the playoffs with 47 wins. Thanks to the outstanding performance of Michael Jordan and Chris Webber in the playoffs, they also made it to the Timberwolves with difficulty and qualified as challengers.

However, the final against the Timberwolves surprised all the fans.

Under the high pressure of the Timberwolves, the Bulls could only struggle to defend. Michael Jordan turned into a blacksmith under the blockade of martial arts. The poor performance in two consecutive games also brought the score to 2:0. The Timberwolves easily locked in their two-game home advantage.

In Game 3 of the Finals, the first half of the game between the Bulls and the Timberwolves went just like the previous two games. Michael Jordan struggled under Budo's defense, and his teammates could give him very little help.

Even if the inside players were able to come out for high-post pick-and-roll, Michael Jordan would still have to face Garnett's replacement, and this kid's defense was just as tough.

When all the Bulls fans thought they were going to lose this game again, the madman exploded.

In the two quarters of the second half, Latrell Sprewell scored 24 points over Marbury, and even hit the buzzer-beater passed by Jordan, leading the Bulls to complete the reversal. He became the hero of the Bulls and gave a shot in the arm to the Bulls whose morale was about to collapse.

However, the madman's outstanding performance could not continue.

How could Michael Jordan, a paranoid old man, admit that he was no longer good enough?
In the next two series against the Timberwolves, Michael Jordan made crazy shots, completely blocking the Bulls' chances of winning.

4-1 Gentlemen swept.

There was no suspense at all about the Timberwolves winning the championship, and at the same time, Wu Dao was still named the Finals MVP.

When reviewing the game after the game, the Timberwolves secretly thanked the Spurs for their contribution to their championship. To be honest, the opponents they valued most this season were actually the Lakers and the Jazz.

But the Spurs did a good job of keeping the opponents that the Timberwolves valued out of the Western Conference Finals.

The Spurs' twin tower system is simply a waste in front of the Timberwolves.
(End of this chapter)