NBA Old Age Star System

Chapter 527 The regular season ends and the playoffs begin

All the games after the All-Star Game have entered into active preparations. Because of the sudden loss of strength on the Lakers' side, other teams have become more willing to win the championship.

Among them, the Clippers, Warriors, Bucks, and Heat have more obvious intentions, followed closely by the Suns, Philadelphia, Mavericks, Nuggets and other strong teams.

Among the championship predictions given by ESPN, the first place is the Milwaukee Bucks, the second place is the Denver Nuggets, the third place is the Lakers, and behind the Lakers is the Clippers.

There is a very good reason why ESPN puts the Bucks first.

The first is that the Bucks really don’t have any decent opponents in the East. The only two teams that can be called opponents are the Heat and the Celtics. Maybe Philadelphia, which got Harden, can be considered capable of fighting, but obviously Not as good as the Bucks with championship qualities.

The Bucks are currently ranked first in the Eastern Conference. If they are ranked according to their current record, it will not be a problem to go all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals in the playoffs, and their opponents in the Eastern Conference Finals are basically the winners of the Celtics and Heat. Anyone who fights will be injured.

On the Western side, although the Lakers are temporarily ranked first in the Western Conference, the Nuggets and Clippers, who are closely followed, are not far behind in their records. Moreover, this season, everyone clearly feels that the Lakers' offense is weak, and after the heavy eyebrow injury, After that, the Lakers' strength declined further.

In the eyes of these experts and commentators, the Lakers' dominance is no longer there, they are just strong on the outside but weak on the inside.

On the contrary, the championship phase between the Nuggets and Clippers is more obvious, and the lineup is more complete.

After the All-Star Game, each team began to improve their record, hoping to get a better seat in the playoffs, while those teams at the bottom were even more completely ruined, hoping to get a better spot in the lottery. Better seats.

As a result, the Lakers' record also experienced twists and turns during this period, and they did not continue their winning streak. After all, Su Tian was unable to defeat four hands with two fists.

But at least the first place in the Western Conference is still firmly held by the Lakers.

Time quickly came to April, and the Lakers' regular season schedule also came to an end.

On April 4, the Lakers played the final game of the regular season against the Jazz at home.

Su Tian was given a rotational rest day, and George was also given a rotational resting period.

The leaders became Johnson, Brando and others.

In the end, the Lakers won the Jazz firmly 121-107. This is also because the Jazz really have nothing they want this season and insist on their great cause of failure.

At the end of the last regular season game, the records of the Eastern and Western Conferences were determined.

On the Eastern side, the rankings according to record are:

1. Bucks (58 wins, 24 losses)
2. Celtics (57 wins, 25 losses)
3. 76ers (54 wins, 28 losses)
4. Cavaliers (51 wins, 31 losses)
5. Knicks (47 wins, 35 losses)
6. Heat (45 wins, 37 losses)
7. Eagles (44 wins, 38 losses)
8. Raptors (41 wins, 41 losses)
9. Bulls (41 wins, 41 losses)
10. Pacers (40 wins, 42 losses)
On the Western side, the rankings according to record are:

1. Lakers (53 wins, 29 losses)
2. Nuggets (51 wins, 31 losses)
3. Grizzlies (48 wins, 34 losses)
4. Kings (45 wins, 37 losses)
5. Suns (44 wins, 38 losses)
6. Clippers (44 wins, 38 losses)
7. Warriors (43 wins, 39 losses)
8. Timberwolves (42 wins, 40 losses)
9. Pelicans (42 wins, 40 losses)
10. Thunder (40 wins, 42 losses)
Even though the Lakers were injured and missing their big eyebrows, they still occupied the first place in the Western Conference thanks to Su Tian's superb performance.

Su Tian's own statistics are also fixed at 33.7 points, 11.4 assists, 7.1 rebounds, 2.9 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game.

Once again, he won the three data titles of scoring, assists and steals!
And in terms of hit rate, Su Tian still entered the 180 club, and his efficient performance made everyone raise eyebrows.

Not only that, in the regular season mvp prediction list, Su Tian once again ranked first, and many experts and commentators predicted that this mvp must be Su Tian!
After all, after the Lakers lost a big eyebrow, they once again ranked first just by adding Marc Gasol. Such a performance is undoubtedly all due to Su Tian.

After talking about Su Tian's personal data, everyone also felt a sense of dissonance when looking at the performance list.

In the early and middle stages of the season, some teams that performed very strongly did not achieve a relatively good record.

The representatives are the Clippers, Heat, Suns, and Warriors.

What these teams have in common is that the core players are older and the overall performance relies too much on the performance of the core players.

Moreover, in the later stages of the season, especially in the sprint period after the All-Star break, these teams all had some injury problems with their core players.

This also resulted in these teams failing to achieve ideal results and being overtaken by some younger and more powerful teams.

Among these young teams, the generally optimistic representative teams are the Grizzlies led by Morant and the Mavericks led by Doncic.

However, although everyone is very optimistic about these teams, the teams that think they can win the championship are not these teams.

Questionnaire surveys among fans show that people are more generally optimistic about teams from the Mesozoic era that are at their peak.

For example, Giannis Antetokounmpo's Bucks, Jokic's Nuggets, and Su Tian's Lakers.

In fact, Su Tian did not enter the league a few years earlier than Doncic and others, but in everyone's opinion, Su Tian is already a star of the "Mesozoic Era".

On April 4, the play-offs began, with the seventh and eighth games in the East and West being the first.

Between the Warriors and Timberwolves, the Warriors' advantage was very obvious from the beginning of the game. Su Tian only watched a few minutes of the opening scene and then changed the channel.

There's really nothing to watch. Although the Warriors' record is not good due to the injuries of Curry and Klay, the team's strength is still first-class. It won't be a big problem to win the Timberwolves.

So Su Tian turned to look at the game in the east.

The game between the Hawks and the Raptors was relatively fierce. The two teams were about equal in strength. The two teams played until the critical moment of the fourth quarter.

At the last moment, Trae Young hit a key three-pointer, and the Hawks won the game and occupied seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

After the seventh and eighth games, the ninth and tenth games followed.

In the West, the Thunder defeated the Pelicans, and the Pelicans were eliminated directly. In the East, the Bulls defeated the Pacers, and the Pacers were eliminated.

In the end, the Thunder will face the Timberwolves for eighth place in the West, and the Bulls will face the Raptors in the East.

The eighth place will be the Lakers' opponent in the first round of the playoffs. Naturally, the entire Lakers team watched.

At the beginning of the game between the Thunder and the Timberwolves, the Thunder took the lead, but then the Timberwolves began to catch up.

The Timberwolves have not made a difference in the playoffs for many years, and they naturally want to achieve some results this year.

The current Thunder is a youthful storm, relying on the momentum of young people to persist until now.

When the game came to the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves had already overtaken the score and took the lead.

As Alexander missed the key ball, the Thunder completely lost hope of coming back and winning.

At the end of the game, the Timberwolves won the game as they wished.

唐斯全场拿下28分11篮板3助攻3盖帽，是森林狼获胜的关键人物。而森林狼双塔之一的戈贝尔也拿到了21分10篮板2助攻。

老控卫康利拿下14分3篮板3助攻，后场核心爱德华兹拿下了19分10篮板6助攻，同样表现出色。

In the East, the Bulls defeated the Raptors and won the eighth spot.

After the play-offs ended, the Lakers' coaching staff began intense work.

The Lakers' opponent in the first round was the Timberwolves, who had just won the game and were full of momentum.

In terms of overall strength, the Timberwolves are definitely not as good as the Lakers, and the Lakers can even beat the Timberwolves.

But the Timberwolves' strength is exactly the Lakers' weakness, the inside.

In this small ball era, the Timberwolves actually formed a twin-tower lineup. I have to say that the Timberwolves' management is very courageous.

On April 4, the Timberwolves came to Staples for the first game of the series.

The starting lineup for the Lakers is Su Tian, ​​Dort, Johnson, George, and Marc Gasol.

The Timberwolves' starting lineup is Conley, Edwards, Walker, Towns, and Gobert.

There was no doubt that the Timberwolves took the lead in the opening game. Conley got the ball and advanced to the frontcourt.

After arriving in the frontcourt, Conley stretched out his hand to direct his teammates to move, and then passed the ball to Edwards.

As the team's only ball-handling point, Edwards naturally needs to be heavily guarded. Dort is the first barrier to defense.

Speaking of which, although the Lakers have serious problems inside, their advantages on the outside are very obvious.

Dort's defensive attributes are just enough to stop the immature Edwards, while Su Tian has an overall advantage against Conley.

After Edwards got the ball, he used Towns' pick-and-roll to drive towards the basket with the ball.

Dort quickly bypassed the pick-and-roll and caught up with Edwards.

At the same time, George was also delaying and interfering with Edwards. Edwards had a chance to pass the ball to Towns at this time. Towns did reach out and prepare to catch the ball, but Edwards did not pass the ball. , but rushed towards the basket.

Gobert, who was under the basket, saw Edwards' momentum and hurriedly left his position under the basket, trying to take Gasol away.

But Gobert has no shooting ability, and Gasol is completely indifferent.

So Edwards came to the basket and faced Gasol's defense, forcing a layup.

boom--

The basketball was played directly. Gasol turned around to collect the rebound and quickly passed the ball to George.

George turned around and launched a fast break, but was double-teamed by the Timberwolves, so he passed the ball to Johnson in front again.

Johnson received the ball and went straight to the basket for a layup.

This Lakers lineup has very good passing coordination.

You know, Su Tian himself is a master of passing, the league's assist leader, and George and Gasol are also good passers. Even Johnson and Dort, who have grown up now, are also good passers.

2-0
Although the right to attack was taken by the Timberwolves, the Lakers took the lead in scoring the first goal.

And this first round is basically a microcosm of the first quarter of the game between the two teams.

At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers led the Timberwolves by 31 points 25-6, and this was without Su Tian making much effort.

In fact, according to Su Tian's prediction, the Timberwolves would use their inside advantage in the first quarter and the game would be difficult. However, he did not expect that the Timberwolves would not focus on the inside. Although this puzzled Su Tian, ​​he was also very happy.

So the Lakers also seized the opportunity and opened up a 6-point gap in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, both sides replaced their substitute lineups, and the game started again.

Compared with the Timberwolves, the Lakers' bench has a relatively obvious advantage. The Lakers' bench includes not only the young and strong Brando, but also experienced veterans such as Aldridge.

Rose, who is capable of fighting on the back line, and the young talent Rivers, the firepower shown on the bench is no worse than the starting lineup of some weak teams.

So at the end of the first half, with the joint efforts of the Lakers team, the point difference was opened to 15 points.

The game entered halftime.

"To be honest, although I am very optimistic about the Lakers, I did not expect the gap in this game to be so obvious, even if it was the first vs. eighth." Barkley said.

Kenny Smith on the side also nodded and agreed.

"Indeed, the predictions before the game are that the Timberwolves will use their inside advantage, and at least they will have a back-and-forth game with the Lakers. Some fans even think that this will happen again. But judging from the current performance of the Timberwolves Judging from the outside, it seems that the Timberwolves did not take advantage of their inside advantage, and it seemed more like the Timberwolves gave up the twin towers than Mark defended the twin towers. "

Indeed, Kenny Smith's words are exactly what many fans in front of the TV are wondering about. The Timberwolves do not have the advantage of playing inside, and they do not use the twin towers frequently. Edwards has a far greater share of the ball. Two people on the inside.

At this time, in the Timberwolves locker room, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch looked at Edwards and couldn't help but have a headache.

"Anthony, you have to pay attention to the position of your teammates. Our tactics are internal and external cooperation, not for you to fight alone with the ball."

Edwards nodded frequently when he heard the coach's reprimand, but he remained silent and didn't know if he listened.

Head coach Finch is also helpless. Edwards is an important tactical starting point for the Timberwolves on the outside and an important ball handler. The Timberwolves can reach the eighth position inseparable from Edwards' performance.

But as a young player, Edwards also has serious problems. In Finch's view, Edwards is too confident and doesn't even know who the opponent is in front of him.

Before entering the NBA, you can naturally do whatever you want with your talent, but after entering the NBA, there are talents everywhere, not to mention that the opponent is the Lakers, the number one player in the Western Conference, and a team led by the number one player in the league!

Finch shook his head helplessly. If the Timberwolves want to win this game, they have to count on Edwards' performance.

(End of this chapter)