Basketball: Starting from the Rodman template

Chapter 142 List of Eastern and Western Finals

As for the Miami media, when referring to Woody's current position in the entire 03 generation, they even used 8 "far ahead" in a row!
His debut is the peak. In terms of Woody's performance in his rookie season, his leadership performance, the heights this team has reached in the playoffs, and the honorary award at the end of the season, his position is perfect. Perfectly interpret these five words.

There are really few rookies in history who can perform more explosively than him!

Especially if you add another premise...

18 years old!

When the Miami media "kindly" pointed this fact out to everyone.

The media and fans, who originally thought Woody's performance was already outstanding, couldn't help but gasp:
Horror!
It was also at this time that Adidas launched Woody’s “playoff limited boots”!
This is already the third shoe released by Woody.

Coupled with the officially released first version of signature shoes and the All-Star Weekend special edition, Woody is the only player among Adidas players to have released three signature shoes in a row in just four months.

But the data don't lie.

The sales of the first two models signed in the United States have exceeded 2000 million, not to mention the "playoff limited edition" just released, which sold [-] pairs on the first day.It was sold out almost as soon as it hit the shelves.

In the future, Adidas plans to put on the shelves about 1 million more supplies...

With this sales rate, I’m afraid it will become a “value-added model” in the shoe industry!
Woody used his personal performance to turn the words "Insiders don't sell shoes" into "false rumors."

His popularity was unparalleled for a while, and the other three sets of matchups in the playoff semifinals finally reached a fever pitch.

In the match between the Pistons and the Pacers in the East, the Pistons won the "Battle of Tianwang Mountain". After temporarily taking the lead, the Pacers won the sixth game of the series on the road, with the big score reaching 3. Even than 3.

In the seventh game of the series, the home court returned to the "Cornfield".

It's just that under the current circumstances, the home court advantage is not an advantage at all for the Pacers.

Not to mention that Michael Jordan once said: "The reason why I didn't play Game 7 of the series is that I don't want everything to become uncontrollable." This shows how risky Game 7 of the series is. And the unknown, even the "God of Basketball" can't avoid it.

Even in this series, the two sides have won at each other's home court more than once, so the Pacers' home court will not act as a deterrent to the Pistons!
However, the official "Best Defensive Player Award" suddenly awarded before this "tie-break" became another factor affecting the fighting spirit of both sides in this game.

The competition for the "Best Defensive Player Award" in the 03-04 season is very fierce.

In this era, excellent defenders have emerged both inside and outside.

Ultimately this award goes to...

Ron Artest of the Pacers, his vote rate was as high as 43.71%!

He averaged 2.1 steals per game, proving his defensive aggressiveness.

But this number alone cannot fully demonstrate his defensive ability.

Otherwise, he would not have been able to get so many votes and defeat Ben Wallace!
You know, Ben Wallace's vote rate this season is only 29.84%...

Artest received nearly 14% more votes than him!
Who is Ben Wallace?
This is the player who has won the "Best Defensive Player Award" for two consecutive years.

It is impossible for such a guy to take this award away from him without his outstanding defensive performance!

Ron Artest, who won this award, was also extremely excited. He said: "This is the most correct choice. I deserve this award!"

He was happy, but Ben Wallace was not.

The man who originally aspired to become the first winner of the "Three Consecutive Defensive Player of the Year Awards" in NBA history saw the "Defensive Player of the Year Award" just slip away. His anger was suffocating in his chest, not to mention how uncomfortable it was. Got it!
He wants to unleash this anger in the game and let everyone know who this award should belong to!

The two teams were originally in a "defensive battle."

With the "defensive cores" of both sides having such high morale, the confrontation on the court became even more of a "juicer".The two sides fought as hard as if they were playing rugby, causing both sides to lose their physical energy very quickly.

At the end of the first half, the score between the two sides was 38 to 34.

The Pistons barely lead by 4 points!
When the second half of the game started, the confrontation on the field was directly staged towards a wrestling-level confrontation.The movements of both sides are so big that if you are not careful, you may cause the other party to draw blood.The referee tried to blow a few "reminder whistles", but the effect was minimal, and both sides were completely over the top.

They can only relax their rules, otherwise if they really follow the rules, these main players will probably have to sit on and off the court.

This is a real hand-to-hand battle.

In the third quarter, the scores of both sides were 12 and 13 points respectively.

The difference between their confrontation and wrestling is that there is a ball on the court!
The workload of caddies has increased rapidly.

In the last minute of the game, at the final moment, Rasheed Wallace showed his value and hit a straight-arm shot from the mid-range, helping the team widen the point difference to 1 points!
Then he cooperated with Ben Wallace and staged a "double Wallace shot" to knock down Tinsley's basketball.

When the rebound was protected by Ben Wallace, the Pacers completely lost the possibility of winning.

Artest had no choice but to pay for the foul, but the person holding the ball at the moment was Chauncey Billups. He steadily hit the free throw, and the point difference came to 9 points.

The Pistons players on the bench had already stood up, celebrating in advance that they had entered the Eastern Conference Finals.

Reggie Miller failed to hit a "life-chasing three-pointer", and the Pacers stopped working hard and let the last 2.3 seconds slip away...

The cheers from the Pistons side became louder and louder, and Reggie Miller could only watch with his hands on his hips, another disappointing year was over!

The Indiana fans at the scene also had pity in their eyes.

This year they rank first in the Eastern Conference and have the best overall record in the league.Originally they thought this would be their most promising year, but unexpectedly, they ended up falling in the second round of the playoffs.

It has to be said that this situation is still somewhat different from what they expected.This is probably reality!

Life is always unsatisfactory nine times out of ten...

The most depressing person may be Ron Artest, who just received the first "Defensive Player of the Year Award" in his career before the game.But now I have to taste the bitterness of defeat, and listen to Ben Wallace shouting arrogantly on the sidelines: "In this defensive battle, my brothers and I had the last laugh. I think this is for those My biggest comfort is that the damn media didn’t give me the Defensive Player of the Year award! God is fair, some people get things that don’t belong to them, but it can’t go on forever!”

"Let's talk about your next opponent. Next you will face the Miami Heat. You are about to play against your little brother Woody. What are your expectations for this?"

Ben Wallace, who showed off his power at the Pacers' home court, felt very happy. Listening to the reporters' questions, there was a smile on his face immediately. Woody is his most proud "work"!
"To be honest, I didn't think my (playoff) matchup with him would come so soon. He did a great job with his team. It will be a very interesting matchup. I think everyone will Looking forward to this game and let everything happen!”

"So do you think you will win?" This was the reporter's last question.

Ben Wallace said: "You have to know that the first rebound move Woody learned was from me!"

If it meant something, it would be spread through the media the next day.

The Miami media were delighted to know that the Pistons were the eventual winners between him and the Pacers.

They are happy to see this situation, because the Heat's three games with the Pacers in the regular season resulted in 3 win and 1 losses. They won the first game of the series, but they lost in the next two games. .

But facing the Pistons, they met three times in the regular season, and the final result was a big score of 3-3!

They have an absolute psychological advantage!
There are already Miami media fantasizing about the moment the Heat make it to the Finals...

If it does, it will be the first time in franchise history that the Miami Heat have reached the Finals.

Is it possible that the big one is really coming?

At the same time, the results of the two sets of matchups in the Western Conference have now come.

The Timberwolves played the Kings and after a 2-1 start, they successfully expanded the score to 3-1. Although they returned to Minnesota and allowed the Kings to steal a game, the score was rewritten to 2-3.However, after the battlefield moved to Sacramento, the Timberwolves did not lose their form in the away game. Instead, they became more and more courageous as they fought, never giving the Kings any chance and eliminated them 4-2.

In the final moments of the game, Chris Webber accidentally sprained his knee again.

Opposite him, clutching his knee in pain, was Kevin Garnett's cheering.

The "King" falls and the "Wolf King" takes over!
This highly symbolic scene was captured by the courtside camera.

As for the game between the Lakers and the Spurs, the two sides fought to a 2-2 tie. When it came to the "Battle of Heavenly King Mountain", "F4" no longer held back and began to frantically attack Tim Duncan.This "4v1" drama lasted until the fourth quarter. Even Tim Duncan, who was as stable as the "Stone Buddha", finally couldn't resist it. There were struggles and ups and downs in the last 5 minutes. The Lakers lost 100 to 91, 9 They won the "Tianwang Mountain" by 4 points, and took advantage of this fighting spirit to win the sixth game of the series.It was also a big score of 2-[-], eliminating the Spurs and advancing to the Western Conference Finals!

Just like that, the spots for the Western Conference Finals were officially determined, the Timberwolves ranked first in the Western Conference vs. the Lakers ranked second in the Western Conference!

Since they are both 6-game series, the Western Conference Finals will be played earlier than the Eastern Conference Finals.

Two teams with very poor locker room atmospheres ended up at the end of the Western Conference. This was something no one expected.

Before the Western Conference Finals officially started, the league announced the last grand prize of the season:
Regular season MVP!

There was no surprise. As all the media predicted, Kevin Garnett won the final regular season MVP with 33% of the vote, defeating Tim Duncan's 26.8%.

Therefore, it is a pity that Tim Duncan did not become another "three consecutive regular season MVP" players after "Big Bird".

However, Kevin Garnett, who won the regular season MVP, did not perform very well in the first game of the Western Conference Finals.

全场比赛打下来，只拿到了16分10篮板2助攻2抢断跟2盖帽，还有4个失误。

This stat is considered a very good performance for an average star power forward, but if it is placed on Kevin Garnett, especially if he is required to meet the standard of regular season MVP, it is undoubtedly unqualified.

The Timberwolves also lost to the Lakers 88-97, a difference of 9 points!
Barkley teases Kevin Garnett: "This is shark phobia coming back!"

This can be seen from the fact that he only took 2 free throws. During the regular season, he averaged 5.7 free throws per game, which was almost a reduction of one-third!

In the playoffs, until the Western Conference Finals, he averaged 7.2 free throws per game!
According to this standard, he will shrink even more...

The lack of free throws proves that he is not determined enough to hit the basket.

This is the most intuitive way to reflect this.

Kevin Garnett seemed to know that he had a big problem tonight, so when he was interviewed after the game, he also expressed his position directly: "I need to make changes first so that my teammates can become more urgent. Because I am the regular season MVP, this performance is unqualified, I will play more aggressively!"

After the first game of the Western Conference Finals, it was the Eastern Conference Finals.

The first game of the Eastern Conference Finals begins at the home court of the Miami Heat.

No wonder Miami fans are so swollen these days.

There are really too many advantages...

Not to mention that the team swept the Pistons 3-0 in the regular season, but the home court for this series is still in their hands.

With the support of their passionate fans, they really couldn't imagine how the Heat could lose!
Before the game, Stan Van Gundy's attitude was very serious.

These days, every one of the Miami media has their tails raised to the sky. This makes him very impatient. He repeatedly persuades the Heat players to keep a normal mind and don't be proud when they win. Don't feel guilty if they lose or even suffer a disastrous defeat. Frustrated.

Facing the media, he also said sincerely: "This is a different team. (Introducing Rasheed Wallace) This is a good deal. They are different from before. We are in the regular season Victories are not counted. If you take these seriously, it is undoubtedly a very stupid thing! I believe in the Heat, but the final result needs to be played to know!"

Originally, he was confident in his own team, but after studying the game videos of the Pacers and Pistons, he was certain that both teams were championship or quasi-championship teams. The Heat This series will be really difficult for our team!
(End of this chapter)