Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

Chapter 164 Picking your playoff opponents?End of regular season

Since the end of the All-Star Weekend and the restart of the second half of the regular season, the Bulls youth team led by Dunn has been playing more and more methodically.

Even though the strong teams in the East and West began to sprint and go all out, the Bulls still maintained a winning streak, defeating the Heat, Cavaliers, Wizards, and Rockets.

However, as the leader of the Bulls, although Duan won another Eastern Conference Player of the Week honor, he failed to win the Eastern Conference Player of the Month award.

With his gorgeous statistics and the Heat's outstanding record, O'Neal has added another honor to the Player of the Month honor.

Time flies into March, and the lottery teams and playoff teams have become distinct.

Although the Bulls are a young team today, they have begun to consciously prepare for the playoffs and have arranged some reasonable rest plans.

It was also because Iverson's 76ers fell out of the playoff team sequence early, and the 76ers began to fail again. Unconvinced, Iverson could only vent his anger on scoring.

It is impossible for Duane to destroy the Bulls' existing good chemistry and locker room atmosphere for his own selfish purposes, in order to compete with Iverson for the scoring title.

Therefore, Duen could only bear the pain and give up his plan to win the scoring title in advance, and instead continued to pursue his plan of averaging a triple-double per game.

As time goes by, the strength of the Bulls youth army will become stronger and stronger.

So, when the team's cake cannot continue to grow, Duan must first sacrifice some regular season data if he wants to achieve results in the playoffs.

It is precisely because of this that if Duan wants to average a triple-double per game, I am afraid this is the only time he will have the chance to achieve it.

After all, Duen doesn't want to waste his prime years and go to lottery teams to train rookies.

It's enough to do this kind of thing once, and it's impossible to cultivate talents for the league every year.

To be honest, rich families have their own way of playing!

The Chicago Bulls should be like the Los Angeles Lakers, who cultivate the cornerstones of their championship and then piece together all-star-level championship pieces.

Today's Duan is undoubtedly one of the league's best cornerstones of winning championships.

Dunn wants to achieve what Jordan did with the Bulls, but he doesn't want to repeat the same path Jordan took.

It is not persuasive to take shortcuts to achieve historical status, but we cannot deliberately take long detours just to take the most difficult road!

Just like the future Warriors, the sequelae of winning a championship are very serious, but Curry did not break out of the original framework and go to a team with many draft picks and healthy salary space.

Instead, they stuck to one city and continued fighting with a few old brothers.Even if the blood is sucked, there is no complaint.

The team also supports Curry and recruits under the super luxury tax.

In Du En's view, this is how wealthy clubs play, and it is also the team that Du En admires and is willing to be loyal to.

Closer to home, after entering March, the Bulls quickly faced a head-on attack.

Originally, it wasn't too difficult for the Bulls to beat the Spurs.

However, in this away game, the Spurs just welcomed the double outbreak of Parker and Ginobili.

Duen can only use back hits to consume one of them, and use defense to lock in one's offense.

A continuous winning streak will inevitably make the Bulls youth army complacent and arrogant.

Playing in this state, Bulls players will inevitably lose focus on defense during the game, and the Spurs will seize the opportunity to easily score the ball.

After losing to the Spurs, the Bulls rushed back to Chicago overnight because they played the Bucks in their next away game.

In the past, bulls fighting stags were arranged this way.

Milwaukee is very close to Chicago. It's right next door and only takes two hours by car.

But flying back to Chicago from the West overnight and then taking a two-hour drive to play in the arena the next afternoon will inevitably make players feel tired.

In addition, the second half of the regular season schedule is more compact than the first half, the defensive intensity is also higher, and the Bulls play a fast break style.

Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, and Josh Smith, all first-year rookies who were heavily used by the Bulls, finally hit the rookie wall one after another, and there were physical problems.

Therefore, the Bucks, who were originally determined to win, turned against the Bulls.

Even though Duan was on full fire in the fourth quarter, he encountered Reed who was suffering from convulsions and failed to reverse the score.

However, this is also the norm in the NBA. NBA teams are NBA teams after all!

As long as the team is not clearly bad, anyone can be upset and win a victory at the hands of the championship team.

In order to avoid the situation of capsizing in the gutter and losing to fringe playoff teams like the Bucks, the Bulls already have their own plan.

After the rotation method was implemented, the Bulls' rookies' playing time was evenly spread.

Even rookies such as Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, and Josh Smith, who are heavily used and often start, only play about 20 minutes in a game.

As for the absolute core like Du En, although he has not missed any games, his playing time has been greatly reduced.

The playing time previously averaged 38 minutes per game, but now it is only about 30 minutes.

It is said that the reduction of playing time of the Bulls' main players will naturally affect the team's record.

Fortunately, in the upcoming schedule, the Bulls will basically encounter weak teams from the east and west.

The Bulls defeated the Trail Blazers, SuperSonics, and Clippers successively to restart their winning streak. It was not until they met the Nets who distributed the ball well that they lost another game.

Immediately afterwards, the Bulls defeated the Hornets, 76ers, Hawks, Raptors, and Celtics one after another.

It wasn't until they met the Pacers that the winning streak was ended again by other teams.

But the current situation, for the Bulls, losing one or two games no longer affects the overall situation.

The Heat are always two or three games away from the top spot in the Eastern Conference, and it's not that easy for the Pistons, who are third in the Eastern Conference, to catch up.

There are still more than ten games left before the end of the regular season. In order to achieve good results in the playoffs, the Bulls have also begun to arrange their troops and pick their opponents in advance.

In fact, the main reason is to avoid some difficult opponents!The Bulls have studied the Heat's schedule and are basically certain that the Heat can maintain first place in the Eastern Conference and reach the playoffs.

Since the Bulls have no chance to rush to the top of the Eastern Conference, they have to give up some game wins and avoid the Pistons and Pacers who have restrained their style of play in advance.

Anyway, the Bulls are already firmly in the playoffs, and there aren't many teams they can't beat in the playoffs.

In today's Eastern Conference, the Pistons and Pacers are the only two teams that are a bit more difficult to deal with.

Due to the impact of the battle at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the Pacers are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference. Even if they move up the rankings, they will basically be fifth or sixth in the Eastern Conference.

If the Bulls want to avoid the Pistons and Pacers, the best thing is to first slip to fourth in the Eastern Conference, and then send some warmth to the Celtics, currently fourth in the Eastern Conference, and the fifth-ranked Wizards in the Eastern Conference.

In this way, the Pistons can quickly surpass the Bulls, and the Pacers are stuck in the sixth or seventh position in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls can control points very well and are in the fourth position in the Eastern Conference.

In this way, the Pistons and Pacers will not be encountered prematurely, and there may even be a chance for the two strong teams to fight each other in the first round.

The Bulls' plan is quite good, but the Heat also began to stare at the Bulls' every move early on.

Ever since, after the Bulls let loose, the Heat also began to lose.

The Heat lost in a relatively good way, that is, they first maintained the same record as the Bulls.

After all, in the showdown between the Heat and the Bulls, the Heat lost.

With the same record, the Bulls are first and the Heat are second. The two teams will not meet before the Eastern Conference Finals.

If the Bulls are second, the Heat can continue to lose and fall to fourth in the Eastern Conference. Of course, they can also retain the first place in the Eastern Conference.

It was also because the top two teams in the Eastern Conference suddenly began to control points. The Pistons were a blessing in disguise. They suddenly climbed from the third position in the Eastern Conference to first in the Eastern Conference.

However, the records of the three teams are similar, with basically only one or 0.5 wins difference.

When the Bulls saw that their plans had changed, they also began to adjust their strategies, hoping to regain the first and second positions in the Eastern Conference.

On the one hand, it can continue to avoid the Pistons and Pacers, and on the other hand, it can also help Duan win the regular season MVP.

After all, blindly losing before the end of the regular season can easily affect the players' mood and state.

It is definitely better to win and control points than to lose and control points.

However, people are not as good as heaven.

While the Bulls were plotting against the Pistons and Heat, they were also plotted against by the Pistons and Heat.

The Bulls' opponents in the last two games were the Knicks and Pacers.

The regular season is coming to an end, and the Knicks are also competing with the Cavaliers for the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

In order to continue to lead the team into the playoffs, in order not to lose to James, and in order to prove himself in front of Du En, Anthony broke out.

Du En tried his best but couldn't push Anthony down.

And Anthony basically scored 46 points purely by shooting.

In this way, he ganked Du En and won an extremely rare victory from the Bulls.

The Bulls thus dashed their hopes of reaching first place in the Eastern Conference.

At the same time, the Heat, who were facing the Bobcats at home, relied on the Bobcats' extreme cooperation to continuously implement shark-cutting tactics and send O'Neal to the free throw line, which also delayed the game for more than half an hour.

After learning that the Bulls had lost at home, the Heat stopped playing and went all out to win tonight and secure the first place in the Eastern Conference.

On April 4, the Bulls faced the Pacers at home.

The Pacers, who were already guaranteed to enter the playoffs, simply rested their main players in order to help the Bulls win.

The purpose is to choose the Bulls or Pistons to play with the seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls play at home and cannot lose for the sake of the fans, so they can only suffer the consequences.

The words are divided into two parts. The Pistons, who were also playing the last game of the regular season, also played with a pure substitute lineup and announced that they would voluntarily admit defeat.

In this way, it is ensured that the Bulls can enter the playoffs with the second record in the Eastern Conference.

The Pistons are not afraid of the Pacers, but there is no need to compete with the Pacers in the first round.

The intensity of playoff games is too great!When playing against a strong defensive team like the Pacers, there are grievances, and it is easy for the main players to get injured.

Larry Brown wants to win the championship and is going crazy. Naturally, he doesn't want to start a head-on confrontation from the first round.

Therefore, it doesn't matter if the Bulls are given a higher ranking.

Let the Bulls and Pacers burn out first. Anyway, in the second round of the playoffs, whether they play the Bulls or the Pacers, the Pistons can defeat their opponents early and wait for their work.

By the way, with the official end of the regular season, the Eastern and Western Conference playoff rosters were quickly released.

Next, the Heat, ranked first in the Eastern Conference, will face the Knicks, ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls, second in the Eastern Conference, faced off against the Pacers, seventh in the Eastern Conference.

The Pistons, third in the Eastern Conference, picked the Nets, a soft persimmon.

The fourth and fifth places in the Eastern Conference are the Celtics and Wizards respectively.

The situation in the West is that the Suns play the Timberwolves, the Spurs play the Grizzlies, the Lakers play the Kings, and the Mavericks play the Rockets.

Whether it's the Bulls in the East or the Lakers in the West, if they want to reach the conference finals, they have to go all the way and win the tough battles!

(End of this chapter)