Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

On May 5, at the Quicken Loans Center in Cleveland, the Eastern Conference semifinals G3 between the Bulls and the Cavaliers started as scheduled.

Originally, Du En thought this game would be more difficult.

After all, this year's Cavaliers are a genuine 60-win team, and the Cavaliers play at home. Just by looking at the referee's face, you can tell what difficulties need to be overcome.

However, the Cavaliers have just finished playing G7 and the main players have not yet recovered.

The Bulls did a relatively good job defensively. As a result, the Cavaliers players were exposed to problems on both ends of the offense and defense early in G1 due to lack of physical strength.

Precisely because of this, the Bulls only took three quarters to establish a 23-point advantage. This can be said to have won the G1 victory early.

Because they are still in the rebuilding period, the Bulls have no pressure on record.

So in the fourth quarter, Scott Skiles boldly asked Curry, Harden, and Ibaka to play more, practice more, and accumulate more experience in the playoffs.

Who knew that Curry was not afraid of tigers as a newborn, and he didn't know the importance of his shots. He only played 3 minutes in the fourth quarter and hit 3 three-pointers.

He came up to travel at different times, oh no, it was to help the Cavaliers narrow the point difference and fight for the first chance of winning. James was beaten into disgrace.

However, James was not discouraged and returned to the bench dejectedly. On the contrary, they became more courageous with every setback, relying on the Bulls to miss three-pointers from outside, and constantly protecting rebounds and pushing for counterattacks.

I have to say that James is worthy of being a man who won the regular season MVP, and he did it knowing he couldn't do it.

Even though the hope of winning was slim, they still did not give up the game in the fourth quarter.

Of course, the Bulls also gave them a chance. The first half of the fourth quarter was basically played by rookies and second-team players.

As we all know, rookies lack game experience and are prone to making mistakes, especially on the defensive end.

Coupled with the fact that his body and skills are not fully mature, it is certain that he will not be able to guard against a star like James who is at least one of the top ten in the league.

Not to mention, this is the Quicken Loans Center in Cleveland, so it is normal for the referee to give a superstar whistle.

It was also because the point difference was slowly narrowed that Duen had to return to the court.

Although Duan could not solve the problem of referees constantly blowing whistles and Cavaliers players constantly standing on the free throw line, the Bulls had enough of a lead and Duan was able to score points based on his personal strength.

110 to 101, with the support of Duan's 10 points in a single quarter, the Bulls still firmly won the G1 victory.

值得一提的是，今晚第四节基本打满，全场打了43分钟的詹姆斯，凭借25投11中，三分7投3中，罚球15投11中，拿下了36分7篮板7助攻2抢断2盖帽的全面数据。

Just looking at the data, James' performance tonight is no worse than Duane. He can even be called an integrated offense and defense, with one person taking the lead.

Of course, from James' performance on the field, it can also be seen that James did invest a lot of energy tonight.

But despite working so hard, they still failed to win. This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the Cavaliers' morale.

After this game, outside media also continued to report and discuss the results of the game.

The Cavaliers have been one of the best teams in the league in the past two years, and James also proved his personal strength by winning the regular season MVP.

Under normal circumstances, if the Cavaliers reach the playoffs this year, they should be like the Bulls a few years ago, chopping up melons and vegetables in the Eastern Conference, destroying everything.

However, in the first round, they were in the league's bottom market like the Bucks. Teams that often performed badly were so fierce that it was difficult to distinguish between them.

After finally advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals, they were defeated by the Bulls, who had been rebuilt and focused on cultivating new players.

The outside media has even acquiesced that the Bulls suffered a loss on the whistle and the Cavaliers took advantage of the penalties.

However, under the favorable conditions of playing at home, the Cavaliers still lost so miserably, which has to raise some questions.

At first, the media and fans questioned the CBA within the Cavaliers, but it didn't take long for the controversy to focus on James.

After all, 15 free throws in a single game is a bit abnormal, not to mention that James is not purely a breakthrough player. He also made more than a dozen three-pointers and mid-range shots.

It's normal for James to have so many free throws in the regular season, but it's still like this in the playoffs, especially when there was such a special case in the first round and the Bucks were eliminated, which made some fans feel unfair.

Some fans and media people even shared videos online about James' successful penalties during the regular season.

Some people say that James only averaged 10 free throws per game in the regular season. Instead of declining in the playoffs, the number of free throws shot increased to 14 per game. Such a star whistle is too excessive and unfair.

Because the regular season MVP is about to be announced, and James is the player with the best team record and the most attention among the three major seed players, the attention and controversy surrounding James have become even greater for a while.

However, the mainstream media reacted very quickly. In just one day, the reports about James changed from questioning to portraying James as a tragic hero who is beautiful and powerful.

The Cavaliers couldn't beat the Bulls because Duan was too strong and Duan's teammates were too strong.

James has tried his best to score 36 points. The statistics of rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks show that James is very comprehensive, not much worse than Duan.

In comparison, the performance of other Cavaliers players was somewhat unsatisfactory. The stars in the Cavaliers who were supposed to be on the rise have now fallen behind and cannot help James share the pressure.

Of course, fans are still making their voices heard online.

Even some non-Dunn fans are complaining that Duen failed to win the regular season MVP last year.

Back to business, the time soon came to May 5th, it was still the Quicken Loans Center, and the G5 game between the Bulls and Cavaliers started immediately.

Maybe James worked too hard in G1 and couldn't recover in just two days. James felt very bad tonight and couldn't make any shots.

We all know that shooting is the most energy-saving offensive method, and it is too difficult for players without shooting to rely solely on breakthroughs and scoring at the basket.

The simplest reason is that it is easy for an inside star to score 20 points in a game, but even O'Neal cannot guarantee 30 points in every game if he is asked to play ball after ball under the basket.

James is an outside player, and he is also the head coach of the Cavaliers. If he wants to score from the outside to the inside, even if he takes a few more steps, it will not be easier than for inside players to score inside.

Even if James had a whistle, with the Bulls setting up a zone defense and surrounding the basket, James' offense was suddenly restricted and he could only use passing to help his Cavaliers relieve the scoring pressure.

The problem is, Maurice Williams is a small man and a second-round pick with limited physical talents.

No matter how good his shooting practice is, if he faces high-intensity defense and is called out by the Bulls, and constantly consumes his energy with offense, his touch will quickly decline until he is completely reduced to a blacksmith.

As for James' other helper-Antoine Jamison, Duan will naturally solve the problem.

When James couldn't shoot, all the Cavaliers turned into blacksmiths, without exception.

The Bulls relied on pressing defense and zone defense to suppress the Cavaliers.

In this game, the Bulls played more easily than in G1. Even though the number of free throws on both sides was 16 to 39, and the Cavaliers took 23 more free throws, the Bulls still beat the Cavaliers by 98 to 84, beating the Cavaliers by a full 14 points.

Before the start of this series, perhaps no one expected that the fifth-place player in the Eastern Conference would play the first-place player in the Eastern Conference and start the game 2-0, just like me playing my son.

But at this juncture, the league needs to announce the ownership of the regular season MVP.

This suddenly made the league officials sit up and take notice...

Because Stern overcame everyone's opinions and once again gave the regular season MVP to James, James became another second-consecutive MVP after Duan.

The problem is that Dundu has won five championships, including four consecutive championship dynasties.

In comparison, James is portrayed as the foolish son of a capitalist.

They are all rookies in the same class. Duan became famous early due to his pure ability. However, the regular season MVP honor that he should have won was snatched away by James. James' performance was not bad, but there were others who were better in the same period. Just because he had people kneeling to support him, he took advantage.

To be fair, everyone in Tianlong and Ao Guanhai should portray a hard-working person who has paid off student loans for decades.

James is obviously inferior in strength, but he shared the Rookie of the Year award with Duen, and last year stole Duen's regular season MVP.

This year James once again won the regular season MVP and became the second consecutive MVP. However, if he is eliminated by Dunn again, the controversy surrounding James may become even more uncontrollable.

When you find a cockroach in your home, it often means that there are cockroaches in every corner that you didn't pay attention to.

Simply making cockroaches invisible is not the right way to solve the problem.

However, at this stage, the league can only take some measures to help James cover up as much as possible and help James perform better in this series.

In fact, judging from James' regular season data and the Cavaliers' record, it is not surprising to win the regular season MVP.

The key issue is that last year, in order to encourage James, the regular season MVP was given to James in advance, which caused the situation to be reversed.

This year he is the regular season MVP again, which shows that James is a bit unqualified and is not enough to become the second consecutive MVP.

Of course, there is another way, which is to make temporary adjustments and award the regular season MVP to the less controversial star among the three seeded players.

However, there are traces of regular season MVP voting. Stern clearly stated that some media people voted for James, which was also revealed early.

This leads to a very high risk of temporary substitution of the regular season MVP.

In other words, if James wins the second consecutive MVP, at most it will mean that James is ridiculed by the crowd and the league changes its tune, which means it will lose any credibility at all.

In the end, the league had no choice but to postpone the announcement of the regular season MVP and at the same time create a chance for James to win.

Time flies to May 5, when the G8 game between the Bulls and Cavaliers started at the Chicago League Center.

A year later, the Bulls once again encountered the special treatment that only teams in three consecutive championship dynasties would receive.

And with the league's hints and tacit approval, the Cavaliers' players also knew that they couldn't win through formal methods, so they could only get anxious and engage in some crooked ways.

Ben Gordon and Josh Smith are experienced players, and they know that they will change teams after the playoffs, so they naturally do not want to get injured in this series.

The Bulls' main players are timid, and it is natural that they cannot win with Duan and the rookies alone.

In order to prevent any players from getting injured, the Bulls withdrew their main players early and surrendered for three quarters, and used the fourth quarter for rookies to practice.

Huangtian paid off. Although the Bulls lost G3, it was still meaningful.

By G4, the Bulls' training of rookies finally produced some results.

Curry exploded and transformed into a perverted and accurate baby-faced killer in advance.

Curry playing next to Duane is like Thompson playing next to Curry.

When people mention Thompson, they often mention his explosive scoring power and the G6 soup.

In fact, Thompson often performed as a third or fourth leader with the salary and tactical status of the second leader, but he was praised to the sky just because he played poorly and because of one or two highlights from time to time.

The Warriors play a pass-and-cut style with guards as the core. The guards are the beneficiaries of the system, and the guards' offense is boosted by the system.

Many people say that Curry is the system Redick, because of this.

However, as the leader and the first scoring point, Curry is undoubtedly the most targeted by his opponents.

Double teaming with the ball, one-on-one four-way, naming tactics, and even the cylinder was confiscated by the referee...

When Curry is heavily defended by his opponents, Thompson, as another defender on the court, is the biggest beneficiary of the system.

Curry enjoys the results of the pass-and-cut system, often after Thompson relies on the system to achieve results, or after an All-Star forward relies on his personal ability to attract defenses.

Now that Curry is playing in the Bulls, although he cannot enjoy the results of the pass-and-cut system, playing next to Du En, he will not be under too much defensive pressure, but can get a lot of open shots.

Curry's touch and shooting talent are among the best in the entire NBA.

Finding the touch and putting the ball into the basket one after another is as simple as eating and sleeping for Curry.

After adapting in the previous nine playoff games, Curry clearly understands how to play in the playoffs.

This time it was also because Ben Gordon wisely protected himself and did not care about the ball or playing time, allowing Curry to seize the opportunity.

When Curry broke out, the Cavaliers had to send people to restrict Curry. Duan took advantage of this opportunity to attack strongly and score points like crazy.

Just like the Warriors, when the Splash Brothers scored three-pointers one after another, no team in the league could effectively limit their crazy offense.

To put it bluntly, a team's defensive resources are limited.

In a game, the referee's help is also limited.

The Cavaliers were able to achieve the first record in the Eastern Conference for two consecutive seasons not because of really good defense, but because of the help of the referees.

The league has experimented in the past few years. When the Bulls continue to score, they have the strength to play 5 on 8.

Tonight, the Bulls once again showed such strength.

Duane scored 38 points to lead the team to victory. Curry, who came off the bench, scored 8 points with 2 three-pointers, 1 air cuts and 29 free throw, making a huge contribution to the Bulls' victory in G4.

After winning G4, the Bulls headed to Cleveland again with a big score of 3-1.

Seeing that the Cavaliers were dying and the Bulls were about to advance again, the league could only hurriedly hold a regular season MVP award ceremony for James, who had just returned to Cleveland...

Perhaps it was the excitement brought by the second consecutive MVP that made James extremely excited and defensive in the G5 game.

Curry, who still performed well in G5, was assisted by James during an air-cut layup. Then he carelessly missed Jingzhou and was lifted off due to waist discomfort.

Today's penalty standards in the playoffs, as long as they don't blatantly elbow someone or kick someone like Malone, even a dirty move like pushing the waist is just a normal foul.

It can only be said that Curry paid for his youth.

If you want to become a star, you must either have your body naturally maxed out in endurance attributes, or you must master various techniques to protect yourself as soon as possible.

Duane and James are rookies in the same class, and they are both in the Eastern Conference. They have played against each other so many times over the years, but they have only involved intense physical confrontations, and there have been no injuries.

Of course, if Dunn had tailor-made a set of full-body protective gear for Curry early on, he might have been able to avoid Curry's injury this time.

But these are not important anymore. What is important is that the Bulls, led by Duan, still defeated the Cavaliers led by James with difficulty.

However, in the fourth quarter of the game, the anxious James elbowed Harden, who came on as a substitute, during the breakthrough.

Although Harden did not open his Sharingan, as the essence of human beings who are afraid of pain, he showed several emoticons miserably and returned to the locker room in advance, clutching his chest.

It has to be said that although the Bulls defeated the Cavaliers 4-1 and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals again, they also lost two important rotation players.

It is still unknown whether the main players Ben Gordon and Josh Smith can continue to work together with Duan.

Otherwise, the Bulls may have a chance to become the first lower-division championship team in history that is in the rebuilding period. (End of chapter)