When pride still matters

Chapter 229 Enemies will always meet
  Although Yu Fei opened the champagne for the semi-finals in advance, this will not change anything.

In the fourth game of the series, the Philadelphia 76ers were taken away by the Bucks' 5 OUT lineup after heroically persisting for three quarters.

111 is better than 97
  4 is better than 0
  The Philadelphia 76ers fell to the Bucks again.

For a team that had decided to sell off its core and rebuild at the trade deadline, stopping in the semifinals was not a failure.

Their real question is where to go from here.

If Allen Iverson continues to be the core, the team's upper limit will be this.

But if Iverson was sold at a low price, they would be completely unwilling.

Before the off-season, Iverson said to Fei: "Win another championship. You have a good chance."

"If I win, I will give you last year's ring." Yu Fei said jokingly.

Iverson said arrogantly: "No need, I will win one sooner or later."

Seeing that Iverson's mouth was still so tough, Yu Fei felt relieved.

Now they need to set their sights on another set of Eastern Conference semifinals.

The disgusting-looking Pistons and the Pacers, known as the Bucks killers.

Speaking of which, these two teams are closely related.

Last year, it was the Pistons who swept the Pacers in the first round, which directly led to the dismissal of Isiah Thomas. However, the Pistons who did bad things were quickly sanctioned by the Nets in the semifinals - they were also swept.

Rick Carlisle was also dismissed because the Pistons executives believed that although he was effective in running the team, he could not control the morale of the military and could not communicate effectively with the players. Then, Larry Brown came and officially launched the iron barrel formation based on the foundation that Carlisle had laid. As expected, the Pistons were completely transformed.

Now, Carlisle is like an ex who has found a new love and comes back to challenge his old love - I am better off than you are.

And, he stressed: "I'm a person who always learns from life. Overall, I'm not that much different than I was a year ago."

Meaning, I'm still me, but I led the Pacers to a better record than Qianse. It was wrong for you to fire me for last year's loss. Now it's time for you to pay the price.

The showdown between the Pistons and the Pacers is a bit like the bloody battle between the Knicks and the Heat in the late 90s.

They are all extreme products of the same basketball concept.

However, the Pistons have gone further in this regard-maybe the furthest they have ever gone.

In this series, the two sides fought hard for six games. The Pacers were suppressed within 3 points in 70 games and 2 points in 80 games.

Especially in the sixth game that ended the series, the Pistons "scored" 69 points and limited the Pacers to 65 points.

As a time traveler, Yu Fei has never seen such an ugly game.

两队的命中率是36%对32%，犯规数是20对18，失误数是13对12，罚球数是15对15。

There are few fouls, relatively low turnovers, few free throws, and terrifying intensity.

The Pacers were dragged into their own territory by the Pistons, and then suffocated under this insane high-pressure defense.

"Hey, we don't care. As long as we win, people can make fun of us and they can talk about how ugly the game is. Who cares? We just want to win."

When the outside world accused the Pistons of having an ugly playing style and simply turning back history, Chauncey Billups said this.

Having watched this set of semifinals, even if he has not experienced it personally, Yu Fei knows that the Pistons are now a level better than before the trade deadline.

The Pistons' starting lineup itself is flawed. With Milicic being abandoned, Okur and others cannot meet Larry Brown's needs.

Then they shredded their rotation at the trade deadline for Rasheed Wallace, the volatile star power forward who was like a long-lost brother to the Pistons' starting four, instantly catapulting them into another league. A class team.

February 2004, 5

Today is the opening day of the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Although the bloody battle between the Lakers and Spurs in the Western Conference has attracted enough attention, the upcoming battle between the Bucks and Pistons is also the focus of much attention.

"Doug, do you think the Bucks will be eliminated before advancing to the Finals like the Spurs were?"

In the ESPN live broadcast room, the commentator asked his partner Doc Rivers with a smile.

"This is an interesting question!" Rivers said eloquently. "I think the Spurs are destroyed internally. Tony Parker was San Antonio's number one surprise last year, but this year he was a stumbling block for them to fall in the semifinals. And in Milwaukee , Michael Redd could have played that role, but the Bucks traded him before he got any worse. I think the teams that are better at nipping things in the bud are going to win in the end."

"So you think the Bucks are going to advance to the Finals."

Rivers laughed: "Everyone wants to see Frye and Shaq meet in the Finals."

Yu Fei and Ray Allen came to the center circle, and on the Pistons side, Billups and the Wallace brothers came to say hello.

"Where is my dear Rip?" Yu Fei asked.

Rasheed Wallace asked loudly: "What, don't we have the right to shake your hand?!!"

"It's good if I don't beat the shit out of you, why don't you shake hands?" Yu Fei scolded with a smile, "Go away, I have nothing to say to you!"

At first glance, Rashid felt that he had not interacted with Yu Fei too much, and he had a tendency to get angry after just two sentences.

Billups and the others are already immune to flying. After the face-to-face meeting, they have just said hello, and the remaining problems will be solved on the court.

Ray Allen glanced at Yu Fei.

This guy even thought of himself as a bastard, but he wanted to drag himself along. He's not the kind of guy who's going to shit on his opponent's face before the game even starts.

But Yu Fei has already said all his bad things, and it is no longer appropriate for him to be a good person.

"Don't call me next time you do something like this." Ray Allen said.

"Why are you shy?"

After the warm-up, the Bucks' starter came on the court.

Since the Bucks failed to compete with the Pistons after the trade deadline, Karl's strength against the Pistons is also unknown. He can only rely on the Pistons' previous games to judge.

Rasheed Wallace's improvement to the Pistons was indeed immediate, but the Pistons' style of play has not essentially changed.

They still have an iron barrel system, they still have to relax restrictions on outside shooting, and they still have to block the space inside the three-point line to pressure one-on-one singles players, and this style of play is precisely restrained by Yu Fei.

Therefore, the Bucks' life and death in this series depends on Fei.

If he plays well, the Bucks can advance to the finals for two consecutive years. If he plays poorly, their end will not be much better than the Pacers.

In order to cooperate with Yu Fei, Karl asked Robert Horry to replace Anthony Mason as the starting four.

The fifth position is held by Dan Gazulic.

The Pistons won the opening jump ball.

Billups slowly came to the frontcourt, waiting for his teammates to get into position, but without making any tactics, he passed the ball to Hamilton on one side step by step, and Hamilton then lobbed the ball to Billups.

This is almost the Pistons' fixed style of play.

Give Ben a little bit of sweetness at the beginning. Regardless of whether you score or not, the first shot will be from Ben. After the battle, just defend your brothers with all your might.

Ben missed after a strong hit, and Yu Fei took off the rebound, only to see that the Pistons had dealt heavy blows to Fei from the beginning.

Larry Brown learned his previous lesson and no longer treats Yu Fei as a point guard.

Therefore, the person who came to confront Yu Fei became Tayshaun Prince.

Prince has long arms and legs and excellent athletic ability. He is a key part of the Pistons' iron barrel formation.

The more the opponent respects him on the defensive end, the more Yu Fei will trample the opponent's respect under his feet.

Yu Fei did not play fast break, but slowly dribbled the ball across half court under Prince's guard, and then made a gesture to let his teammates pull away.

As soon as the ISO instructions came out, the teammates knew what to do.

Due to his wingspan, when Prince spreads his hands, his defensive range may be the largest in the league (at the third position). Therefore, even if he is broken through, he can rely on his wingspan and rules to facilitate the opponent. The ball threatens.

To deal with this kind of person, you must rely on rhythm and skill.

Yu Fei's center of gravity was lowered, and the ball moved back and forth across his hips like a flea. Prince's defense also lost its intelligence at this moment, and he was unable to capture the attacker's intentions.

Suddenly, Yu Fei took a step to the right, opened up most of his defensive position, collected the ball and shot a jumper.

When Prince reacted, Yu Fei had already jumped into the air.

"Shh!"

Breaking Prince's defense in the first round was a big shock to the Pistons' morale. They knew how good Prince's defense was.

When Prince was still a rookie, he took over in the famous "I'm already thinking about the next round" series. In the key battle, he defended McGrady until his shooting rate was less than 30%. This year, with Brown's heavy use, Stephon Marbury and then Ron Artest's shooting percentages were locked below 30% in the first and second rounds.

The Pistons have great confidence in using Prince to defend the opponent's core, that is, Prince can definitely complete the task with the support of the Iron Barrel Formation.

Who would have thought that Yu Fei would be slapped in the face.

A side effect of the intense effort on the defensive end is that the Pistons themselves will encounter problems on offense.

At the beginning, Big Ben made a blind shot, and now he gave Hamilton a cover to create offensive space for the Masked Man.

But the Bucks' defense wasn't bad either. Sprewell squeezed through the screen and flanked Hamilton with Horry.

Hamilton passed the ball to Rasheed Wallace.

Rasheed missed a jumper.

Yu Fei grabbed another rebound, got unlucky and drove away Billups who tried to foul him, and accelerated forward.

Prince is chasing after him at full speed. In terms of defense, this person can be regarded as a hexagonal warrior. His wingspan, speed, physical fitness, single defense, assist defense, switch defense, and pursuit defense are all perfect.

However, this does not mean that he is flawless. He has an obvious problem-weight.

Prince is 206 centimeters tall, but weighs less than 100KG (212 pounds/96KG). This is too weak in front of Yu Fei, who currently weighs nearly 109KG.

During the counterattack, Yu Fei knocked Prince to the ground with force, collected the ball, jumped up, and completed a tense tomahawk chop directly on Prince's head.

"!#￥!@#￥%"

Yu Fei pulled down the basket provocatively, without even looking at Prince, and gave Larry Brown a contemptuous look: "Let someone else guard him, he can't do it!"

(End of this chapter)