NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

As for the subsequent best defensive team, Big Ben, Garnett, Artest, Lin Tian and Kobe were selected to the annual defensive first team. The Pacers once again had two players selected to the best defensive team.

The second team of the annual defensive lineup is led by Theo Ratliff, and the other four are Duncan, Kirilenko, Kidd and Bowen!

Afterwards, the league awarded the Coach of the Year award to Larry Brown of the Pistons, and the General Manager of the Year award to Saunders of the Timberwolves.

One of these two teams has the best record in the league, and the other experienced a shocking huge trade in the summer. These two people also deserved the award.

However, the best coach award was not announced until after the first round, and the Pistons had already been eliminated, which meant that Brown could only accept the trophy at his own home!
If this award was given out a few days earlier, Brown could use the trophy to motivate his players, and the team might even win the seventh game!

In fact, Brown originally wanted to stimulate Big Ben when Lin Tian won the best defensive player award, so as to boost Big Ben's morale and let him continue to maintain his defensive intensity.

However, what Brown did not expect was that on the day when the Best Defensive Player award was announced, he enthusiastically found Big Ben. He originally wanted to see an angry, unwilling, indignant, and complaining Big Ben, but the picture he saw was completely different from what he imagined.

What he saw was a man jumping up and down excitedly, shouting, "I knew it! I knew the boss could do it! He should have won this award a long time ago!"

"Lin is the best! Those judges in the past few years were completely blind!"

Go to hell.

Brown suspected that there was a traitor among them.

Who would congratulate their opponent like this?

It turns out that celebrating your opponent's award is not a very auspicious thing.

Didn’t the Pistons lose?
At this point, the regular season awards have basically been awarded, and the only ones left are the best lineup and MVP.

According to the league's behavior in previous years, Stern wanted to hold back on giving out these two awards until the divisional finals. Originally, Lin Tian also thought that he would have to play one more round of the series to see the results.

Unexpectedly, perhaps there was not enough talk about the second round of the playoffs, or perhaps there were no strong matches worth looking forward to, so on the first day of the second round of the playoffs, the league struck while the iron was hot and announced the MVP and best lineup lists.

The second round was not good? No expectations? No direct confrontation between superstars?

no problem!
The best lineup and MVP are given to you, go and fight with them!
Well, this is the principle that Stern uses to choose the time to reveal the final suspense of the league's regular season every year.

If the game is intense, just take it slow and don't be in a hurry.

If the playoff matchup is not exciting and not popular, then release it early to generate some traffic.

When the discussion about the best lineup and MVP died down, the competition also passed the boring stage and entered a fierce stage.

The main goal is to make a lot of money without losing!
But... this year's two awards that were the most controversial in previous years, especially the annual lineup, really didn't cause any big stir this year.

The results are so predictable!

First team of the year: Lin Tian, ​​Kobe, McGrady, Garnett, O'Neal.

Second team of the year: Kidd, Iverson, Duncan, Nowitzki, and Ben Wallace.

Third team of the year: Reed, Davis, O'Neal Jr., Peja, Yao Ming.

Not to mention the third lineup, the first and second lineups, the main focus is no suspense, no matter who you move or replace, it won't be suitable.

Almost all of these players have proved that they belong to this position through their performances and strengths throughout the season.

As for the third lineup, well, there is still some controversy about the third lineup, but that's all.

After all, most fans are really not interested in topics such as who deserves the third team better between Allen and Reed, who is better between Pierce and Peja, how Randolph is worse than O'Neal Jr., and who is better between Davis and Cassell.

Who are you guys?

Unfamiliar, unpopular, little Karami, not interested.

It's not worth discussing.

Well, the Team of the Year hardly caused any stir.

As a result, the following MVP did not spark much discussion.

Lin Tian!

Once again, he won an MVP trophy!

This is already his fifth MVP in his career!
To be honest, Lin Tian himself felt it was a bit boring.

Keep taking and taking. Brothers, can you please help me and take a few from me?

There is no challenge anymore.

In fact, Stern originally thought that Lin Tian, ​​the MVP, would receive some discussion.

After all, the Pacers only have 43 wins, which is the MVP with the lowest winning rate since the MVP selection mechanism was updated to the current version!

Even if we count further back, that is, the period when players voted for the MVP, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once won the MVP when his team had only 30 wins and did not even make the playoffs. The team's winning percentage was lower than this year's Pacers.

Stern thought that fans of Garnett, Iverson, Kobe, O'Neal and others would jump out and say that the selection was unfair!
But in the end, everything was calm.

As for why?
This time it was Stern who was slow to react.

As long as Stern takes a closer look at the four people he listed and which teams they belong to, he will know why it did not spark discussion.

If they form teams of two and split the votes between each other, it would be impossible for them to win the MVP!
Not to mention, Lin Tian’s performance in the regular season this year was really scary!
It is absolutely not an exaggeration to praise his unprecedented achievement!
39+9+9, no one has ever achieved these statistics from ancient times to the present!
Yes, Oscar Robertson had a 30+10+10 season, but the scoring difference is several orders of magnitude!
Yes, Chamberlain also had seasons where he averaged 50+ points per game and 44 points per game, but firstly, that era was too long ago, and secondly, Chamberlain only averaged 2 or 3 assists per game at that time.

What's wrong with being able to directly claim to be the best in history with top data without having to specially customize various prefix conditions and getting an MVP?
At this time, if fans of Kobe, O'Neal, Iverson and others dare to jump out and say that their favorite stars are more worthy of the MVP, they are looking for death.

Your stats are not just a little bit bad, they are directly a dimension apart. What do you have to win the MVP?

Why is the record so good? Are you so important to the team? If the team is gone, would you still have 1 win and 11 losses?

No?

Goodbye then!

In short, whether it was MVP or the best lineup, the final outcome was finally reached in a harmonious atmosphere.

Everyone had a great time and received the awards happily.

Even before the first game of the second round of the playoffs, when Lin Tian received the MVP trophy in Milwaukee, fans from all over Milwaukee expressed their best wishes to Lin Tian!
They shouted Lin Tian's name loudly and chanted MVP slogans, and then as they shouted, the slogans turned into recruitment slogans.

"Milwaukee welcomes Lin!"

"Come to the Bucks and create glory together!"

"we need you!"

"Let's win the championship together!"

"Milwaukee has been waiting 30 years for this!"

This is extremely excessive and completely disrespectful to the home team's stars in front of the fans.

What is the response of Bucks star Michael Redd now?

"Lin! Congratulations! If it weren't for what you taught me at the All-Star Game last year, I would never be where I am today! I have always regarded you as my mentor! Come to Milwaukee! This team definitely belongs to you! I will just be your spot shooter."

Well, Reed, like the fans, expressed his welcome and desire for Lin Tian.

"Don't you know how stingy your team boss is?" Lin Tian rejected Reid without even thinking about it, and then said, "I can sign the so-called 'God Clause'. Is your boss willing to pay for it?"

The current Bucks are famous for being stingy. If you want Lin Tian to join, you have to wait until they change the new boss.

What's the new boss' name? Mallory?

No, Mallory seems to be the new boss's hot and attractive daughter.

What's the boss' name?

I can't remember. Never mind. I'll ask Mallory when I get back and have a chance.

The little girl must know!
"I absolutely can't bear to do that!" After thinking for a while, Reed nodded decisively, indicating that Lin Tian was right!

Well, this boy is quite sensible!
I don’t know if Alian will come here in two years.

If he goes to the Bucks, I guess he won't be bullied by Reed.

Hmm, it seems that Reed didn't bully Yi Lian in the first place? Was it some corpse from Australia who liked to bully people, and Reed just didn't like to meddle in things and didn't like to talk?

Forget it, it doesn't matter.

The important thing is that Lin Tian is now in the alliance, and he really doesn’t believe that anyone would dare to attack his little brother.

Well... although Lin Tian himself has not seen this little brother yet.

But it should be soon, because the Olympics are coming soon!

If I remember correctly, my little brother is going to make his national team debut!
Lin Tian never considered Milwaukee. Even if the poor boss here was willing to pay, Lin Tian would not come.

The reason...

Lin Tian is afraid of cold.

Not to mention places like Miami and Orlando where it's warm all year round, but Milwaukee, which is icy and snowy, is too much.

Can't stand it.

In this round of series, in fact, just by looking at Reed and Milwaukee fans' attitude towards Lin Tian, ​​we can roughly see the trend of this round of series.

Or you can use a more direct comparison to describe it.

I defeated the Pistons with 61 wins, so why do you, the Bucks with only 40 wins, have the right to fight me?

Unless your stadium doesn’t have air conditioning!

Well, there’s no point not turning on the air conditioner, it’s summer now.

But anyway, based on the few wins the Bucks had over the Pacers, if Carlisle and Bird hadn't insisted that Lin Tian rest for that month, who knows which team would have a better record!
In the eyes of the Pacers after the fierce battle in the last round, this team with only 40 wins is really just a bunch of little Kalami and is not worth mentioning!
The team leader Michael Redd is a pure shooter, at best a weakened version of Ray Allen. Christie is best at dealing with this kind of shooter with mediocre talent.

The second highest scorer on the team is Keith Van Horn, a standard big white soft player who can score but has a soft style of play. Artest is most adept at bullying this kind of guy.

It is worth mentioning that the Bucks have another player of this big, white and soft type: Toni Kukoc.

There is also the wandering No. 3 pick Joe Smith, a team No. 4- player who is not very tall or fast, has a decent shooting and rebounding ability. Coincidentally, his playing style is also relatively soft.

Haslem can hold him down, no problem at all! If that doesn't work, Lin Tian can help him defend!

After all, Lin Tian’s opponent is Brevin Knight.

Friends with good memory should still remember how badly Lin Tian beat this guy who claimed to be 178cm tall, but at most 175cm tall. He was so short and couldn't shoot. Now, after so many years, when the old friend met again, Lin Tian had forgotten his name. He looked familiar, and it seemed like he had played against him in the playoffs, but it also seemed like he hadn't played against him...

Not important, not important.

Anyway, what it means is that Lin Tian can assist in defense and fill in positions throughout the game, helping his teammates deal with the guys they are dealing with.

From the advantages and disadvantages of the matchups to the quality of the stars, to the playoff experience and the team's current state and morale, we can easily draw a conclusion: The Pacers will crush the Bucks, no problem!
The two teams will play until the sixth game at most, and the Bucks will be defeated by the Pacers.

In various polls before the start of the series, more than 91% of people believed that the Pacers could advance!

The fact that they still have this kind of support rate and proportion in the second round of the playoffs is enough to show how much everyone disregards the Bucks.

But sometimes, theory is one thing, and actually fighting is another.

For example, if you follow the theory, the Pacers would have been eliminated by the Pistons long ago and would never have been able to make a comeback.

For example, according to theory, it is impossible for Lin Tian to win the Olympic gold medal in boxing and dominate the sprinting while playing basketball, right?

There are so many unreasonable things!

For example, in this series, when the game started, everyone found out that they were wrong!
They originally thought that this series would start at 6:4, at most 6.5:3.5, with the Pacers having the upper hand but not being too overwhelming.

But the fans obviously underestimated the strength of the Pistons!

After those 7-game fierce battles with the Pistons, the Pacers' current strength is simply not comparable to that of the Bucks!
Defensive intensity, the scale of physical confrontation, the ability to withstand pressure, the grasp of scale, the desire for victory...

Just with these things, the Pacers guys, who almost crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, really scared the Bucks players.

The Bucks players, who were initially immersed in their success in eliminating the Hornets and advancing to the second round, suddenly realized that the intensity of the second round of the playoffs was simply incomparable to the first round!
If we have to compare, the game against the Hornets was at most at the preseason level, while the Pacers brought the Bucks the intensity of the finals!

Bucks fans: Oh my god! I haven't played in the finals for more than 30 years. Who knew I could experience the intensity of the finals in the second round of the playoffs this year?

Moreover, this result is very different from that of more than 30 years ago.

The Bucks 30 years ago were invincible and made it all the way to the finals. They won the championship thanks to the "Skyhook" who was also called Alcindor and "Big O" Oscar Robertson.

But today, 30 years later, they were beaten to the point of losing all their armor, pissing and running away, crying and howling like ghosts, and had no power to fight back at all.

I was beaten to the point of vomiting.

The first game ended with a score of 119:84, a 35-point loss.

In the second game, the Bucks played well, 112:99, losing by only 13 points.

But in the third game, after coming to Indiana, the Bucks once again showed their inability to fight tough battles, losing by 61 points 95:34!
In the final fourth game, the Bucks also did not put up any resistance. In fact, their resistance was even smaller and more insignificant than in the first three games.

Or to put it more directly: the Bucks players will most likely start looking for vacation tickets after the second game, so that the season can end early, they can go on vacation early, and forget about this terrible series early.

At this time, the happiest group is undoubtedly the Hornets players and fans.

Even though they lost the first round of the playoffs, they won again!

All members of the team had an extra half month of vacation time and were not yet wantonly bullied and beaten by the Pacers.

Even in a few months, if they are thick-skinned enough, the Hornets players can say in interviews something like 'We are the best team', 'We would never lose so badly if we had made it to the second round', 'We suffered an injustice in that series and that's why we lost'.

Looking at it this way, it’s a sure win!
Just lost a series, but won a lot more!

The Pacers swept the Bucks easily. In the first round, they were the toughest and most difficult team, but in the second round, they transformed themselves and became the team that won the easiest.

Not only did the average net score per game rank first in the second round of the series, but the statistic that best reflected the Pacers' ease was Lin Tian's playing time!
Lin Tian played an average of nearly 44 minutes per game in the first round, playing the entire game in four of them. He only rested for 4 seconds in one game and only got some rest time in the sixth and seventh games.

In the four games of this series, Lin Tian's average playing time dropped sharply to 32 minutes. This was because the two sides created some suspense in the second game, so Lin Tian's 40 minutes of playing time significantly increased the average playing time!
而4场比赛，林天没有一场比赛的得分超过30分，但是4场比赛3场轰下三双，场均能够拿到26.5分，12个篮板和13.5次助攻的大号三双！同时命中率也达到了52%，48%和87%！

No matter from the scene, data, playing time or the state and scene shown on the court, Lin Tian played easily and carefree in this round of the series!
You fell down before I even exerted any strength!
With ease, he led the team to sweep through and advance!
The Pacers were the only team that reached a Game 7 in the previous round, and in this round, they became the only team that swept their opponents in the four-round series!
In the other matchup in the East, the Nets and the Cavaliers have only played five games. Wade, whose shooting level is still not up to standard, is facing the twin towers combination of Yao Ming and Gasol, and he is at a loss, with great difficulties and struggles.

Wade here had no way to punish Yao Ming and Gasol through mismatch, but Carter on the opposite side relied on his superb shooting skills and ability to make the Cavaliers' Big Z complain bitterly. If the Cavaliers didn't play Big Z, they would be taught a lesson by Yao Ming and Gasol.

When the Cavaliers put Big Z on the field, he would be constantly trained by Carter.

Faced with this dilemma, the Cavaliers' ability to put up a resistance is naturally quite limited.

The Cavaliers lost their first three games cleanly, only slightly better than the Bucks in that they did not lose by 30 points in a row.

In the fourth game, they relied on Wade to play the full 48 minutes, get 18 free throws, and successfully beat Yao Ming into 6 fouls. He scored 41 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, which saved their face and won the battle of dignity.

But unfortunately, there is only one Pacers team, and there is only one monster like Lin Tian.

In the fifth game of the series, Wade, who was obviously exhausted in the previous game, played extremely badly and did not even score 20 points in the whole game. When the team's top spearhead was unable to break through the opponent's defense, the Cavaliers naturally lost again.

4: 1!

The Nets advance to the Eastern Conference Finals again!
In the West, the Lakers played against the SuperSonics, who had an empty inside line and relied on three musketeers to conquer the world. However, they did not give the SuperSonics too many opportunities. The aging Payton could block Bibby, but he could no longer defend against top stars of Kobe's level.

He was beaten up by Kobe and had almost no ability to fight back.

And if the Supersonics could barely withstand Kobe's firepower and let Allen and Lewis compete with him, then the Supersonics would be really powerless to stop O'Neal's impact.

Their inside line is already very empty, and it is no exaggeration to say that their level is among the bottom three among the 16 teams.

If the inside players of this kind of team face O'Neal, they will definitely be slaughtered by him!

In the first three games, O'Neal averaged a terrifying 35 points and 16 rebounds per game, making the Sonics' inside line completely defeated.

In the fourth game, O'Neal was somewhat careless and was called for two offensive fouls, which resulted in the offensive time being cut into pieces. In addition, Allen and Lewis both had good touches tonight and made shots from beyond the three-point line. The Supersonics finally won the game and avoided a sweep.

But like the Cavaliers, that's all they can do.

In the fifth game of the series, O'Neal scored 41 points and 20 rebounds, Kobe scored 40 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. The crazy performance of the OK combination made it impossible for the Supersonics to resist. This game also became their worst loss and the one with the most points lost in the entire series!
4: 1!

The Lakers also successfully advanced to the Western Conference Finals!

The other matchup in the Western Conference was originally considered a strong dialogue. The Mavericks and the Timberwolves have met in the playoffs in the past few years.

But the last time they met, it was Nowitzki who beat Garnett, who was isolated and unable to support the team's offense. He had crazy output on the offensive end and led the team to win the series.

This time the result was just the opposite.

Garnett no longer needs to take care of offense as the team has plenty of players who can and are good at offense. He just needs to do a good job of defense.

Coupled with the crazy desire for victory from Iverson, Cassell, Sprewell, Szczerbiak and others, the Timberwolves used their offense to destroy the Mavericks' defense!

Originally, the Mavericks were not a team that relied on defense to win games. They relied on offense, so they were never afraid of any team with fierce firepower.

Just attack!

But the problem is that the Mavericks' lineup this year is really weird.

It is impossible for a normal human to train a chemical reaction between those three power forwards whose playing styles, offensive capabilities, offensive zones, and even strengths and weaknesses are exactly the same.

It's not a problem when we're bullying the weak teams in the regular season and the first round of the playoffs. We just line up and attack to deal with most of the opponents.

But in the playoffs when facing a top team like the Timberwolves, the Mavericks' problems were immediately exposed.

There were too many singles, lack of coordination, and chemistry so poor that it could be ignored. The entire team was basically just a few people taking turns playing singles.

What does this team that relies on singles fear the most?
What I fear most is that the opponent has a master of assisting defense and a top defender who can find gaps and fill them everywhere!

What a coincidence!
The Timberwolves have one!
Kevin Garnett!
This time, Garnett did not face off against Nowitzki or any other strong scoring point. His task was to clear the ball, assist in defense and protect the basket!

This move by Timberwolves coach Saunders completely liberated Garnett, but also made the Mavericks' singles players complain bitterly. They had to be careful of Garnett's ubiquitous defense at all times on the court.

The entire Mavericks team played extremely badly.

In the first two games of the series, the Mavericks, playing away from home, failed to put up any effective resistance and lost both games cleanly.

In the third game of the series, Johnson finally couldn't stand the team's poor condition anymore and put Jamison and Walker on the bench. Walker played for less than 15 minutes!

Johnson is reusing the traditional trio of Nash, Finley and Nowitzki!

The chemistry and cooperation between these three players was so good! Thanks to the wonderful performance of these three players tonight, the Mavericks finally recovered and won the third game of the series!
In the fourth game, Johnson got the upper hand and continued his trick of removing the dross and retaining the essence. However, in this game, the Mavericks failed to hold on. The two sides fought all the way to the last moment. In the end, Iverson showed his MVP scoring champion-level ability and scored three consecutive times.

With Iverson's outburst in the final moments, the Mavericks lost to the Timberwolves by 3 points, and the score between the two sides became 3:1!

At this point, although the Mavericks were at an absolute disadvantage, as long as Johnson continued his successful tactics and ideas in the third and fourth games, the Mavericks might be able to escape from Minnesota unscathed.

But the problem is that Walker and Jamison are both in their contract years this year!
Both big guys are counting on a great performance in the playoffs to get a big contract!
Now that you, Johnson, have abandoned the two of us, isn't that cutting off our financial resources and killing our parents?

So, before the start of Game 5, the two of them forced the team to change its mind, saying that either they should be given enough playing time in Game 5, or they should not play at all, and they would not go to Minnesota.

If Nelson is still the head coach of the Mavericks now, he would definitely say excitedly: "Damn double happiness! You two, get out of here together."

But unfortunately, although Johnson has a bad temper, he is a rookie head coach after all. He does not have enough say and prestige in the team. After these two people made such a fuss, and with the team's general manager Nelson Jr. and owner Cuban trying to persuade and pressure him, Johnson was helpless.

He could only say with tears in his eyes: In the next game, these two will continue to play, and their playing time will not be less!

This change in the team's lineup basically sealed the Mavericks' death.

In Game 5, the Timberwolves, who had already completed the running-in process and had almost no chemistry flaws, taught the Mavericks a good lesson.

What is a team, what is the desire for the championship, and what is layered defense and targeted defense against singles masters.

In short, the Timberwolves easily defeated the Mavericks in Game 5 of the series, showing the restraint that carnivores have over herbivores, and almost completely tore the Mavericks apart and taught them a good lesson!
4: 1!

After the game, Cuban, who came with the team to watch the game on the road, had a constipated look on his face. This guy thought that he had paid so much for the team and spent so much money, but the results had not improved and he couldn't even make it to the finals.

He is very angry!
If he asked the team's general manager Nelson and head coach Johnson about this, they would both tell him the same thing in unison.

"Don't give any more to the team! If you just stop giving more, the team will be back on track in a minute!"

But unfortunately, Cuban did not ask these two people what he should do, but silently figured out how to play during the offseason.

However, the four groups of divisional semifinals have officially ended here. The score between the Mavericks and the Timberwolves is also the third 4:1 among the four groups!

The semifinals of the Eastern and Western Conferences were definitely not exciting. There were 4 groups of matches, 3 groups ended with 5 games, and 1 group was directly swept.

There was so little suspense and the game was so unwatchable that it was not even as good as the first round of the playoffs.

Many fans who follow the game also lamented that this year's playoffs were quite boring. Except for the round between the Pacers and the Pistons, the other games were either a fight between weak teams or a game of chicken with dinosaurs. It was very boring!

It is precisely because of this that the ratings for the four regional semi-finals this year all dropped sharply!

The ratings were dropping so much that Stern didn't even dare to listen to the reports from his subordinates.

Stern has no idea what to do if the game is not interesting, the strong team is too strong, and the weak team is too weak.

He has already introduced luxury taxes, salary caps and various rules to curb the emergence of super teams. Stern even introduced the "God Clause" to help Lin Tian escape and let him go to a big city to help the league maintain its appearance for a few more years.

But unfortunately, whether it is the equalization of team strength, Lin Tian's change of team, or the confrontation between the new rookies who entered the league this year and the hype of the concept of lifelong enemies, the results will not be seen in a short time.

This year's playoff ratings obviously cannot be saved by these.

But fortunately, the divisional finals are coming soon!

Whether it's the Lakers vs. Timberwolves or the Pacers vs. Nets, they are all very popular, with many stars and lots of highlights! (End of this chapter)