NBA: James wants to team up with me

In the first round of the playoffs, the lineups for the Eastern and Western Conferences have been determined.

In the East, the Bulls vs. Magic, Heat vs. 76ers, Celtics vs. Knicks, Pacers vs. Hawks.

The first round of the Western Conference is Spurs vs Jazz, Lakers vs Mavericks, Thunder vs Nuggets and Rockets vs Clippers.

Among these matchups, the ones with the least suspense are undoubtedly the Bulls vs. Magic, Heat vs. 76ers, and Lakers vs. Mavericks.

There is no way, these teams with the best regular season records in the league have a huge disparity in opponent strength.

Just like the Bulls' opponent in the first round, the Orlando Magic, the one who can be seen a little bit is center Andrew Bynum.

But there is one thing to say. Although Bynum averaged a double-double of 20+11 per game in the regular season, Gasol is not necessarily inferior to his opponent if he really wants to face off on the court.

Not to mention anything else, in terms of weight alone, the 120-kilogram Gasol will not be completely suppressed to the point of being unable to counterattack against the 129-kilogram Bynum. Even if he cannot prevent Bynum's inside attack, he can It consumes the opponent's physical strength to a great extent.

The Magic, who were unable to gain an advantage at the center position, had no chance of winning against the Bulls.

The same is true.

Facing the Magic, the Bulls showed no mercy, winning 4-0 and sweeping directly to advance.

The strength gap in this series is too huge, so the Bulls did not make serious efforts at all. Whether it was Wang Chong, Jeremy Lin, Garnett and other players, they were all playing hard.

But even so, the Bulls can still lead by more than double digits in every game. The game process is relaxed and smooth, and the game is even easier than in the regular season.

The current Magic team's problems are really too big, and various weaknesses are very obvious. In the past, they relied on the inside defense supported by Howard alone. Now the inside center has been replaced by Bynum. Although Bynum has a scoring ability. Bynum is not much worse than Howard, but on the defensive end, the two are not players of the same weight. As a heavy center, Bynum is slow and clumsy. He simply cannot help defend and make up for defense as flexibly as Howard. With his personal Ability to support the entire team's defense.

The Bulls, who easily passed the first round, slightly improved their opponents in the second round.

The battle between fourth and fifth in the Eastern Conference, that is, the duel between the Indiana Pacers and the Atlanta Hawks, ended with the Pacers defeating the Hawks in a 4:3 tiebreaker.

The current Pacers are not much different from the one Wang Chong originally remembered. The main starting players in the team are point guard George Hill, shooting guard Paul George, and small forward Danny Granger. , power forward David West, center Roy Hibbert.

Although Paul George has not yet risen in the 11-12 season, averaging only 12+5+2 per game in the regular season, Danny Granger has not yet been injured at this time. As the Pacers' main attacker, he can still contribute 18.7 points per game. Points scored.

The Pacers' overall strength is definitely not weak, and they are second only to the top three Bulls, Heat and Celtics in the Eastern Conference.

But compared to another matchup in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers are already the best opponent.

Because the Heat and Celtics next door both defeated their respective opponents.

Needless to say, the Heat faced the Philadelphia 76ers and easily eliminated their opponents 4:1 to advance.

The Celtics encountered a little trouble after facing the Knicks. In the playoffs, although Stoudemire stretched his hips as usual, Rose and Anthony's explosive strength should not be underestimated.

The Celtics lost two games due to a slight mistake, but the gap in strength still allowed the Celtics to defeat the Knicks 4:2 and advance to the second round.

It is worth mentioning that Rose is lucky. He was supposed to be injured in the first round of the 11-12 season against the 76ers, but he was not injured in this playoffs. This way, he can still be healthy next season. The state continues to compete in the NBA. Although Rose does not have the title of the youngest regular season MVP because of Wang Chong, it would be a blessing in disguise if the peak period of his career can last a few more years.

The result of the first round was the second round. The Heat and the Celtics faced each other head-on. The two Eastern Conference giants had to engage in a battle. In contrast, the Bulls had a much easier time playing against the Pacers.

During the first round of games, the league also announced the results of the selection of the best team in the league this season.

Compared with the previous two years, the selection of the best team this year has changed a lot.

First of all, the positions of center Howard, forward Wang Chong, and James are as stable as Mount Tai, without any changes.

As for the guard position, Kobe and Paul have been selected for the first team in the past two years.

But this year the situation has obviously changed. Paul, Kobe and Howard are on the Lakers at the same time. It is impossible for the three of them to be selected for the All-NBA Team at the same time, especially when the Lakers' record is only second in the Western Conference and third in the league.

Therefore, the league chose to let Kobe, who averaged 26 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists per game, continue to be selected for the All-NBA First Team, while Paul was selected for the All-NBA Second Team. The first-team point guard position was given to the Spurs' main point guard Tony. Parker.

As one of the only two 50-win teams in the league, Parker has performed well as the core of the Spurs' offense this season, averaging 18.3 points, 3 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game, while shooting 48% from the field.

It's just that such data is still a bit far-fetched to be selected for the All-NBA First Team. After all, Paul, who fell to the second team, averaged 18 points, 10 assists and 2.5 steals per game this season. His statistics are much more gorgeous than Parker.

In addition, the Thunder's Westbrook and the Knicks' Rose have good personal data performance, but the team's record is slightly inferior, but they are inferior to Parker. In fact, anyone with a discerning eye knows what the relationship between the Spurs' excellent record and Parker is? That is obviously due to the overall strength of the Spurs and the coaching level of head coach Popovich.

It's not that Parker has no contribution, it's just that if he is replaced by any of the above-mentioned point guards, the Spurs will be stronger or weaker.

Therefore, when they learned that Tony Parker was actually selected for the All-NBA First Team, many fans expressed strong dissatisfaction with the selection results.

But there is nothing the alliance can do, so what should we do? We can't let Howard, Kobe and Paul all be selected to the All-NBA team, right? All three players from one team selected to the first team? Looking at history, this has never happened before, let alone the Lakers' regular season record, which only ranks third in the league.

The five players selected for the second team, in addition to Paul who was squeezed out from the first team, are Westbrook, Durant, Griffin and Bynum.

This list is not controversial. Griffin and Bynum are both inside players who can average 20+10 points per game during the regular season. Not to mention Durant, who averages 28 points per game and ranks first in the league in scoring. The second player was not selected for the first team entirely because the first team was firmly occupied by Wang Chong and James, leaving him with no chance.

The list of the best third team includes Rose, Wade, Nowitzki, Anthony and Dayao.

Rondo became the biggest victim. Originally, in the 11-12 season, Rose only played 39 games due to injuries, which prevented him from participating in the selection of the best team. However, although Rose in the Knicks was also injured during the regular season, he was still injured. In the end, he played more than 50 games, which allowed him to participate in the selection of the best team and successfully squeezed out Rondo for the spot.

The same goes for Dayao. His attendance rate is not high, but he played 51 games. He also squeezed out Tyson Chandler who should have been selected to the third team and averaged 11 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Compared with the best team, the best defensive team is relatively less controversial.

Howard, Wang Chong, and James continue to occupy the first defense spots at the center and forward positions. At the guard position, Chris Paul and Tony Allen were selected as the best first defense.

The defensive second team consists of Rajon Rondo, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Serge Ibaka and Tyson Chandler.

What needs to be mentioned here is undoubtedly Ibaka.

Just like in the original time and space, Ibaka was still selected by the Thunder in 08. Although the Thunder followed up with the No. 09 pick Griffin in , Ibaka is still the main inside player of the Thunder. After all, Griffin was the first to join the team. In the first season of the league, Ibaka was the team's starting power forward when he suffered a season-ending injury.

After Griffin returned from injury, Ibaka moved from the power forward position to the center position. Although his height is slightly shorter for the center position and his weight cannot compete with heavy centers, after all, there are currently very few heavy centers in the league. Not much.

Ibaka, who serves as the center for the Thunder, is very much like DeAndre Jordan during his time with the Clippers. He formed a twin tower with Griffin and used his shot-blocking ability to help the team.

One thing to say, this guy's shot-blocking ability is indeed top-notch. In his peak season when he could run and jump, he averaged an exaggerated 3.7 blocks per game. Unfortunately, good shot-blocking does not mean that the defense is also good enough. Although Yi Bacca was selected as the best second defense, but he will face the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the playoffs. Ibaka and Griffin are tied together, and they may not be Howard's opponent.

On May 5, the second round of the playoffs begins.

The Bulls host the Indiana Pacers.

As expected, the game against the Pacers was more difficult than expected. At the beginning, the two teams were almost evenly matched. The overall strength of the Pacers' starting lineup was quite balanced, with multiple positions flourishing. , the score between the two teams remained stalemate until the fourth quarter. The Bulls relied on Wang Chong's explosion in the fourth quarter and scored 16 points in a single quarter to successfully defeat the Pacers.

Two days later, in the second game of the series, the Bulls, who had experience in the previous game, were in much better shape. They took the initiative at the beginning of the game, played steadily and maintained their advantage to win the game.

Victory in this battle brought the Bulls' record to 2:0, and they already have a huge advantage.

However, the Pacers, who then returned to their home court, fully demonstrated their tenacity and resilience. They played an extremely wonderful performance at home, regained a victory, and chased the score to 2:1.

This is not over yet. In the next game, the Pacers team felt hot, making 25 of 17 three-pointers. After another victory, the score was tied at 2:2.

It rained all night. In this game, when Jeremy Lin used the pick-and-roll of his teammates to rush into the penalty area and attack the basket, he made physical contact with Pacers center Hibbert. After landing, Jeremy Lin fell directly to the ground with a look on his face. He held his knees in pain.

Wang Chong couldn't help but feel a little thump in his heart when he saw this scene.

Damn it, what is supposed to come will still come...

No matter how he reduced Jeremy Lin's burden during the regular season, he still failed to avoid injuries.

There is no way around this. The players themselves are not of sufficient quality, and no matter how much rest time they have, it will be useless. Especially in the playoffs, when the intensity of confrontation increases, the probability of injury will further increase.

The good news after the game is that Jeremy Lin's knee injury is not serious, far from the extent of the original meniscus tear.

But the bad news is that although the injury is not serious, Jeremy Lin still needs to rest for 4 to 5 weeks. This means that Jeremy Lin will not only miss all the Bulls' second round playoff games, but also the subsequent Eastern Conference finals games, unless the Bulls If he can make it all the way to the finals, otherwise Jeremy Lin will basically be reimbursed for the season.

At the end of the game, the Chicago fans were helpless.

All I can say is bad luck.

Losing three point guards in a row in one season is something no team can afford.

Bulls fans who originally had a glimmer of hope for the Bulls to defend their fifth consecutive championship because of Jeremy Lin's rise knew that the Bulls' playoff run was over.

Even if Wang Chong is strong enough to defeat the Pacers in the second round, there are still the Heat's Big Three and even the even stronger Lakers Big Three behind him.

Wang Chong himself actually knew it.

After all, he has not reached the level where he can defeat the top three Big Three by himself, especially this season's Heat. With their advanced tactics and the super configuration of the Big Three, their strength is definitely one of the best.

But even so, he didn't intend to just sit back and die.

Two days later, the Bulls returned to their home court and defeated the Pacers 101:85. In this game, Wang Chong scored a near-triple-double with 46 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists. He single-handedly defeated the Pacers and followed closely. On May 5, the Bulls defeated the Pacers 23:92 in an away game. They defeated the Pacers 87:4 and took the lead in advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.

At this time, another matchup in the Eastern Conference, the game between the Heat and the Celtics, had just ended. The two teams were tied at 3:3, and a tiebreaker was about to begin.

On May 5, in the seventh playoff game between the Heat and the Celtics, the two sides had a fierce battle. In the end, the Heat were slightly better, narrowly defeating the Celtics 26:101, and entered the NBA championship for the second consecutive year. Enter the Eastern Conference Finals.

At the same time, James finally won the first regular season MVP trophy of his career. He was so excited that he burst into tears on the court.

It's not easy, it's really not easy.

In the past few years, the regular season MVP award has been monopolized by Wang Chong, but there is no way. Whether it is personal data or team record, Wang Chong's performance is too strong, and others have no chance to get involved.

In fact, to be honest, there is no suspense about the MVP this season. From the perspective of personal data, Wang Chong averaged 34 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists per game, which was even better than James' 27 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

Starting from the team's record, the Bulls are still No. 1 in the league and have a better record than the Heat.

Considering the team's leadership ability, the Bulls have suffered continuous injuries this season. Even with a full camp of injured players, Wang Chong can still lead the team to the first record in the Eastern Conference, and he deserves to continue to win the regular season MVP.

But neither the league nor Stern can allow Wang Chong to continue to win the regular season MVP. You must know that Wang Chong currently has 4 regular season MVP trophies, only one away from Jordan. He is only 27 years old at this time, and he still has a long way to go in his peak period.

What Stern wants is a league where a hundred flowers bloom, not a league where Wang Chong's family dominates for a long time, so it is not surprising to have a little manipulation in the regular season MVP voting. (End of chapter)