So I am the god of basketball?

"I can make it to the finals with other teams, but the Bulls can't do it without me. I don't mean to disrespect Michael, but what I want to say is that this is the fact, and nothing is more convincing than the facts!"

God knows how long Pippen has been waiting for this day.

When the Trail Blazers were sure to eliminate the Warriors, the first thought in his mind was not "I can make it to the Western Conference Finals", but "I can fight back!"
This is the second year since he left Chicago.

He has remained silent until now, but he has not let it go. Instead, he has accumulated more resentment in his heart. The moment he expressed it, he felt that the depression of the past two years was not in vain!
It feels so good to say this!

The Chicago media wanted to fight back, but they couldn't say anything, because as Pippen said, nothing is more convincing than facts.

Another very important point is that Jordan's aging this season is more obvious than ever before.

Without Jordan, can they really slap Pippen in the face with just the "second generation of Pippen"?
They expressed doubts about this.

Even some Chicagoans believe they owe Pippen an apology.

A reporter contacted Jordan by phone, but unfortunately, he hung up the phone after hearing the question. And it is certain that this reporter will never be able to call Jordan again.

This is "Small-minded Jordan"!
However, after Jordan hung up the phone, he unexpectedly received a call from McGrady.

"Michael, I will prove myself next season. I can perform better than Scottie. Please give me another chance!" His tone was very sincere.

It also helped Jordan calm down a lot.

The reason he was angry was because of Pippen's remarks. He had clearly advised Pippen not to leave, and he had also stood on his side to confront Krause head-on, trying to stop the deal. It was Pippen who wanted to leave, so how come he has now become one of the people who forced him to leave?

Awakening of consciousness is a good thing, but I have never seen such an awakening!
He could hear the fighting spirit in McGrady's words, which was something he always admired.

He was finally able to see the qualities in McGrady that he admired more than Pippen.

This was something Pippen once had, but it disappeared after being slapped by Oakley. He decided to trust McGrady again.

And he is very sure that he still has gas in the tank, but the "shortened season" schedule has disrupted his menstrual cycle. What he has to do now is to get back to his form in the summer. He believes he can do it. As long as McGrady can do what he said on the phone, the Bulls can launch another wave of impact.

He was in a much better mood.

At the Bulls' season summary conference, he said bluntly: "Everyone thinks that the Bulls have come to an end, but I know very well that everything is not over yet, even if the next year is 00..."

His words rekindled the hope of many Bulls fans, because in Chicago, Jordan's words were actually not much different from God's will.

The Warriors also held their season summary meeting.

Although they were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs again, the Golden State media and the Warriors management are still optimistic about their future. With a full roster, they are second in the Western Conference, and if Hardaway had not been injured, they believe that the team would never have been eliminated in the second round.

They are looking forward to the new season...

The two teams in the Western Conference Finals were determined, and the Lakers once again made it to the Western Conference Finals, which is their third consecutive year in this position.

This time their opponent changed again, becoming the Portland Trail Blazers.

The success of the Trail Blazers this season shows that the effect of spending money in any field is the same. Although some "Galaxy Battleships" will break at the slightest touch, it is a low-probability event after all. There is a reason why they are expensive. Expensive things have only one problem, and that is that they are expensive!

The Trail Blazers' lineup far exceeds the salary cap, but if they can make it to the Western Conference Finals, then all problems will not be a problem!
Before the Western Conference Finals kicked off, the final list of the Eastern Conference Finals was also released. The Heat is one of the two teams in the Eastern Conference Finals. There is another team...

It's the Philadelphia 76ers!
They defeated the Pistons 4-1 and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals.

It is worth mentioning that the winner of the "Best Defensive Player Award" was announced, and it was none other than Mutombo... He also performed outstandingly in the series against the Pistons, averaging 3.4 blocks per game, making the Philadelphia 76ers' inside line a "no-fly zone."

The Pistons were eliminated in the second round, which was undoubtedly a bit disappointing for Detroit people who hoped to see a bigger scene.

The Detroit media began to blast the Pistons players after losing the series.

Amidst the turmoil, the Pistons head coach announced his resignation from the head coaching position at the post-match press conference.

However, looking at this situation, the storm for the Pistons has just begun.

In Meng Lang's opinion, this Pistons team can be seen as the initial version of the "Pistons Civilian Five Tigers", but ultimately failed to create a big scene like the later "Pistons Five Tigers".

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the current situation.

Meng Lang's "butterfly effect" has made the East a "strong team region".

To be honest, judging from the strength of this Pistons team, they are definitely an Eastern Conference Finals level team, but unfortunately they faced a championship level team.

If they come to the "Western version", they will definitely be able to squeeze out other teams and enter the Western Conference Finals.

Meng Lang and the Lakers are a bit like the Boston Celtics in the 2023-2024 season, playing a dungeon without powerful monsters. After the last three rounds of the division, the Celtics encountered the Mavericks, who frequently exploded, but their own strength was too dependent on the performance of two core players...

The Lakers are going to face the Heat, who are armed to the teeth, or the Philadelphia 76ers, who have an explosive lineup!
Well, Meng Lang didn't take this Trail Blazers team seriously. The main reason was very simple. This Trail Blazers team had played the Western Conference Finals with the Lakers in the West, and Kobe performed very well in that series.

This shows that they don't have defensive stalwarts on the wing who can limit Kobe.

more importantly……

They can't even handle Kobe, let alone Meng Lang!
The Trail Blazers' number one player is "Flying Squirrel" Damon Stoudemire.

He is less than 180cm tall, so it is difficult for Meng Lang to defend him, but he can switch defense and let Kobe defend him. But the Trail Blazers have no one who can replace Stoudemire to defend Meng Lang.

and……

Even if there is a wing player switching defense with him, with his height used to defend other positions of the Lakers, wouldn't the result be the same?

give away!
The Trail Blazers' advantage is "multi-point blossoming". No one of them averages more than 20 points per game, but five or six people score more than 10 points.

Now that the firepower from the outside is not as good as that of the Lakers, we have to rely on the inside players.

The Trail Blazers' inside player is the "battle-damaged Roof of the World" Sabonis.

Unlike his son, Sabonis Sr. can fight and defend, and is good at all kinds of forms, but his feet are not good. In addition, he is too old to be the decisive player.

Besides, the Lakers' Divac and Ben Wallace will put enough pressure on him on the defensive end, so there should be no problem!

There are advantages both inside and outside, or there may be solutions.

The Lakers have never lost to such an opponent.

It's just a matter of a few games to solve them.

Most of the outside media have similar views:

They also believe that the Trail Blazers will not be able to put more pressure on the Lakers.

Compared to them, the game between the Heat and the 76ers makes people more curious about the final result.

Both sides have "stabilizing forces" in the interior and strong scorers on the outside. On the defensive end, the Heat have enough mobility, while the Philadelphia 76ers have Mutombo, the "Defensive Player of the Season"...

This series is full of highlights just by simple analysis. They can't wait to see the Eastern Conference Finals begin.

However, before that, the Western Conference Finals will begin.

Chuck Daly has always been a player who plays according to his strengths and exploits the opponent's weak links. In this game, the Lakers used the "double-gun mode" from the beginning. Meng Lang and Kobe took turns shooting, and they gave enough face to the "Roof of the World". There was no frequent attack on the basket, but they used medium and long-range shots to solve the problem.

In fact, Kobe's shooting was not stable during this period.

But in the process of fighting with Meng Lang, he deeply realized that it was impossible to defeat Meng Lang without shooting. So even if he did not reach the "miraculous" stability later, he was still stronger than him at the same time.

In fact, these outside players who partnered with Meng Lang, from Grant Hill to Hardaway, all paid more attention to shooting than their counterparts at the same stage.

Of course, Kobe is a little different from them.

They valued projection because Meng Lang made them see the threatening power of projection.

And Kobe...

He was taught to value shooting...

The Trail Blazers exposed a problem at this time.

Their top scorer is Isiah Rider, who is also a member of the "93 generation" and was ranked one spot after Meng Lang. As mentioned before, his talent is above the first-tier level in the NBA. It is this problem of self-control that has prevented him from growing to the height he should have reached.

But even so, he wandered around three teams and still became the ultimate offensive core.

This season, he averaged 17.3 points per game for the Trail Blazers and is also the team's "scoring leader."

But he is only 1 meters tall...

Everyone knows that the heights of NBA players are really exaggerated, and the same is true for Rider, whose height of 1 meters is when he is wearing shoes. Add to that the "flying squirrel" who is not even 96 meters tall, and the problem of the Trail Blazers' average height being insufficient on the perimeter is exposed at this moment.

Actually, when playing against other teams, their outside players are tall enough, but when playing against the Lakers and Warriors...

Whose number one position is over 2 meters tall?

This is a problem that the Trail Blazers cannot solve, and it also becomes the "key to victory" for the Lakers tonight.

All the players of the Trail Blazers were in good shape tonight and played their "multi-point blossoming" system. In the last attack of the game, five players scored in double digits, but their total points were only 5 points.

Looking at the Lakers, Meng Lang scored 38 points and Kobe scored 24 points, and the two of them together scored 62 points...

They alone are almost catching up with the Trail Blazers' "five-man team".

Divac will score another dozen points, and Horry will come out from the bench and steal eight or nine points...

Without even having to form a complete "five-man team", the Lakers' four players scored more than the Trail Blazers' "five-man team" by about ten points.

In the end, the Trail Blazers lost the first game of the Western Conference Finals at their home court with a score of 92 to 101.

The score difference didn't seem big, but Bill Walton noticed a detail: "Chuck Daly didn't call a timeout even once in this game!"

The head coach defeated the opponent without making any adjustments, which is also a psychological advantage.

Therefore, after the game, all media believed that the Trail Blazers no longer had an advantage.

The first game of the Western Conference Finals is over, and the much-anticipated Eastern Conference Finals will follow.

On the night of the game, the league announced this season's "Regular Season MVP."

The award ultimately went to Tim Duncan.

场均22.4分11.4篮板3.4助攻1抢断2.5盖帽，投篮命中率50.5%！

What many people don’t know is that Tim Duncan, who was originally on the Spurs, almost won the regular season MVP this season.

He finished third in the final result.

Although he was only third, he received 24.14% of the votes, while Karl Malone, who eventually won the regular season MVP award, actually received 26.96%. The difference of less than 3% may only be a few first-place votes...

Now, Karl Malone and the Jazz have failed to maintain their original strength after being swept by the Lakers twice in a row, and have become a lower-tier "playoff team" this season. Naturally, they are no longer opponents.

Tim Duncan's opponent this year is Shaquille O'Neal.

But he was the regular season MVP last season.

If he wants to win the regular season MVP again, his performance this year lacks some persuasiveness.

Of course, Shaquille O'Neal would definitely not accept it.

Before the game, he said to the camera: "I respect everyone, but I think this year's regular season MVP can only be mine!"

Now that the results are out, he has been slapped in the face, and you can imagine how furious he is.

Meng Lang also watched the game on time.

Originally, at the same time, the playoff matchup between Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal was a must-see series and also the most classic series.

Unexpectedly, now that Shaq stayed in the East, Tim Duncan also went to the East.

Moreover, the teams that the two people are in are not weaker than the teams they originally belonged to.

If anything, Tim Duncan has stronger teammates.

Game start……

There was an unusual atmosphere between Tim Duncan and Shaq during the jump ball.

In the end, Tim Duncan successfully grabbed the first attack for the 76ers on the road with the bounce of his "windmill dunk".

Allen Iverson attacked as soon as he got the ball. They were both representatives of "short point guards" and good at breaking through. Tim Hardaway only felt a flash in front of his eyes, and Allen Iverson broke through from his right.

This speed...

Shaquille O'Neal was surprisingly focused. He took a step ahead and blocked Allen Iverson's position as he stood up under the basket.

But Iverson twisted the ball in the air and passed it behind Shaq.

"Bah!"

Tim Duncan dunks easily. (End of this chapter)