So I am the god of basketball?

On April 4, the first round of the playoffs officially kicked off.

The Utah Jazz arrived at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Looking at the "purple and gold" in the stadium and Meng Lang walking out amid the cheers of the crowd, Ma Long's face was full of complexity.

At first, he had not expected that he would be beaten to the point of incontinence by Meng Lang, just like now he had not expected that the Jazz’s final peak period would be destroyed by this guy.

Ma Long has never believed that there is a "nemesis" in his career, but now he has to admit:

Meng Lang is the nemesis of the Jazz!

It seems that the era of "Utah Duo" in Salt Lake City will be ended by this guy.

If I have to say I'm unwilling, I do.

Even though he had lost to Meng Lang twice, both times badly, Karl Malone was still unwilling to accept the result. He felt that his current condition was still very good, and Stockton was also in very good condition.

But because they encountered Meng Lang twice in the playoffs and were swept twice, their self-confidence was greatly hit...

For a team, a blow to its self-confidence is sometimes more fatal than injuries to its main players.

Just like the Warriors, Hardaway's season-ending injury did not affect their continued status as second in the Western Conference this season.

But if their self-confidence is shattered and they begin to doubt their own abilities, it would be absolutely fatal.

Salt Lake City had no intention of surrendering, but the memory Meng Lang left on them was too profound.

When the game officially started, those memories involuntarily came to their minds.

Especially Karl Malone. When the team was behind in the score, his expression became visibly panicked and he became obviously hesitant on the offensive end.

But he has another problem, which is that he tends to make mistakes at critical moments.

For example, in the 98 Finals, before Jordan completed the "Shot of the Century", the ball was snatched from his hands. Even if he firmly believed that it was Jordan who beat him. But the fact is...

He became Jordan's "background board" at the critical moment.

It was the same in this game. When the team still had a glimmer of hope, Meng Lang stole the ball from behind him and then quickly launched a counterattack. After this shot, the Lakers led by more than 15 points, and until the end of the game, the Jazz did not narrow the score below 15 points.

This is not a microcosm of one game, it is a microcosm of three games.

The Jazz returned to their home court, but were unable to end the series with dignity.

In the third game of the series, they lost by 30 points, the most in the entire series.

However, this is not the Lakers "beating the downed dog", but...

The Jazz didn't know what was going on, they were not in good shape at all, no matter how they shot, they couldn't make the shot. It was like the basket had a lid on it, preventing their ball from falling into the basket.

At the end of the first half, the Jazz only scored 30 points. The game entered "garbage time" in the fourth quarter. Meng Lang sat on the bench and watched the Utah fans leave one after another.

The game wasn't even over yet, but 80% of the Jazz fans had already left the stadium.

Jerry Sloan stood on the sidelines and watched all this, feeling like he was about to break apart.

Obviously, he knew that the time had come for the Jazz to change. All the signs were pointing to this point, and they were very obvious. He thought he could accept it calmly. However, it turned out that when all this happened, he really couldn't accept it calmly!
After all, this was the "Utah Duo" that he created and had accompanied him for so many years...

When the final whistle sounded, Karl Malone and Stockton high-fived each other. The old buddies of more than ten years looked at each other in silence and silently accepted their defeat once again.

"I might go out and give it a try to see if there's any chance..."

In the player tunnel, Malone expressed his feelings to Stockton.

He still wants to win the championship!
Stockton nodded.

In fact, winning the championship was also his idea, but what came before winning the championship was his retirement as a Jazz player.

If he can't win in Salt Lake City, he will choose to retire...

With just two simple sentences, the era of the "Utah Duo" was brought to an end by themselves.

The Lakers successfully entered the second round of the playoffs.

Like them, the Warriors, ranked second in the Western Conference, and the Suns, ranked third in the Western Conference, also made it to the next round.

The combat effectiveness of these three teams is stronger than other Western teams this season, so they all eliminated their opponents 3-0 and entered the second round.

The Suns and Warriors, who met on a narrow road, started the second round of the Western Conference.

In terms of lineup, the two teams play completely different styles. "Princeton" requires "people move, ball moves", requiring everyone to participate in the offense, while the Suns have the ball in the hands of Jason Kidd. Grant Hill's humble character prevents him from competing for the ball with anyone.

Kidd likes Grant Hill very much because of this.

As for Kidd's ability to hold the ball and lead a team, there is no doubt that he will lead a lineup like the Nets to the finals twice in a row in the future.

Of course, this was due to the fact that the Eastern Conference was weak at the time.

However, the combat effectiveness of the current Suns team is not comparable to that of the later Nets team.

Whether it is Hill, Ray Allen, or Marion, the combat power they can provide is much greater than that of Richard and Kenyon Martin.

The Suns had an absolute advantage at the beginning of the game, but the "madman" stood up at this time and used his strong body to constantly consume Kidd's one-on-one play, which exposed Kidd's problem of not being strong in one-on-one play with the ball.

The Warriors, who continued to gain the upper hand in positional warfare, successfully narrowed the gap by 10 points and won the first game of the Western Conference semifinals with a big reversal.

Judging from the momentum shown by the two teams in this game, it is obvious that this series will be a long one.

At the same time, the list of the "four strongest teams" entering the second round in the East has been released:
The Philadelphia 76ers, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers all refused to be outclassed and advanced to the second round.

As they also started the second round of the playoffs, the Lakers finally met their second round opponent:

The spurs!
Ben Wallace and Divac fighting against the "Admiral" and Brand is considered by the outside media to be the gimmick of this round of the series.

However, when the series really started, it was completely different:

In the first game of the playoffs, the Lakers won by 114 points, 90 to 24. Meng Lang scored 40 points and Kobe Bryant scored 28 points. The two teamed up to stun Popovich!
The Spurs are a team that relies on teamwork. Whether it is offense or defense, this team is extremely individualistic. Of course, the Spurs are really good at teamwork. It is this title that finally fell on Popovich's head.

In fact, the fact that Popovich has become the "No. 1 NBA head coach" in the hearts of many fans is definitely inseparable from the "teamism" he emphasizes.

Just like all the media said LeBron is a great team player, but in the end he played 411.
Fans who have just started watching the NBA will definitely say, if this team has gotten 411, if they keep using the ball, it will definitely be "522"!

But the fact is that if LeBron really works alone on the court, he may not be able to get the "411".

The main reason why LeBron was able to win the "411" under such a "team" situation is:
His career average playing time was 38.1 minutes per game, and this time rose to 41.3 minutes in the playoffs.

This is the most important thing. In the same 722 games, others may have played for only 24548 minutes in total, while LeBron played for 27508 minutes, which is equivalent to 48 minutes per game...

This means that it seems that everyone has played 722 games, but in fact he has played 61.6 more games.

This is the main reason why he can get "411".

Of course, endurance is definitely a physical talent.

LeBron, who focuses on the team, achieved such amazing statistics by relying on his durable body.

Popovich has become a "monument" among NBA head coaches with his team philosophy!
and so……

Even though these people are shouting the slogan of team, they have not fallen behind in all aspects of honor.

And Popovich is very smart. As soon as Tim Duncan retired and Kawhi Leonard left, he immediately started to play badly, and he continued to play badly until the Frenchman entered the league and began his new round of team-oriented coaching career.

Because he is playing badly, others cannot say that his coaching ability is poor.

If he can make it to the playoffs despite playing badly, then he is simply awesome!

This is Popovich.

Do you think being a spy is that easy?

However, there is a big problem with Popovich's team defense:

He always lets go of the distance.

Shrinking the inside and forcing the outside, this is Popovich's arrangement on the defensive end, and the rest is all team cooperation and "chicken soup-like" methods such as enthusiasm.

That's why he likes Kobe so much.

Because he really has no way to deal with this kind of player who is proficient in mid-range shots.

And this Lakers team has not just one but two such players.

After the game, Popovich praised Meng Lang profusely: "This is Dream. This is why every head coach wants him. He can always contribute incredible performances on nights like this, and this is the norm for him!"

He is very similar to LeBron in that after losing a game, he will definitely praise the opponent's players for their abilities and will never look for problems in himself.

As long as you don't look for problems on your own side, there will be no problem!

The second game of the series was still a "mid-range shooting show" by Meng Lang and Kobe. Meng Lang once again scored 34 points and Kobe also scored 25 points.

Now Meng Lang was completely relieved. Kobe was indeed much more stable than last season and was now qualified to be the "second in command".

Moving to San Antonio, before the third game of the series, the league announced the best lineup of the season:
“The best team: Meng Lang, Allen Iverson, Jordan, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal;
Best Second Team: McGrady, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Chris Webber, Mutombo;
The best third team: Kobe, Hardaway, Vince Carter, Ben Wallace, Divac;"

The biggest change in the "Best First Team" is that Jordan was selected as the "Best First Team" at the third position.

Of course, this doesn't mean the league deliberately gave Jordan honors. In order to allow McGrady to perform better this season, Jordan did play the small forward position.

And he is indeed more suitable for fighting in the third position now.

Although Tim Duncan suffered a season-ending injury at the end of the season, his total appearances were still over 68 games, enough to be included in the "Best Team" selection.

The Lakers had a huge haul this season, with everyone except Russell being named to the All-NBA Team.

Meng Lang was in the first team, Kobe was in the second team, and the third team was the inside combination of Divac and Ben Wallace.

This is a rare occasion in the league where four people are selected to the best team together.

The Los Angeles fans' tails are almost up to the sky.

However, the Lakers' record this season is indeed worthy of this honor:

74 wins and 8 losses!
This will almost certainly be the best regular season record that the NBA cannot break in the next 20 years.

With such a record, four players were selected into the "Best Team"...

That's quite normal.

The list of the best defensive lineup is:

"Best Defensive Team": "Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Ben Wallace, McGrady, Mutombo;"

"Best Defensive Second Team": Russell, Eddie Jones, Jason Kidd, Pippen, Gary Payton;"

Ben Wallace was also selected to the "Best Defensive First Team". He is the only Lakers player selected to the "Double Best Team".

Barkley often defends Meng Lang: "With Dream's defensive ability, he should actually be on this list, but he is so dazzling on the offensive end that everyone subconsciously ignores his defensive ability."

As if to verify his words, in the third game against the Spurs, Meng Lang continuously withstood Robinson and Brand's alternating one-on-one attacks under the basket, becoming a beautiful "scenery" in the Lakers' interior line in that game.

Barkley was so excited: "See? See? I told you, Dream is definitely underestimated. He is definitely qualified to be on the All-Defensive Team!"

When asked if he was unhappy about not being on the All-Defensive Team, Meng Lang said, "To be fair, there are several people on the Lakers who put more effort into defense than I do. If I am selected and their names are not on it, then I will feel that I have taken away the honor that should have belonged to others. The Lakers' strength this season is the credit of everyone, not just me!"

"So I am happy for every Lakers comrade who received the honor. This is the honor they deserve!"

These words directly brought Meng Lang's vision to the atmosphere.

In the fourth game of the series, the Lakers continued their winning streak and won by another 23 points, defeating the Spurs 4-0 and reaching the Western Conference Finals for the fourth consecutive year. (End of this chapter)