So I am the god of basketball?

The Los Angeles media has always had a very high opinion of Meng Lang.

Even though the Lakers fell in the finals last season, since Meng Lang came to the Lakers, they have never missed the finals stage and won two championships.

To be honest, this grand occasion can be compared to the time when we had "Magic" Johnson.

Perhaps the most glorious period than this was the first "Lakers Dynasty" led by McCann.

But at that time, the Lakers were still in Minnesota, not in Los Angeles at all.

The most glorious "Lakers era" that Los Angeles fans have ever witnessed is the "show time" era.

And now, the honor that Meng Lang brings to the Lakers is no less than the "show time" at that time.

Let’s not talk about anything else, just look at the 74 wins and 8 losses, the best regular season record in history, which is something that the “Show Time” team can’t compare to.

Now Meng Lang has led the Lakers into the Western Conference Finals again, but judging from his expression, this doesn't seem to be a great achievement.

Yes, looking at Meng Lang's record so far in his career, he seems to have only missed the Eastern and Western Conference Finals once, and that time was because he was injured.

For him, entering the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, isn't it enough to just have hands?

The league then announced this season's "Defensive Player of the Season Award". As expected, Ben Wallace beat Mutombo with 32.4% of the votes to become the new "Defensive Player of the Season Award" winner.

As far as Meng Lang knew, this was actually the beginning of Ben Wallace's monopoly on the "Defensive Player of the Season Award".

If Artest hadn't come out of nowhere, he would have definitely won the unprecedented "5 consecutive seasons of the best defensive player award". He is also a legend in the field of defense.

Ben Wallace has also become a representative of NBA inspirational role models.

From undrafted player to All-Star, to All-NBA Team, to Defensive Player of the Season, he has become the protagonist of Hollywood's favorite "ugly duckling"-to-"swan" script.

Ben Wallace faced the media and talked about his feelings about winning this award: "I am just a representative of all the players on the Lakers. Defense is not accomplished by me alone, but by all of us brothers together."

It just means that what kind of boss brings out what kind of teammates.

Ben Wallace is now speaking in a big-picture manner.

For the Los Angeles media, this is naturally something they welcome.

They like this kind of harmonious team atmosphere, and everyone knows that it is the team that makes them successful.

This will give them higher expectations.

For example, "three championships in four years", "four championships in five years" and...

The first team since the Bulls to win three consecutive championships.

For the people of Los Angeles, they will not blame Meng Lang or other players of the Lakers for losing in the finals last season. But they will have regrets. Compared with "two consecutive championships", they naturally hope that the Lakers can create a dynasty.

The current Lakers still give them that hope.

The Lakers are the first team to reach the Western Conference Finals, and as things stand, they may have to wait a long time.

Because the game between the Suns and the Warriors was indeed very intense.

The Warriors, who won the first game of the series, continued to play at home. Grant Hill had a great performance and our wing player blew up Christie, allowing the Suns to pull one back.

The overall score is 1 to 1.
The home-court advantage is on the Suns' side.

In the third game of the series, the Suns, led by Jason Kidd, exploded at home and scored 60 points in the first half.

This is 00, not 2024. 60 points in the first half is an exaggerated number in this era.

The Suns thus became the team with a big lead.

But just when Phoenix fans thought the Suns were going to take the lead completely and eventually eliminate the Warriors.

The Warriors showed resilience. After a bad start in Game 10, when they fell behind by 2 points at one point, they played steadily and relied on patient positional passes to help the team change the score to 2-.

Chris Webber was the hero of the Warriors' comeback.

He is a person who cannot be relied upon at critical moments, but in this game, he broke out 1% of his reliability, scored 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, helping the Warriors win a game that had a completely different meaning to them.

The "Battle of Tianwang Mountain" is back in Jinzhou.

The Warriors and the Suns were already very familiar with each other at this time. If the Suns wanted to win, they had to let Jason Kidd lead everyone to play. If the Warriors wanted to win, they had to let Jason Kidd become the main attacker of the Suns.

Judging from the results of the previous few games, this is not impossible to accomplish.

Therefore, there is great pressure on both sides in this "Battle of the Mountain King".

As a result, the exhilarating offensive and defensive confrontations in the previous few games were gone, and were replaced by several consecutive rounds of missed shots.

Both teams have the same problem, they can't let go in such crucial situations.

The Warriors were the first to open the scoring, with Hardaway having his best offensive performance in the past four games.

The Warriors opened up a gap on the wing with his breakthrough.

Then the Warriors' entire system started to run much more smoothly.

After the first quarter, the Warriors took a 7-point lead.

At this time, the Suns also exposed problems with their fast-paced style.

If things don't go their way, their lack of more solutions to the game will be exposed.

Moreover, the team only has Grant Hill as the ball handler, so at this time, the pressure on him is very great.

This is also why there are so many "Fast and Furious" teams in the league, but only the Warriors later achieved the feat of "4 championships in 3 years".

Because in the playoffs, it is really difficult to ensure continuous scoring just by passing the ball.

When the fight comes to a head, only the star players' singles tactics of holding the ball can truly solve the problem.

Grant Hill's performance at the critical moment of this game was really not as good as Hardaway's, and the reason is very simple. Hardaway is a champion after all, he has competed in the finals and knows what kind of game it is.

This kind of crucial situation also makes it easier to give yourself confidence through this point.

In the end, the Warriors won the "Battle of the Kings Mountain" with Hardaway's 28 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. After the game, the Golden State media smiled and said directly: "This is the meaning of Anfernee's existence. With him, the Golden State Warriors have an extra guarantee in this crucial battle!"

The sixth game of the series was played in Phoenix. The Warriors did not let anything unexpected happen. They eliminated the Suns on the road and successfully entered the Western Conference Finals to join the Lakers. After being eliminated at home, Grant Hill still had a dazed look on his face when he sat in front of the press conference after the game. Not only him, but other players of the Suns also had this expression.

With the way the season has turned out, it is very unwilling for them to lose in the Western Conference semifinals.

It is not difficult to see from the expectations between the lines of the Phoenix media that they expect this Suns team to achieve the same results as the Suns team led by Barkley in 93:

Reached the finals!
During the regular season, they felt very good and thought they could definitely achieve this goal.

Therefore, it was a disappointment to lose in the semi-finals.

However, since the end of the game, the fans in Phoenix cheered and applauded excitedly, and the recognition from the Phoenix media showed that they still recognized the Suns' performance this season.

Of course, Grant Hill has also experienced the applause of Pistons fans, so he clearly understands that these applause are not just an expression of satisfaction, but also expectations. If higher heights are not reached in the future, will they be like the Pistons fans, turning love into hate and then booing?

Hill didn't want to go through this again, so he was not satisfied with the result.

But now, no matter how dissatisfied they are, the new season is coming. As for this season, it is over for the Suns.

The Suns management received good news. Ray Allen was satisfied with his performance this season and was full of expectations for the future of the Suns. Such a strong signal of staying with the team gave the Suns management more confidence in keeping Ray Allen in the summer.

In the West, the final list of finalists is released:

The Lakers and the Warriors met again in the playoffs after two years.

But this time, they are on the stage of the Western Conference Finals.

The melee in the East is also gradually coming to an end:

The semifinals are the Bulls vs. Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers vs. Indiana Pacers.

The Heat have eliminated the Bulls for two consecutive years. Although their ranking is lower this time, Shaquille O'Neal is still full of confidence and believes that he has mastered the trick to defeat the Bulls.

But the facts proved that there was no trick. The Heat's overall strength was stronger than the Bulls in the past two years, and the Bulls themselves also had very obvious problems.

Now the situation has changed. The overall strength of the Heat team has declined a lot, while McGrady's ability on the Bulls side has increased and he has become a qualified "second in command". The situation of the two teams on the court has suddenly become different.

In 5 games, the Bulls defeated the Heat.

And for most of the time, the Bulls dominated the Heat.

The Heat often took the lead at the start of the game, but they didn't take the lead even once in the second half.

The Bulls eliminated the Heat with a score of 4-1, and there was continuous cheering at their home court.

In the past two years, the Heat can be said to be the Bulls' victim. Now, this big mountain has finally been jumped over.

Facts have proved that as long as there is a qualified Pippen, Jordan will never lose to teams with super centers.

Even if the team is the Miami Heat!

The Heat with Shaquille O'Neal!
Same thing!
On the other hand, the lack of Tim Duncan exposed the hidden dangers. Facing the combination of O'Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon of the Pacers, Mutombo was a little alone. He was more suitable for protecting the basket, but it was a bit difficult for him to face a flexible "running back" like O'Neal.

O'Neal Jr. kept scoring goals in front of him from mid-range.

Of course, the real reason why Philadelphia lost the game was that without Tim Duncan's containment on the offensive end, Allen Iverson, whose "magic skills" had not yet fully developed, could not resist an artillery camp alone. In addition, Larry Bird used Reggie Miller to harass Allen Iverson and used Artest for subsequent top defense, and Allen Iverson had no temper at all.

The Philadelphia 76ers, who were ranked first in the Eastern Conference, eventually lost to the Pacers 2-4 after a six-game battle.

The Indiana native once again completed the story of "the underdog coming out on top", just like the story this city has always passed down.

The outside media did not expect that this year's Eastern and Western Conference Finals would be so story-filled.

It's 2000, and we can still see Olajuwon and Michael Jordan meet on the stage of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Is the “Generation 84” still the main theme of this alliance even 16 years later?

As for the story in the West, there is no need to say more. Anfernee Hardaway and Meng Lang meet again on the playoff stage, and there is also a civil war among the "93 Generation".

The two "golden generations" met on the playoff stage, and this year's Eastern and Western Finals were really interesting.

The Western Conference Finals will begin first.

The first game, the Lakers' home court.

David Stern appeared on the scene and presented Meng Lang with his third regular season MVP trophy in his career.

Meng Lang was selected for the first team this season and won the "scoring champion" for the third consecutive year. He also led the team to break the best record in the regular season history, with an unprecedented 74 wins and 8 losses. He became the final regular season MVP with a 100% first-place vote rate.

This season is a perfect season for him.

Of course, a perfect season now requires a perfect ending:

That is to lift the O'Brien Cup!

The Western Conference Finals have begun, but to be honest, the atmosphere within the Lakers has not changed.

Just like when the Celtics won eight consecutive championships and even popping champagne became a common occurrence, the current Western Conference Finals stage is really not a big deal for the Lakers.

Isn't this once a year?

Meng Lang held up the regular season MVP trophy, causing cheers from the audience.

It never stopped until the game started.

The first attack belonged to the Lakers. Meng Lang held the ball and faced Hardaway. He tentatively broke through with the ball, turned with his back to the basket during the confrontation, and then suddenly turned forward. Using the large turning space, Meng Lang rushed straight to the inside. What he didn't expect was that Hardaway actually kept up with his rhythm changes.

Under Adelman's coaching, his defensive ability has improved a lot.

After fighting all the way, Meng Lang rushed to the basket, hooked his hand, and scored a goal.

"Anfernee, it's not enough!"

Meng Lang waved at Hardaway while returning to defense.

Hardaway showed a helpless expression, wondering who would take care of this monster.

The big screen at the scene gave a close-up shot, and laughter broke out from the audience seats at the right time. (End of this chapter)