Legendary star

Chapter 88 The end of the regular season

After the time entered April of 2000, the NBA regular season of this season is coming to an end. All teams are hurrying to make the final sprint, hoping to get a better ranking and better results. In this trend, the Spurs Undoubtedly in a clear stream, the Spurs are still taking turns, and even the Spurs' tactics are different in each game. It can be seen that Popovich is already preparing for the upcoming playoffs.

In the road trip that started in February, the Spurs lost consecutively to the Heat, Magic, Kings, and Suns, plus the last two losses to the Trail Blazers and Mavericks in March. The 3-game losing streak is also the longest losing streak for the Spurs this season. The number of games is up. After a wave of losing streak, the Spurs have dropped to the fourth place in the Western Conference. In the regular season rankings, they were overtaken by their old rivals, the Jazz. From this round of losing streak, it can be seen that Pop Veitch's adjustment to the Spurs was also unsatisfactory.

After the 6-game losing streak, the Spurs will play against the Grizzlies and Rockets in a row. In these two games, even Tim Duncan has started to rest.At the beginning of this season, the Rockets were still ambitious and wanted to hit the highest honor again. The results of the regular season were once ranked among the top three in the Western Conference, but the injury of the big dream Olajuwon made all this come to naught. Before Wangmeng was reimbursed for the season, Charles Barkley was reimbursed for the season due to a quadriceps Achilles tendon injury. Barkley also recently revealed his thoughts on retirement.

Although Duncan rested, the Spurs easily defeated the Grizzlies and Rockets and improved their record to 54 wins with four games left.

On April 2000, 4, the Spurs ushered in their last away game of the season after defeating the Rockets in an away game. After the game against the Kings, the Spurs' away games this season will all end.The Spurs, who rested three main players in this game, obviously did not intend to do their best, but the Kings are different. In order to ensure their eighth position in the Western Conference, the current Kings are doing their best every game.

In this case, facing the Spurs led by Meng Xu and Sean Etrio, the Kings only took three quarters to beat the Spurs. As the tactical core of this game, Meng Xu only played 20 minutes , scored a career-high 32 points, including 3 of 12 8-pointers, in addition to 4 assists, 8 rebounds, 5 steals and 1 block.There was another small episode in the third quarter of the game. When Meng Xu hit a 3-pointer to break through 3 points in the game just 30 minutes into the third quarter, Popovich suddenly shot He slapped his head, called a timeout, and then replaced Meng Xu with Terry Porter. In the ensuing game, Meng Xu never got a chance to play again.

After losing to the Kings on the road, the Spurs returned to San Antonio to prepare for the last four home games, the first of which was against the Jazz.Since the rankings of the two teams have been basically determined, the two teams played very relaxed in this game. The Jazz's two old Malone and Stockton only played less than 4 minutes before taking a rest. , but with the increase of age, Malone and Stockton are a bit too much now, so in the last few games, Sloan also began to arrange for the two to rest, but not as blatantly as Popovich. Long has a thin skin.The Spurs played all the main players in this game, but they were basically the same as the Jazz. Everyone played for more than ten minutes before taking a break. In the end, the Spurs also won the Jazz by 20 points 87-84.

"This group of fans is really nice." Because Meng Xu scored a season-high 32 points in the game against the Kings, becoming the second Spurs player to score 30+ points in a single game this season, so the Spurs fans in this game They also cheered for Meng Xu all the way, and even some fans wearing Meng Xu's No. 5 jersey held up a sign with 32 on it.Popovich is not only a coach who is very demanding of the team, but also limits the playing time of the team's main players, so it is not easy to get high scores in the Spurs. Even Duncan only has 4+ 30 times this season. Even David Robinson, a player, never got 30+ once.

And when the game ended, in order to express his gratitude to the fans on the field, Meng Xu also walked around the field to express his gratitude to the fans who had not left the field.

After the end of the game against the Jazz, the Spurs defeated the Grizzlies and the Wizards at home respectively. After losing 4 to 19 at home to the Raptors on April 86, the regular season of this season came to an end. The Spurs won 97 and 58. The negative record finally ranked fourth in the West.

After the end of the regular season, the Spurs will rest for two days, and then at home on the 21st against the Suns, the first opponent of the playoffs.After the regular season ended, the NBA quickly arranged the playoffs.

In the first round of this year's playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers won the second record in team history with 67 wins and 15 losses this season. The Lakers will face the Kings with 44 wins and 38 losses in the first round of the playoffs.

The Blazers ranked second in the Western Conference with a record of 61 wins and 21 losses. In the final stage of the regular season, the Blazers also began to adjust, seeing that there was no hope of catching up. Most of the last few games ended in losses. Against the Seattle SuperSonics led by Payton, the Sonics almost fell behind at the last moment of the season.

继上赛季获得和马刺相同的战绩之后，本赛季爵士再次获得了和马刺相同的58胜24负，不过本赛季爵士却看着对阵马刺3胜1负的战绩在排名上压过马刺一头，季后赛首轮爵士将对阵50胜32负的森林狼。

In the East, the Pacers have one footprint a year, ranking first in the East with a record of 56 wins and 26 losses this season. It can also be seen from the Pacers' record that the league is still strong in the west and weak in the east.The Pacers will face the 42-40 Bucks in the first round.

After winning first place in the Eastern Conference last year, the Miami Heat ranked second in the Eastern Conference with a record of 52 wins and 30 losses this season. The first round of the playoffs will face the Pistons with a record of 42 wins and 40 losses.

The performance of the Knicks this year is also very good. Compared with last year's almost unable to enter the playoffs, this year's Knicks ranked third in the East with a record of 50 wins and 32 losses. The playoffs will face Toronto with 45 wins and 37 losses. Raptors, Vince Carter, who is only in the second grade, not only played MVP-level data this season, but also successfully brought the Raptors into the playoffs. Carter's performance this season is perfect, especially this year's All-Star dunk The competition is even more in the limelight.

The performance of the Philadelphia 76ers this season is also remarkable, and finally ranked fourth in the Eastern Conference with a record of 49 wins and 33 losses. The playoffs will face the Hornets with the same record as their own.

　In the original history, Duncan tore his meniscus in the game against the Kings in the final stage of this season. Duncan played the whole game in that game, fell to the ground and was injured at the end of the game, and underwent surgery in the middle of the season After the operation, Duncan changed from a flying monster to a ground-flowing power forward.With the protagonist entering the team, the Spurs won more victories in the first half of the season, so there is no need to fight with other teams at the end of the season, and Duncan will naturally not repeat the same mistakes.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)