NBA: Magic Johnson opens the season, crowned MOP

On April 21, the second day of the playoffs, the Spurs faced the Los Angeles Lakers at home.

Kobe Bryant, the star player of the Lakers, who arrived at the scene with an injured leg, became the first person the media rushed to interview.

He and the Argentine demon sword, who was wearing a suit and also bandaged and leaning on crutches, became the beautiful scenery of the benches of both teams behind the Spurs bench!

"Kobe, do you think the Lakers without you can replicate the Grizzlies' miracle in 2011 and successfully defeat the Spurs?"

Kobe on the sidelines looked at the reporter who asked this question with a look of"idiot". The big man next to him, who had just finished warming up and was wearing the Lakers training uniform, the Lakers' center Dwight Howard, showed"amazing" optimism and positivity:

"We can't guarantee that we will perfectly make up for the roster deficiencies caused by the loss of Kobe, but I can guarantee to every Lakers fan that……"

Howard in front of the camera"swears"：

"This year is the year when we have the best chance of achieving an upset. Yesterday's game has proved this to the public. Every team in the NBA has the ability to win the O'Brien Cup. I will prove what I say to you!"

"I will lead the Lakers to complete the sixth black eight miracle in NBA history!"

""Happy Beast" Howard showed a confident and sunny smile to the camera and made a"6" gesture -

I don't know if it was because he completed an"upset" in the first game of the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs yesterday that gave him such great confidence, causing him to act like he had smoked too much in the eyes of outsiders, including Kobe and other teammates...

It's so stupid!

Kobe cursed secretly, who gave him this dog brain?

I didn't dare to say this in the team!

Joey, who was practicing warm-up control of the ball in the other half, also noticed the situation over there. His face was calm, but he did secretly"affirm" Howard's behavior in his heart:

It is indeed"6"……

At the beginning of the game, the Lakers, who were playing away, did show a different"spirit"!

They defended the Spurs' three consecutive attacks at the beginning, and then attacked the basket and beat the Spurs 5:0."

"Wonderful 2+1!"

"The Lakers played with the strength and confidence of an NBA giant. Dwight scored a 2+1 against Tim at the start of the game.……"

Charles Barkley, one of the TNT Big Three commentators for this game, said with some approval.

The camera turned to the Lakers bench, where people could see that the Lakers bench, led by D'Antoni, was"boiling with excitement"."——

They were in high spirits, waving their fists in celebration, vowing to continue the"upset" trend of this year's playoffs!

Howard on the court barely scored the free throw, and showed off his strong biceps to the Spurs fans in the ATT Arena - this is the signature celebration of the Beast!

Suddenly, the"Happy Beast" who had just retreated a few steps accidentally bumped into someone:

Shit!

Howard didn't notice and bumped into him. He cursed in his heart and was about to look up to see who the blind bastard was...

Suddenly, Howard shuddered, and the blood that had just completed the difficult two plus one instantly dropped to the freezing point.

Joey walked past him expressionlessly, ready to catch the ball.

Suddenly, some"fragments" of bad pictures flashed in his mind, and he shuddered violently, and the Happy Beast quickly put away his complacent mood.

The referees on the sidelines paid close attention to the situation of the two. The three referees kept holding the whistles in their mouths and dared not put them down, for fear that the two would turn the basketball court into a"ring match" again.

After that, people were surprised to find that Howard, who was ambitious and boastful before the game, like the protagonist in a hot-blooded anime, suddenly"changed" into a person, and his playing style became"honest".

There were no dirty moves commonly used when blocking, nor were there any strange ways to celebrate after scoring...

The game was very calm!

What D'Antoni and the Lakers never expected was that the lead at the beginning was the only lead of the Lakers in the whole game.

Blake, Worldpeace, Jamison and others on the Lakers' front line were completely locked by Joey and Leonard. The outside players took 37 shots in the whole game and only hit 10 balls, with an overall hit rate of less than 30%.

Joey even had the energy to free up his hands to help Duncan defend Howard, and from time to time he jumped on Steve Nash who was preparing to shoot after the pick-and-roll on the outside...

The only feeling of Joey's first playoff game in his career was that compared with the regular season, the confrontation in the playoffs was more intense, and the whistle was more"stingy"!

Take this game for example. Joey, who averaged 5.2 free throws per game in the regular season, only got 2 free throws in this playoffs.

Of course, this is related to the fact that he has fewer shots in the playoffs than in the regular season.

But Joey played more efficiently!

With the blessing of the Spurs' version of the"Princeton System", Joey served as the starting power forward, 6 of 9 shots, 1 of 3 three-pointers, and a shooting percentage of 66.6%, contributing 15 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. The plus-minus value was +19, the highest in the game.

With his high-post shooting control, Duncan played like a duck in water in the interior. He played 31 minutes in the whole game, 11 of 14 shots, scored 27 points and 11 rebounds, and limited Howard's shooting percentage to 35%, scoring only 16 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks.

In addition to the two of them, Parker scored 17 points, Leonard scored 9 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals, and Green, Neal, Mills and Bonner scored 37 points on 12 of 24 shots.

On the Lakers side, except for Howard and Nash who performed well, the other players' plus-minus values were all below -3, even Kobe's good partner during his two consecutive championships, Dajiasao.

In the end, the Spurs clocked out in three quarters and won the playoffs with a big score of 87:105.

Game result���Later, Kobe found Joey, and the two acted very friendly in front of the camera - in fact, Kobe really admired Joey in private and often called this younger rookie who he liked very much.

"Joey played very well in this game, and you couldn't tell at all that he was a rookie playing in the playoffs for the first time in his career!"

"The biggest difference between the playoffs and the regular season is that the competition is several levels higher, but obviously, these are not a problem for the Spurs' best rookie.……"

"Ouch! Since when did Joey already lock up Rookie of the Year???"

"Come on, man, who among the rookies in the same class has better individual statistics than this Asian rookie from Illinois? And he is playing such a performance on the second-best team in the league!"

"Am I the only one who thinks that Joey's performance can no longer be described as a rookie?"

"In fact, I think Joey's name should be on the DPOY list rather than the Rookie of the Year list!"

"Why didn't Popovich put T-Mac on the court in garbage time tonight? Was T-Mac really signed just to help him realize his championship dream?"

"Manu, don't come back, just lie down at home and prepare to get a championship ring.……"

"……"

After this game, fans in China and the United States launched a heated discussion on social media, and people began to pay attention to some regular season award selections.

Especially the Rookie of the Year (ROY) related to Joey.

Some fans even claimed:

If this year's ROY is not awarded to Joey, or Joey is not elected unanimously, then there must be signs of"corruption" within the league...

These remarks quickly received widespread support and solidarity on YouTube, Twitter and other social media in the United States, just like a snowball, rolling bigger and bigger!

After all, in the history of the NBA, there are really only a handful of rookies who can show such an outstanding and comprehensive performance in the first year of their careers.

Almost every one of them is a future superstar in the league!

What's more, compared to these people, Joey's performance on the court is extremely stable. You rarely, or even almost never, see a clip of him being completely blown up by a senior star in the game...

At most, it's a mutual explosion!

Such a rookie is rare in ten years. The last time he appeared was the No. 1 pick of the 03 platinum generation.——

""Little Emperor", LeBron James!