Chapter 869: The Rise of the Lakers and Durant's Comeback!
With all the regular season awards announced, the 2008-2009 NBA season officially bid farewell to the topic of the regular season and completely entered the topic of the playoffs.
However, with the Sonics eliminating the Spurs, Yes, O'Neal and Kobe winning the regular season MVP together, the NBA has hyped up a new topic.
"With the elimination of the Spurs, the recognized strongest team unexpectedly left the NBA. An extremely interesting thing will happen in this magical season of the NBA. Now the NBA game has completely entered the rhythm of the playoffs, but in the previous games, three players jointly won the All-Star MVP and regular season MVP this season. In other words, Yes, Kobe and O'Neal may become the players who dominate this season by winning three MVPs this season!"
"In Yes's career, he once won three MVPs in the last season, and in O'Neal's career, he also won them in the 99-00 season. Among the three MVPs, only Kobe has not achieved this achievement. "
"In the history of the NBA, there are a total of four players who have achieved the achievement of 3 MVPs in a single season, including Jordan twice, Yes once, O'Neal once, and Willie Reed once. After this season, will Kobe become the fifth player in NBA history to achieve three MVP achievements in a single season, or will Yes or O'Neal become a player on par with Jordan?"
"In the All-Star Game and the All-Star Game, Yes, Kobe and O'Neal can share the MVP, but in the finals, there is really only one MVP!"
This topic that suddenly emerged in the public opinion of the United States is very interesting.
After the Spurs, which was previously recognized as the biggest favorite to win the championship, were eliminated, the strongest team left was undoubtedly the Heat.
But the public opinion that suddenly emerged in the United States never mentioned James, and then thought of the topic of who is the cancer and who is the undercover brought up by ESPN before.
It is very obvious what the public opinion wind direction of the public opinion this time is aimed at.
For these media, it is no problem for any team of Yes, O'Neal or Kobe to win the championship, but the Heat will never win the championship.
However, the Heat is the strongest team among all the remaining teams, so even if they don't want it, the Heat has the highest probability of winning the championship.
In this case, let's target this pretentious team first.
It would be best if they can break the mentality of this team, but if it doesn't work...
If it doesn't work, there is no other way. They can't replace Yes, Kobe and O'Neal to play the game, right?
When the major awards of the NBA began to be awarded, the first round of the NBA ended, and at the same time, the second round of the NBA, the divisional semifinals, had actually been played for several games.
The Mavericks' game against the Supersonics on May 4 was the last game of the four groups of the second round.
Before that, the first game of the other three games of the divisional semifinals had been played.
The first game of the second round of the divisional semifinals was between the Lakers and the Nuggets. After the Spurs were eliminated, the Lakers and the Nuggets automatically became the two biggest favorites. As for the Mavericks and the Supersonics, the Mavericks and Nowitzki's black spots have not been washed away at all, and the Supersonics, although the Supersonics unexpectedly defeated the strongest Spurs with Yes's super performance in the Spurs, people always like miracles from the heart and don't believe that miracles will always happen.
So after looking around, it seems that the Lakers and the Nuggets are more likely to represent the West to challenge the East.
And the Lakers and the Nuggets do see themselves as the natural representatives of the West.
So in the game between the Lakers and the Nuggets at home, the two teams really played with sparks flying, which was extremely exciting!
The Nuggets, who played away from home, took the initiative right away. Anthony made 7 of 8 shots in the first quarter and scored 16 points in a single quarter. The Nuggets led the Lakers by 8 points in the first quarter. In the second quarter, the situation changed suddenly. Kobe performed even better in this quarter, scoring 10 points in a single quarter, but the overall strength of the Lakers was even better. In this quarter, Kidd, Zach Randolph, Bynum, Artest, Ariza, Fisher, Batum, Turkoglu and other nine people scored, which wiped out the 8-point advantage that Anthony established in the first quarter, and led by one point at the end of the half.
The styles of the two teams can be seen from the first half of the game between the Lakers and the Nuggets.
The Nuggets used Anthony as a battering ram.
The Lakers used Kobe as a sharp knife, but there were a bunch of machetes next to them!
The Nuggets had a lot of machetes, and Billups and Hamilton also performed very well, but Anthony was the main player.
This game was indeed in this tone. The two teams kept the score close until the last two minutes. Even because Anthony was in excellent form in this game, the Nuggets were still the one leading.
But when there were two minutes left in the game, when both teams were almost exhausted, it became Kobe's stage.
In the last two minutes, Kobe scored all eight points for the Lakers, while on the other side, Anthony, who had already scored 40 points in the previous two minutes, did not score a single point in the last two minutes. He was tired, really tired. Artest, Batum, Ariza, Zach Randolph... The Lakers' terrifying front line really made Anthony almost vomit!
Among this group of Lakers forwards, Anthony scored 40 points, which is really amazing.
The final result was that it was Billups and Hamilton who faced off against Kobe in the end...
The three of them are really old rivals.
In the end, Kobe defeated the combination of Billups and Hamilton 8-6.
The Lakers also finally defeated the Nuggets 105-103 at home.
Both Kobe and Anthony scored 40 points in this game.
The performance of both of them is worthy of the title of super giant.
But the overall gap between the two teams meant that Anthony, who took 20 shots for 40 points, lost to Kobe, who took 28 shots for 40 points...
At the same time, this contest, which to some extent determines who is the strongest team in the West, has allowed the whole world to see the gap between the Nuggets and Lakers.
The Nuggets' lineup is already very thick, but compared to the Lakers, it's still too thin.
Especially on the forward line, the Nuggets can't find a substitute for Anthony...
The Nuggets' forward line, except for Anthony, other players in front of Artest, Batum, Ariza, and Turkoglu, no kidding, that's a gift...
Even if Anthony has no physical strength, he must stay on the court, otherwise the Nuggets will collapse.
Anthony's physical strength is actually not bad, but he was eventually worn down by the Lakers.
It was also after the end of this game that the Lakers' championship odds surpassed all teams except the Heat, and they have the momentum to replace the Spurs' Western hegemony.
Compared with the sparkling matchup that started first in the West, the first game of the two groups in the East was lackluster.
The Cavaliers easily defeated the Wizards led by Arenas 118-101 at home.
The Wizards can beat the Magic because Arenas blasts the Magic's perimeter harder than Howard blasts the Wizards' inside.
This does not mean that the Wizards' inside guard can guard the Magic's Howard.
The Wizards' weak inside man couldn't even defend Howard.
Can you defend O'Neal?
And how can the Cavaliers' outside line be comparable to that of the Magic? Although Deron Williams can't defend Arenas, he can have a huge impact.
It can be said that after half the game between the Cavaliers and Wizards, there was no suspense.
Arenas is also really unlucky. The Wizards have been able to go so far in the playoffs in the past few seasons because of Arenas' leadership. When it comes to the playoffs, the Wizards really don't have a reliable helper.
It's really thanks to Arenas that he gave up the temptation to join the Grizzlies last summer.
The game between the Celtics and the Heat was not as one-sided as the Cavaliers and Wizards.
But it’s actually pretty much the same.
In the Celtics' away game against the Heat, the Celtics trailed by 15 points 36-51 in the first half.
The Celtics are a veteran team that is slow to warm up. More importantly, the Celtics were built with the SuperSonics as their goal. They really didn't expect such a shameless team to suddenly appear in the Eastern Conference.
After the Celtics played this game, they really felt restricted in all directions.
After halftime, in addition to Ray Allen teaching his junior brother Ben Gordon a lesson, Garnett slightly beat Chris Bosh. Although James was still a bit undercover offensively in this game, he also beat Pierce on the defensive end. , the most important thing is the duel between Wade and Baron Davis. Baron Davis is worthy of his strength, and Wade, whose speed is faster than Baron Davis, not only defeated Baron Davis in the first half He didn't score a point and made 0 of 4 shots. He also scored 23 points on 9 of 11 shots.
"Yes, yesterday's game did not stimulate James, but it stimulated Wade..."
According to the trend of this game in the first half, if James hadn't gone undercover on the offensive end in the second half and made 1 of 6 shots in the fourth quarter, I'm afraid the Heat would have closed this game long ago. Of course, although James inexplicably made another offensive attack Being undercover caused the Heat to have some twists and turns in ending the game, but Wade scored another 13 points in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.
This round of showdown between the Celtics and the Heat should have been a strong dialogue, but as long as you watch the game and see that James is undercover and the Celtics can't beat the Heat, most people will not hold a candle to the Celtics defeating the Heat. How much confidence.
"Heat fans always thought that James was the biggest player before the season started. Unexpectedly, Wade was the most reliable for the Heat in the end."
"James felt like he couldn't play anymore after that five-double night. James wouldn't be as useless as Durant, right?"
"Durant is disabled because of an injury. This is force majeure. James is disabled. That is really embarrassing. His mentality is so unbalanced that he can no longer play."
The game against the Celtics caused James' already low reputation to fall to the ground.
Faced with these doubts, James remained silent.
The Pistons are used to develop new offensive rhythm, and the Celtics are used to hone their new game rhythm and offensive rhythm!
In the East, no team is more suitable to hone skills than the Celtics!
As for the controversy?
As long as you defeat Yes or win the championship, everything will come back!
As for whether the team can beat the Celtics and continue on?
"Thank you for your kindness..."
Anyway, before I complete my training, I will be an undercover agent, so what do you do?
James felt unusually relaxed after putting down all his burdens.
On the other side, Durant, who was also under tremendous pressure, was not so relaxed.
Durant still hasn't found his game form.
He hasn't played for a year, hasn't played a single official game, and his body has changed dramatically. He can't find his game form just by relying on training games and team confrontations.
Durant is very depressed.
Although Yes told him that their stage is far away.
But he doesn't want to be a burden to Yes, and be carried to the stage in front by Yes like everyone else!
He wants to walk shoulder to shoulder with Yes to the center of the stage!
The game with the Mavericks is imminent, and Durant's game form is still not there.
But old Nelson and Yes can only let Durant start in the game against the Mavericks.
Ibaka's current defense is really useful against the Spurs' less fancy offensive players, letting him run, let him jump, and let him work hard without skills.
But Ibaka's current defense has proved in the regular season that he is the culprit for the Sonics being swept by the Mavericks in the regular season.
Nowitzki, Kwame Brown, Afflalo, Josh Howard, Monta Ellis, Jason Terry...
It's true that every one of them can play Ibaka differently.
Compared with Ibaka's immature single defense, Durant's defensive advantage is one-on-one duels!
When Durant was criticized for his lack of concentration in defense last season, his one-on-one duel defense was still above the standard.
Durant's offense is not very good now, but his defense can at least keep the Supersonics from collapsing.
Durant's current state is no secret at all. The reporters next to the Supersonics training ground want to update Durant's state every minute.
They may be more anxious than the Supersonics fans.
Supersonics fans think that the Supersonics have made a fortune by entering the second round.
Originally thought that they would be swept out by the Spurs, but now they have reached the second round.
What else do you want?
Now they are facing the team's nemesis team, and the team's two small forwards are so difficult.
There is nothing to ask for.
But these reporters don't think so.
They have already passed the Spurs and have come to this point.
The opponent is still the Mavericks, whom they despise very much. If they don't move forward, they will really be unwilling!
More importantly.
"If Yes is eliminated, how much traffic will be lost in the later part of this year's playoffs?"
Compared with unwillingness, they are more distressed about the lost traffic.
Compared with these reporters, the experts across the United States are much calmer.
Before the first game between the Mavericks and the Supersonics, ESPN organized 100 experts to vote as usual. As expected, only 20% supported the Supersonics.
"The Supersonics received 20% support from experts, 10% of which supported Yes, and the other 10% simply did not support Nowitzki."
The Mavericks and the Supersonics have a great advantage in this round of series in all aspects.
But until the last moment before the game.
Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle was very cautious.
"Yes is the greatest player in the NBA, KD is also a very good player, and the Sonics have many talented young players. I hope this will be a very exciting game."
Whether Rick Carlisle and the Mavericks think so or not, they at least say so.