After that, the two teams won another game at their respective home stadiums, and the game was dragged into a tiebreaker. When it comes to the moment of life and death, the two teams also use what they have pressed the bottom of the box, and no one will keep their hole cards at this critical moment. For a while, the atmosphere of the game became extremely tense, and violent clashes could break out at any time.

No one could have imagined before the playoffs began that the battle between the second and third places in the East during the regular season would be so intense.

Since the start of the playoffs, the Pistons' performance has been a bit up and down, and it feels a little lucky to be in the second round. In the first few games of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the performance of the Pistons Five Tigers was somewhat disappointing.

Naturally, fans and the media will start discussing some topics about the Pistons Five Tigers, and the old and useless remarks and internal disputes will come to the surface.

Compared with the declining performance of the Detroit Pistons, the strong performance of the New Jersey Nets in the past two years has made people excited.

Looking at so many teams in the East, there are only a few teams that can cause problems for the Knicks. Among them, the New Jersey Nets led by Jason Kidd are definitely the best of these Eastern teams.

Although Lamar and Kidd have faced each other countless times before, and Kidd and his Nets have won fewer and lost more, people still very much want to see the two teams at the top of the showdown, after all, these two teams are offensive teams, and the game is definitely high to watch.

The Nets' progress this season has been obvious to all.

With the tempering of the past few years, if Kenyon Arenas gave people the feeling that he was just a charging dunk, a bit of a rough man, in the past three seasons, as Kenyon Arenas has gradually matured, the overall situation has gradually been established.

At least now Kenyon Arenas is becoming more and more like a team's interior pillar. Although he still has those teammates around him, the team's record is a big improvement over previous seasons.

Kenyon Arenas is also getting better and better, and he is no longer limited to empty dunks and secondary offenses under the basket. He's also seen a massive improvement in blocks this season, and surprisingly ranked in the top 10 in the league in defensive efficiency.

But just when people began to hope that there would be a big showdown in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Nets were disappointed.

After six intense matchups, the New Jersey Nets are visibly exhausted. In the tiebreaker against the experienced bubbling Detroit Pistons, the Nets lost and lost the best opportunity to challenge Lamar on the big stage.

When the smoke of the second round of the playoffs cleared, Lamar found that it seemed that history had returned to the starting point of the previous life, only this time could the Pistons step on the Knicks' corpse to break into the Finals and successfully create a civilian miracle?

In the Eastern Conference finals, the New York Knicks vs. the Detroit Pistons did not come as expected.

While the Detroit Pistons' path to promotion was a bit bumpy, things turned back to the most desired outcome.

As the two strongest teams in the Eastern Conference, the Pistons and Knicks met in the final moments, and such a result can be called expected.

On one side is the Pistons Five Tigers with Big Ben Ben Wallace, Roaring Celestial Lasheed Wallace, Little Prince Prince, Hamilton under the Mask, and Maniac Van Axel, and on the other side is the Knicks with many proud soldiers such as the bandit leader Lamar Odom, the Haitian monster Dampot, the Flash Devon Wade, the Batman Sean Battier, the Flounder Chaun Billups, the general Gilbert Arenas, the Brazilian dancer Ne Hilario, and the Birdman Anderson.

Although the Pistons may be slightly better in terms of the stardom of the main lineup, when it comes to the overall strength of the team, it is obvious that the Knicks have an advantage.

This season, the Pistons have paid a lot of price in order to maintain the lineup of five Tigers. Not only did they give away Dakomilisic, who was highly expected by the management, but they also gave away most of the veterans in the team with big contracts for free.

It can be said that in order to continue the glory of the Pistons in previous years, their management really spared no expense and self-destruction.

But the effect that the Five Tigers will bring is really obvious. The Wallace brothers led the inside, Van Axel was on the outside, Prince was tandem inside and out, and Hamilton pulled the opponent's defense. The tacit cooperation of the five people allowed the Detroit Pistons to finally step on the corpse of the Nets and break into the Eastern Conference finals.

Although the Pistons showed good form against the Nets, when the two teams met on the stage of the Eastern Conference Finals, it was natural for people to focus on the Knicks.

"Peak Showdown!"

"The War of the Century!"

"Pistons Five Tigers vs New York Gangs!"

Similar headlines have recently become mainstream in sports newspapers, and the media is hyping up the series, driven by well-intentioned people.

On the contrary, the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals were ignored.

Because in the eyes of many people, although the skeleton of the Timberwolves is still well preserved, they are experienced and strong defensively, and the state of the three-headed monster is still the same. But this team has long since run out of energy in their previous encounters with the Spurs.

The current Timberwolves are like an old woman who likes to bask in the sun on a recliner in the afternoon, stable but lacking in vitality.

And most importantly, league chairman David Stern likes an offensive team like the Lakers, a bustling metropolis like Los Angeles. It's not Minnesota, a small country where ghosts don't want to go.

It can be said that before the Western Conference Finals began, experts couldn't wait to sentence the Timberwolves to death. It is said that temperament determines everything, and this is especially evident in the Minnesota Timberwolves.

After a few days of rest, the divisional finals officially began.

The first to ignite the fire was in the West, where the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves had each experienced a tough round in the semifinals, and both pairs of players were clearly not back to their best physical strength and condition.

At the beginning of the game, the situation on the field was a bit dull, and neither side seemed to intend to use their full strength at the beginning, both were testing each other, and the game was also uneventful.

At the end of the first quarter, the game was tied at 22-21, with the Lakers leading by one point.

What is surprising is that Kobe, the number one star on the outside of the Los Angeles Lakers, did not score a point. For the entire quarter of the game, Bryant only contributed one assist.

The top scorer on the Lakers' side was Joe Johnson, hitting two three-pointers.

After the start of the second quarter of the game, Kobe Bryant still seemed very silent, and the desire to attack did not seem to be very strong, but he was just doing the work of organizing with peace of mind.

The Timberwolves couldn't hold their breath first, and replaced Szebiak in advance to strengthen the offense, and Garnett also followed closely and began to exert his power, hitting the board and shooting in a row.

By the end of the first half, the Minnesota Timberwolves had overtaken the lead and extended their lead to five points.

The Los Angeles fans at the scene also seemed to be dissatisfied with the Lakers' inaction, especially Kobe Bryant, who only scored four points in the first half.

But at the beginning of the third quarter, the situation on the court changed abruptly.

As if waking up, Bryant finally showed his vicious fangs. As soon as he came up, Bryant hit a three-pointer against Sprewell, and then made a steal of Cassel, broke into the interior to dunk and scored, and caused Mark Blunt to foul, and looked down on six points in one breath.

Lamar, who was watching the game in front of the TV, also nodded again and again, this is like words!

Affected by Kobe's sudden outburst, the other four kings of the Lakers also began to play in full play. They're always better than the Timberwolves.

Gary Payton was on the outside, and Cassel's nerve knife couldn't be used. And although Sprewell is a guy hated by players and coaches across the league, after several trade turns, his current state is not a threat to Kobe Bryant at all. Although Garnett, the wolf king on the inside, is very strong, he is always alone, and in the face of the joint impact of Karl Malone and Shak O'Neal, the defense line that the wolf king has worked so hard to support is also in danger.

The Lakers took the opportunity to launch a wave of 10:0 attacks, overtaking the score in one fell swoop and regaining the initiative in the game.

The team fell behind, and head coach Saunders certainly wouldn't be willing to rest on his laurels, with a series of transfers, with Ratliff replacing the inactive Blount and Szzebiak replacing Sprewell.

Since the interior strength is not good, Sanders simply increased the long-range shooting strength of the outside. After a three-point rain, the Minnesota Timberwolves are back on the rise.

It's a pity that the Timberwolves' team is still missing a player who can make a final decision. Garnett's role is more to contain the opponent's defensive energy, and Spreville and Cassel can be used as commandos, but they can't decide the big picture of the game.

Kobe Bryant and Shaq are not the same!

Needless to say, Shaq is a Big Mac with superior strength and talent, and no one under the basket can defend him alone.

Kobe, a madman who habitually plays in the second half, simply regards scoring as if he was probing for something, with outside three-pointers, breakthrough dunks, and accurate mid-range shots, and the Timberwolves' defense was turned upside down by him alone.

In the final stage of the game, although Garnett hit consecutive shots and rarely pressed O'Neal to score consecutive points, narrowing the gap to 3 points, it did not help the overall situation.

98：89！

With a nine-point gap, the Minnesota Timberwolves, a newcomer to the Western Conference Finals, lost one game first.

The fans who watched the game were also hooked. Fans in Los Angeles are naturally full of confidence that the Lakers in such a state must win the championship is a sure thing, but for those neutral fans, their mood is a little tangled.