Chapter Seventy-Five: New York in the Summer
With Moxi's absolute advantage on the inside, the Knicks advanced to the second round and faced the 76ers led by Moxi's brother Iverson.
Such a matchup did not exist in the original time and space, not to mention Mo Xi himself, even the Knicks did not enter the playoffs.
The Hornets, who were supposed to appear in the second round, were squeezed out of the Eastern Conference playoff spot. And it is the 76ers who are competing with the Magic, and the duel between the two super scorers that has not happened has also been staged strangely.
3vs1, the top showdown of East Ai Nanmai.
Even if he watched the video, Mo Xi could feel the exhilarating atmosphere generated when the two teams played.
The two sides are teams ranked four or five, the difference in strength is not big, and the configuration is very similar, but the biggest difference is that Iverson has a Mutombo next to him.
This is destined to be a battle that will go down in history, and although Maddie has not yet won his scoring title at this time, it does not prevent people from coming up with this series to compare the performances of the two scoring champions a few years later.
The first game was indeed Iverson's wilt, once considered the best scorer of the post-Jordan era, and in this period of time he could not even be one of the none, scoring 20 points in the first game, while Maddie on the opposite side scored 30 points, incidentally taking the first game victory.
This defeat completely angered Iverson, regardless of the injury, he turned on the big move, and scored 42 points in the second game, especially in the last two minutes, when the 76ers were still two points behind, Iverson burst out, scored six points in a row, one shot, two fouls under the basket, four free throws, and assisted teammates, so to speak, the last two minutes were completely taken over by Iverson. Although Maddie on the opposite side also had a 29-point performance1, it was really dwarfed by Iverson.
The two sides were tied 1:1.
After the two sides were tied, the two top scorers were finally in good spirits, just like Iverson and Carter were in the same way last season.
The third game became the first long-played game of the playoffs.
In this game, Iverson shot 14 of 29 and 3 of 5 three-pointers, relying on constant impact on the inside to cause damage, note that this is not the kind of impact basket that stretches his arms and demands a foul, but really throws himself into the sky, scoring 15 free throws, hitting 13 of them, scoring 44 points, and 5 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals; And the opposite Maddie is not far behind, 25 shots 11 of 10, three-point 6 of 2, and Iverson, is also desperately impacting the basket, getting 16 free throws, hitting 13, unlike Iverson is Maddy's offensive basket seems more elegant, and more important, because he knocked out the 76ers lead the position, Maddy successfully knocked Mutombo six fouls off the court in this game. And Maddy also scored 37 points while getting a quasi-triple-double of eight rebounds and eight assists.
After Mutombo went off, the Magic luckily seized this opportunity and put the 76ers into overtime, because of the lack of an interior barrier, the 76ers regretted losing to the Magic.
However, the fourth game gave Maddie and the Magic a blow to the head, maybe it was really the curse on Maddy's body, this game Maddie wanted to repeat the old trick and continue to attack the basket, but unexpectedly Mutombo suddenly broke out in this game, giving Maddie three big hats in succession on the inside, and he couldn't take much advantage of the opposite Iverson, this game was Maddy's turn to score only 20 points, and Iverson on the opposite side cut 31 points.
In the fifth game, that is, the game of life and death, the two most terrible scorers broke out in unison.
Iverson took the lead and scored 14 points in the first quarter to lead a matchup between top quarterbacks.
Maddie responded in the second quarter, scoring 15 points in a single quarter.
However, the fiercest confrontation between the two sides occurred in the fourth quarter, especially in the last five minutes, and these two people used practical actions to show what is called the most unreasonable, the most undesirable, and the most hated by the coach, which can be called the style of basketball stepping back ten or even twenty years, pure star singles.
In the cheers of wave after wave of fans, the two peerless quarterbacks began the most hearty duel. As long as there is no big thing on this day, everyone is in front of the TV, and even many teams that are supposed to prepare for the second round have given up on this idea, and this big game is destined to be as powerful as last year's 15vs3.
In the final five minutes, the league playoffs hit a new high, and the highest-rated game of the non-finals was born.
The two faced off in a grand showdown at Amway Arena in Orlando, which they used as Rock Park.
Purely one-on-one, even Barkley, who is the commentator, said he hasn't seen such an exciting game in a long time, especially since it's a win-or-home playoff game.
Iverson's crossover vs. Maddy's pull-up jumper, the two of them constantly firing at each other's heads, and in such a matchup, even a coach like Larry Brown just said "don't regret yourself".
Both sides are top scorers, the last five minutes are not so much a test of the offensive ability of both sides, but to see who can defend more against the opponent's offense, and in this regard, Maddie is indeed inferior to Iverson, despite the physical advantage, but Maddie's defensive attainments are indeed not particularly high, in turn, Iverson, who has lost his physical advantage, is used to defending opponents who are much taller than himself, although his defensive efficiency is not good enough, but Iverson dares to fight, he dares to bet everything on his own hands.
"The AI steals the T-MAC, T-MAC's cross-dribble is detected by the AI, this is a huge mistake, this will be an offensive and defensive exchange that will determine the direction of the game, T-MAC has chased it, can he complete this pursuit? The two people accelerated at the same time, the AI was faster, it jumped, and the T-MAC caught up, his arm span was enough to block the ball, oh! Oh, God! What is it! What do I see!? As if expected, the AI turned in the air and dunked the ball with his backhand. ”
This scene became the turning point of the whole game, and the 76ers, or Iverson, relied on the narrow advantage of this goal to force the victory of the game into their arms and advance to the second round.
At the same time, in New York, Mo Xi also turned off the TV, looked at Ding Xiaowu who fell asleep on the sofa, and walked to the bedside.
For Mo Xi, Iverson is like a brother, although he often jokes off the court that it would be like if he met on the court, but now when they meet on the stage of the playoffs, there is still something strange in their hearts. At this moment, it was almost midnight in New York, and even the Big Apple was a little silent, so Mo Xi took out his mobile phone and sent a text message.
"I'll be waiting for you in New York."
It was a declaration of war, and the king of New York declared his sovereignty to the invading enemy.