Chapter 458: Eastern Conference Finals!
Although Durant often plays off the bench in the Magic this season, he still averages 17.6 points per game in the regular season, which is a little less than the 20.3 points per game in his rookie season in the previous game, but playing in a team with the league's first consecutive championships, having such data already shows that the team attaches great importance to Durant.
Durant's shooting rate is not high, especially the three-point shooting rate, which is only more than 30 percent, which is slightly better than in his previous life, but such a shooting rate is not enough to deal with strong playoff opponents.
Therefore, in this series against the Raptors, Sun Zhuo still treats it as a regular season game, giving Durant a chance to practice, maybe with the strength of the Magic can sweep the Raptors, but for this, Sun Zhuo is willing to lose two games.
When he first entered the Magic team, Durant thought that Sun Zhuo had a prejudice against him, and suppressed him with the highest status of the team, not giving him the opportunity to grow, gradually, Durant intentionally or unintentionally felt that Sun Zhuo was taking the initiative to help him grow, and even deliberately reformed him, let him practice more three-point shooting, and teach him to shoot by various means.
Now, at such an important moment in the playoffs, Sun Zhuo has completely handed over the game to Durant!
Today's game is Durant's first playoff game, he is very nervous, he doesn't know if he can play well, and he even doubts whether Sun Zhuo is deliberately putting pressure on him.
Sun Zhuo just wants to give Durant this kind of pressure, facing the Celtics is definitely a tough battle, and Durant must be allowed to experience this in advance, if Durant can't even bear this kind of pressure, then it can't be of any use in the face of Pierce and Garnett.
Poor Raptors coach Sam Mitchell completely miscalculated their opponents, and in the first quarter, the Magic crushed the Raptors, Sun Zhuo had 6 assists in a single quarter, and Durant scored the Magic's highest score.
"Hell, what kind of play is this!" Seeing the Magic hand the ball to Durant again and again, Mitchell was completely dizzy.
But soon, Durant's erratic form and gradually worse shooting percentage cured Coach Mitchell's headaches, and he even went from being a seriously ill patient to an alien with superpowers, and he became euphoric and fantasical.
"If the Magic are so messy and let Kevin Durant go to the main offense, wouldn't the Raptors have a better chance of defeating the strong with the weak?" When Coach Mitchell knew what the Magic team thought, he called a timeout and explained to Chris Bosh and others that they must take a win on the road, and it was in the first game.
Durant is indeed a rookie, he did not participate in the playoffs in his rookie season in his previous life, and his scoring is still very inconsistent after the defensive intensity comes up, in fact, with his height and reach, these can be completely ignored.
By the fourth quarter, Sun Zhuo was ready to take over the game and said to Durant: "You have scored 25 points, but your performance today is far from what I wanted. ”
Durant scored 25+ in his playoff debut, but he didn't dare to show satisfaction in front of Sun Zhuo, this game, Sun Zhuo was yelling at his name all the time, just like Sun Zhuo did to Howard before, Durant began to understand why Howard didn't like Sun Zhuo, but Durant and Howard are different people, Durant has a stronger desire to see the outcome of the game than Howard, he can accept this kind of supervision, although it is very stressful.
The stalemate lasted for a whole game, and it was broken after Sun Zhuo's performance of two three-pointers and a dunk 2+1, and Sun Zhuo only took a few minutes to help the Magic lock up the win.
After the defeat, until he returned to the hotel, he depressedly played a plane in the room that he had not taken for ten years, and the fire in Coach Mitchell's heart still could not be discharged, and he leaned on the big bed and slammed the soft quilt with both hands, shouting: "This is simply a shame!" ”
Chris Bosh followed up with the fury, and he and the whole team responded with an amazing performance in Game 2, this time, Bosh made 4-of-5 three-pointers.
"You can't just play for a few minutes in this fight, right?" Chris Bosh looked at Sun Zhuo, he felt very honored at this moment, he felt that they had won Sun Zhuo's attention with their strength, but in fact, there was still no.
Sun Zhuo still only played seriously for a few minutes, and the rest of the time, he was still exercising Durant, Durant still cut 25+ this time, 25+ in this game, although the shooting rate was about the same as the previous game, Sun Zhuo had clearly felt Durant's progress, and the 25+ in the second game was definitely more difficult than the first game, because he encountered a stronger defense.
"It was a good day." After the game, Sun Zhuo praised Durant.
"But today we lost." Durant blamed himself.
"It doesn't matter, there are seven games in the series and we can afford to lose." If Sun Zhuo's words are heard by the Raptors players, it is estimated that they will be angry again, Sun Zhuo is deliberately letting the series play a few more games to help Durant grow.
The situation on the Magic's side has also been noticed by the Celtics, who are the first in the East, Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Allen can see that the Magic are helping Durant adapt to the intensity of the playoffs, and when they face each other, maybe Durant will be a big threat.
I don't know if it was because of distraction or what, when it came to the home court of the Hawks, the Celtics, who originally led 2:0, were pulled twice in a row, and the series became a 2:2 draw.
And the series between the Magic and the Raptors was the same, each won one and lost one, and after four games, the total score became a 2:2 draw.
In contrast, the Los Angeles Lakers are in a different position, they have won four games in a row, swept Iverson and Anthony with the golden two guns, and many people are predicting that the Lakers will be the championship of the season!
In Game 5, the Magic began to show their strongest side, declaring their strength with a 30-point victory, and the Celtics also beat the Hawks by 28 points in G5, but they were killed by the Hawks in Game 6 and were brought into Game 7.
This is something that no one expected.
The Magic didn't give the Raptors any hope, settling the first-round series 4-2, and soon, the Celtics also used another big win to solve the Hawks.
The Magic and Celtics both made the cut, but they weren't opponents in the next round, with the Celtics facing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the next round and the Detroit Pistons in the next round.
The Pistons are also Sun Zhuo's old opponents, they know Sun Zhuo's strength very well, and they will never allow Sun Zhuo to deal with this round of the series with a training mentality, Billups and Rashid Wallace have done a lot of preparation, and this round of the series, in the first game, fell into a bitter battle.
On May 3, the Pistons were at home, and the Pistons' defense made it very difficult for the Magic team to score, Durant fell into a scoring dilemma, and even Sun Zhuo's scoring efficiency dropped significantly.
After the G1 loss, Sun Zhuo supported the team alone, G2 slashed 58 points, defeated the Pistons alive, and won a victory on the road.
The next two home games became much easier, Sun Zhuo led the team to win two games in a row, got the match point, and finally defeated the Pistons and advanced to the semifinals.
The series between the Celtics and the Cavaliers fell into a bitter battle for the tie-break, which is also the same plot as the previous life, the Celtics played the seventh game in the first two rounds of the series, and almost lost the tie-break with the Cavaliers, and then it became easier and easier to reach the Eastern Conference Finals and the Finals.
In the end, the same result as in the previous life, the Celtics narrowly defeated the Cavaliers, James was out of the game for another year in vain, and he once again had to see Sun Zhuo continue to compete for the championship.
However, this year, James feels that Sun Zhuo will also be out soon, and the Celtics are really sad.
May 20 is a day that many Chinese like to confess, and on this day, Sun Zhuo and his teammates came to the home of the Devils, the home of the Celtics.
The audience booed.
The noise in the sky made people panic.
"It's finally the day." Sun Zhuo felt the noisy atmosphere of the scene, but the whole person was very calm, today's commentator said that Sun Zhuo had been waiting for a season for this day, in fact, Sun Zhuo had to wait longer, he had long known that he would meet the Celtic Big Three in this year.
"Is that the atmosphere of the Eastern Conference Finals? It's really different from before. After the first two rounds of the series, Kevin Durant has managed to become the Magic's second scorer behind Sun Zhuo, although this time, he has become a substitute again.
"I wonder if Paul Pierce's head is better." Artest smirked and teased Sun Zhuo, he moved his body to show off the muscles on his body.
However, such a move did not scare Paul Pierce at all.
In the first minute of the opening game, Pierce said to Artest, "Use all your bad tricks!" ”
In the first ball, Pierce forced Artest to single, Artest was unwilling to admit defeat, and saw that he couldn't stop Pierce, so he had to foul, but Pierce was in a wonderful state, and under Artest's foul, he even hit the goal.
"Ahh
The audience cheered, and with the story of the previous two, everyone was applauding Paul Pearce.
"him! No one can stop you, Paul! ”
Even Sun Zhuo had to appreciate Pierce: "This guy is really tough, although his strength is not the top, he has never been afraid of anyone, and he himself has always thought that he has the best strength." ”
In the playoffs, it's so important to have a lot of self-confidence.
At the beginning of the game, the Celtics played a wave of 8:0 against the Magic, which was very similar to a game in the regular season, except that at that time, the Magic played the Celtics 8:0, and once threatened to play 20:0.
"Abuse them in the first quarter!"
"Fight until 15:0, let them see how good we are!"
On the Magic bench, everyone panicked for the first time.
Sun Zhuo also felt the pressure, but he still had a secret weapon that he hadn't used.
At the beginning of the playoffs, the Superstar Challenge added Tim Duncan's Challenge, Sun Zhuo has completed three challenges, obtained 6 special training card fragments, plus the previous 8, already has 14, and has already redeemed a special training card.
"I'm going to increase my mid-pitch value."
System: "You use a special training card, your Win Value is increased from 175 to 180, and your rating is increased to S." ”
After the mid-range shooting ability was also improved to S, all of Sun Zhuo's offensive abilities were above S.
"Now my scoring ability should be the strongest in history."
Close shots, mid-range shots, long shots, dunks, speed, and power are all above S, which is extremely terrifying, even the great basketball god Michael Jordan cannot be so comprehensive.
"In other words, today's game, it's time to break the playoff single-game scoring record."
The single-game scoring record in the playoffs is the 63-point record set by Michael Jordan in 1986!
"I'll leave the rest of the game to me." Sun Zhuo said to everyone with a serious face, and his teammates could see that Sun Zhuo was going to be serious!
Back on the court, Garnett first challenged Sun Zhuo: "A timeout can't solve your problem, we will continue to expand to 15:0." ”
Less than fifteen seconds after Garnett said this, Sun Zhuo used a quick break, and then shot in a quick stop, hitting the first goal of the Magic team.
Coach Rivers was slightly upset: "It looks like they're still a little lucky, and it would be interesting if Sun didn't score this time." ”
Everyone knows that Sun Zhuo is good at dunks and three-point shots, and if he shoots from mid-range, unless he relies on shooting, other ways of shooting are actually not too powerful, so in terms of defense, they also focus more on preventing breakthroughs and three-point shots.
Then, Sun Zhuo's next offense was exactly the same routine, and he hit a mid-range shot again!
"What?" Coach Rivers was a little nerve-wracking, and he actually hit consecutive shots to chase points.
Next, the Celtics were slightly tighter, and this time, Sun Zhuo forced a breakthrough and beat Garnett a 2+1 on the inside.
Sun Zhuo chased 7 points in a row.
"It's really disgusting, he's in such a good state, it looks like he has to be flanked in advance." Coach Rivers can see that Sun Zhuo's posture today will be crazy if he is not stopped.
And at this time, Kevin Durant replaced Turkoglu and also came to the court.
Seeing Durant on the court, Coach Rivers became a little worried again.
"In the first two rounds of the series, the Magic was obviously exercising Kevin Durant's ability, and now he can easily score more than 20 points in a playoff game, and this game must suppress the bench's score to less than 10 points."
Because of Durant's threat, the Celtics didn't dare to focus too much on Sun Zhuo, so they were in a dilemma and watched Sun Zhuo rush into shots again and again.
Breakthrough layup, pull-up shot, ultra-long three-point ......
Sun Zhuo scored 20 points in a single quarter against the Celtics!
"Is this really a playoff game?" The on-site narrator couldn't help but ask in surprise.