"If I had to surprise me with any players in this year's playoffs, I'd list three names."

The international flight from Philadelphia to London has taken off, and in the first class cabin, two girls sit shoulder to shoulder, discussing the duty-free goods they have just bought.

One aisle away, two tall men sat in a row, their expressions much more serious.

"One is the aforementioned Durant, and the other is you."

Chen Mu pointed at Gu Yu.

"Count yourself on the sight!"

Gu Yu patted his chest and said with a smile: "What about the third one?" Who is so honored to be ranked with my name? ”

"And the other one, which is Rajan Rondo."

2012 Playoffs, Boston, North Shore Garden Arena.

When they formed the army a few years ago, the Big Three, which once shocked the entire alliance and even the world, are really old.

Kevin Garnett's old age was the first to be revealed, but his complete decline was the last.

On the defensive end, when Garnett's body was still able to withstand it, he was still the long-handed spider monster roaming around to make up for the defense. But on the offensive end, the former wolf king was obviously a little powerless, and his back footsteps began to fail, and the physical confrontation did not prevail.

As the soul of the Green Army, Pierce's technical style of play has greatly extended the life of his career. The handling of key balls, the grasp of absolute scoring opportunities, and the scoring efficiency of the mid-position back, Pierce can still teach the younger generations to be human.

But today's alliances, today's opponents, have changed.

"It's too fast."

Chen Mu said: "Not to mention Garnett, Ray Allen, and Pierce, even when I entered the league, the pace of the game here was not so fast." ”

The pace of the NBA game is showing an up-and-down temporal trend, once upon a time, the NBA game was amazingly fast, and the number of rounds was to death, creating a lot of data frenzy that seems incredible to us today.

But with the improvement of tactics, especially the emergence of two big devils - Pat Riley and Zhuge Vic, the NBA gradually entered the darkest defensive era in history.

PACE has slipped dramatically, the numbers have shrunk, the defensive moves have gotten bigger, and the subtle defensive tactics have taken over.

There is no doubt at all that Kobe Iverson Maddy, the outside scoring freaks who once scored terrifying scoring data in that dark era, if their peak also caught up with the era of the league's big acceleration and all-round promotion of offense, their data would be even more terrifying.

And with David Stern's continuous changes to the NBA rules in the later stages of his career, the league's game direction has changed dramatically.

The most striking feature is that players with the ability to cut through the frame of the ball begin to shine in all directions. With more and more space on the perimeter and more civilized defensive moves, the NBA has entered an era of the second offensive revival.

At the beginning of this era, the Suns were on the rise, the Wizards were playing beautiful games, the Nets were sexy and coquettish, and offensive basketball was all the rage.

Soon after, the Green Shirts formed a triumvirate with two outside players and one inside Garnett, who was also a man who could play at least four positions, and could fully keep up with the team's offensive speed.

So the Green Shirts set off a storm of their own, and the team's record was red all the way, and the game was smooth.

However, the times have changed, and the emergence of the Heat Big Three has brought a new way of thinking.

"Don't turn your back."

Chen Mu said seriously: "If you don't consider the playoffs, a game with amazing defensive intensity, in the regular season, a team can directly abandon the back-to-back singles, not fall into the low position and slow heads-up, and still play a brilliant record." ”

The Heat were once following this path.

It's just that later, the Heat lost to Chen Mu and his 76ers, so LeBron James began to seek change.

It only took a year for this unborn genius to incorporate the incomparably complex and mysterious back-to-back skills into his arsenal. Whether the action is good-looking and flashy may be anyone's opinion, but LeBron's offensive efficiency during the Heat period is indeed unmatched.

"At this time, the aging of the Celtic triumvirate began to become serious. So when Game 5 between Boston and Indiana began, Garnett was still out of action, and I started to think that my second-round opponent would probably be the Pacers. ”

"Aren't you happy then?" Gu Yu smiled.

"Ahem, ahem...... Whereever, whereever, I respect every opponent, well......! ”

Chen Mu may not even believe what he said......

And on the court of Tianwang Mountain, Pierce didn't feel good, and Ray Allen was a little annoyed by the Pacers' amazing outside defensive tenacity, and the play was also erratic.

Rajan Rondo stepped forward.

"44 points, ah......!"

Recalling that game, Chen Mu still had an unbelievable expression on his face: "A point guard who barely knows how to shoot, can't turn his back at all, and has a dislocated hand, scored 44 points in a single game, and directly made the Pacers stupid, tsk, what is a big player?" Rondo is! ”

Relying on Rondo's amazing play, the Green Shirts won Tianwang Mountain. In the sixth game, Garnett returned, Pierce regained his touch, and at the critical moment, he scored two points from a long distance and sentenced the Pacers to death.

Boston Celtics, who reached the division semifinals.

They will face their old enemies, the Philadelphia 76ers.

"At the beginning of this round, it was really a little difficult."

Chen Mu's expression became more and more serious, for him, the Celts were like a master that every brave man had to defeat. If he really wants to go out of the mountain and challenge the world's powers, the Celtics seem to be a peak he must climb every year.

"They were in good shape that round, and it felt like a series against the Pacers that brought them out."

Gu Yu touched his chin and said, "It seems that there was overtime in the first game?" ”

"Yes, and it's double overtime."

Chen Mu smiled bitterly and nodded.

In the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Heat faced the Bulls, although the Bulls had the second highest record in the East, even one place higher than the Heat. But the pain that a single-core team must go through in a game of this intensity in the playoffs is on display with the Bulls.

Chalmers, who once beat the team of the top champion Rose in the NCAA, is a little-known 3-and-D point guard who might have been mixed in the NBA for a few seasons if it weren't for the Big Three, and then disappeared, has worked Rose's defense.

MVP-level Rose naturally can't be completely blocked, but with Chalmers Kraft Candy chasing after him, LeBron James, a hat-chaser waiting for an opportunity, and Wade on the wing, the big lock to follow, Chris Bosh can also contribute highlight defense, and Rose struggled a little in this round of the series.

And all the Bulls' opponent teams know that as long as they choke Rose, cut off the connection between him and the rest of the team, and defeat the Bulls, it will not be difficult.

So the Bulls were leaderless, and after losing two games at home, they ushered in bad news:

Derrick Rose is reimbursed for the season.

The news came as a bolt from the blue, although former Captain-Kirk, Kirk's savior of the fire, played well as the starting point guard and did a pretty good job defending Wade.

But without Rose's tearing defense, the weakness of the rest of the Bulls' independent offensive ability was exposed.

In 5 games, 4-1, the Bulls only managed to resist one game in front of the Heat, and then they were out of the game.

On the other side, Boston vs Philadelphia.

"To be honest, we expected before the game that Rondo's style of play, his defense, his breakout, his tough attitude, would cause Stephen a lot of problems. But what we didn't expect was ......"

Chen Mu adjusted the back of the seat.

“…… He's so strong. ”

Curry has made great progress this season, and the last thing he has to worry about when playing next to Chen Mu is the problem of winning or losing.

Without this kind of pressure, Curry, who was born full of energy, naturally played happily. He averaged 22.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 7.3 assists per game this season, and also contributed 1.7 steals, which is already a star-level statistic.

On the other side, although Rondo's assists, rebounds, and steals are more eye-catching, after all, his projection ability is limited, and his scoring data is a big difference with Curry. Before the game, public opinion generally believed that Curry might be limited by Rondo's defense, resulting in a decline in scoring statistics, but not too bad.

Because there is still an alliance leader Chen Mu standing on the inside line!

As a result, it was a big surprise.

"With so many people left at once, the transformation of the team lineup is still very painful, hahaha!"

Gu Yu gloated: "I see that the Celtics can't wait to have three people staring at you all the time in a game, and all the outside defense is handled by Rondo and Tony Allen, so I bet that your outside line is unstable!" ”

"yes, thankfully we won the bet."

Chen Mu smiled slyly.

That's right, the Philadelphia bet won.

The final result was 4-3, Philadelphia advanced, and Chen Mu and his friends once again stepped on the corpse of the Celtics and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

However, when shaking hands after the game, the words of his old opponent Garnett made the smile on Chen Mu's face instantly freeze.

He said......"

Chen Mu leaned back in the chair, put his hands on his head, and recalled: "'Our style of play is the style that all teams in the entire league will adopt after seeing that you have serious personnel loss. Our defensive speed is not as fast as it used to be, and the rotation is not fast enough. But the Eastern Conference Finals, that team, that guy...... They will make you suffer.'" ”

Wanting to add the yellow robe for the third consecutive season, in front of Chen Mu's eyes, the most powerful and terrifying enemy has appeared.

"Gu, while you haven't experienced the feeling of advancing to the playoffs, I'll give you a piece of advice first."

Halfway through the conversation, Chen Mu turned his words, looked at Gu Yu, and said seriously: "After a round, it is worth celebrating, but if you lose a round, you don't necessarily need to regret it." Because after entering the next round, the mode of the BA playoffs is to raise Gu, whoever is the most poisonous and the strongest can go the farthest. ”

Gu Yu sat up straight and listened carefully.

"A mountain is still a mountain high, the opponent you just beat may be considered a strong team in the regular season, but in the playoffs, they are eliminated, which proves that they are not strong enough to enter the next round."

Chen Mu continued: "The playoffs are a stage of death with one round and one day. ”