Chapter 362: The Strongest Huddle
In the eyes of outsiders, Rose is a shining addition to the rookies of the class of 2008, who is only 23 years old this year, averaging 25 points and 7.7 assists per game, and leading the Bulls to the top of the East with a 62-20 record, while becoming the youngest regular season MVP in history, breaking James' monopoly on this award. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info
You must know that James won the regular season MVP by a huge margin in the first two seasons, and it looks like he can continue to win, but Rose's sudden rise has made James' dream of a triple MVP come to naught, not to mention that this year is only the third season of his career.
However, others in the class of 2008 were still somewhat unconvinced, such as Ye Feng and Westbrook, who had played against Rose in the NCAA finals, and Loew was automatically ignored, anyway, with the bottom record of the Timberwolves league, he couldn't get the MVP no matter how good his statistics were. Fortunately, Ye Feng and Westbrook are not stupid, they will not publicize their ideas in public, but having said that, they are still very concerned about the Eastern Conference Finals, whether it is Westbrook who was eliminated or Ye Feng who was promoted.
Rose is really strong, he deserves the title of No. 1 pick in the class of 2008, and the Bulls players have played at a better level with his help. But their opponents are a strengthened version of the Big Three, and this is the first time in NBA history that three superstars in their prime have chosen to huddle, and while the rest of the Heat's players do look a bit miserable, it's enough to have the league's top stars in the backcourt, forward and interior.
And from the Heat's monthly record, it can be found that the tacit understanding between James, Wade and Bosh is getting better and better, in fact, the three of them have a very personal relationship, but they have never partnered in an official NBA game. Although they were selected together for the U.S. men's basketball team and played at the 2006 World Championships in Sapporo, Japan, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the difficulty of teaming up with a group of superstars to compete in a World Series is quite different from leading a group of role players to a championship.
The Bulls were able to beat the Heat to become the No. 1 in the East was indeed a surprise to many, and they beat their opponents 103-82 in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals, with Rose himself scoring 28 points and 6 assists, Deng adding 21 points and 7 rebounds, and the two interior players Boozer and Noah combined to contribute 23 points and 23 rebounds. However, the Bulls' big win over the opponent has to be attributed to the poor form of James and Wade, and it is a bit difficult to rely on Bosh alone's 30 points and 9 rebounds.
However, in the second game, the Heat relied on their high-intensity defense to equalize the score. With the Heat's full defense, Rose scored 21 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists on 7-of-23 shooting from the field, and the Bulls only Deng scored a double-double besides him. James, who had a sluggish first game, re-showed his quality as a two-time regular season MVP, with 29 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and Wade also chipped in 24 points and nine rebounds. Although Bosh had only 10 points and 9 rebounds in the game, Haslem on the bench contributed 13 points and 5 rebounds to make up for the lack of inside, and the Heat also beat the Bulls 85-75 on the road.
After returning to Miami in Game 3, the Heat continued to beat the Bulls 96-85 to keep the top Eastern Conference seed scoring below 90 points for the second straight game. Although James was pestered by Deng, he was not ambiguous, scoring 22 points, six rebounds and 10 assists on 6-of-13 shooting, perfectly interpreting the role of a point forward. He led Bosh to 34 points and five rebounds on 13-of-18 shooting, while Wade also contributed 17 points and nine rebounds. Rose was still looked at to death, and although he had 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, he shot just 8-of-19, and the Bulls' leading scorer was Boozer, who had a big double-double of 26 points and 17 rebounds, but was powerless to prevent the team from losing.
Rose was not reconciled, and he scored 37 points and 12 assists alone in the fourth game, leading the Bulls to score in double figures for a 101-87 victory. Although James also got 28 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, Bosh and Wade felt cold, only 22 points in total, and if it weren't for Bibby's 14 points and 5 assists, the Heat might have lost even worse, and the two sides were back on the same page again.
The fifth game is the key battle of Tianwang Mountain, Rose returned to the home court after the battle is more explosive, the whole game scored 41 points, but the teammates feel too poor, only Boozer and Deng scored double-doubles, resulting in Rose only 5 assists, not at all to revitalize the team's offense, the Bulls players can only fight on their own. On the Heat side, although James only scored 22 points and Wade only scored 20 points, the whole team scored double-doubles, Bosh and Haslem both scored 17 points, and the Heat won this crucial game 107-97 without blood, and grasped the initiative to advance to the finals.
After losing the battle of Tianwang Mountain, the morale of the Bulls plummeted, and even Rose couldn't play the explosive data of the first two games after coming to Miami, with only 17 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists in the whole game, Boozer contributed 12 points and 5 rebounds, and Deng added 10 points, but this is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for the Bulls. James uncharacteristically went all out to record a big triple-double of 39 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, while Wade and Bosh scored 23 and 21 points, respectively, in the best performance of the Big Three in the Eastern Conference Finals. Under their leadership, the Heat defeated the Bulls 123-99 and successfully advanced to the Finals.
In this way, the Trail Blazers have no obvious physical advantage, as the Heat only play one more game than them. Ye Feng was also secretly vigilant, he didn't expect the Bulls to be eliminated 2-4 like this, and the last game of the Heat Big Three also played such dazzling data at the same time, which is rare in this season, it is obvious that they have used the Eastern Conference Finals to adjust their state, this is indeed a difficult opponent to beat!
The Trail Blazers have also faced the Celtics led by the Big Three in the Finals before, but compared to the Big Three of the Heat, the Celtics are much weaker, after all, Pierce, Garnett and Ray Allen have all entered the twilight of their careers, far from being comparable to James, Wade, and Bosh. If the Celtics were the first team to really start organizing star huddles, then the Heat are undoubtedly a big step forward on their foundation, which can already be said to be the strongest huddle in history.