Chapter 52: East-West First Round Playoffs
After the Wizards finished their game with Philadelphia, the situation of the first round of the playoffs in the East and West has been basically clear!
The Nets were really pitted by the Wizards, and Isaiah Thomas's team is now somewhat formed, although Artest arrived a little late, but the defense he brought still made the Nets very uncomfortable.
In the first game at home, the Nets were taken down by the Pacers, and Jermaine O'Neal scored 30 points and 10 rebounds in this game, rendering Kidd's 26 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds nearly a triple-double in the playoffs useless.
Brad Miller, another center of the Pacers, also scored 18 points and 12 rebounds, which already shows how strong the Pacers are on the inside.
In the second game, although Reggie Miller scored 26 points, the Nets under the leadership of Kidd, all 10 players on the court scored, and 4 of them scored more than 15 points under the large-scale rotation, and the Nets' protection of rebounds and baskets on this night was even more unexpected than everyone expected.
The Pacers are powerless!
The third game, from the beginning of the game to the end of the game, was the most anxious game between the two sides so far, and even in the end, the Nets won the game by 1 point.
The fourth game was the day before the Wizards' game, and the two sides ended the game that caused an uproar for countless people, because many people thought that the victory in Game 3 had pushed the Pacers to a cliff, but the fourth game seemed to be a reversal between the two teams. The Pacers won the game by an absolute margin of 23 points!
This made the reporters and the brick family very distressed, Black Seven did not succeed, but Black Eight was going to succeed? It's chaos in the east!
The Pistons, who are third in the East, and the Hornets who are sixth in the East, came out a day earlier than the Wizards, and many people believe that these are the two closest teams, but the Pistons inexplicably collapsed in the first round of the playoffs.
Although in the first game, Marshburn once again surprised everyone by withdrawing from the game due to injury, announcing the reimbursement of the season. But Byron Davis performed too well, in 4 games, he scored 2 triple-doubles, and averaged 22+12 super defenders per game.
The Pistons don't have anyone on the perimeter who can defend Davis' offense right now.
This result was completely unexpected by the Wizards, and the one who didn't want to meet it ended up, and I thought it was a battle between the Pistons and the Hornets, but how could it turn out like this? Davis is too violent, isn't he? 4 games, 2 triple-doubles? Do you think it's a game?
But after watching the video of Davis's games, Jordan just said lightly: "We're going to start thinking about the opponent in the Eastern Conference Finals!" ”
Collins also laughed very kindly at his teammates, not caring about Davis at all...... This made Gong Feng feel a little unconscious!
The final matchup in the East is the Magic vs. Celtics, which is a more unpredictable match than the Nets vs. Pacers, and the two teams will definitely be in the top five in the East if they play according to their true strength. In this round of the game, the strength between the two teams was also shown, and the duel between Maddie and Pierce was even more exciting.
Rivers' team is notoriously slow-moving, unexpectedly but naturally losing their first two games.
However, after returning to his home court, Rivers made formal changes to the team, and Armstrong was taken out of the main point guard position for the first time, returning to his familiar position as the sixth man.
Mark Jackson was promoted to the starting position, forming an outside combination with Alan Houston.
Maddie is still in the No. 3 position, and Kurt Thomas is still in the No. 4 position, but the player in the No. 5 position has changed from Grant to Ewing!
The distribution of the ball from Maddy's hands to Mark Jackson's hands has also been transferred to Mark Jackson's own bench, and his bench also has the undrafted convulsion Hudson, plus Armstrong, veteran Monty Williams, plus Horrace Grant.
This turned a team that followed the trend into a rigorous, half-court offensive team - Rivers's team.
The Celtics didn't grasp the offensive characteristics of the Magic team in the third game, because the Magic team is no longer the core player of Maddy, and their two main players, Antoine Walker and Pierce, have also become very difficult under the defense of Maddy and Kort Thomas!
In this game, Maddie put his posture very low, and he did something more speechless on defense, and when Maddie didn't need to score, Maddie should defend Pierce well, and Maddie at this time had no signs of malaise.
After the trade with the Knicks was completed, the Magic's heart became a lot wilder.
This game, to the surprise of all observers, the Magic won a landslide victory on their home court, and the fourth game was also the same, giving the Celtics no chance to overtake the score.
In the second round of the Eastern Conference, the Wizards have confirmed that they will play their Eastern Conference semifinals on their home court on May 5. But the other two opponents will have to work hard to play each other's fifth game, who knows what the result will be?
The chaos in the West is much simpler than in the East, the strength and weakness are too clear, the Kings cleanly eliminated the Jazz 3-1, and the current Jazz no longer have a way to limit the Kings' offense by their own defense.
The Lakers directly killed the Trail Blazers with many ambitions 3-0, although the scenes of the three games were very anxious, but the Lakers can always win their initiative in the final stage, and O'Neal's role as the core is always irreplaceable.
The Mavericks unexpectedly killed the Timberwolves 3-0 directly, although after the trade with the Knicks, the Timberwolves became stronger, but this degree is still very limited, both teams are now star singles a lot of times, but the Timberwolves only have two singles ability, but what about the old Nelson's team?
The Spurs are unexpectedly going to fight the SuperSonics until Game 5, and in Collins' mind, Popovich's team is a bit slow, but it's not so slow, right? Shouldn't the supersonic be so tenacious?
In this regard, Collins dared to look through all the records of this round with great interest, and just five minutes after watching it, Collins scolded the country!
David Robinson was accidentally injured in the first game and did not play in the following games, Popovich's attitude towards this was a little more ruthless, and he directly began to use the supersonic as the object of team adjustment, and Duncan actually did not play in one of the games?
Although the Spurs are on par with the SuperSonics on the field, to be specific, Popovich took the initiative to let Parker face Payton, that is, after winning two games, he was not in a hurry to win this series, but began to use the opponent's superstar Payton to 'train' the rookie guards on his side!
Collins can only say that he admires the current Popovich very much, and his audacity makes Collins feel frightened, and he also feels a little pity for Peyton!
Collins also knows the helplessness of what Popovich is doing now, the second round is about to collide with the Lakers who have won two consecutive championships, the Spurs' current personnel are old, the young are too young, only Duncan is not enough, and there is no one who can stand up on the bench, it is too embarrassing to ask Duncan to defend O'Neal, and it is impossible for Duncan in this state to get the points that make the Spurs win.
Only by allowing Robinson to rest well and be ready to play when the time comes, Parker can improve a little more to have the slightest chance of winning the game against the Lakers.
Thinking about the current situation, and then thinking about all the games of the Wizards' regular season and playoffs, after a long time, Collins sighed, and had a new understanding of how he didn't bring out the Bulls dynasty back then!
The final result in the first round was a hard-fought win over the Pacers by the Nets on their home court, which was the path Collins wanted to take in Game 4, but it is not known whether it was the player's choice or the coach's choice.