The smoke of the playoffs is getting closer and closer, and the city seems to have entered the state of the future game, walking in various areas of the city every day, Zhang Chen often sees people in the city starting to walk around in jerseys, and often sees all kinds of promotional slogans. The city is well on its way to the playoffs, and everyone is expecting the Suns, who look incredibly strong this season, at least in the regular season, to pull off the magic.

This year's playoff schedule has also been fully scheduled.

Westward:

Suns vs. Nuggets, Spurs vs. Rockets, Lakers vs. Jazz, Hornets vs. Mavericks.

East: Celtics vs. Hawks, Cavaliers vs. Wizards, Magic vs. Raptors, Pistons vs. 76ers.

This season's playoff matchups came out, and although everyone had predicted the current match-and-match matchup, they didn't expect it to be like this at the beginning of the season. Of course, when the Celtics in the East exchanged the Zhengtai they had accumulated for years for an old guy, they felt that the Celtics could get the first place in the East, and the fact is that the Celtics are indeed at the top of the East this season.

However, it was the West that surprised people the most, and now the West has far exceeded what people expected before the season.

The first to bear the brunt is naturally the Suns, although strictly speaking, the Suns are essentially only regular season teams, but no one expected them to play so well in the regular season, and get the first place in the West where the giants gather and the wolves are on fire, which makes them feel a little strange anyway. The second is the Hornets, whose rise this year has been incredible, and no team will be bullish on a team that only has a rookie that looks good before the start of the season. But now they have become second in the West, which has taken everyone by surprise.

And Paul's perfect performance of 21+12+5+3 also made everyone exclaim that the point guard is the king, and the Hornets' record makes everyone feel a little incredible. Next is the Lakers, before the start of the season, everyone thought that this year's Lakers would probably repeat the routine of Kobe Bryant carrying the whole team alone, and finally falling down in the playoffs and shedding tears to the world, but this soap drama plot that has been repeated for many years on a variety of different teams finally did not take place this year, and after getting Gasol's strong silver, the Lakers' record has also risen.

Another team is the Rockets, after Yao Ming's injury, in fact, not many people are optimistic about this team, but under the leadership of Maddy, the Fire Rockets played an epic 23-game winning streak until they finally fell under the iron hooves of the Suns.

All in all, although Garnett is now going east, the West still maintains its advantage over the East in general, and the alliance is still a pattern of strong West and weak East. This is the best era, the league has not really stepped into the so-called point guard era compared to later, and several center power forwards are also in their playing years, and this year's two rookie Wizards on the front line also give people hope that the forward myth continues, and the league's forward swingmen are still active in various teams.

The big-name Swingman is in his prime right now, his attacks are pretty sharp, and the superstars aren't huddled too much - not to mention the Celtics, it's only short-lived.

Anthony, James, Kobe, Xiao Ai, Roy, and the rising stars Durant and Zhang Chen, now the forward swingman in the league has vaguely occupied a certain dominance, at least he can compete with the point guard.

This year's Western Conference playoffs will undoubtedly be very good, the Suns and Nuggets games, both teams are more offensive, the audience can expect to witness some offensive games at the West Jersey Arena, and several other teams will definitely be exciting, such as Paul and Kidd, the battle between the old and new point guards, which are all gimmicks thrown by the league.

The game between the Suns and the Nuggets has received a considerable amount of attention, and the broadcast rights of the Suns' game in China were directly bought by all five sets of Tianchao Sports, and all Chinese fans will be able to watch this grand matchup in front of the TV.

This year is the first year after the golden two-gun combination, this combination has made many fans who believe in Iverson have transferred their favorite team to the Nuggets, fate seems to treat Iverson too cruelly, maybe loneliness is the lifelong fate of the unruly man, this time, although the combination with Anthony did not reflect greater energy in the regular season, but fans are still full of expectations for the Nuggets.

Of course, the Nuggets and Suns still have a clear advantage in the domestic support rating, Nash and Iverson are both players of the 96 Golden Generation, they are all representatives of the style of the game, and neither of them has won a championship ring. Nash's gentle and kind surname is also liked by many Chinese fans, which is one reason why the Suns are supported, and of course, the biggest reason is Zhang Chen.

In fact, a large part of Chinese fans are still a little blind to watch the game, as long as it is Chinese players they all like it, just like Yao Ming, although Yao Ming has various shortcomings, but these people will not care about these, anyway, Yao Ming is us Chinese, we just love him. (Well, I admit I'm one of them) Zhang Chen is the same, of course, even if Zhang Chen is not Chinese, he can gain a lot of fans in China - after all, his current style of play is also completely in line with the aesthetic views of Chinese fans, and his flowing elegance seems to everyone even better than Kobe Maddie Iverson - of course, this premise is that he does not dunk.

Therefore, coupled with Zhang Chen's Chinese identity, he has gradually had the tendency to be able to compete with Yao Ming, plus Yao Ming's injury this time also made him fade out of people's sight a little, and after Yao Ming's injury, Zhang Chen's score went crazy one after another, so that everyone immediately filled the gap in their hearts because of Yao Ming's departure.

And now there are vague rumors that Zhang Chen has joined the national team, and it is conceivable that if Zhang Chen performs well in the Olympic Games, his reputation in the domestic basketball world will reach.

So, in every aspect, this game deserves everyone's attention, and even Nash is going to be a green leaf.

The day before the playoffs began, the Nuggets had already flown to Phoenix Suncity because tomorrow would be the Suns' home court.

However, the people of the Suns are discussing what kind of lineup they should adopt against the Nuggets this time and what attitude they should use to meet this matchup. To be honest, the No. 1 spot in the regular season combined with the slaughter of opponents in the closing game made the Suns' morale peak, and everyone's faces were full of confidence in the face of the opponent's one-hit kill.

This kind of morale is still relatively good for the Suns, of course, this kind of self-confidence must also be controlled to a certain extent, at least it cannot evolve into arrogance, and the arrogant team will be tragic in the future.

D'Antoni asked the assistant coach to let the team train on their own, while he watched the game directly from the basketball court, drawing and rubbing and wiping on his tactical board according to the different characteristics of each person, and for a while his brows were furrowed, and he had used up a lot of manuscript paper in a short period of time.

This is the Suns' first playoff game, and it will be a head-to-head game, and he knows the energy that Iverson can burst out of when he is cornered, and this is a peerless talent who can easily navigate the NBA at 183 height. They have also played against the Nuggets a few times this season, and they know that although Iverson has regressed, that regression is not so obvious that the Suns ignore Iverson.

At the same time, the Nuggets also have a difficult guy named Anthony, of course, Bale's defense should still have some effect on Anthony, and he is most worried about his guard line being blown up by Iverson, at least he has no players on the guard line who can be used to defend Iverson.

Nash's words...... Despite his height advantage and his knowledge of Iverson, if Iverson really goes all out to make a decisive charge, Nash will probably still have to be like an SB. Zhang Chen? - Forget it, despite his 20-centimeter height advantage, his defense and Nash are a perfect match. Besides, Zhang Chen's height advantage is not worth mentioning in front of Iverson, and Iverson can shake Zhang Chen's center of gravity more easily.

While D'Antoni isn't a defensive-minded coach, he doesn't allow his team to have no defense – he's not the old Nelson maniac. Therefore, in the face of the current situation, D'Antoni was also a little worried, and in the end he could only use the last decision, so that Zhang Chen and Nash and Iverson exploded, Iverson was difficult to beat with both fists and four hands, and the tacit understanding of the opponent was already 1+1 greater than 2.

That's what D'Antoni came up with.

For the Nuggets, the Suns are also their imminent enemy, the Suns' record this season is quite scary, and their lineup can be said to be reasonable, of course, there is nothing to say about the defense, but the Nuggets' defense is not too good, and the two superstars in the team are at the level of a defensive black hole.

As a result, the Nuggets are actually facing the same worries as the Suns, and even more than they are - the Suns have too many people who can score cold arrows, crazy scorers such as Zhang Chen, Xiao Si, Nash, cold arrows such as Barbossa, Bale, and so on. The most painful thing for the Nuggets is the defensive problem against Zhang Chen, and the only person they can use to defend Zhang Chen on the guard line is basically one Jr. Smith.

Originally, if there was no such variable as Zhang Chen, the person who opposed Zhang Chen should be Anthony? Carter, the problem is that this girl is only 188 tall, and in front of Zhang Chen's breathtaking 56% three-point shooting rate, he doesn't feel like an SB? It's just that if you use Jr. Smith, this person is not worry-free, although he has a hand in offense, but his defense can basically only rely on his own physical fitness, and he likes gambling steals, and the opponent makes fouls are basically a one-of-a-kind accuracy, which makes the Nuggets head coach George? Cash felt an unusual headache.

So, after thinking about it a lot, Cash can only be prepared to use a few guys on the inside to defend the Suns' breakout, and also try to defend the Suns' shots - but this always feels too risky, and if he fights with the Suns on offense, he knows that their lineup is really a bit of a concern.

But there's no other way around, and they really can't limit the rookie who can score 50 points in a single game.

The pre-playoff highlights began with the two head coaches arranging their line-up and sighing. And the Nuggets also came to the Suns' exclusive training arena for them, and there was a fifteen-minute open time for reporters to come in and take pictures or something.

The golden twin guns gradually appeared in front of everyone, and the melon smiled on his face, making his slightly baby-faced face look a little incredibly holy, and the handsomeness of this guy also attracted many people to scream. And Iverson, not to mention, is about the same height as an ordinary person, with an angular face, and that ** look, in short, if the golden two guns don't wear a jersey, maybe people will think they are a combination of movie stars - these two guys are very handsome.

So this has also become a topic of bad taste hype in some media, some boring gossip this season has discharged the top ten handsome guys in the NBA, the first is the well-deserved Kobe, the second is Maddy, the third is Iverson, and the fourth is a bit intriguing.

This list is from foreign media, and the commentators are all local Americans, but Zhang Chen was selected on the fourth place, which made everyone feel a little incredible. Of course, in China, this list has caused many fans and many girls to question it: they think that Zhang Chen should be put in the first place at all, Kobe Bryant or something is a floating cloud, but now Zhang Chen's face is a bit baby-faced, and there is something less than Kobe Maddie and Iverson, I believe that he will be able to climb to the top of the list in a few years.

Therefore, the media began to hype these two combinations: one is the eighth and third ranked Golden Twin Guns on the handsome guy list, and the other is the fourth and fifth ranked Sun Storm (Wind Child and Anemo God) on the handsome guy list, and these two big combinations have also satisfied some people with bad tastes.

Therefore, Anthony and Iverson appeared to murder a lot of reporters on film, and Iverson's face was cold, not as hip-hop as usual, and his grim face seemed to indicate the bloody battle they were about to face. Anthony only smiled slightly, and the expressions of the two brothers were a little intriguing.

Iverson made his way to the left side of the basket and, with the help of their assistant coach, began practicing his pull-up jump shot on the left side of the basket. Although Iverson's long-range shooting percentage is dependent on the sky, but his mid-range shooting percentage, pull-up jump shooting percentage are not a joke, his career has reached this point, and his offensive choice should also consider more of his body's endurance, so in the later years of his career, many stars have chosen the jump shot as their conventional weapon, although Iverson's breakthrough is still an important offensive means in the past two years, but his jump shot ratio has also increased to a certain extent.

Iverson has some wounds in many parts of his body, and some old diseases will gradually come to his professional health, but his eyes are still as tough as before.

It was going to be a heart-wrenching game, which everyone had predicted, and Iverson was more of a desperate charge to challenge his fate.

Fifteen minutes of open time had passed, and the Nuggets were back in normal practice, and by the time Iverson was sweating profusely, he sat down on a nearby stool and poured his cup into his mouth.

Anthony didn't know when he sat next to him, Anthony's extension was still a little relaxed in the end, and he also picked up a basketball that Jr. Smith missed, and came to a long-range three-pointer, watching the basketball sink into the basket, he snorted like a child, and then said to Iverson, "Hey, Alan, it looks like you're a little upset?" ”

Iverson wasn't good at hiding his expressions, and he didn't bother to hide them, saying bluntly, "Yes, you can see it." ”

"Why not be happy? Aren't we wonderful? We're in the playoffs...... And we have a chance to beat the Phoenix here. ”

Iverson naturally doesn't express the deepest worries in his heart, sometimes he always feels a little powerless, and when he breaks through, he is not as strong as before, and occasionally in exchange for bloody protests from the injured parts of his body. After all, he is almost 33 years old, and many times he sees young people running unscrupulously, although he will never admit it, but deep down he still has some envy, and at the same time there is some nostalgia, he has just entered the league, he is full of spirit, and he is angry in fresh clothes - it has been 12 years. The Suns' Steve and him are also in the same class, and there is no way to erase the traces of time on everyone's faces.

"Oh...... Yes, it will be defeated. Iverson's answer was clearly a bit absent-minded.

Anthony still has feelings for his brother, and he also became a little distracted by Iverson's displeasure, and said: "Okay, Alan, anyway, let's try, in fact I never doubted that we would win, and I firmly believe that this will become a reality." ”

Iverson shook his head, and suddenly realized that when he was a little inadequate, many of his attitudes towards things were a little paradoxical. If you completely abandon the problem of injury, don't take the victory or defeat to heart - life is just such a wanton battlefield, it has never changed, it is still the young man with red lips and white teeth in fresh clothes.

He'd still shake off Jordan's shot and say, "I did a change of direction to see if he ate or not, and then when he was on his feet, I did it again." ”

Iverson is back on the pitch and the game is looming.

(To be continued)