Chapter 1000: First in the East and West
The river of time flows quietly, and the 2011 NBA is going on in the midst of intense events and a hectic schedule.
On March 1, the Hawks cut their main point guard Mike Bibby, not that the White Devils are not strong, nor that the Hawks have become frantic in order to develop Teague, but the NBA trade door has been closed, and the Heat need a point guard bench, and the uniform groups of the two teams have negotiated, so that the Hawks cut Bibby, and the Miami Heat quickly signed him.
In this way, the "White Devils" will assist the Super Big Three to challenge for the championship, and the Heat have promised that they will cooperate with the Hawks in the draft at this year's trade conference.
Bibby will wear the No. 0 jersey for the Heat, and he will also be the first player in Heat history to wear the No. 0 jersey.
On March 4, in the Mavericks' home game against the Grizzlies, Kidd contributed two steals, bringing his career total steals to 2,447, surpassing legendary star Gary "The Glove" Payton to rank third on the MNA's all-time steals list and first in steals by an active player.
On March 8, the Warriors flew to the territory of the Green Shirts, and the first in the West traveled to Boston to challenge the first in the East, and the most exciting game of March is about to begin.
Just earlier, on March 6, the Charlotte Bobcats, who finished ninth in the East, lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, so even if the Bobcats won all the remaining 19 games of the season and the Green Shirts lost all the remaining 21 games, the Bobcats could not surpass the Celtics.
As a result, the Celtics, who had a 46-15 record at the time, locked up a playoff spot early.
No team in the West has yet secured a playoff spot, not even a 50-win Warriors team, because the eighth Hornets in the West has 36 wins, which means that if the Hornets win 15 of the next 19 games and the Warriors lose 32 in a row, the Warriors will still not be able to make the playoffs.
Of course, this is all theoretical, and the Warriors naturally can't lose 32 in a row, but it can also be seen from this that the Green Shirts are so lonely in the East.
This time, the Warriors are there to send them defeat.
The style of play of the Warriors and the Celtics is completely different, the former is like a wildfire, they burn for thousands of miles, vertical and horizontal, unmatched, often sling opponents in waves.
And what about the Celtics? If you just watch their games, you will have the illusion that this is still the traditional powerhouse of the league? Why is it so vulnerable? Why are they so energyless in the game?
But sometimes the eyes deceive you because you only see the vulnerable side of the Green Shirts; What you don't see is that this team became the first team in the league to secure a playoff spot early on.
In addition, the regular season has long been out of the eyes of this group of veterans. For them, the playoffs are the main task, and the rest is a cloud.
In fact, Celtic have had a rough run this season, suffering from a wide range of injuries. Regardless of the big shark O'Neal's three days of fishing and two days of drying nets, and his younger brother Xiao Ao is also suffering from injuries, spiritual leader Kevin Garnett and leading point guard Rajon Rondo have also been sidelined due to injury.
But even so, the team still maintained enough fighting power in the first half of the season and held the top spot in the East for a long time.
Among them, in December last year, the Celtics won the longest 14-game winning streak of the season. It's not easy for a team with a predominantly veteran team. With such results, do you expect this group of old people with old arms and legs to do more?
However, looking at only the last ten games, the Celtics' record is not very good, and if there is one reason for this, it can be said that the Perkins trade is a turning point for the Celtics' record.
Previously, because Perkins was repeatedly favored by illness and easy to eat technical fouls, the Celtics sent him to the Thunder in exchange for the more needed wing player Green.
At the time of the trade, the Green Shirts were optimistic, they had a lot of talent on the inside, and there was only one Pierce on the wing who could be useful, and if Perkins were traded for the young, dynamic and capable Green, it seemed that their roster would be perfect.
But the result is that their strength has fallen instead of rising after the trade, and the reason is that there is indeed only one Pierce who can use the Green Shirts on the wing, but Pierce can use it for forty minutes, and it is not necessary to exchange for Green.
What about the inside line? Although the Green Shirts currently have O'Neal, Garnett and Glenn Davis in the paint area, the first two suffer at age, and KG and Big Baby play center is a little difficult.
In late February and early March, the Celtics had won just five of their previous 12 games and lost seven of them, and while head coach Doug Rivers looked a little furious, it was more of a habitual smoke bomb in a sense.
No one dares to underestimate this team that has lost in a row recently, because the Green Shirts have only allowed opponents to score 91 points per game so far, and the league's top defensive team is not the Warriors, but the Celtics made up of these old men.
This kind of defensive intensity will be the only magic weapon for them to go further in the playoffs, but they will still suffer if they face teams with solid interior lines such as the Warriors and Lakers.
Perhaps, on a lonely night, they will still miss the fat man named Perkins. Because it's simple, they're now averaging only 38 per game. 8 rebounds, second to last in the league.
The Green Shirts are currently the No. 1 team in the East and the most likely team in the East to reach the Finals, and the Heat Big Three are certainly tough, but they have just been put together this season, and even the most optimistic Heat fans don't think their team will make it to the Finals this season.
When two arguably rival teams met at the end of the regular season, the Warriors were greeted with a playoff-like fan welcome at the North Shore Garden Arena, with words like '****,' 'bitch-raised,' 'bitch-raised,' 'bitch-raised,' 'owe X,' and '******' pouring down like rain.
West was indignant and scolded: "Don't they know these fools, ******, that the more pleasant they are now, the more violent our revenge will be, and the more their hearts will hurt?" ”
Chamberlain shook his hand and said, "Needless to say, kill these old men!" ”
The starting lineup of the Green Shirts is center Big Baby Davis, power forward Garnett, small forward Pierce, playmaking guard Rondo, and scoring guard Junzi Lei.
The starting lineup of the Warriors is center Chamberlain, power forward Ibaka, small forward Jackson, playmaking guard West, and scoring guard Carter.
Carter and Junzi Lei are good friends, and after they got on the court, they stood together and chatted for a while, and Junzi Lei was a little low, and said to Carter: "Wensi, your luck is really good, now that you have joined the Warriors, this team is really enviable." ”
Carter laughed and said, "I'm going to hug my thighs, what's there to envy?" You three old guys are what make me envious, if I can find Kobe Bryant and Duncan also put together, then it can make you envious, as for now, it's really nothing. ”
Junzi Lei smiled bitterly and said: "What I envy is not your strength, but the atmosphere of your locker room, you guys, together like brothers, how perfect!" ”
Carter is also an old bird, he heard Jun Zilei say this, and immediately understood what he meant, and asked sensitively: "Is there a problem with the atmosphere in your locker room?" Isn't it a brother team? ”
Junzi Lei laughed self-deprecatingly and said, "Go fuck the son of a bitch." He didn't continue, shook his head and walked to their half of the court to practice.
Carter looked at Gentleman Ray, who walked into the Green Shirts' lineup, but no one talked to him, Garnett and Rondo were joking, and Pierce was instructing Green, so it seemed that Gentleman's back was particularly lonely and depressed.
The game finally got underway, with the starters of both sides standing near the halfway line and Chamberlain and Garnett jumping the ball.
The Warriors possessed the ball, Chamberlain threw the ball to West, and as a result, Rondo began to press West from the midcourt, both of whom were All-Star point guards, and both of them were young men with explosive bodies and hot tempers.
West's two directional breakthroughs were targeted by Rondeau, Chamberlain hurriedly ran out to cover him, West finally got rid of Rondo, he passed the ball to Chamberlain, only to Garnett to move up again, waving his long arm to block Chamberlain's way.
Chamberlain passed the ball to Carter, Carter broke through to the basket, but was interfered with by Pierce, the ball hit the iron and popped up, Ibaka and Big Baby were entangled to grab the rebound, and finally touched the ball at the same time, and then the two collided together and entangled and fell to the ground, which directly caused the problem of scrum.
With that intensity in the first kick of the opening kick, the tone of the game was set.
The defensive intensity of both teams was terrifying at the beginning, and the Warriors played nearly two minutes before Chamberlain forced Davis to foul and score two points on free throws.
The Green Shirts, playing at home, also struggled to break through the Warriors' defense, and in the shocked eyes of 20,000 fans in the stadium, they did not score for four and a half minutes.
At halftime, the Warriors only led 8-3 away, and the defensive intensity of both sides made fans tremble, which was completely Finals-level defense!
Nelson Sr. called a timeout, and then returned, Chamberlain changed his tactics, he no longer attacked, but used teammates to cover to misplace the offense, which worked well, and Chamberlain scored four points in a row.
But in the last four minutes, the veterans of the Green Shirts came into play, and Rondo frequently passed the ball to Junzi Lei, who hit two three-pointers in a row to open the game at once.
Jackson went off the court, Jamison came on, the Warriors' wing defense intensity suddenly dropped, Pierce found an opportunity, a pull-up jump shot and a breakthrough layup, giving the Green Shirts strong fire support, and in the last minute, with Garnett's shot, the Green Shirts overtook the score.
In the second half of the first quarter, the Warriors' offense was not ideal, and they trailed the Celtics 18-21.
In contrast, the Warriors are strong in their bench strength, the center position is still led by Chamberlain, the power forward is replaced by Jamison, small forward Blair, playmaking guard Jeremy Lin, and scoring guard Curry.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Warriors could almost be said to have changed a new lineup except for Chamberlain, who were full of human bodies, so that they frequently ran and bombed, and under the leadership of Chamberlain, the benches played a 9-0 offensive run, and the Warriors overtook 27-21 in the score.
It may be the reason for returning to Boston, Jeremy Lin is particularly excited, his college days were spent in Boston Harvard, and he is also well-known locally, after all, there are very few college students with high IQ and good grades and good play, and today Harvard came to Harvard with more than 100 relatives and friends to support him.
Garnett relied on one and two offenses to finally end the scoring drought of the Green Shirts in the second quarter, and Chamberlain replaced the rest, and the Warriors' offense became less than ideal.
Pierce hit a 2+1 on Jamison's head, and Garnett received a pass from Rondo and scored a dunk under the basket, and the Celtics narrowed the gap 28-29.
After the timeout, Nelson Sr. did not replace Chamberlain, but changed the offensive focus and let Jeremy Lin go to the breakaway score.
Jeremy Lin lived up to the expectations of his coach, and he continued to attack the inside, and Curry passed Ibaka to score nine points in a row, so that the Warriors maintained a slight lead in the score.
At the end of the first half, the Warriors had a five-point lead at 44-39.