Chapter 109: Advance to the Eastern Conference Finals (Part I)

Amid endless gossip, the second game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Magic VS Cavaliers game started on time. Forrest Gump's long-delayed award was finally given before the start of this game.

First up was the Rookie of the Year award, which should have been given at the end of the regular season, and was voted on by sports journalists across the United States and Canada. Each judge voted for the first, second and third place winners. Players will receive 5 points for each first-place vote, 3 points for second-place votes, and 1 point for third-place votes.

Zhang Kong was undoubtedly elected as the best rookie with 239 first-place votes, and the thing you need to know is that there are only 240 sports journalists in the United States and Canada in total, and the only losing first-place vote fell on the head of Kevin Durant.

This was followed by the Defensive Player of the Year and the Regular Season MVP. Defensive Player of the Year, Zhang Kong once again left the others far behind with 200 first-place votes and a total of 680 points, and Dwight Howard, who scored the most behind Zhang Kong, only scored a measly 120 points.

After fierce competition, James was elected as the regular season MVP of the 07-08 season.

When James held up the 'Maurice Podorov Cup', which symbolizes MVP, in the Quickloan Center Arena, the little emperor finally won his first personal award with high gold content after four years in the league. All he's missing now is a championship trophy and a Finals MVP.

Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry has also narrowly beaten the Celtics' general manager to win the General Manager of the Year trophy.

Today is undoubtedly a great harvest for the Cavaliers. But the Cavaliers fans were a little unhappy, and even full of worries.

Everything is made up of empty trade rumors.

Since the end of the first round against the Magic, the fans who have actually been right for the past three days have not had a good night's sleep. In the past three days, rumors about Zhang Kong's transaction have intensified, countless people have stood up, countless people have surfaced, and it seems that everything is corroborated, and this is indeed true.

Zhang Kong was indeed ready to leave the Cavaliers.

That's big bad news for Cavaliers fans, and for Cleveland fans.

This season, while their darling, little emperor LeBron James, is still unstoppable, there is another indestructible player in the team.

The invincible LeBron James, the indestructible Zhang Kong. The sharpest spear and the strongest shield in the world were held in the hands of the Cleveland knights at the same time. Not to mention that the vast majority of the Cavaliers' victories so far this season have been crushing and easy wins, with a 66-16 record in the regular season, the team's best record ever, and even considered likely to break the best record in history set by the Bulls in the middle of the season, but in fact, in the end, it was only 6 more losses.

Zhang Kong won the best rookie, Zhang Kong won the best defensive player, won the regular season rebounding king, got the regular season block king, LeBron James won the regular season MVP, got the regular season scoring title. The two were named to the All-Star and All-Defensive Team together, and the two teamed up to sweep the league's major awards!

Just when Cavaliers fans are looking forward to the two teaming up to win the first championship in the history of the Cavaliers, just when the die-hard Cavaliers are looking forward to the two joining forces to create a Cavaliers dynasty like an OK combination......

Zhang Kong said that he was leaving......

How can this be?

Many of the fans in attendance today took off James' No. 23 jersey and instead wore the No. 25 jersey that belonged to Zhang Kong, holding banners aloft in the air.

"Don't go, we need you!"

"Tell us it's not true!"

"It's just a lie, right, it's a late April Fool's joke!"

Countless fans held banners aloft and called out to Zhang Kong, hoping that he would suddenly lift up, grab the microphone and say, "Hi brothers, I'm just kidding, I'm not going to leave the Cavaliers." ”

Of course, there are also some more radical fans, who booed when Zhang Kong accepted the award.

Zhang Kong didn't care about this. When he decided to leave Cleveland, he was ready to take it all, and he already had a plan about how to leave the Cavaliers, and if it really happened, he could buy out his contract. As for the money to buy out the contract, it is a drop in the bucket for Zhang Kong now. After all, her contract was originally very small, and the liquidated damages were only so little.

Of course, if possible, he hoped he could try not to do it. She still has some feelings for the Cavaliers, and he still hopes to adopt the method of signing first and then exchanging, so that at least the Cavaliers can gain some benefits and make up for the losses.

"Zhang, have you really made up your mind?" After receiving the MVP, LeBron James still wants to make a final effort: "Is there no room for a turnaround?" Those fans, you see them, they don't want you to leave, they want you to stay, we build a dynasty together. ”

"It's comfortable to be with you, LeBron. Maybe I can't find a better partner in this alliance than you. But sometimes you have to sacrifice something in pursuit of it, and I don't want to fall out after building a dynasty with you, like O'Neal and Kobe, and I'll leave after the season is over, rather than everyone having a bad time. All in all, let's win this season. ”

This is the second game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Magic vs. Cavaliers. After Game 1, the Magic suffered a near-defenseless rout following Howard's injury, and Stan Van Gundy thought that this was the end of the season for the Magic. The difference in strength between the Magic and the Cavaliers is too obvious to be bridged by tactics.

But the rumors of Zhang Kong's transfer that broke out at the right time gave him some confidence. In Stan Van Gundy's mind, Zhang Kong's state must be greatly affected by trade rumors, and the rest of the Cavaliers will definitely fluctuate in form because of this. This is really a great opportunity for the Magic, but it's a pity that Howard is injured, otherwise this chance would be bigger and more certain.

Therefore, he has made a lot of preparations for today's game, and in terms of tactical arrangement, he arranged the quick attack tactics from the beginning of the game, trying to take advantage of the opportunity of the Cavaliers' unstable opening to open the score first, and compete for more opportunities for the later games.

If it can succeed, it will further strengthen the defense, and use the regional defense method to force the Cavaliers into the scoring mode of individual singles, cutting off the cooperation of James, Zhang Kong and the whole team......

Truth be told, it was a good plan overall, and it was enough to prove that Stan Van Gundy really has a good foundation in terms of tactics.

However, his plans were shattered from the start.

At the beginning of the game, the Magic launched an assault on the Cavaliers. In Stan Van Gundy's plan, the Cavaliers' defense should be loose, chaotic, or even out of shape at this point. But in reality, the Cavaliers' defense is still stinky and hard like a big rock in a pit......

Zhang Kong's four bloody caps in a row made the Magic team's heads bleed and dizzy, and at the same time, he also played a wave of 16:0 opening shockwaves.

The Cavaliers' defense isn't in disarray, as if the empty transfer rumors didn't have an impact. Actually, the impact is really not much......

Zhang Kong wants to transfer, and the Cavaliers have long had a score in their hearts. He and James had an open and honest argument in the locker room, but every player leaned on the door and heard it clearly.

Therefore, although they have not received a definite answer, they already have a case in their hearts about Zhang Kong's desire to stay away from the knight.

When Zhang Kong's trading rumors unexpectedly exploded, it can be said that these guys were the least surprised. It is even possible that these trade rumors were leaked by one of these people, after all, the media has repeatedly mentioned that it is based on 'information revealed by a knight's insider'. But no one will ask......

Zhang Kong did not pursue it.

So, Stan Van Gundy misjudged from the start. And after the misjudgment, he did not adjust his tactics in time, but sat in a daze in the coach's seat.

His ability to adjust on the spot is extremely poor, and he can't think of any good way to do it in a short time. His tactical ability could not help him figure out a way to defeat the enemy in a short period of time.

In fact, tactical ability has never been a must-have quality for a manager. After all, in the NBA, it's just the job of an assistant coach, and if you want to find a master tactician, there are rows and rows of tacticians from sports academies waiting to be hired.

The league's most famous coach, Phil Jackson, was just a cooler keeper on the Knicks' bench when he was younger, and he sat at the end of the bench to smoke marijuana when others were playing. In the smoke of marijuana, the dizzy smoker peeked into the true meaning of winning on the court, and since then he has been transferred to the head coach, and he has become one of the representatives of the top coaches in the league.

What tactical abilities does he have?

Come on, the triangle offense wasn't made up by him, it was only because he felt that this tactic was particularly suitable for the Bulls at that time that he promoted the triangle tactics in the Bulls. As a result, he achieved unprecedented success and was named the 'Master of Tactics'.

And Stan Van Gundy is not one such coach. You ask him to arrange to explain tactics, what he can do is the way, and you let him command in an emergency, most of them have to be blind, and the most suitable person for this kind of person is actually the position of assistant coach.

After the initial tactical set-up collapsed directly, Stan Van Gundy was blinded.

Source: Forrest Gump