Chapter 484: The Bull is Out, and the West is against the Magic
In the G3 game, Jordan shot 15 of 31 and scored 40 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Wang Feng did not show weakness, hitting 14 of 26 shots, and once again scored a triple-double of 39 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
The result of the duel between the two was the same as before, Jordan never beat Wang Feng in terms of scoring, and Wang Feng was able to assist his teammates while scoring offensively.
To put it simply, Wang Feng did all the work of Jordan and Pippen alone, and he did it very beautifully, or even better.
The Knicks are not weak in the first place, but now that there is another Wang Feng, how can Jordan and the Bulls, who have not recovered their peak condition, win?
On May 14, the Bulls' second home court, the game was still won by the Knicks, and today's game was quite different, the Knicks 109:95, a net 14 points better than the Bulls.
The reason why the Bulls lost so badly is because the Knicks' star player, Gorilla Ewing, has finally bottomed out.
In the first three games, his performance was only mediocre, even slightly worse than in the regular season.
Although the Knicks currently have the upper hand, Ewing is not particularly happy, and even a little depressed.
And in the G4 game, Ewing's long-suppressed emotions were finally released.
Throughout the game, Ewing shot 13-of-26 and 5-of-7 from the free-throw line, scoring 31 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists, completely dominating the interior and blowing up the Bulls' center Kukoc.
At the same time as Ewing broke out, Wang Feng's performance did not decline, shooting 11 of 19 and cutting a quasi-triple-double of 30 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists.
On the Bulls' side, Jordan had 26 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, and Pippen had 24 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists.
At the end of the game, the score between the two teams had reached 3:1, and the Knicks got the match point, and then only need to win one more game to send the Bulls home.
No one expected that after Jordan's comeback, the Bulls, who had become the favorite to win the championship, would face the dilemma of being out of the tournament in the second round.
In desperation, Jordan broke out again.
On May 16, the court returned to Madison Square in New York, the home of the Knicks, and Jordan scored 39 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists on 15-of-28 shooting under the Knicks' targeted defense throughout the game.
But his struggles were in vain.
The Bulls still lost the game 97-103.
On the Knicks side, Wang Feng scored 28 points, Ewing scored 24 points, Starks scored 22 points, scoring is not the key to the Knicks' victory, Wang Feng and Ewing rebounded 14 and 16 rebounds respectively in this game, Ewing grabbed 8 offensive rebounds, Wang Feng also had 5 offensive rebounds, and Oakley also grabbed 5 offensive rebounds.
The Knicks grabbed a total of 22 offensive rebounds in this game, completely blowing up the Bulls' weak interior line.
The famous center Tsuyoshi Akagi once said that the one who can control the rebound can control the game.
Ewing, the prototype of Akagi Goken, perfectly interpreted the gold content of this sentence in this game.
With a total score of 4:1, the Knicks successfully eliminated the Bulls in the second round to reach the Eastern Conference Finals, and also announced that Jordan's first season back ended in failure.
In this series, Jordan's personal data is extremely luxurious, averaging 33 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in 5 games, but what is unexpected is that Wang Feng's average points per game on the Knicks side are almost on par with Jordan, with an average of 32 points, 10.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game, not only scoring similar to Jordan, but also almost getting an average triple-double per game. ….
When the whistle blew at the end of the game, Jordan stared at Wang Feng for a long time, then refused all reporters to interview him, and walked straight to the players' tunnel.
Jordan knows that Wang Feng will be the biggest threat on his way to winning the championship in the future, and if he can't get over this hurdle, his comeback will only be a joke.
……
"The Knicks eliminated the Bulls to advance to the semifinals, Wang Feng averaged 30+ quasi-triple-doubles per game, and Jordan may encounter the strongest opponent in his career!"
"Wang Feng + Ewing, the strongest inside and outside partner in Knicks history, what are their chances of winning the championship this year?"
"Wang Feng's contract is about to expire this summer, and the league's teams are ready to move, can the Knicks keep this super outside player comparable to Jordan?"
While all sorts of reports were flying, the league also announced the 1994-95 Team of the Year as the second round drew to a close.
The five players selected for the best team are defender John Brown. Stockton, Anferne. Hardaway, forward Scottie. Pippen, Carl. Malone, center David. Robinson.
The best second-team players are Gary Payton, Mitch. Richmond, Charles. Bucklica, Patrick. Ewing & Shaquille. O'neill.
The five players who were selected for the best three team were Reggie. Miller, Clyde. Drexler,Wang Feng,Sean. Kemp and Hakim. Olajuwon.
Jordan was unable to make the All-NBA selection due to the lack of games since his comeback this season.
The results of the All-NBA selection looked a little surprising, especially Hardaway, who averaged 20 points and 7 assists per game, was actually selected for the team, but O'Neal, who averaged 29 points and 11 rebounds per game, was the team's boss, who was in second place, which was quite speechless.
But if you think about it, you can't help it.
In the 90s, the interior competition was far stronger than the outside, and O'Neal was not competing with Hardaway, but with the other three who were also four centers, as well as top interior players such as Malone and Barkley.
Although his stats are the most luxurious on the inside, the Magic's record is inferior to that of the Spurs. Robinson's 27.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game are not much worse than O'Neal's.
With the addition of the team, it makes sense that Robinson beat O'Neal to be selected for a while.
As for Ewing, although the Knicks have the same record as the Spurs, his personal data is not as good as Robinson's.
What's more, anyone who knows the Knicks knows how the Knicks' record of tying for the first place in the league with the Spurs came about.
Wang Feng came out of nowhere to help the Knicks win 26 consecutive wins that shocked the league, and continued to maintain a super high winning rate in the subsequent games, which made the Knicks, who were only 12-12 after the Christmas game and ranked seventh in the East, all the way up.
Wang Feng played in 51 games in the regular season, averaging 28.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, which is the most luxurious outside the league and not inferior to the four major centers.
But he ended up only making the best three teams.
Wang Feng was also a little surprised by this, because in his thoughts, he might not have these honors this season.
It's not just because of the number of games he played in the regular season, but it's the '90s.
In an era when racism and political correctness are not as valued as they will be in the future, Wang's Asian identity has made him very disadvantaged in various awards, after all, these awards are all voted for by journalists in the United States and Canada. ….
Wang Feng was even ready to receive nothing this season except for the championship reward, but he didn't expect to win a prize.
As the team with the best record in the league, the Knicks can have two players selected to the All-Star team at the same time, which is already a very good result.
Ewing, however, was not satisfied with the outcome.
He is not short of the best team, even in Olajuwon and David. Surrounded by Robinson, Ewing also currently has six All-Defensive teams and three All-Defensive teams.
A mere second formation is insignificant to him, but this second formation sends him a bad message.
Robinson is rated higher than him in the media!
Ewing can ignore the All-Star team, but he must focus on the regular season MVP.
The team has a great record this season, and it can be said that he has the best chance of winning the regular season MVP, but he will not be able to win the MVP if he can't beat David Robinson.
Ewing was very unwilling, but the king
Feng knows very well that he still doesn't have to worry about the MVP of the regular season.
can be selected for the best second team, Ewing has already hugged Wang Feng's thigh, Wang Feng remembers very clearly, this season, the original Knicks' record should have been 55-27, Ewing averaged 23.9 points and 11 rebounds per game and was not even selected for the best three teams, why compare with David Robinson, who finally won the regular season MVP this season?
Ewing, the MVP of the regular season, is not to think about it, but the championship can still be imagined.
The Knicks eliminated the Bulls to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, while the Magic and Pacers had a tiebreaker in the second round on the other side.
I have to admit that although Miller has won very few personal honors, he is still very strong in the playoffs.
The Pacers have played seven games against the Magic under his leadership, and Miller has averaged 25.9 points per game while shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from three-point range.
However, the Magic team is O'Neal's team after all, and even O'Neal when he was a young shark was strong enough to fight.
In those seven games, O'Neal averaged 27.3 points and 9.6 rebounds on 10-of-16 shooting per game, and averaged a whopping 11.6 free throws per game.
After seven games, the Magic finally defeated the Pacers 105-91 in Game 7 to reach the Eastern Conference Finals.
Regarding the speculation about the victory or defeat of the Knicks and the Magic Eastern Conference Finals, the vast majority of people are a little more optimistic about the Knicks.
The Knicks themselves are different from the Pacers, they have an equally strong super center Ewing, and the scoring battle between Wang Feng and Jordan has deeply shocked many people in the whole meter.
Obviously, Wang Feng is much better than Hardaway, and if the Magic want to win, it is not as simple as O'Neal suppressing Ewing, what they really have to face is this super newcomer who suddenly came out of nowhere in the middle of the season, and even Jordan is not an opponent.
……
The East showdown is the Knicks vs Magic, while the West showdown on the other side is the Spurs v Rockets.
This season's Spurs are indeed very strong, while the regular season record is proud, it is also smooth sailing to enter the playoffs, sweeping the Nuggets 3:0 in the first round and eliminating the Lakers 4:2 in the second round.
In contrast, the Rockets' road to promotion was a bit of a struggle, and they fought fiercely with the Jazz in the first round, and eliminated the Jazz led by Malone and Stockton 3-2. ….
Then he entered the second round and fought seven difficult games against the Suns led by Barkley.
The gap between the two sides on the road to promotion has made people generally more optimistic that the Spurs can advance to the final finals.
But Wang Feng, as a traverser, knows that this year is still the Rockets who have reached the finals, and without him as a spoiler, the Rockets will sweep the Magic 4:0 and win the championship for the second consecutive year.
On May 23, the first game of the Eastern Conference finals officially kicked off at the Knicks' home court.
Playing against the Magic is actually very simple, it is how to limit O'Neal's play.
O'Neal is strong, but he is not invincible, otherwise he would not have won a championship before meeting Kobe.
If there is one Achilles weakness of O'Neal, it is undoubtedly the free throw.
O'Neal's free throws have long been recognized as poor in the league, and the shark-cutting tactics have also been applied.
No matter how inexplicable O'Neal was under the basket in his prime, there is absolutely no escaping this.
Pat. Riley had a number of interior bench players ready to give O'Neal a free throw lesson in this game.
However, O'Neal seems to be a little wrong today, and the surprisingly high shooting percentage after being sent to the free throw line is amazing, hitting 2 free throws in a row for several rounds, so that the Knicks no longer dare to continue to use shark slashing tactics against O'Neal.
O'Neal, who was hot, was also triumphant and shouted at the Knicks bench. "Why didn't you foul it? How many more penalties should I have?"
Unfortunately, O'Neal's pride didn't last long, because although he was very accurate at the free throw line and quite efficient offensively under the basket, the Magic team was not as expected
Dominating and even trailing by almost 10 points at halftime.
The confrontation between O'Neill and Ewing, of course, has an absolute advantage without suspense, but the problem is that the confrontation between Wang Feng and Hardaway is worse.
Who is Wang Feng? The existence that can have the upper hand one-on-one with Jordan, don't look at Hardaway's selection for the best team not long ago, it seems to be very awesome, but in front of Wang Feng, he is completely a younger brother.
Under the care of defensive shock, death coiling, and dominating skill lock-in defenders, Hardaway completely pulled his hips in this game, with only 4 points and 2 assists at halftime.
In the second half of the game, the situation remained unchanged, and O'Neal could only fight alone, constantly beating Ewing on the inside to score.
A very rare occurrence has occurred.
O'Neal finished the game with 32 points and 11 rebounds on 11-of-16 shooting and 10-of-12 free throws while shooting 68.8 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free throw line.
But the Magic lost the game 88-103.
Because the Magic team except for O'Neal, only two people scored in double figures, one was Dennis, who scored 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting. Scott, the other is Hardaway, who shot only 5 of 17 from the field, shot less than 30 percent, scored only 13 points, 5 assists and committed 7 turnovers.
And when O'Neal played so efficiently and well, his performance still couldn't overshadow Wang Feng.
Wang Feng played 37 minutes in this game, 11 of 20 shots, 4 of 8 three-pointers, 6 of 6 free throws, 34 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists, and once again got a quasi-triple-double data, and the efficiency value is not inferior to O'Neal.
In addition to Wang Feng, Ewing's performance in this game was not bad, although he was suppressed by O'Neal on the court, he also got 22 points and 11 rebounds, and his stunt rabbit jumped O'Neal was also difficult to defend.
Sheng Bo