The 2014-2015 playoffs have started lively, and it is another year of competition for the championship, and this year's game is obviously a big attraction.

That's the desire to see the collapse of the Los Angeles Clippers dynasty.

Man is such a strange creature, they like to build a sacred tower, worship it for a while, and then get bored, overthrow it, and after it is in ruins, they build a new one.

In the history of mankind, such phenomena have repeatedly appeared in various fields, and they have never tired of creating and destroying gods in the wilderness of the human spirit.

In the eyes of many, it's time for the Clipper tower to collapse.

After Min Congda became the head coach of the Clippers, he led the Clippers to a beautiful winning streak with his fancy tactics and rotation, but did not win more praise and support.

Because the media wind is sparing no effort to shape the Clippers into a monopoly, the NBA needs fresh blood and new championship winners - but in fact, the average age of the Clippers is still one of the youngest in the league.

Most people are optimistic about the Warriors, whose 70-win regular season is full of expectations, and James Durant's king-bomb combination is even more terrifying.

LeBron James' MVP this year is estimated to be not much of a suspense, and he averaged 22.7 points, 11 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game in the regular season, which is the average statistic of Magic Johnson.

At the same time, he also contributed a rare career of hard work, hard defense, no statistical gains, backcourt rebounding and basket protection, etc......

People have seen how hard James worked for revenge, for a championship, he is no longer the chosen one, but a basketball player who is willing to do everything to achieve the ultimate ideal.

In a national survey before the playoffs began, more than 70 percent of state fans expected LeBron James to win this year's championship, win MVP, and win FMVP.

In the comments of the fans, there are many blessings and words of praise for James:

"I didn't like James in the past, he didn't look good when he played, and the league invested too many resources in him, trying to pick him up, and it was really ugly. But this year is really different, he should have a championship of his own, and he deserves it. ”

"In the past few years, too many stars have been put together, just to win a championship, but they all died in the hands of the Clippers, hoping that James can realize his dream."

"This year's Warriors are really historic strong, and I can't think of any reason why they should lose."

"I used to hate the Dallas Mavericks, and I supported the Heat in 2006, but after Nowitzki and the Mavericks won the championship in 2011, I was genuinely happy for them. My feelings for the Warriors are the same this year, and this is LeBron's 11th season, even though he's only 30 years old. ”

For most neutral fans, whether or not to support a player is often not only based on preferences, but also on what kind of story the player has experienced or is going through.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato once said, "Whoever can tell a story owns the world." ”

This is especially important in a commercial league, where a player doesn't have a story to tell, and your experience doesn't elicit sympathy, empathy, or any other positive emotion from the fans, and even if you're strong, the fans probably won't support you.

James's past story is a failure, he didn't become the chosen one, he didn't become the one who surpassed Michael Jordan, but it was this failure that became the beginning of a new story.

The boy became famous, experienced setbacks, stayed loyally, gained nothing, had the courage to pursue his dreams, and vowed to defeat the alliance tumor and the evil dragon...... This kind of story is what everyone likes.

At a time when Kobe, Nash, Howard, Wade, Garnett and a bunch of others couldn't beat the Clippers, that opportunity is now back in James' hands.

People don't mind if he joins hands with Durant anymore, whether it is a peak huddle, after all, the opponent is indeed too strong.

As expected, the Warriors' first two rounds of the playoffs were smooth sailing, as they comfortably defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 4-0 in the first round.

This round of the series is also full of highlights, Durant's return to the Russian City can be described as a spark, Westbrook led the team to fight hard.

Unfortunately, except for the third game that caused a little trouble for the Warriors, there was no suspense in the other three games, and the Warriors easily defeated their opponents and advanced to the second round.

In the second round, the Warriors' opponent was the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Warriors sweated a little, but they still won with a score of 4:1 and successfully reached the Western Conference Finals, while the Clippers have been waiting for the Warriors for a long time in the Western Conference Finals.

In the first and second rounds, the Clippers easily eliminated the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers 4:0, and came to the Western Conference Finals stage without any suspense, ready to start a fateful showdown with the Warriors.

Long before the start of the season, people were expecting a big battle between the Warriors and the Clippers.

The strength of the two teams is indeed much higher than the other teams, and the others can't catch up.

Min Congda is undefeated after coaching the Clippers, winning 28 consecutive games in the regular season and playoffs, and he is in the limelight for a while.

The reason for this nickname is related to Huawei Center.

Because the Huawei Center is magnificent and huge, during the renovation process, the designer configured it with a top-notch bathroom with extremely expensive costs, which used ancient Greek and Roman style decorations, and there were huge oil paintings on the wall, depicting scenes from Western classic religious works such as "The Bible", "Paradise Lost" and "The Divine Comedy", which left a deep impression on the fans.

And the reason why these decorations are to be done is only because Min Congda wants to spend more money...... So when he was directing the design company, he added some domestic local design elements to Riga, but he didn't expect that people were understanding Greek and Roman architectural styles, plus some post-modern condiments, the effect was very good, and it has become a scenic check-in point in Los Angeles.

And Pandiman Ninan is the palace of the demon king Satan depicted in Milton's long poem "Paradise Lost", and people use this to describe the Huawei Center, giving Min Congda a terrifying title.

Truth be told, fans are happy to play these things, and the league story is boring without the brave and the Great Devil.

Of course, as the two sides officially reached the Western Conference finals, the number of teams supporting the Clippers began to increase.

The strong never lack followers, in the survey before the start of the Western Conference finals, the number of fans who support the Clippers and the Warriors has been opened, and once the Clippers can reach the Finals, it is estimated that the number of fans supporting the Clippers will skyrocket.

If the demon king can win all the time, then he is not the demon king, he is a god.

Perhaps Americans are not quite able to accept a basketball empire built by Chinese general managers and head coaches.

On May 1, at Oracle Arena in Oakland, at half past seven in the evening, the first game of the Clippers and Warriors Western Conference finals.

Before the game began, league president Adam Silva presented LeBron James with the 2014-2015 regular season MVP trophy.

At the beginning of the season, the Clippers players also combined James Harden to win the regular season MVP.

And Harden's performance is indeed enough MVP in other years, with an average of 26.5 points, 6 rebounds, 7.2 assists per game, and a team record of 61-21, an absolute MVP level.

It's a pity that he met the 70-win Warriors and the makeover James, who was no match for James at all in the media vote, so he could only watch LeBron receive the MVP trophy from Silva before the start of the Western Conference finals, enjoying the cheers of the fans in the stadium.

LeBron James' expression is calm, he has won enough MVPs, and if there is no championship, these MVP trophies will seem like a pity.

After the award ceremony, the battle between the two sides officially began.

Everyone knew it was destined to be an earth-shattering battle.

Because of this, at the beginning of the game, both sides seemed a little nervous and couldn't let go.

Especially for the Warriors, except for James scoring a breakthrough under the basket at the beginning, they didn't succeed in the next few offenses.

On the contrary, the Clippers, who are accustomed to playing away games, opened with an 8:2, James Harden three-pointers, mid-range, and assisted Curry, all in one go, as if telling James, "This MVP should be mine." ”

Steve Kerr immediately taught the timeout to stabilize the players' mood.

He knew that the Warriors were not unable to beat, but that they were too nervous because they wanted to win too much.

As the game progresses, the tension will become less and less.

On the Clippers' side, Min Congda also made a detailed battle plan before the game.

With Durant's return, the Clippers can no longer be inside-minded, and the overly shrunken defense will be shot through by Durant.

When the strength is crushed, you can fight as much as you want.

In this kind of confrontation where the lineup is evenly matched, or even slightly inferior, the state of the stars and core players is crucial.

Curry and Harden are top priorities, and they have to be brought out to full energy throughout the series before the coach can figure out the details.

If the core is stretched and the state is not played, everything else is blind.

This is in line with the famous sentence of Sun Tzu in the Art of War, "All soldiers win with the right and the odd." ”

If you want to win, you must have surprise soldiers, you must have a good strategy, and you must have sufficient reserves, but the premise is that you can resist the front, be evenly matched, or even overpower your opponents.

Some games can be relied on on substitutions, and a veteran will break out to win by chance, but the seven-game series will minimize the chance, and the explosion will win one or two games, and the core will not be able to fight the opponent, and the series will still be lost.

A typical example, in the 1997 Western Conference Finals, the Rockets played the Jazz, and the core of the Rockets, Olajuwon and Barkley Gardrexler, could not resist the Jazz three elders, but relied on the 37-year-old veteran Eddie Johnson to break out with a 31-point explosion and a three-point shot, and the series equalized the score.

But in the end, he lost the series 2:4 and was defeated by Stoke in Houston.

And just two years ago, Olajuwon + Drexler's core state exploded, so they could counterattack all the way, and the wonder soldiers Avery and Kassel had room to play and help the team win.

Min Congda is well aware of this, no matter whether he wins or loses in the first game, the core state must be played.

Therefore, at the beginning of the game, the Clippers were Curry-Harden and the others, Gasol Jr., Davis, and Leonard, all played for the two and assisted them.

Cole also understands this truth, in this kind of head-to-head dialogue, you can't think about opportunism, especially at the beginning, you must be hard, you must be reckless, and the core must stand up and speak.

After returning from a timeout, Durant took the lead in responding, eating Leonard one-on-one, breaking through the emergency stop and hitting a step-back jumper.

Then, James interrupted Harden's pass in defense and made a long pass to Durant, Durant's fast-break layup was interfered with by Leonard, and Bogut followed up with a layup, and the Warriors closed the score.

6：8。

Curry got rid of the defense without the ball on the outside, received the ball on the right bottom side, interspersed with continuous dribbling, broke through from the wing and broke the Warriors' encirclement, and tossed to assist Davis for an aerial relay dunk!

Immediately James made a block for Lillard head-on, but it was not successful, and the ball was given to Thompson who came out of the wing, and Thompson received the ball and hit a three-point shot against the defense!

At 9:10, the difference narrowed to only 1 point!

The two teams started the game extremely fiercely and the tactics were very concise and straightforward.

Under the high-intensity defense, the role of the routine is decreasing, and the role of personal ability, execution and will is increasing.

Throughout the series, the battle of willpower between the two sides has begun.

(End of chapter)