The second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs between the Nets and the Raptors ended with a crisp 4-0 score, just like the first round against the Bucks.

The only difference may be that the game process is a little better, unlike the Bucks, who almost didn't play every game before the end of the third quarter, so that Wang Chao and Durant shrank their personal data due to a serious lack of playing time.

The 73-9 record in the regular season is not for nothing, and it is now recognized by the whole league that there are only two teams in the league that are eligible to challenge the Brooklyn Nets, namely the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East and the Golden State Warriors in the West.

The duo of two of the league's top superstar-level players is just that.

While the Nets easily swept the Raptors 4-0, the other three sets of matchups in the East and West have not yet been decided.

The Eastern side is the Cavaliers vs Celtics, the Cavaliers have taken the lead 3:1 to get the match point, the Celtics have performed well in the regular season under the leadership of Thomas Jr. this season, but no matter how strong Thomas Jr. is in the regular season, the height of 175 is still an irreparable defensive black hole in the playoffs.

No matter who the Cavaliers are paired with Thomas Jr., it is equivalent to misalignment, including Irving in the point guard position, and the other players of the Celtics can only help Thomas Jr. to help defend, while the defensive end is exhausted, it is difficult for the Celtics to open the situation on the offensive end, because they rely too much on Thomas Jr.'s ball-holding breakthrough on the offensive end, and the Cavaliers only targeted Thomas Jr.'s technical characteristics for defense, and successfully limited his shooting rate to less than 40%.

Once Thomas Jr.'s offensive efficiency was limited, the Celtics' overall offense was naturally seriously dragged down, resulting in a 3:1 tie by the Cavaliers.

In a desperate situation, the G5 Green Army broke out in full force, and finally stubbornly pulled back a game on the road, chasing the score to 3:2, but this was also their limit, in the sixth game of the series, the Cavaliers did not give the Green Army another chance, and a wave of 112:99 took away the Celtics and successfully advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

In this way, the Eastern Conference Final is the result that all viewers have long expected, Brooklyn Nets vs Cleveland Cavaliers.

As for the Western Conference Finals, it's the Golden State Warriors vs. the San Antonio Spurs.

The two sets of matchups in the Western Conference semifinals are Warriors vs. Mavericks and Spurs vs. Rockets.

The former is the battle between Curry and Harden, which has a little shadow of another time and space fire battle, but the overall strength of the Mavericks is completely incomparable with the Warriors, although Harden averaged 31.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 9.4 assists per game The luxury data, but the Mavericks were still easily won by the Warriors 4:1.

For Harden, without the Rockets' roster and head coach Mike. It's hard to say whether D'Antoni's magic ball theory will be able to play at the peak of MVP level performance in the next few seasons, but the division semifinals are completely good for Harden and the Mavericks, and losing to the Warriors is also within their acceptable range.

As for the other set of matchups, Spurs vs Rockets, it is a more tragic game.

Ke Huai. Leonard, Jimmy. Butler, two kings and super-team players lead their respective teams to face off in the divisional semifinals.

In terms of personal strength, Leonard at this time is still ahead of Butler, the Spurs Bowen retired for I don't know how many years, and there is no guy named Zaza in the team, so Leonard was not injured in the playoffs, and his combat effectiveness was off the charts, and he even had the upper hand in the direct confrontation with Butler, and once suppressed Butler.

No way, even if Butler is the toughest player in the league, he can't ignore the talent gap after all, no matter how hard he tries, this is a chasm that makes him insurmountable.

Butler's career length and consistency may be superior to Leonard's, but he can't compare to his absolute height.

It's just that just because you play well doesn't mean the team is better.

Leonard, who should have won the honor of the Spurs' rise, chose to stay with the Rockets, but Butler joined the Spurs and played for Popovich, and the result was naturally completely different.

Whether you are a Spurs fan or not, but anyone who watches the game or knows a little bit about penalty ball, you must admit that Tim. Although Duncan is the mainstay of the Spurs, the cornerstone of existence, but the secret that has made the Spurs strong for decades is head coach Popovich.

Under his guidance, Howard, who should have been completely reduced to a blue-collar player this season, actually played Duncan's responsibilities decently, even if the offensive end did not have Duncan's offensive skills at all, but the effect on the defensive end was only stronger than Duncan after 09.

In addition, Parker, Ginobili, Danny. Green and other players also continued to shine under Popovich's tactical system and became the most effective right-hand man by Butler's side.

On the other hand, on Leonard's side, the player who can get his hands is a Whiteside with better data than actual combat power, and then Eyre, who has entered the twilight of his career. Jefferson and a number of offcuts, including Jeremy Lin.

The Rockets bench has a Gobert who is not inferior to Howard in actual defensive ability, but the Rockets don't know it, mistaking Huaishen for a treasure, hoping that Whiteside can make a difference in the confrontation with Howard, but the result is easily handled by the experienced Howard.

As the so-called three gangs of heroes, Butler can't beat Leonard at this stage, but the team is better than the Rockets, and the results are self-evident.

However, Leonard at his peak was indeed strong enough, not only successfully limiting the opponent to an average of only 21 points per game in the confrontation with Butler, but also defending Butler with a shooting rate of just over 40%, on the other hand, he averaged 34 points, 8.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, shooting 48%.

Leonard almost single-handedly dragged the game into a tiebreaker, which scared the Spurs into a cold sweat, but fortunately, Leonard was unable to defeat alone.

In this way, the Western Conference final is the Warriors vs Spurs.

Nets vs. Cavaliers, Warriors vs. Spurs, the two groups of division finals are the same as last season.

Last season, these two sets were hailed as the best divisional final matchups of all time, and this season is a bit of a misappropriation.

Although the teams are the same, the balance of strength between the two sets of duels has changed this season.

Needless to say, the Nets brought Brooke. López replaced Kevin. Durant, shotgun for gun, combat soaring.

On the other hand, the Cavaliers have not changed much in the lineup. Gasol and other team veterans are a year older, although the corresponding Irving and Embiid are stronger with age, but the overall strength of the team is still in place.

Like the Cavaliers, the Warriors in the West have only retained their original roster and have not improved their roster over the past season.

It's just that the Warriors haven't improved, and the Spurs have regressed.

Duncan's choice to retire at the end of last season was a rather heavy blow to the Spurs.

Although Duncan, who was dying last season, has made little contribution on the court, he is the soul of the Spurs after all, with rich game experience and a spiritual leader-like existence, and the other two people in GDP, Parker and Ginobili, are also a year older, and their competitive form will inevitably decline.

The Nets have become stronger, the Spurs have become weaker, and naturally they do not deserve the most exciting title in history last season.

Of course, no matter what, the divisional finals are the highest-level matchups representing the Eastern and Western regions.

——

On May 20, the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals went on as scheduled.

The Nets host the Cavaliers.

The starting lineup of the Nets has not changed from the past, Wang Chao, Booker, Bogdanovic, Durant, Jokic, to respond to all changes.

On the Cavaliers' side, it's Irving, Korver, James, Gasol and Embiid.

Unlike the original history, the Cavaliers have never signed JR. Smith due to salary space constraints, and the previous starting point guard has been Iman Shambaugh.

In the middle of this season, after the Cavaliers got the three-point shooter Korver through a trade, they were replaced by Korver as the team's starter, after all, the Cavaliers are now a two-tower combination on the inside, and in order to maximize the advantage of the inside, the outside player must be as accurate as possible.

It's just that the Nets don't care about whether you have two towers on the inside or not, if you want to attack the inside, you can attack, this season's Nets never compete with opponents for defense, as long as my offense is stronger than you, it's OK.

With the combination of Wang Chao + Durant + Booker + Jokic, not playing offense to defend is something that only brain-dead people do.

So as soon as the game began, it turned into an offensive battle.

Embiid jumped the ball successfully, and the Cavaliers immediately scored a goal with Gasol and Embiid on the inside.

But as soon as he turned his head, Durant hit a mid-range jumper on the Nets' side.

The two teams met four times in the regular season, and the Nets had a 3-1 record, and after four games, the Cavaliers could not find a way to limit Durant.

Gasol is too slow to keep up with Durant's speed, so the Cavaliers can only let Embiid defend Durant, after all, James still has Wang Chao to deal with.

But it's no secret that Embiid is strong in offense and weak in defense, and Durant's offense is so strong that even James himself may not be able to please him.

In the same way, James, who is the main defense of Wang Chao, can't limit Wang Chao's scoring.

The reason why the Cavaliers were able to beat the Nets last year was because they defended Wang Chao almost the whole time, and the main players of the Nets at that time were generally still relatively immature, and no one could help Wang Chao share the pressure.

Now it's different, if the Cavaliers want to wrap Wang Chao, Durant will be the first to refuse, and in fact, even without Durant, the Nets are still the same lineup last season, and the Cavaliers will also have to pay a heavy price for Wang Chao.

Because Jokic and Booker this season are completely different from last season.

Although it can't be as exaggerated as Durant, as long as the Cavaliers dare to contain Wang Chao, either of them can break the Cavaliers' defense and help Wang Chao win the game.

In the final analysis, Durant's joining was a complete accident, there were no players of Durant's level in the championship lineup originally planned by Wang Chao, there were Jokic, Booker, and Brooke who grew up. López, as well as Bogdanovic and others, will be enough.

It is precisely because of this that Wang Chao feels that this season is boring and unchallenging.

"End this season as soon as possible, and change to another team after completing the goal of winning the championship, sure enough, the process of early development and construction is much better than the experience of hanging up and brushing."

In the first half, the two teams fought a match, the Nets' side Wang Chao and Durant were efficient in offense, but the Cavaliers' side of the three-champion combination was also not bad when the offensive ability was excellent, Irving scored 17 points in the half, and James and Embiid also scored double-doubles.

But after the game entered the second half, the situation began to change dramatically.

The Nets began to change their tactics, guarding against Irving and Embiid, strategically relaxing their defense against James, and at the same time, the team began to fire frequently from the outside, with Wang Chao, Durant, Booker and even Bogdanovic frequently hitting shots outside the three-point line.

The Cavaliers were caught off guard and were directly hit by the Nets with a wave of 12:2 attacks, and the point difference instantly stretched to more than double digits.

That's when the quality gap in the stars starts to show.

Owen is really strong when he is strong, but being restricted is iron and really iron, especially when Wang Chao is personally marking, many times it is very difficult for Owen to even connect the ball, let alone hold the ball in front of Wang Chao to break through or even shoot.

Wang Chao's current defense is too strong, especially this kind of big defense and small outside defense, with the speed and agility of double 96, he can keep up with the vast majority of small guards in the league, even if he really encounters those players who are faster than him, he will still not be thrown away, and the talent of covering and predicting also makes the blocking and dismantling cover useless.

Once there is no advantage in terms of speed, the defender really has no way to face Wang Chao.

Like James, when facing Wang Chao, he can force a breakthrough with his strength, and until now, James still has a strength advantage over Wang Chao.

This can't be helped, in order to ensure the accuracy of medium and long-distance shooting, Wang Chao can not continue to strengthen the training strength, 89 strength is already the best match for him, if he is like James, Brother Alphabet to practice a body of tendon meat, the strength to 90 or even higher, the three-point, mid-range shooting and other shooting-related ability values will definitely be affected.

These have all reached 99, and some of them have even reached the ability value of 100 to reach the promotion conditions, and if they fall down because of the increase in strength, the gains outweigh the losses.

Similarly, if Wang Chao is against Durant, the latter can also use a taller and longer arm span than Wang Chao to score a mid-range jumper, even if Wang Chao can use the lion's roar to effectively reduce the shooting rate, but the lion's roar is more and more effective in the game, and it is more difficult to lose.

The topic is far away, all in all, even if it is the current Wang Chao, there is no way to completely prevent the opponent from killing a top superstar like James, but if he defends Owen with all his might, he can do it.

This is the Cavaliers' biggest weakness and breakthrough.

Irving's shooting rate plummeted in the third quarter, and at the same time, Embiid was entangled by Jokic on the inside, and it was difficult to do anything with physical exertion, so the Cavaliers could only rely on James to score in the second half, how could they keep up with the offensive rhythm of the Nets?

After trailing by double digits in the third quarter, the Cavaliers were unable to assemble an effective counterattack in the fourth quarter, and the result was 117-105, and the Nets easily won the opening game at their home court.

(End of chapter)