Chapter 327 - Regular Season MVP, Eastern Conference Finals, Greatest Trio?
On the morning of May 13, the third day of the Bulls' advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, the league officially announced the regular season MVP warm-up.
Three candidates for this season's regular season MVP were released – Doon, Kobe, Wade.
Historically, regular season MVPs have been announced during the second round of the playoffs.
But the problem is that James, the MVP of the regular season last season, instead of showing the strength of the regular season MVP in the series of the Eastern Conference semifinals, was ravaged and ruthlessly humiliated by Doon.
In the offseason, he even brought his talent to the South Coast with the honor of being a two-time MVP, forming a Big Three with Wade and Bosh.
Such a cowardly move is undoubtedly discrediting the honor of regular season MVP.
Not to mention, when the Heat had no salary space, James took the initiative to announce in the media that he would jump out of the contract and leave the Cavaliers to join the Heat, which was undoubtedly a big rebellion against Tiangang for the team owner.
With such a big event, the league officials naturally have to carefully consider the selection of the regular season MVP and adjust the announcement time of the regular season MVP.
Of course, this season's three regular season MVP candidates are all quite competitive and have all made it to the division finals.
However, for the vast majority of fans, it is not an unexpected secret who will win this year's regular season MVP.
In Barkley's words: "Doon led a group of rookies to play the No. 1 record in the East, he is not MVP, who deserves MVP?" ”
On the evening of the 13th, when the league officially announced the answer, it was indeed as everyone expected.
The league's official staff came to the United Center in Chicago, and Doon dressed up for the regular season MVP award ceremony and press conference.
It is worth mentioning that there were 118 judges who participated in the regular season MVP selection this season, and Doon received 116 first-choice votes.
In other words, Doon is just two votes away from becoming an unprecedented unanimous MVP.
It's a pity that these two votes were given to Kobe Bryant and Wade respectively.
One is the boss of the defending champion team, and the other is the big boss of the youth triumvirate, both of whom have really good statistics and team results, and it is not surprising that they can win the MVP first-choice vote.
It's just that this season, Doon led a rebuilding team to the top of the East, and also won the honor of scoring title, and the other aspects of the data are also comprehensive, which makes Doon even more remarkable.
Moreover, compared with James' record in the previous two years, Doon should have won his third regular season MVP.
Most of the judges have a good idea in their hearts, and Doon not only meets the requirements of MVP in terms of data, but also meets the requirements of the MVP in terms of record, honor, and strength, all aspects.
So there's no reason to give the regular season MVP to anyone else this season, even if the NBA is a black league.
In other words, after Doon won the regular season MVP, not only Chicago fans were happy for Doon, but the outside media also seemed to be boiling all of a sudden.
Overnight, hundreds of large and small media outlets across the United States competed to cover Doane, and some media focused on the upcoming Eastern Conference Finals.
Even if the Bulls are next to easily defeat the Celtics 4-2 against the Heat, who have a Big Three configuration, many media still believe that Doane has a chance to create a miracle and lead the Bulls to the Finals.
Many media compared Jordan to Doon, saying that after Jordan returned to the NBA, it only took a year and a half to regain the championship.
Although Doon did not retire after winning four consecutive championships, but chose to rebuild, he reached the Eastern Conference Finals last year, and this year he should return to the Finals stage and win the championship in a very short period of time like Jordan.
Although Jordan has retired, the NBA is still full of Jordan's legends, plus basketball, anything that involves Jordan can get a lot of traffic.
And Doon is also a supergiant with its own traffic at this time.
Whenever someone uses Doon and Jordan to create a topic, then the people who come to eat melons will inevitably not be less.
For a time, the attention of this year's East Finals is far greater than in previous years.
When the Eastern Conference Finals G1 began, the enthusiasm of the American audience was ignited all at once.
It's a pity that the Heat is a Big Three configuration after all.
Although the Bulls' rookie performed well in the first two rounds, it was really not enough to meet the Heat Big Three at their peak, plus a group of veterans who wanted championship rings and were about to go crazy.
As for Dwan, the new regular season MVP, he also met James, the last regular season MVP.
Perhaps under the influence of the outside media, James desperately defended Doon, even if he didn't shoot himself, he had to limit Doon's scoring.
Perhaps the league officials have long explained that they will not interfere in the game at will.
Therefore, when the game officially started, James was entangled in death as soon as possible.
In terms of physical talent, James is indeed historic, and when James gives his best, even with more dangerous dirty moves to defend, there are few people in the league who can not be affected.
No matter how good Doon's physical fitness is, even if he wears a breastplate, he needs to readjust to the defensive intensity.
Of course, after G1 started, the defensive scale was tested, and the Bulls quickly increased their defensive intensity.
In general, the Bulls and Heat have a lot of defensive moves, but the referees are basically flat and don't blow the whistle much.
In the first two rounds of the playoffs, the number of free throws made by the Heat triumvirate combined, averaging more than 25 times per game, the star whistle is not too obvious.
But in the Eastern Conference Finals, even if Wade keeps holding the ball and hitting the inside, the number of free throws in a single game is only in single digits.
The same goes for James, Stern has a lot of complaints about James' behavior of bringing talent to the South Coast, and this time in the Eastern Conference Finals, Stern has no intention of helping.
However, later in the series, Stern made an exception.
Unlike usual, the referees did not help James or the Heat, but chose to help the Bulls and help Doane.
This is mainly due to the fact that the Heat, who have a clear division of labor and are bent on winning, are really fierce.
Wade completely penetrated the Bulls' guard line in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Whether it is Evans, who relies on talent to defend, or Bradley, who relies on skill and experience to defend, they have been easily handled by Wade, over and over again.
The Bulls also tried to use George to lead Wade, but Wade was easily outdone.
As for the Bulls' interior line, Ibaka and Milicic are both in good shape and athleticism, but there is nothing they can do with Wade.
To be honest, even if you change to Dune to defend and meet Wade at the peak, not every round can be defended.
The Bulls wanted to limit Wade's scoring, so they had to go up early.
But the problem is that Wade doesn't know how to pass, and the Heat is still a Big Three configuration.
To put it bluntly, Wade at his peak, whether he is a big boss or a second leader, as long as he is in a group with other stars, there is no solution.
Wade plays the ball very simply, blocking, breaking, either going straight to the basket or helping his teammates score more easily.
It was Wade who couldn't deal with this point, and the Bulls could only be beaten passively.
Throughout the series, Wade played extremely efficiently, averaging 29.2 points per game even without the previous star whistle.
In addition, Wade has 6.9 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 2.0 steals and 0.7 blocks.
In the Heat team, in addition to Wade, who performed well, Bosh, who followed closely behind, also scored 21.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks, and the second-best performance of the championship team.
As for James, the offensive stats are really not good, but the defensive performance is quite good.
The overall data of 12.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.8 blocks was played, because it really didn't take up much of the ball, and the overall shooting rate of 45.2% was not too bad, but it could be regarded as an offensive and defensive integration.
After all, James is opposite Doon, and it can be seen from James' average of 25+ points per game in the first two rounds that James is not without scoring ability.
It's just that he made sacrifices in this round of the Eastern Conference Finals and used defense to help the Heat establish a winning advantage.
Doon was indeed stalked by James and consumed a lot of physical strength.
In the end, in terms of statistics, it was a little better than Wade, only 32.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 2.5 steals and 2.0 blocks.
Among them, the scoring data looks good, or because in the next two games, the league can't bear the Bulls, and for the sake of ratings, the star whistle is opened separately for Doon.
Otherwise, Doon would have averaged less than 30 points per game in this series.
But even so, the Bulls won one more game than normal, and were eventually defeated by the Heat 2-4, and the playoff journey stopped at the Eastern Conference finals again.
In other words, after losing in G6 in the Eastern Finals, Curry, Harden and others all looked gloomy, as if they could cry at any time.
Last year, the Bulls also stopped in the Eastern Conference finals, but at that time, Ben Gordon and Josh Smith were in front of the media and the cameras, and they were not much of a touch as substitutes and rookies.
But this year, as the main force of the team, he participated in every game of the playoffs completely, until the Eastern Conference Finals faced the aggressiveness and game pressure of the Heat Big Three.
They also know that on both offensive and defensive ends, it is their lack of ability that drags Doon back, causing the Bulls to not be able to go further.
They even have a hunch that the Heat may step on them and win this year's championship.
However, Doon, as one of the losers, was not willing to do this as a stepping stone.
At the end of the game, Doon generously hugged and talked to Wade, Bosh, and James, motivating them to compete for the championship.
After the game, Doon trumpeted Wade, as well as the other Heat Big Three.
"You know, Dwyane is my brother, and this guy is incredibly strong.
I alone think that he is Jordan who is five centimeters shorter!
He's had success in the league for a long time, with Shaq before and LeBron and Chris this time.
LeBron is more talented and defensively than Scotty, and I believe he can help Dwyane win many championships.
Chris has more offensive skills than Dennis, and Chris can do more for the team.
As you may have heard, they don't just have to win 6 championships, and I believe they have a chance to be the greatest trio in NBA history! (End of chapter)