Healing Basketball

Chapter 502 502. Established Beliefs (7000 words)
The Trail Blazers narrowly beat the Spurs. The tenacious fighting spirit of the Trail Blazers was touching. Liu Xiu praised the 11 teammates who played after the game. Lynch Hunter, George Lynch, Van Horn, all played an important role in preparing for the battle...

But no matter how much Liu Xiu praised others, how low-key he was, his conspicuous figure like a firefly in the dark night could not escape people's flattery.

In the last 29 seconds, Liu Xiu played a wave of 5-0 alone, as if he had put his hand into the throat of the Spurs, and forcibly pulled out the victory that the Spurs had already swallowed!

If these reporters continue to confront each other, they can only be called pure laughing stock.

"Thank you for your hard work, leave it to me next."

The documentary filming team of Chaotingtai released this scene when the game entered a timeout with 29 seconds left. Combined with Liu Xiu killing the game later, this scene is awesome!
For a time, such a scene often appeared on the streets of China and the United States——

Pretender: "Thank you for your hard work..."

Teammate: "You should have thanked us well, you idiot! (Silly*, stupid*...a series of friendly words)."

In the background tonight, not only the Stone Buddha, who was detained several times, but also the Demon Sword, who was so handsome for a whole scene, was finally played by the warden.

In addition to these, Liu Xiu and Bo Wen exchanged a few brief trash talks on the court, which also became popular!
What is even more popular is what Liu Xiu said to Bo Wen, "I will still step on my feet", but a player who jumped out of the contract and did not plan to renew was moved by another sentence...

...

"Honey, I'm not mistaken, these reporters actually praised you so much! They were not like this yesterday."

"They want to portray us as villains, but the opponent is the Spurs, and the reporters must have worked hard. This time we have turned the corner, and they have no choice but to insist on the Spurs players, so they simply put it badly."

"You're still amazing. We won G1. Can such a victory destroy the Spurs?"

"It's very difficult...impossible. It's hard to say whether G2 will win or lose tomorrow. I think they are stronger than us."

Seeing that Liu Xiu said that the opponent was stronger, but her eyes were shining brightly, Anne-Hathaway replied: "I believe that you will win in the end, come on!"

Just as Liu Xiu was about to respond, Little Jay yelled, "Kill Texas!"

Liu Xiu asked in surprise, "Who did you learn this from?"

Little Jay:? ?
Liu Xiu: ...

Anne-Hathaway was speechless looking at the staring father and son, and replied, "Miss Linda and I went to buy tissue paper yesterday afternoon. There was a big sale in the supermarket. I bought a dozen boxes and brought Jaylen and Go with Anna, there is your fan club recruiting people, and this is the slogan these days."

Liu Xiu nodded, not surprised.

In American sports circles, California is hostile to New York, Florida is hostile to North Carolina...the whole United States is hostile to Texas.

Liu Xiu rested at home all morning, calmed down the excitement left over from last night's game, and went to the Rose Garden Arena to prepare for the game after lunch.

Last night's game, without looking at the win, the Blazers learned two things.

One is a good thing. They have a clear understanding of how the Spurs will play in this round of the series, and with the characteristics of the Spurs, there will not be much change. Looking at the first two rounds and Duncan's years after entering the NBA The performance of the Spurs in the playoffs can be sure of this; the other is not a good thing-the Spurs are super strong.

This is a division of kings!
But with the last 29 seconds of last night, when the teammates saw Liu Xiu coming to the training ground, the pressure and the like turned into motivation!

The opponents in G1 failed to knock them down after such a performance. No matter what kind of situation they encounter later, they can always maintain hope!

...

In the evening, the Eastern Conference Finals kicked off.

After 2 hours and 29 minutes of the game, the Nets defeated the Pistons 90-81 and held their first home court.

麦迪20分10板、理查德-杰弗森18分6板2抢断、基德16分8板8助攻、科斯蒂奇13分、莫宁10分13板4盖帽……区区90分，篮网队居然有5人得分上双！上场9名球员都有得分！
On the other hand, the Pistons played 11 times tonight, but only 5 players scored.

卡特30分、汉密尔顿26分、比卢普斯16分6助攻、本-华莱士5分20板、普林斯4分，没有其他人得分了！

In the playoffs head-to-head, Billups was slammed by Kidd again. The most famous incident of Kidd slamming Billups was the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals. The Nets swept the Pistons. Billups 4 games The game was defended by Kidd with only 27.5% shooting percentage, averaging only 9.8 points and 6 assists per game, and Kidd averaged 23.8 points, 10 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game in the Eastern Conference finals, and he defeated the Pistons with one hand.

But this time the Pistons lost, the alleged problem was not on the perimeter. Billups faced Kidd head-on. The disadvantage was too great. Kidd was too good at defending Billups. I did a good job. I didn't hit a high percentage, but I distributed the ball very well. Both Carter and Hamilton got enough shots, and the scoring of these two people did not lose the chain.

The reason for the loss is inside!

Are the Nets weak enough inside?Still better than the Pistons' inside scoring ability!

A team with 5 inside players on the court only scored 5 points in total, and all of them were scored by Ben Wallace alone. It is really difficult to win.

From another perspective, it can be said that the Nets' defensive selection is really good!

Both Carter and Hamilton made great shots. Tracy McGrady and Richard Jefferson still focused on blocking the Pistons' inside scoring and used this to win the victory.

Liu Xiu watched the live broadcast of this game, not thinking about the future, but only watching the present. He felt that for the current Pistons, Tianzun would play a greater role than Carter!

In terms of scoring, Tianzun is naturally not as good as Carter.

But with Tianzun's protective frame, Daben's ability to assist in defense can be fully released. With a single protective frame, Daben's height suffers, and the limitations are actually quite large, and he cannot perfectly implement Larry Brown's defensive system.

This seems to have to 'blame' him the warden.

During the All-Star Weekend last year, the boss cleared away their team's worst-known inside players. This is not much different from the original time and space. Originally, there were more in time and space. There was a multi-party transaction offer. John Nash asked the Pistons to give Milicic.

I heard that last summer, the Pistons competed for the second center in the Western Conference. Liu Xiu thinks this is also a good choice for reinforcement, but the Mavericks have a lot of money and gave Dampier a 6-year annual average of a little more than [-] million. No, the Pistons can't compete at all.

However, the future prospects of the current Pistons team are very good. Milicic was replaced by the 28-year-old Carter, and he was well protected by Ben Wallace...

This time in the Eastern Conference finals, Liu Xiu watched G1 and felt that the Nets and Pistons were [-]-[-] or even close to [-]-[-].

The variable may depend on whether Billups can make some changes under Kidd's dominance.

On the second day, May 5, G27 of the Western Conference finals struck.

After Liu Xiu arrived at the arena in the morning, the topic that led his teammates to discuss was which opponent he was more likely to meet in the finals.

Hearing what the team members were discussing, the coach said to the vice president: "The warden is really powerful. He didn't say anything about confidence and fighting spirit, and he didn't give any speeches in this regard, but our confidence and fighting spirit are guided by him. Lift down."

Vice President: "Huh? Really?"

"Kevin, don't you feel that group of boys are more emotional?"

"It seems so, what's going on?"

Looking at the puzzled expression of the vice president, the coach was speechless. This is the vice president of the team. This aspect is still as insensitive as when he was an assistant coach.

The coach complained: "You really don't have the potential to be a coach. The warden started the topic with 'Do you think we will meet the Nets or the Pistons in the Finals', which is implying to our teammates that we will win the Western Conference Finals and enter the Finals." ..."

"..." The vice president took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and said, "You don't want to raise your salary when you renew the contract!"

Coach:? ? ?
I didn't hear anything else, the vice president's mind was full of the coach's first words!

...

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the Trail Blazers ushered in the second game of the Western Conference Finals with the Spurs at home.

After the start of the game, the Spurs continued to show their super dominance, beating the Trail Blazers 25 to 19 in a single quarter in the first quarter.

powerful!

Stable and powerful!
In the second quarter, the Blazers' adjustments were effective, and the offensive and defensive ends improved significantly. While scoring 23 points, the Spurs' offensive momentum was also limited. The Spurs only scored 23 points, stabilizing the situation .

If you can't beat, just bite the score. Compared with the previous game, the Trail Blazers players have been able to calmly look at the matter of falling behind. After halftime, the Trail Blazers trailed the Spurs by 42 points 48 to 6.

But in the third quarter, the Trail Blazers, who were trying to launch an impact, were beaten by the Spurs. They only scored 13 points in a single quarter, and the Spurs took the opportunity to score 26 points in a single quarter. The defensive end was almost invincible. On the offensive end, it is the demon sword who runs wildly!

After three quarters, the Spurs scored 74 to 55, leading to 19 points!
In the final quarter, the Trail Blazers scored 22 to 14 and were still powerless.

77 to 88, the Trail Blazers lost to the Spurs by 11 points. The home court advantage was still taken away by the Spurs, and the big score was tied 1-1!
...

“2001年东决，76人队在G2输掉了比赛，和雄鹿队打成了1比1平，但最后赢的是76人队……”

"Butcher, but the 76ers lost the championship in the end!"

"Do you believe that I kicked you to death?"

The number one parallel importer shut up quickly, the butcher is always so irritable, so don't interrupt indiscriminately in the future.

This is the 100th time that the champion of parallel imports thinks so.

On the afternoon of the second day of G2, while the Trail Blazers were flying to San Antonio, Butcher took on the responsibility of being the second-in-command, channeling the emotions of his teammates, citing some previous examples, which was very heartfelt.

They gradually accepted the fact that they are indeed inferior to the Spurs.

The influence of a real superstar in the playoffs, they have seen it.

But they were not discouraged!Because they have that man - the warden who sits in the corner and looks at the white clouds outside the window!
As a newly promoted team in the playoffs, as a team with an extremely young core lineup, they can simply admit their shortcomings, admit that they are not as experienced as the Spurs, and not as terrible as Duncan in the playoffs. The game MVP hangs up to play superstars. Therefore, when they lose a game or lose at home, sometimes their emotions are not hit so hard, but they have a sense of crisis and urgency at all, which drives their fighting spirit and motivation.

After arriving in San Antonio, the Trail Blazers took a good night's rest and prepared for the game all day. On May 5, the Trail Blazers challenged the Spurs in the third game of the series at the ATT Arena.

At the beginning of the game, what was shown was the ability of the Trail Blazers coaching staff.

逆战时刻，莫里斯-奇克斯总是显得如此优秀，就像2003年季后赛从0比3追到3比3那样。

When he was ravaged by the Lakers in the second round last year, his response was actually in place, but his player ability could not keep up.

But this time, his ability was shown!
Liu Xiu and Raheem both scored 6 points and 2 assists in the first quarter, leading the Trail Blazers to 23 points in a single quarter and limiting the Spurs' scoring to 23 points, a tie with the Spurs!
The series has reached the third game, and the Trail Blazers tied the Spurs in the first quarter for the first time.

In the second quarter, relying on the excellent staffing and tactical changes of the coaching staff and the efforts of the players, the Trail Blazers scored 25 points in a single quarter!
Liu Xiu got a lot of opportunities to catch and shoot the ball after the pick-and-roll from the wing. He made 6 of 3 mid-range shots, 1 of 0 for breakthroughs, 1 of 1 counterattacks, and 3 of 3 free throws. He scored 11 points in a single quarter!
在刘秀的精彩表现下，开拓者队单节21投10中拿到25分的同时，限制得马刺队单节18投7中只拿到20分。

After halftime, the Trail Blazers led the Spurs 48 to 43 by 5 points!
In the third quarter, the performance of the Spurs recovered. Ginobili scored 7 points and 3 assists in a single quarter, Duncan scored 5 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Spurs scored 24 to 23 in a single quarter.

After three quarters, the Spurs narrowed the point difference by 1 point, 67 to 71 behind the Trail Blazers by 4 points and entered the final quarter.

At the end of the quarter, Morris Cheeks made a bold operation-using Liu Xiu's deterrence in the final quarter to make a fuss!
To put it simply, it is to launch an offense around creating scoring opportunities for Liu Xiu, so as to create scoring opportunities for others!
Facing a strong defensive team like the Spurs, the deterrence of the surrounding objects must be strong enough. It just so happened that the warden who killed the game in 34 seconds, 13 minutes and 29 seconds, for the Spurs, the deterrence in the final quarter was full!

The beneficiaries are naturally not players like Randolph and Raheem who also have high containment power, but Kwame Brown and Little Flying Squirrel!

夸梅-布朗末节7分、小飞鼠末节6分，刘秀末节争气，4投2中外加2中2的罚球拿到6分，保持住了威慑力，三人携手带队单节拿到24分。

Due to the simple offense, the Trail Blazers mainly focused on defense, and the Spurs only scored 19 points in a single quarter!
With 35 seconds left, the Trail Blazers led the Spurs by 95 points 86 to 9!
The Spurs were given enough time to come back, but the Spurs didn't score a point in the last 35 seconds. The Trail Blazers didn't want to attack at all at this point. Liu Xiu, Payton, Outlaws, Kwame Brown, McDyess' lineup went up.

In the end, the Trail Blazers defeated the Spurs 95 to 86 in an away game, regaining home court advantage and leading 2 to 1!

...

The victory of G3 has brought a great boost to the confidence and motivation of the Blazers players!
In the past, although they had endless imaginations about the future, they always felt that 'we are still young' and did not have that sense of faith.

Now, they have it!
With a strong sense of belief, in the new month, on June 6st, the Trail Blazers players came to the ATT Center to challenge the Spurs away again.

首节马刺队23比21领先两分、第二节马刺队以26比21领先5分，半场结束时，靠着邓肯半场15分、吉诺比利半场16分，马刺队以49比42领先开拓者队7分进入下半场！

In the third quarter, although the Trail Blazers narrowed the three-point gap by 22 to 19, they were only 64 points behind the Spurs 68 to 4 and entered the final quarter. The Trail Blazers ate duck eggs, 9 to 0, and the Spurs led to 5 points. At this time, what supported the Trail Blazers' fighting spirit was really that belief!

Popovich was worried that the final quarter would be dominated by Maurice Cheeks like in the previous game, so he tried his best to play hard. At this time, if the Trail Blazers were defeated, everything would be fine for Popovich , but without...

末节第5分08秒到9分22秒，开拓者队打出了一波11比3！

In that wave of 9-0, the Spurs fought too hard. Popovich did not expect that a young army like the Trail Blazers could withstand such a blow.

The Trail Blazers are very tenacious, but the first three games did not seem to be so tenacious, and they relied more on the strong charisma of their warden.

With two and a half minutes left, the Trail Blazers chased the score to 75 to 80, and the point difference was reduced to 5 points. The Spurs called a timeout!

After entering the timeout, Popovich looked at Liu Xiu, who was moving his body on the sidelines, and resisted the urge to brainlessly arrange flanking attacks like the previous game.

After returning from the timeout, in the next 2 minutes, the two teams scored 4-4.

The Spurs' regular defense has paid enough attention to Liu Xiu. Under such a defense, Liu Xiu has not made any scoring achievements in this period of time. It means that the Trail Blazers scored twice. Is it because he initiated the offense, or he did not assist? kind of.

This reduced the importance of the Spurs. Popovich smiled. He felt that he was too worried in the last game, otherwise he would not lose. How could someone go berserk at the critical moment of every game...

Then, in the last 31 seconds, Liu Xiu made a long two-pointer after a pick-and-roll. Then the Spurs missed a shot from the outside. Parker, who was chasing and defending, made a layup and caused a foul and added a penalty.

At the critical moment, Liu Xiu played a wave of 5 to 0 and tied the score to 84!
At the last moment, the god of luck was on the side of the Trail Blazers. Horry missed a crucial three-pointer. The Trail Blazers relied on Liu Xiu to run away at the critical moment and dragged the game into overtime!
In the overtime game, Horry began to show off, scoring 2 points on 2 of 5 shots in the opening game, and later became the strongest containment point on the top arc, helping his teammates create many good shooting opportunities. However, the Spurs None invested!In overtime, Horry scored a three-pointer and a long two-pointer.

As for the Trail Blazers, Liu Xiu scored 9 points and 1 assist in overtime, leading the team to 12 points!
今晚刘秀打了51分钟，26投11中，其中三分球7中2，外加11中10的罚球，狂飙34分6板7助攻3抢断！

尽管吉诺比利拿到28分、邓肯拿到26分19板、帕克拿到12分7助攻、霍里拿到15分，表现格外出色，但关键时刻被典狱长干翻！

96 to 89, the Trail Blazers narrowly beat the Spurs through an overtime game, and the score was 3 to 1!

...

The Trail Blazers and the Spurs played like that in G1. The Trail Blazers only narrowly won by 1 point relying on Liu Xiu's key ball, and the Spurs showed their strength.

Everyone felt that the Trail Blazers might be beaten miserably by the Spurs. It was no problem to praise Liu Xiu's performance in the first game, so it must be praised, that key shot was too powerful.

But it was true that everyone felt that the Spurs were the stronger one at the time, and the strongest favorite to win the title was well-deserved.

In the Eastern Conference finals, the Nets have an obvious overall advantage in G1. Kidd beat Billups every time in the playoffs. The Nets still have an advantage in scoring inside. Coupled with the strongest outside line, it seems to hammer the Pistons Team 4-1 or even 4-0 is not a problem.

But as a result, on June 6th, the first four games of the Eastern and Western conference finals were over, and the Pistons stubbornly tied the Nets 4-4.

The Nets won the first two home games, and the advantage is indeed quite obvious. In G2, the Nets won 86 to 67 by 19 points.

But people underestimate Larry Brown too much. When they always think that a person is overestimated, they may actually be underestimating this person.

Defense, Larry Brown is a professional!He may be the strongest when the iron-blooded era has just ended but not completely ended!
In G3, the Pistons returned home and narrowly beat the Nets 79-74. In G4, relying on Carter's dunk lore, the Pistons narrowly beat the Nets again 81-80, tying the score to 2-2!
However, although the performance of the Pistons is surprising, it is still insignificant compared with the Trail Blazers.

G1 was almost robbed of the home court advantage, and G2 was really robbed of the home court advantage. Such a miserable start to the Western Conference Finals made people think that the Trail Blazers' progress this year ended here.

As a result, the current big score is 3 to 1, and the Trail Blazers got the match point!
刘秀4场比赛场均23.75分7板4.5助攻2.5抢断0.5盖帽，关键时刻无敌！
It is indeed beyond people's expectations to reach this point in the Western Conference Finals. The Spurs are going to be swept away by the gentleman!

...

Never underestimate Tim Duncan!

When the wind of public opinion overwhelmingly turned to the Trail Blazers, the Spurs remained stable.

This is the attribute Duncan brought to the Spurs. Although Duncan didn't know what else to do besides stability, he knew it was very strong.

And he is really strong!
After two days of rest, Portland Rose Garden Arena, the fifth game of the series between the Trail Blazers and the Spurs came.

The Trail Blazers naturally didn't want to give the Spurs another chance to sell tickets, but they wanted to force the Spurs, but this time they failed.

Popovich learned from the pain. During the two-day break, he recalled the reason why he fell behind 1 to 3, and found that there was a problem with his adjustment.

He paid too much attention to Liu Xiu in the final quarter of G3, and did not pay enough attention to the critical moment of G4. His pre-judgment adjustments were really bad.

He thought of his adjustments at critical moments in the past few years, and it seemed that few of them were correct. As long as the game reached a critical moment, it was likely to become the background. It was better with Ginobili, but the overall situation was still at a disadvantage at critical moments.

Ever since, in this game, he played steadily, leaving the offense to the players... At this time, Popovich's offensive coaching actually has the feeling of a Zen master!
Duncan's stability and Popovich's decentralization allowed the Spurs to re-display the strength of the first championship team. 87 to 75, the Spurs defeated the Trail Blazers away and tied the big score to 2 to 3!

邓肯25分15板5助攻1抢断5盖帽，这场比赛，靠的是邓肯！而不是吉诺比利！
For the Spurs, this is just a headwind, not a desperate situation!
On June 6, the Spurs will return home to play against the Trail Blazers, stable, you can always trust Tim Duncan!

20投9中，外加10中7的罚球，邓肯再度拿到25分10板4助攻。

帕克今晚虽然只有两次助攻，但20投8中外加2中2的罚球拿到18分，已经是帕克这个系列赛最好的表现。

Coupled with Ginobili's 19 points and 6 assists, the troika led the team to score 101 points in a single game and limited the Trail Blazers to 91 points!
尽管刘秀今晚20投9中拿到25分9助攻、兰多夫有20分16板、拉希姆有24分，但外围投篮被马刺队限制住，他们三人拿到20+，但其他得分最高的球员只拿到8分，91比101，开拓者队客场再负马刺队，大比分被追成了3比3平！
...

On June 6, the series between the Nets and the Pistons was decided.

前天赢下了天王山之战的篮网队，没有再给活塞队机会，靠着麦迪16投10中拿到28分、基德拿到13分7板8助攻，以88比80击败活塞队，4比2晋级总决赛。

Five days ago, on June 5th, few people would have imagined that the Eastern Conference Finals would be the first to decide the winner!
The Trail Blazers, leading 3 to 1, were evened by the Spurs!

The media once again turned their heads, and the strongest remarks of the Spurs appeared again!
The Trail Blazers have been defeated by the Spurs, and the Spurs are about to complete an astonishing comeback from a 1-3 deficit... When the Spurs tied the score, this kind of view became the mainstream, and people felt that the confidence of the Trail Blazers had been shattered. The Spurs collapsed and were powerless to prevent the Spurs from coming back.

From a 3-1 lead to being chased to a 3-3 tie, the impact on the Trail Blazers players was indeed great, but their confidence and belief did not collapse!
After returning to Portland at noon on the 9th, the Trail Blazers players discussed that they should go home and have a good rest. Game 6 with the Spurs!
(End of this chapter)