Zhiba NBA

Chapter 71 (Seventy) Pre-competition preparation
Because the Timberwolves and the Kings played one more game, the Rockets got a period of rest, and it is quite rare to have the opportunity to recuperate during a long season.

However, in the training on the 19th, Tang Shuai still asked the players to end the training an hour earlier. He led most of the players to the home of Dameng to watch the tie-breaker between the Timberwolves and the Kings.As the two powerful opponents, the Spurs and the Lakers, were out of the game one after another, the Rockets players were quite relaxed, and they repeatedly applauded the exciting scenes during the game.

With Webber's three-pointer missed at the buzzer, their opponent in the Western Conference Finals was finally determined to be the Timberwolves.Yuan Fei and McGrady have already started discussing the next game, and several players are still sighing about the key offense and defense in the last two rounds.

Tang Shuai cleared his throat and asked everyone to discuss together. "Boys, now that the opponents have been settled, let's talk about their views on the Timberwolves."

"Let me talk about it first." Wallace glanced at Dameng and then at McGrady. Seeing that they were silent, he preemptively said: "From my personal matchup point of view, Garnett is more difficult to deal with than Webber. His height and wingspan far exceed me. I think I may be more suitable as a small forward in this series."

Tang Shuai nodded to him encouragingly, took out a small notebook and wrote down Wallace's views.

"I told Cassell before that I hope to meet in the playoffs. I didn't expect to meet in the Western Conference Finals." Billups smiled. "Cassell is very good, and his sword is not old. As far as this season is concerned, he has performed better than Payton."

"Their center is still relatively weak, so there is nothing to say." Yao Ming was still humble.But Dameng didn't give in at all. He pointed to Yao Ming's nose and said, "Yao, if you can't beat Olowokandi and Johnson, don't tell the public that I taught you how to move around the basket!"

"Yes, yes." Yao Ming repeatedly agreed, and he also had special respect for the superstars of his predecessors.

"Most of the time, I'm playing against Sprewell, and I'm confident I can beat him," McGrady said lazily.

"Sprewell has been in a very unstable state recently, with ups and downs. In the 7 games against the Kings, he scored a maximum of 34 points and a minimum of 5 points. He averaged around 20 points per game. The Wolves rely heavily on him for offensive and defensive transitions, and he is very good at running fast breaks. But even so, his offensive efficiency has not reached the league average, which shows that he is still relatively strong. In addition, his ability to draw fouls is also weaker." The ratio of 105.9 and 106.1 has basically remained the same, but the points lost per 103.8 rounds has risen from 99.7 in the middle to [-] in the front."

"They really built a defensive system centered on Garnett, the superman, and our No. 4 position is precisely the weakness. In the last series, even the old Malone was strong against us. It must not be easy to meet Garnett who is at his peak." Tang Shuai analyzed, "So I predict that in this series, Wang will play more games. He is the person who has the best ability to pull Garnett out of the three-second zone. As long as Garnett leaves the inside, Yao can wantonly destroy their centers. We will focus on rehearsals in the past two days This kind of tactics that cooperate internally and externally."

"If we win this series, what do you think of our opponents in the finals?" Yao Ming asked suddenly.

"Pacers? They are very strong, but we are not afraid of them." McGrady laughed: "They have a great defense, but they don't have a super scorer."

"Hey, Tracy, have you ignored the piston?" Yuan Fei.

"I feel that the strength gap between the Pistons and the Pacers is quite large." McGrady said: "I always thought that the opponent in the finals would be the Pacers. They also ranked second in the league in record, second only to us."

"I think the Pistons have a slightly better chance of winning." Yuan Fei expressed a different point of view.At this time, he couldn’t laugh or cry in his heart. In his previous life in 03, when McGrady led the Magic to lead the Pistons 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs, McGrady uttered a bold statement, “Already considering the opponent in the next round”, but was eliminated by the Pistons in three consecutive rounds.It seems that McGrady's contempt and prejudice against the Pistons have continued into this life.

"Jason, I have a question for you." Bosh leaned over and whispered, "I found that when you compare offense and defense, you use points scored and lost in a hundred rounds, but ordinary fans usually look at points scored and lost per game, right? What's the difference between the two?"

"There are two differences. One is the rhythm gap; the other is the gap in overtime." Yuan Fei opened his notebook and began to look through the statistics again. "This season also played 82 games. Our team with the fastest pace averaged 94.2 rounds per game. Compared with the slowest Trail Blazers averaged 86.2 rounds, we played 8 rounds more. The Raptors with the most average time of 48.73 minutes played almost half a minute longer than the Mavericks with the least time of 48.3 minutes. It's not fair, the reasonable comparison is to measure points by points per [-] rounds."

"So that's it, I have increased my knowledge again!" Bosh looked like a good student.

". Chris, you like basketball theory so much, I think it will be no problem to stay on the team as an assistant coach after retiring."

On the other side, the Rockets players were discussing enthusiastically, and everyone believed that the pressure at the fourth position was great.Facing the Brazilian Nene in the first round, he could easily fight against the old Malone in the second round.The next one to usher in is the superstar Garnett who is at his peak, and the defense at the fourth position is really difficult.

"Don't forget that even if we pass the Timberwolves, we still have to face the Pacers with Jermaine O'Neal or the Pistons with Rasheed Wallace in the finals. They are all well-known power forwards in the league." Tang Shuai said: "But our weakness is precisely here. Now we have to fight the opponent's strengths, so we can only fight with all our strength."

"The current league is the era of power forwards. After the old generation of power forwards such as Rodman Barkley have aged, Duncan, Garnett, Nowitzki, Webber, O'Neal, Wallace, Malone, plus the young and growing Gasol and Stoudemire, the high-quality power forwards in the past five years have covered almost 5% of the outstanding power forwards in the entire NBA history."

"I think it's bad luck to avoid the Spurs." McGrady curled his lips, "I want to take revenge on the Spurs last year!"

The crowd laughed again.

***
On May 5, the Toyota Center ushered in the first game of the Western Conference Finals.The Minnesota Timberwolves came from a murderous expedition, vowing to tear the Rockets to the finals.The Wolves started Garnett, Cassell, Sprewell, Hassel and Johnson.

The Rockets have an advantage in the regular season record and the match against each other, as well as the advantage of the home court, which can be said to be confident.McGrady, who is back from injury, also started the game, and he was joined by Yao Ming, Billups, Turkoglu and Wang Zhizhi.The Rockets discharged a rare odd formation.

　The 7th game in the finals is about to end. I wish all book friends a happy game and enjoy the joy of basketball!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)