Basketball Dragon

Chapter 92 A powerful opponent

The dust of the regular season has settled, and the data kings have also belonged.

Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson won the most attention scoring title for the fourth time. Timberwolves' leader Kevin Garnett won the rebounding title for the fourth time. The assists title is helping the Suns become the most powerful offensive team. Steve Nash won the league record first, the block leader was somewhat unexpectedly won by Jazz striker Andrei Kirilenko, and the steal leader was the Wizards Larry Hughes.

Soon, various regular season awards for the 04-05 season will be released one after another, and different awards represent the value of players from various aspects.

But at this time, the top [-] teams in the East and West have already put their minds on the playoffs.

The top eight in the East, from the first start, are the Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, HSD Wizards, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks.

From No. 8 to No. [-] in the West are the Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Seattle Supersonics, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies.

On April 4, the playoffs officially started.

On the first day of the game, due to Jermaine O'Neal's slump, the Pacers lost to the Celtics away, the Rockets lost to the Mavericks away from Tracy McGrady's strong performance, and the Sonics defeated the Celtics. The king, Ray Allen performed brilliantly, but the 76ers are still not the opponents of the Pistons under the combination of Allen Iverson and Chris Webber.

On April 4, the game between the Knicks and the Heat started at the American Airlines Arena.

With the return of Alonzo Mourning for the Heat, there is only one word to describe their inside line, and that is strong.

Although Alonzo Mourning does not have the ability of 20+10 at his peak, he is more than enough as a substitute for O'Neal, and his defense ability is still the top in the league.

O'Neal alone can blow up all the Knicks' insiders, and with Alonzo Mourning's words, it is normal that no one is optimistic about the Knicks.

In addition to the strength of the inside line, the Heat's outside line strength should not be underestimated. The combination of Damon Jones, Eddie Jones and Dwyane Wade is as offensive and defensive as the inside line.

Li Hai will displace Wade, and Crawford will defend the Heat's Eddie Jones at the 3rd position. The difference in height will not be much.

Due to the gap in the interior, the Knicks adopted a shrinking defense at the beginning. Damon Jones hit a three-pointer in less than 3 minutes of this strategy, and then O'Neal received the ball in the interior and completely ignored Kurt Thomas' defense to complete the score. .

In the first quarter, the two sides fought inextricably. Li Hai's defense against Wade was fairly successful, but when the rotation came, the gap between the two sides became apparent.

The most important thing is the inside line, the combination of Shaquille O'Neal, Udonis Haslem and Alonzo Mourning completely crushed the Knicks.

In the second quarter, there was a complete problem with the shrinking defense. Wade did not need to play at all. Damon Jones hit consecutive three-pointers, and the point difference suddenly came to double digits.

In the third quarter, Li Hai, Marbury, and Crawford were all on fire, no longer caring about the disadvantages of the inside, and competed with each other for points.

The Knicks' outside scoring ability can be said to be top-notch in the league, but their defense is much worse. Even Li Hai can't completely limit Wade without inside help, let alone Marbury and Crawford on defense. Yes, their pure outside scoring is much more difficult than the Heat's combination of inside and outside.

The hard work in the third quarter also played against the Heat.

In the fourth quarter, Crawford's shooting percentage dropped, and the Knicks fell all at once.

Losing by 16 points, the Heat in the playoffs were even more difficult to deal with than in the regular season. Li Hai tried his best, but it was just a drop in the bucket for the entire team.

In addition to the Nuggets' Andre Miller's explosive victory over the Spurs, the other games were won by the team with home court advantage.

The Bulls Ben Gordon broke out and beat the Wizards, and the Suns also played steadily and beat the Grizzlies.

"I think the key is defense. Our scoring ability is not bad." On the training ground, Li Hai was very unwilling.

Marbury's face was a little dark, "In the case of shrinking defense, there will definitely be problems on the outside. The opponent's three-point shooting rate is high, and Jamal and I can't help it."

"Based on my experience, it doesn't make any sense to be entangled in defense now. We can only win if we fight against them and fully exert our offensive power."

Li Hai retorted: "If we only focus on offense, we may win a game or two when we feel good, but to win the game, defense must go up."

As soon as Li Hai said this, many people looked at him rather strangely.

He understood that facing the Heat, most of them didn't believe that they could really win.

Herb Williams just encouraged the players to show their characteristics, but he couldn't come up with a specific method. There is really a gap between the lineups of the two sides, and there is no way to limit the Heat's internal and external lines at the same time.

Among the teams entering the playoffs, that is, the Knicks' insiders are so miserable.

4月25号，步行者客场战胜凯尔特人把战局扳回到了1:1，而火箭队麦克格雷迪和姚明依旧表现出了强大的战力，客场2:0领先小牛。

On April 4, the Knicks played away against the Heat.

The Knicks' defense has changed slightly this time. Instead of shrinking directly, they flanked O'Neal and also paid attention to defending outside shots.

Li Hai's opponent is still Wade, the Knicks other than him have only one possibility of being completely blown by Wade.

Compared with the previous game, Li Hai's restraint on Wade was even better.

Wade is the No. 2 position of the Heat, but in the playoffs, he is actually the team's offensive organizer. Li Hai is relatively successful in defending the opponent's mid-range shot, but in many cases, Wade only needs to pass the ball to the inside, and things will go wrong. broken.

Even Alonzo Mourning, who came off the bench, scored 20 points for the Heat. The Knicks' insiders were all troubled by fouls, and Kurt Thomas and Michael Sweetney were all fined.

Under such circumstances, the Knicks played extremely hard and were suppressed from beginning to end. In the end, they lost by 15 points, which was similar to the result of the first game.

另外，76人和活塞的总比分也变成了0:2，国王0:2超音速，奇才0:2公牛，灰熊0:2太阳，只有之前意外落败的马刺以28分的优势教掘金做人。

Experts have predicted that this year's playoffs will not produce miracles, especially when the Knicks and Grizzlies meet the strongest teams in the East and West, they are only swept out 0:4.

(End of this chapter)