God's hand behind the scenes

Chapter 451 Farewell to the Past
Without Wade, the Heat did not survive the final stage of the contest, of course, this is largely due to their schedule.They have 10 away games in the last 6 games, and half of the games will be against the top eight teams in the East and West, especially the key game lost to the Celtics directly sent them into the abyss of eternal doom.

Of course, the Celtics did not become the opponents of the Pistons in the first round. They achieved a record of 10 wins and 7 losses in the last 3 games, surpassing the Knicks in one fell swoop and ranking seventh in the Eastern Conference. Champion Raptors.Neither Chang Wei nor Brown put the Knicks in their eyes. Now their head star is Marbury, who was traded from the Suns in the middle of the season. The second head of home shooting, Houston, has entered the end of his career. settle.

The regular season of the 2003-04 season was all over soon, but the order of the top eight in the East and West was not fully determined until the last day, so you can imagine how fierce the competition between the teams is.The top eight in the East are the Pistons, Raptors, Pacers, Hornets, 76ers, Nets, Celtics and Knicks. In fact, the 76ers have a better record than the Hornets, but they are not the champions of the Atlantic Division. In the No.2 of the three divisions, it is not as good as the Pacers, so it can only be wronged and ranked fifth.

This is also the current NBA playoff ranking rule. The first three divisions and the second division with the best record enter the top four, and the other teams rank fifth to eighth according to their record.This rule was not changed until 2015. Since then, the team rankings have all been based on record. The division champion may even miss the playoffs, but the old rules are still followed.

The rankings in the West are the Lakers, Timberwolves, Spurs, Kings, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Nuggets and Rockets. This also means that Yao Ming will face O'Neal and Malone in the first playoffs of his career. strong enemy.After the release of the playoff matchup map, the domestic media were not only excited about Yao Ming's first playoff appearance, but also sympathetic for his upcoming match against the two big insiders.

However, Chang Wei has confidence in Yao Ming. Although the overall strength of the Rockets is not as good as that of the Lakers, the possibility of being eliminated is almost [-]%, but this does not mean that Yao Ming has no power to fight back when facing O'Neal and Malone.From last year's Asian Championships, it can be seen that Yao Ming's mid-range and long-range shots are already accurate to a certain extent, and O'Neal and Malone are just players who are difficult to defend. If Yao Ming increases the proportion of long-range shots in the game, it may not be possible. Can't gain the upper hand in the matchup.

Of course, how well the Rockets play has little to do with Chang Wei. Anyway, they will eventually be eliminated by the Lakers. There are no black eights in NBA history, but this Rockets don’t look like a dark horse that can overthrow the Lakers. .In contrast, Chang Wei is more concerned about the team's game against the Knicks in the first round. Whether he doesn't care or not, he still has to pay attention to the opponent tactically.

The result of the Pistons' emphasis is that the Knicks have no chance at all during the game.Originally, Brown wanted Prince to defend Marbury, but Billups alone had blinded the "lone wolf" on the defensive end, so Brown simply reduced Prince's playing time and turned to Marbury. More reuse of Wade, the latter also directly broke the Knicks' defense into a sieve.

The Pistons have won four consecutive games by a large score, averaging 15.5 points per game, which is already a huge advantage in the playoffs.However, the Pistons players are not complacent about this. It is normal for them to do this. If they fail to do so, they need to review. This is the strength and momentum that a regular season champion should have.

For this result, the local media in New York was also very helpless. It is obvious that the Knicks are not as good as others.And their new number one star Marbury's performance in the four games was also very average. Although he still averaged 23.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, he shot only 41.2% from the field and averaged even more. There were 3.9 turnovers.

However, the Knicks' management is still full of confidence in Marbury. They believe that this "lone wolf" can become the banner of the Knicks in the post-Ewing era.Of course, Chang Wei is very clear that this is impossible. If according to the development process of the previous life, the Knicks will have to wait until they win Anthony to make a slight improvement, but when it comes to recreating the glory of Ewing's period, then they don't know when they will have to wait. .

In addition to the Pistons, the Raptors and Pacers also passed the test easily, with a big score of 4 to 1, which saved a little face for the Nets and Celtics.Of course, the only one of the top four to miss was the Southeast Division champion Hornets. This team did not reach the level of the top four in the East, but it just took advantage of the division champions.But it was not easy for the 76ers to win. It took them 76 games to eliminate the Hornets, 6 of which went to overtime.

Such a result made the local media in Philadelphia embarrassed to brag. It is obvious that the 76ers have lost their dominance in the Eastern Conference in the past few seasons.It can be said that it was a momentary negligence that the regular season record is only ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference, but facing opponents like the Hornets, they have to play until the sixth game, which makes people doubt their strength.More importantly, they will face the Pistons led by former head coach Brown in the second round of the playoffs, and basically no one is optimistic about their prospects.

In fact, there is no grudge between Brown and the 76ers. The conflict between him and Iverson is largely due to the difference in philosophy, and there has not been any major conflict.But these two teams met in the second round of the playoffs by accident, which has to make people imagine, even if there is no other meaning, it will be hyped up with some non-existent meaning.

When Brown knew that the 76ers beat the Hornets to advance to the second round, he didn't have any expression on his face, just sighed slightly.For him, this round of the series is equivalent to saying goodbye to the past, and judging from Reed's contract renewal, this is the last time he faces the complete team he formed at the beginning. After Reed left, The 76ers are not the 76ers of the past.

When the media focused all their attention on this group of matchups, the teams that advanced to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs were also announced. The Lakers, Timberwolves and Spurs also easily defeated their opponents to advance, but the Kings took a lot of trouble to get the tiebreaker Beat the Mavericks.As Chang Wei expected, the Rockets played very tenaciously against the Lakers. Although they were finally eliminated 1-4, Yao Ming performed well in 5 games, averaging 19.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots, and the Zen master also praised him a lot, and this is the result of Chang Wei's special training for him last summer.

(End of this chapter)