hall of fame small forward

Chapter 189
"This is a carnage without any suspense. This is not a playoff-level contest at all." ーespn
"Even though it's only been one game, we all know the outcome of the whole series." —Chicago Worker
"1:0=4:0, no mercy." Cleveland Real Report
"The Rockets should really think about their opponents in the next round." Houston Real-Time Report

"The team's No. [-] and No. [-] games are mysteriously missing. Can the Portland Trail Blazers win one of them?" ーPortland Basketball Pioneer

At the end of the game, the Rockets finally beat their opponents by 126 points 90:36. 1995 points, becoming the new No.35 in the playoffs.

In this game, the main players of the two sides did not spend more than 20 minutes on the court, but in this short 20 minutes, the tone of the game was set, which also shows how big the gap between the two teams is. It is so big that it can already be described as a gap.

The Trail Blazers are actually not that good to be honest, but the playoffs are different from the regular season after all. The defensive intensity here is higher, and the penalties for physical contact are also greater. Once the hardness is raised, a certain Portlander Some of the shortcomings of not being able to play tough battles were immediately reflected. It is said that this year is not the time for them to enter the playoffs and achieve good results, because some people in their team are not ready for the playoffs. This state is not good. It is said that the Rockets have restrained them a bit. Even if they are replaced by the Lakers, who have won many games in the regular season, they can abuse the Blazers under the rules of the playoffs.

Some people will say that Totoro is also a new recruit in the playoffs, but the Rockets, except for him, are all veterans who have been in the league for at least two years. The Blazers are still too young to be the opponents of the Rockets. The playoffs tend to be polarized. Either the team is too old and the players in the team have all the experience but their bodies can't keep up with the thinking, or the team is too young and lacks experience, and like the Rockets, they are both in the current situation. There are too few players who have played in the playoffs and have experience in the playoffs. This kind of team will perform well this year.

In the first game, experts and fans made a final decision on the confrontation between the two teams. In the second game, the outside odds of the bookmaker also changed to 1:15, but this still couldn’t stop the fans from going bankrupt and crushing the Rockets. For the team to win, the gaming company originally wanted to adjust the odds to 1:20, but the sudden injection of several million dollars in counter pressure to the Blazers' victory aroused their vigilance.

These millions of dollars are not the amount that ordinary American families can spend, let alone all of them are used for gambling. The people who can pay this money must not be small, and if they dare to press the pioneers to win in this situation, then There must be some unspeakable secrets in it!

In order to prevent themselves from collapsing, the gaming company did not exaggerate the odds to 1:20. They have already received a little rumor. It seems that the Rockets have an internal idea to intentionally lose in the next game. Of course, they have nothing to do with this I agree with both hands, because now 100 out of 99 people buy the Rockets to win, even if everyone contributes the same amount, they are equivalent to earning 84 people's money.

As for the league and the team owners, there is no problem here. If the Rockets and the Trail Blazers play one more game, they will get more ratings and ticket money. If the Rockets are not sensible, the league executives are ready to intervene Arranging referees to interfere in the game, now that the Rockets are so considerate, they are naturally willing to accept it.

The fans of the Blazers are also satisfied with this. Their team can win a game to save face so that they will not be so ashamed. Some legendary fans of faith can also make a lot of money from this. Rockets fans, the team they supported so hard but deliberately lost, it would be too sad if they knew the truth.

But they will never know the truth. The Rockets will have 1 reasons to explain why they lost. At that time, it will be like Yao Ming’s old injury relapses, Chinchilla feels unwell, Iguodala feels nothing, Battier occasionally feels cold These reasonable inside stories will be picked up. Not only can the fans not say anything about their defeat, but they also have to be grateful. It turns out that their players are fighting with their injured bodies. What a great professionalism is this?

This is absolutely bullshit. The NBA is a field of profit. Players compete for the championship just to gild themselves to get a bigger contract. They play for money. There are very few players who can really cut their salaries for the benefit of the team. Few, and most of them are veterans who are dying, and almost none of them can really play.

In addition to the Rockets game, the Lakers killed the Mavericks at home without incident. Kobe was still brave and scored 37 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Gasol had 21 points and 13 rebounds. Bynum had 13 points and 7 rebounds. Odom scored 14 points and 4 assists. On the Mavericks side, apart from Nowitzki who still scored 30 points and 8 rebounds steadily, the Mavericks only scored in double figures with the Super Sixth Man Jets Terry. When the team has to rely on substitutes to save them, it is inevitable that they will lose a lot.

The Cavaliers and Magic also defeated their respective opponents without bloodshed. The dark horse that the fans were most looking forward to in the playoffs did not appear as scheduled. The only teams that are expected to compete for the championship are the Lakers, Rockets, Spurs, Magic and Celtics. The other teams are far behind the above comparisons.

The Rockets rested on the second day of the first game, but the Rockets were not idle. Although Adelman banned a lot of team training, he still required every teammate to report in the arena at 8 o'clock in the morning and get together Watch other nba teams play to get an early look at how strong your potential opponents are.

This year the Rockets still have ideas internally. Their biggest goal is to compete for the championship, and it seems that this is not impossible. Now the three hurdles in front of them are the Spurs, the Lakers and the Celtics, and the other teams, the Rockets. Nothing to worry about, in other words, as long as the Rockets can defeat these three opponents, they will be able to win the O'Brien Cup again after 13 years, and raise another side in the sky above the Dragonborn Cave Arena to represent the best basketball team. Good honor banner.

And there are signs of this. Alexander accepted the Rockets in 94, and they won the championship that year with the eighth pick in the Western Conference. Win this year?It is not unreasonable to follow this logic.

In the lounge of the arena, the Chinese boss with a big shot directly bought a 46-inch super large LCD TV and put it inside. The Rockets players are more like holding a food exchange meeting between China and the United States. My own Yao restaurant has a lot of domestic snacks such as fried rice, pot stickers, and deep-fried dough sticks. The power of Greater China cuisine is great. It may be an ordinary breakfast that Chinese people would vomit. In his eyes, it seemed like a delicacy in the world, one hand was put into his mouth and the other hand was taken to the plate, his mind was not on the game in front of the TV at all.

And those Yankees brought over the usual beer turkey. Totoro and Yao Ming ate it with a fork. They were really tired of these things. American food is very simple, breakfast is Bread and milk, lunch is either fast food or pizza, and at night there is only a little vegetable salad, half-fried beef, and the wealthier family can eat foie gras and drink cat poop coffee at most. The tricks are finished in a week.

My Neighbor Totoro thinks that I have been able to eat delicious food in the United States for two years. Fortunately, almost every city in the United States has a Chinatown. Fortunately, Yao Ming opened a Chinatown in Houston. Otherwise, Totoro thinks he is really living in the United States. not long.

In the first game against the Jazz, the Jazz were rubbed against the ground by gdp and Popovich throughout the game. The situation was not at all 30-[-] as predicted by the experts before the game. Duncan was already [-]+, but the face was smaller than him The five-year-old Boozer was still hitting one goal at a time. On the other hand, the Bone Boy couldn't break through Duncan's defense at all. The audience was overwhelmed by Shi Buddha's offensive and defensive ends. It seemed that this was not a match between superstars and The confrontation between the All-Stars is a game where superstars abuse ordinary players. Thanks to the anti-bones boy, he still brags that he has played in the Western Conference finals so he is a quasi-superstar. This performance is probably not recognized by Jazz fans. Quasi-giant.

Deron Williams also performed very sluggishly in this game, but the little fat man was not because of his own problems, but was cheated by the team and his teammates. Duncan can also delay himself from time to time while taking care of Boozer. Bowen, who was about to retire, even harassed himself with his signature tricks. Parker's speed allowed him to catch up with him after losing his position. The most important thing was that there was a strategic Popovich standing on the sidelines, old man Today, a "pocket array" was set up against him. Every time Delong felt that it was easy to break through the first line of defense, but after he broke in, he was often "beaten up" by a group of people. What's wrong with me.

The Jazz trained by Sloan didn't have too many routines. The defense relied on toughness, and the offense relied on pick-and-rolls. In an unfair two-on-five duel, one person was disconnected halfway through. The helplessness of the situation is probably only understood by Deron and Sloan themselves.

The Hornets and the Suns, Paul shined at home, scored 36 points and 14 assists, not only slammed Nash, but also led the team to beat the Suns by 16 points. Since then, Chris Paul has been completely recognized by others The status of the league's number one point guard and superstar.

Paul was really hanging before the meniscus was not damaged. You can imagine that Paul can dunk on Howard's head. This physical quality, coupled with his historical level of ball sense and dribbling skills, passing skills and Offensive methods, as well as his rare ball quotient and IQ among blacks, Paul really has no reason to be unsuccessful.

Although his fate is rather tragic, his life seems to have been cursed. First, after he was seriously injured, half of his meniscus was removed directly and he lost nearly 3% of his athletic ability. Then the team owner went bankrupt, and the team was managed by the league. After the Clippers, Paul thought he could regain his life, but his good helpers Bai Warcraft and Uncle Liu Huang were not as powerful as he imagined. The team's playoff record also plummeted. Either this injury or that injury, it was hard to eliminate the Spurs. In the second round, he was miraculously reversed by the Rockets 1:[-]. This kind of unlucky event with a small probability almost happened to Paul, which is quite sad.
However, Totoro doesn’t know if his time travel will change Paul’s current destiny. After the queen bee was injured, he became the captain and is still the top three point guard in the league. After the age of 30, he is still the top five super backcourt in the league, the uncrowned king, Is it conceivable that if he can stay healthy, the floor of the Western Conference Finals that he has never touched is still an illusory dream?

Nash, who played against Paul, scored 21 points and 10 assists. Zonda has tried his best. In the past, the players he encountered were not as skilled as himself, and his skill was not as good as his. Hurry up, but this Paul seems to be sent by God to restrain him, leading him in all aspects. If he was placed 5 years ago, although he would not be able to guard against Paul, Nash can still guarantee that the opponent will take advantage of him. He can make up for all the points, but it's a pity that time is a butcher's knife, and any player is so vulnerable to the mighty power of time.

In addition, Stoudemire performed abnormally under the full name escort of boxing champion Tyson Chandler and only scored 14 points. O'Neill scored 1+6 points and 7 rebounds. No one in the Suns scored in double figures, while in the Hornets, Peja scored 13 points on 3 of 5 shots from 5 points. David West contributed 17 points and 18 rebounds in a steady double-double. Tyson, who is famous for his defense Chandler also frequently performed alley-oops on the inside of the Suns under Paul's feed, and also scored 10 points and 10 rebounds by dunking.

The offensive firepower is inferior. This is a devastating blow to the Suns who rely on shelling for food. It is reasonable for them to fail the Hornets. Phoenix fans are also very disappointed with the performance of the Suns. The team has been a strong team in the league every year since the 20th century. When it comes to the championship seed team, who can fall behind the Phoenix Suns?At their peak, they could be compared with the Spurs and the Lakers, but the latter two teams have won three consecutive championships in the new century, and the other will win the championship every odd number of years. They have not even won a cent until now. The so-called expectation The greater the disappointment, the greater the disappointment. The fans of the Suns are full of expectations every year but they end up in a mirror. Who will be happy after this time?

(End of this chapter)