Junior Basketball says

Chapter 480 Establishing a Dynasty
Compared with winning the first championship in team history last year, the Timberwolves won the championship again this season and did not cause much sensation. Perhaps everyone is a little numb.Teams like the Timberwolves are rare in NBA history. Except for the earliest antique teams, almost no one can win the championship quickly with three such young core players, and the Bulls can't do it either.

Was Jordan good enough back then?In his rookie season, he averaged 28.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, but he didn't lead the Bulls to the top until 1990-91, the seventh season of his career, during which he was replaced by Thomas and Dumars. The leading Pistons "Bad Boys" had to educate countless times before winning their first career championship with the help of teammates.

Counting forward, the "Big Dipper" Chamberlain is awesome, right?In terms of scoring ability, even Jordan has to bow down.However, Zhang Dashuai has only won two championships in his career. The first championship was only won in the eighth year of his career. One less championship trophy.

It can be said that the only stars who can lead the team to win the championship in their rookie season are Russell and Magician.But the former is a star who was active in the ancient times, and there are excellent teammates like Sharman and Cousy in the team; the latter is also not the core of the team, but he played center instead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the finals. Only got an FMVP.

And a championship team with an unusually young core like the Timberwolves is simply a rare animal.Even in the season when they won the championship for the second time, Love and Jordan only played for 5 years, Xu Hao played for 4 years, and Rubio, who participated in the draft at the same time as him but landed in the NBA a year later, even played only 3 years. This season, such a young combination is undoubtedly a bug.

But in any case, the Timberwolves have unlocked the achievement of two consecutive championships, and what they have to do next is to work hard to win another championship trophy and strive to build a Timberwolves dynasty.If they succeed, then this will be the second dynasty since the NBA entered the 21st century after the Lakers dynasty, and they will always be remembered and looked up to by younger generations.

A dynasty team means that they dominate the league for a certain period of time, and the potential basic requirement for a dynasty team is three consecutive championships. The only way to be called a dynasty without achieving this achievement is "in odd years" The Spurs who won the championship and the Rockets who succeeded in stealing chickens in the Bulls dynasty, for other dynasties, three consecutive championships are standard.

Now that the Timberwolves are only one step away from creating a dynasty, how could they give up this great opportunity?

So during the offseason, the management continued to recruit for the team.Although some of the original players on the roster were satisfied after winning the championship and began to pay attention to their salary, there are also more experienced veterans who hope to come to Minnesota to hug their thighs and touch the O'Brien Cup before retiring. Timberwolves Have enough confidence to pick and choose.

They let go of Ridnor, Milicic and Kirilenko, and at the same time introduced Calderon, Motiejunas and Mbah a Moute. At the same time, Turiaf and other veterans also came to vote. A rotation lineup that is not inferior to before has been formed, and the core combination is basically intact. After all, the boss is willing to pay the luxury tax to renew their contracts.

This new Minnesota team showed strong dominance in the preseason of the 2013-14 season.Although McHale was more of a rotation lineup, the Timberwolves still won the preseason, one of only three teams in the league to win the preseason.Of course, this means nothing, but it is also a good start.

But the Timberwolves quickly told other teams that they were really just warming up in the preseason.In the opening game, the Timberwolves beat the Magic 127 to 101 at home, and then won 12 consecutive games, starting with a record 13-game winning streak in team history, firmly occupying the first place in the Western Conference, and the other teams are the least also lost 3 games.

Then the Timberwolves' winning streak was regrettably ended by the Spurs, who were temporarily ranked fourth in the West, but they still refused to lose streak and continued to grab as many wins as possible for themselves like cutting melons and vegetables.The outstanding record also brought a halo to the Timberwolves players. In the 2014 NBA All-Star voting, three of them were selected, becoming the biggest winner in the league.

For Xu Hao, the All-Star no longer needs him to work hard to prove himself, it is better to give more opportunities to his teammates.Brooks, the head coach of the Western Conference All-Stars, agreed to his request and gave his players more playing time. Unfortunately, it was the Eastern Conference that won this year. Irving, who scored 31 points and 14 assists, was crowned MVP.

After the All-Star weekend, the highly motivated Timberwolves continued to advance, and finally ended the regular season with a league-leading 65 wins and 17 losses.In fact, if it wasn't for McHale who often arranged for many important players to rest in the closing stage in order to prepare for the playoffs, the Timberwolves would have a chance to win 70+ games, but it is not necessary for them.

Everyone originally thought that the Timberwolves, who had won the championship for two consecutive years, would slack off in the third season, but what they didn't expect was that in the desperate playoffs, these hungry wolves were actually more vicious than the regular season.Three consecutive 4-0s easily broke through from the West, got a ticket to the finals, and can quietly wait for the opponent to come out.

However, to the dismay of all neutral fans, the other teams in the Eastern Conference this year are still unsatisfied, and they still recommend the Heat to reach the finals.However, the Heat's dominance seems to have declined significantly, and they reached the sixth game in the last two rounds, which makes people have to doubt their strength.However, James and Wade still patted their chests, saying that they will definitely win the championship trophy this year.

To say that the Big Three of the Heat are also a tragedy, they all signed four-year contracts in unison at the beginning, just to be able to win a few more championships.Losing to the Mavericks in the first year is fine, but the next two seasons have been hammered by the Timberwolves. The contract is about to expire. If they still fail to win the championship this year, they will be slapped in the face and become the laughing stock of the entire league. .

But the Timberwolves directly shattered the Heat's championship dream. They first kept two home games, and then won the third game 105 to 98, pushing the Heat to the edge of the cliff.Under such circumstances, the Heat fought back and kept suppressing the Timberwolves in the first three quarters of the fourth game.At this time, Xu Hao led the team to play a wave of small climaxes to narrow the point difference. Finally, 1.3 seconds before the end of the game, with a miraculous four-point lore, they swept the Heat and won the championship.

It can be said that the Heat is also tragic enough. Not only did they fail to win the championship, but they were also nailed to the pillar of shame in history. As a result, the Timberwolves became the only team in NBA history to win the playoffs undefeated, successfully creating a team that belongs to Their dynasty!
(End of this chapter)