NBA: Start the water cooler and reach the Hall of Fame

As the new MVP and scoring 40+ points in the game that day, the three words Li Kaiming have become the most mentioned names by American media during this period. NBA MVP, yellow race and even Chinese have the youngest Records, in the eyes of most Americans, these words are almost impossible to appear at the same time, but now they are dumbfounded!

The proud Americans finally realized that there seemed to be a young man from the far east who was slowly overtaking them in their area of ​​expertise!

In this regard, ESPN, America's largest sports media, produced a column specifically for Li Kaiming, titled "The King from the East."

This program also invited several retired NBA stars and well-known commentators. It seems that the guest lineup is extremely scary, including Scottie Pippen, Dominique Wilkins, Reggie Miller, etc., each one of them is capable. The heavyweight who made the NBA tremble three times!

"He's only 21 years old, and he's getting better every season, you know what I mean? Just watch his previous games, and you'll find that in the beginning he couldn't shoot at all, and he only took two In just one season, he has polished his outside shooting to the top of the league. This is really terrifying! I can guarantee that even Michael Jordan couldn't do it back then!" Pippen, who has a long face, expressed his admiration for Li Kaiming. surprise.

Wilkins also nodded, "I agree with Scott. Lee's progress in the past two seasons after entering the league is visible to the naked eye. At the beginning, he had no talent and could only play without the ball. Later, he began to be able to He dribbled the ball and started a charge, and we all know what happened next. He became the top ball-handling attacker in the league. In every game, the opponent's coach has a headache how to defend this guy!"

As a senior commentator, Reggie Miller has naturally watched a lot of Li Kaiming's games live, so he has a deeper understanding of this point, "I have seen Li's progress, and have you noticed that from the above Since the beginning of this season, his defense has improved a lot, which means that he is still improving in places we can't see..."

As soon as this sentence came out, everyone in the live broadcast room took a breath!

When a person who can easily score 30 points can also become a defensive gate, people have to think of those top stars in history!

Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Hakeem Olajuwon…

Real historical-level stars can dominate both offense and defense, and now Li Kaiming is making progress in this direction.

After the program aired, it immediately aroused heated discussion on America's sports forum!

"Perhaps there will be something new to watch in this year's Olympics. Li might be able to cause some trouble for the Dream Team!"

"Brother, you are making me laugh. I admit that this guy has some strength, but basketball is a team sport. Yao Ming, the greatest player in China before, has retired. No matter how good Li Kaiming is, he cannot lead a group of CBA teammates to defeat Meng Shi. Team."

"Yes, and Li Kaiming has only dominated the regular season of this shortened season. He has not touched the floor of the conference finals so far, so I am cautiously optimistic about his prospects..."

"Yes, the dream team is invincible..."

……

And just when Li Kaiming became the subject of heated discussion among American people, the NBA playoffs will not stop just because of the awarding of a regular season MVP. The schedule is still going on.

However, before the start of the third game between the Wizards and the Pacers, the NBA also announced the last award of the regular season, which is the equally eye-catching but no suspense Coach of the Season!

Best Coach, Washington Wizards, Flip Saunders!

The Wizards became the biggest winners this season, taking home the two most important awards.

It was also at the pre-game ceremony, but this time it was at the Bankers Lifestyle Arena, home of the Pacers. But even so, tens of thousands of spectators at the Pacers' home court still gave a gift to Sanders, who won the best coach. On to the applause!

What is a pattern?This is called pattern.

What is atmosphere?This is called atmosphere!

As a result, the Wizards players reciprocated the favor tonight and started to fight as soon as they got up. Even Li Kaiming, the most stable player on the team, felt as if he hadn't washed his hands after going to the toilet.

The Pacers, with the added benefit of home court advantage, surged all the way, and finally won the game 97-91, bringing the series lead to 2-1.

Li Kaiming played for 38 minutes and made 18 of 7 shots, including 5 of 1 three-pointers and 4 of 3 free throws. He scored 18 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks. Generally speaking, when Li Kaiming feels bad, he will He will try his best to feed his teammates the ball, and after feeding the whole game today, he only had 5 assists. This shows how bad the Wizards feel tonight!

When reporters asked Li Kaiming at the post-game press conference whether his hand would recover in the next game, Li Kaiming's answer was very domineering!

"It's normal for the hand to have ups and downs. Since you don't expect me to bottom out, let's wait and see!"

The Pacers are very motivated because of the victory in this game!The team's head coach Frank Vogel even said after the game, "We must show tonight's state and mentality in every game in the following games. Such Pacers are invincible!"

Pacers fans were also full of confidence in the fourth game because of the victory in G3, so by the G5 series on May 20, the entire Bankers Life Arena was packed with Pacers fans, plus the playoffs The cheering short-sleeved shirt looks like a sea of ​​yellow at first glance!

The Pacers still won the opening jump ball. The home fans applauded and screamed together to celebrate their opponent's victory in the opening game.

But soon the Pacers fans were no longer happy, because tonight, after Li Kaiming hit bottom in the last game, he completely rebounded in this game!

As soon as the game started, Li Kaiming's desire to attack was quite strong. Even though Vogel was still preventing Li Kaiming from catching the ball, he was still able to squeeze out the space, then catch the ball and break through hard to the basket and score!

At 218, Hibbert looked like a stupid big man when Li Kaiming attacked the basket. He slowed down every move and finally caught up with Li Kaiming's rhythm. However, when he jumped up, he found that it was a fake move and his backhand was beaten by Li Kaiming. Cause a foul!

半场结束之后，奇才队以53比41领先步行者12分，李凯明一个人半场砍下21分5篮板1助攻2盖帽，还送给了希伯特3次犯规，让后者不得不早早地就下去休息。

After the second half, Vogel adopted a more aggressive double-teaming strategy against Li Kaiming, but Li Kaiming suddenly changed his aggressiveness in the first half and began to focus on off-ball play.

When Li Kaiming is running without the ball, even if the Pacers want to double-team with two people and not catch the ball, it is impossible to completely do it. What's worse is that double-teaming Li Kaiming, who is running without the ball, will leave other players on the Wizards. A very large space!

So Li Kaiming took advantage of his threat in the first half and began to act as a bait to create opportunities for his teammates.

Under Li Kaiming's careful nurturing, others who had been close to home in the last game finally started. Thompson, Blatche and even Leonard were able to hit three-pointers. Moreover, because Hibbert was in foul trouble at halftime, it resulted in In the second half, he didn't dare to make any moves on the defensive end at all, so after opening up from the outside, the rest of the Wizards also began to attack inside!

At the end of the game, the Wizards defeated the Pacers 108-84 on the road, turning the big score into 3-1. The series reached match point, and the Wizards were one victory away from the Eastern Conference Finals!

李凯明全场出战41分钟，砍下了42分12篮板10助攻3盖帽的40+三双，也是本系列赛的第二个40+，他完全兑现了上一场比赛赛后对记者说的话！

The reporters were waiting to see. They thought Li Kaiming would be slapped in the face, but what they didn't expect was the Li Kaiming who was waiting for the MVP night...

After the game, the Wizards took a flight back to Washington to start preparing for the next game. Sanders explained on the plane, "We have to win the next game directly, don't delay any more, and advance at home." Eastern Conference Finals!”

This is of course also the inner thoughts of the Wizards players. If they lose this game, they will have to fly to Indiana to play G6 in the next game. No one likes to fly around in the sky, so the players also started aggressively. Preparing for the Pacers' season funeral...

On May 5, in Game 23 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Wizards VS the Pacers, the MCI Center was filled with gongs and drums, firecrackers were blasting, and red flags were waving.

At the pre-game press conference, everyone on the Wizards looked very serious, and their answers were surprisingly unanimous: Tonight will be the last game of this series!

The Pacers on the opposite side were also tit for tat, saying they must take the series back to Indiana!

At eight o'clock in the evening, the game starts on time!

The Pacers came up and played an inside tactic and passed the ball to Hibbert, who dunked with both hands. The Wizards ran the tactic and passed it to Thompson on the outside, but the latter missed the ball!

Seeing this situation, Li Kaiming knew that he needed to stand up!

Whichever side comes out on top first in this kind of competition will have the upper hand, so he can't wait until the moment when the tactics are successful!

He wants to completely extinguish the opponent's hope of a comeback from the very beginning of the game!

The Pacers gave Darren Collison, who broke through to the basket with the help of a screen and missed a layup. Blatche grabbed the rebound. Li Kaiming directly asked for the ball from the backcourt and came to the frontcourt. David West and Paul George directly Coming over to double-team, Li Kaiming did not pass the ball, but took a step to the side, and then suddenly pushed the ball in a different direction and passed West's defense. Facing the oncoming Paul George, he turned around and passed cleanly!

After turning around, Li Kaiming was already in the penalty area. He put the ball together with both hands without hesitation, and then threw it in three steps. Hibbert subconsciously thought that Li Kaiming was going to dunk, so there was no one to defend the ball and he scored easily!

2 is better than 2!

The Pacers attacked, Danny Granger and Hibbert picked and rolled, and then directly lobbed an alley-oop to the latter. Hibbert got the ball and was about to dunk. At this time, Li Kaiming came out from the side and held the ball firmly with one hand. , neither of them caught the ball. It was the paralyzed man next to him who had quick hands and quick eyes and came directly over to grab the ball.

After Li Kaiming landed, he snatched the ball directly from Kawhi's arms, and then dribbled to the frontcourt. Because Hibbert was still behind at this time, the Pacers players formed a wall near the free throw line. Afraid of being rushed in by Li Kaiming for a dunk!

However, after halftime, Li Kaiming only dribbled the ball once, then directly gathered the ball, then picked it up one meter away from the three-point line and threw it!

The basketball drew an arc in the air, and then fell into the basket with a bang!

2 is better than 5!

At this time, Vogel on the sidelines had a bad feeling, but his reason told him to wait and see.

A few minutes later, Vogel paid for his sanity. Li Kaiming took care of the Wizards' first 14 points by himself, scoring 14 points, 4 rebounds and 1 block in less than half a quarter!

The cheers for advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals are already ringing in the MCI Center!