Capítulo 1411: Chapter 550: The Shattered Dynasty Dream (Part 4)
The Rockets once tied 2-2 with the Mavericks, but in Ga 5, the Rockets faced a mont of fear — Nowitzki scored 21 points in the final quarter, the first ti in his playoff career scoring 20 in a single quarter, shooting through everything!
The Rockets led 53-42 at half-ti and 75-67 after three quarters, but in the final quarter, Nowitzki led the Mavericks to a 34-20 run, suffering a painful reversal.
In Ga 6, the Mavericks entered the ga right from the start, with Nowitzki scoring 33 points, Artest with 16 points and 7 rebounds, Terry with 22 points, and Billups with 14 points and 6 assists, smashing Jas who scored 33 points, Lopez with 20 points, Lowry with 15 points… winning big 111-96.
The Mavericks won two gas in a row and advanced to the second round as an away team, eting the Thunder Team.
The Thunder Team swept the Suns 4-0 in the first round, where Rose gave his veteran opponent a clean shave.
Nash did his best, leading with Carter and Frye, averaging 11 assists, taking the assist king title over Rondo’s average of 10.5 assists, making it to the playoffs, already doing the utmost.
The only team that had an easy first round in the West was the Thunder Team, while the Kings and Grizzlies gave the Spurs and Lakers a lot of trouble.
The playing style of these two teams was both annoying and hard to deal with, both dragging it to Ga 6.
Over at the Knicks, making his playoff debut, Harden enthusiastically went on to challenge Wade.
In his third year, Harden averaged 18.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per ga, which wasn’t as amazing as Rose or as imdiately impactful as Mayo, nor did he have Westbrook’s eye-catching playstyle, but he was making steady progress.
With Curry, who plays as recklessly as his “third brother,” Wilson Chandler and Bosh on the front line, and Camby with good stats at Center… Harden wanted an upset!
And then they got swept…
However, both Bosh and Harden, even Curry, had comndable performances. Bosh averaged 22 points and 9.5 rebounds, the highest in both scoring and rebounding among the two teams’ interiors, second only to Wade’s average of 26 points.
Harden averaged 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, and though he couldn’t outperform Wade’s 26 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, his performance improved compared to the regular season, managing to hold his ground in the big stage.
Curry… was rather flashy, attempting 10.5 three-pointers per ga, which amazed even Yao Ming, who was used to Zhang Yang’s three-pointers, making 15 three-pointers over four gas, averaging 3.75 per ga, leading all players in the first-round except for his sowhat low shooting percentage of 35.7%.
However, Curry didn’t collapse in his playoff debut. Without his often-vain three-pointers, the Knicks could have t a worse defeat. The disparity in strength was too large; Bosh’s 22 points per ga and Harden’s 19 were already effortful. To elevate the team’s performance, he needed to go full throttle.
The Hawks may need to start rebuilding, as Bibby aged rapidly this season, and Crawford, serving as the main controller in these playoffs, revealed his inability to withstand playoff intensity. Pierce also began to show signs of aging… beaten 4-2 by the Pacers, exiting in the first round.
The Magic Team also fell in the first round. Howard did play extrely well in the five gas, averaging 27 points and 15.2 rebounds with 6.8 offensive rebounds per ga, resembling a heavenly god descending, though his 5.6 turnovers per ga were sowhat costly.
The Celtics relied on overall defense to steadily defeat the Magic 4-1, advancing to the second round.
Howard fought for the second-highest interior score in the first round next to Nowitzki and afterwards imdiately sent written notice to the Magic Team refusing to exercise his player option.
Fifteen years ago, the Magic got nothing in return and lost O’Neal, and this ti, it seems likely to end the sa.
The Magic’s managent and Orlando’s dia perford another mysterious operation: claiming to retain Howard, they traded back Turkoglu, yet simultaneously put Howard on the trading block. In response to Howard’s request to change coaches, managent’s move wasn’t comforting but rather lecturing, and what was ant to be a behind-closed-doors conversation was actively disclosed by managent to local dia in Orlando, who followed suit in lecturing…
Howard was never easygoing, receiving such treatnt no matter with whom the Magic negotiated trades. He expressed to other parties that he would not sign an extension. So trade partners were genuinely interested in trading but backed out upon seeing his stance. By the final trade window at the All-Star weekend, the Jazz Team and Nuggets Team were bustling while the Magic Team was desolate.
The 8 teams advancing to the second round are the Thunder Team, Spurs, Lakers, Mavericks, Bobcats, Chicago Bulls, Celtics, and Pacers, and there was no upset in the first round this year.
But in the second round, upsets ca…
The first seed in both the West and the East were the first to be eliminated!
The Thunder’s two stars perford quite well; Rose averaged 24.5 points and 5.5 assists, Durant averaged 27 points, though the shooting percentage was slightly low.
But Nowitzki averaged 3.5 attempts and 2 makes from three per ga throughout the series, with a three-point percentage of 57.1%, averaging 29.5 points with a 55% field goal percentage.
Along with Terry’s average of 19 points and Artest, who limited Durant to just 41% shooting, Billups’ stats weren’t great with only 11 points and 6.5 assists per ga but he controlled the pace really well.
The Mavericks swept the top-seeded Thunder Team in the West in four straight gas, advancing to the Western Conference Finals.
This was actually not surprising. The Mavericks’ playoff performance last season was brutal as they literally shot the Suns to death, and Nowitzki led the team to the Western Conference Finals, avenging past humiliation.
They just unfortunately ran into the Lakers, facing severe disadvantages in interior defense, being played around by Garnett and Kwa Brown.
In the first round this year, playing against Harden’s Rockets led by Jas, Nowitzki continued to shine. Before the start of the second round, most also felt the Thunder Team might be in trouble.
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