272: 138.
Rookie season cos to an end (Last month’s extra vote 1/5) 272: 138.
Rookie season cos to an end (Last month’s extra vote 1/5) Under normal circumstances, being compared to the Bad Boys Legion, a team known for their consecutive championships, is a huge honor.
For a team in only its second year, primarily composed of young players, to receive such praise is unprecedented.
But the guys on the Grizzlies felt like they had swallowed a fly.
With ESPN’s reach, this “rivalry” would definitely be publicized to the extent that every basketball fan would hear about it.
The Grizzlies were completely numb from that clash.
Moreover, ESPN had laid the groundwork for the future.
If next season the two teams clashed and the Knight lost again, it would just add to the drama.
Over at the Knight, they had splurged last sumr to sign Hughes, Damon Jones, Donnell Marshall, extend Snow and Big Z, tying up their salary cap for years to co, with a starting salary total of 35 million US dollars this year alone, facing Gooden’s extension this sumr, and Jas’s the next…
But the real anger was probably felt by their owner.
Just as they expected, last night, as Jordan celebrated his team’s advancent in the playoffs with a wild party with a Cuban model, he woke up to find the ESPN article and was furious all day.
Zhang Yang didn’t have the heart to see how badly Jordan was being bashed by the Knight fans anymore, so he checked other news.
Last night, two other teams also swept their way to advancent.
But unlike the Knight’s noisy downfall, the Pistons and the Mavericks advanced almost silently.
The Mavericks swept the Grizzlies.
The national team couldn’t handle Gasol, but Nowitzki had him pinned to the ground at the club level.
The series between the Pistons and the Chicago Bulls…
Zhang Yang had paid attention before, but after watching a live match, he couldn’t continue; he feared it would leave a ntal scar.
He only saw the scores of G1, 92 to 74.
He watched the live broadcast of G2, 122 to 93…
The scores for the next two gas were sowhat better, 109 to 98 and 110 to 102.
At the end of the regular season, most fans still thought the Pistons were the sa team from the past two years, but it wasn’t until the playoffs that they realized the Pistons had completely changed, as Zhang Yang saw many people comnting in shock at how the Pistons could play both offense and defense so well.
Zhang Yang checked the Pistons players’ stats for this playoff series; the big five were indeed fierce, but one person’s numbers stood out as not fitting in.
This series, Billups averaged 22.5 points and 6.7 assists, Hamilton averaged 24 points, Rasheed Wallace averaged 17 points and 3.5 assists, Prince averaged 14.5 points…
Ben Wallace averaged 2.5 points, 14.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks.
Just reading the match reports made Zhang Yang feel a lot of pressure, but at the sa ti, he was excited.
It didn’t matter whether they could beat them or not; the playoffs would bring him face-to-face with the Pistons’ “big five”!
…
There are new topics every day in the playoffs, and by evening, the heat of the Grizzlies sweeping the Knight had been stolen by an eighth seed in the West.
In ga 4 of the series between the Lakers and the Suns, Kobe was choked by Raja Bell in a clothesline manner towards the end of the ga.
Kobe went to the sideline to ice for a while but ca back to score consecutive points and made a mid-range shot to tie the ga, taking it into overti.
In overti, Kobe hit a buzzer-beater mid-range shot to win the ga when the Lakers were trailing 7-8.
In the ga, Kobe made 9 out of 14 shots to score 24 points and 8 assists, an explosively high efficiency.
When the Lakers were leading 2-1, the dia didn’t react much, as the Suns only needed one away win to tie it 2-2.
But with the Lakers leading 3-1, that changed everything, putting the Lakers just a step away from winning the series.
The probability of coming back from a 1-3 deficit is incredibly low.
In NBA history, about 20 tis out of every possible 1-3 coback, only one ti has been successful.
However, whether from mory or watching it live, Zhang Yang felt there was a big chance for the Suns to turn it around.
The common feature in the three wins by the Lakers was Kobe’s high shooting accuracy—simple as that.
In his G4 dual ga-winner, Kobe made 9 out of 14 shots, reaching a shooting accuracy of 64.3%.
With such performance, even without the ball, Kobe was always double-tead.
When he had the ball, he was surrounded, making it easier for his teammates to either shoot or pass.
They, the Grizzlies, faced the Lakers after the All-Star weekend, and once Kobe made two shots, there were always two players in front of him, and the players under the basket were watching him, fearing he’d score 60 in three quarters or 80 for the whole ga.
But maintaining such efficiency in Kobe’s playing style was difficult; managing it for three consecutive gas was almost unbelievable.
The Lakers won their three gas by a total of just 14 points.
If Kobe’s efficiency slipped and the Suns’ defense intensity decreased, the Lakers’ other players wouldn’t get easy points, and considering the Suns’ scoring ability, the Lakers would definitely be out.
Although the outlook for the Lakers wasn’t great, watching Kobe play live was still very thrilling for Zhang Yang.
With death-defying Parker and Kwa Brown dominating the Suns to secure a 3-1 lead, Kobe’s performance was indeed astounding.
Watching Kobe play at that ti, Zhang Yang even felt that when Kobe missed, it wasn’t Kobe’s fault, but rather the fault of the hoop and the ball…
After a day’s rest, on May 2, the Grizzlies began their preparation training.
The training atmosphere was unusually relaxed, without any pressure from being the league’s top team.
Jordan even ca to play one-on-one with the periter teammates to vent his frustrations from ESPN labeling his team as the “next Pistons.”
Everyone enjoyed themselves, sparring with the God of Basketball!
However, there were so teammates watching Zhang Yang’s one-on-one with Jordan for the first ti, and they were shocked by Zhang Yang’s fierce playing style, and sowhat impressed.
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