to 92.
No miracle happened; the Grizzlies, after losing the first ga, won four straight to complete a 4-1 gentlen’s sweep of the Warriors.
Curry, playing through injury, put up 25 points, but he only made 10 out of 25 shots.
During the post-ga handshake, just as Hansen was about to speak,
"Don’t say that line."
Curry unexpectedly predicted it in advance.
Hansen couldn’t help but laugh, it seed Curry still rembered the three-point contest incident.
"Is your ankle okay?" he then asked with concern.
After all, Curry attended his training camps year after year, and they had a good personal relationship—Hansen didn’t want to see Curry fall from grace for real.
"If you are holding the training camp again this year, I will be there," Curry said, his competitive spirit evident despite his slight fra.
Without such determination, he wouldn’t have played through injury in back-to-back series.
First a 4-0 sweep, then a 4-1 series win—the Grizzlies made it to the conference finals for the third consecutive season, and this was their easiest ti yet.
And just as they had eliminated the Warriors, they received more good news: Paul was out for the season.
The other Western Conference semi-final series unfolded between the Spurs and the Lakers.
The two teams were tied 2-2 in the first four gas, moving into the pivotal Heavenly King Mountain battle.
It was during this Heavenly King Mountain clash that Paul suffered an undercut from Manu Ginobili, ending his season.
Even though the series wasn’t over, Paul’s injury was catastrophic for the Lakers, and they ultimately lost the pivotal battle.
In Ga 6, Kobe exploded for 45 points, dragging the series into a Ga 7, but the Lakers ran out of steam and were eventually eliminated by the Spurs.
The Lakers, who had battled the Grizzlies hard last season, didn’t make it to the Western Conference Finals, which was good news for the Grizzlies.
And, with Hansen, known as the "Spurs Killer," on their team, that was another piece of good news.
The outco was indeed double happiness.
Hansen never expected that he would end up facing the Spurs in the Western Finals.
So... Paul didn’t make the Western Finals again?
Without much ti for mourning Paul, Hansen started analyzing the Spurs-Lakers series.
At first glance, the Lakers’ elimination seed due to Paul’s injury, but that wasn’t the whole story.
Keep in mind that Paul was injured in the Heavenly King Mountain ga, and prior to that, the series was tied 2-2, completely balanced.
And, while he was a Spurs Killer, wasn’t Kobe just as much so?
Yet the Spurs hadn’t been broken in the first four gas; they were visibly different this season compared to previous ones.
After analyzing the footage, Hansen understood.
The biggest change for the Spurs from the regular season was a significant decrease in their use of zone defense.
The reason Popovich dared to make this change was likely the growth of Leonard and Danny Green.
Green, drafted the sa year as Hansen, hadn’t seen much playti initially, only breaking into the Spurs’ rotation last season, and this season he beca a starter, embodying the highly popular 3-D player role among shooting guards.
Leonard’s situation was similar to Green’s, as he sohow developed a shooting ability in his rookie season and was promoted to the starting lineup in the second half.
This season, his scoring average even surpassed Manu Ginobili’s, making him the third-leading scorer on the Spurs.
Their roles were different, but what they shared was outstanding defensive ability.
The reasons for the Spurs employing zone defense varied over ti; at the turn of the century, it was to counter O’Neal without any recourse—more to protect the paint;
But later, it was due to a lack of individual defensive resources, especially after Bowen’s retirent; the Spurs didn’t even have a qualified defensive spearhead to limit the opponent’s offensive core, so they had to make do with a zone defense.
Now with two such players, Popovich had no need to rely on zone defense so frequently.
After all, zone defense naturally has weak defensive areas, making it easy for opponents to exploit.
Back when the Grizzlies and Spurs clashed in the regular season, the Spurs’ use of zone defense was already reduced, but at that ti, the Grizzlies thought it was more because they had Hansen, the "Spurs Killer."
However, with the continuous growth of Green and Leonard, Popovich’s confidence had indeed grown a lot.
While the Grizzlies were facing the Spurs in the Western Finals, the Eastern Conference Finals match-up was determined a bit later—the Pacers won a Ga 7 against the Brooklyn Nets and would et the Heat.
The Pacers just barely pulled through, and the Heat’s playoff path wasn’t easy either.
In the first round against the Bucks, there was no real surprise, but Wade encountered knee soreness in Ga 1 of the first round and opted to rest.
The side effects of the Heat’s chase for 70 wins started to erge.
While everyone played 82 gas, the Heat’s main players truly played all 82, and the opponents targeted them fiercely.
Thankfully, the Heat had a solid foundation; despite Wade’s absence, they still managed to eliminate the Bucks and the Bulls (with Ross out for the season) with two 4-1 series wins.
However, facing the Pacers who had a style that troubled them, this round wouldn’t be so easy.
Before the Eastern and Western Finals began, the League traditionally announced the season’s final awards and the All-NBA Team selections.①
The Grizzlies erged as the team with the most eye-catching perforrs.
They had two players selected for the All-NBA Teams, and three were chosen for the All-Defensive Teams.
Hansen was nad to the First Team All-NBA as well as the Second Team All-Defense, Randolph to the Third Team All-NBA, and Conley and Little Gasol to the Second Team All-Defense.
It’s worth ntioning that, in the previous Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) voting, Little Gasol had managed to beat out Ibaka and Noah for the title.
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