One Thousand Six Hundred and Forty-Two. Thirteen Years Have Passed and They Are Still

The second round of the playoff series started on time.

On May 8, the first games of the two-group series between the Bulls and the 76ers, and the Lakers and the Thunder started successively.

In the first game, the Bulls encountered a crazy impact from the 76ers. Evans and Gasol were very active in the first game. Evans scored 29 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists, and Gasol scored 18 points. 16 rebounds and 4 assists. In terms of rebounding, in the playoffs, the Bulls' interior twin towers really couldn't beat Gasol.

But Griffin was not used up by the Clippers. He did not go to the outside to play small forward. He learned from Malone and made good use of his strong body and soft touch to play in the face frame. Although his back was not developed, his powerful He plays really well without jumping around in terms of physical fitness. This year, Sun Ce and James will most likely continue to monopolize the first-team forward line, but there will definitely be a Griffin in the second-team.

If it were Griffin during the Clippers era, there is a high probability that he would not be able to deal with the basket guarded by Gasol, but now he has scored a game-high 36 points, plus 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Griffin's offense ensured the team's lower limit. Rose's excellent pick-and-roll and close-range throw tonight scored 22 points, plus 13 assists, helping the Bulls beat the 76ers 101-97 to win the first victory of the series.

The 76ers rushed hard, but Sloan's team has always been steady and not in a hurry. After the 76ers' momentum slowly wore off, the Bulls made a go-ahead effort and successfully overturned the score in the final quarter.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the game between the Lakers and Thunder started immediately.

In terms of strength in this year's playoffs, the Thunder may not be a match for the Mavericks, but it's hard to say. The Mavericks can scare the Lakers into a cold sweat, but they may not have a strength advantage over the Thunder.

But the Thunder were really restrained by James! The advantage of the Lakers is too obvious. Kobe Bryant averaged 28 points per game in the regular season this season, and James averaged 24+7+10 points per game. This duo is too incomprehensible!

116 to 101, the Lakers easily defeated the Thunder and won the first game of the series.

On May 9th, the series between the Heat and the Pacers started first. In previous years, the Pacers had a huge advantage over the Heat, which was the inside. Even when there was Nene, the Heat faced the Pacers inside. Still suffering.

But now, Chandler and Josh Smith, paired with Paul and Wade, are playing pick-and-roll! In terms of defense, Chandler is more comprehensive on the defensive end than Hibbert. Wade, who only played 45 games in the regular season this year, performed better than last season in the playoffs. James and Bosh returned Teammates, although certainly not as good as James, the depth of the lineup is better.

The Pacers no longer have the unity they had when they faced a strong team in the playoffs last year and fought to the death.

The Heat got off to a good start by narrowly defeating the Pacers 94-89 in the first game.

After this game, fans were joking that Paul might reach the conference finals in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference for two consecutive seasons.

After the first game of the first three series of the second round, fans discovered that there may be a relatively large strength gap in this year's playoffs. The Bulls, Heat, and Lakers all won too surely!

In the first round, we saw the Thunder and Trail Blazers playing so fiercely. Who would have thought that the Thunder would have such a big disadvantage against the Lakers?

The Bulls and Heat didn't win much, but they looked very solid.

For the Heat, it's reflected in the experience of the players, while for the Bulls, it's reflected in the experience of the head coach.

On the Pacers side, Hayward, nicknamed White James, tried to lead the team with his personal abilities in the playoffs this year due to many factors within the team. The old man against the Nets was fine and full of energy, but facing the Heat, he had Josh Smith, whose physical fitness is really comparable to that of James, was very guarded. Paul played against Darren Collison, just like playing against his younger brother. Even if Chandler and Hibbert were half-way apart, the Heat still had the advantage. .

For the Bulls, Sloan's advantage over Doug Greens can be seen in the length of his coaching career. Sloan has experienced the Birds era, the Bulls dynasty, and the Lakers dynasty. The Jazz have always been a strong team, and the pick-and-roll offense has always been Sloan will never fall behind. Sloan's psychological quality has been tempered by Zen Master and is too stable, leading the team to steadily beat the 76ers.

This makes Grizzlies fans start to worry about their team meeting up with the Spurs, who had the last laugh in this year's regular season and showed unparalleled dominance in the first round.

It was useless to worry. At 7pm on the 9th, after the Grizzlies and Spurs played for 2 hours and 27 minutes, the Spurs easily defeated the Grizzlies 126-111 in their first home game and won their first victory!

Sun Ce scored 32 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists, Paul George had 22 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, and Klay Thompson had 19 points. The three of them scored 73 points together. The Grizzlies scored 111 points, but they were scored by the Spurs. 126 points!

The strength advantage is too obvious!

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The second round of the playoffs is in full swing. The strength gap between the two sides in the second round is far greater than what the media, fans, and experts predicted before the second round started!

By May 14th, the first three games of the four-group series were completed.

There were two 3-0s, and the Bulls led the 76ers 3-0. The difference in strength is there. The 76ers have two players who have played at superstar levels this season, and so do the Bulls. As for other players, the Bulls The team is far better than the 76ers.

The 76ers seem to have a chance in every game, and they seem to be a little bit behind in every game. The biggest loss in the three games was only 11 points.

However, a little difference, a loss is a loss.

Just like the Warriors lost, many people think that the Warriors are actually stronger than the Grizzlies in overall strength, but they lost to their strongest players. In the 6th game, Klay Thompson made 10 three-pointers in a single game, allowing Sun Ce to connect the offense of the whole team; in the 7th game, they lost directly to Sun Ce, who scored 25 points in the first half and 22 points in the third quarter.

Compared with the steadily developing Rose, Evans of the 76ers can no longer rely on his size to gain a clear advantage. Gasol is better at protecting the frame, assisting, and rebounding than the Bulls' inside line, but Griffin's offense played a key role in the defensive battle between the two teams. Neither team scored more than 100 points in a game, but Griffin averaged 31 points in 3 games. The Bulls' inside line could not defend Griffin's strong digging and pick-and-roll offense with Rose.

The Heat led the Pacers 2-1. The Pacers took away the home advantage in the second away game, but the Heat quickly took back the home advantage on the road.

The Lakers led the Thunder 2-1. Durant averaged 34 points per game with a 51% hit rate. Westbrook was restrained. Facing James' defense, and the defense of James who had reduced his weight to 120 kg, Westbrook averaged 23.3 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.3 assists per game. The data looked very good, but the hit rate was 35%, and he averaged 5 turnovers per game.

If Durant hadn't scored 46 points in the regular time of the third game, the highest score in his playoff career, and made a buzzer-beating three-pointer to drag the game into overtime, the Thunder might have fallen behind 0-3.

But Westbrook was amazing in overtime. In the third game, the two teams tied at 105 in regular time. Westbrook scored 12 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists in regular time, and his hit rate was 3 of 15 shots. But in overtime, Westbrook was the leader, scoring 10 points with 4 of 5 shots, and also sent an assist to Adams for an alley-oop, which helped the Thunder to play a 12-8 wave. The Thunder narrowly defeated the Lakers 117-113 and kept their first home game.

But Durant scored more than 40 points. After playing in the playoffs for 3 years, Durant only scored 40+ for the third time. Thunder fans can't expect Durant to score so high in every game. Durant scored 30 points stably in every game, playing a role of containment and receiving pot balls and key balls, which is the best way to use him.

Another group of 3-0 is the Spurs against the Grizzlies.

The Spurs won by 15 points in the first game, 4 points in the second game, and 18 points in the third game when they were away.

Sun Ce played three games, got 30+ triple-double in the first game, 39 points in the second game, and rested after playing three quarters and got 22 points in the third game, trailing by 23 points in three quarters...

The inside line was taught a lesson, Duncan averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds in this series, which doesn't look very good, but he played 35 minutes in each game, and the Spurs averaged 23 points!

On May 15, the three best lineups were announced.

The best rookie lineup, led by McCaw, Oladipo, Trey Burke, Mason Plumlee, and Antetokounmpo were selected for the first rookie team.

In the first rookie team, only McCaw averaged more than 15 points per game, and there were only three who averaged more than 10 points per game, except McCaw, Oladipo and Trey Burke. The other two, Plumlee averaged 7 points and 7 rebounds per game, and Antetokounmpo averaged 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists per game.

The second team of rookies consists of Olynyk, Dieng, Adams, Cody Zeller, and Hardaway Jr.

Hardaway Jr. played 58 games this season, averaging 5.5 points, 0.5 rebounds, and 1 assist per game, and was selected for the second team of rookies.

The worst rookie class in history was born. The last rookie with such data as Hardaway Jr. was selected for the second team of rookies in 2000. Hedo Turkoglu averaged 5 points per game and was selected for the second team of rookies. But judging from the rookie year alone, the rookies of 2000 are better than those of 2013.

In terms of the best lineup, Paul, Rose, Sun Ce, James, and Gasol were selected for the first team.

Evans, Curry, Harden, Griffin, Love, Durant, and Al Jefferson were selected for the second team.

Curry and Harden had the same votes. Durant was also amazing. He played just over 50 games, but he was selected to the second team based on his outstanding performance in these 50 games. The number of votes was the same as Love, who played 72 games and averaged 26 points, 13.4 rebounds and 4.4 assists.

Dragic, Lillard, Paul George, Hayward, Aldridge, Duncan and Howard were selected to the third team.

Hayward and Paul George had the same votes. Duncan was selected to the best team again, with the same number of votes as Howard at the center position!

Fans complained wildly when they saw the announcement of the best team. It turned out that after 17 years, the strongest player of the Spurs is still Duncan!

In terms of the best defensive team, Paul, Iguodala, Paul George, Ibaka and Noah were selected to the first defense.

Sun Ce, Jimmy Butler, Leonard, Duncan and Chandler were selected to the second defense.

Sun Ce beat Wall to be selected as the second defense and was selected into the best defensive team for four consecutive years. Some people think that it was the subjective consciousness of the coaches of each team that made Sun Ce beat James and Wall, who were placed at the point guard position.

On May 16, the NBA held a draft lottery ceremony.

The Clippers won the first pick, the Bucks won the second pick, and the Magic won the third pick.

The Rockets were unlucky enough to get the No. 1 pick in a weak draft year, but they were still worse than the Clippers in a strong draft year, failing to get the first pick, and not getting the No. 2 or No. 3 picks, only No. 4.

The Suns got the No. 5 pick, the Celtics the No. 6 pick, the Kings the No. 7 pick, the Pistons the No. 8 pick, the Nuggets the No. 9 pick, the Cavaliers the No. 10 pick, the Hornets the No. 11 pick, the Wizards the No. 12 pick, the Timberwolves the No. 13 pick, and the Pelicans the No. 14 pick.

Since the league was going to sell the Clippers, many people guessed from the beginning that the Clippers would get the No. 1 pick. Although the Clippers had the worst record and the highest probability of getting the No. 1 pick, there were still conspiracy theories.

The reason is also quite simple. The Timberwolves had been playing badly for so many years before, but they never got the No. 1 pick.

On May 17, the Grizzlies played their second home game. With Sun Ce scoring 29 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists, Klay Thompson scoring 24 points, and Paul George scoring 28 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, the Grizzlies tried their best to win a game. Finally, the three outside players scored 80+ points, which led the team's offense. They narrowly defeated the Spurs 121-116, narrowly chasing the score to 1-3 and retaining their dignity.

But on May 19, the Grizzlies could not hold on, losing to the Spurs 91-115 away from home and being eliminated 1-4!

…

When the final whistle sounded, Sun Ce looked at the 1-4 score and Gay, who was excitedly punching the opponent, and felt powerless.

This year, I really felt a lot of powerless moments.

There is no way to win this series! Sun Ce felt the powerlessness of James in the original time and space when he met the Spurs in the finals.

I don't know how to win at all!

The gap in strength is too big!

This time, I lost with conviction!

Looking at Gay who averaged 20.4 points per game in the opposing series, Duncan who averaged 17 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.6 blocks per game, Ginobili who averaged 19 points per game, Parker who averaged 14 points and 9 assists per game, and Danny Green who averaged 4 three-pointers per game...

The key is to maintain Duncan's state. With Gay, who is stronger than Leonard in the past two years in the original time and space, Duncan can play more easily. Next season, and even the season after next, the Spurs will still be one of the strongest opponents!

In addition to the Spurs, there is another BUG in the West, the Kobe-Jan combination!

Last night, the Lakers almost slaughtered the Thunder by 30 points with a score of 122 to 93, and easily advanced with a score of 4 to 1.

In the regular season, these two teams were considered powerful, but in the playoffs, the Spurs, who really entered their heyday, and the Lakers, who were seamlessly replaced by James instead of Paul and greatly enhanced, became even stronger!

With James's state, Kobe's state after turning into a pitcher with less consumption, Leonard's getting better and better, limiting Durant to only 19 points in 7 of 20 shots in the fourth game of the series, and countless high-quality role players who cling to the thighs of the Kobe-James combination...

Sun Ce looked at his teammates with extremely complicated emotions.

In this round of the series, not only him, Sun, but the whole team lost convincingly. The opponent is indeed strong. They have the two bears in the best state, and they may be able to fight, but they were defeated by the opponent when they were relying on the three-man team on the outside.

Silence... When the final whistle sounded, Sun Ce and his teammates watched the other side celebrate for a while and began to leave.

Sun Ce led Klay Thompson and Paul George, one hand on the shoulder of each person, without saying anything, and the two of them patted the back of Sun Ce's hand hanging on their chests at the same time.

This small action represents unwillingness, but also represents many other complicated thoughts...

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The Grizzlies are out!

This sparked heated discussions among fans, because the Spurs showed too much dominance.

The NBA playoffs will not stop because of the absence of the Grizzlies. On the contrary, because the Grizzlies are out, the topic of the Lakers-Madison War has become more popular!

In the second round, the Lakers played super dominance against Dewey, who has not yet reached his peak, and the Spurs also played unparalleled dominance against the Grizzlies, who are weak inside, in the second round.

And the Thunder and the Grizzlies are not weak!

The two teams that crushed these two teams will face off in the Western Conference Finals...

In a flash, more than a decade has passed, and Kobe and Duncan are still playing in the Western Conference Finals, and the teams they are in seem to have just entered the undefeated period. Duncan is still the strongest player of the Spurs, and Kobe is still the second strongest player of the Lakers, just like at the beginning of the century!

After the Western Conference playoffs ended last year, people thought that the old generation of players would begin to fade out of the league, but the Spurs became stronger, and the Lakers got James and became stronger.

These two teams that were almost invincible after entering the playoffs met in the Western Conference Finals, and the topic was bursting!

On May 22, the Heat defeated the Pacers 4-2 and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. Paul successfully reached the Western Conference and Eastern Conference Finals for two consecutive years!

The Heat will play against the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals. After defeating Evans, can Rose defeat Paul to become the top point guard in the Eastern Conference? The two of them occupied two spots on the first team this year, which is also very interesting.

There were many fans who regretted that the Grizzlies could not continue to move forward, but except for the Grizzlies fans and the fans of the Grizzlies players, the attention of other fans came and went quickly, just like the Grizzlies stole the attention that year, and other teams also stole the attention after killing the Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies, whose popularity had dropped, had already started operations the day after being eliminated.

First, it was the clearing of salary space!

The contract for Gasol, who was traded away, was only over 8 million US dollars. The Grizzlies already had the opportunity to reduce the specific salary for next season below the salary cap.

The salary cap for this season is 68 million. According to forecasts, it may reach 71 million next season. The income increase brought by Sun Ce to the NBA is visible to the naked eye. The salary cap increase, which had stagnated for one or two years, began to flourish again after Sun Ce joined.

Just as the Eastern and Western Conference Finals were about to begin, an unfavorable news about the acquisition by the Clippers was exposed.

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