One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty-Six. The Stronger You Are, the More Cautious You Are.

The game with the Pelicans made Sun Ce alert. The gap in strength seems large, but the opponent will also find a way, and teams like the Warriors and Thunder really have a chance to beat them in the playoffs!

Even if the Grizzlies have a strength advantage, the opponent can also find a way to narrow the gap in strength and compete for the performance of the stars through tactical changes, strategic adjustments, and even psychological warfare.

Now the Grizzlies are about to face the real favorites to win the championship. They have advantages, good records, and must be stronger, but the disadvantage is that they are more passive, because they have been winning all the time, and the opponent will find a way to restrain their strong points. When they face these opponents, there are not many places where they can make targeted adjustments, and they often continue to strengthen the advantages they have played in the regular season.

This is the safest way. You can't just not play the aspects that you know you can play an advantage, but try probabilistic changes instead.

…

Back at the hotel, Sun Ce took a bath, lay lazily on the bed, chatted with the two girls on the tablet, looked at the two little cubs, and coaxed little Gohan to sleep, and then started to check the news.

Before, he devoted himself to the series with the Pelicans. Apart from the score, he didn't pay much attention to the specific situation of other opponents' games. Obviously, he had such a huge strength advantage. Sun Ce didn't want to be stolen by the opponent like the Lakers. The first game gave him enough vigilance. The opponent had been sneaking and waiting for the opportunity for them to relax.

In the other series, the Hawks advanced before the Grizzlies. They swept the Pistons on the 27th. They were the first team to advance. Their game started first, and they swept their opponents, so they were naturally the first to advance.

Sun Ce didn't care so much about other series. Sun Ce first looked at the detailed battle reports of the past 4 games between the Warriors and the Thunder.

The Warriors struggled to defend the second home court, winning 98 to 95, and Durant's three-pointer to tie the score missed, so they won narrowly. If they entered overtime, they might be exhausted by Westbrook's wild physical strength.

In the next three games, the Thunder defeated the Warriors 112-97 in the first game after returning to their home court. In the fourth game of the series, the Thunder defeated the Warriors 95-91 in their second home court.

In these three games, both teams played defense. In the decisive battle, the Warriors were ready to change their strategy and play offense, which allowed the Warriors to regain their advantage and use speed to drag down Westbrook's offense. Westbrook only shot 11 of 27 shots in regular time, but Durant dragged the game into overtime.

Then, Westbrook had a super performance of 50+ triple-doubles, leading the Thunder to win the decisive battle on the road through double overtime.

In the 5 games played, the score difference in regular time was within 5 points in 4 games, and one of them was played in double overtime. The strength of the two teams was almost equal, and the performance of the stars was also equal.

Durant averaged 28 points and 7 rebounds, Westbrook averaged 27+9.4+9.6, Curry averaged 27.8 points and 5 assists, Harden averaged 31.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6 assists... The superstars of both teams performed very well.

Ibaka, Adams, Diang Waiters, Morrow, Nick Collison, Carl Landry, DJ Augustin and others of the Thunder also played well with Draymond Green, Thabeet, Sullinger, Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, Speights and others of the Warriors.

This series, after the decisive battle, has been called the best series in the first round of this year.

The intensity and viewing experience even surpassed the fossil superstar duel between the Spurs and the Mavericks. After three games in the first round, as the heat of the Grizzlies and Pelicans game cooled down and the heat of the Warriors and Thunder game continued to rise, from the first round to now,

Except for the Grizzlies who maintained a super high average paid viewership in the first two games, the Warriors and Thunder series is the only popular duel with an average paid viewership of over 15 million per game.

I was fully committed when playing against the Pelicans, but people are always greedy. Now Sun Ce has a little regret that he didn't see the live broadcast of the first five games of this series.

Fortunately, the next two games must be watched, and the whole team watched them together after returning to Memphis. The slightly less fun part is that there will be a team discussion after the game and the whole team will analyze together.

A team of more than a dozen players may have some different opinions than scouts who have already fixed their views on a team and coaches who analyze a team from an outsider's perspective. Brainstorming is always good.

When Sun Ce learned about this arrangement, he felt that his team was very different from the past.

The better the results this year, the more cautious the coaching staff is!

This caution is necessary in Sun Ce's opinion!

The Bulls advanced after the Grizzlies, and they swept the Celtics 4-0 without suspense to advance to the second round.

…

…

On April 29, Sun Ce and his teammates returned to Memphis. Tomorrow, the Warriors and Thunder will play the sixth game of the series. For this game, Sun Ce can't wait to watch it.

But the schedule is arranged like this, and this arrangement has an advantage for them, the first and second teams in the East and West! A very big advantage.

The first and second teams in the East and West will have two days of rest between the second and third games after the first two home games, and two days of rest between the third and fourth games. Unless the first four games are not decided, there will be a game every other day.

This undoubtedly reduces the probability of the first team in the East and West being eliminated. Even if the first team in the East and West performs extremely poorly at the beginning, they can have sufficient adjustment time in the first four games. In terms of strength, the first team in the East and West is definitely the strongest in the regular season. Facing the eighth team, they have more adjustment time in the early stage. Even if it is delayed to the last three games, the advantage will gradually return.

But for the third and fourth teams in the East and West, the new playoff system is not so good for them. The first five games are played every other day. Only when they play the sixth game can they get two days of rest between the fifth and sixth games, and between the sixth and seventh games.

Since the fourth and fifth teams are likely to be of equal strength, and the gap between the third and sixth teams is smaller than the gap between the top two teams in the East and West and their respective opponents, it is possible to play five or six games. After playing five or six games, the first and second teams in the East and West have just been promoted, and they may be in better condition, ensuring the excitement of the second round.

Such changes are only in the first round, and there is no change from the second round to the previous round.

Sun Ce likes such changes. They worked so hard in the regular season to get a good record, and it is natural for him to have such an advantage in the first round!

However, for Sun Ce's urgent mood to watch the game now, he doesn't like such an arrangement so much.

But there is no way, he can only hold back his temper. After a day of rest on the 29th, Sun Ce started personal training on the morning of the 30th.

The intensity of the playoffs really trains a player. Sun Ce also found his shortcomings in many aspects in the game against the Pelicans. He thinks that doing well is not enough. Practice more, and sharpen the gun before the battle is not fast.

Taking advantage of the fact that I have the clearest understanding of my shortcomings now, I practice more and even asked Zugo to help me take notes so that I can strengthen it in the offseason.

For his career, Sun Ce is becoming more and more organized in short-term planning.

In the evening, the next opponent's game, which Sun Ce is most concerned about, started.

After 2 hours and 27 minutes of competition, the Warriors defeated the Thunder 117-101 away from home, and tied the score to 3-3!

The two teams will play a tiebreaker on May 2.

Iguodala scored 30 points in a single game tonight, setting a new record for his career in a single playoff game. After watching the game, Sun Ce couldn't help but check Iguodala's personal single-game scoring in the playoffs. This is the first time in his career that he has scored 30 points in a single game in the playoffs!

In the first five games of this series, Iguodala only scored 31 points in total, and he almost broke it in one game.

When the Warriors were about to be eliminated after losing another game, Iguodala opened the coffin and stood up! 30 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. If he is the star player of the team, he can only be said to have played well in the playoffs.

But for Iguodala, who averaged 7+3+3 in the regular season, it is simply crazy!

He is not the most important one in the Warriors in terms of scoring, passing, and rebounding. Each of these is only fourth or fifth in the team. His role is defense and the role of connecting the team, but he is not the best in the league in these two aspects. So, when Iguodala plays such a performance, you can imagine how good the Warriors' performance is! Both offense and defense have obvious advantages.

After watching the live broadcast of this game, Sun Ce was so happy that he really wanted to play in the game himself.

In addition to watching the game between the Warriors and the Thunder today, which made Sun Ce very happy, there was another happier thing.

At 4 o'clock this afternoon, the NBA official voting for this season's regular season MVP and best rookie ended!

Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the NBA official will announce the awards!

Although from various perspectives, Sun Ce felt that his MVP was set in stone, and he would become the active player with the most regular season MVPs, rather than sharing "one" with James, but at this point, he was a little worried.

Before this, some awards had been announced. Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins won the second best coach in his coaching career. The last time he won it was in the 11-12 season when they played a super performance of 55 wins and 11 losses, which was the second lowest single-season loss record in NBA history at the time.

Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace relied on a big 7-for-1 trade to get Aldridge, and did a good job in reinforcement, winning the best manager award this season!

This year they have a good record, and the team has also had a great harvest!