Bishop of the Devil

In the blink of an eye, time has arrived in mid-April, and the annual playoffs have begun.

Until the end of the regular season, the Clippers still maintained the fourth record in the Western Conference.

But even so, considering that the Spurs won the championship with the fourth record in the Western Conference last season, no one will underestimate the strength of the Clippers.

In the eyes of fans from all sides, although the Nuggets and Trail Blazers are number one in the Western Conference, the ones who really have a chance to win the championship are definitely not these two teams, but the Spurs and Clippers who pretended to be dead in the regular season.

These two teams will definitely be the strongest contenders for the championship.

Last season, the Spurs fought against the Heat, and the Spurs won in the end. On the one hand, the Spurs' three newcomers showed amazing strength, and on the other hand, Wade was injured...

Originally, the Heat coach was planning to shorten Wade's playing time, but Wade refused. Wade removed the fluid from his knee in advance, which prevented the Heat from being completely defeated.

It was precisely because of the early removal of knee fluid that Wade suffered from chronic arthritis, and his overall condition became worse. He only played 50 games this season.

Under normal circumstances, the Heat's second championship was won in last season's finals. If Wade had not adopted such a radical treatment method, the Heat would not have been able to win the Spurs in the tiebreaker.

It can be said that Wade has dedicated everything to the Heat, but what the Heat did is a bit disappointing. They gave Bosh a five-year maximum salary, but only gave Wade a short-term salary of $31 million over two years. contract.

Why are contracts short-term? That is naturally because of Wade's potential injury risk, which prevents the Heat from taking the risk of signing a five-year contract.

In the end, no one expected that Wade, who had signed a two-year contract, would be healthy in the future. Although he occasionally missed injuries, it was not a serious problem. On the contrary, Bosh, who had signed a five-year contract, suffered from blood clots in his body. And completely bid farewell to the NBA stage.

Things are really unpredictable...

If nothing else happens, whether the Heat can enter the finals this year is a matter of two minds. Even if they enter the finals, they will definitely not be opponents of the Clippers or Spurs.

…

In the first round of the playoffs, all four teams in the top half of the Western Conference swept their opponents 4-0 in a rare event. As far as Richard knows, this is the first time this has happened. Anyway, it has never happened since he entered the league. This kind of collective sweep happened.

The Clippers' opponent in the first round was the Thunder. After four games, they beat the Thunder by an average of more than 20 points per game.

The Thunder's fifth position in the Western Conference is actually not weak, but the main reason is that there are too few main attack points in the team. Westbrook's point is directly strangled by Leonard, and Guofu's point is blocked by Gobert and Big Ben takes turns to ravage...

Having a player like Leonard on hand is simply the happiest thing for a head coach. They don't have to worry about how to limit the opponent's scoring points. They only need to put Leonard where, and Leonard himself knows what to do. Do.

The key to the effect is quite astonishing.

Westbrook averaged 6.4 turnovers per game when guarded by Leonard, and his shooting percentage was only 39%...

With this obvious advantage, it would be strange if the Clippers didn't sweep the Thunder.

As for the Spurs, this time they are facing the Warriors again.

Last season the Spurs were fourth in the Western Conference against the Warriors who were fifth in the Western Conference. This season the Spurs were third in the Western Conference and faced the Warriors who were sixth in the Western Conference...

As you can imagine, the result was a sweep.

The Warriors look like they are half-dead right now. They can be said to be a weak team, but they can enter the playoffs every year. They can be said to be a strong team. They have been swept in the first round two years in a row. What kind of strong team is this...

According to Richard's estimation, Mark Jackson's head coaching job may be over.

In the next second round of the playoffs, the Western Conference semifinals, the Clippers faced the Trail Blazers.

This was considered a son-in-law battle. As a result, the Clippers players did not save any face for Paul Allen. In the end, they eliminated the Trail Blazers with a big score of 4:1 and reached the Western Conference Finals.

What satisfies Richard the most in this series is Gobert's performance.

Once upon a time, Gobert was pushed to the ground and rubbed by Oden on the court, which was so miserable.

Now, although Gobert is still not Oden's opponent, he can at least restrict Oden to some extent and will no longer let Oden do whatever he wants under the basket.

Oden can't do whatever he wants, and Leonard is obsessed with Granger. Naturally, it will be difficult for the Blazers to turn around.

After two rounds of the series, Leonard's desperate defense has become frightening.

There is no doubt that Leonard has truly entered his peak period on the defensive end.

Under normal circumstances, Leonard would win the honor of Finals MVP this year.

As for the offensive end, Leonard still has room for improvement on the offensive end, but he is still better than Sun Yue before.

The series between the Spurs and the Nuggets also had the same big score of 4:1, and the Spurs got a chance to advance.

In the Western Conference semifinals, the Western Conference has completed the situation of defeating the inferiors and defeating the superiors, which is also the only one in NBA history.

On the contrary, it was the situation in the Eastern Conference that made fans frown.

The Heat were actually defeated by the Pistons led by Yao Ming in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The two sides reached the tiebreaker. As a result, Yao Ming showed his bravery in the last game, which was the kind of bravery that no one can limit.

The Heat are not good inside. Although Bosh is good, his tonnage has become smaller over the years due to the needs of the team. Although he has become a lot more flexible, the smaller tonnage also means that his ability to fight in the penalty area has become weaker, which naturally makes him more vulnerable. He is no longer a match for Yao Ming.

As a result, in this tiebreaker, Yao Ming led the team to a victory over the Heat with 47 points, 19 rebounds and 5 blocks, returning to the Eastern Conference finals.

The Pistons have not been able to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for some years and have always been the third seed in the Eastern Conference. Now they are finally proud and proud.

The Eastern Conference Finals were extremely fierce, and Yao Ming was fighting for his life. He knew his situation very well. He was already 33 years old, and he didn't have much left to play at his peak.

If he can't lead the Pistons further in the past two years, he may be in trouble for the rest of his career.

There are some old monsters in the history of the NBA who can still maintain a pretty good condition when they are nearly forty years old. However, after the age of thirty-five, the vast majority of insiders immediately show a steep decline.

Even O'Neal, the most dominant player in history, is no exception to this.

Yao Ming asked himself that he was definitely not that kind of old monster. After turning 30, he already felt a little inadequate. Many goals that he could score steadily at his peak have become difficult to score now.

After turning thirty-five, Yao Ming felt that his career was almost over.

So how could he not work hard in these last two years?

The final result was regrettable. Yao Ming made it to the sixth game, probably because he was too tired and due to his age, and was directly injured.

Without Yao Ming, the Pistons were completely defeated and were taken away by the Hornets.

Richard watched this round of the game with a sigh of relief. Unknowingly, Yao Ming was already a 33-year-old guy.

He is now 46 years old and will turn fifty in a few years. This year also happens to be the twentieth year that Richard traveled through time.

We traveled back in time in 1994, and now it is 2014...

It really is a blink of an eye, and 20 years have passed.