I’m Really Playing Basketball

In the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Heat and Bobcats defeated the Magic and Cavaliers respectively to advance to the conference semifinals.

Except for the Heat and Bobcats, the outcome of the remaining two groups of duels has still not been determined.

The Bucks, who are second in the Eastern Conference, and the Bulls, who are seventh in the Eastern Conference, are now tied 3-2 in the first round. The Bucks with 68 wins and the Bulls with less than 50 wins are playing so fiercely that the Bucks are forced to rely on taking... It wasn't until Tianwang Mountain that we got a big lead.

It can be seen how unreliable the record of the Eastern Conference regular season this season is. Let's put it this way, in terms of hard power, the Bulls can win more than 60 games in any season in NBA history.

Deron Williams, Ben Gordon, Nocioni, Luol Deng, Big Z...

Let's put it this way, this Bull is an enhanced version of the Bull in history that was not destroyed by Kobe's trade message.

Ben Gordon and Luol Deng have successfully completed their growth, and because of Deron's presence, the team's chemical reaction is also quite good.

Moreover, most of the players of this Bulls grew up together. It can be said that they are a replica of the Western Spurs, and their cohesion is also very top-notch.

When encountering such a strong, extremely united, and chemically-friendly team, whether it's the Bucks, Heat, or Raptors, they're actually not that easy to beat.

The Raptors, who ranked first in the Eastern Conference in the playoffs last season, were also embarrassed by the Bulls, not to mention that the Bulls are stronger this season.

Therefore, this series is quite exciting. The competition between brothers Ben Gordon and Ray Allen has become the focus of this series.

In the Tianwangshan battle between the two teams, senior Ray Allen received an offensive rebound pass from Iguodala at the last second and hit a three-pointer from the right corner of the three-point line for the Bulls.

Before Ray Allen made a three-pointer to kill the Bucks, Ben Gordon had already scored a three-pointer to kill the Bucks.

With less than 10 seconds left in the game, the Bucks fell behind by two points. Many people felt that the Bucks were about to finish.

It has to be said that Ben Gordon has grown up smoothly and is indeed quite powerful. This series is quite inseparable from Ray Allen.

After all, he is the player who almost humiliated Wade in history in the 2006-2007 season.

Historically, after the Heat won the championship, they were slaughtered by Ben Gordon and the Bulls for 42 points in the opening game. After this game, the Heat directly secured the title of the weakest defending champion in history.

At the end of the season in the playoffs, Ben Gordon led the Bulls to directly sweep the defending champion Heat in the first round of the playoffs. In a direct contest with Wade, Ben Gordon averaged 25.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.3 assists per game. The steals slightly beat Wade, who averaged 23.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game. The two had similar statistics, but Ben Gordon's shooting percentage was 2% higher, and his three-point shooting percentage was as high as 40%.

By the way, Luol Deng averaged the highest score per game in this series, averaging 26.3 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 1.8 steals with a shooting rate of nearly 60%.

Historically, if it hadn't been for the trade message of Kevin Kobe, the Bulls would not only have become the hegemon, they would have become a powerful force in the Eastern Conference.

In this time and space, without Kobe's interference, the Bulls' second team has become extremely eye-catching and is now one of the most anticipated groups in the entire NBA.

Another highly anticipated young group in the league is, of course, the Bucks with Durant and Curry, and the Marquette Ice Storm combination is no joke.

Now two groups that represent the future of the Eastern Conference are fighting each other so hard that they are inseparable. It is really exciting. The fans are very excited, and David Stern is also very excited.

The Bucks and Bulls, who played 3-2, are still not optimistic about their promotion situation. From the perspective of the entire series, the Bucks' tactical system is dominant. The five small offenses cannot be defended by the Bulls, but the Bulls' offense also has At the breaking point, Big Z's offense was impossible for the Bucks to defend. Deron's fixed-point singles against Curry, Ben Gordon's crazy knife, and Luol Deng's offense were also difficult for the Bucks to defend.

The main reason is that the Bucks' five players are too short, while the Bulls' players are not only tall, but also accurate. They are simply a smaller version of the Heat.

Big Z is little Yao Ming, Luol Deng is little Bosh, Deron is little Wade, and there is nothing wrong with Ben Gordon, the super genius, saying that he is little Iverson.

However, overall, although the Bulls are like the Heat in everything, they are indeed not as stable as the Heat.

Therefore, the Bucks still have the advantage. After all, it is 3 to 2 and their strength is also advantageous.

Another matchup in the East, the Raptors, which is third in the East, and the Nets, which is sixth in the East, also ended in a 3-2 tie after the first five games of this series.

However, unlike the 3-2 match between the Bulls and Bucks, the 3-2 matchup between the Nets and Raptors saw the Nets win the Battle of Tianwang Mountain.

The Raptors, third in the Eastern Conference, are a strong team in the NBA regular season after the All-Stars and with the rise of Milicic.

In the final stage of the regular season, when both the Bucks and the Heat needed to win, they defeated these two teams strongly one after another.

Logically speaking, although the Nets' five forwards are also strong, they should not be the Raptors' opponents.

This is common sense, but this series is very unreasonable.

From the first game of the playoffs in this round of the series, the Nets have been crazy about Nash on the defensive and offensive ends.

When attacking, the Nets' five forwards were crazy about playing Nash in isolation. Everyone knows that the strongest point of the five forwards is calling names. The five swingmen can call out the opponent's defensive weaknesses. Nash can't even dodge, and the Nets call out Nash. Still looking for Nash's physical confrontation.

When defending, the Nets' five forwards rotate quickly enough, Joe Johnson, Carter, Richard Jefferson, Marion, and Martin. Their defense is also on the line, and each of them has long legs. With long hands, everyone can press Nash.

As long as Nash dribbles the ball past half court, the Nets' forward players will take turns forcing Nash to confront Nash.

Nash is not afraid of tall strikers, but he can't stand up to being targeted crazily when he's on defense, and he's also 'slapped' crazily when he's attacking.

When you're on defense, you get elbows, when you're on offense, you get slaps. Who can withstand this?

Of course, it's a bit exaggerated to say elbows and slaps, but the Nets' intensity in this series is indeed very high, almost reaching the level of the Nets and Bobcats in the 2007 playoffs.

In that 2007 series, the Nets and Bobcats were at par with each other on almost every offense and defense.

The reason why the Bobcats defeated the Nets was because Jordan's unethical stealing of the chicken in the first game gave the Bobcats the home court advantage and they won by relying on the home court advantage.

In this round of the series, the Nets fell behind 0-2 at the beginning. However, when they returned to their home court, the Nets, who showed higher defensive intensity, pulled back two games in a row. By the way, in the G4 game, Nash was consumed too much in these games. Da, fell out of the field during a confrontation with Marion, and his face was covered in blood.

This round was not because Marion was dirty, but there were 2 minutes left in the game. Both teams were spending a lot of money. The players on the field of both teams could not control their movements and their movements were somewhat deformed.

Nash's accidental nose injury in G4 obviously affected Nash's performance in G5.

In G4, Nash made 11 of 18 goals and scored 31 points in the away game. He was in great form.

But in G5 back at home, they only made 7 of 17. This shooting rate is okay for others, but it is a bit low for Nash.

Losing the home game in G5 and losing the home court advantage, the Nets could continue to increase their intensity at their home court in G6. Coupled with Nash's broken nose and continued doubts about his future status, the Raptors were almost forced into a desperate situation. .

Many people say that now the Raptors can only rely on their new superstar Milicic to share the pressure for Nash.

Milicic averaged 9 of 18 in the previous five games and averaged 24 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks per game. This data is very good, but it is not enough.

Especially when outside players such as Rashard Lewis, Josh Smith and Laga Bell face the Nets' five forwards, the performance of Milicic and O'Neal will become even more important, especially since they have already Milicic, who has become the Raptors' main offensive and tactical core, will become even more important.

However, as a young man under 24 years old, facing an epic team like the Nets, he needs to play a rescue-level game, which puts a lot of pressure on him.

If Milicic really does this, there is no doubt that he will rise from a superstar to a super giant again.

He will live up to his reputation as the successor to Garnett and Nowitzki.

In the current situation of the Raptors, Nash obviously cannot organize everything. Milicic not only needs to score, but also needs to assume the responsibility of the team's first organization.

In other words, if Milicic wants to save the Raptors, he must play at the level of Garnett + Nowitzki. Not to mention peak Garnett + Nowitzki, 90% of Garnett + Nowitzki Ski, this is the minimum.

Therefore, those experts said that Milicic must evolve into a super giant again in order to lead the Raptors to complete the reversal against the Nets. This is correct.

90% peak Garnett + Nowitzki, of course they are super giants.

So these two series are interesting. The Bucks' Ray Allen has completely changed his destiny.

The Raptors' Milicic needed to step forward for the first time after Nash was injured to save the team.

The two teams ranked second and third, facing the seventh and sixth teams, both need their stars to change their names in order to advance. From this, we can also see how terrifying the Eastern Conference is now.

Let's put it this way, judging from the current situation in the Eastern Conference, perhaps the three weakest teams are the Cavaliers, Magic and Bobcats.

This is absolutely no joke.

On May 2, 2009, the G6 battle between the second-place Bucks in the East and the seventh-place Bulls in the East began.

The two teams, both advocating offense and unable to guard against each other's offense, miraculously played a very tight offensive game in this game.

Logically speaking, this game should be an offensive battle like the previous five games between the two teams.

However, in the first quarter of the two teams, one shot 31% and the other 36%. In the first quarter, the two teams even scored only 17 and 18 points, neither of them scored 20 points.

It can be seen how nervous the two teams were at the beginning of this game.

Of course, after the start of the second quarter, the tension between the two teams eased slightly, so the offense of the two teams returned to normal levels in the second and third quarters. In these two quarters, the two teams played 55 to 54, and the Bulls won. 1 point, including the Bucks winning by 1 point in the first quarter.

After three quarters, the two teams miraculously tied at 72.

Then, Chen Xiao once again saw the players from both teams being extremely nervous in the fourth quarter.

The Bucks and Chen Xiao are old rivals. When the Bucks swept everything with the help of the five small teams, they had the problem of instability at critical moments.

But this time, the Bucks were indeed different from before. With 2 minutes left in the game, the two teams were tied at 99-99. The two teams played for 10 minutes, both scoring only 17 points, and in the last 2 minutes , the Bulls made 0 of 4, 0 of 2 three-pointers, and did not score a single point.

But here with the Bucks...

Although Ray Allen was 0 for 1 and Curry was 0 for 1, Durant was 1 for 1. At the last moment, the most critical moment for the two teams, when the two teams hit the iron 5 times in a row, Durant's mid-range shot Hit.

Then the Bulls still missed and fouled Durant. Durant made two free throws and the Bulls lost the game.

103 to 99!

In this game, when the two teams were so tight offensively, Durant made 12 of 24 shots, 4 of 8 three-pointers, and 7 of 7 free throws. He steadily scored 35 points in the game.

So at the end of the game, Chris Webber, the commentator of this game, exclaimed: "I have only seen this incredible outside scoring stability from Jordan and GOD Chen!"

4 to 2, the Bucks eliminated the Bulls in a thrilling manner. When the Bucks successfully advanced, Ray Allen, who had always been aloof, roared to the sky with excitement, while Curry and Durant, two young People paid tribute to Chen Xiao, roaring into the sky and tearing their clothes.

"This is the East. In the East, it's too difficult to win a series, too difficult..."

This hell-like east is really suffocating.

Jordan, who was beside Chen Xiao, picked up his cigar and sighed.

The more hell it is, the greater the pressure on everyone, and when everyone's pressure increases, it becomes even more hell.

After the Bucks successfully advanced on May 2, everyone's attention turned to the game between the Raptors and the Nets on May 3.

With Nash injured, the Raptors now need a hero, and Milicic, the most popular young insider recently, will he become a hero?

This plot of longing for a savior in a desperate situation is definitely the favorite plot of Americans. After being exaggerated by major media across the United States, everyone focused on Milicic for a while.

"If you can't get over this kind of pressure, your career will be ruined. If you can't get over it, you'll be like a flying dragon in the sky!"

After Jordan finished speaking, Chen Xiao nodded slightly.

On May 5, 2009, in the tiebreaker between the Raptors and the Nets, Milisi faced the crazy rotation of the Nets in the whole game. He scored 40 points on 15-of-30 in the previous game and led the team to victory. Odd, this game was 6-for-18 and only scored 20 points.

But in addition to these 20 points, Milicic also got 18 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal and 5 blocks in the game!

In the desperate situation of falling behind 2-3, the Suns, under the leadership of Milicic, won 111-106 and 104-100, completing a miraculous reversal!

G6 Nowitzki!

G7 Garnett!

Nowitzki and Garnett still didn't fully fit together in one game.

But when the Raptors needed Nowitzki the most, Nowitzki showed up.

When the Raptors needed Garnett the most, Garnett showed up.

Nowitzki and Garnett didn't play together in a game.

But Milicic learned how to use the energy of Garnett and Nowitzki contained in his body under such tremendous pressure.

In these two games, Milicic let everyone see him, and the shadows of Garnett and Nowitzki merged into one.

Therefore, as soon as the G7 game ended, Raptors head coach Nelson rushed into the court excitedly and hugged the equally excited Milicic.

Seeing this scene, Barkley, the commentator of this game, couldn't help but sigh.

"Following the likes of Wonder Boy, Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Yao Ming, Wade, and James, another 'mythical beast' has been born in the current NBA!"

It's not an ordinary super giant, it's a mythical beast!

Super giants with more or less an aura of invincibility are called mythical beasts.

This is a Buckley original.