I’m Really Playing Basketball

In the first round of the Western Conference, the Warriors caused a small stir in the NBA after being defeated by the Trail Blazers in two consecutive games.

The fans have different ideas than Popovich. Popovich can tell at a glance that the Warriors are training.

But fans feel that the Warriors are seeking death.

Warriors fans, in particular, have great opinions on head coach Cole.

It's not natural to leave a useful boss like Chen Xiao and crazy to use Jokic as the core of the team's offense, letting Klay, Bill, Big Eyebrow and Chen Xiao revolve around Jokic. A waste of martial arts?

Losing two games in a row is confirmation.

Then, Warriors fans throughout the NBA felt sorry for Chen Xiao, who was already 33 years old. At the end of his career, Chen Xiao unexpectedly encountered such a stinking head coach.

At the G4 post-game press conference, Cole was also made difficult and criticized by media reporters. However, both Chen Xiao and other Warriors players were defending Cole.

On April 28, the Warriors and Trail Blazers played again in G5 Tianwangshan. The controversial Warriors head coach Cole still did not change back to the team's original tactics. This made Popovich, who has been paying attention to this game, Qidu was surprised.

"A warrior won't commit suicide, right?"

To be honest, Popovich felt that after practicing twice, he should stop practicing and start taking it seriously.

Of course he knows that if he can win a game, his confidence in the players being trained will be a huge improvement. However, this is the NBA playoffs, and the teams and players who can enter the NBA playoffs cannot be underestimated. At this time , whether it is the former Bulls or his Spurs, they will return to their strongest style of play.

But for the Warriors, Cole still insists on using Jokic as the core.

When the half game ended and the Warriors at home trailed 11 points 52-63, Popovich was excited in front of the TV.

This season, the Spurs have four of the strongest opponents in the entire league.

One in the West, the Warriors.

The three in the East are the Cavaliers, Bucks and Bobcats.

Ignore the Eastern Conference for now. After the three teams go dog-eat-dog, only one team will appear in front of the Spurs.

But the West, the Warriors, are the opponents that will inevitably appear in front of them.

Therefore, the Warriors are undoubtedly the Spurs' biggest opponent this season.

But from now on, it seems that the Warriors may really be trying to kill themselves.

What makes Popovich even more excited is that, trailing by 11 points at halftime, the Warriors should change their style of play.

But in the third quarter, they still insisted on Jokic as the core. After three quarters, the Warriors lost 27 to 36, once again losing by 9 points in a single quarter.

In this quarter, Jokic's organizational effect was very good, but Lillard on the opposite side scored a superb 21 points in this quarter, playing the best single quarter performance in this playoffs.

After three quarters, the Warriors were already 20 points behind. At this time, it seemed that even God was on the side of the Trail Blazers, trying to force the desperate Warriors to a dead end.

So many Warriors fans at the scene booed loudly when the camera was focused on Cole.

There is no way, this is the playoffs, the most critical G5, you fucking play like this.

This game is really going to be lost, Cole should commit suicide and apologize!

To be honest, in the face of such pressure, ordinary head coaches would be unable to sit still for a long time, but Cole actually did.

Although Cole was under a lot of pressure at this time, he still persisted in the fourth quarter and kept Jokic on the court from the beginning.

This season, Jokic averaged 21 minutes per game in the regular season. Cole allowed him to adapt to the rhythm of the NBA while also protecting his physical fitness. It can be said that now that Jokic has reached the playoffs, his physical strength is at his fullest and his condition is also the best. The best of times.

Normally when encountering such a situation, Chen Xiao would definitely be the one leading the charge in the fourth quarter and would have to play the entire fourth quarter.

This time, Cole chose Jokic, which still gave Jokic great trust.

This made Jokic very moved and calmed down at the same time. It has to be said that the overall strength of the Warriors is still higher than that of the Trail Blazers.

Even though except for Jokic, the Warriors' current four players on the court, Ibaka, Ding Yanyuhang, Livingston, and Dragic are full-rotation players, the team's firepower actually suppressed the Blazers. The whole main force of the soldiers.

The Trail Blazers led by 20 points before the start of the fourth quarter. Obviously, the Trail Blazers had to finish this game in one battle.

After playing this game, there is plenty of time to rest, but this game, no matter how hard and tiring it is, must be won.

You can't say that the Blazers' decision is bad, because many people will make such a choice.

You can also choose to rotate on the bench at this time and let the main team rest.

However, the Blazers' rotation lineup is not enough and they are not confident enough. In this case, they will naturally prefer to continue playing with the main force.

And that gives the Warriors a chance.

After Jokic and his rotation lineup were able to suppress the Blazers, who played the entire second half.

With Chen Xiao and the main force back, the pair of pioneers will be chopping up melons and vegetables.

With a score difference of 20 points, they were quickly caught up.

There were 10 seconds left in the regular time. At this time, the score between the two sides was 115 to 118. After Cole arranged the winning strategy, Chen Xiao was tightly guarded by the Trail Blazers players and was not allowed to catch the ball.

Clay decisively stepped out to catch the ball and assumed the responsibility for the final attack.

Shooting and hitting the iron!

But because the Trail Blazers players were attacking Chen Xiao, the Warriors had a huge rebounding advantage, especially Jokic, the tallest big man on the court.

The Trail Blazers have a three-point lead. They must defend three points and allow two points. The last one they play can be saved.

In the end, the iron ball thrown by Klay was grabbed by Jokic and grabbed the offensive rebound.

Facing the Blazers defense that was frantically pulling back to protect the rebound, Jokic, who grabbed the offensive rebound, very calmly and confidently threw the basketball in his hand behind his head, and quickly passed it without even looking.

He knew very well that as long as he hesitated for a moment, the Blazers players who had taken back to protect the rebounds would rush towards Chen Xiao again.

He didn't have any chance to hesitate.

Moreover, he does not know Chen Xiao's specific location now.

He could only know where Chen Xiao was roughly based on his feeling.

Such a pass is extremely difficult!

However, Chen Xiao received it from outside the three-point line!

In this ball, it was difficult for Jokic to pass the ball, and it was also difficult for Chen Xiao to catch the ball.

However, thanks to his long hands, this shows the importance of the ultimate pot talent.

Facing Batum's hard defense, Chen Xiao made a decisive move.

For Chen Xiao, this kind of defense is the final struggle, and it has almost no interference to him!

With a snap, a three-pointer was hit!

118 to 118!

Absolutely tied, overtime!

The moment when Wang Xiao beat the buzzer and tied the game.

In fact, it's not the Blazers players who regret it the most.

The Blazers players were blinded at this time.

The 20-point lead was finally reversed.

The real regret is Popovich in front of the TV.

Such a good opportunity, the Trail Blazers didn't seize it!

Popovich was so angry that he wanted to smash the TV.

The 20-point advantage in regular time was eventually overtaken. Although the Blazers did not collapse in overtime, most of the Blazers' main players had played the entire second half, and almost all of them were exhausted in overtime.

In the end, in this extremely tough game, the Warriors defeated the Trail Blazers 133-129.

In this game, Chen Xiao made 15 of 34 shots, 8 of 22 three-pointers, and 7 of 8 free throws. He scored a game-high 45 points, in addition to 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

Jokic, who served as the core of the team's tactics in this game, made 8 of 16, 1 of 2 three-pointers, and 3 of 3 free throws. He scored 20 points, 17 rebounds, and 9 assists in the game, a quasi-triple double.

In addition to Chen Xiao and Jokic, the Warriors also had 5 players score in double figures, and 7 players in the team scored in double figures.

On the other side, for the Trail Blazers, Lillard had 29 points, Darius Miles had 26 points, Batum had 20 points, and there were 6 players in the team who scored in double figures.

In this game, both teams played very well offensively.

If we just look at efficiency, Chen Xiao in this game is actually a bit tough and his touch is not very good.

According to Chen Xiao's touch in this game, if Chen Xiao is allowed to swing freely, facing the Trail Blazers who are in excellent condition in this game, the Warriors may not really be able to win.

However, the Warriors' tactics in this game were a pass-cut-run tactic with Jokic as the core. Every time Chen Xiao made a shot, he actually faced not that big of a defense.

As for the absolutely tied ball at the end of the fourth quarter, Jokic's pass was spot on.

Although Jokic does not provide direct assists every time, his many ball transfers and indirect maneuvers can indeed reduce the defensive pressure on Chen Xiao.

For the Warriors, it is easy to beat the Trail Blazers, and Cole can even find 100 ways.

However, the Warriors are not a team whose sole purpose is to beat the Trail Blazers.

The Warriors' goal is a championship.

To win the championship, the Warriors need to defeat the Spurs, the Cavaliers or the Bucks and Bobcats.

The Spurs have Leonard, the Cavaliers have James and Danny Green, the Bucks have Iguodala and Giannis, and the Bobcats have Jimmy Butler and other players.

These teams defend very well on the wings and forwards.

If the Warriors rely too much on Chen Xiao, it may be useful most of the time, but a small part of the time also needs to be considered.

At the very least, both Cole and Chen Xiao feel that he alone can kill the Trail Blazers, but it is impossible to kill teams like the Spurs, Cavaliers, Bucks, and Bobcats.

Therefore, even if the Warriors have Chen Xiao, Chen Xiao cannot fight alone while the other four watch.

Even the Cavaliers understand this. James handed over the ball to Conley and concentrated on finishing.

How could a warrior not understand this truth?

Jokic is Conley next to Chen Xiao.

There is no need for Chen Xiao to drive his teammates. Chen Xiao concentrates on finishing. In this game, Chen Xiao took 34 shots, but no one thought that the rest of the Warriors relied entirely on Chen Xiao.

No one felt that Chen Xiao's high shots hindered the performance of other Warriors.

Because the ball rights are all distributed by Jokic. Whoever has good opportunities and more opportunities will take more shots. This is fair.

Of course, this is a normal time. If the game really reaches an unconventional time, it will definitely depend on Chen Xiao's personal ability.

On April 30, in G6 between the Warriors and Trail Blazers, in this game, the Warriors still used Jokic as the core of their tactics, and others attacked around Jokic.

In this game, the Warriors played very strongly on the road. After the first half, they led 67 to 54 by 13 points. In the first half, the Warriors shot 67% of their three-pointers. The team's assists The number reached an astonishing 20. Of the 10 players on the team who played in the first half, 9 of them had assists. This is terrifying.

Almost everyone has an offense and everyone is involved in the offense. Because of this level of game participation, the Warriors players are in excellent condition.

In the end, the Warriors, playing away from home, defeated the Trail Blazers 129-108.

In this game, the Warriors sent out 40 assists in the entire game, which is also a record in the Warriors' team history.

In this game, it can be said that Cole saw the basketball he wanted to see most, the basketball in his dream where everyone participates in the offense. This is it.

In this game, Jokic played a perfect game.

But in this game, Jokic, as the player with the most assists for the Warriors, only had 8 attacks.

However, Jokic's role on the court is often not reflected in assist data.

In this battle, Chen Xiao made 14 of 22, 7 of 10 three-pointers, and 6 of 6 free throws. He scored a game-high 41 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists.

Clay made 10 of 19 shots and scored 25 points.

Bill made 9 of 14 shots and scored 20 points.

The thick eyebrows shot 6 of 13 and scored 15 points.

Jokic himself was 3 of 5, with 8 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. His statistics were actually not that outstanding.

"This series, the Warriors, have grown again!"

"These young people..."

Popovich looked solemn, the Warriors, this team is still making continuous progress. There is no doubt that the current Warriors are even more difficult to deal with.

The first round of the playoffs is over, and eight teams have advanced.

Over in the East, the top three in the East, the Cavaliers, Bucks, and Bobcats, successfully advanced. In the training match between the Bulls and the Celtics, the Bulls led by Wade finally defeated the Celtics 4-3 and finished fifth. Fourth, advanced to the next round.

In the Western Conference, there was also an upset. In addition to the top three Spurs, Warriors and Clippers, the other team that advanced was the Lakers, who defeated the fourth Jazz.

In this training game, Koda averaged 32 points per game with a 53% shooting rate, which was extremely efficient.

Under the leadership of such an efficient Kobe, the Lakers finally defeated the Jazz 4-2.

By the way, because Kobe is so efficient and attracts a lot of defensive attention, the Gasol brothers averaged 40 points per game combined in this training game. The three leading players of the Lakers performed almost perfectly in this training game.

It can only be said that facing such a Lakers team with high morale, the Jazz did not lose unfairly.

After the first round of the playoffs, NBA regular season awards were also awarded.

For the Rookie of the Year, Jokic defeated Wiggins and won the Rookie of the Year. In addition, Jokic also won the Sixth Man of the Year this year. This season, Jokic averaged 21 minutes per game. He averaged 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1 steal and 1 block per game, with a shooting percentage of 53% and a PER of over 23.

Regardless of record, basic data or advanced data, as a rookie who averages only 21 minutes per game, Jokic's performance is perfect.

This year's Defensive Player of the Year went to Oden of the Cavaliers.

Oden, Chen Xiao, James, Luo Ge and Xiao Pao were selected to the All-Defensive First Team.

The most improved player is CJ McCollum of the Trail Blazers.

Finally, and the most important regular season MVP award, the Cavaliers' leading player LeBron James defeated Chen Xiao and Ron Howard to win this award. This was also the second time in his career that James won the regular season MVP.

As the youngest regular season MVP in NBA history, he was less than 20 years old when he last won the award, and now, he is over 30 years old.

11 years have passed. The last time he was tied with Chen Xiao and Wade, but this time, he stood on the podium alone.

This is very interesting. Chen Xiao, Wade and James, these three once tied for MVP, have all proven themselves now. They have all won the second individual MVP in their careers, and they have all proven themselves.

Needless to say, Chen Xiao, Wade and James have two MVPs in their careers.

By the way, in this regular season MVP voting, the vote rates of the three are quite close.

James, who ranked first, got 35.44% of the votes, while Chen Xiao and Luo Ge got 27.69% and 26.74% respectively.

As many experts said, Xiao Zhan won this season in the East. The opponents are stronger, there are more opportunities for strong dialogue, and the performance is also good.

Of course, Xiao Zhan's data is also slightly better.

Therefore, in terms of winning awards, although all three of them can win the award, Xiao Zhan does have a better chance.

In addition, Oden, Xiao Zhan, Chen Xiao, Luo Ge, and Rose were selected for the first team.

It is worth mentioning that this is also the 12th consecutive season that Chen Xiao has achieved one team and one defense, the 13th time in his career and the 12th time in one team.

Likewise, this is also the tenth time in Luo's career that he has been in double figures.

With all players in double figures on defense, Chen Xiao and Luo Ge are the only two players in NBA history.

This record is still legendary.