I’m Really Playing Basketball

In the Western Conference semifinals, the Warriors defeated the Spurs in a tiebreaker to advance to the finals.

One day later, under the leadership of James and Oden, the Cavaliers, under the unfavorable situation of falling behind 1 to 3 at the beginning of the series, pulled back two games in a row and tenaciously tied the score to 3 to 3. Two days later, on June 4, the two teams will also have a tiebreaker.

Yes, this year's NBA, Eastern and Western conference finals will all be decided in tiebreakers.

I have to say that this year's NBA conference finals are really intense.

Needless to say, the Warriors and Spurs, it is extremely difficult for the Warriors to win. Even if they advance, many people say that if Klay hadn't been so good in G6 and G7, it would have been difficult for the Warriors to defeat the incredible Spurs with Chen Xiao.

On the Eastern side, the Bucks and Cavaliers are really competing in their playing styles.

The whole world knows that the Bucks are the five strongest small teams in the league. This team does not have a big center, and the inside is not traditional at all.

The Bucks' most traditional center, even Nene...

As for the Cavaliers, the inside combination of Oden and James has been the strongest inside combination in the entire league in the past few seasons, and it is also one of the most traditional inside combinations.

It can be said that the styles of the two teams are really different.

Before the start of this series, many experts said that whoever can play his own style in the game will win the final victory.

In the end, in the first four games, it was obvious that the Bucks played their own style.

The Bucks' quick offensive transition and speed made the Cavaliers, a traditional team with a big center, very uncomfortable.

But soon, Cavaliers head coach Rick Carlisle found a way to deal with it all.

After the 1-3 score put the Cavaliers in dire straits, Carlisle asked the Cavaliers players to use stronger confrontation on the court to slightly slow down the Bucks' transition speed.

Don't be afraid of fouls, don't be afraid of being sent off, use your hands, legs, as long as you can fight, then fight, it doesn't matter if you pull.

Just slow down the Bucks' transition speed a little and Oden can keep up!

As long as Oden keeps up with the Bucks' rhythm, the Cavaliers, who have the inside advantage, will have an advantage.

I have to say that Carlisle was really accurate in seeing the problem.

Although the Cavaliers are a traditional team, this team is really not slow.

The five starting players, Oden, James, Danny Green, Matthews, Conley, except for Oden, the big center, everyone else is very fast.

In fact, even though power forward James has been gaining weight in the past few seasons, he is still very fast.

The Cavaliers can actually keep up with the Bucks' offensive and defensive rhythm.

As long as Oden is a little faster or the Bucks are a little slower.

When the traditional Cavaliers can keep up with the offensive and defensive rhythm of the five-small Bucks, how do you want the Bucks to play?

Therefore, the key to this training match is rhythm.

Making Oden faster is difficult. Oden has also gained weight in the past two seasons to enhance his offensive deterrence.

Maybe Oden in previous years could keep up with the pace of the current Bucks, but now, it's absolutely impossible.

Then the only way is to slow down the Bucks.

And can conventional methods slow down the Bucks?

Of course it is difficult. If others want to go fast, how can you make them slow down?

Do you think they are fools?

If you say slow, they will be slow?

But obviously, the Bucks are not fools.

Ultimately, though, Carlisle found a way to slow the Bucks down.

That is to use fouls to interrupt the Bucks' offensive rhythm.

Carlisle did not encourage Cavaliers players to commit malicious fouls. He simply engaged in confrontation, increased intensity, fouls, and trash talk to make the Bucks players on the court less smooth when attacking.

This move was very effective for the Bucks.

Conley chased Curry and threw him, while James took the initiative to find Durant and talk trash.

This made the first two games between the Bucks and Cavaliers more tense.

The Cavaliers used this method to disrupt the Bucks' offensive rhythm.

Especially the offensive rhythm of Curry, the core of the Bucks' tactics.

Although Curry's figure has grown through weight gain, he is still relatively thin.

More importantly, the whole world knows that Conley is very fast, jumps very high, and has good physical fitness. It is really difficult for Curry to get rid of Conley's chasing and throwing defense.

In short, no matter what, the Bucks' offensive rhythm was interrupted by Rick Carlisle's move.

When the Bucks lost their rhythm, it was obvious that the rhythm of the game had entered the Cavaliers' side.

As a traditional team with a traditional inside combination, the Cavaliers have a huge advantage.

G5 beat the Bucks by 15 points, and G6 won by 14 points. Both games were big wins.

Therefore, before the tiebreaker, the Cavaliers' probability of entering the finals suddenly increased.

You know, after the Cavaliers finished the first four games and fell behind 1-3, their probability of advancing to the finals was only 3%, and they were almost eliminated.

Now, before the tiebreaker, the Cavaliers' probability of advancement is 65%, which is a 20-fold increase in probability!

On June 4, the Cavaliers and Bucks had a tiebreaker. In this game, the two teams almost raised their defense and intensity to the extreme.

On the Cavaliers side, Conley is not the only one who hugs and throws Curry, the core of the Bucks' tactics. As long as Curry is on the court, as long as there is any Cavaliers player around Curry, the Cavaliers players must hug and throw Curry when they meet him. Give Curry strength.

During the game, James hugged Curry more than once. Some fouls were called, and some were not.

In fact, most of them did not call fouls. Obviously, in the playoffs, where referees encourage confrontation, such a defensive method is very detrimental to offensive players.

The same goes for Curry, and the same goes for Durant.

Of course, on the other side, the Bucks did not sit still. In this tiebreaker, Ray Allen decisively asked the Bucks to shrink.

The team's starting lineup has also become Dream Green, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Durant, Iguodala and Curry.

Except for Curry, the other four Bucks players are all tall and fast players who are over 2 meters tall and can play forward. These four Bucks forwards can not only shrink, but also save extremely quickly!

The shrinking effect of such four big forward players must be very good. Although Oden and James have strengthened their shooting, relatively speaking, their shooting is definitely not as good as Yao Ming and Nowitzki. Such a truly accurate insider.

Under such high-intensity contraction, it is actually difficult to guarantee the efficiency of the two people.

Therefore, in this game, the shooting percentages of the two teams were really low.

Throughout the game, the Cavaliers shot only 40% from the field and only 24% from three-point range.

The Warriors are even worse, shooting only 39%. Of course, the Bucks are best at three-pointers. They hit 15 in this game. This is their advantage. Of course, the shooting rate is not that high, such as Curry. The shooting percentage is 4 of 14 from three-point range...

But there was no way. Facing the Cavaliers, who had an absolute advantage inside, the Bucks could only throw crazy three-pointers from the outside. In this game, the Bucks only took a total of 82 shots, including 41 three-pointers.

Let's put it this way, if the Bucks didn't have Durant, a mid-range player, Ray Allen would have wanted to shoot three-pointers every time he attacked.

And this is where Ray Allen, a rookie head coach, is immature and impatient.

The offensive efficiency of both teams was very low in this game, and Ray Allen was too eager to succeed.

Looking at Carlisle on the opposite side, he clearly knows that the Bucks are shrinking, but they still let Oden and James try to play inside and try not to shoot.

Although the four contracted Bucks players are tall and good at defense, Green, Antetokounmpo, Durant and Iguodala are not as big as James and Oden.

When hitting inside one-on-one, you have an advantage. Even if you miss, you can still draw a foul.

The outcome of this game is reflected in free throws.

The Bucks, eager for success and blindly throwing three-pointers, got 10 free throws in this game.

As for the Cavaliers, they had 28 free throws in this game!

The Cavaliers made 24 of 28 free throws in this game, which was quite accurate, and they missed both James and Oden, both of whom were 10 of 12.

In such a low-tempo and high-confrontation defensive battle, free throws are really the best way to increase points.

The final score of this game was 95 to 90, and the Cavaliers won by five points.

In this game, what the Bucks lost in the end was the missing 14 free throws!

Both teams hit 32 goals in this game. The Bucks made 9 more three-pointers, which means they had 9 more shooting points, but they had 14 fewer free throws, which was just right, and they lost by 5 points.

In the end, the game was lost by 5 points.

From the perspective of hindsight, the Bucks can indeed go as far as they want.

but……

The Bucks' shooting percentage in this game was less than 39%, but their three-point shooting percentage was close to 37%. In this game, the Bucks' three-point shooting percentage was actually pretty good.

Attack the basket more and challenge Oden and James. Can you really score more points than three-pointers?

It can only be said that the Cavaliers, who won 71 games in the regular season, have a team style that is more suitable for this meat grinder-like rhythm of the game, and is also more suitable for the rhythm of the playoffs.

In short, after the Cavaliers defeated the Bucks 4-3 in a huge comeback, the Cavaliers and Warriors, the two teams ranked third and second in the regular season, finally met in the finals.

This is the second time in team history that the Cavaliers have reached the NBA Finals. The last time they reached the finals was 10 years ago. Chen Xiao and James led the Cavaliers to the finals, sweeping the Suns led by O'Neal to win the championship. To the championship.

Ten years later, the tenth year after losing Chen Xiao, the tenth year after King lost God's protection, King finally led the Cavaliers to the finals once again.

This time, the Cavaliers are no longer God's team, but King's team, a team that truly only belongs to King!

What’s even more exciting is that the opponent of King and the Cavaliers in the finals is God!

The God who once protected them and whom they admired and respected the most!

Therefore, this year's finals between the Cavaliers and Warriors is indeed too topical.

James and Chen Xiao, the former god-king duo, met for the first time in the finals. Such a topic was very topical whether in the United States or China.

After all, the "God-Kings" who wore the cloak of "Justice" to preside over justice in the NBA were extremely popular both in the United States and China.

Let's put it this way, even though the God King group has been broken up for ten years, in China, every time CCTV does a survey, the strongest group in the NBA, or the most popular group, surpassing super groups such as OK and YD, is Chen. The 'God King' combination of Xiao and James.

All I can say is that I miss them so much. These two players who were young players ten years ago are really touching.

For example, the greatest achievement of this combination was the F7 Super Nets led by O'Neal in the Black Eight, which shattered the strongest team in the history of the NBA and restored a bright future to the NBA. Since then, there has never been another superstar like O'Neal. Gather your friends to form a super team.

At the same time, it also protected the Nets for New Jersey fans, preventing Seattle's tragedy from happening in New Jersey.

Back then, these two middle school boys, the middle school students, they were the real middle school students. Justice, that was the real justice!

At the same time, being powerful is really powerful!

Second grade, justice, and strength. These are the necessary elements to make people like it. One of them is indispensable. Otherwise, why would Ming Gong Manga be so popular?

Because, when these elements are put together, it is a passionate and passionate thing!

Now, the God King, who once fought side by side, defended justice for basketball and the NBA, and brought the most passionate memories to countless people, this time, has changed from a teammate to an opponent in the finals.

In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed.

In the blink of an eye, the boy who was once in the second grade of middle school has now become an old man in his 30s.

And how many NBA fans’ youthful years does this evoke?

To be honest, NBA president David Stern himself never thought that the Finals showdown between the Cavaliers and Warriors would cause such a big sensation and impact.

Although he knew that a direct confrontation between Chen Xiao and James, two of the most popular superstars in the NBA, would bring a lot of attention.

But it was still beyond his imagination to be this big.

Let's put it this way, at this time, not only the United States, but also China, and even the world that can be touched by the NBA, have launched an event called "I Owe GK a Ticket".

That means that for this pair that once filled our youth, we should all go and watch their duel.

This scares David Stern and the NBA.

NBA games are not movies.

Movie tickets can be repaid like this.

But NBA game tickets are not something you can just replenish if you want.

There are only 20,000 tickets for one game. Even if there are seven games in the finals, there are only 140,000 to 50,000 tickets.

Then, in this atmosphere of nostalgic youth, the tickets for the Cavaliers and Warriors finals went to heaven...

So much so that even Chen Xiao himself was shocked.

"I didn't expect that now, I am still someone else's youth..."

In addition to speed, burst, bounce and other attributes that are now declining every year.

Except that little Chen is growing up day by day.

Now, this scene also lets Chen Xiao know that he is indeed getting older.

Or maybe he's old.