The rest is just noise

June 8, 1984, the day of Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

The Celtics are only one win away from winning the championship. If nothing unexpected happens, tonight will be their championship night.

People in New England were eagerly awaiting it, including Louis himself, who was preparing for it.

That night, he was choosing clothes in Lorraine's apartment.

He spent about hundreds of thousands of dollars to customize more than a dozen sets of clothes. Every time he came out of the garden, he suspected that his clothes were already smelly.

But considering the value of the clothes themselves, he did not throw them away.

"You will definitely win today, right?" Lorraine asked with a smile, "Are you ready for your speech after winning the championship?"

"When you say this, I really have no preparation. I'll just improvise." Louis said casually, "Boston is not Cleveland. Champions in professional sports are very common."

Lorraine has no deeper feelings about the meaning of the championship to the city. She is not an American. She only watches basketball games because Louis likes it.

Louis chose his clothes and tie for tonight. After putting them on, he showed Lorraine the front and asked her to give a fair evaluation.

"You are definitely the most handsome basketball coach in history." Lorraine's evaluation was so "pertinent" that Louis was so excited.

In the evening, Louis took the bus to the Boston Garden with the Celtics players.

On the bus, the players hardly spoke and maintained a solemn silence.

Entering from the outside of the garden, the players walked through a different channel from the audience. They would not be entangled by the fans and went straight to the locker room to put down their luggage.

In the home locker room, which was small, airtight, stuffy and couldn't find any advantages, Louis glanced at everyone and said: "I very much hope that this is our last game of the season."

"I have heard too many people say that we are the strongest team in history, and I also hope that we are. In the regular season, we proved ourselves. 72 wins is the best record in history. We can say that we are the best team in history during the regular season.

Team."

"Now, we have to prove something in the playoffs." Louis' voice was full of confidence. "Not only do we want to win the championship, but we also need to win the championship cleanly. It is enough for the Lakers to win one game. We can only lose in the finals.

One game, if we don’t win tonight, we won’t be considered the best team in history.”

Louis said this not only to boost the morale of the team members, but he also really thought so in his heart.

This is why he doesn't regard the 1996 Bulls as the best team in history.

Even if he is a fan of Jordan, he does not think that team is the best in history. The secret of the 72-win regular season record is the same as the 2016 Warriors, which is in a weakly competitive league. The Warriors are because the previous generation has

Retired, the new generation has not yet become strong; the Bulls' record bonus lies in the over-expansion of the league in those years, adding some bad teams to improve their results. Many people think that the more teams there are, the more competitive they will be. This is wrong⑴

.

The more teams there are, the more dispersed the talent will be. The schedule remains unchanged and the average talent of each team in the league will go down. This will seriously weaken the competitiveness.

Even so, before the Warriors, the Bulls were still the greatest regular season team in history. They only lost one playoff game before the Finals, and faced the SuperSonics in the Finals in three straight games.

The championship is locked in. If they sweep the Sonics, of course, that team will be the best in history and there will be no dispute.

But they lost two games in a row and won the sixth game. Except for Jordan winning the championship on Father's Day to pay tribute to his late father, there were no other gimmicks, which seriously dampened the senses.

Therefore, Louis asked his players to win the championship in the fifth game.

"You have gone through a tough game to get to where you are today. You are only one victory away from proving that you are the best in history. I think I don't need to say more about the rest. In these last 48 minutes, I hope to see you show your best performance."

The best part is to let all the fans who come to the scene and stay in front of the TV to enjoy a perfect game!"

After Louis finished speaking, the players in the locker room cheered each other up.

They entered the arena and warmed up excitedly.

The Lakers on the opposite side were lifeless. Although they recovered one game, there was not only a precedent for being behind 0-3 and not being able to reverse it, but also being behind 1-3, there was no precedent for being reversed in the finals.

Under normal circumstances, teams that are reversed 1-3 have encountered some unlucky things.

For example, internal strife, injuries, etc.

There are also very few cases like the 2016 Western Conference Finals, where the Warriors, who were stronger on paper, were led 3-1 by the Thunder, who had greater potential. Then, the Warriors woke up and used the state they should have put in the finals to deal with the Thunder in advance.

Use hard power to pull back three games, and then sacrifice yourself in the finals to achieve another record for the Cavaliers.

The Celtics' morale was high, everyone was healthy, and they were at home. The Lakers had no chance at all.

Before the game started, Louis came to midfield to shake hands with Riley.

"We had a good sleep last night, maybe a miracle will happen today." Riley said.

Hearing this, Louis said: "You should thank me. It was me who suggested that Reed stop doing those things."

Riley didn't expect that Louis would have a "begging for praise" face. If it was Louis' suggestion that made Auerbach stop recruiting off the court, then the entire Lakers team really owed him a favor.

"Thank you, Coach Lu, I hope you end up in a cocoon." Riley joked, "You never know the price of letting us rest well."

"Looks like I'll have a chance to find out tonight."

Louis pretended to forget that they beat the Lakers in Los Angeles, not to mention that that game sealed their title.

Don't the Lakers have a good rest at their home court?

Louis returned to the players. Needless to say, the Celtics and Lakers knew enough about each other.

The Celtics lack depth inside, and the Lakers don't have a shooter to stretch the floor.

If nothing else goes wrong, the Lakers will step up their attack on the inside. Louis' instructions to Sampson are to defend them if they can, and if they can't, it's okay to let them score.

The rest is just a matter of taking one step at a time in the competition.

The Lakers are relatively typical: Dennis Johnson, Magic, Wilkins, Rambis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The Celtics have always been the same five people.

Jump ball, Sampson won.

Thomas came up and started a pick-and-roll with him, one split and the other a breakthrough.

Rambis was about to commit a foul when Thomas passed the ball behind him.

Sampson caught the ball and shot from the high post, 2-0.

During the Lakers' offensive round, as soon as Magic took possession of the ball, the boos in the garden were like boiling water pouring down his face.

Magic is the same as before, dribbling with his right hand and looking forward. John Long has already gained experience in guarding him.

If the magician wanted to break through, he would definitely not be able to prevent it, so he basically chose to block the side and put it in the center to give the opponent a chance to break through in the middle. He wanted to dribble with his right hand to beat the opponent, but it was impossible.

"Ervin Johnson has been under a lot of bad reviews recently, and his performance in the Finals was not as good as fans originally expected."

"He is too young and doesn't know how to find opportunities in such intense confrontation."

As soon as Heinsohn and Dick Stockton finished speaking, Magic lobbed the ball to Rambis.

Rambis beat Sampson hard. He has a slight advantage in strength. If it were Sampson who had been in the team for two years, he would definitely be able to beat him.

Now, even if Sampson is at a disadvantage in strength, he won't be able to fly away after being hit.

On the contrary, Rambis is in trouble. If he can't successfully deflect the defense, it will be impossible to put the ball into the basket with his few moves.

All low-post attackers who are not clear-headed will step into a misunderstanding.

Louis called this misunderstanding "Wang Zhelin's misunderstanding".

This is a work experience from his previous life.

Wang Zhelin, as a once-in-a-lifetime Kiriner of the Fujian Men's Basketball Team in decades, has the best low post play and basket offense among all post-90s insiders in the Chinese basketball world. Due to natural flaws in his physical condition, his defense has always been criticized, but he

Against the low-intensity CBA, his style of play averaged 20+10 per game as easily as chopping melons and vegetables.

He has all the strengths and weaknesses of a great low post attacker.

His biggest shortcoming on the offensive end is that the moment he launches the attack, it is as if the passing key has been removed by himself, and only the offense is left. Even if it does not go smoothly, he has to fight to the end. Therefore, he is easily frustrated when he encounters a tough opponent.

What surprised Louis was that almost all insiders who were not good at coping had this problem.

Even for the great Yao Huang, his support ability is limited to before the attack starts. Once he starts playing with the ball and his opponents double-team him, his mistakes will increase rapidly.

Rambis chose to fight hard, but he couldn't push Sampson away and had to force the shot. The result waiting for him was cruel and merciless.

Sampson jumped up on the spot and used all his strength to fan his shot from the paint area to the frontcourt.

Johnson caught up with the ball, but as soon as he turned around, the referee's whistle blew, and the Lakers violated the offense.

There was a cry of "MVP" in the Garden, and Sampson has been labeled "Russell II" with his immortal performance in the fourth quarter of Game 3.

It is really unimaginable that a 2.24-meter center can play like a guard. The fans' skin color filter disappears on him. They don't care what race Sampson is. They only know that Sampson is the most special super player in history.

Superstar.

"In 'Ralph Field,' Kurt Rambis's offense just looked so naive!" Heinsohn laughed, "How could he expect to score with that offense?"

The second climax tonight will come soon.

Bird suddenly faced off against Magic, and the two had an extremely strong desire to compete.

Bird blocked the position with force and Thomas passed the ball.

Bird caught the ball, turned around, and hit a fadeaway jumper against Magic's defense.

Although this shot was unremarkable, it was enough to drive fans crazy.

Because that was Bird's 1V1 duel with Magic and he hit the ball on the opponent's head!

⑴I personally think that before the NBA expanded its talent pool from the United States to recruit young talents from all over the world like it does today, the player output in the United States could support 18-20 teams at most. However, in the mid-to-late 1990s, international players

Before it was taken seriously by the NBA, the league expanded to 29 teams. Therefore, the records of the championship teams in those years basically started with 60 wins.