The rest is just noise

In April, the battle for the top spot between the Knicks and Trail Blazers heated up.

After the All-Star Weekend, although the Knicks lost more often, at the same time, the Trail Blazers also lost the advantage they had at the beginning of the season when they seemed to beat everyone except the Knicks.

Xavier McDaniel has been suspended multiple times due to frequent court violence and cannot guarantee attendance.

Clifford Robinson was injured because he could not withstand Riley's devilish training and hung up his exemption card.

These two people, one belongs to the Trail Blazers and the other is the best sixth man of the Trail Blazers. They are both important and cannot be missed. Now they cannot play due to their own reasons, causing the team to adjust its state to its best posture when it should be.

As they advanced to the final stage of the playoffs, their performance and record declined simultaneously.

Star centers from each team have given the Blazers their best performances of the season one after another.

The most brutal of them all was Ralph Sampson.

Due to injuries and age, Bird's attendance rate and performance have dropped significantly. Although he still averages 22 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists per game, it is completely different from his peak period.

This is like Nicolas Cage from 2007 onwards.

Before 2007, Cage was one of the best actors of his generation. After 2007, he seemed to be left with only bad movies and only occasionally brilliant performances.

The Celtics' situation is even more serious.

Thomas is gone, Bird is old, Billy Owens was the No. 1 C** in the 1990s, Doug Smith is not worth mentioning, and only Sampson can serve as the core of offense and defense in the entire team, so since the 1990s,

Sampson gained possession of the ball that he could not have imagined in the 1980s.

Now it seems that last season was really the last glory of this Celtics. This season, their winning rate is only 50%, and they are currently ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference.

Sampson's personal statistics are even more luxurious than last season. He currently leads all statistical lists with 35 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 4.1 blocks per game.

In this case, brushing up on data seems to be Sampson’s motivation to persevere.

For the Trail Blazers, the stat he decided to brush up on was not scoring.

This season, he has scored 50+ points in 13 games in a single game. There is really nothing new about scoring points.

So he focused on rebounding, because the Trail Blazers did not have a pure center. Although Larry Nance, the guest center, has great athletic ability, he is still essentially a power forward in his playing style and habits. Once he encounters him,

A true center will suffer big losses.

Sampson first fouled Nance 4 times in the first half, and then the Blazers, who had tight interior rotations, frequently asked some wing players to cover the interior.

This is also a sexy trick that Riley learned from Louis.

As a result, he didn't fully learn it.

If Louis is allowed to come, he will let those water-cooler centers who usually don't even have a chance to play to support Sampson, and he will not torture his wings.

What's more, the wing players are still the winning point for the Blazers. How can they still want to win if their mentality is blown up?

Riley didn't understand this.

The Trail Blazers tried their best to win this game, but in the end they achieved an unprecedented 36 points, 41 rebounds and 7 blocks in a single game since Sampson.

41 rebounds in a single game, this number means a lot.

In the future, there may still be post players who have one of the best nights of their careers and grab 30 rebounds in a single game, but 40 rebounds in a single game is basically impossible.

The modern NBA requires a certain amount of athletic ability in each position, so even if the center position is conducive to rebounding, it will be difficult to catch more than 20 rebounds in a single game.

Besides, this is 40.

Sampson's rebounding ability has actually deteriorated this season because he spent more time on offense. When he met a rare center-less team like the Trail Blazers, he played a national-level game that attracted major media coverage.

show.

Sampson is frequently compared to Russell and Chamberlain.

The media, which favors both the present and the past, believe that Sampson is taller than Russell and has offensive capabilities that are several dimensions ahead; taller than Chamberlain, he is also more of a leader than his opponent and is never afraid to take the ball at critical moments.

There are also five championships.

At this stage of his career, Sampson is already regarded by many as the number one center in history.

The only problem is that his big honors are a little short.

There are only two MVPs and only one FMVP.

Sampson's attack on the Trail Blazers made other teams' centers look alike.

Starting from Sampson, all centers who play against the Trail Blazers want to refresh their career rebound numbers.

David Robinson did it. When he faced the Trail Blazers for the last time in the regular season, he grabbed 26 rebounds. The Lakers also defeated the Trail Blazers by 2 points.

Olajuwon did it.

He scored 41 points, 18 rebounds, 6 assists and 10 blocks in an overtime loss to the Trail Blazers.

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Although it did not break the record, and the statistics were not as shocking as Sampson's, a triple-double including blocks was still enough to speak for itself. All the centers who could name it were looking at the calendar and preparing for the game against the Trail Blazers.

Prepare.

Even some non-center players can't stand loneliness.

Heat's Hank Gathers scored 22 points and 16 rebounds against Trail Blazers.

Danny Manning of the Pacers scored the highest points and rebounds of the season when the team was slaughtered by the Trail Blazers.

The only one who lost face was Ewing.

Seeing Olajuwon's triple-double in blocks and Robinson's 26 rebounds in a single game, Ewing made a bold statement when the Knicks faced the Trail Blazers for the second time this season: "I want to break the career single-game rebound record."

, and had a triple-double that included blocks."

"Is this the confidence of being a Pepsi-Cola spokesperson?" Louis asked jokingly in the locker room.

However, Ewing made a mistake.

If he wants to grab so many rebounds, he should at least suggest that Louis let Rodman rest. You know that Rodman can average 15.4 rebounds per game this season. He is currently the person who averages the most rebounds per game. There is a high probability that he will

Become this year's rebounding champion.

You play with the rebounding leader and still want to catch record-breaking rebounds. Isn't this a fantasy?

As a result, Ewing didn't know whether he didn't expect this step or simply didn't think Rodman would be a threat to his record. Apart from bragging, he didn't make any preparations before the game that could allow him to complete his plan.

Ewing's single-game rebound record is 28, so to break the record "only" requires 29 rebounds.

However, since Rodman started changing his hair color every game and treating rebounds as his own exclusive statistic, he has never grabbed 20 rebounds in a single game, and now the goal he has set for himself is,

Caught 29 rebounds in a single game to break record...

For someone like this who can't even make a plan, Louis can only watch him make a fool of himself.

In order to make Ewing speechless, Louis let him play 44 minutes. If he hadn't fouled out in the fourth quarter, he could have played until the end of the game.

Ewing, who played 44 minutes, got pretty good data. His destructive power in the paint was amazing, and the Blazers really had nothing to do with him.

But the data of 39 points, 14 rebounds and 6 blocks in a single game are far from the triple-double that Ewing claimed before the game to break the rebounding record.

Rodman's statistics were absolutely dazzling for Ewing. He grabbed 23 rebounds in 36 minutes, including 10 offensive rebounds.

Ewing, who was deeply embarrassed, told reporters seriously: "If Dennis hadn't been in the way on the court, I would have broken the record long ago."

The reporter was stunned.

He wasn't sure if Ewing was serious and publicly expressed dissatisfaction with his teammates because Rodman didn't give him the rebound?

"I'm kidding you! In fact, I don't care about records or triple-doubles at all. Those words are just for hype. If you take it too seriously, I will have a headache. This is just a gimmick. Do you understand? The result is not

The important thing is to enjoy the process.”

Due to the shortage of inside lines, the Blazers were defeated many times.

At the same time, Barkley also relapsed. He has never been a person who lives his duties.

After being blown away by the Knicks in Madison Square Garden, New York fans carried forward the tradition of winning with face and output.

At the game, a fan called Barkley a stupid pig.

Buckley fought back in his own way. He spat at the other party, but unfortunately the saliva fell on a girl. Although Buckley regained his composure on the spot, he rationally apologized to the other party, and later talked to the girl and her

The family members became friends, but at the scene of the incident, the scene was too shocking.

A superstar who is about to represent the Dream Team spits on an 8-year-old girl in front of the camera? Are you sure such a person can represent the Dream Team?

Then, Barkley ran to the Knicks locker room and said to Louis: "Coach, I don't want to be out again this time. I really want to be a member of the Dream Team."

Louis felt he could trust Barkley.

Then that night, Barkley clashed with fans again in a New York nightclub.

He threw a fan out of the nightclub. When asked by the police if he regretted it, he said the famous saying: "I regret it. I really regret that I was on the first floor."

Earlier, on the night when Sampson had 41 rebounds in a single game, Barkley once again wandered into the away nightclub and was laughed at by an old Irish woman of low quality.

Buckley turned around and said, "Shut up, old boy."

Barkley's various behaviors that hurt the image of the league made his attendance rate unstable in the final stages.

Jordan put away his edge and deliberately chose to use passing to drive the team. However, judging from the results, if they encounter the kind of player who can tear the inside apart, passing alone will not solve the problem.

The battle between the Knicks and the Trail Blazers for first place came to an end before the end.

The Knicks defeated the Heat with a record of 70 wins and 11 losses, while the Trail Blazers were beaten again, with a record of 68 wins and 13 losses.

So the battle between first and second place ended early. Regardless of whether the Blazers won the remaining games or not, the Knicks would enter the playoffs with the league's best record.