The rest is just noise

Chapter 827: The eye-catching city dividend and Miami’s request for help

The Knicks defeated the Hornets 4-1 and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the sixth consecutive season.

The next day, the league announced the winners of major regular season awards.

First team: Jordan, Wilson, Drexler, Malone, Sampson.

Second team: Stockton, Mullin, Pippen, Barkley, Ewing.

Third team: Isiah Thomas, Kevin Johnson, Hank Gathers, Danny Manning, Brad Doherty.

The ten players on the first and second teams, except for Stockton, Drexler and Pippen, are all members of the Dream Team.

And Pippen is a quasi-dream team member.

In addition, there are many who have the potential to compete for the best team but were not selected due to various reasons, such as Mark Price, Petrovic, Reggie Lewis, Bird, Rodman and Kemp, etc.

The best defensive team was eliminated by the Knicks.

First defense: Jordan, Wilson, Rodman, Robinson, Ewing.

Second defense: Stockton, Buck Williams, Pippen, Kemp, Sampson.

The Defensive Player of the Year is Rodman.

The Sixth Man of the Year is Kemp.

Most Improved Player of the Year is Chris Jackson

To be honest, Louis blushed when he saw so many people in the team winning awards.

Not surprisingly, the large number of awards won by Knicks players has caused overwhelming controversy.

Many people questioned Stockton's selection to the second team and defense.

Fans outside New York feel that KJ, Dumars, Thomas, Price and even Mookie Blaylock are better than him.

There are even greater doubts about being selected for the second defense.

Dumars was squeezed out of the first defense by Jordan, which made Detroiters complain. Then they discovered that it was not just the first defense? There was no second defense!

In addition to the Pistons, areas such as Indiana and Brooklyn are dissatisfied with Stockton's inclusion in the second defense.

But Stockton was only the least dissatisfied of all.

Kemp's secondary defense and Jackson's Most Improved Player angered fans in many areas.

The angriest among them are the Indiana, who broke through the defense twice, and Washington, D.C., who rarely has a sense of presence.

Even if Stockton plays second defense, is Kemp's defense better than Danny Manning's?

Why does he enter the second defense?

The dissatisfaction of the Capitals is mainly caused by their joy at the amazing progress of the second-place pick Perrivis Ellison, whom they newly introduced this season.

Last year, the Clippers, who were bulging inside, sent No. 2 Ellison, who had been testing the waters for two years, to Washington.

Unexpectedly, Ellison, who is said to never be nervous, decided to realize his potential and play seriously after going to the capital.

As a result, he averaged 20+7 per game this season, which is a huge leap compared to the 8+6 he averaged in the two seasons with the Clippers.

In any previous season, he would definitely have been the winner of the Most Improved Award.

As a result, this year I met Chris Jackson, a recognized parallel importer who made a spectacular comeback in Apple City.

In this case, winning the Most Improved Player award is actually not an upset, but the opponent is also very competitive.

Just like Kobe Bryant's MVP award in 2008, Paul fans have been unhappy for many years.

Having won so many awards, if he cannot continue his previous dominance in the playoffs, he will be looked at as a joke.

The media outside New York were waiting to hear the joke.

Before the Knicks were a joke, Miami was a joke.

Before the start of the playoffs, Heat godfather Lewis Shafir boasted: "If we fall in front of the Indianapolis again this year, I won't eat meat for a year!"

Louis thought at the time that Shafir's failure to say he would not be sexually active for a year meant he lacked confidence.

The Heat are indeed full of momentum this year. Except for the Knicks, no one in the Eastern Conference is afraid of them.

Gathers, who has initially grown up, is joined by Petrovic, one of the most threatening outside ball handlers in the league, All-Star wing Reggie Lewis, rookie first-teamer Steve Smith and veteran Sam Bowie.

Easily swept the Nets in the first round and met the bitter Pacers in the semifinals.

In the past two years, the Heat have faced the Pacers in the playoffs twice and were eliminated both times.

After defeating the Pistons in the first round, the Pacers wanted to defeat the Pistons in another round.

In the first game of the semifinals, Manning went crazy, scoring 41 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in a single game, destroying the Miami wing with a single core.

Gu Hao

The Heat don't know who to deal with him.

Although Gathers can match him in size, Manning's ball-handling offense is as flexible as that of a small forward, and he has a variety of offensive methods. He also has a throw in the paint that even Manute Bol can't block.

In the second game, Petrovic and Lewis defended the dignity of second place in the Eastern Conference.

Shafir didn't know if it was intentional, but he hugged Lewis after the game and said: "Miami has everything you can't get in Boston."

At this time, Miami people did not notice that Gathers was beaten by Manning again.

To Gathers, Manning was like a player who was born to restrain him.

Gathers is good at pick-and-roll cuts and low-post attacks, and his assist defense is far better than single defense.

The people of Miami didn't want him to consume too much, so Gathers' position was quickly clear after entering the league.

The main thing is to take advantage of the pick-and-roll and protect the basket.

His low-post offense, which was highly praised by scouts in college, has not been developed much.

This kind of positioning is people-oriented and we don't want to put too much pressure on him.

However, the threat of an insider who lacks the ability to attack independently will be reduced to a lower level on the offensive end.

Manning, Gaithers's victim, is a living example.

Due to his height, he cannot dominate offense and defense like Sampson.

The Pacers chose the right path, allowing him to do whatever he wants on the offensive end, with Oakley on the defensive end to protect the rebounds, and a Blaylock-style defender on the outside to increase pressure. The best is a shooter on the wing, so as to open up space for Manning.

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What the Pacers currently lack most is shooters.

When Louis came back to focus on the showdown between the Heat and the Pacers, he found that the Pacers had already held the match point at 3-2.

He reviewed games three and five.

These two games were games where the outcome was decided by a hair's breadth. The Heat won one and the Pacers won one.

After reading it, Louis found the Heat's strategy a bit strange.

In the second game, they were determined to give up their perimeter defense and block Manning.

Judging from the results, Manning still defeated Gathers, but it was difficult to control the overall situation while ravaging the inside like in other games.

But by Game 5, the Heat were too concerned about the Pacers' internal and external linkage.

The Pacers' wing shooter is named Chuk Peon SF. He was a lottery pick in 1986 because of Louis. He accidentally fell out of the lottery and was selected by the Clippers.

Throughout the 1980s, the Clippers took away a lottery pick from the draft every year, but none of them developed into talents.

Same goes for Person.

When Person's contract expired, the Pacers offered him a big contract, but the Clippers didn't match it and lost a powerful player in vain.

This was the man who changed the course of the series.

Although Manning is brave, without Person to stretch the space on the outside, the Heat can compress the Pacers' offensive space into a very small range.

In that situation, Manning either believes in himself, gets caught, or takes a risky pass.

The Heat were afraid of Person's shooting touch, but they did not try to use offense to affect the Pacers.

Louis originally wanted to call Shafir and try to tell him how to beat the Pacers.

Looking back, I thought, he has gone too far in helping the Heat rebuild, and he still has to coach from a distance?

No, you have to give people some autonomy.

Who would have thought that on the eve of Game6, Shafir himself called Louis to ask for advice.

"Coach Lu, there's nothing we can do against Danny Manning!" Shafir said sadly, "Hank is so weak in front of him!"

Louis Youyou said: "I really want to lend Dennis to you, but I don't think Mr. President will agree."

"With our current manpower, can we restrain that monster?"

In Shafir's mind, Manning was already a monster that was difficult to deal with.

"If you are determined to change, you can try it." Louis pretended to be humble and said, "But you have the second-best coaching staff in the Eastern Conference, so you shouldn't need to tell me what to do."

"They are nothing but the second coaching staff in the Eastern Conference, if it weren't for our coaching staff being so bad."

Shafir suddenly realized that it was not good to criticize his coaching staff in front of outsiders.

"I'm not sure you can accurately convey my intentions to your coaching staff. If something goes wrong, you may be responsible for it."

"If you don't make changes, the next game may be over. No matter what, you have to try it. Just think of it as exploring new ideas."

After Shafir's various requests, Louis shared his thoughts.