The rest is just noise

"New York's walls are high and thick."

In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pacers, who counterattacked all the way to the Knicks, failed to create a miracle after four games and were defeated 0-4.

This is also Danny Manning's emotion after being eliminated by the Knicks for three consecutive years.

The Knicks are to the Pacers as the Pacers are to the Heat.

Louis is expected to lead the team to surpass the Celtics dynasty of the 1980s and become the second head coach to lead the team to win five consecutive championships after the Celtics in the Auerbach era.

In the West, Jordan and Barkley's dominance is obviously stronger than Pippen and Robinson.

When the series reached Tianwang Mountain, Jordan had 52 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists in a single game, while Barkley had 41 points and 22 rebounds.

For the Lakers, although Pippen had a triple-double, his personal scoring was limited and only scored 17 points. Although Robinson scored 30 points in a single game, it did not help.

The Trail Blazers are just one step away from promotion.

In the sixth game, without the tragedy master in charge, the Lakers faced a headwind situation and had a much worse mentality. They were suppressed by the Trail Blazers throughout the game.

"A new era has dawned in the West."

"After four years since 1988, Michael Jordan once again led the team to the Finals. This time, the opponent he faced was still New York, but he was stronger than before."

The Knicks and Trail Blazers met in the Finals, which was a happy outcome for everyone.

Although the showdown between the Lakers and Knicks is interesting, if it is exactly the same for four consecutive years, the audience will get bored.

As the number one star of the Mesozoic era, Jordan has everything except the championship title.

The same goes for his teammate Barkley.

The Knicks have dominated the league for four years and are now on pace to win their fifth consecutive championship.

June 2, 1992

The Trail Blazers arrived in New York, and Game 1 of the Finals will kick off today.

That afternoon, Louis had an unpleasant encounter with team reporter William Roden.

He has been interviewing players so frequently recently that it has affected the Knicks' preparations for games.

Louis demanded that he stop conducting private interviews with players, while Rodon insisted that this was a collaboration between The Times and the Knicks and that he had no right to interfere.

Rodon seems to have forgotten that Louis is not only the coach, but also the president of the Knicks basketball operations department.

This status gave Louis the authority not only to interfere, but even to end cooperation with The Times.

That afternoon, Louis called the Times headquarters and requested Roden's repatriation.

People from the Times talked to him in a low voice for a long time before Louis changed his decision.

The premise is that Rodon agrees not to conduct private interviews with Knicks players until the end of the Finals.

Under pressure from headquarters, Roden agreed.

After Louis eliminated the last off-field factor that might affect the finals, he devoted himself to the game throughout the game.

madison square garden

nbsports has carefully prepared its commentary team for the finals.

The main commentator is Marv Albert, and there are two analysts. One is NBA contract commentator Mike Fratlow, and the other is an old friend of the fans, the tragic Johnson who just retired.

The tragic figure who retired from the court and was regarded as a dying man by the public, as he said, has not faded out of the public eye and still appears in various places like a popular superstar.

Inviting a tragedy expert to serve as an analyst for the finals this time is also a coup for nbsports.

Jordan, Wilson, The Tragedian, and the three most popular stars of all ages, old and new, gathered together. Everyone wanted to see the head-to-head confrontation between Joe and Wei, and also wanted to hear The Tragedy's jokes and share some little stories that the audience didn't know.

Louie says hello to Riley.

He still had his hair sleek and shiny and wore a carefully selected Armani suit.

As a coach, Louis didn't pay as much attention to appearance as he did. He didn't even take care of his hair, let alone choosing a suit carefully.

"Coach Lu, I have dreamed of this scene countless times." Riley said.

"Oh? Did you dream about the result?"

"No, I didn't get the result."

"I have the result." Louis said harshly, "You will still lose, and your number of runners-up will eventually exceed Erwin."

Riley said calmly: "I don't think so."

"We'll see."

Louis returned to the players and emphasized: "Portland is a team that is more fierce than us in the regular stage. Their defensive intensity is first in the league, they are first in the league in limiting opponents' field goal percentage, and they are first in the league in offensive rebounds."

First, therefore, this series is destined to be a tough battle, and you must be prepared to face difficulties."

The Knicks are Stockton, Reggie Williams, Wilson, Rodman, and Ewing.

Miller was made a substitute because he played against the Trail Blazers twice in the regular season, and was forced to miss three points due to the opponent's defensive intensity.

Instead of letting him continue to be taken care of by the opponent in his position, it is better to use a human sandbag to help him take some damage.

Also uncharacteristic of the Trail Blazers: Terry Porter, Jordan, Barkley, Crawford Robinson, Anthony Mason.

There is no center, but there are three small forwards who can play power forward. Jordan, who has been a full-time point guard for one season, plays the second position, and Porter, who has been a substitute for one season, enters.

With Riley arranging his troops like this, he clearly wants to use the depth on the wings to destroy the Knicks' wings.

The deeper intention is to limit the Knicks' signature high-post dynamic offense.

At the same time, being able to execute three three-and-four swings without appearing slow is also the secret to the Blazers' offensive rebound rate ranking first in the league.

There are three small forwards who can play the fourth position in a lineup, which is a major test for the defensive rebound protection pressure.

Seeing the Trail Blazers' lineup, Louis grabbed Ewing who was about to play and said: "They may try their best to grab defensive rebounds in the first quarter."

Ewing rolled his eyes: "Do you think I'm air?"

"If you say that, I'm happy, but if our rebounds are blown up later"

Ewing said decisively: "Just hang Coach Thompson's poster on the training ground of the Blue Palace and scold him for a whole year!"

Louis nodded happily: "Coach Thompson will be proud of you."

"Yes, he will."

Ewing, the bastard who deceived his master and destroyed his ancestors, has completely wiped away the strawberries planted by John Thompson.

It can be said that he is Louis' "work".

Louis has been in professional basketball for 14 years and has only two "works" in his full career.

One is Sampson and the other is Ewing.

But these two are completely different players.

Sampson is a perfect product in an ideal state, while Ewing is a flawed 90% product.

In contrast, Louis prefers Ewing's "missing beauty". Sampson is too perfect. Of course, if Auerbach suddenly gets mad and wants to trade Sampson and Ewing for one, he will not do it at all.

He sent the gorilla off without hesitation but with tears in his eyes.

The Blazers use three swing forwards, and how to arrange the matchups is a problem.

Ewing won the jump ball, starting with the regular matchups, Porter vs. Stockton and Wilson vs. Jordan.

After that, the style changed, Crawford vs. Rodman, Barkley vs. Williams, Mason vs. Ewing.

First there was a very fast-paced round of offense and defense.

Stockton called a pick-and-roll and passed the ball to Ewing, who was cutting inside. Ewing made a layup, but was interfered by Robinson who came to help defend.

Barkley grabbed the defensive rebound and passed a long pass to Jordan.

When Jordan launched a fast break, Wilson had already followed him.

Jordan, who was transformed by Riley into a tragic figure, hurriedly distributed the ball to his teammates during the fast break, but underestimated the value of the Knicks' three first defenses.

Rodman intercepted the pass without a trace, and another defensive counterattack was launched.

When the ball was passed to the frontcourt, Ewing received a pass from his teammate in the paint area, pushed away Mason, and was about to attack.

Barkley came up and gave him a tough fight.

Under such intense collision, Ewing couldn't find the feeling to shoot and could only throw the ball casually.

"Aren't you going to call a foul on this, Dick?" Louis shouted.

Referee Dick Bavetta ignored Louis and just looked at the court with bright eyes.

Ewing missed the shot, and the two sides broke out into a fierce physical confrontation for the rebound.

"this?"

Rudy Tomjanovich thinks the Knicks play brutally enough.

They were not like this when playing against the Trail Blazers in the regular season.

Unexpectedly, in the finals, the Blazers' strength can be upgraded, and this upgrade is not from level one to level two, but directly from level one to level ten.

"I feel like I'm watching an NHL game." The tragedy maker recalled the painful memories of the past, "This is not playing basketball at all."

Mike Fratlow said: "This is the football strategy that Pat Riley is pushing hard in Portland. They want to be a more hard-core team than the Knicks."

The two sides fought for the ball more and more fiercely, and then the deputy referee Jack O'Donnell called a foul.

They called the foul on Mason.

At this point, the Knicks feel like they are playing against another version of themselves.

The difference is that the Trail Blazers, modeled after the Knicks, are a bloodthirsty team that has yet to win a championship and is full of desire for championships.

This is a potential advantage against the Knicks.

Taking advantage of the timeout, Louis replaced Reggie Williams.

And let Rodman play the three position, and then replaced Shawn Kemp at the four position.

Since we need to fight hand-to-hand, we have to replace the players with players suitable for hand-to-hand fighting.

Although Reggie Williams is a member of the murder press team, the targets he usually has to defend and murder are not the Blazers' swing forwards.

Kemp is one of the Knicks' secret weapons.

Most people only think of him as a parallel third-team player, but Louis knows that he really gives Kemp enough opportunities, and he even has a chance to break into the second team.

He's a player who doesn't yet know how powerful he is.

The Blazers' swing forwards are tough and tough, but except for Barkley, others are not in Louis' eyes.

So, if you want to fight, come fight and have fun.