The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 395 - 199: The Biggest Softie Appears

Chapter 395: Chapter 199: The Biggest Softie Appears

Brandon Roy could be considered the only "saving grace" of the ’06 draft class.

He averaged 16.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game, easily clinching the title of "Rookie of the Year" for the season.

And as for the "Best Sixth Man," the League awarded it to Spurs’ Manu Ginobili.

The "Super Sixth Man" started to step onto the historical stage.

To be honest, from Manu to Jason Terry, then to the later "Daddy of Los Angeles" Lou Williams, including JR Smith and Jamal Crawford in between, you could see the characteristic of a "Best Sixth Man":

"Nervous Saber"!

They not only have the ability to play as starters, but also when they go crazy, they are absolutely unstoppable.

This bestowed a unique temperament to the "Super Sixth Man."

In fact, many fans don’t like the various star players, and prefer "Nervous Saber" types like JR Smith and Crawford, those "Super Sixth Men" with their attributes maxed out.

On April 18th, the playoffs officially kicked off.

The Pacers’ first-round opponent was the Orlando Magic Team.

After another season of growth, ’04’s No.1 pick Dwight Howard averaged 17.6 points, 12.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.9 blocks per game with a 60% field goal percentage, solidly becoming a front-line interior player in the League.

The Magic Team also successfully made it into the playoffs this season.

This was Howard’s first playoff journey in his professional career.

However, the outside world was not optimistic about Howard’s first playoff foray, with most media believing that if the Magic could drag it out to a 5th game, they would be considered successful.

There was no way around it; despite being the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, they only had a 40-42 win-loss record this season, not even reaching a 50% win rate, and were a glaring 32 games behind the 72-10 Pacers!

Such a gap was eye-catching and could not be ignored.

With such a huge gap in their records, no media dared to predict that the Magic could win even one game against the Pacers.

Not to mention during the regular season, the Pacers beat the Magic by an average of 24 points per game, none of which were ever in doubt.

With this set of data in front, it’s no wonder the media thought so.

Similarly, the Golden State Warriors, who were 23 wins behind the No.1 seed Mavericks in the Western Conference, were also thought to be successful if they could make it to the 6th game of the series.

In reality, they had a decent record during the regular season against the Mavericks, 1 win and 2 losses, although the fact that the Warriors won the last of their three regular season meetings was deliberately seen as the Mavericks allowing it to happen. — That’s right, once the Mavericks realized they were slated to meet the eighth seed Warriors in the first round, they didn’t choose to fight tooth and nail to push them out of the playoffs, instead, they chose to let them in.

Such a move itself showed that they didn’t take the Warriors seriously.

Even before the series against the Warriors began, Dallas media was still hyping up Dirk Nowitzki for the regular season MVP.

The Pacers ultimately only tied the historical best regular season record, which means Dirk Nowitzki still stood a chance in the MVP discussion.

The Indiana media was not idle either; a regular season record of 72 wins and 10 losses was enough to make this year’s MVP discussion nearly indisputable, but they still had to promote how hard it was:

"The Bulls, from the 90-91 season, created their first ’three consecutive championships’ dynasty, and in the first season of this dynasty, their record was 61-21, and by the third season it was 57-25!"

"Starting from the 95-96 season, the Bulls created their second ’three consecutive championships’ dynasty, and in the first season of this dynasty, they achieved the historical best record of 72-10, and by the third season, their record was 62-20!"

"As for the Lakers from the ’00-02 period, they claimed ’three consecutive championships’ as well..."

"In the first season of their dynasty they claimed 67 wins; by the third season of the dynasty, the Lakers ended with only 58 wins!"

"The Pacers are the only team during this period whose record has been continuously climbing!"

"From an initial 54 wins to last season’s 62, and then to this year’s 72-10!"

"In the history of the NBA, no three-time championship team has ever been on a consistent rise like the Pacers!"

...

This difference sparked external discussions, and it also gave this Pacers team a layer of uniqueness.

However, the Indiana media soon found they had worried too much...

Now was not the time for Dirk Nowitzki to consider whether he could win the regular season MVP.

The day after the Pacers effortlessly defeated the Magic 118 to 89, securing their first playoff victory of the season, the Mavericks also faced off against the Warriors in the first game of their series.

Dallas media thought it would be a lopsided slaughter with no suspense.

As a result...

Led by Baron Davis, the eighth-seeded Warriors turned the tables, advancing to the second quarter with a lead of 23-17, and aside from the second quarter where the Mavericks regained some initiative, the other two quarters were dominated by the Warriors.

They ultimately triumphed over the Mavericks with a score of 97 to 85, winning by 12 points and taking the first game of the series.

Nowitzki, who had been feverishly promoted by Dallas media as the "regular season MVP," went 4 for 16 in this game with a shooting percentage of 25%, scoring only 14 points. Although he grabbed 12 rebounds, including 5 frontcourt rebounds, everyone knew that the Mavericks’ path to victory depended not on his rebounding but on him being a significant offensive threat.

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