The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 490 - 218: Is This Something Very Remarkable?

Chapter 490: Chapter 218: Is This Something Very Remarkable?

The League officially announced this season’s Best Lineups: fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

"First Team: Su Wan, Kobe, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming;"

"Second Team: Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Paul Pierce, Paul Gasol, Dwight Howard;"

"Third Team: Deron Williams, LeBron James, Carlos Bozer, Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudemire;"

Best Defensive Lineup:

"First Defensive Team: Su Wan, Kobe, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard;"

"Second Defensive Team: Ron Artest, Kirilenko, Raja Bell, Shawn Battier, Chris Paul;"

The Pacers had a total of three players selected for the Best Lineups or Best Defensive Lineups last year.

This year, that number sharply decreased to one.

From this, one could actually see what the Pacers went through this season.

However, this was the first time in Su Wan’s career that he was selected for "First Team and First Defense" in the same season, which still brought some consolation to Indiana.

Erin asked Su Wan how he felt about this.

Su Wan said, "Is this supposed to be some great achievement?"

Erin laughed, indeed compared to a "three consecutive championships" dynasty, such an honor was nothing to mention.

Being selected for both "First Team and First Defense" showed that the player could influence the game on both ends of the court during the season, a proof of their presence on the floor.

Yet, the influence that this could prove on the court, compared to "three consecutive Finals MVPs," simply had no comparability.

The difficulty wasn’t even on the same level.

Let’s put it this way, if "First Team and First Defense" represented the current media narrative about LeBron James, then "three consecutive championships" would be the narrative about Su Wan in the media...

With the "Best Lineups" announcement, the outcomes of the four Western playoff series gradually emerged, except for the series between the Spurs and Mavericks; the other matchups didn’t bring many surprises, including what was expected to be a closely matched Jazz Team vs. Phoenix Suns.

The vibrant Jazz Team eliminated the Phoenix Suns with ease, 4-1.

Kirilenko shined in this series, facing the highly mobile Suns, he fully utilized his static physical talent, with timely help defense that kept the Suns’ three-point shooting off balance.

For the Suns, who relied heavily on three-point shooting as part of their strategy, struggling to get their three-pointers going was a major headache.

At such times, the Suns’ weak defensive capabilities were exposed.

The Jazz Team, relying on the "New Utah Double Kill" pick-and-roll, pierced through the Suns’ defensive line, with the Suns retreating step by step, almost always getting the score pulled away at the start of the fourth quarter.

Steve Nash, facing Deron Williams’ strong physical fitness, had no good solutions at all.

Luckily on the offensive end, he could still rely on the pick-and-roll, exploiting the slowness of Deron Williams’ legs to give back some color; otherwise, Williams would just be "eat, sleep, beat Paul, beat up Nash."

The stats for both players in the series were:

Deron Williams averaged 18.2 points 10 assists; Steve Nash averaged 16.8 points 8 assists.

Nash was at a slight disadvantage, but not to the extent of being completely crushed.

In fact, Little Si and Bozer, as the same type of players, had similar stats as well.

Little Si scored 20.6 points 10 rebounds in four games, while Bozer had 18.8 points 8 rebounds.

The Jazz Team won with defense, while the Suns lost because their three-point shots didn’t open up.

In five games, the best three-point shooting performance the Suns had was 11 out of 25; that was the only game they won.

In the other games, their three-point shooting percentage was below 30%.

The worst was just 20%!

After the series, D’Antoni announced his resignation as head coach of the Phoenix Suns.

It wasn’t that he wanted to leave, but Steve Kerr, who had recently taken over as general manager, had given him an ultimatum.

This was done also to save a bit of face for D’Antoni.

Some media believed that the Suns’ "fast whirlwind" would thus come to an end: "Phoenix’s most glorious era of the 2000s is over!"

The Jazz Team, advancing to the second round, would face the Lakers.

Therefore, the night they eliminated the Suns, facing a press conference, each member of the Jazz Team was very serious, and Deron Williams said, "The war has just begun!"

It wasn’t someone else but the Lakers who eliminated the Jazz Team in last season’s playoffs.

This time meeting in the semifinals, although their strength had increased, the Jazz players still yearned for revenge.

As for the Lakers, they had already eliminated the Warriors 4-0 and were waiting in the semifinals.

Interestingly, when the Warriors once again snuck into the Western playoffs as the eighth seed at the last moment, the entire Golden State was in an uproar.

After all, to speak plainly, this Lakers team only managed "merely" 70 wins, just five more than last season’s Mavericks.

Was this anything to speak of?

We took down a 65-win Mavericks team; we should be confident that we can take down a 70-win Lakers team too!

Before the playoffs officially began, the media in Golden State were generally indulging in such fantasies.

Of course, as the first game concluded, the Golden State Warriors were brought back down to reality.

to 100...

The Warriors kept scoring, but so did the Lakers, with Yao Ming, Kobe, and Paul Gasol scoring a combined total of 80 points in a single game, directly stunning the Warriors.