one-handed ball

Chapter 367 Advancing to the Western Conference Finals
"Magic" Johnson said at the beginning of the fourth quarter: "If the Mavericks still can't find a way to restrict Zheng Ke, it will be difficult for the Mavericks to win based on the Timberwolves' consistent performance at the last moment."

As a result, Maverick was unfortunately hit by his words.

The score could not be opened, and when Zheng Ke was on the court, the Timberwolves could guarantee maximum stability.Even though Nowitzki feels hot today, facing the Timberwolves' inside defense, he has already scored 30+ points.

115 to 108, the Timberwolves won by 7 points.

The Timberwolves killed the suspense and easily won two consecutive victories at home.This fourth quarter, which was supposed to be ups and downs, became calm under the influence of Zheng Keding's Sea God Needle.

Originally, people thought it would be difficult for the Mavericks to pose much threat to the Timberwolves, but now the Timberwolves lead 2-0 with a big score, completely killing the suspense.The Mavericks can only support half a game every time. In this regard, they have surpassed the Grizzlies in the first round.At the beginning, when the Grizzlies were a little more than a quarter, they would be opened up by the Timberwolves and establish a foundation for victory.

Nowitzki scored 39 points and made 5 of 3 outside three-pointers, completely blowing up the inside of the Timberwolves.His jump shots again and again left a deep impression on the Minnesota fans, especially after switching to Jordan's defense in the fourth quarter, he was still a little ashamed.

But looking at the data, Love, who scored 16 points and 14 rebounds, is also considered to be very efficient. At least he can be called the number one in the NBA in the protection of backcourt rebounds.

After Love entered the NBA, his statistics have been steadily improving every year. Being selected as an All-Star this year is the greatest affirmation for him.His injury last season had a great impact on the Timberwolves. This year, the Timberwolves have been doing well and basically have not encountered any particularly serious injuries. This is also an important reason for their 76 wins.

Among the Timberwolves team, Love has already demonstrated the strength of the All-Star, but when it comes to tactics, people always think that the Timberwolves are a single-core team.

In this game, Zheng Ke made 25 of 14 shots, 7 of 3 three-pointers, and 10 free throws. He scored 41 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists. The playing time of the game is more than 40 minutes, and the efficiency is higher than the regular season, almost reaching the point of averaging a triple-double, unstoppable.

The third game was transferred to Dallas. The Timberwolves made another victory 105 to 92 and got the match point 3 to 0.

The Mavericks play zone defense, but the Timberwolves are very accurate on several outside three-pointers, and Love, who is an insider, can also retreat to the three-point line to shoot three-pointers after the pick-and-roll.This season, his three-point shooting percentage is as high as 41.7%, which is not worse than Nowitzki's three-point shooting ability.

The Timberwolves play man-to-man defense, which is also the most commonly used style of play in the NBA. Even if Love is blown up by Nowitzki, Thibodeau just shoots people from time to time to double-team, and rotates through multiple players Ways to defend against stamina.The way of fighting talent has frustrated the Mavericks' invincible offense in the regular season. Terry only made a big splash in the second game, and was completely lost the rest of the time.

Except for Terry, the Mavericks have no sharp-edged characters on the outside. Kidd and Billups are both steady in their duel.In front of Zheng Ke, Marion became unconfident when shooting.Thibodeau attaches great importance to defense, and everyone in the Timberwolves is aware of this. Under Thomas' training, his temperament is not lost to any team at all.The whole team played with great passion and fighting spirit.

On May 5, the Timberwolves continued their fourth game at the Mavericks' home court.

This is a game that cannot be lost. After two days of ideological struggle, the Mavericks team has adjusted.This is a game for them to fight for honor. If they win, there is still a chance of life. If they lose, they can only go home and fish.This is really unacceptable for such a team of old guys who came together for the dream of a championship.

Before that, Zheng Ke was officially elected the most valuable player of the 2010-11 NBA regular season!
Zheng Ke was not elected unanimously. Among the American reporters, there are always some who prefer Rose and James. Zheng Ke cannot be a heartthrob.But the fact that he successfully won the first regular season MVP in his life did not surprise too many people, which is reasonable.

At the press conference for the awards, Zheng Ke was also very excited.

"This is the first regular season MVP trophy in my career. I didn't expect this day to come so quickly. However, I want to say that without the team's efforts, I would never have won this honor. This is a collective honor for our team .” Zheng Ke said the opening remarks sincerely.

Zheng Ke, who was born in November 1988, is not yet 11 years old this year, which allows him to surpass Wes Unseld and become the youngest regular season MVP in history, breaking the record that has been dusty for more than 23 years. .Of course, if Zheng Ke fails to win the MVP, Rose, who is ranked second, can also break this record.

Barkley commented on Zheng Ke: "Zheng Ke reminds me of Duncan. They are both heroes from small cities, low-key and talented."

And Zheng Ke didn't think about making the ceremony of receiving the MVP trophy bigger, such as returning to his alma mater to present the award or something.All his goals now are to win the championship, so Zheng Ke told the league that the award ceremony was held directly at the press conference.Due to the "hostile" state of Dallas, there were not even a few fans who came to celebrate, low-key and simple.

Zheng Ke won the MVP of the regular season and gained a lot of GS points, which further improved his attributes.

In the opening game, he was still in the small forward position that he was familiar with.Since Kidd's active defense against Zheng Ke failed in the second game, the Mavericks completely gave up and let Marion defend to the end.Carlisle fantasized, maybe Marion summed up some experience and suddenly became enlightened?
Chandler's offensive rebounding ability is good, but when Thibodeau changes positions, let Love defend Chandler, who is weaker in offensive ability, and let Jordan defend Nowitzki, the Timberwolves' backcourt rebounding is even better. Steady.The two arrows of Zheng Ke and Afflalo often go down quickly, and Love's long pass to the Mavericks has caused great trouble.You don't need to hit this kind of ball too much, but if you hit two in a row, the Mavericks will lose their morale.

In the substitute duel, the Timberwolves under the leadership of Lowry have a slight upper hand.

The Timberwolves took a 19-point lead at halftime. The first quarter was stretched too far, and the Mavericks' snow-white fans could no longer wave.They all looked at the camera with tears in their eyes, holding their heads in their hands, their eyes became confused and painful.

Zheng Ke scored 38 points, 9 rebounds and 15 assists in the game, another almost triple-double data.

The Mavericks are not bad, but compared with the Timberwolves, they are obviously a head behind.Especially the Timberwolves are not afraid of their convulsive three-pointers at all. The strong perimeter defense has become a nightmare for the Mavericks. After a series, the three-pointer shooting rate is as high as 30.00%, and it is difficult not to lose.

On the 3rd position, Zheng Ke has become an existence that cannot be guarded against.

Strength, speed, and skills have all reached their peak, and there are some active skills at hand.The [Fighter] skills put on are simply too heaven-defying. The physical strength that was originally consumed like a flow of water is like opening a floodgate. It is basically impossible for Ke to maintain a high-intensity defense.

But as long as a little flaw is revealed, Zheng Ke can easily score points.

From the first to the fifth positions of the Mavericks, only Nowitzki has the advantage, and it can only be regarded as a mutual explosion, because Love and Jordan are both rebounding monsters.

The owner of the Mavericks, Cuban, is the most willing to spend money among NBA owners.This year, the Mavericks fell on the road to the championship again, and his face was full of disappointment.Seeing Zheng Ke chatting and laughing again in the fourth quarter, he felt alive. Next year is Zheng Ke's contract year. Zheng Ke can choose to jump out of the contract or renew the contract with the Timberwolves in advance. As for the diamond-studded ones, the media has been breaking the news for a long time.Cuban doesn't know if Zheng Ke will leave Minnesota, but if he can really form a combination of Zheng Ke and Nowitzki, he will be so excited that he can't sleep at night.

The Timberwolves became the first team to win the entire series in the second round. In terms of the media that likes to exaggerate, that is, the Timberwolves made it to the Western Conference Finals twice in three years.

Then, perhaps stimulated by Zheng Ke, the Heat led by James also immediately won two games in a row, beating the Celtics with a total score of 4-1, becoming the second team confirmed to enter the conference finals.

Then came the Bulls and Eagles who finished six games.The Bulls who won the Tianwangshan battle were really different. They were in a brave state and beat the Eagles by 93 to 73 points, becoming the third team confirmed to enter the conference finals.The Hawks were underwhelmed by the Bulls' defense. In the sixth key game, the team's shooting percentage was only 36.5%. Most of them were 10 of 2 like Horford and 10 of Jamal Crawford. 2 players.

Then the entire league shifted their attention and focused on the Spurs and Lakers, who had already tied [-]-[-].

These two most successful teams in the Western Conference for more than ten years have a large fan base.When the Timberwolves swept the Mavericks 4-0 calmly, they started a fierce war of words on the Internet. On the forums, news comments were mostly weird responses to the families of the opposing fans.

And the seventh game of the life-and-death battle at the home of the Spurs, the highest ratings have exceeded the ratings of the Timberwolves and Mavericks series.

One is a team that looks very old every year, and every year someone predicts that they will die, and the other is last year's defending champion, who is full of the glory of the metropolis and the aura of glorious history
(End of this chapter)