I just want to lie down and win

Chapter 131 The first game of the playoffs, Cavaliers! (4000, please subscribe)

"87 to 101, I didn't expect the Cavaliers to win!"

"So our opponent in the first round is the Cavaliers?"

"That's exactly what happened."

On April 4, the game between the Cavaliers and the Knicks ended, and the regular season in the Eastern Conference was almost over.

The overall strength of the Eastern Conference teams this season is still not the opponents of the Western Conference teams. Most of the playoff teams do not even have a 50% winning rate.

But no matter how hard they peck each other, they can make it to the playoffs by defeating most of the other opponents in the Eastern Conference.

The Cavaliers and Knicks are both playoff teams in the Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers are 38 wins and 44 losses, eighth in the Eastern Conference, and the Knicks are 39 wins and 43 losses. Seventh in the Eastern Conference.

Both the Pelicans and the Bucks are 40 wins and 42 losses, ranking fifth and sixth in the Eastern Conference respectively.

With 41 wins and 41 losses, the Heat also made it to the playoffs, ranking fourth in the Eastern Conference.

Because the Pistons are in the same division as the Pacers, the Pacers' regular season winning percentage is second only to the Pistons in the Eastern Conference, with 60 wins and 22 losses.

Relying on the Atlantic Division championship, the Nets directly advanced to second place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 45 wins and 37 losses.

The Pistons, with 64 wins and 20 losses, have nothing wrong with them. They are not only the number one in the Eastern Conference, but also the number one in the league.

The No. 57 Timberwolves in the West only have a record of 25 wins and [-] losses. In terms of regular season wins, they are not as good as the Pacers.

However, the eighth Nuggets in the West also won 42 wins and 40 losses, which ranks fourth in the East.

In fact, the Timberwolves' cumulative wins this season are not as good as the Pistons and Pacers, but also because the pressure of competition in the West is too great.

There are more strong confrontations and lack of more opportunities for stable abuse. Naturally, the record is not as good as the Pistons and Pacers.

Judging from the situation of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Eastern Conference only has the Pistons and Pacers to watch, and the others are all here to make up the numbers.

Therefore, the Pistons are not worried about playing the Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.

Even if the current Cavaliers are playing well under the leadership of James and look very young and energetic, youth is not important in the playoffs.

For Huo Song, this is also good news.

The Cavaliers haven't made the playoffs for a long time.

Playing a young team is definitely much easier than playing an experienced team full of veterans.

Huo Song can start with easy difficulty and gradually find the feeling of playing in the playoffs.

As for James, Wade, and Anthony all helping the team reach the playoffs, Huo Song is not worried about that.

The best rookie is not announced immediately after the end of the regular season.

The end of the regular season is just the beginning of voting. Basically, the second round of the regular season will be the time for most of the regular season awards that need to be judged to be announced.

The Pistons played the Cavaliers in the first round, and Huo Song and James were in a battle for the No. [-] pick and the No. [-] pick. It is fair that whoever wins is the best rookie.

Rookies such as Wade and Anthony, who have performed extremely well, are basically useless.

Huo Song is a Chinese player. Although he is not favored by the American media and basketball commentators, there are people behind him.

In recent years, David Stern has explored the Chinese market and promoted the globalization of the NBA. This is well known.

It is no secret that the media and commentators are influenced by officials.

As for James, America's Son, there's nothing wrong with that.

Even if Stern prescribes Huo Song as the best rookie, before the best rookie is announced, the media will pull James to be the opposite and make some gimmicks.

Of course, maybe the media will also take the initiative to choose Huo Song.

Who told Huo Song to be the All-Star MVP long ago?

As long as the Pistons win the Cavaliers in the first round and Huo Song doesn't play very well, it's a joke that the best rookie can choose James.

Therefore, Huo Song was not worried at all.

The regular season is over and the playoffs are coming, and the Pistons are actively involved in training.

Time passed quickly. On April 4, the first round of the playoffs between the Pistons and the Cavaliers started at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

After the start of the game, Big Z was as stable as ever, helping the Cavaliers to jump to the ball.

James now likes to play with his body, which was evident in the regular season before.

After James held the ball for halftime, he directly forced Billups.

James played the same way against the Pistons last time, but he has learned some lessons.

The first step of James' connection is still very ordinary, but there are some movements in his hands, leaning on the ball protector to push Billups a little.

These years, the playoffs have been very confrontational. Sometimes even in the regular season, there is a lot of physical contact between the stars, and it seems that they are about to fight, and the referee will not blow it, let alone the playoffs.

It's not a problem for James to push Billups at this moment.

And it is difficult for Billups to prevent James from breaking through, let alone find a flaw and directly reach out to take out the ball.

No chance to steal, Billups could only watch James go inside.

Fortunately, Ben was under the basket, and James took the initiative to confront him with a big layup.

Seeing that this was exactly what he wanted, Da Ben stood still and held up his hands to block the cover.

James didn't take it seriously and continued to break through for a layup.

But at the moment of the shot, Big Ben took off and blocked the ball, destroying the ball.

The rebound was grabbed by Prince who came over to grab the rebound, and the Pistons launched a counterattack.

James was a little puzzled, why didn't the whistle blow, something was wrong? Didn't the whistle sound?
Without the ball in his hand and without hearing the whistle, James ran to the bottom line to fight the referee, but the referee said: "Please continue your game."

Playing the playoffs for the first time, the star whistle on his body suddenly disappeared, which made James very uncomfortable.

Looking at the Pistons again, James has delayed this period of time, and Billups has cooperated with Prince to go directly to the frontcourt.

Prince passed the ball to Billups, who rushed to the basket and dunked with both hands.

As soon as James turned his head, he saw this scene.

"Isn't this too unethical? Is this the end of the game?"

James is depressed, and the Cavaliers' backcourt players are even more depressed.

James stupidly asked the referee for a whistle, but this is the playoffs, how can anyone be so naive?

If the referee didn't give the whistle, he immediately returned to the backcourt to defend!

No, without returning to defense, the Pistons played more and less, and easily scored 2 points by directly relying on transitions.

No way, James is still the boss of the team and the future of the team.

The Cavaliers can only pick up the ball and resend the ball to teammates.

Seeing this, James immediately reached out for the ball. Although the Pistons player was returning to defense, he was still in the frontcourt because he hadn't returned to defense before. As long as his teammates passed the ball back, he could directly switch and score 2 points.

But it's a pity that the Cavaliers lack a tacit understanding, or they lack a penalty quotient.

It was indeed a good opportunity to make a transition just now. If he served directly from the bottom line, James even had a chance to make a transition in a second.

But when the ball is sent out, and then see James reaching for the ball, and then pass the ball to the frontcourt, the Pistons players who have already returned to defense must not let the Cavaliers play so easily.

Before James received the ball, Hamilton rushed up and got stuck in place ahead of time.

James is taller than Hamilton, but because he is focused on catching the ball and fast break, he has already started to rush to the basket ahead of time.

Looking at the position of the ball, it was discovered that the basketball was cut off in mid-air.

Hamilton immediately passed back, and the rest of the Pistons immediately turned their heads.

Although it is a four-on-four situation in the frontcourt, the Cavaliers' attention has just been on their frontcourt, and now they return to the backcourt after returning to defense, and their foothold is a bit unstable.

In the end, Prince made an air cut to the basket, received the pass, and dunked the ball in.

Eric Williams ran to the basket, tried his best to interfere, and instead paid a foul.

"2+1, the Pistons are expected to open the point difference to 5 points at the beginning of the game."

"This is the first time the Cavaliers have entered the playoffs in recent years. The players lack experience in the playoffs and their performance is relatively poor."

"Indeed, in comparison, the Pistons played much more steadily.

Both opportunities to play conversions were seized.

Obviously, the Pistons players have to have a lot more experience. "

As soon as the commentator was speaking, Prince made a free throw, and the Pistons played a 0-5 spurt in the first half minute.

And this is all achieved by playing and switching. The playoffs should have strictly guarded against this situation, but the Cavaliers gave the Pistons these two opportunities to play and switch because of the situation of the head star James.

Cavaliers coach Paul Silas thought about it, and called a timeout after the player served and dribbled the ball to the frontcourt.

Adjust, facing the league's No. [-] team like the Pistons, you need to be more careful.

Paul Silas had no fantasies about winning the Pistons in advance, after all, the black eight miracle is too difficult.

The Cavaliers are a young team, and the leading star is still young and inexperienced.

However, after the fate of the first round of the playoffs is doomed, how to lose is also a science.

There are arguments for four bloody sweeps, or a small victory to save the situation.

Paul Silas gave the young players a lesson, hoping that everyone can focus, strengthen defense, and strengthen aggressiveness.

Playoff referees don't give whistles easily, which is good for a strong defensive team like the Pistons, and it's also good for a young team like them.

Fist is afraid of the young, isn't it just a small move?It is okay for young people to suffer a little, but compared with veterans, it is impossible to suffer forever.

After returning from the timeout, the Cavaliers followed the instructions of the head coach and focused on the basket.

James lobs to the basket, Carlos Boozer catches the ball and turns around for a mid-range shot.

It is not the first time Daben has played against Boozer. He has played not long ago, so he has experience, but Boozer shot faster, and he shot without much adjustment after receiving the ball.

When Da Ben came out, he was still a beat behind.

In this way, he was shot by Boozer with a mid-range shot.

The Cavaliers responded quickly with Boozer.

In the next offensive round of the Pistons, Billups and Rasheed Wallace picked and rolled from the sideline.

The latter dunked down the air, and the big Z took off to block the block, but it was obviously a thug.

Rasheed Wallace failed to hit the inside, but the referee didn't pretend to be deaf and dumb, and still blew his whistle.

Rasheed Wallace knows how to make free throws, and there is no pressure to play the Cavaliers. After the two free throws, the point difference returned to 5 points.

In other words, the Cavaliers also failed to prevent the Pistons from playing inside, and Big Z paid a valuable foul for this.

The height of the Cavaliers' interior defense mainly depends on Big Z. If Big Z commits 6 fouls early, then today's game will be difficult for the Cavaliers.

After all, the Pistons are too aggressive inside and there are too many people.

Except for two Wallaces, there is still one Huo Song.

Huo Song alone can penetrate the inside of the Cavaliers with a ruthless attack, not to mention there is no such tall insider as Big Z, so the Cavaliers' insides are not at the mercy of Huo Song?
Having said that, it was the Cavaliers' round again. James obeyed the coach's instructions and held the ball to kill the inside to attract the defense and create offensive opportunities for the inside.

This time the ball was passed to Big Z, but the two Wallaces linked together and double-teamed the moment Big Z caught the ball.

Big Z stopped the ball to look for an opportunity, but was firmly defended by Shuang Wallace.

Seeing the violation of the three-second attack, Big Z could only barely make a shot, and then it was a strike.

Big Ben protected the defensive rebound and the Pistons counterattacked, but the Cavaliers returned to defense quickly and did not find a chance.

Of course, the Pistons are not afraid of positional warfare.

Billups tried to single James in a high position, but it was a bit of a joke.

Billups may have an advantage in height and tonnage when playing other point guards, but it is a bit difficult to play against James, and James' defense is average now, otherwise he will fall into the tiger's mouth.

Billups occasionally gets hotheaded, but he quickly adjusts back.

Relying on the pick-and-roll with Prince outside, the ball was passed to Prince who cut to the basket.

Prince took advantage of the momentum to drive inside, and at the same time, Rasheed Wallace cut outside and shot.

Big Z couldn't keep up, so he had to defend first to block Prince's layup, while Boozer ran to defend Rasheed Wallace from shooting.

Seeing this scene, Prince understood, and instead of passing the ball to Rasheed Wallace in the bottom corner according to the tactics, he passed the ball to Ben under the basket through a ground pass.

As an NBA player, no matter how bad the offense is, he will still eat cakes.

Soon, Big Ben took off after catching the ball, dunked with both hands, hung on the frame for a while, and then fell down.

The point difference widened to 7 points. If the Cavaliers could score during this period, Paul Silas might have called a timeout again.

"The same NBA team, is the gap really that big?"

Next, the Cavaliers continued to play inside, but obviously, there was a gap between the two inside.

Big Z connected the ball, but was restricted by two Wallaces.

Big Z made half a quarter of the ball, 6 of 2 shots and 2 of 1 free throws. Only a pitiful 5 points were scored.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Paul Sellars called a timeout to make adjustments.

The next step is to play the inside line, and try to shoot the outside line to help open up space.

As for scoring inside, Boozer can only give it a try.

Boozer has a big base, and his offensive efficiency is good, which can be regarded as a relatively stable point for the Cavaliers.

But the outside line just started to find the touch, and the shots were not accurate enough.

Soon, Big Z was replaced by Paul Silas because of physical limitations.

When Big Z was replaced, Larry Brown took advantage of the lack of height of the Cavaliers and replaced Huo Song. It happened that it was difficult to deal with Big Ben and solve Boozer's problem.

As Huo Song and Rasheed Wallace continued to forcefully hit the basket, the score on the field further widened.

After the first quarter, 18 to 29, the Pistons have taken an 11-point lead.

(End of this chapter)