harleyscars Chapter 691 Intelligent Groin! Activate!
Chapter 691 Intelligent Groin! Activate!
The final Western Conference rankings are as follows:
1. Phoenix Suns: 57 wins, 25 losses
2. San Antonio Spurs: 57 wins, 25 losses
3. Los Angeles Lakers: 56 wins, 26 losses
4. Dallas Mavericks: 55 wins, 27 losses
5. Denver Nuggets: 55 wins, 27 losses
6. Minnesota Timberwolves, 54 wins, 28 losses
7. Los Angeles Clippers: 52 wins, 30 losses
8. Memphis Grizzlies: 50 wins, 32 losses
This year in the Western Conference, the playoff threshold has been set at 50 wins! Without 50 wins, you won't make the playoffs!
On the final day of the season, the entire Western Conference erupted into a chaotic free-for-all.
The ninth-ranked Warriors eliminated the third-ranked Lakers, not only destroying the Lakers' hopes of reaching second place but also preserving their own chance of making the playoffs.
But the Grizzlies, who would have been eliminated from the playoffs if they had lost, also made a comeback, defeating the top-seeded Suns in the West. This not only brought their record to 50 wins, but also helped them retain their playoff spot!
While the Suns lost, the Spurs, who were in first place, also failed to seize the opportunity to climb to first place, losing to the Los Angeles Clippers. This defeat also sealed the first-round matchup between these two teams, meaning they, like the Knicks and Bulls in the East, will face each other in the first round of the playoffs.
The two teams will face off again in the playoffs after their last regular season game!
Although the Clippers are only seventh, Captain Elton Brand has continued his invincible form from last season, and their record is not much worse than the Spurs'. With the momentum from their last victory, they have absolute confidence to compete with the Spurs for a second-round spot!
In short, the entire Western Conference is in complete chaos, and the matchups between teams are only determined at the very last moment!
But no matter how chaotic the situation was, everything has settled down and everything is now in order!
The playoffs have reignited this season!
The Knicks were relaxed, playing at home, as they awaited their opponent: the Chicago Bulls!
The Knicks' decisive victory at the end of the regular season gave them a significant psychological advantage, allowing them to play with ease in their matchups against the other team, where they already held an overwhelming advantage!
In the first two games of the series, the Knicks gave the Bulls no chance. Although all their starters who had rested in the previous game returned, all Ben Wallace and Ben Gordon could do was prevent the team from losing so badly on the road.
That's it.
They lost by 17 points in the first game and by 21 points in the second game.
Two games, two crushing defeats!
The Bulls posed almost no threat and were completely outmatched from the start of the game!
Just when everyone thought the Knicks would sweep the Bulls and advance easily, the Knicks gave many people a rude awakening.
The more smoothly the Knicks played in their two home games, the worse the Bulls played in their third game.
A road game, a frenzied United Center, a Bulls team fighting for their lives, a united young team, and Ben Gordon, who once again entered the zone and went on a shooting spree, all came together to help the team win Game 3 of the series!
Despite facing absolute adversity, the Bulls managed to salvage a game and successfully defend their dignity!
2: 1!
The Bulls saw a glimmer of hope in their desperate situation.
This game also exposed the Knicks' fatal flaws.
They had too easy a regular season and faced too few challenges!
In particular, Don Nelson's behavior of not pushing himself, not chasing points, not getting carried away, and knowing when to quit while he was ahead in the last month of games caused the team to relax in many games where they should have been playing with full intensity.
The result of this situation is that the team encounters too few difficulties and overcomes too few challenges, leading to a situation where the whole team becomes too relaxed.
This mentality is the biggest reason why the Knicks lost this game!
They are used to playing with a winning hand, and when faced with adversity, they will naturally want to use the simplest way to win the game, even when they are down by 7-8 points.
Then shoot! If you make 3 or 4 three-pointers, can't you catch up?
When you're in a good mood, of course you can.
However, when the team is having a bad shooting night, when everyone misses three-pointers one after another, the team inevitably falls into a state of panic.
Even though this team has Lin Tian, their past success, including their undefeated record in last year's playoffs, has made them too relaxed, which has prevented them from turning the tide.
They were behind from the very beginning of the game.
Trailing into the fourth quarter, the Knicks' Smith even lost his composure due to a series of missed shots. During one of Nocioni's drives to the basket, he lost control of his movements and pulled Nocioni down.
The referee immediately blew his whistle and gave Smith a Flagrant Foul 2, ejecting him from the game!
Smith's ejection essentially signaled the end of the Knicks' comeback.
From that moment on, Nelson knew his players weren't in form and wouldn't be able to perform well.
Replace him!
Don Nelson once again made a substitution, surrendering the game with 4 minutes left and the team trailing by 19 points, effectively ending the game.
The Knicks ultimately lost the game by 18 points!
Their 18-game playoff winning streak was ended, and what awaited them was a rather painful defeat.
The Knicks were extremely frustrated by the crushing defeat. That night, without even needing to be ordered by Don Nelson, all the players voluntarily stayed in their rooms to reflect instead of wandering around Chicago.
They lost this match in a very frustrating way!
Especially in the latter part of the game, when the Knicks were trailing by a large margin, the Knicks players actually wanted to tighten up and work harder to catch up.
Firstly, they were indeed having a terrible shooting night, failing to capitalize on several opportunities. Secondly, the Knicks are not a defensive team; they simply lack the system and habit of using solid defense to slowly close the gap when trailing.
If you can't defend and can't score, it's easy to get impatient.
Having not been in a tense state for a long time, they suddenly discovered during the playoffs that when they wanted to tense up, they couldn't!
That feeling of wanting to exert all your strength, having the strength, but just not being able to use it, just being unable to score a goal, is really awful!
This is why the entire Knicks team, without Lin Tian or Don Nelson having to say a word, consciously observed the curfew and returned to their respective rooms to prepare for the game the day after tomorrow.
Nobody really felt like going out to have fun!
"If they know shame and embarrassment, then there's still hope." Old Nelson was quite pleased with his disciples' choices.
At the same time, he was quite pleased with himself.
In matches like this, it's better to lose early than late, and better to lose in the first round than in the second.
Before this game, Don Nelson was worried that if the team had such a smooth run in the first two or even the first few rounds, there might be problems. He wondered if they would be unable to adapt when facing tough and fierce opponents in the conference finals or the NBA finals.
It would be much better if problems arose during the first round against the Bulls than if adjustments were only made then!
Let the players solve problems themselves and handle the game on their own! This will be a huge boost to the entire team! At the same time, it will serve as a wake-up call for these Knicks guys!
This is the playoffs!
Unlike the regular season, if you think you can easily pass the level by simply attacking all the way like in the regular season, you may very well end up in utter ruin!
This is one of the main reasons why Old Nelson clearly discovered the problem tonight but didn't make adjustments or remind the players!
As for the other reason, it's Lin Tian!
With Lin Tian on the team, Don Nelson is 100% confident about this series!
Even without Lin Tian, Old Nelson is at least 90% confident of winning this game. He's incredibly good at handling young teams like this; he has plenty of ways to deal with them.
With the team leading 2-0, to put it bluntly, even if they lose both away games, Old Nelson has plenty of ways to get back at home! He has absolute confidence.
For him, losing a game where he had absolute confidence and certainty, allowing the players to experience adversity and hardship, was far better than losing in the conference finals or even the NBA finals.
At that time, facing stronger opponents, opponents who could not afford to lose and had almost no room for error, would it be better to lose two games to get a feel for the game?
Are you kidding me!
They're likely to be completely crushed by their opponents.
Only a weak team like the Bulls can fulfill Don Nelson's role in training his players and energizing them!
Safe and easy to use, it will absolutely not cause any accidents!
And, Old Nelson has another secret weapon!
"Lin, you've noticed too, haven't you?" Old Nelson was in Lin Tian's room at the moment, sitting on the sofa with a relaxed expression.
"Huh? Oh, of course." Lin Tian was taken aback.
What did you find? Or something else?
Lin Tian didn't understand what Old Nelson was trying to say.
He was even speculating.
This old man, could it be that he suddenly found himself a father at 70...?
"You noticed tonight that everyone was out of sorts. If we keep pushing ourselves, even if we win, it won't help the team. And even if we win this round, the team will likely run into problems in the rest of the series!"
"After all, compared to last year, this year's opponents are stronger and the competitive environment is more dangerous. At the same time, with last year's championship as a foundation, all teams have studied us more thoroughly and understood us more clearly."
"In addition, we won too easily last year. Sweeping all the way was indeed a great achievement, but it could easily lead the players into a 'we are invincible' misconception, thus making them arrogant."
"Arrogant soldiers may be invincible in favorable circumstances, but they will be at a loss when faced with adversity. In dire situations, they may even suffer a crushing defeat, like an avalanche! Right?"
"That's why you didn't dominate the game tonight!"
What could Lin Tian do after listening to Nelson's analysis?
Could he just tell Don Nelson that he was having a bad night and couldn't make his shots?
No way! Old Nelson would be heartbroken!
So he could only give old Nelson a knowing smile, and then remain silent.
He wanted to see just how much this old man could imagine, and he wanted to hear if the old man could conjure up an entire trilogy in his mind.
"So I have an idea." Old Nelson looked at Lin Tian mysteriously, then suddenly stopped talking.
Looking at Old Nelson's lewd appearance, Lin Tian's first thought was of Zhou Yu before the Battle of Red Cliffs, who looked at Zhuge Liang with a lewd grin and said, "Let's each write a character and see how to defeat Cao Cao."
If your Zhuge Liang wrote the same thing as mine, does that prove you're awesome? Then I'll have to kill you.
If you, Zhuge Liang, can't write it, then it proves you're an idiot. Idiots don't need to be kept alive; they have to be killed.
The main theme is unity and righteousness, without any shame.
Of course, since Old Nelson couldn't kill Lin Tian, he was obviously just looking for recognition. He wanted to unify his thinking with Lin Tian and come up with a plan to kill the Bulls while also greatly improving the Knicks' fighting power!
Old Nelson was smiling happily because he felt that he and Lin Tian were on the same path, and their thoughts were almost identical!
He was just waiting for Lin Tian to express his thoughts, and then they hit it off immediately, and the two of them began to plot.
Lin Tian, who had seen through Old Nelson's thoughts, nodded and said, "That's right! That's what I think too. I have a really good idea."
"If I don't play in the next game, I'll just say I twisted my ankle! If they can be competitive in the game when I'm not there, then that proves they've really grown up!"
What you say is exactly what I think!
Before Nelson could react, he blurted out what was on his mind.
After he finished speaking, the old man was stunned.
I was completely stunned.
He stared at Lin Tian for several seconds before finally, with trembling hands, sticking out a thumb.
"That's insane!"
Lin Tian was far more insane than he had imagined. His original plan was for Lin Tian to play conservatively in the early stages, make a poor performance, and let his teammates put on a show.
Then, depending on the situation, they can take action in the fourth quarter or at some other time to close out the game or stabilize the situation.
After all, no matter how confident he was, Don Nelson didn't want to face a 2-2 tie.
No matter how confident you are, there's no need to be, right?
From this perspective, the two of them were indeed on the same page, and their brainwaves were truly in sync.
But he really didn't expect Lin Tian to just open his mouth and say, "I'm not fighting anymore."
How do I describe this feeling?
Still at Chibi, after Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang had discussed their plan, Zhou Yu wrote the character "fire" on his hand with a brush, and then, feeling quite pleased and expectant, he wanted to see what Zhuge Liang had written on his hand.
And then?
Then Zhou Yu saw that Zhuge Liang had written "a meteorite fell from the sky" on his hand!
That's fucking ridiculous.
What do you think about this?
If it can be done, then this move is indeed simple, direct and super effective, and can completely wipe out Cao Cao's 83-strong army in one go!
No way, if they could do that, if they could use that trick, why would they need to attack the army?
Just smash Xuchang, smash Xuchang, and after smashing Xuchang, go smash Rome, smash Athens, smash Carthage, and then smash Mount Olympus and Asgard, okay?
This kind of ridiculous and illogical tactic is the kind that makes everyone who sees it want to punch someone.
But Zhuge Liang also had something to say: "Our lord has the bloodline of a great mage since ancient times; one of his ancestors knew this move! What if our lord knows it too? Let's give it a shot! How can one know their potential if they don't try their best?"
You have to fight to win!
As the saying goes, 3% is determined by fate, but 97% depends on hard work, right?
Although Zhou Yu and Old Nelson are separated by half the globe and 2000 years, if Old Nelson and Zhou Yu were to meet, even if they couldn't speak the same language, they would surely be able to quickly feel a connection in their brainwaves and experience a seamless understanding.
"confidant!"
"FRIEND!"
Although no one knows what Zhou Yu will choose after seeing the "Summon Meteor" move, Old Nelson, after being shocked, has decided to use it!
Come on, let's see who's crazier!
Do you think I, a "mad scientist," am more normal than a young man like you?
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
So, for the next 30 minutes, Old Nelson began to discuss with Lin Tian what excuse they should use to take a break in the next game.
Ankle, wrist, knee, elbow, or groin?
Finally, after discussing it for a while, the two decided on the groin!
The good thing about this place is that you can't tell how it was injured or when it was injured.
The wound is silent and insidious, it hurts quietly and secretly.
You can hurt when you want to, and you can heal when you want to.
It's quite normal to be able to rest for 10 days, 8 days, or a month, or even just 2 or 3 days to recover.
It's incredibly smart!
It works really well!
And so, that very night, heartbreaking news broke for all Knicks fans.
"Lin Tian will miss the Knicks' Game 4 against the Bulls due to a groin injury, and his return date is uncertain."
The news sent shockwaves through New York and the entire league!
Lin Tian is injured! And the injury was announced right after the team lost a crucial game!
Based on his past attendance, playing style, personality, and reputation.
Almost everyone reached the same conclusion at the same time!
Lin Tian's injury is quite serious!
It could even be so serious as to affect his entire playoff run this season!
Otherwise, why would he call a truce at this time?
That's completely out of character for him! (End of Chapter)