The China Power of NBA

Why is Jordan so strong?This question is like asking me why I am so handsome. There is no answer. Jordan averaged 28 points per game in his rookie season. Of course, he averaged more than 30 points per game in his career, 3 regular season MVPs, 6 times Reached the finals, 6 championships, 6 FMVPs, 10 seasons of scoring titles, 14 All-Stars, 3 seasons of steals, and one best defensive player, 11 times Selected to the best team, and all of them are one team, 9 times selected to the best defensive team, and all are one team!Jordan's first championship was in the 1990-1991 season, which happened to be the "seven-year itch" of his career, followed by a wave of three consecutive championships. During this period, all the strong enemies in the NBA were defeated by Jordan's Bulls. One by one, including the consecutive banning of the Jazz with Utah Shuangsha, the Pistons who avenged Isaiah Thomas, the Heat who swept Glenn Rice, the Knicks who defeated Patrick Ewing four times in five years, and the When beating the Suns led by Charles Barkley, he averaged 41 points per game!These teams became the best and most outstanding stepping stones for Jordan to ascend the throne!

At this time, Jordan had nothing to desire in the basketball game, and at the time when the peak suddenly announced his retirement to play baseball. This decision gave hope to many players in the league who longed for the championship. Almost last year, Olajuwon, Thorpe, Maxwell, Kenny Smith, second-year Robert Horry, and role player Scott Brooks who joined the team three years ago, yes, it was The head coach of the Thunder, at that time, he mainly shot three-pointers and averaged about 6 points per game. He added two new players. In 1993, he selected an extremely ugly player with the No. 24 pick in the first round of the draft. The point guard whose name is Sam Cassell, and Mario Avery who was kicked to the Rockets by the Blazers, this season's Rockets players are in surprisingly good condition. Olajuwon averaged 27.3 points per game. With 12 rebounds and 3.7 blocks, Thorpe was able to contribute 15+10 steadily per game. This season, the Rockets won a team record 58 games and entered the playoffs again.

In the first round, the Rockets led by Olajuwon faced the Trail Blazers led by Olajuwon’s college teammate Drex Ray. The weak Trail Blazers were obviously not the opponents of the Rockets. It was easy 3:1 In the promotion, Olajuwon once again exploded the inside line of the Blazers. In this round of the series, he averaged 34 points, 11 rebounds and 3.8 blocks per game, and his shooting percentage was as high as 50%!It is worth mentioning that in this round of the series, the second-year Robert Horry showed the potential of a superb role. He averaged 15 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. Close to 60%, 50% of the three-pointers!Shared a lot of heavy responsibility for Olajuwon on the offensive end.

But in the second round of the playoffs, when facing Charles Barkley's Phoenix Suns, Olajuwon encountered great difficulties.At that time, the Suns had Charles Barkley, the "flying pig in the air". He averaged 25 points and 11 rebounds per game with his big butt. The outside line was Kevin Johnson, who averaged 20+10 per game in the season. Cedric Ceballos, who averaged 19 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, and Dan Marley, a defensive tough guy nicknamed "Thunder", averaged 16.5 points per game and the most The famous iron man AC-Green.With offense, defense, focus, and tactics, the Suns showed the potential of a championship-level team that year. Of course, who can have the last laugh between the two teams ultimately depends on the duel between Olajuwon and Barkley !
In the first game of the finals, everyone in the Rockets except Olajuwon performed unsatisfactorily. Kenny Smith made 7 of 2 shots from the three-point line, and Thorpe only grabbed 7 rebounds. , Horry only hit 13 goals in 5 shots, and Maxwell even made 9 of 1 shots and only scored 3 points!Barkley of the Suns also performed poorly. He only hit 21 goals in 8 shots, scored 21 points and 12 rebounds, but Kevin Johnson scored 20 points and sent 12 assists, and Olajuwon became the Rockets. Lonely hero!He made 24 shots and hit 16 of them. He scored 36 points and 16 rebounds. He completely dominated the interior, but still couldn't prevent the team from losing to the Suns 87:91.

In the second game of the finals, Barkley broke out strongly, hit 18 goals in 12 shots, scored 34 points, 15 rebounds and 6 assists!Kevin Johnson and Dan Marley scored 49 points together!As for the Rockets, Olajuwon continued his strong performance, with 31 points, 17 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Thorpe tried his best to defend Barkley, but Barkley was too strong tonight. In the last 6 Kenny Smith made 14 of 6 shots, Maxwell made 18 of 6 shots, Hawley made 12 of 4 shots, and Kassel made 11 of 4 shots. After 6 shots, the Rockets lost again 117:124.

In the third game of the finals, Barkley fell into a trough again under Thorpe's strong defense. He only hit 22 goals from 9 shots, scored 18 points and 14 rebounds, and did not even make a free throw in the game, but outside Kevin- Johnson broke out, scoring 25 points on 12 of 38 shots and sending out 12 assists. For the Rockets, Olajuwon scored 17 points, 11 rebounds, 26 assists and 15 blocks on 6 of 6 shots. The hero is not him, but "Mad Max" who made 24 of 14 shots and scored 34 points!The Rockets defeated the Suns 118:102, chasing the big score to 2:1. Behind "Mad Max", there is actually an invisible hero. He is Sam who scored 27 points and sent 12 assists in just 10 minutes of playing. -Cassel, the "alien" at this time has begun to have the potential of a high-quality point guard.

The fourth game of the finals is very important for the Rockets. There are only a handful of teams in history with a 3:1 overtake. They don’t want to create such a history. On the floor of the Cypress Center, finally, they did it!For the Suns, this game was simply a replica of the previous game. Barkley did not perform well, scoring 2 points and 2 rebounds on 21 of 7 shots. Kevin Johnson made 19 of 14 crazy shots. Ball scored 31 points and sent 15 assists, but everyone else did not score in double figures. The Rockets side Olajuwon is still the mainstay of the team. He scored 38 points and 12 rebounds on 23 of 14 shots. With 28 assists and 12 blocks, Kenny Smith played an extremely efficient game. He only played 8 minutes and scored 5 points on 28 of 10 shots. Thorpe successfully restrained Barker At the same time, he also handed over a solid double-double data of 8 of 21 shots, 8 points and 5 rebounds.

This round of the series is a duel between two great teams. In the previous games, the winner was decided at the last second. In the crucial fifth game of Tianwangshan, no one wanted to lose. The process of the game was under the control of everyone It must be the tip of the needle in the imagination, but beyond everyone's expectations, the Rockets beat the Suns 109:86 by 23 points!In this game, the Rockets played extremely evenly, distributed the ball reasonably, and relieved the pressure on Dameng on both ends of the offense and defense. In the end, Olajuwon and Thorpe scored 40 points and 19 rebounds together. Kenny Smith made 8 shots 5, scored 16 points, Mario Alley stood up on the bench, played 23 minutes, scored 10 points, the Rockets had 11 more rebounds and 11 more assists than the Suns. The consequence of a reasonable rotation is that the Rockets' team's shooting rate is as high as 52%, while the Suns are less than 40%!The Rockets let Barkley taste the taste of a lonely hero. Although the "Flying Pig" scored 25 points on 14 of 30 shots, everyone else's performance reached a heinous level. The first few games were tepid Ceballos scored 12 points on 5 of 11 shots in this game. Kevin Johnson's good luck was left in the previous game. He made 13 of 4 shots and only scored 11 points. Dan Marley made 6 of 0 shots. No point at all...

Even the greatest planner in the world could not have imagined that after only two days, the state of the two teams was completely reversed. The Rockets lost to the Suns 89:103!Although Olajuwon made 12 of 9 shots and scored 23 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists, the team's outside line once again turned into a "giant hole." Horry made 11 of 5 shots and Smith made 11 of 3 shots. , Maxwell made only 10 of 2 shots, Cassell made 10 of 3 shots, and the three role players of the Suns became the surprise soldiers of the Suns. AC-Green made 10 of 9 shots and scored 22 points and 10 rebounds. - Klein scored 15 points and Danny Ainge scored 13 points.

In the end, the two teams came to the tiebreaker with a score of 3-3. Going home or advancing all depends on the performance of each player in the 48 minutes of love. In the first quarter, the Rockets 33:21 head start. In the second quarter, the Suns played 26:20 to catch up desperately. This game is completely a championship-level game. Everyone knows the final result. The Rockets had the last laugh. The score was 104:94. In this game, the Suns' substitute Danny -Angie played the best game of the finals, scoring 12 points on 6 of 18 shots, while Barkley's data was "only" 19 of 9 shots, 24 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Not good, Maxwell made 14 of 5 shots, Smith made 8 of 2 shots, but Hawley and Cassell played extremely well, the former scored 7 points on 5 of 15 shots, and the latter scored 12 points on 8 of 22 shots. 4 rebounds and 7 assists.And the big BUG Olajuwon completely dominated the game. He made 33 shots, hit 18 goals and scored 37 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, sent 5 assists and 3 blocks.

The Rockets stepped into the Western Conference Finals on the dead body of the sun. The opponent was the Utah Jazz who defeated the Spurs first and then the Nuggets. The Utah Shuangsha in the Jazz, John Stockton and Karl Malone's pick-and-roll combination Megatron League, No one can break it except Jordan!But the Jazz has a fatal shortcoming. Although the combination of Utah's two evil spirits is very lethal, the help of the other role players to the two is really limited. In this round of the series, except for Stockton and Karl Malone, Except for Jeff Hornacek (the current head coach of the Suns), none of the others can score in double figures!In the key position match between the two teams, Karl Malone averaged 26 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, but his shooting percentage was only 43.3%, while Olajuwon's data was 27.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, and his shooting percentage was 50.2% !After five games, the Rockets eliminated the Jazz. The most important thing is that in these five games, the Rockets' role players exploded in turn!In the first game, Horry desperately grabbed 5 offensive rebounds. Cassel played 18 minutes and scored 9 points and 7 assists. In the second game, Mario Avery scored 17 points. It was Cassell. He scored 14 points and sent 4 assists. In the fourth game, the Cavaliers were still Cassell. He scored 17 points on 6 of 3 shots in 10 minutes. In the fifth game, Hawley made 13 of 8 shots. , scored 22 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists.

In this way, the Rockets once again stood on the stage of the Finals after 1986. Their opponent was the New York Knicks led by Olajuwon's lifelong enemy Ewing.

Time seems to go back to 1984. In that year, Georgetown University led by Ewing and University of Houston led by Olajuwon stood on the stage of the NCAA Finals. The data of that game is no longer available, but "It is said" that under the defense of Ewing, Olajuwon only scored 10 points in the game. Ewing didn't score many points, 15 points, but it was enough to lead the team to victory. After that game, Olajuwon participated in the NBA draft, therefore, he did not have an NCAA championship ring. This incident made Olajuwon regret all his life, but the more regrettable thing may be Ewing. He never won an NBA championship in his whole life. ring.

Olajuwon and Ewing are actually very good friends off the court, but as long as they step on the floor of the game, the two will not give in to each other. They will use all kinds of pushing, all kinds of trash talk, etc. To ensure their own advantages, because they both understand that the best respect for each other is to play unreservedly and go all out in the game. The relationship between the two of them is like Chamberlain and Russell back then, Bird and Johnson, Jordan and Barkley, and even Kobe and James.

This year's Knicks was the best year for players. Ewing averaged 25 points and 11 rebounds per game. Guard John Starks averaged 19 points and 6 assists per game. Power forward Charles - Oakley averaged a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds per game. Both Ewing and Oakley defended the interior very well. This will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of Olajuwon's goal, but the truth is!

Wait and see!