NBA: This Center Is So Stable

The first game of the season, the second game of the season.

Chapter 185 Bringing the game back to New York

As the opening game of the NBA playoffs, before the official start of Game 2, the game between the Celtics and the Knicks was talked about by fans after the game.

All the pre-game concerns disappeared the moment the Celtics were defeated. The Knicks, who were missing Kurt Thomas, showed their fangs to the outside world through this game.

They proved that they are not the so-called regular season fierce tigers and playoff soft persimmons!

ESPN’s official website directly released the dynamic picture of the Knicks’ victory.

The first thing that came into view was the white and orange crowd of the entire Madison Garden. They stood up and cheered behind the Knicks.

The Asian boy surrounded by the crowd in the center of the picture is the Chinese rookie named Wang Song, who is surrounded by his teammates.

American netizens have heatedly discussed this and the prospects of the Knicks on the official website of ESPN.

——【Looking at the smile of the Asian boy, those who don’t know would think that they won the first game of the finals. 】

——【Oh, man, don’t be jealous. How many rookies can win their first playoff victory in the first year of their career? The Knicks, with 74 wins, are undoubtedly the favorites to win the championship. They may stop in the playoffs, but the team that beats them is definitely not the Celtics. 】

——【By the way, is there any team in the East that can put pressure on this Knicks team? 】

——【Of course, whether it is the Pacers or the Heat, both teams have the possibility of defeating the Knicks. You know, the Knicks’ rotation lineup is their biggest failure. In such a tight schedule of the playoffs, this is good news for other teams. 】

——【Before that, I hope the Celtics can cause more trouble to the Knicks, at least drag the series into G6, so that the Knicks will be at a disadvantage in the second round. 】

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Just as netizens were discussing the game between the Knicks and the Celtics, the results of the G1 of other teams in the playoffs came out one after another.

Like the Knicks, the New Jersey Nets and the Miami Heat, ranked fourth and fifth in the Eastern Conference, are in the upper half of the Eastern Conference. The strengths of the two teams in the regular season are very close.

As one of the few rookies who entered the playoffs as a starter this season, Dwyane Wade performed very well in his first game. In his first playoff appearance, he contributed 21 points to help the team win.

On the other hand, the New Jersey Nets did not cause much resistance to the Heat. Under Wade’s restriction, Corey Kidds scored 17 points with 4 of 15 shots, which became the highest score of the Nets.

Stan Van Gundy has brought the Heat’s team basketball to its fullest.

They gradually adapted to Wade’s joining, and with the “left-handed magician” Lamar Odom, the two of them revitalized the Heat’s offense, and in the absence of a traditional center, they were not inferior to the Nets in rebounding.

In addition to the Heat, the two groups in the lower half were the Pacers vs. Bucks and the Pistons vs. Pelicans.

As the second-best regular season record after the Knicks, the Pacers showed considerable aggressiveness under the leadership of Jermaine O’Neal.

O’Neal and Metta World Peace accounted for nearly half of the Pacers’ shots, and the two scored 50 points together, showing the Pacers’ dominance in the interior and front lines. Their net score was even more exaggerated than the Knicks, and they defeated the Bucks with an absolute advantage of 110:87.

The Pistons, led by Larry Brown, were equally strong. After Prince left the team, the Pistons played team basketball to the extreme, winning 26 points over the Pelicans, becoming the largest net score in the Eastern Conference G1.

The Eastern Conference results can be said to be sunny and all home teams won the game.

In contrast, the Western Conference, which has always been highly competitive, started fighting in G1.

The battle between the Lakers and the Rockets ended with the Lakers winning by 1 point!

With Kobe making 4 of 19 shots, the Big Shark still controlled the game at the last moment, scored the key ball to kill the game, and scored 20 points, 17 rebounds and 2 blocks in a single game.

Like Wang Song, the Rockets’ Huaxia center Yao Min also participated in the playoffs for the first time, but the mentality of the Great Wall of China was affected by the away game. He only got 10 points and 11 rebounds against O’Neal, and paid 6 fouls and went off the court.

However, given the disparity in strength between the two teams, Jeff Van Gundy did not take the loss to heart, and even felt somewhat satisfied with the result of losing by only one point.

Because the focus of their series this time is to return to the Toyota Center and have a dialogue with the Lakers, the Western Conference battleship. At present, it seems that the Rockets are fully qualified to talk to the Lakers.

As for the other three games in the West, they are the Timberwolves vs. Nuggets, the Kings vs. Mavericks, and the Spurs vs. Grizzlies.

The Timberwolves and the Kings both narrowly defeated their opponents like the Lakers, while the Spurs coached by Popovich maintained their strength and crushed the Grizzlies with a net score of 15 points.

The dense results seem to have a long battle line, but in fact, these 8 games ended the battle within two days.

So in the evening of the second day, after D’Antoni arranged the precautions and tactical sets for G2 and the Celtics, he pulled the players to review the game videos of other teams.

“The Heat are in a strong momentum and are likely to be our next opponent. We should pay attention to the kid from Marquette University. He has a strong impact.”

“And the winner between the Pistons and the Pacers will also be the biggest obstacle for us to break out of the East. I heard that Jermaine O’Neal made a lot of preparations to deal with Wang. It is said that the guy started to lose weight at the end of the season… This is very important information!”

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Listening to D’Antoni’s well-reasoned analysis, Nash and his teammates smiled at each other.

The Knicks are still preparing for Game 2 with the Celtics, but D’Antoni’s confident study of the opponent behind makes the Knicks players feel a little too anxious.

“Boss, don’t we really focus on the Celtics first? Maybe we can consider preparing for Boston in advance after winning Game 2.”

When Nash thought of the North Shore Garden, he couldn’t help getting goose bumps.

Although he had been in a Western team before, he always felt uncomfortable every time he went to that away game.

Those fans who talk trash, and Pierce’s vicious eyes… will become obstacles to victory.

“Easy, Steve!”

Talking about the Celtics, D’Antoni relaxed his tense expression.

“Do you think we will be defeated by the black 8? You performed very well in the first round, and I expect 4:0 in this series!”

Nash was a little surprised when the always calm new coach blurted out these words.

But what surprised him even more was that Wang Song, who had been silent beside him, suddenly spoke:

“Mr. Mike, maybe we can consider bringing the game back to New York!”

(End of this chapter)