Chapter 109: Advance to the Eastern Conference Finals (Part 1)
Amid endless rumors, the second game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Magic vs. Cavaliers, started on time. Before the start of this game, the league's long-delayed award was finally handed out.
The first is the best rookie award. This rookie award that should have been awarded at the end of the regular season finally fell to Zhang Kong. This award was voted by sports reporters across the United States and Canada. Each judge voted for the first, second and third place players respectively. A player will receive 5 points for each first-place vote, 3 points for a second-place vote, and 1 point for a third-place vote.
Zhang Kong was undoubtedly elected as the Rookie of the Year with 239 first-place votes. What you need to know is that there were only 240 sports reporters from the United States and Canada who participated in the election, and the only first-place vote was lost. It fell on Kevin Durant's head.
The subsequent subsequent issued was the best defensive player of the year, and the two MVP finale prizes in the regular season. Defensive Player of the Year, Zhang Kong once again left others behind with 200 first-place votes and a total score of 680 points. Dwight Howard, the highest scorer behind Zhang Kong, only scored 120 points. .
After fierce competition, James was elected as the regular season MVP of the 2007-08 season.
When James raised the 'Maurice Podoloff Cup' symbolizing MVP in the Quicken Loans Center Arena, the little emperor finally won his first highly valuable personal award in his life after 4 years in the league. All he lacks now is the championship trophy and finals mvp.
Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry also defeated the Celtics general manager with an extremely narrow advantage to win the General Manager of the Year trophy.
Today is undoubtedly a great day for the Cavaliers. But Cavaliers fans were a little unhappy and even filled with worry.
Everything was caused by Zhang Kong¡¯s trading rumors.
Since the first round of the game against the Magic, the fans have not had a good night's sleep in the past three days. In the past three days, the trading rumors about Zhang Kong have intensified. Countless people have come forward and countless people have surfaced. Everything seems to be supporting that this is indeed true.
Zhang Kong is indeed ready to leave the Cavaliers.
This is huge bad news for Cavaliers fans and Cleveland fans.
This season, the Cavaliers have undergone earth-shaking changes. While their darling, little emperor LeBron James is still unstoppable, there is another indestructible player in the team.
The indestructible LeBron James, the indestructible Zhang Kong. The sharpest spear and the strongest shield in the world are both held in the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers. This feeling is so refreshing. Not to mention that so far this season, most of the victories the Cavaliers have achieved have been easy wins along the way. 66 wins and 16 losses in the regular season, the team's best record in history, and was even considered to be in the schedule. It is possible to break the best record in history created by the Bulls. In fact, in the end, it only lost 6 more games.
Zhang Kong won the Rookie of the Year, Zhang Kong won the Defensive Player of the Year, the regular season rebounding leader, and the regular season blocks leader, LeBron James won the regular season MVP, and won the regular season scoring leader. The two were selected to the best team and the best defensive team together, and the two teamed up to sweep the league's major awards!
Just when Cavaliers fans are looking forward to the two joining forces to win the first championship in the history of the Cavaliers, just as the die-hard Cavaliers are looking forward to the two joining forces to create a Cavaliers dynasty like an ok combination. when¡¡
Zhang Kong said he was leaving
How can you do this?
Among the fans present today, many took off James' No. 23 jersey and put on Zhang Kong's No. 25 jersey instead, and held banners high.
"Don't leave, we need you!"
¡°Tell us it¡¯s not true!¡±
¡°It¡¯s just a lie, right? It¡¯s a belated April Fool¡¯s Day joke!¡±
Countless fans held banners high and called Zhang Kong, hoping that he would suddenly lift up, grab the microphone and say: "Hey brothers, I was just joking, I will not leave the Cavaliers."
Of course, there are also some more radical fans who booed Zhang Kong when he accepted the award.
Zhang Kong didn¡¯t care about this. When he decided to leave Cleveland, he was already prepared to endure all this, and he already had a plan on how to leave the Cavaliers. If necessary, he could buy out his contract. . As for the money to buy out the contract, right???For Zhang Kong now, it is simply a drop in the bucket. After all, her contract was small to begin with, and the liquidated damages were only a small amount.
Of course, if possible, he hopes he can try not to do this. She still has some feelings for the Cavaliers, and he still hopes to adopt a sign-and-trade approach, which can at least allow the Cavaliers to gain some benefits and make up for the losses.
"Zhang, have you really made up your mind?" After receiving the MVP, LeBron James still hoped to make a final effort: "Is there no room for change at all? Those fans, you saw them, they I don¡¯t want you to leave, I hope you can stay and we can build a dynasty together.¡±
"It's very comfortable to work with you, LeBron. Maybe I can't find a better partner than you in this league. But sometimes you always have to sacrifice something in order to pursue. I don't want to build a relationship with you." After joining the dynasty and announcing a falling out, just like O'Neal and Kobe, instead of everyone being unhappy at that time, it would be better for me to leave after the end of this season. In short, let's win the championship this season first."
This is the second game between the Magic and the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. After the first game, the Magic suffered an almost irresistible defeat after Howard was injured. Stan Van Gundy once thought that the Magic's game this season would be over. The strength gap between the Magic and the Cavaliers is too obvious and cannot be made up through tactics.
But rumors about Zhang Kong¡¯s transfer that broke out at just the right time gave him some confidence. If Stan Van Gundy thinks about it, Zhang Kong's status will definitely be greatly affected if he is involved in trade rumors, and the rest of the Cavaliers will definitely experience fluctuations in status as a result. This is really a great opportunity for the Magic. It's a pity that Howard was injured, otherwise this opportunity would be greater and more certain.
Therefore, he made a lot of preparations for today's game. In terms of tactics, he deployed quick attack tactics from the beginning of the game, trying to take advantage of the Cavaliers' unstable start to open up the score. Fight for more opportunities in the following games.
If it succeeds, we will further strengthen the defense and use regional defense to force the Cavaliers into individual singles scoring mode and cut off the cooperation of James, Zhang Kong and the whole team
To be honest, overall this is a good plan, which is enough to prove that Stan Van Gundy does have a good tactical foundation.
However, his plan was foiled from the beginning.
At the beginning of the game, the Magic launched an attack on the Cavaliers. In Stan Van Gundy's plan, the Cavaliers' defense at this time should be loose, chaotic, and even substandard. But in fact, the Cavaliers' defense is still as smelly and hard as a big rock in a pit
Zhang Kong's four consecutive bloody big shots made the Magic team's heads bloody and dizzy. At the same time, it also launched a 16:0 opening shock wave.
The Cavaliers' defense was not in chaos, as if Zhang Kong's transfer rumors had no impact. In fact, the impact is really not big
The Cavaliers generals have already known about Zhang Kong's transfer. He and James had a frank quarrel in the locker room, but every player was lying at the door and could hear clearly.
Therefore, although they have not received a definite answer, they already have a clue in their minds about Zhang Kong's desire to stay away from the knights.
When the Zhang Kong trade rumors unexpectedly broke out, it can be said that the least surprised were these guys. It's even possible that these trade rumors were leaked by one of these people. After all, the media mentioned again and again that they were based on "information disclosed by a certain Cavaliers insider." But no one will ask
Zhang Kong did not pursue the case.
So, Stan Van Gundy made a mistake in judgment from the beginning. After making a mistake in judgment, he did not adjust his tactics in time, but sat in a daze on the coaching bench.
His ability to adjust on the spot is extremely poor, and he can't think of any good solutions in a short period of time. His tactical ability cannot help him come up with a way to defeat the enemy in a short period of time.
In fact, tactical ability has never been a necessary quality for a head coach. After all, in the NBA, this is only the job of an assistant coach. If you are looking for a tactician, there are rows and rows of tactician masters from sports academies waiting to be hired.
The most famous coach in the league, Phil Jackson, was just the water cooler keeper on the Knicks bench when he was young. When others were playing games, he would sit at the end of the bench and smoke marijuana. Amidst the smoke of marijuana and being dizzy from smoking, he vaguely glimpsed the true meaning of winning on the court, and then became a head coach., even more out of control, becoming one of the representatives of the league's top coaches.
What tactical abilities does he have?
Come on, he didn¡¯t come up with the triangle offense. He only popularized the triangle offense in the Bulls because he felt that this tactic was particularly suitable for the Bulls at that time. As a result, he achieved unprecedented success and was dubbed the 'Master Tactics'.
And Stan Van Gundy is not such a coach. If you ask him to arrange and explain tactics, he will be able to speak clearly and clearly. If you ask him to command on the spot in an unexpected situation, he will probably be blind. The position that is most suitable for this kind of person is actually the position of assistant coach.
After the initial tactical arrangement collapsed, Stan Van Gundy was blinded.