On April 24, the first game of the Wizards and Magic playoffs officially started.

Before the game started, the entire MIC Center Arena in Washington was completely packed, and all fans were wearing cheering T-shirts, and they looked like they were in the crowd.

For fans, the team has not entered the playoff stage for a long time.

This year, led by head coach Yang Fan, the Wizards passed the hurdles and not only reached the second place in the East, but also made bold statements many times, saying that the team's only goal this season is the championship.

This undoubtedly greatly stimulated the Wizards fans' desire to watch.

In fact, whether the Wizards can win the final championship trophy this season, it will be a successful season for the Wizards.

For Wizards fans, they also recognize Yang Fan's coaching ability.

After all, the Wizards were only at the bottom of the Eastern Conference last season, and this season they already have the strength to compete for the championship.

This gap between heaven and earth is really admirable.

"I heard it, guys, the sound of cheering for us is heard on the spot, so this game is not only for us, but also for the fans."

"I know there are a lot of players on the team who are playing in the playoffs for the first year, but I want to say that the playoffs are not much different from the regular season."

"So don't have any psychological pressure on the court. Take a bold move when you come out. Don't be afraid of not being able to make a move, don't be afraid of taking the blame, and don't be afraid of being blamed."

"As long as we can perform normally, we will definitely advance to the next round."

"Everyone just needs to be confident and bold in shooting. Winning is yours, losing is mine. In short, keep a good attitude and don't be disturbed by everything from the outside world."

"I am not only the coaches on the court, but also the most solid backing on the court." Before the game, head coach Yang Fan kept guiding the players.

There is no way. There are many people in the Wizards who have never played in the playoffs. Wall and George are second-year rookies, Thompson, Vucevic and Thomas Jr. are first-year rookies.

Therefore, compared with other aspects, psychological enlightenment is the most important thing.

Fortunately, Yang Fan has long been very experienced in this regard, after all, this is how he came through it in Thunder.

Even when Yang Fan pours chicken soup for young players, he will have the illusion that he is great.

"No wonder there are so many chicken soup coaches with excellent reputation. This feeling is really good..." Yang Fan couldn't help but murmur after the player came on the court.

At the beginning of the game, the ball rights were first obtained by the Magic.

The Magic's starting lineup in this game are: Nelson, Richardson, Tcogru, Leon Anderson, and Howard.

The Wizards are: Wall, Thompson, Paul George, Aldridge, and Yao Ming.

As soon as the game started, Magic started to play his core tactics.

With Howard as the core, all the other four people opened up space, and while making more opportunities for Howard, they were ready to catch the ball and shoot at any time.

Because the Magic have both Nelson and Tkogru in the starting lineup.

So as long as the Magic's tactics are in place, once Howard faces a quotation, he only needs to pass it out. In the end, no matter who passes the ball to, the Magic can complete the attack or launch a second organization as soon as possible.

In this way, Van Gundy hid Howard's defect in passing poorly and implemented this one-star game to the end.

However, Van Gundy obviously underestimated Yang Fan. In Yang Fan's eyes, although this one-star outfit is indeed very powerful, it is still somewhat inferior to the Cavaliers team in later generations.

After all, the Magic relies too much on Howard's performance.

Once Howard feels bad, or the opponent has a meat shield center who can handle Howard, the Magic's overall offense will be greatly reduced.

However, the Cavaliers' style of playing can allow James to attack from different angles through continuous pick-and-roll.

Then choose between breakthroughs, fouls, shooting and passing.

So at present, Van Gundy thinks that this tactic is seamless, but in Yang Fan's eyes, there are some loopholes.

This also led to the fact that when Howard received the ball at a low post and was preparing for a single, the Thunder still maintained his defensive position, and no one wanted to come up to attack.

Seeing this situation, even Howard himself was stunned because he had long been used to double-teaming. Even if there were no double-teaming, it was common for the wing players to harass him continuously.

As a result, the wizard seemed so calm as soon as he came up, as if he didn't take him seriously.

As the Wizards had no intention of coming up to double-team, Howard pushed Yao Ming twice on his back, and then directly completed a "discus throwing" turning around.

Although Yao Ming has lost weight during the offseason, his height of 2.26 meters can still cause some interference to Howard.

As we all know, Howard lacks strength in the lower limbs, so when facing some tall center players, Howard often struggles.

This is also the main reason why Yao Ming was able to torture Howard back then.

"Bang!"

With Howard's hook shot missed, Yao Ming immediately stuck his position under the basket, and then Aldridge, who was beside him, directly accepted the defensive rebound and handed it to Wall to start pushing the counterattack.

The Wizards have been following this style of play throughout the first quarter, just to resolutely not attack Howard.

If Howard can score, then score. If he can't score, Wall will push the counterattack as soon as possible and use his speed to break through the Magic's defense line.

Because Nelson's speed was already very poor, once Wall pushed and fought back, no one in the Magic team could keep up with him.

Richardson, who was seriously injured, or Tkoglu, thirty-three years old, was even less qualified in front of Wall.

Since Howard is the defensive core of this Magic team, in this case, once Howard holds the ball at a low post, it will be difficult for Howard to take the defense as soon as possible.

This is also Yang Fan's second point for the Magic, which is to try to avoid Howard's strong zone on the defensive end, so that he can waste more energy on offense and back-to-back running.

On the offensive end, the Wizards are still playing steadily. If there is no chance to play a defensive counterattack, the players will perform a large number of unball pick-and-rolls according to tactics, thus trying to create opportunities to shoot.

The most important thing is that the magic on the defensive end cannot limit Aldridge's performance at all.

Although Anderson can open up a wide attacking space for Howard on the offensive end, his flaws in defense are fatal.

With the outstanding performance of Aldridge and Paul George, the Wizards finally led the Magic by 8 points, ending the first quarter between the two sides.
Chapter completed!