Chapter 221 Force the King
The Knicks were the winner today, but Wu Huang did not show any magnanimity. After the game, he and the New York media sang together. The latter specifically asked him about the problem with gunpowder. Wu Huang said without hesitation: "These two games have allowed us to find our true self, and the next game will definitely be very different from the first game. In the first game, most of the players participated in the playoffs for the first time. We did not fully demonstrate our strength, that was not our true level. By the second game, we had found the feeling of the game, and in the end we just lost in experience. In the last two games, everyone has seen that they are not our opponents at all. I can't wait for the next game to arrive."
Iguodala, who was sitting next to him, couldn't help but wipe her forehead with her hands, but there was no sweat on it.
At the post-match press conference, the No. 1 player, who has always been a low-key person, wanted to say a few polite words, but after being done by Emperor Wu, he could only say: "Every team may be defeated by the opponent. We lost the first two games, but as Hugo said, every game we are getting better. Now we have the confidence to defeat our opponents and enter the next round. The fifth game will be the key to this round of series."
D'Antoni also agreed with Wu Huang's point of view, saying: "Hugo's performance is like he has played in many playoffs. For him, it is not a big scene at all. His work is done well, commanding the team to win, scoring like taking pictures, and doing a good job on the defensive end. He is already a star who has experienced the test of the playoffs. I have only seen such terrifying lethality in Amare."
The mustache could guess Wu Huang's intentions so high-profile. Sometimes, if you say something to death in advance, it can reduce the possibility of the team underestimating the enemy, because if you say something too much, you must not lose, otherwise you will lose face.
Secondly, Wu Huang is also continuing to attract media attention and opponents' attention for his teammates. Although he is actually stolen from the limelight and has a higher possibility of pretending, the advantage of doing this is that other Knicks players will face much less pressure, and they can hide behind Wu Huang and perform more easily.
Finally, he can continue to stimulate the Eagles players by doing this. As long as the opponent feels angry, the more he will care too much about Wu Huang in the next game, so that they will have more room for adjustment. The Eagles also increase the possibility of losing out of thin air.
Emperor Wu finally mentioned his three consecutive games of 40+ without any trace. He said that he didn't think it was such an incredible or magical performance. He also said with a little humorous: "The biggest trick in this league is that no matter how hard you try to get good results or historical performance, as long as you look up, you can see Michael and Wilt standing on the top of the mountain and laughing at you: 'Come on'."
Of course he said this is not true. There are many players in NBA history who have won 40+ games in several consecutive games, but there are not many players who can do this in rookie seasons and playoffs. In fact, there are not many players who can lead the team to play in the playoffs in the first season. Wu Huang’s words are suspected of being invisible to show off. This is his favorite thing. Many domestic fans have given him the third very appropriate nickname "Pirate King".
I would like to mention here that no one in the Knicks' team has ever won 40+ in three consecutive games in the playoffs. Wu Huang unknowingly set a new team record. After the game, he pretended to be slap in a sign of silence. These two home courts were really a happy journey for him.
The Hawks are much more low-key after the game. Larry Drew is just repeatedly emphasizing that the team's loss in the away game will not affect their indestructible home advantage. The Knicks have a high home winning rate this season. The Hawks are mentally prepared to lose here, but don't forget that they have one more home advantage than the Knicks. As long as they win the next third home game, the Hawks can hold three match points. They still take the initiative in the series, and losing two games in a row is definitely not the end of the world.
Yahoo Sports, which has always liked to look down on Wu Huang after the game, naturally jumped out and cheered the Hawks. They agreed with Larry Drew's view that the two failures did not explain too many problems. This series will not change too much.
The Knicks are very strong at home. They once defeated strong teams like the Cavaliers and Celtics in Madison Garden, but their away record is at the back of the eight Eastern Conference playoff teams. So it is obvious that the Knicks cannot win all three consecutive games. If they really want to win three or even four consecutive games to eliminate the Atlanta, it may be more difficult than letting China send an astronaut to the moon.
However, this does not mean that the Eagles can not take this failure seriously. They need to ask themselves, what did we let the opponent do?
Such a heart-wrenching report was soon reprinted by angry Chinese media, and countless Chinese fans, even non-fans, were furious after reading this metaphor, and they all cursed the Yahoo Sports report for being suspected of blatantly provoking all Chinese people, who were **naked and looked down on the Chinese.
Although Yahoo Sports quickly removed the content of the report and publicly apologized, it did not punish any employees. It was obviously not taking the protests and scoldings of Chinese netizens seriously. This insincere apology cannot eliminate the anger of the Chinese people at all.
Emperor Wu did not express his opinion on this, and of course he was very angry. This was actually for him, otherwise why should he bring it to China?
But he knew even more that it wouldn't hurt others when slapping the face now. If the Knicks really lose in the next game, then it wouldn't be slapping others in the face, but being slapped by others in the face. So he always won the game and settled the score with these people, so he could save time being fucked and make people laugh.
The New York Times naturally looked down on the Atlanta Hawks at this time. They belittled Atlanta players in different ways in the reports and claimed that the Knicks Youth League's advantage was undoubtedly, and the only star that the Hawks could play was Joe Johnson.
But fans who watched the game knew that the star guard did not perform well in the game against the Knicks. In addition to the first two games, he only contributed 17 points in the third and fourth games, with only 25% shooting from the field and 3-point shooting percentage as low as 12.5%, which is a big gap from his average of 21.3 points, 45.8% shooting percentage and 36.9% shooting percentage this season.
Another restricted player of the Eagles is the all-round king Josh Smith. The double-ath forward who averaged 15.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in the third and fourth games, only scored 22 points and 13 rebounds, and his role was greatly limited.
The last gap is in the scoring of bench players. Apart from Crawford, the Hawks do not have a real bench depth. In contrast, Harrington averaged 12 points per game in four games, Danny Green scored a total of 4 three-pointers in the last two games, and Du Hong also scored 14 points today. The Knicks' bench contribution is obviously better than the Hawks.
The Eagles can really cause trouble for the Knicks is Al Horford. He has a considerable advantage in the fight with David Lee, but this advantage is gone in today's game. David scored 20 points and 15 rebounds in the fourth game, and Horford only has 12 points and 9 rebounds. If David Lee can continue his outstanding performance in Game 5, the Eagles may only be able to stay in two wins.
Then Da Sabi's praise to Emperor Wu in the report was not concealed at all. Of course, they could not imitate the invisible pretending to be like Emperor Wu, but instead worshipped him for his 40+ performance in three consecutive games.
In the second half of this report, the protagonist is Wu Huang alone. Da Sabi wrote: After today's game, Hugo became the first player in the Knicks' history to score 40+ in three consecutive games in the playoffs, and also became the first player in Jordan to score 40+5+5 in three consecutive games in 1989. There was also a triple-double data, which was unique.
Such a feat. Kobe of the Lakers has never done it, James of the Cavaliers has never done it, and superstars such as Wade, Anthony, and Iverson have never done it...
In the past 10 years of the NBA, not to mention the playoffs, even if the players who can score more than 40 in three consecutive games in the regular season are only Anthony, Iverson, Carter and Kobe. This alone can show that when Hugo wants to score, no matter what kind of defense it is, it is difficult to stop him. You should know that their opponent today is the Atlanta Hawks, which was the Western Conference semi-finals team last season. It is also the third in the Eastern Conference this year and is also the league's recognized defensive strong team.
In addition, Hugo's 40 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists in the previous game is something that no one among the current players has ever done. Although James has scored 40+10+10, it is not as good as Wu Huang's performance. Jordan has been able to get such crazy data in the past 30 years, so we can conclude that Hugo's personal ability is no less than that of the superstars of the 2003 generation? So is he the strongest rookie in NBA history?
Although the New York Times report is a bit exaggerated, in the entire basketball world, those who know the ball know what Wu Huang's performance means in these three games. However, mainstream sports media in the United States chose to report in a low-key manner and took the reason that the Eagles' point guard was too disadvantageous to reduce the value of the data obtained by Wu Huang. Only local media in New York are hyping up Wu Huang's phenomenal performance.
This phenomenon can be understood as follows: If Wu Huang, a Chinese, only plays at an ordinary main player or a quasi-All-star level. Then his Chinese identity can allow him to enjoy the exposure of All-Stars or even higher levels, and the American media will also give him a thumbs up. Anyway, there are some players in their country who are better than you, and they won’t feel unhappy if they praise you anymore, but they can reflect their demeanor.
But now it is different. Wu Huang played so well, and it has exceeded their tolerance. At this time, his Chinese identity made many American media and senior fans feel uncomfortable. Only a huge pseudo-fan or a female fan who looks completely at the face will become a crazy fan of Wu Huang.
Now Wu Huang has more followers on Facebook and Twitter than James and Kobe? The reason is not that there are more fans who like to watch him play. This is because the world has the largest number of face-looking and fake fans, and the United States is naturally no exception. Therefore, although Wu Huang was resisted by senior fans in Europe and the United States, he has successfully attracted more brainless fans to protect himself.
These fans may not even understand the rules of NBA. In fact, they are not watching basketball at all, but watching Wu Huang. Even as long as Wu Huang has good personal data in the game, they will not care too much even if the team loses. Instead, they will give him "the reason for teammate CBA" to cleanse him willingly.
After this game, although the American media reported that Wu Huang was quite a bit of, they also put a lot of resources on other teams and stars, which made many fans who don’t know much about NBA even know how magical Wu Huang’s three consecutive games were?
This made Emperor Wu feel that it seemed inappropriate to choose a low-key approach. He originally wanted to show off invisibly and let others take the initiative to praise him how awesome he was, which made him even more awesome, right? But I never expected that when someone gave him a trick, Emperor Wu was blinded at once. This "suppress" was not pretending!
Of course, the media in Asia have been much more professional than the American media these days. Several domestic sports giants have also drawn up all players who have won more than 40 in three consecutive games to evaluate them. Then they compared Wu Huang’s strong points with other big names’ weak points. Finally, they suddenly realized that Wu Huang seemed to be no one else? He is already awesome than Jordan, and Kobe, James and others are like scumbags in front of him. In the end, even these media themselves felt that they were a bit over the head?
After the fourth game, although Wu Huang felt that his news was less than he had imagined, he didn't care about hype himself anymore. The team is about to devote himself to the preparations for the fifth game. And even though he was bragging his cowhide outside, it seemed that a finger could poke the Eagles to death, in fact, he was not sure about this away game.
Yahoo Sports is right. The Hawks are indeed very strong at home, while the Knicks are a bit weak away. After a while, their confidence will naturally not be too great.
D'Antoni now hopes to take advantage of the momentum of two consecutive games to pursue, and perhaps use their offense to destroy the Eagles, whose morale is in a downturn, and it depends on whether his team's core can continue to perform well in the fifth game, especially in the first quarter of the game.
On April 26, the fourth game of the first round ended, and on this day, the league gave birth to the first team to be swept and eliminated.
The most unsurprising game in the Eastern Conference was the Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat. Although Howard only scored 15 points and 10 rebounds in the fourth game, the Magic only took three quarters to extinguish the Heat, so that the Warcraft sat on the bench in the fourth quarter and looked at his teammates and continued to teach his opponents a lesson. The Warcraft was very happy on this day.
O'Neal Jr.'s four games allowed Howard to average only 7 points and 6 rebounds per game. Such performance was completely unqualified. Perhaps the Heat would not lose so badly even if they encountered other teams, even if they encountered the powerful Celtics, they would not lose so badly, but when they met the Magic team with strong ability to abuse food, they really had no chance at all.
Wade seemed very frustrated at the post-match press conference. In his speech, he even revealed his remarks of dissatisfaction with the team's strength, which made the Flash, whose contract has expired this summer, instantly became a big fish full of fragrance in the free market.
After Miami was eliminated, Wade was already half a free agent. If the team in the league wants to get the superstar defender, they can now have a sneak contact in private and test the tone of this popular superstar.
After the Magic finished this round of the series, they had to sit and watch the winners of the Knicks and the Eagles. Looking back at the time, New York fans dared to look down on others, but now no one dared to say that. No matter how arrogant they are, they don’t think that Wu Huang is better than Wade at this time. Since even the Flash can’t break through the Magic’s defense, although Wu Huang has better shooting ability and has some restraint on the Magic’s defense in his style of play, he still has little hope of leading the team to defeat the Magic.
Another strong team in the East District, the Celtics, was scored back by the Bobcats on the away game. The Big Four did not stop at the critical moment in the fourth quarter this time. The Bobcats used their home advantage to make a very savage defense. Although the Bobcats paid two technical fouls and the price of two players leaving the court, they finally defended their home honors, were not shaved at the door of their home, and tied 2:2 with the strong opponent.
Now, theoretically speaking, the Bobcats tied with the Celtics, and the chances of qualifying between the two teams were not much different. But in fact, the Bobcats had already lost all their money. In this battle, they won the game in a disgraceful way, but the league will definitely not take care of them like this. If there is no accident like injury, the Bobcats have no chance.
The last group of matches in the Eastern Conference were the Cavaliers vs. The Bucks, but there was no suspense. The Clevelanders easily defeated the home team away, and the Milwaukees walked away.
The Bucks were actually much earlier than the Bobcats' skills. It can even be said that they had no choice but to do anything to the Cavaliers and James from beginning to end. The victory in the first game was more of a luck component + the Cavaliers underestimated the enemy, but it had nothing to do with the Bucks themselves. They may not even know how they won the game.
So this team that should have been swept has now been beaten to 3:1, and they are not far from being eliminated.
In the western aspect, the Purple Gold Nobles flew up in Oklahoma waves and finally made a successful comeback. Now the two teams have also forced a 2:2 match. A large wave of betting on the ball has already stepped onto the rooftop, but these people dared to take minimum living allowances in the Lakers game, which is also a person who is trying to die.
The game between the Trail Blazers and the Suns was also unexpected for fans. Roy, who played with injuries, could not even make it to the first round. But he insisted on returning early and came on as a substitute today, but only scored 10 points. Aldridge scored 31 points and 11 rebounds with high efficiency, leading the Trail Blazers, who were defending tenaciously at home, narrowly defeated his opponent with 3 points.
The Suns players are not losing to their opponents today, they lose because of their poor touch, which is the main reason for them to lose this game. However, the Portlanders also face a big trouble after the game, that is, Roy is in very bad shape. Although the Saint Seiya who fought with injuries has fought for his life, they can only exert half of their strength and have the risk of aggravating the injury. The situation is becoming more and more unfavorable to them.
The focus battle of the Western Conference, "The Battle of the Cowboys", ended with the tragedy of the Cowboys. Basically, like in previous years, the Spurs rejuvenated when they arrived in the playoffs. Although their old legs slowed down their speed, their fighting spirit was always the strongest. Although the Mavericks had the advantage of home, they quickly lost everything in front of the playoff madman, and now they were forced into the abyss by the Spurs.
The Spurs have a different person to jump out every time they win this year. Today is George Hill, who made 11 of 16 shots. He scored a game-high 29 points, exceeding the total score of the first three games. Ginobili scored 17 points and 7 assists, Parker scored 10 points and 6 assists, and Tim Duncan made only 1 of 9 shots. He scored only 4 points, but grabbed 11 rebounds. However, Shifo's poor performance did not affect the Spurs' victory with two points at home, and the Mavericks died a little awkward.
Finally, there was a contest between the Nuggets and Jazz. After the Denverans lost two games in a row, Anthony believed that they could turn the situation around with just a few minor adjustments. However, the Nuggets did not make any changes today. Both offense and defense were not satisfactory, especially when facing the Jazz who lacked two main players, the Nuggets were still helpless.
The Jazz lost three consecutive games in the playoffs this year, but they won three consecutive games with their tenacious willpower. Boozer scored 31 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists today, Deron Williams scored 24 points and 13 assists, CJ Myers scored 21 points, and Wesley Matthews scored 18 points.
The player's biggest enemy, "injury", did not defeat the Utahs, but instead allowed them to fight back and kill the Nuggets to get match points. This was a result that most people did not expect before the game. A large number of gambling dogs climbed onto the rooftop again, and before jumping down, he even blackened the lost melon.
The Nuggets also faced the fate of being eliminated. Carmelo Anthony scored 39 points and 11 rebounds, but made as many as 9 mistakes. Chauncey Billups and Kenyon Martin each scored 14 points, Nene Hillaryo had 10 points and 11 rebounds, and JR Smith kept hitting the game, and the hacking was also very miserable.
The Utah Jazz lost troops in this game. Memit Oku and Andre Kirico failed to play, but their fighting spirit was even more tenacious, and the defeat in the first game did not disappoint them. This set of duels was a contest of determination and willpower. In this regard, Anthony was obviously not mature enough. If Bosh was not regarded as a giant, he might be the one with the best talent in the 2003 generation, but now he is the one with the least accomplished superstars.
After the first four games in the first round, the situation in the east and west areas became clearer:
Lakers (2) vs (2) Thunder in the Western Conference; Mavericks (1) vs (3) Spurs; Suns (2) vs (2) Trail Blazers; Nuggets (1) vs (3) Jazz.
Chapter completed!