Chapter 1035
The regular season has come to an end! The dominance of the West over the East continue
The Warriors couldn't conquer the Lakers; instead, they got caught in a whirlpool and drowned!
The Western Conference standings are essentially set; the Lakers have practically secured the top spot!
There can only be one truly great point guard in the league, and the gap between Paul and him is crystal clear!
Warriors lose their nerve, Lakers still reign supreme!
Who can stop the Lakers after the Warriors' defeat? The second-best team in the league, the Cavaliers, are still 3 games behind them!
After the Lakers and Warriors' peak performance, the Mavericks see an opportunity! Can they stage a comeback and become the second seed in the Western Conference?
Kevin Durant is fine! He's on the day-to-day injury report and could return at any time!
Can the Warriors regain their morale? Can they regroup and launch another attack?
……
After that day, 90% of NBA news revolved around the Lakers vs. Warriors game.
After all, this match was the most anticipated showdown of the day, and the result was completely unexpected.
The Warriors suffered their biggest loss in franchise history, marking their most humiliating regular season defeat ever.
As the ESPN commentators said after the game: For the Warriors, after such a crushing defeat, their biggest problem is not losing the possibility of continuing to challenge for the top spot in the league or Paul saying goodbye to the MVP again.
The Warriors' current problem is whether they can regain their form in the next two weeks, regroup in the upcoming games, and return to a calm mindset to continue their pursuit of the championship.
From this perspective, the fact that the Lakers and Warriors were scheduled to have two direct matchups in the last half month was originally seen as the Warriors' biggest hope and their best chance to make a comeback.
But now, if they lose the remaining game, it could become a nightmare for the Warriors, causing them to completely lose their fighting spirit and hope!
At this point, Warriors fans were already in agony, wishing that the two teams would never play each other again!
If a team loses by 58 points like that, and it happens again, they'll probably have to dismantle and rebuild the team.
In short, the Warriors may have lost the result of their entire season's hard work!
The more pain the Warriors are in right now, the easier it is for the Lakers.
After defeating the Warriors, they led the second-place Cavaliers by a full three games. With most teams in the league only having around 10 games left, the Lakers have essentially locked up the top spot in the league.
What they need to do next is stabilize their form, maintain their excitement, rest when they need to, and recover from injuries when they need to, so as to enter the playoffs in 100% condition.
As for the schedule after that?
They have no chance of breaking any team or league records, so the Lakers are definitely one of the most relaxed teams in the league right now.
They were even more relaxed than the bottom-ranked teams like the Bucks and Wizards.
The Bucks and Wizards are worried that if they win two more games, their opponents might overtake them and they'll lose their advantage in the lottery for the number one draft pick.
The Lakers are truly under no pressure.
As a result, in the following games, Jackson began to rest players earlier and reduce the playing time of key players.
The playing time of substitute players has increased significantly, and players like Isaiah Thomas have even been given several starting opportunities.
From the end of March to the beginning of April, the Lakers' record was lukewarm, only at the middle level of the league. In fact, apart from the rematch against the Warriors in April where they fielded their full starting lineup and all of them played, in all other games they had at least one key player resting.
In their last 10 games, the Lakers went 5-5, which wasn't a great record, but it was enough for them to maintain their position as the league's number one team. The only noteworthy game during that period was, of course, the one against the Warriors.
Durant, who had just returned to the court, was treated to being fed the ball by the entire team that night. Naturally, he didn't hold back against the Warriors, who had almost caused his injury, and went all out from the start, dominating the Warriors!
In this game, Durant scored 48 points, his fifth 40+ point game this season. With this 48 points, the Lakers easily defeated the Warriors by 23 points, turning the game into garbage time early and successfully winning the game.
After the game, facing the media and reporters, Lin Tian delivered the final blow to the Warriors.
"If I were them, I would definitely try to lose in the first two rounds to avoid facing us in the division finals."
"Losing is better than making it to the conference finals and getting thrashed by us, having a nightmare series and questioning your existence, isn't it?"
Lin Tian's words were absolutely devastating.
He put the Warriors in a very difficult position.
If the Warriors lose early in the playoffs and fail to reach the conference finals, it means they are 'scared'.
If they make it to the conference finals, those two crushing defeats at the end of the regular season will definitely be brought up again and again, discussed by reporters, fans, media, and everyone else, and then questioned by the Warriors players.
This will definitely put enormous pressure on them psychologically and will inevitably affect their condition.
Winning won't work.
Losing is not an option either.
Lin Tian was quite certain that the Warriors' season was completely over.
They'll at most go to the second round.
Aside from internal and external troubles, there's also the causal factor of Chris Paul. It would be a miracle if the Warriors could even make it to the Western Conference Finals!
Finally, with the completion of several games in early April, the entire regular season has come to a complete end.
The Lakers ultimately secured 61 wins, reclaiming the top spot in the Western Conference and the league for the first time in many years.
Meanwhile, the Warriors, who had been closely following behind the Lakers, suffered two crushing defeats in their last two head-to-head matchups against the Lakers, and along with other losses, they only managed 57 wins. Not only did they fail to overtake the Lakers, but they were also overtaken by the Mavericks behind them.
The Mavericks struggled mid-season due to the Terry incident and the growing pains of integrating the team after the trade. However, as the season progressed and their chemistry improved, the team rallied in the second half of March, ultimately finishing the regular season with an 11-game winning streak.
It was thanks to this winning streak that the Mavericks successfully surpassed the Warriors, becoming the second team in the Western Conference with 59 wins.
While the gap between the top three teams in the West this year was so large that it was clear who was stronger and who was weaker, the teams from the fourth seed onwards were completely neck and neck.
The fourth-placed Nuggets finished with 56 wins, while the eighth-placed Suns finished with 53 wins.
The difference between fourth and eighth place is only 3 games, and the horror of the Western Conference, like a meat grinder, continues.
Furthermore, the Portland Trail Blazers, who finished ninth in the West, have 47 wins. If they were in the East, they would be ranked fifth in the East, but in the West, they can only helplessly accept the painful situation of being in the lottery.
The trend of the West being stronger than the East continues.
Of course, discussions about changing the playoff format to allow the top 16 teams in the league to participate instead of the top eight teams from the East and West have also begun to emerge in large numbers once again.
This has basically become one of the most popular topics of discussion among fans at the end of the regular season and before the start of the playoffs in recent years.
The MVP contenders change every year, and the strongest teams and the winners of various awards also differ each year.
However, the topic of playoff format reform has been ongoing for more than a decade, but the league has never given any positive response or news, and has never made any statement.
What can the fans do?
Fans who support the Eastern Conference teams can continue to secretly rejoice, while fans who support the Western Conference can only continue to curse and lament the injustice of fate.
Another point worth mentioning is that although the West has been stronger than the East for so many years, and although everyone believes that the West is stronger and more difficult to navigate, the East has almost monopolized all the championships since the Pistons' Bad Boys' two-peat dynasty in 89-90!
Jordan led his team to six championships, including one with Lin Tian on the Pacers.
Not counting the two championships with the Bulls that overlapped with Jordan's, Lin Tian has won a staggering 9 championship rings as the team's leader alone. In addition, he won one championship each with the Celtics and the Pistons, as well as the championship he won as head coach of the Bobcats.
From 89 to 2011, there were a total of 23 championships, with the Eastern Conference winning a staggering 20 of them.
Apart from Hakeem Olajuwon leading the Rockets to two consecutive championships in 94-95, and the Suns' "Big Four" winning a late-career championship, all other championships were won by Eastern Conference teams.
Even though the Eastern Conference has such a strong dominance over the championship, people still generally believe that the West is stronger than the East.
Because everyone has already reached a consensus: the reason why the East is so crazy is because they have two superstar players who inspire fear.
These two players have won 7 and 11 championship rings respectively. Even though three of them are overlapped, their dominance is absolutely unprecedented and unparalleled.
However, most people believe that this year's championship ring will belong to the Lakers.
Because Lin Tian is back!
This monster and his team were, at least by the end of the regular season, the league's top championship favorites! And it seemed that Lin Tian was never subject to any so-called curse of being a favorite and inevitably failing.
If you have faith in him, he will definitely not let you down!
In this situation, all the teams in the West are destined to be challengers, and they are also destined to tremble with fear.
The final rankings of the top eight teams in the Western Conference are as follows:
1. Los Angeles Lakers: 61 wins, 21 losses
2. Dallas Mavericks: 59 wins, 23 losses
3. Golden State Warriors 57 wins, 25 losses
4. Denver Nuggets: 56 wins, 26 losses
5. Memphis Grizzlies 56 wins, 26 losses
6. Los Angeles Clippers: 55 wins, 27 losses
7. Oklahoma City Thunder 54 wins, 28 losses
8. Phoenix Suns 53 wins, 29 losses. The Western Conference is incredibly competitive, with teams from all over the place completely mixed together. Strong teams are everywhere, and 50 wins is just the threshold for making the playoffs. In contrast, the Eastern Conference is much easier.
At least for those mid-table teams, it's quite easy. Their results won't be too good or too bad, securing a playoff spot without much difficulty. At the same time, they know very well that they can't cause much of a stir in the playoffs.
Under these circumstances, the East naturally lacked the bloodshed and fierceness, and everyone generally believed that the first round, or even the first two rounds, of the playoffs would be one-sided battles with little suspense.
The gap between the teams is simply too large.
The Cavaliers ultimately claimed the top spot in the East. Having assembled a formidable "Big Four" last year, the Cavaliers are still striving for the championship this year. Furthermore, thanks to their excellent form and high winning percentage at the end of the season, they became one of only two teams in the league to achieve 60 wins.
With a record of 60 wins and 22 losses, they are second in the league, right behind the Lakers.
Following behind them were the Eastern Conference powerhouse Boston Celtics and the defending champion Charlotte Bobcats.
These three teams are basically the only three teams in the East that can be considered top-tier teams; the other teams are somewhat lacking.
The final Eastern Conference standings are as follows:
1. Cleveland Cavaliers: 60 wins, 22 losses
2. Charlotte Bobcats: 55 wins, 27 losses
3. Boston Celtics: 53 wins, 29 losses
4. Indiana Pacers 48 wins, 34 losses
5. Philadelphia 76ers: 45 wins, 37 losses
6. Miami Heat 44 wins, 38 losses
7. Chicago Bulls: 39 wins, 43 losses
8. Toronto Raptors: 38 wins, 44 losses
As always, the Eastern Conference this season is dominated by three top teams that maintain its prestige, while the other teams are also putting in a lot of effort.
For example, the Raptors finally made it to the playoffs, their first time in the NBA in many years. Although their opponent was the incredibly strong Cavaliers, Torontonians were still quite happy.
In addition, after years of decline, the 76ers finally achieved a winning percentage of over 50% this year, which is the first time since Iverson left the team.
The Pacers have finally regained home-court advantage in the playoffs after many years. The last time they had home-court advantage in the playoffs was during Lin Tian's penultimate year with the team.
In addition, the Eastern Conference, which was already mediocre in terms of strength, has also suffered from various injuries this year.
Although the Hawks' Roy is only 25 years old, he is already in a semi-retired state. Another core player of the team, Johnson, has only played 40 games this season. Although the team acquired a talented and explosive forward like Joe Smith in the summer, Smith alone is obviously not enough to fill the gap between the two stars. The Hawks failed to make the playoffs this year.
Then there's the Knicks, who dominated the league in the past few years. After Lin Tian, Anthony, Smith and others left the team one after another, the Knicks tried to strengthen the team many times and hoped to bring in some stars to fill the roster, but all their efforts were in vain.
This year, when the team's star player, Stoudemire, suffered a knee injury that essentially ended his season, they finally broke their streak of making the playoffs for several years and unfortunately fell into the lottery.
The decline of the Hawks and Knicks undoubtedly made the already weak Eastern Conference appear even more disparate in strength and lack of competitiveness.
This is definitely adding insult to injury.
The first-round matchups in the East, even the most exciting and closely contested fourth vs. fifth-place game, were rather dull.
The general consensus is that the Eastern Conference games will only get interesting in the second round when the Bobcats and Celtics face off.
"In the Eastern Conference playoffs, you only need to watch two rounds at most: one semifinal and one conference final. The rest are either weak teams fighting each other or adults playing against children."
The above comments basically represent the views of the vast majority of fans regarding the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Even supporters of teams outside the top three, and even the teams themselves, don't think they have the ability to make a splash in the playoffs.
Once we get into the playoffs, we'll play a few games as a token gesture, sell a couple more home game tickets, and that's about it.
This is what the vast majority of Eastern Conference teams and fans think.
However, once the playoffs began, unexpected events occurred frequently in the East, completely exceeding the expectations of most people.
The Cavaliers were the only team that maintained pre-season expectations and advanced easily as everyone predicted.
The Raptors, making their first playoff appearance, along with players like Xu Yong and Bargnani, were no match for the Cavaliers.
Apart from putting up some comebacks in Game 3 of the series, where Xu Yong scored a high of 35 points and the team ultimately lost by only 3 points, the Raptors lost by more than 10 points in each of the remaining 3 games.
They failed to cause the Cavaliers any trouble.
4: 0.
The Cavaliers swept the Raptors cleanly, sending them back to Toronto.
However, apart from this round, the results and processes of the remaining three rounds were all unexpected.
First up is the matchup between the Pacers and the 76ers. The Pacers have excellent players like George, Granger, and David West, while the 76ers have quite good stars like Turner, Iguodala, and Holiday.
The two sides had a fierce and intense first-round match. In the seven games, neither team was able to achieve a winning streak. They fought back and forth to the final seven, and five of the games went into overtime.
Furthermore, one game went to two overtimes, and in the final Game 2, the two sides fought all the way to a third overtime before a winner was decided!
These two teams were evenly matched, giving it their all in a fierce battle. In the decisive Game 7, both sides, eager to advance, adopted a strategy of significantly increasing the playing time of their key players and reducing rotations.
Both teams basically relied on only 6-7 players for the final showdown.
In the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter, neither side made any substitutions, and the starting ten players battled it out on the court.
The fierce competition, brutal physical contact, and enormous physical exertion caused both sides to drop significantly in efficiency in the fourth quarter.
14: 15!
These are the scores scored by both teams in the fourth quarter. Neither team managed to score a single point in the final 1 minute and 12 seconds of the fourth quarter, ultimately leading to the first overtime period.
In the first overtime, the two sides were tied 4-4 after 5 minutes, and in the last minute, neither side scored. With the rim about to be bent, the two sides went into a second overtime.
The second overtime was even more outrageous than the first.
0: 0!
Both sides were exhausted and failed to score a single point in this overtime game!
Whether it was a layup or a free throw, an open shot or a difficult forced shot, it all missed, all of them were missed!
Both sides were completely exhausted and out of ammunition and supplies.
Unfortunately, the competition had to continue.
The third overtime continues!
This time, things finally took a turn for the better.
For the Pacers, David West, who had played all 22 minutes from the fourth quarter to the end of the second overtime but had gone 0-for-8 and scored no points, finally got his first game!
This guy finally made a mid-range catch-and-shoot jumper, breaking the team's scoring drought since the second overtime and giving them a two-point lead.
At this point, it was already the third overtime period with 2 minutes and 40 seconds remaining, which meant that in the first 2 minutes and 20 seconds of this overtime, neither side had scored a single point.
After West's mid-range jumper, the Pacers seemed to finally find some morale and regain some fighting spirit. Their subsequent defense was quite fierce, successfully stopping the 76ers' attacks multiple times in a row.
Of course, it's also possible that they were playing so hard that the 76ers couldn't score, and both sides were truly exhausted.
But importantly, the Pacers started scoring.
With 2 minutes and 10 seconds left in the game, Granger hit a mid-range jumper, extending the lead to 4 points.
With 47 seconds left in the game, the Pacers made a successful defensive play, and George seized the opportunity to fast break down the court, receiving a pass from West and successfully driving to the basket for a powerful dunk.
With 6 points, the Pacers have completely secured the victory!
The Pacers managed to maintain their 6-point lead until the end of the game.
88: 82!
The Pacers ultimately won this incredibly difficult do-or-die game by 6 points.
Throughout the game, Granger played 58 minutes, George 57 minutes, and West 59 minutes. All three players played for more than 55 minutes, which shows how much they were exhausted.
Fortunately, it's all over now. Their efforts paid off, and after such a crazy shooting spree, the Pacers successfully advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
This is the first time in their team history that they have made it to the second round of the playoffs since Lin Tian left!
It's been 8 years!
For eight long years, the Pacers hovered between the lottery and the playoffs. This year, they finally made it to the second round of the playoffs!
The moment the final whistle blew, the entire Pacers team erupted in cheers. Players like George and West, who had played for almost an hour, lay down on the floor, gasping for air and thankful they had held on.
Here we come in the second round of the playoffs! (End of Chapter)