NBA: Goat is actually me

Chapter 149 Deja Vu
New York Knicks head coach Pitino was interviewed after the game. Although they lost the game, they still had to be graceful.

"Before the game, the outside world predicted that this series would go to 6-7 games, but the Knicks were swept in four games. What do you think is the reason?"

The reporter's words were very purposeful, which was to let Pitino choose someone to take the blame, either himself as the head coach, or Ewing, the core of the team.

Although Pitino is not good at dealing with the media, he has been in the NBA for several years and will not fall into such a simple trap.

Pitino asked a soul-searching question: "Who is the outside world?"

The reporter replied: "Experts and some media."

"It's all bullshit, these are predictions from people who don't understand football."

Although Pitino tried hard to remain calm before the interview, he failed in the end.

"You mean it's reasonable for the Knicks to be swept?" the reporter asked.

"I mean there is a gap between the Knicks and the Bulls in terms of roster. The Bulls have two super players, Meng Jin and Michael Jordan."

"The Knicks have Ewing and Mark Jackson, who also made the All-Star team this season," the reporter continued.

Pitino raised his voice and said: "Maybe I didn't express it clearly. The Bulls have two super players. That's it."

"But the Knicks also have two All-Star players in Patrick Ewing and Mark Jackson. John Newman and Gerald Wilkins also played well in this series. Charles Oakley also did well on rebounds and defense."

The reporter's persistence made Pitino a little angry. Pitino understood what the reporter meant. The players were all excellent, so was it my fault as the coach that they were swept?
"Mark Jackson is an organizer, not a finisher. The performances of Newman, Gerrard and Charles are very important to the team, but they are not decisive players. As for Patrick, how did he play in the first game of the series? How did he play in the second game? How did he play in the fourth game?"

Pitino stopped pretending. He was definitely leaving during the offseason anyway, so he spoke his mind this time.

In fact, Pitino still gave Ewing some face. According to his standards, Ewing's performance in the third game was also unsatisfactory. Although Ewing's statistics in the third game were very good, his several forced singles at the end of the fourth quarter ruined the team's victory. The tactics arranged by Pitino in those rounds were to let Ewing attract firepower and look for opportunities to shoot from the outside. This was also the point that Ewing was most dissatisfied with Pitino.

Ewing also quickly responded, saying that Pitino's tactics were not suitable for the Knicks at all.

The focus of Pitino's style is to use full-court pressing as defense and guards as the main force to counterattack Qi Fei's run-and-gun offense. Pitino's tactics were very successful in the regular season, and Ewing also played very comfortably. After all, it is much easier to score points while running than in positional warfare. During this period, Ewing's knees were still healthy, and his running and jumping abilities were very good. Pitino was once called by the outside world as the one who developed Ewing's instruction manual.

However, the relationship between the master and the apprentice collapsed because of a series of games.

"Blame me, blame me."

At the team's tactical meeting the next day, Meng Jin blamed himself while holding a freshly printed newspaper.

The whole conference room was filled with laughter. This was Phil Jackson's philosophy. He recently read newspapers before team meetings to motivate players and ease the atmosphere within the team.

Recently, the relationship between Phil Jackson and Collins has eased a little. Collins found that he is a good psychologist who can solve players' psychological problems very well, but Collins is still wary of Phil Jackson and he does not allow Phil Jackson to participate in the team's tactical discussions.

Phil Jackson also felt aggrieved. He complained to General Manager Krause, but it was of no avail. Collins was now a favorite of boss Reinsdorf and the entire city of Chicago, and no one could do anything to him.

After winning the second round, the Bulls didn't have to wait too long, as the Detroit Pistons swept the Hawks cleanly a day later.

The Pistons and the Bulls were engaged in an arms race just like the United States and the Soviet Union during this period. If you sweep your opponent, I must not fall behind.

After the Pistons advanced, the media immediately focused on the Bulls and the Pistons and completely ignored the Hawks. It took less than a season for the Hawks to go from being called the Galaxy Battleship to being ignored.

A team with four All-Star players was swept in the playoffs, which is even more outrageous than the New York Knicks. The Hawks management, like the Knicks management, is ready to readjust the lineup, but the Knicks are ready to start with the head coach, while the Hawks are ready to send away Reggie Seuss. In the Hawks' lineup, Reggie Seuss is very useless. Wilkins is stronger than him on the offensive end, and Doug Rivers is better at passing.

These are not the point. The point is that Rej Seuss' performance in this year's playoffs was horrible. He only scored single-digit points in a total of 5 games in two rounds. Let alone an All-Star performance, Rej Seuss was not even as good as an ordinary starter. You know, he averaged 15+5 in the regular season.

If we could give this series a theme, it would be a sweep, because not only the Bulls and Pistons, but also the Western Conference leader Los Angeles Lakers completed a sweep, beating the Supersonics 4-0.

The Sonics reached the Western Conference semifinals this season with the backcourt combination of Kevin Johnson and Darr Ellis. Seattle fans have high expectations for the team. Darr Ellis made the All-Star team this year, and Kevin Johnson made great progress, averaging 20.9 points and 12 assists per game, winning the Most Improved Player award this season. However, "Magic" Johnson said that genius is just the threshold to meet me, and you young people are still too young. After four games, only the last game gave the Sonics some opportunities. The Sonics, who did not want to be swept, burst out with great energy in Game 4 and scored 32 points in the first quarter. On the other hand, the Lakers only scored a pitiful 12 points in the first quarter.

The fans in the stands were all beaming with joy, with a look on their faces that said this round was a sure win.

However, this Lakers team has been through a lot, and they didn't take the 20-point deficit seriously. Pat Riley yelled during the intermission: "If we sweep our opponents, you can play one less game, have one more day off, have a party, spend more time with your family. What's 20 points? If we can catch up by 7 points in each quarter, we'll win."

Pat Riley said it very easily, but the Lakers players did it. In the second quarter, they beat the Supersonics by 31 points with a score of 22 to 9. In the third quarter, the unyielding Supersonics held on to the score, and the Lakers only won by 3 points. In the decisive quarter, FMVP James Worthy stood up, led the team to overtake the score, and finally secured the victory.

In the end, the Los Angeles Lakers narrowly defeated their opponents 99 to 97.

In this game, "Magic" Johnson played averagely, with 12 of 4 shots and an inefficient 17 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and AC Green only scored 6 points and 12 points respectively. Michael Thompson on the bench played well, scoring 20 points in the game, but his performance was inseparable from the help of Seattle fans. When Michael Thompson came on the court, the fans shouted, "Your wife ran away with Meng" and "Your wife is pregnant with a yellow-skinned child" and so on.

This shout angered Michael Thompson. No man could tolerate such insults. If Thompson had not shown his anger tonight, the Lakers would have been in trouble. Therefore, Seattle fans became an indirect helper of the Lakers' victory.

Another player who was closely connected with Meng Jin was also scolded badly, that was Olden Polynice. Two years have passed, and the swap between Olden Polynice and Meng Jin is still a hurdle that Seattle fans cannot get over. Fans' requirements for Polynice have been lowered again and again. They no longer require Polynice to compare with Meng Jin, as long as he plays with the data of a normal big man. However, Polynice's average of 5 points and 6 rebounds per game in the playoffs obviously cannot satisfy the fans.

Polynice was insulted because he could not satisfy the fans. After being insulted, Polynice, who was not strong enough to begin with, performed even worse. It was like a vicious cycle.

If a player's self-confidence is shattered, he is basically not far from fading out of the professional league.

As expected, the Lakers' opponent in the Western Conference Finals is the Phoenix Suns. The Suns currently lead the Warriors 3-1. The Warriors have fierce firepower, but the Suns are even more fierce. They have All-Star Tom Chambers inside, and Jeff Hornacek, Eddie Johnson, and Dan Majerle are good outside players. Head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons has put Eddie Johnson and Dan Majerle on the bench. As long as the two of them are on the court, they can blow up the Warriors' substitutes, especially Eddie Johnson. He has scored 30+ in two games in this series. He is the most troublesome point for the Warriors.

The Eastern Conference Finals will start earlier than the Western Conference Finals. Before the game, experts predicted that this will be a fierce series and the Bulls and Pistons will have to fight for at least 6 games. This time, the experts are confident that neither the Pistons nor the Bulls can sweep their opponents and this series will never be one-sided.

More people tend to believe that the Pistons can win for two reasons. One is that the Pistons have the best regular season record, and the second is that the Pistons also defeated the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals last year.

Isaiah Thomas played it easy in the pre-game interview. He said the Pistons' opponent was the Lakers, and all they were thinking about was how to avenge their loss in last season's finals.

But Meng Jin likes his opponents to be unruly, otherwise how can he slap them in the face?

After G1, Isaiah Thomas stopped shouting, and the Bulls won 101-96 on the road.

The process of this game was much more difficult than the score looked. The Pistons started with high intensity. Jordan missed his first three shots. In the entire first half, Jordan made only 3 of 14 shots. His touch was very poor. The more he missed the shot, the more anxious Jordan became.

Jordan would easily get angry when he met the Pistons. His hatred for these guys came from the bottom of his heart. This is what it means when enemies meet, they are particularly jealous of each other. When Jordan saw the faces of the Pistons players, he couldn't help but want to shoot and kill them.

Fortunately, he adjusted himself during the halftime break. He only took 8 shots in the second half, focusing his main energy on defense and organization.

Cartwright proved his worth again tonight, scoring 18 points and 11 rebounds. He played tough in the interior, and several successful positional battles also helped the team keep the score close.

Meng Jin had 31 points and 13 rebounds. He was not very efficient under the Pistons' high-pressure defense tonight, making only 28 of 13 shots. However, his low efficiency was compared with Meng Jin himself. Among all the starting players on both sides, Meng Jin had the highest shooting percentage.

The Pistons still play egalitarian basketball. Mahorn and Laimbeer are the best players on the team. Isaiah Thomas and Jordan both played poorly tonight. He made 16 of 5 shots and scored 12 points and 11 assists.

The happiest person at the end of the game was not the Bulls, but Dantley, who was ruthlessly abandoned by the Pistons in the middle of the season. Dantley jumped out to mock Isaiah Thomas and also made fun of his old team, the Detroit Pistons.

Dantley always believed that his departure was the result of Isaiah Thomas's secret manipulation.

In the second game, Isaiah Thomas was out of character and scored 27 points with 33 shots. His efficiency was still not high, but he managed to handle several key balls. In the end, the Pistons won G100 98-2.

In this game, no one except Jordan, Meng Jin and Grant scored in double digits for the Bulls. Cartwright, who performed well in the previous game, was targeted by Bill Laimbeer, and the two played a whole wrestling match.

After returning to the home court with a score of 1-1, Meng Jin felt something was wrong. Eh? This scene seemed familiar.

(End of this chapter)