Basketball miracles

Chapter 129 [Sweeping the First Two Rounds]

A little while later, Pat Riley asked Xiao Tu to have a private chat.

Riley encouraged Xiao Tu to spend more time in the low post with his back to the basket and attacking in the playoffs, rather than spending most of his time on the perimeter looking for opportunities.

Limited by the times, Xiao Tu can only focus on offense first. Although no team defends three-pointers, the coach believes that shooting too many three-pointers is not good. How can he overcome this?
The good news is that it's time for Xiao Tu to replace Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and become the team's primary scorer in the playoffs. This is the result of a collective discussion by the Lakers' management, and it's what Lakers fans wanted to see.

Xiao Tu happily accepted the mission to launch a strong attack, never feeling that he had to take on too many attacks.

Xiao Tu has a huge physical advantage, allowing him to attack with the ball. After his 60+ point triple-double, people are talking about his fadeaway jump shot, believing it will become his signature move.

Everyone knows that the Lakers have a successor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the kind of player who would make it impossible for Abdul-Jabbar to remain the core of the team's interior for a few more years.

Xiao Tu's rebounding numbers far surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's, and his scoring efficiency was also higher. Abdul-Jabbar didn't attempt many free throws, didn't shoot three-pointers, and had more field goal attempts than Xiao Tu in the regular season.

Xiao Tu is the three-point king this season, averaging 1.7 three-pointers per game, and also has the most outside shot attempts.

Riley did not arrange high-intensity training, allowing the players to conserve their energy and return to peak physical condition by the time the playoffs began.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Lakers easily eliminated the Suns with a 3-0 series score.

This is the least suspenseful series, as the Lakers swept the Suns in four games during the regular season.

The Lakers have advantages at every position, but Xiao Tu has the biggest advantage. This is because the Suns' star power forward, Larry Nance, suffered a serious injury in March and will miss the playoffs for the rest of the season.

Nance is already the Suns' biggest star; if he had gotten injured earlier, the Suns wouldn't have even made the playoffs. Additionally, the Suns' 213cm starting center, James Edwards, also missed the playoffs due to injury.

Xiao Tu was matched up against Alvan Adams, who is 206cm tall and weighs 95kg.

Facing players who are a size thinner than himself, Xiao Tu can easily receive the ball in the low post and easily score one-on-one.

31岁的阿尔万常规赛场均出战26分钟能砍下14.7分6.1篮板3.8助攻，攻强守弱。季后赛他也能得不少分，但防不住肖途。

The 206cm tall Maurice Lucas is also strong on offense but weak on defense, and he has no way to deal with Xiao Tu.

Lucas is the kind of player who seems exceptionally talented at first glance, having been selected to the All-Star team four times in his career. However, he is already 33 years old and nearing the end of his career, with his athleticism declining.

Lucas's performance in this series has been outstanding, averaging 19.7 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in 28 minutes per game, as if he has experienced a second spring in his career.

Lucas's skill allows him to out-stat his opponent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which directly demonstrates just how poor Abdul-Jabbar's defense is right now.

Xiao Tu averaged 24.7 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 assists per game in the series, with a field goal percentage of 58.2% and a three-point percentage of 50%. He was on fire. His only difference was a slight drop in field goal percentage compared to the regular season; his scoring efficiency remained astonishing.

Xiao Tu not only boasted impressive stats, but also delivered several spectacular dunks. Entering the playoffs, he consistently became the Lakers' leading scorer and one of their most popular stars.

Xiao Tu's close-range fadeaway jumper is unstoppable by the Suns players, who can only try their best to contest it. His face-up game is also very sharp, making him unstoppable on the fast break.

The best news Xiao Tu received was that if he won the playoffs, the minimum reward he would receive was a silver treasure chest, which was upgraded as expected.

Winning in the NBA playoffs is highly prestigious, and players who put up impressive stats in the playoffs are generally star players, making it much harder to achieve similar numbers than in the regular season.

Xiao Tu suspected that a score of 20+10 would get him a Silver Chest, while a score that was too poor would get him a Bronze Chest. However, he wouldn't deliberately play with ordinary scores to verify his guess, unless someone had blocked his way.

Tracy McGrady, known for his pull-up jump shot, never advanced past the first round of the playoffs as a starter. Yet, he was still inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame after retirement—that's the significance of averaging 30+ points per game four times in the first round!
Xiao Tu didn't open the treasure chest immediately, feeling that opening it now would only distract him from any new techniques. There might be some particularly cool techniques, the kind he really wanted to practice, and forcing them out of practice would affect his scoring efficiency.

The other series in the West were very close, with the Nuggets narrowly defeating the Spurs 3-2.

The second-place team in the regular season faced an unexpectedly tough challenge against the seventh-place team, with three games decided by less than five points. Fortunately, the first round is now a best-of-five series; otherwise, the Nuggets would likely have been eliminated.

The Nuggets really don't play defense; the Spurs had five players averaging double figures in the series. Even white, floor-bound power forward Marc Jaffaroni averaged 9 points and 5.2 rebounds, having a career-best performance.

The biggest upset was the Rockets' 2-3 loss to the Jazz.

Both teams employ a twin-tower strategy. While the Jazz's two centers are not particularly high scorers, they are able to limit the opponent's interior offense. The Rockets' star duo struggled to score against the defense of "The Mammoth," Mark Eaton.

G4虽然爵士输球，但伊顿砍下了8分10篮板2抢断10盖帽的数据。在他的限制下，奥拉朱旺全场18投仅7中。

This guy is only missing points to achieve his first career triple-double, which is really bizarre.

系列赛火箭双星看似数据很棒21+13和21+16打爆了对手，其实奥拉朱旺的命中率只有47.7%，拉尔夫-桑普森的命中率更低仅有43%。

The core player's shooting percentage is only this high for a two-point shot; his offense isn't actually that impressive. Sampson averages 20 field goal attempts per game, yet his shooting percentage is worse than some guards.

The worst part was their free throws; they were absolutely hilarious.

Hakeem Olajuwon averaged 9.2 free throw attempts per game, making only 4.4 for a 47.8% success rate. Sampson fared slightly better, averaging 7.4 free throw attempts and making 3.8 for a 51.4% success rate.

After reading the news, Xiao Tu felt that Commissioner David Stern hoped the Rockets would advance and was strongly supporting Hakeem Olajuwon.

The league likely made arrangements, with the Rockets averaging 12 more free throws than the Jazz. However, this year's Rockets' star duo proved to be ineffective, losing Game 5 at home 97-104.

The most embarrassing thing was that the Rockets' role players injured Eaton, and the Jazz center is now out for the playoffs. Even so, the Rockets still couldn't win.

After the game, Hakeem Olajuwon received very low praise, and his evaluation was nowhere near that of Xiao Tu.

The Trail Blazers' performance was surprising, easily eliminating the Mavericks 3-1 to advance.

Experts believe the Mavericks lost because of their coach's incompetence. Dick Motta used an eight-man rotation every game, overusing his starters. He had three starters play over 42 minutes per game, and two others play around 33 minutes.

The Mavericks lost by only 3 points in one game and by only 2 points in another, both times suffering heartbreaking comebacks after leading by double digits. The Mavericks players were clearly exhausted in the final quarter and couldn't hold on any longer.

The problem is obvious to even the fans, yet Motta doesn't seem to understand the concept of properly allocating player energy. Several Mavericks reserves have plenty of stamina and have been relegated to the water bench. Based on their regular season performance, they are capable of contributing.

The first round in the East was a foregone conclusion, with a clear distinction between the strong and the weak.

凯尔特人3比1淘汰骑士，雄鹿3比1淘汰公牛，活塞3比0淘汰篮网，76人3比1淘汰华盛顿子弹。

There wasn't much discussion among fans about the Eastern Conference games; aside from Jordan, the star players' stats weren't explosive enough. The top two teams in the Eastern Conference regular season were both led by floor-bound stars, and there was a lack of spectacular plays.

Jordan's beautiful playing style was useless; winning even one game was the limit, and his field goal percentage was only 43.6%. The Bulls' interior defense was completely outmatched every game, and the players barely scored.

Steve Johnson, who provoked Xiao Tu during the regular season, became mentally impaired due to drug use and became a fringe player with 2 points and 1.7 rebounds in the playoffs.

In the second round, the Lakers continued their sweep, eliminating the Trail Blazers 4-0, with the smallest margin of victory being 11 points.

Xiao Tu and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar consistently dominated the Trail Blazers' starting frontcourt of Michael Thompson and Sam Bowie. The Trail Blazers relied mainly on outside scoring from Vandeweghe and Drexler to keep the team afloat.

The Lakers had a balanced attack, with both their starters and bench players outscoring their opponents.

The Lakers' defense is also excellent. They won't deliberately throw the game in the playoffs. Finishing early and resting early will give them a stamina advantage in the next round.

常规赛场均18.4分7.8篮板2.6助攻的汤普森，这个系列赛场均只有11分7篮板1.6助攻，投篮命中率45.3%。

Thompson is not a qualified center; he doesn't dare to take many shots unless there's a good opportunity, and he's effectively shut down by Xiao Tu's defense.

Xiao Tu's stats were slightly worse than in the previous series. The opponent had a big man under the basket, and he played a steady game, mainly scoring on fast breaks.

Bowie's stats are even worse than Thompson's, averaging 7 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game with a 44% field goal percentage. As the second overall pick in 84, he's inevitably compared to Xiao Tu, who is utterly disappointing.

After the game, Trail Blazers fans were very frustrated, believing that Bowie was the worst of the top five rookies. Comparing him to Xiao Tu was an overestimation of him; he wasn't even worth comparing.

(End of this chapter)