NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

The final rankings of the Western Conference are as follows:

1. Phoenix Suns 57 wins and 25 losses

2. San Antonio Spurs 57 wins and 25 losses

3. Los Angeles Lakers 56 wins and 26 losses

4. Dallas Mavericks 55 wins and 27 losses

5. Denver Nuggets 55 wins 27 losses

6. Minnesota Timberwolves 54 wins and 28 losses

7. Los Angeles Clippers 52 wins 30 losses

8. Memphis Grizzlies 50 wins 32 losses

This year in the Western Conference, the threshold for the playoffs has become 50 wins! If you don't get 50 wins, you can't enter the playoffs!

On the last day of the season, the entire Western Conference was in a crazy melee.

The ninth-placed Warriors defeated the third-placed Lakers, not only destroying the Lakers' hopes of advancing to second place, but also retaining their own possibility of advancing to the playoffs.

But the Grizzlies, who would fall out of the playoffs if they lost, also made a comeback. They defeated the Suns, who were ranked first in the Western Conference. Not only did they bring their record to 50 wins, they also successfully retained their playoff spot!

Although the first-placed Suns lost, the second-placed Spurs also failed to seize the opportunity to rush to first place. They lost to the Los Angeles Clippers. This defeat also locked the first-round showdown between the two teams. They, like the Knicks and Bulls in the Eastern Conference, will start their battle in the first round of the playoffs.

The two teams will face off in the last game of the regular season and then in a round of playoffs!
Although the Clippers are only seventh, "Captain" Brand has continued his invincible form from last season. Their record is not much worse than that of the Spurs. With the momentum of the last victory, they have absolute confidence to compete with the Spurs for a spot in the second round!
In short, the entire Western Conference is in chaos, and each team has to wait until the very last minute to determine their position and opponent!
But no matter how chaotic the situation is, it has been settled and everything has been decided!

The battle is reignited in this season's playoffs!

The Knicks were relaxed, playing at home and waiting for their opponent: the Chicago Bulls!
The big victory at the end of the regular season gave the Knicks an absolute psychological advantage, and also made the Knicks, who already had an overwhelming advantage, play easily in the matchup between the two teams!

In the first two games of the series, the Knicks did not give the Bulls any chance. Although all their main players who were rested in the previous game came back, all that Big Ben and Ben Gordon could do was to make the team lose less badly on the road.

That's it.

The first game was lost by 17 points and the second game was lost by 21 points.

Two games, two crushing defeats!
The Bulls hardly posed any threat and were at an absolute disadvantage from the start of the game!

Just when everyone thought that the Knicks would be able to sweep the Bulls and advance easily, the Knicks gave many people a blow.

The Knicks played well in the two home games, but they played badly in the third game against the Bulls.

An away game, a crazy United Center, a desperate Bulls team, a united Mavericks team, and Ben Gordon who entered the zone again and shot wildly, all stood together and successfully helped the team win the third game of the series!

The Bulls saved a game in absolute adversity and successfully defended their dignity!

2: 1!

The Bulls saw a glimmer of hope in the desperate situation.

This game also exposed the Knicks' fatal flaws.

Their regular season was too easy and they faced too few challenges!
Especially in the last month or so, Nelson's behavior of not trying hard, not chasing points, not getting carried away, and knowing when to quit made the team choose to relax in many games where they should have been playing hard.

The result of this situation is that the team encountered too few difficulties and overcame too few difficulties, and the whole team was too relaxed.

The emergence of this mentality is the biggest reason why the Knicks lost this game!
They are used to playing with the wind, and when they face adversity, they will naturally want to use the simplest way to finish the game. Falling behind by 7-8 points?
Then just shoot. Can’t we catch up with the score with 3-4 3-pointers?
When it feels good, of course.

But when the team is not feeling good, when the big guys miss three-pointers one after another, the team will inevitably fall into a panic.

Even though this team has Lin Tian, ​​the team has been in a too relaxed state over the past period of time, including last year's undefeated playoffs, which has prevented them from turning the score around.

Always behind, always behind since the start of the game.

When the Knicks were behind in the fourth quarter, Smith of the Knicks even lost his balance due to consecutive missed shots. When Nocioni rushed to the basket, he failed to control his movements and pulled Nocioni down.

The referee immediately blew the whistle, gave Smith a second-degree flagrant foul, and directly expelled him from the game!
Smith's tragic expulsion basically marked the end of the Knicks' counterattack.

After this, old Nelson also knew that his players were not in good shape tonight and that they would not be able to perform well tonight.

Substitute!

Old Nelson chose to make substitutions again. With four minutes left in the game and the team trailing by 4 points, he surrendered early and announced that the game had entered garbage time.

In this game, the Knicks eventually lost by 18 points!
Their 18-game winning streak in the playoffs was ended, and once it ended, a very painful defeat awaited them.

The Knicks were all very depressed about the crushing defeat. That night, even without Nelson's order, all the players spontaneously did not go around Chicago, but stayed in their respective rooms to reflect.

They lost this game very unfairly!

Especially in the second half of the game, when the Knicks were trailing by a large margin, the Knicks players actually wanted to tighten up and work harder to catch up.

But on the one hand, they really had a bad touch tonight and failed to seize multiple opportunities in a row. On the other hand, the Knicks are not a defensive team. They simply do not have the system and habit of using steady defense to slowly catch up when they are behind.

If you can't defend or score, you will naturally become impatient.

They hadn't tightened up for a long time, and suddenly found in the playoffs that when they wanted to tighten up, they couldn't tighten up!

The feeling of wanting to use all your strength and having it but just not being able to use it and not being able to score a goal is really terrible!

This is also the reason why the entire Knicks team voluntarily followed curfew, returned to their respective rooms and prepared for the game the day after tomorrow without Lin Tian or old Nelson saying anything.

No one is in the mood to go out and play!
“As long as they know shame and feel embarrassed, then there is still hope.” Old Nelson was very pleased with his disciples’ choices.

At the same time, I am quite proud of myself.

In a match like today, it’s better to lose early than late, and it’s better to lose in the first round than in the second round.

In fact, before this game, old Nelson had been worried that if the team continued to perform so well in the first two rounds or even the first few rounds, there would be problems. Would they be unable to adapt when facing tough and fierce enemies in the divisional finals or the finals?

Instead of having problems at that time, instead of starting to adjust at that time, it would have been better if problems occurred in the first round against the Bulls!
It allows the players to solve problems and win games on their own! This is absolutely a huge improvement for the entire team! It can also serve as a wake-up call for the Knicks!

It's the playoffs!

It's different from the regular season. If you think you can pass the level easily by just using basic attacks like in the regular season, you may end up being doomed!
This is one of the main reasons why old Nelson did not make adjustments or remind the players even though he clearly discovered the problem tonight!

As for the other reason, it is Lin Tian!

With Lin Tian here, old Nelson can be said to be 100% confident about this series!

Even if Lin Tian was not there, old Nelson was at least 90% sure that he could win the game. He was very good at handling such young teams and he had plenty of ways to do it.

In addition, the team was leading 2:0. To put it bluntly, even if the team lost both away games, Nelson would have plenty of ways to make up for it at home! He was absolutely confident.

For him, losing in a game where he has absolute certainty and confidence, and letting the players experience the feeling of adversity and hardship, is definitely better than letting the team lose in the divisional finals or even the finals.

At that time, facing a stronger opponent, facing an opponent who could not afford to make any mistakes and had almost no margin for error, should we lose two games to get a feel for the game?
What a joke!
I'm afraid I'll be defeated directly by my opponent.

Only a weak team like the Bulls can satisfy Nelson's need to train players and refresh their spirits!

Safe and easy to use, no accidents! And, Old Nelson has a secret weapon!
"Lin, you've discovered it too." Old Nelson was in Lin Tian's room at the moment, sitting on the sofa with a relaxed look on his face.

"Ah? Oh, of course." Lin Tian was stunned for a moment.

What did you find?
Lin Tian didn't understand what old Nelson was trying to say.

He was even guessing.

This old man, could it be that he suddenly realized he wanted to be a father when he turned 70?

"You also found that everyone is not in good shape tonight. If we continue to force it, even if we can win, we can't help the team. Even if we can win this round, the team will probably have problems in the next series!"

"After all, compared to last year, this year's opponents are stronger and the competition environment is more dangerous. At the same time, we have last year's championship as a foundation, so each team is doing more and more thorough research on us and has a deeper understanding of us."

"Plus, we won too easily last year. Sweeping the whole way is indeed a great achievement, but it can easily make the players fall into the misunderstanding of 'I am invincible' and become arrogant."

"Arrogant soldiers can certainly move forward courageously in favorable circumstances, but they will be at a loss when faced with adversity. In desperate situations, they may even be defeated like a mountain collapsing or an avalanche! Right?"

"That's why you didn't harvest the game tonight!"

After listening to old Nelson's analysis, what can Lin Tian do?

Could he just tell old Nelson that he really didn't have a good touch and couldn't make a shot tonight?

No! Old Nelson will be sad!

So he could only look at old Nelson with a smile that said 'I can't hide it from you' and said nothing.

He wanted to see how much this old man could imagine. He wanted to hear whether this old man could come up with an entire trilogy in his mind.

"So I have an idea." Old Nelson looked at Lin Tian mysteriously, and suddenly stopped talking.

Looking at old Nelson's lewd appearance, Lin Tian first thought of Zhou Yu before the Battle of Chibi. He looked at Zhuge Liang with a lewd smile and said, "Let's each write a word and see how to defeat Cao Cao."

If what you, Zhuge Liang, wrote is the same as mine, it proves that you are awesome, then I have to kill you.

If you, Zhuge Liang, can't write it, it proves that you are an idiot. There is no need to keep you, I will kill you anyway.

The main theme is a clear unity and no shame.

But of course, old Nelson couldn't kill Lin Tian, ​​so he obviously came here to seek recognition. He wanted to unify his brain waves with Lin Tian and work out together how to kill the Bulls while greatly improving the Knicks' combat effectiveness!
Old Nelson was smiling happily at this moment because he felt that he and Lin Tian were on the same path and their ideas were absolutely similar!

He just waited for Lin Tian to express his ideas, and then they hit it off with a "click", and then the two of them began to plot.

Lin Tian, ​​who saw through Old Nelson's thoughts, nodded and said, "Not bad! I think so too. I have a particularly good idea."

"I won't play in the next game, just say I sprained my ankle! If they can be competitive in the games I'm not in, that will prove they have really grown up!"

"What you said is exactly what I want to say!"

Old Nelson didn't react and just opened his mouth to speak out what was in his mind.

After saying this, the old man was stunned.

Everyone was confused.

He looked at Lin Tian for dozens of seconds before he tremblingly gave a thumbs up.

“That’s crazy!”

Lin Tian was much crazier than he had thought. His original plan was to let Lin Tian hold back in the early stages of the game, play worse, and let his teammates perform.

Then, depending on the situation, take action in the fourth quarter or some other time period to win the game or stabilize the situation.

After all, no matter how confident he was, old Nelson didn't want to face a 2:2 situation.

No matter how sure you are, there is no need, right?

From this point of view, the two people really thought the same thing and their brain waves really matched.

But he really didn't expect that Lin Tian would just open his mouth and say, "I won't fight anymore."

How do you describe this feeling?

Still at Chibi, after Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang had discussed it, Zhou Yu wrote the word "fire" on his hand with a pen, and then he was very happy and eager to see what Zhuge Liang had written on his hand.

And then?
Then Zhou Yu saw Zhuge Liang write "Meteorite Falling from the Sky" on his hand!
This one rides on a horse.

What do you think about this?

If this can be done, then this trick is indeed simple, direct and super effective, and it can completely destroy Cao Cao's 83 troops in one wave!

No, if the hell can do this, can use this trick, why destroy the army.

Just smash Xuchang, just smash Xuchang, then go smash Rome, Athens, Carthage, and then smash Mount Olympus and Asgard, okay?
This kind of ridiculous and illogical move is the kind that makes anyone who sees it want to beat someone up.

But Zhuge Liang also said: Our lord has the blood of a great magician since ancient times. One of his ancestors knew this trick! What if our lord also knows it? Let's fight! If a person doesn't fight himself, how can he know how much potential he has?
Only those who work hard can win!
As the saying goes, 3 points are determined by fate, while 97 points depend on hard work, right?
Although Zhou Yu and old Nelson are separated by half a world and 2000 years, if old Nelson and Zhou Yu meet, even if they do not speak the same language, they will definitely be able to quickly feel the feeling of their brain waves being connected and without any barriers.

"confidant!"

"FRIEND!"

Although no one knows what Zhou Yu will choose after seeing the 'Summon Meteorite' move, old Nelson decided to use this move after being shocked!

Come on, let’s see who’s crazier!
I am a 'mad scientist', how can I be younger than you and be normal?

impossible! Absolutely impossible!
So, in the next 30 minutes, old Nelson began to discuss with Lin Tian what excuse to use to suspend the next game.

Ankle, wrist, knee, elbow or groin?

Finally, after a discussion, the two decided on the groin!

The good thing about this place is that you can't tell how or when it was injured.

The hurt is silent and subtle.

You can be hurt when you want to be hurt, and you can be well when you want to be well.

It's quite normal to be able to rest for 10 days, 8 days, or a month, or just take 2 or 3 days to recover.

Anyway, it’s very smart!
Very useful!

So, on this night, a piece of news came out that made all Knicks fans sad.

"Lin Tian missed the fourth game between the Knicks and the Bulls due to a groin injury, and his return date is yet to be determined."

When this news came out, the whole of New York and even the entire league was shocked!
Lin Tian was injured! And the injury was announced right after the team had just lost a crucial game!
Refer to his previous attendance rate, playing style, personality and reputation.

Almost everyone came to the same conclusion at the same time!

Lin Tian’s injury is quite serious!
It may even be serious enough to affect his entire playoff journey this season!
Otherwise, how could he stop fighting at this time?
This is totally inconsistent with his style! (End of this chapter)