So I am the god of basketball?

The Eastern Conference Finals were tied 3-3.

Although the Pistons still have a way to win, they are also capable of doing it.

But the outside media has begun to predict the Pistons' decline.

The reason is also very simple:
There is another reason why Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals was played at the Heat's home court. This was the first time for the young Pistons to play in the Eastern Conference Finals, and also the first time to play in a "Game " of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Michael Jordan once talked about why he didn't play in the "Game 7" of the Finals.

Because once the seventh game comes, many controllable things will become uncontrollable, and situations that would not have happened before may also happen. There are many factors that will lead the outcome of the game to an unknown direction.

So he never lets the finals go into a "Game 7", he will treat the sixth game of the finals as a "life and death battle".

When Meng Lang saw these remarks for the first time, he thought that they were all the shadows brought to him by Pippen.

If he hadn't suddenly suffered a "migraine" in Game 90 of the 7 Eastern Conference Finals, Jordan would have won the championship a year earlier.

After all, during that period, it was basically the Pistons and the Bulls, and whoever made it to the finals would win the championship.

Even the "God of Basketball" is so afraid of the "Game 7" battle.

It can be seen that this is different from ordinary competitions.

Even on a psychological level, it's harder than the finals!

Often in such competitions, young people are more likely to have problems.

Let's take Pippen as an example. In the 90 Eastern Conference Finals Game , he had just entered his third season in the league. He was in the last year of his three-year rookie year. It is worth mentioning that his "migraine" was only that one time, and it was widely known.

The result of the "Game 7" battle was similar to what the media predicted, and the Heat once again completed a "reversal."

From trailing 2-3 to defeating the Pistons 4-3, the Heat once again escaped from the brink of the cliff.

This reversal allowed the Heat to reach the finals for the first time in their history.

The historic moment caused cheers from the entire stadium. Not only in the stadium, but the cheers soon spread to the entire Miami.

The brightly lit streets were bustling with people, and Heat fans were celebrating wildly as they made their historic moment.

Shaquille O'Neal was surrounded by media reporters. He excitedly shouted into the microphone: "Everything has just begun. We will make history. All Miami people are waiting. I will bring a championship to this city!"

Pat Riley also said to reporters after the game: "We may have the toughest time in history to be No. 1 in the league, but these processes have made us stronger. I think now we are the team in the league that is least afraid of falling behind in the score. We have enough experience, which is our most powerful weapon after entering the finals!"

In terms of momentum, the "magician" is not wrong. Constantly coming out of reversals will definitely make a player's self-confidence reach a very high level. This mentality is conducive to their better performance in the finals.

Not to mention, the first game of the finals was played at the Heat's home court.

The cheers from the audience will make the team more motivated.

The Lakers arrived in Miami the night the Pistons were eliminated.

On the way here, Meng Lang watched Grant Hill's post-game interview.

The first trip to the Eastern Conference Finals ended in defeat. Hill could not hide his frustration: "We were only one step away from the finals, but we didn't seize it. This is the playoffs. When you can't seize the opportunity, the opportunity will be given to your opponent. They deserve the finals!"

As a recognized "gentleman" in the league, Grant Hill always loses openly.

The Detroit media and fans are actually very satisfied with this result, because Hill and his team are still young and have plenty of time to create better results. They can afford to wait, and so can Detroit.

In fact, it was surprising that we could reach the Eastern Conference Finals this year.

Of course, as one of the most difficult fans in the NBA, the fact that Detroiters are satisfied this year does not mean that they will be satisfied if the team stops in the Eastern Conference Finals next year. Since they have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals this year, how can they not make it to the Finals next year?
Meng Lang sent a message to Xier, symbolically comforting him.

As for why it was symbolic, it was because he knew Hill wouldn't care too much about the loss. Most people with good tempers don't have strong revenge and competitiveness. In Hill's view, as long as he tried his best, losing was because his opponent performed better. So even if he still felt disappointed during the interview, he wouldn't dwell on it for too long.

Hill's text message came back quickly, and as expected, it was just wishing him a good performance in the finals.

The Eastern Conference Finals ended like this.

From that moment on, there was no more mention of Grant Hill or the Pistons in the media news the next day.

All NBA related news is about the Heat and the Lakers, Meng Lang vs. Shaq.

Orlando was once again dragged out and whipped.

In the history of NBA, there are many cases of star players changing teams.

However, it is a rare scene for a team like Orlando, where the "dual core" of the team left the team one after another and each brought their new teams to meet on the stage of the finals.

The New York media even directly ridiculed: "If Orlando knew how to cherish, I don't know how many consecutive championships they would have won now!"

Orlando fans were heartbroken, but the Orlando media couldn't say a word.

From the time Meng Lang bombarded the entire Orlando Media until he left, they regretted it all the time.

If they had cherished it back then, why would the Magic have been in such a slump until now?

Meng Lang didn't hear this, otherwise he would definitely reply:
Just wait, Orlando, your good days are coming soon!

In addition to the ridicule of Orlando, there are actually quite a lot of gimmicks about this game.

As early as the regular season MVP competition, some media brought up the old story, believing that Shaquille O'Neal won the championship under the leadership of Meng Lang. Although this is the consensus of most media. But there are still some media, especially Shaquille O'Neal, who firmly believes that there is no difference between him and Meng Lang. They are both the bosses of the Magic. - What? Why do you say Shaquille O'Neal dare not say that he won the championship with Meng Lang?
Do you think he doesn't want to?
But the finals MVP is in Meng Lang's hands, so it's no use saying he doesn't want it!
The current Finals MVP has not become a laughing stock because of Andre Iguodala. Those who win this award are either the core of the team or the biggest contributor to the team's victory in the finals.

In short, Shaquille O'Neal is not that tough.

But maybe soon he will be able to say this with confidence.

if only……

He can win this year's finals and defeat Meng Lang!
Since the team he led can beat the team led by Meng Lang, isn't it reasonable to say that it was he who led Meng Lang to win the championship?

In addition to the "Dream Shark Battle", this game is also Pat Riley's reunion with his old club.

Since leaving Los Angeles in disgrace, Pat Riley can finally stand in front of his old club and say, "I'm back!" After defeating the Lakers, he can also say, like Shaq, "The Lakers won the championship because of me!"

Shaquille O'Neal, who was originally dissatisfied with Pat Riley's cunning and cunning, was rarely on the same side with Pat Riley at this moment:
Defeating the Lakers is their only goal now!
What Pat Riley didn't expect was that Chuck Daly actually played a shady trick before the start of the finals. Facing an interview with the media, he said: "Everyone says this team is Shaquille O'Neal's team. He won the regular season MVP and did a great job. But for some reason, no one mentions Tim Hardaway. This season he averaged 21.6 points, 8.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game. After entering the playoffs, if I remember correctly, he averaged 26 points and 6.6 assists per game. He is already a top-tier guard, but for some reason, no one talks about Tim Hardaway's performance in the Heat's games. Everyone naturally thinks it is Shaq's credit."

"But in fact, if the MVP is also awarded in the Eastern Conference Finals, I think this award should belong to Tim Hardaway!"

When Chuck Daly said this, Pat Riley almost gritted his teeth and cursed: "This bastard is really too sinister!"

This is Shaquille O'Neal's second season with the Heat, and he knows Shaquille O'Neal's character very well. He also doesn't know if it was Meng Lang who came from behind and took away the top spot in the Magic.

Now he cares a lot about everything related to status.

The media must emphasize his contribution when talking about the Heat.

While on the team, he will observe his own data, such as shooting rights.

Once he finds that his shooting rights are not obvious enough, he will deliberately increase his shots.

Of course, because his destructive power under the basket is so amazing, the Heat were not hurt even so.

but……

When facing the Lakers, who knows if this will become a hidden danger?

Moreover, Pat Riley had a hunch:
Chuck Daly said that on purpose. He wanted to make the atmosphere for the Heat players awkward.

The "magician" sees it clearly enough.

Yes, that's what Chuck Daly thinks.

He also didn't think about how big of an impact this incident would have, such as causing discord among the core members of the Heat. This was impossible.

However, even if Shaquille O'Neal has some unilateral thoughts about Tim Hardaway, it is still a victory. Who made the Heat team so fierce now?
He had to do something to cool them down.

Chuck Daly knew very well that Shaquille O'Neal would definitely be fooled because he was a petty person.

In addition, there is another point, that is, there are only 7 games in the finals, and the winner of the MVP is indeed accidental.

The next morning, Shaquille O'Neal took the initiative to mention this matter in an interview with the media: "Tim Hardaway is indeed an important member of the Heat. Many of our moments are related to him. This team cannot leave him!"

This high EQ response seems to have no problems at all.

But this just shows that Shaquille O'Neal really cares about this matter.

Otherwise, the most correct approach would be to simply ignore it.

It was just that the relationship between Tim Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal made it impossible for him to ignore the impact of this question, which forced Shaquille O'Neal to respond to this question.

Huh~
Chuck Daly understood this, so he continued to tell the media why Tim Hardaway won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP.

Pat Riley was going crazy, he had never wanted the finals to start as soon as possible. In fact, as a team that had to play two more games to enter the finals, the Heat should have needed more time to rest.

It can only be said that Pat Riley is more worried about the team atmosphere than physical problems.

As he expected, the day of the finals finally arrived.

A group of fans arrived outside the American Airlines Arena early.

This is the first time in Miami's history that they have entered the Finals, and they are all here to feel the atmosphere of the Finals.

As the game time approached, the stadium was packed with people.

Meng Lang was sitting on the bus, looking at the poster of Shaquille O'Neal on the advertising wall outside the arena, and suddenly thought of the days when they worked together in Orlando.

He never bothered to think about his time with the Magic.

Because in his opinion, it was a day of humiliation.

It's just that at this moment, looking at him wearing the Heat's jersey and thinking that I will meet him as an opponent on the stage of the finals later, it still feels a bit magical.

Before the game started, Shaquille O'Neal also ran over to say hello enthusiastically.

Although the two had a lot of open and covert fighting in front of the media, of course, this was mostly due to Shaquille O'Neal's one-sided hostility.

But they didn't quarrel in person, so...

Meng Lang also hugged him enthusiastically.

After just hugging each other, they returned to their respective places, and their expressions changed at the speed of light.

The war is about to start.

The big screen at the scene showed the starting lineups of both sides.

The Lakers have Eddie Jones at No. 1, Kobe Bryant at No. 2, Meng Lang at No. 3, Ben Wallace at No. 4, and Divac at No. 5.
In the last two games of the Western Conference Finals, Barkley came off the bench and played well.

Chuck Daly simply continued to put him on the bench and let him play as the sixth man.

Firstly, Barkley has been injured too many times this season, which has caused the Lakers to have more time to work together with the starting lineup and become more familiar with each other; secondly, the Lakers have always had problems with the depth of their bench lineup.

Kobe has used a season to prove that he can step out from the bench, but he cannot launch a dimensionality reduction attack, and sometimes it can even be a "double-edged sword."

On the contrary, Barkley, standing out from the bench, can cause phenomenal destructive power.

If he had played as a substitute earlier, I'm afraid he would have won the "Best Sixth Man" award this year.

Charles Barkley also fully agreed with Chuck Daly's arrangement.

After all, he came out from the bench and played very comfortably! (End of this chapter)