So I am the god of basketball?

Before the game started, Bill Walton analyzed the game and said: "If the Heat want to stop the Philadelphia 76ers, one thing they must do is to stop the connection between Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson!"

The Philadelphia 76ers' offense basically relies on the coordination of these two people.

Think of them as Philadelphia's version of the "Utah Twins."

Of course, it must be the "Utah Duo" who have much higher talents.

Except for the fact that Allen Iverson's passing, assisting and tactical organization abilities were slightly inferior to Stockton, in other aspects, they were far better than the "Utah Duo".

Especially when Karl Malone is compared with Tim Duncan, there is no comparison.

From the first round, it seems that the Heat didn't take Bill Walton's reminder seriously. Of course, there is another possibility, that is, they took it to heart and studied it seriously, but...

In the end, we still couldn't figure out the reason.

The Heat counterattack.

Tim Hardaway dribbled past Allen Iverson, successfully responding to the "Answer"'s dashing breakthrough.

His "cross-leg dribbling" is also very cool.

The ball was intercepted by Tim Duncan in the high position, and Hardaway passed the ball to Shaq.

Shaq got the ball and headed towards Mutombo behind him.

Mutombo, known as the "African Mountain", was pushed back a big step by him two or three times, and then Shaquille O'Neal made the shot.

Ok……

The year 00 is almost here, and that “peak great shark” is about to be released.

Meng Lang had no doubt about the destructive power of peak Shaq under the basket.

Of course, it seems that Shaq only developed his terrifying presence under the basket after he completely grew up with the "triangle tactics" and Kobe.

The turning point is quite obvious:

The year before, Kobe and Shaq were clamoring to separate, and with Phil Jackson joining the Lakers coaching staff in the summer, he immediately became the feared "Big Shark."

The difference is that Phil Jackson helped him find a way to maximize his potential.

Now, the person standing in the Heat coaching bench is a "magic calculator" whose ability is no less than Phil Jackson. It is not surprising that he enters the "peak shark" state a year in advance.

2-2 flat.

As he was returning to defense, the Philadelphia 76ers completed the serve, and Allen Iverson quickly took the ball to the frontcourt, but after he had no chance, he immediately stopped and waited for Tim Duncan to get into position.

The most amazing thing about a player like Tim Duncan is that neither his teammates nor his opponents will ignore his existence.

This is also how star players get along with each other:

Everyone creates some offensive space for the other side.

Only then can 1 plus 1 be greater than 2.

Tim Duncan gets the ball in the high post.

The Heat's reaction shows that they are targeting the Philadelphia 76ers' style of play:
Shaquille O'Neal, who never left the basket, moved to the high post to defend Tim Duncan.

The "Stone Buddha", whether he was originally in the Spurs or now in the Philadelphia 76ers, is a power forward, but his playing style is actually a power forward. His size and strength are also enough to play the power forward position.

Only Shaq on the Heat can stand up to him.

However, in this case...

Mutombo has an absolute height advantage in the interior.

The "Stone Buddha" shook his little hand, and the 2-meter-tall Mutombo completed a slam dunk under the basket.

The way "African Mountain" scores is actually exactly the same as Ben Wallace.

But his "dunk rate" is higher. Before 00, his average score per game was above 10 points.

In his rookie season, he averaged 16 points per game, which is almost the score that only two peak Ben Wallaces could achieve.

If it weren't for his lack of mobility, he would be a high-end Ben Wallace.

Of course, even if he is not a high-end Ben Wallace, his offensive tactics under the basket are still better than Ben Wallace's.

This buckle is the proof.

The Heat still found Shaquille O'Neal and asked him to play one-on-one in the low post. First, the Philadelphia 76ers' defense was spread out, and Shaquille O'Neal was needed to force the opponent to narrow its defensive formation; second, Shaquille O'Neal's desire to attack was really strong tonight.

Meng Lang couldn't help but worry about Mutombo.

There is a picture circulating in the world:
After the 01 Finals, Mutombo had thick gauze wrapped around his chest and shoulders, which was caused by a collision with Shaquille O'Neal.

This is the destructive power of peak Shaquille O'Neal.

So many fans who came later said that Shaquille O'Neal became useless in the "small ball era", which is really nonsense.

Even a full-size center like Mutombo was beaten like this by Shaquille O'Neal. Are you sure that the so-called "space-type inside players" in the "small ball era" can really stand up to Shaquille O'Neal?
Someone like "Porzingis" must have broken his bones, right?
This is not just nonsense. Didn't Holmgren have his bones broken by LeBron?

Don’t worry about how it happened, but that was the intensity in the 00s.

Therefore, the advent of the "Small Ball Era" is usually prefixed with a prefix called:
The loneliness of position five.

If the center position continues to flourish like it did in the 90s, I'm afraid the league will have to move on to the "traditional center era."

Of course, the status of the three-pointer will definitely improve.

The only thing that makes the "Small Ball Era" better than the "Traditional Center Era" is:
Tactical innovation.

Basketball tactics are constantly evolving.

But the collision between basketball concepts depends more on whether this league has an epoch-making "basket destroyer" like Shaquille O'Neal.

If so, your "small ball" concept is just a ball.

Meng Lang's worries were soon answered, as the person defending Shaquille O'Neal in this round became Tim Duncan.

Obviously, the Philadelphia 76ers showed Shaquille O'Neal enough respect. They did not intend to defeat Shaquille alone. Instead, they wanted to use a "round-robin" to consume Shaquille O'Neal's energy.

This is the biggest problem and weakness of the "Sharks".

"The 76ers were very well prepared for this game!" Bill Walton also recognized the 76ers' defensive approach against Shaquille O'Neal.

The effect becomes apparent as the game progresses:
Shaquille O'Neal went from being invincible at the beginning to gradually having difficulty playing one-on-one.

The Heat's outside players were unable to play their roles because the Philadelphia 76ers were slow to reduce the double-team on their inside players.

In fact, Tim Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal are not that compatible.

Hardaway is good at breaking through for layups and finding teammates to pass the ball in pick-and-rolls.

Most of the points were scored in mobile warfare.

Shaq doesn't like pick-and-rolls, and he doesn't like moving. He prefers positional warfare.

This is also the reason why Kobe is very dissatisfied. Especially when he stays under the basket, it really affects the outside players' breakthroughs and damage.

Tim Duncan on the other hand...

Allen Iverson was willing to wait for Duncan to get into position when there was no fast break opportunity. One important reason was that... Tim Duncan would always open up the inside defense for him when he had the ball and was attacking.

And he has the ability to do this.

Tim Duncan's mid-range shooting is one of the best in the league.

At the same time, his "second rebound" and "second attack" abilities allow outside players to attack without any burden.

If you don’t consider him as one of the “Top Ten Best Teammates”, you’d be a fool…

Someone as loyal as "Answer" would definitely not do this.

This can be seen from the fact that he did not have any internal conflicts with others over competing for shooting rights when he was with the Philadelphia 76ers or the Nuggets.

As for the conflicts after joining the Pistons, that was just an "unprovoked disaster".

It was clearly a management problem, but Rasheed Wallace and others took their anger out on Allen Iverson.

Shaquille O'Neal, despite the rotation of Tim Duncan and Mutombo, finally scored 35 points and 13 rebounds.

But because the Heat's outside players did not perform as they should have, the Heat still lost to the Philadelphia 12ers by 76 points.

Allen Iverson scored 33 points, and his output alone was equivalent to that of Mashburn and Tim Hardaway.

蒂姆-邓肯也拿到了24分12篮板5助攻，穆托姆博同样贡献11分12篮板4盖帽的“两双”数据。

These three were also the key to the Philadelphia 76ers' victory in this game.

Shaquille O'Neal's dominance of the game has been questioned.

Because the Heat have undoubtedly strengthened the entire lineup to the point where it can't be improved any further, a lineup with all the stars, let him play, but the result...

That's it?

“Two number one scorers” sounds a bit exaggerated.

But to put it bluntly, isn’t it just a sophomore and a third grader?
Why can’t I win?
The Houston media believes that you have to pay for what you have done: "You first and second graders took our championship away, now it's your turn to be defeated by the second and third graders!"

This may also be where the NBA is interesting!
Jiangshan has talented people on behalf of the people, and they have been leading the way for hundreds of years.

Shaquille O'Neal said resolutely that we will definitely win the next game.

But everyone can see that this game is already his limit, and any further adjustments will depend on the performance of other Heat players.

To put it bluntly, the "decisive factor" of this series is no longer in his hands, but in whether the Heat's outside players can play to their strengths.

Eddie Jones has become the target of pressure from the Miami media. As the biggest reinforcement in January this year, he should have some effect at this moment, right?
Wasn’t he a member of the “Best Defensive Team” last season?

Why don't you lock up Allen Iverson?
When Meng Lang saw the news, he could only observe three seconds of silence for Eddie Jones.

Not to mention Eddie Jones, even if he is truly one of the “Best Defensive Team” players, how many people can defend him standing in front of Allen Iverson?
At this time, the only way to embarrass Eddie Jones is to say "newcomers are easy to be bullied."

The second game of the Western Conference Finals continued at the Trail Blazers' home court.

The Lakers are similar to the Heat, both play with their cards open.

The person dragging the entire team is Meng Lang.

If you want to beat the Lakers, you have to limit Meng Lang like the Philadelphia 76ers limited Shaquille O'Neal.

It's just that Philadelphia has a combination like Tim Duncan and Mutombo, and the Trail Blazers don't have any outside combination that can limit Meng Lang...

With little to no obstacles, the Lakers won their second game of the Western Conference Finals.

In fact, this kind of "civilian team" is more likely to have problems in the playoffs.

Like the later Eagles' "Common Five", that's the case.

You can't expect every "common five" team to have a "key man" like Chauncey Billups. And he is really not ordinary. If the third pick in the first round is ordinary, then other rookies really can't make it.

He just woke up a little later.

What was slightly different about this game was that Meng Lang defeated the Trail Blazers alone. He scored 43 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists in this game.

It wasn't that he couldn't get the last assist, but that he didn't want to get it. When Meng Lang left the court, there were still 2 minutes left in the game, but the score difference of 15 points was there, so he just went off the court to rest with peace of mind.

The Western Conference Finals was less suspenseful than everyone expected, so more people were paying attention to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Before the game, Shaquille O'Neal said bluntly: "We will never leave Miami with a score of 0-2!"

He has spoken, and the Heat's fighting spirit is indeed higher than in the last game...

Since he couldn't get the Philadelphia 76ers to narrow their defense, the Heat's outside players had to do it themselves.

Their breakthrough was more determined than in the previous game.

Shaquille O'Neal was finally willing to give up some space under the basket.

The Heat built a 9-point lead in the third quarter and maintained it until the end.

99 to 92, the Heat won the game just as Shaquille O'Neal said.

The overall score was tied 1-1.

Shaquille O'Neal's stats dropped in this game, he "only" got 28 points and 14 rebounds.

But Tim Hardaway and his teammates' performances have improved significantly compared to the previous game:

蒂姆-哈达威拿到了23分4篮板6助攻；埃迪-琼斯拿到了16分4篮板，其中命中了3次三分球；马什本也拿到了19分。

Another reason why the Heat were able to win this game was that the Philadelphia 76ers did not shoot well from the outside tonight.

More intense collisions do affect the feel of the shot.

The best proof of this is that the Rockets once missed 22 three-pointers in a row in a key game.

There are psychological impacts, but there are also more impacts caused by condition and physical energy consumption.

These may be the more important reasons.

This makes the Eastern Conference Finals even more exciting.

Because only when the opponents are evenly matched can more "X factors" emerge.

One of the biggest highlights of a basketball game is to see which side has more X factors.

Portland fans were drooling as they watched the changes to the Heat's outside players in the second game. This was exactly what they expected to see in the Trail Blazers game.

It’s a pity that the Trail Blazers are a team that can’t change.

The next two games were played at the Lakers' home court, but they had no chance at all. After two more games, the score was 4-0. The Lakers made it to the finals for the third consecutive year. (End of this chapter)