Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 409 Mr. Zhan, do you believe in fate?

Chapter 409 Mr. Zhan, do you believe in fate?
米切尔场均18.2分4.5板4.2助攻1.5抢断，塔图姆场均15.8分6.5板1.9助攻1.3抢断1盖帽，萨博尼斯场均12.6分9.3板2.9助攻，希尔德场均13分。

From a data perspective, the Kings' newcomers have not made much progress compared to last season, and some players like Mitchell have even regressed, but a player's strength is never reflected just by data.

Without saying too much, just talking about the value of the data, the data obtained when winning and losing are not the same concept, and the data obtained by a strong team and a weak team are also different concepts.

Last season's Kings were a weak team, but this season's Kings are clearly no longer a weak team.

The Trail Blazers are fourth with 53 wins.

The Rockets ranked fifth with 53 wins.

Harden averaged 36.1 points per game.

If it weren't for Hansen, the one who brought the fans a scoring shock would be Harden, because the number reached 36, surpassing Kobe's season high average.

The Spurs, Thunder and Jazz ranked 6th to 8th.

The Kings' first-round opponent is the Spurs.

When Hansen came to the Grizzlies from the Cavaliers, his first opponent was the Spurs. After many years, he returned to the West, and his first opponent in the playoffs was the Spurs again.

Of course, times have changed. GDPs have retired one after another, and even Leonard left last summer. Not only have the Spurs changed a lot, but their strength is also no longer what it used to be.

Theoretically speaking, the Kings should have an easier time playing against the sixth team in the third place, but when the two sides really started playing, the Kings' performance fluctuated greatly.

In the first home game, the Kings won 107-94, but in the second game, they lost to their opponents 98-108.

Hansen played very stably, averaging 40 points in two games, almost the same as in the regular season, but the Kings' rookies had very ups and downs in performance.

Mitchell scored 21 points in the first game, but only 13 points in the second game; Tatum scored 17 points in the first game, but only 7 points in the second game.

In contrast, veteran players Gay and Gasol Jr. have performed relatively stably.

Obviously, this is a common problem for rookies entering the playoffs for the first time. In higher-intensity games, the defensive intensity and game rhythm you encounter are very different from those in the regular season.

This can be seen from the game scores.

It is difficult for newcomers to adjust all of a sudden.

Not to mention that their opponent is the Spurs.

A lot of things have changed for this Spurs team, but one thing has not changed: their head coach is still Popovich, and Popovich is best at targeting.

He might not be able to do anything to Han Sen, but he could easily deal with the newcomers.

If nothing unexpected happens, this series will be much tougher than it looks.

The Kings were also unlucky, as they encountered the toughest opponent in the lower half of the conference in the first round.

After the first two games, both sides moved to San Antonio to continue the next competition.

It was at this time that everyone realized that the team that was truly unlucky was not the Kings, but the Spurs.

Spurs Nemesis, Mayor of San Antonio, these nicknames that fans once talked about with relish have gradually awakened in the minds of Spurs fans as the game came to San Antonio.

In Game 3, Hansen scored 54 points to help the Kings defeat the Spurs 118-108.

In Game 4, Hansen scored 46 points to help the Kings win another game with a score of 114-105.

If averaging 40 points per game doesn't seal victory, then average 50 points per game.

That day, Spurs fans were reminded of the horror of being dominated by Hansen.

At the end of these two games, the score was 3 to 1, and there was not much suspense in the game.

Back at home, the Kings' newcomers finally had a rebound, and the Kings defeated the Spurs in just three quarters.

4 to 1, a gentleman's sweep, the Kings successfully advanced to the divisional semifinals.

There are two things that impressed fans the most in this series. One is that the Spurs' performance was actually not bad, especially DeRozan, a star known for his poor performance in the playoffs. In these five games, he played better in all aspects from scoring to shooting percentage than in the regular season.

Including Aldridge, he has always had the upper hand in the interior matchup with Sabonis.

Another point is that the Kings' rookies exposed many problems when being targeted, including Mitchell's instability and Tatum's total incompetence.

It's a very simple truth that when facing single defense and double-team, especially a double-team with a high coverage rate, the ball-handling abilities required by players are completely different.

This cannot be achieved with simple determination; it requires basic abilities.

These are two completely different points, but together they highlight Han Sen's strength.

Entering the second round, the Kings' opponent is the Pelicans.

Don’t think that the Pelicans are weak just because the Cavaliers swept them last season. You have to know that the Pelicans are a team that made it to the finals from the Western Conference.

Compared with the Spurs, the Pelicans' strength can be said to have been improved to a whole level.

What's more, the only point that can be compared with the Cavaliers team is Hansen.

From the outside, it seemed that the Kings would end the battle within 6 games at most, but they were the one being eliminated.

The reason for giving this match is because the Kings have Hansen and the game form Hansen showed in the first round.

Hansen not only scored 40+ in the first round, but his true shooting percentage reached 80%, an extremely abnormal level.

After fully adapting to his increased height and wingspan, Hansen was completely unstoppable.

Of course, the defensive strength of the Pelicans is not comparable to that of the current Spurs. No matter how strong Hansen is, he is just an individual.

Then in Game 1, the Kings pulled off an upset, beating the Pelicans 104-93 and snatching the home-court advantage directly from the Pelicans.

This result can be said to have surprised everyone.

But people who watched the game were not surprised because the Pelicans played too carelessly.

What can be felt is that the Pelicans' defensive strategy is to lock down Hansen, and they did a good job in this regard, as Hansen only scored 30 points in the entire game.

But Hansen made 13 assists!
The Pelicans may not have studied why the performance of the Kings' rookies was so up and down in the first round. In their view, it was the rookies' inability to adapt to the playoffs.

However, without being targeted, Mitchell, Tatum and others proved their progress this season and they were able to seize those opportunities.

Especially Tatum, he made 4 three-pointers in a single game, scored 23 points in the whole game, and scored 20+ for the first time in his playoff career.

It was also the first time that the outside world saw Tatum fulfill the talent he had when he was drafted.

However, in the next two games, the Pelicans showed their adjustments.

The reason for losing G1 was defense, so solving the defense problem is the easiest for them.

Focusing on defending Hansen and taking care of others is difficult for the Spurs, but possible for the Pelicans.

With excellent defense, they defeated the Kings in succession and changed the score to 2-1.

"We just took a nap." After winning the Kings' first home game, James also made a golden quote in the post-game press conference.

It was obvious that he couldn't wait to defeat Hansen.

In the decisive G4, Van Gundy was on the line.

Lu's previous thought had always been how to break the Pelicans' defense.

But he used three games to prove one thing, that is, the Kings' existing resources could not do this. It was at this time that Lu exerted his subjective initiative and decided to try from the defensive end.

This is a very bold theory. After all, the Pelicans are best at defense. If you compete with them on defense, you will only be asking for trouble.

However, when Lu discussed this idea with Han Sen, Han Sen agreed with it.

The Kings' defense is actually not bad. Among this group of newcomers, whether it is Mitchell or Tatum, their offense has ups and downs, but their defense has always been online.

So the Kings cannot win in offense now, but they have a chance in defense.

What's more, they have Van Gundy.

The worse Van Gundy's team's offense is, the better its defense is. Otherwise, with the Rockets' configuration at that time, it would be difficult for them to become a strong team in the West.

The facts soon proved this point. After Game 4, the score between the two sides was 96 to 92, with the Kings winning by 4 points.

The two teams played a game that was completely against the times.

Although the defensive intensity in the playoffs is higher than that in the regular season, and there are no more games with 130+ points, the winning side can basically score around 110 points.

But in this game, both sides scored only around 90 points.

It was also this game that made people overlook a very crucial point, which is the matchup between Hansen and James.

In order to improve defensive rotations, Lu used a large number of small lineups, and Hansen also spent a lot of time directly facing James, which suppressed James on the offensive end.

This Pelicans team is very dependent on James and Davis on the offensive end.

Like other people, Holiday was abandoned by the 76ers because he was not good at offense. You can trust him on the defensive end, but it is too difficult to expect him to lead the team on offense.

With a score of 2 to 2, both sides entered the decisive battle.

The outside world believes that the Pelicans can resolve the battle within 6 games, which means that the Pelicans can no longer afford to lose.

In the most crucial game, Davis played with momentum.

Whether facing Sabonis or Gasol Jr., he played very flexibly and frequently scored through cuts.

He fully demonstrated the style of the top inside player in the small ball era.

However, his performance ultimately resulted in him being alone and unable to achieve anything.

Because James still can't perform well.

This is not a problem of desire to play. Fundamentally speaking, James' problem is the same as Tatum's. His omnipotence has turned into total inability.

If Han Sen's height and wingspan increased, it would be even worse for James, who already had no advantages.

Aside from the occasional fast break ball, he looked like a complete side effect on the court.

Of course, the rookies on the Kings didn't perform that well either.

The Pelicans can only rely on defense if they can't play well on offense, which makes it difficult to score two points in the game.

In this kind of game, it doesn't matter whether the shot time is 24 seconds or 14 seconds, because the most common thing on the court is missed shots.

With one minute left in the game, the score between the two teams was tied at 79.

If this happened at the beginning of the century, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with it, but the problem is that it’s 2019 now!
This is just like there are still people using Nokia brick phones in 2019. It cannot be said to be completely impossible, but it can only be said to be extremely rare.

Then, there was no more.

At this countdown stage, Hansen is like a god.

He used a breakthrough to cause damage, and then a breakthrough after receiving the ball, a sudden stop, turn and fade away to end the game.

83比81，国王队以2分之差拿下天王山，大比分来到3比2。

The outside world's view is only half right, because now the Kings have the potential to be the one to end the battle in 6 games.

"The series isn't over yet." After the decisive game, James suddenly became honest in his speech.

Game 6 was a standard "win or go home" game for the Pelicans.

This game also brought unprecedented grandeur to the Golden One Arena. Not only was the stadium packed, but a large number of Kings fans also gathered outside the arena.

For the first time, the city of Sacramento truly felt the unprecedented grandeur.

Perhaps this is the biggest difference between Hansen and James. What he creates is by no means false popularity, but real prosperity.

What the fans want to see and have always been looking forward to seeing is always winning.

Inside the Golden One Arena, the fans were also unprecedentedly enthusiastic.

During the opening ceremony, the deafening cheers and the arena effect created by this special stadium made the players on the field feel their blood boiling.

Lu directly used a small lineup in this game, and Hansen also faced off against James directly from the start.

James did not go to see Han Sen, or he simply did not dare to look.

But at this moment, Han Sen took the initiative to speak.

"LeBron."

Hansen's voice made James, who was trying to cover himself with braces, turn around.

It was unknown how long it had been since Han Sen had called him that.

Although the two had many mismatches over the years and Han Sen had spoken a lot of trash to him, he had never called him by his name directly like this.

Or rather, there never was.

Because even during Han Sen's rookie season, Han Sen never called him that.

But Han Sen's next words made him stunned.

"Do you believe in fate?"

Fate, or destiny, of course Westerners have similar terms, but they are more likely to say it is God's will.

So James could completely understand what Han Sen said.

But James did not answer because he did not know what Hansen wanted to say.

Fortunately, Han Sen's subsequent words made him understand.

"If we win two fewer games this year, or if you win two more games, we won't be meeting here. That's fate."

At this time, the referee had already taken the ball to midfield for a jump ball.

Han Sen then continued, "You can't beat me. This is fate."

"beep!"