Don't talk trash to him.

Chapter 232: We in Orlando should not dream of the same grand dreams as New York!

During his breakthrough, Suwan could not only find Shaquille O'Neal in the paint, but also Chauncey Billups on the wing to shoot three-pointers.

Michael Pietrus and Howard are already the Magic's highest defensive configuration against someone, but Suwan has no pressure at all when facing this defense. He has too many helpers around him and too many choices to make.

The Magic's defense simply cannot be comprehensive.

In the past, at this time, Stan Van Gundy would place his hopes on Turkoglu, expecting him to lead the Magic on the offensive end and launch wave after wave of "attacks."

In fact, under the Pacers' system, although there are many shooting points from the outside, the entire ball movement is a bit dull due to the poor mobility of the front line, and it relies more on Suwan's dribbling breakthrough to change the Magic's defensive position.

Therefore, the Pacers' scoring speed is not fast, and they cannot play wave after wave of "scoring sprees" like they did in the past.

If Turkoglu plays normally, under his leadership, the Magic can launch a more ferocious offense with shooting from beyond the three-point line.

only……

Turkoglu was unable to attract a double-team, and his ability alone was not enough to solve O'Neal's defense, so the Magic's "shooter group" was a little embarrassed at the time.

The instability of the three-point shot was also exposed at this moment:
Unless they are as strong as Ray Allen, most of the three-point shooters in this league have one common characteristic, which is that their hit rate will drop significantly when facing interference.

There are very few three-point shooters who can perform normally when shooting from the top.

Lewis is the best three-point shooter among the Magic's outside shooters, and he was also the one who shot better from three-point range tonight, but his shooting percentage in the first half was only 6 of 2.

I won’t talk about the others.

Three-point shooting is one of the two lifelines of the Magic, along with Howard's dunks after receiving the ball in the paint and the "second offense" after grabbing rebounds.

Howard averaged 20.6 points per game this season and is the "scoring champion" of the Magic.

The Magic averaged 101 points in the regular season this season, with Howard accounting for one-fifth of that.
But the fatal point is that after Shaquille O'Neal compressed the space under the basket, Howard was dumbfounded. All those easy offensive opportunities during the regular season disappeared. He didn't even have the chance to fight under the basket and complete a "second attack."

It's not just about the weight of Shaquille O'Neal, the key is that he is 2 meters tall!

This is really...

Howard has no temper at all.

Don't ever think that Howard and Davis will be able to work together to limit Jokic in the future. The fact that Howard is still the one defending Jokic proves that he doesn't have the ability to defend at the center position.

To be honest, Jokic's confrontation is not that traditional compared to the traditional five position.

Although he is 2 meters tall and weighs 11 kg.

But holding the ball and attacking the basket is not his style of play. Jokic lacks explosive power at the basket, so it is difficult to push the defender away in an instant. His real threat on the offensive end is that he has a variety of offensive methods, not that he is proficient in any of them.

Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming are different. They both make a living by slashing their shots under the basket.

For them, fighting this thing is just a matter of making a living.

Howard didn't stand a chance. He was sunny and cheerful, with an expression that said "I have no brain stem" written all over his face, and he stopped laughing.

This game was really uncomfortable for him.

He only comes to life when Shaquille O'Neal is not around.

But no matter how problematic Shaquille O'Neal's physical condition is, or how intense the playoff competition is, he can still guarantee about 25 minutes of playing time.

Howard can have 23 minutes at most to breathe under the basket.

It's just breathing rights. Marc Gasol can also compress the space under the basket, but his experience is not as good as Shaquille O'Neal.

But we have no experience, so we are committing a foul!

6 fouls!

Howard breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Shaquille O'Neal leave the court.

But when he really found the opportunity to face Marc Gasol and was ready to let the Spanish rookie see what talent it was to play at the basket, Marc Gasol fouled him directly and sent him to the free throw line.

"Dangdang!"

"Dangdang!"

As expected, Howard inherited the Magic's fine tradition of the center position and missed two consecutive free throws. The camera on the scene was given to Shaquille O'Neal.

The language of the lens, the inheritance needs no further words.

Marc Gasol played on the court for ten minutes with six fouls, and wasted Howard's precious scoring opportunities. After Marc Gasol was sent off the court, the "Big Shark" on the Pacers bench stood up with a smile on his face and walked towards him with a grin.

Another lifeline of the Magic was also broken.

At the end of the game, the Pacers, led by Suwan, played steadily and finally scored 99 points, beating the Magic by 17 points. - From this, we can see the difference between positional warfare and mobile warfare. The Pacers have been leading almost since the second half of the first quarter, and the team's offense is also very smooth, but in the end, the score difference was "only" 17 points.

However, although the speed of widening the gap is slow, it is extremely steady.

After the third quarter, the Pacers fans at the scene began to watch the game with peace of mind, no longer worrying about the team's victory or defeat.

In the "positional warfare", once the rhythm is controlled, even though the score difference may not be terrible, it can make every round very uncomfortable for the opponent.

苏万这场比赛大量持球，最终拿到了32分6篮板7助攻2抢断1盖帽。

With his assists, Billups made 3 three-pointers and finally scored 15 points.

Zach Randolph scored 18 points, all because Suwan attracted a double team and gave him an easy scoring opportunity. He felt like tonight was not the Eastern Conference Finals at all!

The ease of scoring was clearly that of a preseason game!

The O'Neal brothers did not score much, Shaquille O'Neal scored 12 points and Jermaine O'Neal only 14 points.

But they both did a great job defensively.

Shaquille O'Neal faced LeBron in the semifinals, and Howard, who played like the "chosen one", was defended by him, making only 12 of 5 shots and 12 of 6 free throws, scoring 16 points. In addition, as the "rebounding king" of this season, he only had 8 rebounds, and only 1 offensive rebound.

Of course, Marc Gasol, who was sent off the bench, also played an important role in limiting him.

Under O'Neal's defense, Turkoglu's performance was also very poor. He made 15 of 6 shots and 7 of 1 three-pointers. He scored 13 points and 5 rebounds. In addition, he made 6 assists and 5 turnovers.

Later, O'Neal had no way to defend him. He was so anxious that he missed consecutive three-pointers, which made Stan Van Gundy so angry that he cursed on the sidelines.

The best performer of the Magic was Lewis, who scored a team-high 21 points.

But such performance is obviously not enough to help the Magic win tonight.

After the game, Bill Walton said: "If the Magic don't make more changes, then this game will be a microcosm of the entire series!"

Barkley also said: "Although both of them are on the first team and the first defense this season, Dwight Howard obviously still has a long way to go compared to Suwan!"

Kenny Smith added: "In fact, Dwight has never played very well against Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming, two veteran centers!"

Barkley glanced at him and said, "Little known fact: Yao Ming only entered the league two seasons earlier than Dwight!"

Kenny Smith said: "But he is 6 years older than Howard!"

There is another very bad signal for the Magic.

After the game, both Turkoglu and Howard looked depressed when they were interviewed.

This is definitely not the emotion you would have after losing a game.

Especially Howard...

Normally he would not take a defeat so seriously.

The real reason why he felt frustrated was not just because he lost tonight, but also because he felt that he could not adapt to the Pacers' defensive formation, nor could he regain his previous strength in this defensive lineup.

There was no possibility of adjustment, which was why he was so frustrated.

The same goes for Turkoglu. O'Neal's defense made him feel very uncomfortable, but he was not sure he could make adjustments in the next game.

With both of them having this mentality, the outcome of the next game can be imagined.

101 to 88.
The difference of 13 points doesn't seem like much.

But any fan who watched the game knows how torturous this game was for the Magic.

They are frogs in a pot of warm water.

What’s even more frustrating is that they know the water will get hotter and hotter, but they simply can’t swim out of the Pacers’ “warm water”.

The score was 0-2.
An Orlando media reporter said with emotion: "I have never missed Jamil so much. If he were there, the Magic would never be so passive on the offensive end!"

Not only did he have this idea, other media people in Orlando also had the same idea.

They all believe that Nelson's dribbling breakthrough will be the key to the Magic's breakthrough.

The good news is that in order to balance the progress of the Eastern and Western playoffs, after this game, the next game of the Eastern Conference Finals will start in 5 days.

During this time, the Orlando media can pray as much as they want, hoping for a miracle to happen, such as Nelson Jr. returning in the next home game.

In the Western Conference, the two teams that ultimately made it to the finals remained the same: the Lakers and the Nuggets.

The fierce confrontation between Kobe and Carmelo Anthony took place as expected.

The Denver fans were stunned.

no……

Is it true that our "Melo" is such an excited "young man"?

Throughout the game, Carmelo Anthony chased after Kobe and bit him, as if he wanted to stick to him and not get off.

Baron Davis gained a very obvious advantage in the matchup with "Old Fish".

So much so that at the beginning of the game, the Lakers were actually lagging behind.

But after Phil Jackson adjusted the focus of the offense and placed the focus on the inside, the Lakers gradually equalized the score.

The combination of Nene and Foster is better at defense than offense, and their defensive ability can handle the inside of most teams in the league. It's just that the Lakers' inside twin towers are not on this list.

They are motivated enough, but in terms of talent ceiling, they are indeed far behind Pau Gasol and Yao Ming.

However, as the game progressed, the Lakers exposed another problem:
The substitute rotation bench is lacking in strength.

On the Nuggets side, they have the "nervous" Jr. Smith!
What's even more terrible is that Jr. Smith was in very good shape tonight and made consecutive three-pointers.

The charm of three-pointers was revealed at this moment. Although the Lakers' overall inside hit rate was higher, they could not resist Jr. Smith's continuous three-pointers.

At the end of the first half, the Nuggets led by 53 points, 48 to 5.

However, Phil Jackson showed his calmness as a "Zen Master". He watched Jr. Smith perform "incomparably" on the court calmly but was not in a hurry at all.

It turns out that old ginger is still spicy.

The Nuggets, who relied on Jr. Smith to turn the game around in the first half, lost the game in the second half because of Jr. Smith.

In the first half, Jr. Smith made consecutive three-pointers from beyond the three-point line, with an exaggerated hit rate of 6 of 5, but when the game entered the second half, his hit rate from beyond the three-point line was only 5 of 1.

Now the Nuggets' outside scoring speed obviously cannot keep up with the Lakers' inside scoring speed.

At the end of the game, the score was 106 to 96, and the Lakers won the first game of the series without any danger.

But in the eyes of outside media, the suspense of the Western Conference Finals is greater than that of the Eastern Conference.

Not to mention anything else, just looking at the state of the outside line, the Nuggets are hotter than the Lakers.

The Lakers are completely supported by Kobe.

Ariza has transformed into an outstanding "3D player" this season.

But he couldn't stand up to Carmelo Anthony, so the responsibility of defending "Melo" had to be handed over to Kobe. He couldn't mismatch to defend Baron Davis, otherwise Fisher would have to defend the Nuggets' No. 2 position.

Anyone who comes up, like Jr. Smith, can beat him like a sieve.

Ariza's main role in assisting defense was throughout the game, and he mainly helped Kobe with his assisting defense.

From this aspect, it can be seen that the Lakers' outside offensive and defensive pressure is all on Kobe.

If the Nuggets' outside shooting was more aggressive, they would have a chance to win the game.

This doesn't look like the Magic Team at all!

There was really no chance against the Pacers.

The team's "engine" and "scoring champion" were both severely restricted.

There was nothing wrong with the predictions of these experts. In the second game of the Western Conference Finals, the Nuggets really opened up the situation with a fierce attack from the outside, and finally defeated the Lakers 107-96, an 11-point difference, and stole a home court from Staples. The Nuggets will have two home courts next. If they seize the opportunity, they will be able to return to Staples with a 2-3 lead.

Barkley said: "The Nuggets have great potential!"

Just because of this sentence, Denver fans almost rushed to Barkley's house on a train at night and took turns lining up to beat him up.

Will you die if you don't speak?
Don’t you know how poisonous your mouth is?

The Western Conference Finals ended with a 1-1 draw.
The war has resumed in the east.

In the third game of the series, the Orlando Magic will be at home.

Since leaving here in 96, Shaquille O'Neal has been coming back once a year for a long time. After "traveling east" in recent years, his visits to Orlando have occasionally increased, but the comfort he felt when he returned here so many times before was not even one-tenth of what he feels now!

The score is 2-0, and the next two games will be at the Magic's home court.

In other words, he is likely to end the team's second trip to the finals in front of the Magic fans!
14 years ago, it was he who led the team to achieve the first breakthrough in team history and brought the Magic to the finals.

Now, it will be up to him to end the Magic's chance to reach the finals for the second time!

all of these……

It's all fate!
It not only proved that Howard was not as good as him and could only bring the team to the Eastern Conference Finals; it also proved that if the Magic wanted to enter the finals, they had to rely on Shaquille O'Neal.

This is the punishment for not giving me 2 million a year!
Think about it again, after punishing the Magic, they will punish the Lakers next, and Shaquille O'Neal will be in an even better mood!

He must admit that joining the Pacers last summer was the best decision he made in his entire career, even better than joining the Lakers.

Ok……

That's what he thinks now!
What did he do after joining the Lakers?
Led the team to three consecutive championships!
But what did he get?
He was abandoned in the summer of 04. When he was still at his peak, he was kicked out by old Buss, who was not even willing to give him a maximum salary "retirement contract"!

For what he gave, there is also what he got.

This is not proportional at all!
And now...

He has just joined the Pacers for one season, and he has already got the opportunity to punch the Magic and kick the Lakers, allowing these "unfaithful men" to take revenge and redress their grievances. Tell me, how can this not be the best choice?
Facing the media, he was full of disdain: "This is the management of the Magic team and the media of this city. In 92, they got the greatest center in history, but they didn't know how to cherish it. And 12 years later, in 04, they missed the chance to select the best player in history! God has given them the cornerstones to become a giant again and again, but they always miss it. What else can I say? This is Orlando. The only thing people can think of is Disney. Of course, there will be more diss about me in the future!"

Orlando Media wanted to fight back, but lacked the confidence.

During the 5-day rest, they prayed day and night, but no miracle happened...

Jameer Nelson's latest "injury report" shows that he will not be able to return until June at the earliest.

Without Nelson Jr., the Magic's roster becomes unchangeable.

However, the Magic's mental outlook was still good tonight. All the players were full of enthusiasm. The game had just begun and they proved it with practical actions. They began to fight more actively, both on offense and defense. In addition, they were in very good shape outside the three-point line tonight, making 5 three-pointers in the first quarter alone.

If he continues shooting like this, it will rain three-pointers in Orlando tonight.

Rick Carlisle was not in a hurry at all and continued to maintain the current defense, which was still "point to point" defense. He let Shaquille O'Neal control Howard's running and jumping, and let O'Neal Jr. defend Turkoglu alone to test his singles with the ball.

As for the other players on the Magic team, if they have the ability, they can use the “top three-pointer” to defeat the Pacers tonight!

The truth is, it’s really hard!
Especially as the game progressed in the second half, after constant confrontation, the Magic's pitchers consumed too much physical energy, which affected their feel, and they lost the excellent shooting state they had at the beginning of the game.

Speaking of which...

This is also the fundamental reason why shooting cannot win championships in the "traditional inside" era.

In positional warfare, the slow pace means that the confrontation in the game will increase, which means that the confrontation happening all the time will slowly overdraw physical strength and eventually affect physical energy consumption.

Without a good touch, the saying that the closer you are to the basket, the higher your shooting percentage becomes a truth.

The embarrassing thing about the Magic is that they play at a fast pace, but because the ball handler is not a "truck" but a "tweeter machine", they are unable to launch wave after wave of defensive counterattacks.

This kind of rhythm is the comfort zone for 37-year-old Shaquille O'Neal.

He was particularly motivated on the offensive end tonight.

Howard had beaten him so hard that he had no temper at all.

"Bang!"

At 6 minutes and 13 seconds in the fourth quarter, Shaquille O'Neal once again pushed Howard away and scored. Then he shouted at him, "Where is the Superman that the Orlando media talked about? Why can't I see him?"

What frustrates Howard is that he can't stop Shaquille O'Neal by fouling him.

because……

It’s really hard to say which is more embarrassing: being constantly "knocked on the face" by Shaquille O'Neal or being beaten by him and leaving the court with "six fouls"!

At the end of the game, the Pacers, despite falling behind at the beginning, continued to catch up and eventually defeated the Magic by 103 points, 90 to 13.

Suwan was not the highest scorer for the Pacers in this game. He scored 25 points. The excited Shaquille O'Neal finally scored 26 points and had 9 rebounds.

This was the game with the best statistics so far in the series.

I'm just so tired!

When he was sitting on the sidelines, his legs were shaking slightly.

Now Shaquille O'Neal has tried his best and can still play well. However, the sequelae will be very serious. Looking at Shaquille O'Neal's condition, I am afraid he will not be able to do any exercise tomorrow.

Rick Carlisle has relaxed the requirements for Shaquille O'Neal's daily training volume since January. For Shaquille now, as long as he is not injured, it is acceptable to maintain a basic training volume.

But Shaquille O'Neal looked very excited. For him, it was a very comfortable night.

Looking at the silent Magic home crowd, he felt that this night was even happier than when he scored 60 points on his birthday night.

The 3-0 score meant that the Magic only had a theoretical chance of a comeback, but if they wanted to trace the roots in history, there were no examples to draw lessons from.

In the history of the NBA, no team has ever been able to pull off a comeback from a 0-3 deficit.

There is a saying that goes...

If he had that kind of strength, how could he lose three games in a row without any chance of fighting back?

Stan Van Gundy couldn't yell anymore after this game.

Originally he still had a glimmer of hope, that was the Magic team's three-pointer.

In his opinion, if the Magic's three-point shooting touch explodes, they might be able to pull off a victory.

But tonight's game shattered his last bit of fantasy.

The Magic started off strong from beyond the three-point line tonight, right?

He made 5 three-pointers in the first quarter alone, but what was the result?
In the constant confrontation, their excellent condition was slowly consumed...

They simply couldn't maintain this fiery state.

Stan Van Gundy's hopes were dashed.

Most of the Orlando media also shut up and stopped arguing with Shaquille O'Neal.

They all know...

I can’t argue anymore!

Next they have to endure Shaquille O'Neal's increasingly arrogant attitude.

Two days later, the fourth game of the Eastern Conference Finals continued at Orlando's home court. There were still many Magic fans at the Oakland Arena tonight, but the atmosphere before the game was as if this was not a stadium, but a funeral home.

When the Orlando Magic made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, they never expected that the Magic would lose so badly!

They had no chance to fight back in the 3 games and were about to be swept out 4-0...

After being full of hope, they quickly fell into deep despair. This wave of ups and downs almost made the Magic fans faint.

The Orlando fans who came to the scene tonight had no other intentions. They did not expect the team to win a game at home and then go to Indiana and be eliminated.

If the Magic could really do this, they would have done it in Game 3. Why would they have waited until the final moment?
Although "fighting with one's back to the river" can inspire people's fighting spirit, most of the time it will make people appear impatient.

The Magic team did not inspire fighting spirit tonight, but played very impatiently from the start. The Pacers tried very hard on both offense and defense at the beginning, but when they saw the opponent was so aggressive, they were no longer in a hurry and patiently controlled the rhythm.

The gap in experience between the two teams is obvious.

Although the Pacers were just rebuilt last summer, most of the Magic players have been working together for three years.

But the experience of the people on both sides is completely different.

Shaquille O'Neal was the one who led the team to achieve the "three consecutive championships" before Suwan.

Chauncey Billups was also the Finals MVP in 04.

Let’s put it this way!

There are only two players on this Pacers team who have never won a championship ring, Afflalo and Marc Gasol.

And the number of MVP trophies added together...

Almost as many as the number of players on the Magic.

But what about the Magic?
A group of people can't put together a championship trophy, let alone an MVP trophy.

It has always been the "old aunties" who train the "little boys", so how can a "little duckling" take the dominant position when he goes to a bath center?
The Magic always feel like they are hitting cotton balls with a punch. Two words to describe their feeling on the court:

Uncomfortable!

As their offensive gradually came to a halt, the Pacers began to exert their strength, with Billups setting the pace, Suwan focusing on the scoring success rate, and Shaquille O'Neal and Randolph dominating the basket. In the third quarter, the Pacers directly launched a "scoring spree" that announced the end of the game.

In less than 8 minutes, the Pacers scored 23 to 8.

Shaquille O'Neal made a "game over" gesture directly towards the audience.

This move successfully broke the defense of a large number of Magic fans, causing them to choose to leave early.

The players on the Magic team were like fish caught in a fishing net. They gradually stopped struggling and looked like they were waiting to die.

Stan Van Gundy was even ready to shake hands with Rick Carlisle and say congratulations to him!
Finally, the buzzer sounded, symbolizing the end of the game. The game was over and the Pacers defeated the Magic by 123 points with a score of 99 to 24, winning their fourth game in the series.

The owner of the Magic team also came to the scene tonight. Seeing the score, he shook his head slightly and glanced at the Magic team general manager next to him with an unpleasant expression: "Get ready to rebuild!"

The general manager sighed and nodded: "Got it, Boss!"

This season's Magic team brought a surprise, eliminating the 60-win Cavaliers and reaching the Eastern Conference Finals, achieving their best playoff performance in 14 years.

But their salary problem is very serious, especially after renewing Howard's contract, they have reached the point where they have no money to renew Turkoglu's contract.

"Turkish Jordan" has only become famous in the past two years and is eager to get a big contract. If there is no big contract, he will definitely leave.

With his "engine" gone, the team's offense must be rebuilt.

If the Magic can perform better in the Eastern Conference Finals this season, he might have the confidence to persuade the owner to wait another year.

But the score of 0-4 left him unable to say anything to persuade the boss to wait.

The situation in a small market is that if you don't win the championship, you can't make back the salary that exceeds the luxury tax. Even if you pay too much luxury tax, you can't make back the money even if you win the championship. Especially now that the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis has permeated all walks of life in the United States, except for "rich boy" Dolan and Bill Gates' original partner, the owner of the Trail Blazers, who are not affected.

Most other bosses have to tighten their purse strings.

"The Pacers are so lucky!" The Magic boss looked at Suwan's close-up on the big screen with envy in his eyes. He suddenly asked the general manager, "Do you think we can have a player like Suwan?"

The general manager didn't speak.

"His contract should be expired!"

The general manager still didn't speak.

"I don't know if we can get him."

General manager:"……"

I just thought he was talking to himself!
Want to get Su Wan?
Are you thinking about fart?
He has such a strong ability to lead a team, and the key is that he never abandons the team when the team is in critical moments. Is this what you want and you can get it?

We in Orlando should not dream of the same grand dreams as New York!

In the audience, the Magic fans who were already feeling sad and wanted to cry obviously didn't know what decision the Magic owner had just made, otherwise their sadness at this moment would have been overwhelming.

Finally, the Magic were eliminated 4-0. Shaquille O'Neal was extremely excited after the game and said, "See? This is the gap between Dwight Howard and me. So, don't call him Superman anymore. He can't even fly!"

(End of this chapter)