The NBA's Absolute Dominance

Chapter 158 Tang, I won't let you get away with this!
"Bang bang!"

He dribbled the ball twice with his back to Grant Long, then turned and shot.

"Snapped!"

Tang Bei suddenly appeared from behind Grant Lang, jumped up, and grabbed the ball from the air with both hands.

"Tangbei's weak-side support defense is getting better and better, mainly because they are seizing more and more opportunities for support defense," Zhang Heli praised.

“Avery Johnson, who was in a high position, also came down to help on defense,” Sun Zhenping said with a smile.

Han Qiaosheng said, "After two seasons of honing their skills, it seems that the Heat have indeed improved, especially in defense."

Zhang Heli said, "The defense is mainly Tang Bei. His help defense area can cover the three-point line, so you can say that he has his own defensive system."

At this point, he added, "On the offensive end, he has increased his playmaking and passing. He used to be the core of the inside offense, but now he is the only core of the offense on the court and has his own offensive system."

Sun Zhenping hurriedly said, "It's an all-around offensive and defensive force, the Heat's only offensive and defensive core."

"Correct."

"Yep."

Zhang Heli and Han Qiaosheng echoed in unison.

On the court, the Heat did not engage in fast breaks during offensive and defensive transitions because they did not want to exhaust Tang Bei's stamina.

"Form a double team ahead of time!"

Seeing Tang Bei once again positioning himself in the low post on the left wing to receive the ball, Magic head coach Brian Hill shouted loudly.

O'Neal pressed hard on the defense, and power forward Cobra ran along the baseline, pulling Grant Longon on the right wing.

The Magic's right-wing defender is shooting guard Nick Anderson, who has good steal ability and anticipation defense, averaging 1.7 steals per game.

He is not a top-tier defender, but rather a defensive piece that relies on the team, emphasizing help defense and rotation.

When the Cobra team double-teamed Tang Bei, he immediately moved a step toward Grant Long's position while keeping an eye on Kevin Edwards at the three-point line.

Double-team the player without the ball early, that's how you help defend. Other positions are three against four, only giving small open spaces, not big ones. As long as you dare to pass the ball to an open player, the small open space can be covered immediately.

"Whoosh!"

At the top of the arc, Avery Johnson immediately passed the ball to Kevin Edwards on the right wing, and Nick Anderson immediately tracked back to defend.

Grant Long moved toward the penalty area, waving for the ball.

Before Nick Anderson could get back on defense, Kevin Edwards threw the ball with both hands, sending it flying toward Grant Long.

"Bang!"

Grant quickly returned to defense, and Grant Lang received the ball in the right waist position and made a jump shot, but it was blocked by Grant and went wide.

Tang Bei and O'Neal rushed to the basket at the same time. Strength and physical strength became the decisive factors at this time. Tang Bei, who was positioned on the outside, forced O'Neal to the basket and gained a better position.

"Snapped!"

He leaped high, grabbed the rebound over O'Neal's head, landed, and rose again for a powerful two-handed dunk.

"Snapped!"

O'Neal jumped up with all his might to block the shot, but the ball landed heavily on Tang Bei's left arm.

"boom!"

Unfortunately, Tang Bei slammed the ball into the basket with his hands, his power unstoppable, and with the referee's whistle blowing, he pushed O'Neal's hands down.

"WOW!"

As O'Neal was knocked down, a huge cheer erupted once again in the Miami Arena, the screams of extreme fear were deafening.

"Another dunk over O'Neal!" Tom Tolbert exclaimed excitedly.

"Two plus one, no one in Magic can step up," Magic Johnson said, shaking his head in disappointment.

Michael Breen exclaimed excitedly, "The atmosphere at this home arena is terrifying; I feel it's almost like the Bulls' home arena."

Tom Tolbert nodded and said, "As the team improves, the Heat's home court is also evolving, and sooner or later it will become one of the most terrifying home courts in the entire league."

Michael Brin laughed and said, "I feel like if the Heat make it to the Eastern Conference Finals again, their home court will definitely evolve successfully, haha!"

Tang Bei stood at the free-throw line, took the ball, glanced at O'Neal, and said, "You can't jump over me, you should lose weight."

"Weight loss?"

O'Neal was confused.

His actual weight is only 138 kilograms, but he looks a bit bigger than Tang Bei because he has a higher body fat percentage.

Tang Beijia made the free throw, making it 0-15, and the Magic went on offense.

"brush!"

Anfernee Hardaway finally made a shot on Kevin Edwards in a one-on-one situation on the right wing.

"2:15, the Magic have scored," Magic Johnson said with satisfaction.

Tom Tolbert said with absolute certainty, "It's no use. The home team is too strong and in great form. The Magic, a rookie playoff team, have no chance of turning the game around on the road."

"brush!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Kevin Edwards hit a mid-range jumper after a sudden stop.

Tom Tolbert exclaimed excitedly, "Look, their outside shooting is on fire! I just said that once the Heat's outside shooting is on fire, coupled with Tang's ability, they can beat any team, including the Bulls and the Knicks."

After the first quarter, the Magic were down by a whopping 23 points, 12:35, completely outmatched in just one quarter.

Michael Breen said, "The Magic only scored 12 points in the quarter, which made the Heat's defense look incredibly strong."

Magic Johnson laughed and said, "It's still because he doesn't have playoff experience. After all, it's his first time playing in the playoffs. Of the five starters, only Grant has playoff experience."

Tom Tolbert said, "Given the Magic's performance, this game is a 100% loss. I can only hope they don't get swept in the series."

In the following game, the Magic were indeed unable to turn the tide, losing 72-114 and ultimately suffering a large defeat by 42 points.

Five Heat players scored in double figures, demonstrating a balanced attack from all sides.

Glen Rice scored a whopping 25 points, making 6 of 10 three-pointers. He was in incredible form. If Tang Bei hadn't been the Heat's primary offensive weapon, he could have scored even more points tonight.

Tang Bei only played for 32 minutes. He was too embarrassed to play in the final quarter to score points, so he checked out after three quarters.

得到了36分12篮板6助攻，送出5次大帽和1次抢断，只有1次失误和1次犯规。

奥尼尔打了34分钟，12投6中，7罚3中，得到15分10篮板1盖帽3失误3犯规。

安芬尼·哈达威19投仅7中，命中率36.8，得到18分4助攻。

Nick Anderson made only 5 of 18 shots, for a shooting percentage of just 27.8%.

"Is this my playoff performance?"
After Game 1, O'Neal felt like he was on the verge of depression. It was another crushing defeat for Tang Bei, and his mentality was starting to crumble.

After the game, Tang Bei kindly encouraged him, "Shaq, you have to keep your word and not get swept like Michael Jordan!"

"Fuck you!"

Michael Jordan, watching on TV, cursed and gave Tang Bei and O'Neal the middle finger on the screen.

He didn't want to watch the game, but he had to because he wanted to learn more about Tang Bei and the Heat in the series.

In this game, he saw things that he couldn't see in the regular season.

For example, the Heat's defense is better than in the regular season.

Whether in the high post or low post, Tang Bei's playmaking and passing threat is something the Bulls need to pay more attention to. Additionally, the Heat's three-point threat must also be taken seriously; Glen Rice, Steve Smith, and Dell Curry, their three main shooters, absolutely cannot be allowed to get going.

As for the pros and cons of the defensive tactic of double-teaming Tang Bei off the ball, we still need to discuss it thoroughly with Phil.

Tang Bei finished showering in the locker room and came out; the other three groups of matches had also ended.

The Rockets defeated the Trail Blazers at home, and the Suns defeated the Warriors at home, but the Hawks suffered a major upset at home, losing to the Pacers.

"Tang, the Great Shark is at the pre-game..."

An hour later, at the Heat's press conference, a reporter asked a question, but Tang Bei immediately interrupted him.

He asked, "Who is the Great White Shark?"

“Oh, Shaq O’Neal,” the reporter said with a smile.

Tang Bei emphasized, "That's a sardine. Only when he has the ability to knock me over and run wild on my head can he be called a great white shark."

"Ha ha……"

"Ha ha……"

A group of reporters below laughed.

The reporter then asked, "Okay, Shaquille O'Neal said before the game that he wouldn't be swept like Michael Jordan. Do you think his view is correct?"

"Michael Jordan was actually swept?" Tang Bei asked with a look of surprise.

"Ha ha……"

When Tang Bei made a joke about Jordan, the reporters below burst into laughter, except for the reporters from Chicago who couldn't laugh.

Tang Bei himself didn't laugh. He continued, "I think his point of view is extremely absurd. With the Magic's current strength, the only way to avoid being swept by the Heat is for the Western Conference Finals and the Eastern Conference Finals to repeat themselves in Game 7 last year."

On April 30th, Tang Bei's words from the previous night made headlines on major media outlets and appeared in sports news on television.

"We will not be swept by the Heat, and I absolutely refuse to accept that fate," O'Neal said in a phone interview.

"Michael, how likely do you think the Magic are to be swept by the Heat?"

In Chicago, an ESPN reporter interviewed Jordan during a midday live news broadcast.

"One hundred percent, if the Heat can't sweep the Magic, it's Tang's incompetence," Jordan said decisively.

When O'Neal saw the TV news of Jordan's interview, he was heartbroken. His agent told him that his words before the game last night had seriously offended Jordan.

Tang Bei had no interest in these things. There were two things to do today. One was that Tangjia Electronics' three color TV production lines officially went into operation.

The standard capacity of the three production lines combined is 65 units. Whether this capacity can be achieved remains a big question mark.

Although Gree Electric Appliances increased its production capacity by six times to 20,000 units last year, Tangjia Electronics is a newly established company and cannot currently achieve that level of capability due to its lack of technological expertise.

Moreover, the production lines introduced by Tangjia Electronics are the most advanced in the world today, and it is impossible to restructure the process in a short period of time to achieve the goal of maximizing production capacity.

The second thing was that Kelly, the wedding dress designer that Garbo had hired, came from New York with many patterns and more than a dozen wedding dresses, accompanied by dozens of people. He was going to accompany Garbo to choose a wedding dress.

"Wet Tiger, how's this set?"

"It's too revealing."

"What about this one?"

"It's still too revealing."

After spending more than an hour choosing, he successfully offended Kelly.

“Mr. Tang, your ability to appreciate art and beauty is almost non-existent.”

Kelly, a world-renowned wedding dress designer, expressed her strong dissatisfaction.

"whee……"

Garbo, however, laughed.

Tang Bei didn't bother with this woman. A real man doesn't argue with women, but he could deal with Jia Bao, that wretched disciple.

In the end, Jia Bao chose a relatively conservative wedding dress and then redesigned it according to Tang Bei's requirements.

That evening, the first round, Game 2, began.

As a result, the Bulls won two games at home against the Nets, the Knicks won two games at home against the Cavaliers, and the SuperSonics won two games at home against the Nuggets, giving all three teams a chance to advance to the next round.

The Spurs, however, were defeated by the Jazz at home, tying the series 1-1.

David Robinson made only 2 of 14 shots, a shooting percentage of 14.3%, a shockingly poor performance, making him a disgrace to any super center.

But the Spurs' loss is different from the Hawks' loss last night, so it cannot be called an upset.

The Hawks are second in the East and the Pacers are seventh, so they can be considered upsets. But the Spurs are only fourth in the West and the Jazz are fifth, so both wins and losses are normal.

The first round of Game 2 continues on May 1st.

Tang Bei drove to the Miami Arena, where he was stopped by a group of reporters at the entrance.

A reporter asked, "Michael Jordan believes that if the Heat can't sweep the Magic, then it's your incompetence. What do you think?"

Tang Bei blurted out, "Oh, so it seems Charles Barkley isn't incompetent after all; he did a pretty good job."

"..."

The reporter was stunned, as were the other reporters.

A reporter from The New York Times happened to have Jordan's private phone number and immediately stepped aside to dial Jordan's number.

It rang more than a dozen times before it was answered, and Jordan's voice came through: "Hey, this is Michael Jordan."

The reporter quickly said, "Hey Michael, I'm Andrew from the New York Times. I just interviewed Tang Bei, who suffers from severe phobias... Guess what he said? He said..."

Hehehe, Jordan almost ground his teeth to powder and nearly crushed his phone before he managed to refrain from swearing.

"Michael, do you have anything to say?" the reporter asked.

"NO."

Jordan quickly ended the interview and turned off his phone, and then his roaring began to echo throughout the house.

"Shame, shame..."

"Fuck you, Tang, I won't let you get away with this."

"Barkley, you damn guy, you better make it to the Finals this time too. I'll never be able to wash away this shame if I don't sweep you out of the game."

"Shet!"

Game 2 between the Heat and the Magic has ended, and as expected, the Heat secured their second consecutive home win, taking a 3-1 lead in the first round of the playoffs.

However, the Magic played better than in the previous game and are clearly starting to adapt to the intensity of the playoffs.

The score was 88-105, with the Heat winning by only 17 points.

唐北打了38分钟，34分18篮板2助攻3抢断4盖帽1失误2犯规。

The reason the Magic played better wasn't because of O'Neal, but because Anfernee Hardaway scored 31 points and Nick Anderson scored 22.

O'Neal played 36 minutes, was stolen from by Tang Bei three times, and blocked by Tang Bei twice. He only made 3 of 8 shots, scoring 12 points and 11 rebounds, but also committed a high number of 5 turnovers and 5 fouls.

In the other three games, the Hawks won one game at home, tying the series against the Pacers.

The Rockets defeated the Trail Blazers, and the Suns defeated the Warriors, both securing their second consecutive home wins and taking a 3-1 lead in the series.

(End of this chapter)