The Clippers easily defeated the Grizzlies 4-0, won the Western Conference championship for the second consecutive year, and reached the finals.
Game 4 was played in Memphis. The Grizzlies tried to win a game to save some face, but the result was obviously in vain.
They were ambitious before the game and wanted to unseat the Clippers, but by the fourth game they had lost all confidence.
There is no way, the gap between the two sides is indeed too big, and people thought that the Grizzlies would use quagmire defense to cause trouble to the Clippers, but it did not appear.
On the contrary, the Grizzlies themselves were stuck in the quagmire. Their offense in four games was never effectively organized and connected.
Often, they start to fall behind in the first quarter of the game, fall into a trap, and then struggle to chase points. As a result, the point difference gets bigger and bigger, and they can't catch up at all.
After three games like this, everyone from the Grizzlies players to coaches to fans knew that the gap was too big and they couldn't beat them.
The fourth so-called face battle is meaningless, and delaying another one is just a matter of survival.
Of the entire Grizzlies team, only Blake Griffin struggled to resist from the beginning of the game.
He has never lost his fighting spirit since the first game and has always expected to win a victory over the Clippers.
However, if you have more ambition than strength, you really can't win.
The Clippers have entered the playoff mobilization state since April, and after the first two rounds of debugging, the state has reached its best.
The Clippers used a defensive victory to take away the victory. Griffin sat on the bench in pain and returned to the locker room in tears.
In the Clippers locker room, everyone was very relaxed. They gave each other high fives, hugged each other, briefly celebrated, and took a group photo in front of the silver trophy of the Western Conference championship, and that was it.
Compared to the madness when we defeated the Lakers to win the Western Conference championship last year, everyone is much calmer this year. After all, the Western Conference championship is just a prelude to the finals.
Moreover, Mr. Smart's face did not look good from the beginning to the end of the series, and everyone felt that there was nothing to be happy about after winning.
Beating a grizzly bear is so easy.
After three rounds of games in the Western Conference, the Clippers lost only one game, and it was the Jazz who lost in the first game.
The Thunder were ruined by injuries, the Spurs died of old age, and the Grizzlies were too young.
The so-called Wild West, with the Clippers' crushing strength, was nothing more than that.
After reaching the finals, the media praised the Clippers to the sky.
But the morale within the Clippers team is quite stable, and everyone should do whatever they want.
Harden, Curry, Butler and others won the Western Conference championship after the fourth game, and even practiced three-pointers for an extra hour at FedEx Arena.
Instead, besides the ball, the Grizzlies players went to bars, nightclubs or other places to enjoy and party.
After all, they have accomplished their mission by reaching the Western Conference Finals.
There is no problem with everyone's contract next season. We should still make money.
As for the championship, there is only one in a season, and many people will never get close to the finals in their lifetime.
If you win in the playoffs, you will get very little bonus, or no money at all. Why are you playing with your life?
Grizzlies coach Hollins lamented after the game, "The Clippers team gives me a different feeling from other NBA teams. They are very strong, but at the same time there is something special about their bodies. There are things that are incompatible with the NBA style. Of course, I am not saying that this kind of thing is not good. I think it is quite the opposite. This is what the current NBA teams and players lack. They are very united and a team, and the league is excited Ledo's individual heroism is rarely seen in them. They are willing to share the ball, whether it is offense or defense, everyone is involved. To be honest, I haven't encountered a team like this in a long time. Their performance, Their presence makes me feel incredible.”
Hollins gave the Clippers a very high evaluation. These words he said were not complimentary words, but the current situation of the Clippers.
Not only did Hollins say this, but TV hosts and some celebrities, such as Barkley, Van Gundy and others, all praised the Clippers.
"I see the potential for a great team in the Clippers."
"They are a unique flower. It is a miracle that such a team can be born in the soil of the NBA."
"If the Clippers' roster moved next door, I guess they would have fallen apart by the middle of the season."
Such compliments appeared repeatedly in the news media during this period, which made Min Congda not want to watch TV for the past two days.
Of course Min Congda was in a bad mood, but it wasn't too bad.
After all, he had been mentally prepared for it. Because of this, he went crazy more than once before.
This time we just entered the finals, how could we be easily defeated?
His willpower has long been honed to the level of steel, and no amount of difficulties or failures can defeat him.
Only occasionally when he got up in the morning, he would still be in a trance and lie in bed silently in a daze for a while.
Thinking of his far-fetched life goal and the hardships along the way, he felt pitiful for himself.
Because no one can share his pain and joy, no one can.
Now, Min Congda's only life-saving straw is the Eastern Conference team.
His adopted son James carries his hopes, and the special correspondent Cole he sent out is responsible for making the Cavaliers strong again.
As a result, after the first four games of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Heat and Cavaliers were tied at 2:2.
The Heat took the lead first, and then the Cavaliers won two games in a row. In Game 4, they had a chance to take an absolute 3:1 lead in the series.
However, in Cleveland, the Heat burst out with powerful energy, but the Cavaliers once again fell into the strange cycle they often had in the past - stalling at critical moments.
As the team's offense was not smooth and the defense could not contain Howard's rampage at the basket, the two sides tied and entered the crucial battle of Tianwangshan.
At this time, the Clippers had eliminated the Grizzlies and were waiting for their opponents in the finals.
Before the Heat played Game 5 with the Cavaliers, Min Congda made a special call to James.
To be honest, Min Congda was not satisfied with James' performance in the playoffs.
He did not stick to the regular season style of play, but returned to the past all-encompassing ball-control style of play.
Min Congda told him on the phone that if he could reduce his possession of the ball during the game, let Irving be the core of the offense, and participate more in defense, the Heat would not be able to beat the Cavaliers.
Although the Heat's lineup is more luxurious and looks scary, both Howard and Nash have major flaws. If they seize Nash's defensive problems and ask Irving to name more names, seize Howard's offensive problems and force him to play more singles, the Cavaliers are fully capable. Chance.
But James said on the phone that he didn't want to listen to Min Congda's opinion. He said bluntly, "Your Clippers have entered the finals again, so now you are guiding me to enter the finals and then kill me, right?"
What James said was full of grief and anger, and Min Congda didn't know how to explain it to him for a while.
how to say? There's no way to explain it. The Cavaliers' lineup this year couldn't beat the Clippers even in the finals.
The Clippers were defeated in every aspect, but the Heat had a chance to defeat the defending champion.
But even so, Min Congda still hopes that James and the Cavaliers can enter the finals.
If not for anything else, just for the relationship between the two of them, Min Congda is a very emotional person.
But he really couldn't explain it. He could only leave one sentence: "LeBron, I am doing this for your own good, sincerely."
"If you really do it for my own good, you should let the Clippers disband and go bankrupt!"
James roared and hung up the phone, leaving only a beeping sound.
Min Congda let out a long sigh and thought, why didn't I think so and then do this?
Damn it, destiny is not mine.
The day after the two men talked on the phone, the Cavaliers launched a crucial battle with the Heat in Miami.
James performed very well in this game. He scored 41 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists at the American Airlines Center.
However, the Heat still maintained their suppression of the Cavaliers throughout the game, until the last moment of the game, when Howard blocked James' three-point shot.
Wade made a fast break and succeeded in a layup. The Heat led by three points at 97:94.
At the last moment, James passed the ball to Irving, and Irving missed a three-point shot. The Cavaliers lost this extremely critical match point battle.
James's points plus assists accounted for more than half of the team's points.
The Heat's performance was more average, with only Wade scoring 20 points, and everyone else contributed in their areas of expertise.
Dwight Howard is worthy of being the man who once replaced James alone. In this Eastern Conference finals, he made James dream back to 2009.
Although he only scored 10 points in the game, he contributed 17 rebounds and 4 blocks, firmly guarding the Heat's basket.
After watching this game on TV, Min Congda had to admit that this year's Heat were trained very well by Spoelscola.
Each of the players he has in his hands has fatal problems.
Wade is older, suffering from knee injuries, and is no longer the Flash.
His ability to attack tough situations has declined drastically, and he has become very slick when playing on the court.
But he still has the ability to explode at a single point in the playoffs, and he can break out in certain games and score 30 or 40 points.
Therefore, regarding Wade, Spoelstra paid great attention to the protective use of him, reducing the pressure on him in offense and defense, so that he can perform reliably at critical moments.
Howard is affected by his back, weight loss, and the so-called low-post attack power. With the decrease in tonnage, the threat plummets.
The key is that Howard still hopes to become a top low-post center and regards himself as a historical insider.
Spoelstra and Riley worked together to persuade Howard to reduce his low-post offense and focus on defense. After all, the Heat have too many people who can attack.
Riley has dealt with too many super centers, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ewing, O'Neal, and Mourning, so his words are shocking.
When Howard concentrates on defense, his role on the court becomes more prominent and he makes up for Bosh's various problems on the defensive end.
Bosh was liberated on the offensive end, got a better offensive experience, and did what he was better at on the defensive end.
As for Nash, Spoelstra allowed him to play about 20 minutes per game to perform efficiently and sort out the offense, leaving most of the remaining time to Norris Cole.
The most important role of the point guard in Spoelstra's system is fixed-point three-pointers and certain defense. Just don't become a big hole.
Nash's injuries and defensive problems are well covered. For a veteran, any injury will be fatal.
As for the Heat's forward and defensive line, Odom is all-powerful and incompetent, Lewis is seriously declining, and Ray Allen still has a lot of gas in the tank.
Spodu tried his best to let them use their remaining energy, weave a set of suitable defensive systems, and blend these former giants together.
Although the Heat looks like a Galactic battleship in terms of lineup, any Galactic battleship in history is often full of gold and jade, and cannot sustain it for long.
When the team builds this kind of Galaxy Battleship, they all know that it may only be able to move forward at full speed for one season. How to keep it from falling apart is a headache for every coach and every management.
Very few can succeed.
The Celtics in 2008 can set a good example because the Big Three are still at their peak, in good shape, and the ship's keel frame is strong enough.
The Heat's situation is worse. Various problems such as injuries and playing style were finally solved. It was not easy to win 58 games in the regular season.
After the fifth victory in the playoffs, the Heat's morale reached its peak, and the series advantage has completely come to the Heat's side.
If they successfully win the sixth game, they will advance to the finals.
If you can't win, you can still go back to home and play the tiebreaker with the Cavaliers, and you still have the advantage.
James once again found himself in the same situation as in 2012, forced into a desperate situation.
But in 2012, they won the sixth game and they could return to Cleveland.
This year, even if I win Game 6, I still have to go to Miami.
More importantly, James felt his motivation was draining.
A whole season of hard work seems to be in vain again.
Ten years, exactly ten years, he has received many honors.
This year's regular season MVP was won by him again.
This is his fourth regular season MVP, and he has already won enough of this award.
He only wanted the golden trophy, but as time passed, the distance became further.
Does he really have a chance in a cursed place like Cleveland?
Once a basketball player begins to doubt himself, it will be fatal in a high-intensity competitive arena.
What's even more fatal is that it's not just James who doubts himself, but also Steve Kerr.
He is eager to prove himself with the Cavaliers, especially if he can reach the Finals against the Clippers, which would be even better.
However, there were ideological differences between the coach and the general, and there was a crack in the relationship between the two.
Cole is a person with a very strong personality. He cannot be a nanny coach like Mike Brown.
Cole was quite unhappy about James violating his strategic and tactical intentions in the playoffs, but he had no choice.
This is James' team, not Cole's team.
In fact, there are many people in the Cavaliers who support Cole, but due to the pressure of James, no one can stand up.
As a result, in Game 6, the Cavaliers failed to create a miracle in Cleveland and were defeated by the Heat 100:90, with a 10-point gap.
James scored 27 points and exited the game early due to groin discomfort with 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
It also ended his slightly chaotic 2012-2013 season ahead of schedule.
The Heat successfully advanced to the finals and joined the Clippers.
(End of chapter)
