The Clippers played a less than beautiful final game and ended the regular season with a record of 62 wins and 20 losses.
They won 60 games for two consecutive seasons and successfully entered the playoffs as the league's No. 1 team.
With the end of the last game day, the top eight rankings in the Eastern and Western Conferences of the playoffs have also been determined.
From first to eighth in the Western Conference, Clippers, Thunder, Lakers, Grizzlies, Spurs, Warriors, Trail Blazers, Mavericks.
Although the Trail Blazers defeated the Clippers in the last game, the Warriors also won the last two games and ranked ahead of the Trail Blazers based on the relationship between wins and losses.
The Trail Blazers will face the Thunder in the first round, while the Warriors will challenge the Los Angeles Lakers.
From first to eighth in the Eastern Conference, Cavaliers, Heat, Nets, Pacers, Raptors, Bulls, Bobcats, Hawks.
After the Big Three era ended, the Celtics failed to make the playoffs for the first time in six years.
The Brooklyn Nets achieved a record of 53 wins and 29 losses in the regular season, creating the best regular season record since the team left the ABA and entered the NBA.
The previous best result of the Nets in the NBA was the Eastern Conference Champion Nets led by Kidd. They achieved a record of 52 wins and 30 losses in the 2001-02 regular season.
At that time, the imbalance between the East and the West was at its peak. The Eastern teams had no resistance in front of the Western teams. Going to the Eastern Conference for Western teams to play away games was called traveling.
The major awards of the regular season are also hotly contested, and Curry's voice for winning the regular season MVP is quite high.
Having already won two championships and two core players of FMVP, it is really unjustifiable to not have a regular season MVP in hand.
Before the start of the playoffs, media opinion was unanimously optimistic that the Clippers could defend their title and win three consecutive championships.
Because the Clippers are in really good shape, and I have never seen a defending team do so smoothly and well in the third year.
Although they lost some simple games in the early stages of the season, they were unstoppable in the second half of the season.
The second-best 23-game winning streak in history, absolute dominance on both offense and defense, a rich rotation lineup, and a bottomless pit-like playbook.
A groundbreaking core guard, the league's strongest sixth man, a tough and talented small forward trio, a still-powerful inside duo, a versatile bench with starting potential, and an unfathomable head coach on the sidelines. Master Lu.
It is even difficult for the media to imagine that any team in the league can challenge this truly invincible battleship.
Before the start of the playoffs, Sports Illustrated used a makeup photo of the entire Clippers team on its cover, with the title "Who Can Defeat the Clippers?"
The cover article comprehensively analyzes the strength of the Clippers this year from data to on-field performance, from tactics to technical aspects.
"A basketball behemoth from beginning to end, with no blind spots or weaknesses, he was successfully raised by Smart Min."
The article specifically mentioned Min Congda, and a special place was allocated for Min Congda to put his photo on the cover of the pictorial.
He crossed his arms and was at the top, overlooking all the Clippers players.
In the Clippers' office, Ada delivered the freshly released "Sports Illustrated" to Min Congda's desk.
Min Congda looked at the cover for a while and asked, "If they print me on the cover, will they pay me royalties for my portrait?"
"The royalties for the use of images of all NBA players and staff are uniformly managed by the league, and this money will be included in the insurance fund."
"Damn it! I won't give you any money!"
Min Congda cursed and opened Sports Illustrated. Looking at the articles and reports above, he shook his head repeatedly.
What is this called? This is called killing.
As the saying goes, if you are hot, you will die. The Clippers have been praised to the sky before the playoffs have even started. This is definitely not a good thing for the team.
Let’s look at the predictions of those experts. The Clippers will play the Mavericks in the first round. More than half of the experts believe that the Clippers will sweep the Mavericks 4:0 to advance to the second round.
The rest are basically predictions of 4:1, and the Mavericks will be eliminated in five games. This is really too far-fetched.
For the sake of character conservation, Min Chongda gave a first-round prediction on his NBA-Batman: The Clippers will be able to eliminate the Mavericks at 4:2 or 4:3.
This is the first time Min Congda has made a prediction on NBA-Batman. This prediction has confirmed his identity as the number one villain.
How could the Cricket Mavericks cause so much trouble to the Clippers in the first round?
Therefore, many fans responded that NBA-Batman was too unobjective in its predictions for this series.
"I respect Batman's accuracy and professionalism in NBA news breaking and predictions, but to say that it will take 6 or even 7 games for the Clippers to beat the Mavericks, I think this is really an exaggeration."
"This prediction is obviously too subjective. Batman is very objective in most of his comments and news, especially his blog tactics posts, which I call the strongest in NBA history. But this prediction is obviously It’s a bit of a personal grudge.”
"I really want to know what grudges and grudges there are between Batman and Smart, which led to Batman being able to try every means to hack the Clippers and Smart for several years."
"I also want to know, and I'm surprised. Both of them are great figures in the basketball world. Why don't they join forces and hurt each other like this?"
"Batman's true identity is still in doubt, and it's scary to think about it. The FBI was involved in the investigation before, but in the end it was nothing. What kind of extraordinary person is behind him?"
"It is said that it has something to do with China. Could it be that Batman is Smart?"
Originally, Min Congda just made a prediction as a balance of luck, but who knew that it would trigger a huge discussion about the true identity of NBA-batman.
This wave of discussion even overshadowed the NBA playoff predictions themselves, and speculation that "Smart is NBA-Batman" was rampant.
Min Congda, who had a guilty conscience, did not make any response. He knew that any public opinion trend is like turbid water. If you leave it there for a while, it will naturally settle. Don't stir it.
Sure enough, when the playoffs officially started, people's attention shifted to the game.
This is the last season for the Clippers to play at Staples Center. Next season, the Clippers will move to the newly built Huawei Center to start their new journey.
In the first round against the Mavericks, the Clippers won the first two games easily, 107:95 and 112:104, without giving the Mavericks any chance to resist.
Just when people thought the Clippers were about to sweep the Mavericks, Game 3 came to Dallas, where the Mavericks and Clippers fought in three overtimes on the road.
At the critical moment of the game, Nowitzki caught the ball and attacked with his back. He turned around and hit an independent jump shot, which almost killed the Clippers.
119:118, the Mavericks pulled back the game, 2:1.
In the crucial fourth game, the Mavericks seemed to have found a way to deal with the Clippers at home.
The score between the two sides was tight in the first three quarters, and the Mavericks' three-pointers at home were astonishingly accurate.
In the fourth quarter, the Mavericks' two veterans, Nowitzki and Vince Carter, hit key goals in succession.
At an important moment, two old stars from the last era used the methods of the last era to give the Clippers a heavy blow.
As Curry failed to make a last-minute shot, the Mavericks scored another victory at 105:104, tying the score at 2:2.
The two sides were going back to Los Angeles to compete for match points. In just one week, there was a big reversal, which made the fans scream unbelievable.
Then the issue about NBA-Batman's identity was unearthed again, and everyone continued to discuss it.
"I'm sorry, Batman, for underestimating the professionalism of your predictions."
"Batman, please help me predict the next Super Lotto."
"Sure enough, the person who knows a person best is his enemy. NBA-Batman knows the Clippers too well."
Min Congda just wanted to balance his luck, but now it became a prophecy that he would really have to fight a protracted war!
This is simply a crow's mouth. Why is it so laborious to beat a calf?
In fact, it's not because the Mavericks are strong. If the Mavericks were strong, they wouldn't be eighth in the Western Conference.
But because Mavericks is old.
This reason is very strange. How can the Mavericks still eat two pieces of meat from the Clippers?
It is said that when the Mavericks won the championship in 2011, it officially opened a new era, a shooting era that was different from the previous NBA.
Because before the Mavericks, everyone said that "shooting can't win championships" and "offense can't win championships." You have to rely on low-post offense and defense.
But the emergence of the Mavericks broke this law. Throughout the 2011 playoffs, the Mavericks relied on their superior shooting skills. They did not have a real strong breakthrough player, and they were not a traditional defensive team.
The Mavericks' success at that time inspired Min Congda a lot, as well as other coaches and tactical researchers in the league.
However, as the inspirer, the Mavericks themselves do not seem to really realize the reasons for their success, or it may be said that the success of the Mavericks in 2011 was somewhat accidental.
After all, before the start of the 11th season playoffs, the Mavericks players themselves never thought that they could go that far and finally realize their dreams, and everyone was not optimistic about them.
Coupled with the aging of the Mavericks' core lineup, it would be difficult to defend the championship with the same lineup, so Cuban chose to let Chandler go and dismantle the lineup.
Afterwards, the Mavericks tried to re-establish a championship lineup with Nowitzki as the core. Their goals were Deron Williams and Dwight Howard.
It can be seen from this goal that Cuban did not realize how they won the championship in 2011. They were still stacking stars in the previous 10 years and were obsessed with big inside centers. He wanted to trade O'Neal in the early years.
It's just that Dallas is really limited in its attraction to stars, and those big-name stars also know that the Mavericks are Nowitzki's team. Nowitzki is the only one that Cuban has a crush on, and the others come here just to be a team player. As a foil, naturally no one wants to come.
In the following years, the Mavericks' strength declined steadily and they dropped out of the league's top teams, but Cuban still shaped the lineup according to his own ideas.
The starting lineup for the Mavericks this year is: Nowitzki, Monta Ellis, Calderon, Shawn Marion, Dalembert.
The characteristics of this lineup give people the impression that this is the routine from ten years ago, right? Very standard positions one to five.
In terms of the advanced lineup, this lineup is far inferior to the version that won the championship in 2011, because Kidd and Stevenson can defend from position 1 to position 3, and they are very capable of fixed-point three-pointers.
Tyson Chandler is also a mobile defensive insider who is more suitable for the current version than Dalembert.
On the bench, the Mavericks' current main rotation is Harris, Carter, and Barea, all small guards holding the ball.
The 2011 Mavericks have tall shooter Stojakovic and tall fast forward Corey Brewer on the bench.
Not to mention that Nowitzki is 35 years old and can no longer kill everyone.
Therefore, the 2011 Mavericks have a tall and versatile forward line and an equally strong and tall backcourt that can adapt to multiple positions.
In addition to Nowitzki's unique ball-holding core, Chandler's "thin dog" type of back-up defense on the inside supports the sky.
These are all new things that are ahead of the previous era. The Mavericks in 2014 went back further and got a lot of ball-holding guards.
But it is this relatively outdated lineup that does not match the current version's play style, but it makes the Clippers, the son of the version, very uncomfortable.
In the playoffs, on the one hand, you have to fight for tactics and lineup thickness. On the other hand, you have to fight for morale, status, and luck.
The advantage of the Mavericks' old retro lineup is that there are many ball carriers and strong single-point bursts. Once everyone is in full form, you really can't hold on.
If it is a slow-paced game, in the first 10 years of the 21st century, the Mavericks' ball-holding guards who are not above average will not be able to play well, and the meat grinder defense will make it difficult for them to move forward.
Anyone who has watched Iverson play will know how difficult it was to break through to the inside to score points during his peak period, and how many collisions and fouls he had to endure.
But now the tempo has become faster, and the Clippers' defense is also restricted. The Mavericks' small guards rush with the ball wantonly, and each of them is in their best condition, which unexpectedly catches the Clippers off guard.
The old version may no longer adapt to the times, but it does not mean that they will be completely eliminated. After a period of baptism and waves, they will return to the league with a new look, triggering a new trend that will continue to grow.
It was a tie at 2:2. Mr. Smart was very angry and the consequences were serious.
In the pre-game combat meeting, Min Congda led the coaching staff to repeatedly watch the videos of the third and fourth games to look for loopholes in the team's defense.
Min Congda has been very keenly aware that in the third and fourth games, the Clippers had a defensive problem.
Before the start of Game 5, the Clippers team adjusted their defensive strategy, with Anthony Davis starting in place of Zach Randolph.
Min Congda's strategy is very clear. Since you are the survivors of the old version, I will use the lineup and play style of the old version to let you experience how the playoffs were played in the first ten years of the 21st century.
In this battle, the Clippers won the fifth game with a defensive crushing performance at 95:83, and successfully obtained the series match point.
Then in Game 6, back in Dallas, the Clippers gave the Mavericks no chance to drag the series into a tiebreaker.
Min Chongda personally supervised the game, continuing the steel defense line in the fifth game, and further increased Anthony Davis's playing time, allowing him to focus on the fifth position, paired with Randolph.
In this campaign, Anthony Davis blocked 6 shots and contributed 3 steals in a single game, single-handedly blocking the rampant offense of the Mavericks' ball-holding defenders.
The Clippers used a score of 98:79 to prevent the Mavericks from scoring 80 points, proving that they can defeat their opponents in any way they want.
4:2, the Clippers successfully advanced to the second round. The old version of the elegy sounded its final swan song in 2014.
(End of chapter)
