Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it’s May 5th, and all games in the first round of the playoffs are over.
In the East, the Pacers, Heat, Wizards, and Nets entered the semifinals, with the Pacers VS Wizards and the Heat VS Nets.
In fact, before the game started, no one thought that the Wizards, ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference, and the Nets, ranked sixth, could actually accomplish the feat of defeating the top team. The Wizards, in particular, ended the first round with a clean 4:1.
But then, the outside world unanimously believed that the playoff journey of the Wizards and Nets basically ended here.
Because the Pacers and Heat are the only two seeded teams in the Eastern Conference this year. This can be seen from the dominance of the two teams in the Eastern Conference during the regular season.
At the same time, the Pacers and Heat are also two teams in the Eastern Conference that have exceeded 50 wins in the regular season. The former has 56 wins and the latter has 54 wins.
If nothing else, the two teams will be indispensable on the Eastern Conference finals stage.
This side of the west.
The Trail Blazers and Spurs advanced ahead of schedule. After watching the Western Conference for a few days, the Thunder and Clippers followed closely behind and both qualified for the Western Conference semifinals.
After the first round, the Thunder defeated the Warriors 4:2. Thunder star Kevin Durant's scoring performance was the best in the playoffs.
After 6 games, he scored 36 points in two games, 33 points in one game, 32 points in one game, and 30 points in one game. Only in the battle of Tianwang Mountain, due to his general performance was slightly inferior, "only" 23 points were recorded.
After the entire series, Durant averaged 31.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.7 blocks and 0.8 steals per game, especially his efficiency is extremely amazing.
As an offensive master who holds the ball a lot and is known for his shooting, he is actually able to average 13 of 25 shots per game and keep his shooting percentage above 50%. You can imagine how terrifying Durant is at his peak.
It turns out that 2014 in history happened to be Kevin Durant's MVP year. The 26-year-old Durant was at the peak of his career. Perhaps everyone underestimated him.
In the Western Conference semifinals, the Trail Blazers will face the Clippers, and the Spurs will face the Thunder.
Due to Durant's super scoring performance in the first round, the series between the Spurs and Thunder was even more eye-catching than the previous contest between the old and new versions of the alley-oop city.
Another day passed, after the first round of the playoffs, many awards for the regular season were slowly announced.
The first is MIP, which is the winner of the season's Most Improved Player.
Before the playoffs start, there are several favorites who are expected to win the Most Improved Player award this season, namely Goran Dragic of the Suns, Lance Stephenson of the Pacers, and Anthony Davis of the Pelicans. and nine-finger dunk king Gerald Green, who also plays for the Suns.
After a series of votes, the Most Improved Player of the season was finally awarded to the Suns' new leader Dragic.
I remember last season, Dragic, who was supported by the Suns management as the team leader, averaged only 14 points, 3.8 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 steal per game.
If we look at it as an ordinary starter, Dragic is undoubtedly worthy of praise. But if the requirements are based on the leader of a team, it would be a bit unsatisfactory.
Fortunately, after just one summer, Dragic seems to have found the key to his own evolution. Although he still failed to bring the Suns back to the playoffs, his overall performance has been greatly improved compared to the previous season. .
First of all, in terms of scoring, he averaged over 20 points per game for the first time in his career and entered the regular season 20+ club.
Others, such as rebounds, assists, and steals, are almost the same as last season.
Another reason why the referees chose to give him this award is that Dragic's overall shooting percentage exceeded 50% for the first time this season, and his three-point shooting percentage was also a career-high 40.8%.
In direct comparison with Stephenson, Anthony Davis, and teammate Gerald Green, the three favorites for the most improved player of the season, Dragic needs data and efficiency. It is no wonder that the jury will favor him.
After announcing the Most Improved Player award, NBA officials quickly announced the finalists for the Best Sixth Man, Best Rookie, and Best Rookie Team awards.
The favorites for the Best Sixth Man award are Jamal Crawford of the Clippers, Manu Ginobili of the Spurs, Gibson of the Bulls, Mo Williams of the Trail Blazers, etc.
In the end, however, the winner was Jamal Crawford.
The reason for this guy's award is similar to that of Dragic. He has the highest score (averaging 18.6 points per game), taking into account efficiency, and the team performance is not bad.
For him, there was not much doubt from the outside world.
Then there's the Rookie of the Year winner, let's just say it, he is - Michael Carter-Williams!
In fact, after Mcaway made his NBA debut and scored a near-quadouble of 22 points, 12 assists, 9 steals and 7 rebounds, and finally helped the 75ers win the Heat's Big Three at 114:110, the NBA's best player in the 2013-2014 season There is no longer any suspense about the offense of the best rookie.
Although after the All-Star Game and the regular season entered the middle of the season, Mcaway's popularity gradually dropped, but people still have not forgotten his crazy performance at the beginning of the season.
In the end, under this season's Rookie of the Year selection rules, McAway received 104 of 124 hand votes, with a total score of 569 points, unique among all rookies.
If McAway can break the opposition of other teams in the middle and later stages of the season and lead the 75ers to the Eastern Conference playoffs, maybe his popularity will catch up with Wang Zelin last year and Griffin the year before... It's a pity that it can't be achieved!
In the subsequent All-Rookie Team, the Trail Blazers also had a rookie on the list. Over there is "Aquaman" Adams.
Due to the presence of Wang Zelin inside, Ya did not receive much training from the team at that time. He basically played as a substitute for 81 games and averaged just over 10 minutes per game.
In terms of personal data, Adams averaged 3.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 0.5 blocks per game, which was almost the same as the Thunder's first season performance in the original time and space.
The reason why he was selected for the second team of the All-Rookie Team with such a performance is just because the 13th rookie class was indeed a bit too bad.
All the players who scored in double figures in the 13th rookie class were selected for the first team. In the end, only four players were selected. Mason Plumlee, who was finally added, was just an ordinary rotation player who averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.
When it came to the second team, the only choice was for short men to pick the generals. In the end, Adams was selected at the buzzer with the bonus of the record of the first team in the Trail Blazers League.
After the best lineup list came out, Wang Zelin took the time to take a look. Sure enough, there was a future super predator hidden in the list.
"Kun Kun" Giannis Antetokounmpo!
People today would never have imagined that a Greek guy who averaged only 6+4+1 per game in his rookie season and couldn't even make the first team as a rookie could transform into a Greek monster in the league in the future.
It’s quite outrageous!
After sighing, Wang Zelin gathered his mood and prepared for tomorrow's Western Conference semifinals. If he couldn't beat Mosaic, then he would take care of the Clippers.
