The Rest, Only Noise: Chapter 703 Sampson Jr., Indianapolis
In the playoffs, the Knicks met the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.
In the post-Don Nelson era, although the Bucks are still exploring future plans, they can still guarantee the most basic competitiveness.
Making the playoffs is nothing new for them.
However, when they met the Knicks, their heads went down.
"I can't think of a scenario where the Knicks lose to the Bucks in the playoffs," said Hubie Brown exaggeratedly. "This kind of thing won't happen in ten years. Can't win."
It's true that the Bucks can't win a game, but won't that happen in another decade?
This is an exaggeration, anyway, Louie can't guarantee that they will not lose to the Bucks in the next ten years. .
But the next five or six years are still guaranteed.
The first round between the Knicks and the Bucks became an exhibition match for the former.
Louie used the Bucks to simulate what might happen against the Celtics. Although none of them can simulate Bird, no one can simulate Thomas, and no one can simulate Sampson, but at least they are on the road. Wearing a green jersey.
As long as you have green on your body, the simulation is okay.
Game1
The Knicks' starting points were all above 15 points, and the audience bombed for 130 points.
Even if this team is the best defensive team in history in Louis's vision, their offense is not a shortcoming, not as tormenting fans as the New Century Spurs and Pistons in another timeline.
They don't torment the fans. In terms of game viewing, the Knicks are not the league's first or third in the league.
In the second game, Louis deliberately controlled the starting time to be less than 25 minutes. The director gave a game that strictly speaking, there was no starter or substitute.
The Knicks scored another 130 points, and 11 of the team's 13 players scored in double figures. Hornacek's 18 points were the team's highest.
In this way, they mastered the match point destructively, forcing the Bucks to return to the home to fight for the last time.
In the first round of the era of the best-of-five-innings system, it is not uncommon for them to fall behind 0-2 in three straight games to overtake. However, there has been only one case in the past, and it is very old. It must be traced back to 34 years ago.
Moreover, the strength gap between the Knicks and the Bucks is so large that the Milwaukee people dare not even imagine.
It's impossible to win, that's the accepted fact.
Game3
There was no miracle, Wilson scored 42 points in a single game, led the team to a decisive victory on the road, and advanced to the semifinals 3-0.
This is the third straight year the Knicks have eliminated the Bucks in the playoffs.
After the game, Del Harris said helplessly: "Even if the Knicks only use the second team to play against us, it will be difficult for us to win."
There are very few people who think Harris is making excuses.
After the Bucks, the Knicks can rest a little.
Their semifinal opponent will be between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers.
Heat and Pacers, the two teams were ranked fourth and fifth in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat have home-court advantage, but, facing the up-and-coming Pacers, the Heat have few cards against Danny Manning in the playoffs.
Hank Gaithers may be one of the options, but he has a heart problem, and the Heat dare not kill Gaithers like the Pacers did Manning for 48 minutes.
He resolutely kept Gaithers' playing time under 34 minutes.
In this case, Gaithers carried a heavy burden on his back with guilt, but he did not play well.
The Heat are struggling to support the outside firepower of Petrovic.
Pacers in addition to Manning, the performance of other players as surprising.
They feature three frontcourt players in Manning, Horace Grant and Charles Oakley, creating a formidable frontcourt lineup similar to the Pistons of previous years.
It's just that they're not as rigid as the Pistons of previous years.
In this lineup, Manning plays the 3 on the offensive end and has no clear position on the defensive end. He can defend anyone except the opposing point guard.
The Celtics' experience developing Sampson, and the way Louie developed Ewing, have given the Pacers a lot of inspiration.
Pacers executive Donnie Walsh did not hesitate to trade the superstar nanny Oakley from the Knicks, and invited a young coach to ask for no restrictions on Manning's court positioning.
This arrangement instead activated Manning's own vague attributes. In addition, in the first few years of his career, he was lucky to avoid injuries and successfully gained weight. A model with Ralph Sampson as the blueprint, but the model is not that big. Little Sampson was about to come out.
Although the Heat have Brian Shaw, Willie Anderson, Vernon Maxwell, Maurice Cheeks, Gaithers, Petrovic, B.J. Armstrong, the number of players who can play doesn't mean these People will have the effect of 1+1>2.
Long rotation patterns like Louie's, and no second trainer has ever succeeded since time immemorial.
On the Heat side, with Gaithers' mentality problem, they played five games with the Pacers.
The fifth game in the series was completely dominated by Manning.
Manning played 48 minutes in five consecutive games and scored five games. He scored an inhuman 37 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks. The offensive hot zone spread from the penalty area to the top three-point line.
He came up with the skill tree exactly the way Sampson did.
Louie watched the live broadcast of the game, and Manning's performance made him sigh.
He remembered what Ralph Sampson's wish was, he wanted to change the game of basketball and take a path that no one had ever traveled.
Has he come out until today?
At least, his success has guided the younger generation like Manning.
If the whole thing is to be traced back, Louis seems to be the source of it all.
It was he who persuaded Sampson to enter the draft early, changed everything in the 1980 offseason, and then affected the pattern of the 1980s, and incidentally changed the fate of many players.
Unlike the tragic man, Manning is infected with the positive butterfly effect.
From the starting point of his career, to the development template, to the present, he, like Sampson, has already stepped out on his own path.
3 to 2
The Heat, rebuilt by Louie's remote control, made the playoffs in the second year of building the team, but were eliminated by the Pacers in the first round.
Is this a failure?
Of course not, they are just getting started.
After the Heat were eliminated~www.mtlnovel.com~ Less than an hour later, Lewis Shafir's phone call came to Louie's house, and he criticized Charles Oakley: "Coach Lu, that Oakley is good for us. Bitter! He is a thug who burns, kills and loots on the inside, and we can't do anything about him!"
"So you should know the next reinforcement direction, right?" Louis asked lightly.
Shafir said of course: "Inside! Even if Hank is healthy, he is not a full-sized insider. It's really uncomfortable in the playoffs without an insider..."
"So what, Coach Lu, do you have any recommendations for this year?"
"goodbye."
Louie hung up the phone. Even though he enjoyed the process of participating in the rebuilding of the Heat, Shafir's virtue always made him feel like he was being treated as an ATM by green tea.
Louie rubbed his cheeks, and then he had to concentrate on dealing with the Pacers in the semifinals.
Danny Manning looks like Sampson is really carved out, I wonder if his performance is discovered by Ewing, will it arouse Mr. You's good memories of being beaten by Sampson?