Chapter 4 Good News From Portland

On the 4th, just as the Raptors were practicing their three-pointers, preparing for Game 4 against the Celtics, good news arrived from Portland.

Refusing to be swept, the Trail Blazers exploded in Game 4 against the Lakers.

Wallace, Stoudemire, and Ryder combined for 11 three-pointers in the game.

Combined with O'Neal's 5-for-18 performance from the free-throw line and Kobe's "excellent" 5-for-16 shooting...

The Trail Blazers successfully pulled one back at home, changing the score of this Western Conference Finals series to 1-3.

Having watched the game via livestream, Su Feng was well aware that the main reason the Lakers were defeated by the Trail Blazers was that, with a 3-0 lead, the Lakers had played too anxiously in Game 4.

As a result, wanting to devour the Trail Blazers in one bite, they instead created the conditions for the Trail Blazers to defeat them.

In basketball, just as you can have a breakout game, your opponent can naturally have one too.

Especially in the playoffs, who would be foolish enough to lie down and let you have your way?

Throughout this season, it seemed that the Raptors' opponents were saying they couldn't be defeated...

But in reality, whether it was the Knicks or the Pacers, when the opportunity presented itself, they all played with even more energy.

May 5th, North Shore Garden Arena.

Having learned from the Lakers' anxious mistakes, the Raptors played with exceptional patience in this Game 4 against the Celtics.

In the past, the team leading 3-0 in a playoff series would generally play carelessly in Game 4.

But...

This Raptors team acted as if they had never won a game before.

In the first quarter, even Jordan, who usually coasted for half the game before exerting himself, showed his "attitude."

With the Celtics' defense focused on the perimeter, Jordan drew fouls in the first quarter, going to the free-throw line 10 times and making 9 of them.

Although Jordan's strength could no longer compare to last season, in terms of playoff experience, no one in the current NBA dared to claim to be number one.

And with Jordan stabilizing the Raptors, in the second quarter, Su Feng, leading the reserves, also used his twisting and turning breakthroughs to make the Celtics' reserve center, Peter Pan, question his life choices.

If the Raptors' three-point shooting in Game 3 had left a deep impression on the world, then in Game 4, the do-or-die breakthroughs of Su and Jordan made the world feel their determination to end this playoff series tonight.

During halftime, ESPN also shared another little-known fact about the Raptors with fans.

That is, during the regular season, the Raptors were the team with the most inside points in the NBA.

Under ESPN's popularization, the secret of this Raptors' strength was being revealed bit by bit.

In fact, even in the current meta, three-pointers can still open up offensive space for a team.

Therefore, after the Raptors extravagantly shot 48 three-pointers in Game 3, the Celtics had no way to stop their breakthroughs in Game 4.

Paint, mid-range, three-pointer.

The Raptors, who dominated the league with their swingman lineup, were truly invincible because of their three-in-one style of offense.

Moreover, after two days of adaptation, and with Su Feng helping to "clear mines," the Raptors players had gradually adapted to the Celtics' home court floor.

And this time, even if Auerbach's coaching was artistic, he couldn't change the Celtics' defeat.

Because tonight, God was wearing both number 23 and number 24.

Su Feng and Jordan, who had gone berserk, had already combined for 68 points after three quarters.

And in the fourth quarter, in order not to give the Celtics a chance, these two even held hands and continued to bully Radja and Bowen on the court.

Recently, Jordan had been privately praising Su Feng as far superior to Pippen, which wasn't entirely to express his "love" for Su Feng.

Because when fighting alongside Su Feng, although Jordan didn't have as much possession of the ball as he did during his time with the Bulls...

But once these two were at their best, the boost they could provide to each other was more than just 1+1 equaling 2.

In short, Su Feng and Jordan's collaboration this season could be described as meeting the right person at the right time.

Because if it had been the Jordan of the past, even if Su Feng had talked himself hoarse, he wouldn't have been able to convince Jordan to adopt this team-oriented style of play.

After all...

The peak Jordan could make the opponent cry with his one-on-one skills alone.

Therefore, the aging Jordan and the young Su were simply a heavenly match.

Statistics showed that this season, Jordan's favorite target for assists was Su Feng.

And although there was still room for improvement in internal strength and some other aspects, Su Feng, who could play with or without the ball...

In turn, also gave Jordan far more room to operate this season than in the past.

In addition, during the regular season, in order to help Jordan "regain his form," Su Feng also engaged in a lot of physical battles with Jordan...

Unconsciously, this also indirectly cultivated the two's tacit understanding.

So, with Jordan and Su Feng's tacit understanding, where one knew the depth and the other knew the length, you could even simply understand it as, once their states were both excellent, it was equal to giving each other a Buff of +10 to their abilities.

It had to be said that this was a super combination unexpectedly created by the wheel of history under the circumstances of this berserk timeline.

In the end, 119 to 98.

The Raptors swept the Celtics 4-0, successfully advancing to the Finals.

In this game, Su Feng scored 41 points, while Jordan scored 40 points.

And with Su Feng and Jordan combining for 81 points, even if McGrady, the team's third-highest scorer tonight, only scored 11 points, it was enough to help the team win.

On the Celtics' side, young Duncan continued to perform well.

In the game, Duncan shot 13 of 24 from the field, 6 of 10 from the free-throw line, and had 32 points, 18 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.

In Su Feng's previous life, Duncan had only been swept twice in his playoff career.

Once in the 00/01 season, when O'Neal avenged the sweep from that year.

The other time was in the 09/10 season, when the Suns avenged years of being blocked.

And in this life, young Duncan's "playoff sweep first blood" now belonged to Su Feng.

After the game, in the North Shore Garden Arena, the entire Raptors team put on hats symbolizing the Eastern Conference Championship, and Su Feng even rode on Da Ben's neck and cut down the nets of the North Shore Garden Arena.

In the NBA, the two teams that make it to the Finals, even if they don't have the last laugh, won't call themselves the runners-up.

Instead, they will call themselves the Conference Champions.

At the press conference, Auerbach took full responsibility for the team's loss.

In the last part of this 82-year-old's life, he didn't want his beloved disciples, Karl and Duncan, to suffer from public criticism.

"I think the Raptors' tactical philosophy has provided all of us with a brand new idea, and they deserve the honor of being the Eastern Conference Champions."

In addition, in an interview, Auerbach also highly praised Davis' swingman tactics.

And Lei Allen, who had been reduced to a "little transparent" by Su Feng in the Eastern Conference Finals, said gloomily: "The Raptors' perimeter strength is too strong.

Just

Otherwise, Su Feng would definitely have a feeling that "the world line is starting to converge."

Obviously, O'Neal and Kobe's personalities were the fundamental reason why they were bound to have conflicts.

The 20-year-old Kobe, no matter how much his chemistry changes, couldn't change the fact that he didn't have enough emotional intelligence.

And for O'Neal, who was extremely eager for a championship, he obviously forgot Kobe's feelings in the face of pressure.

And so...

The Lakers, who were originally in a very good situation, played in a way that was hard to describe in the sixth game against the Trail Blazers on the 8th.

Watching Kobe, who had pried off the pass button, Su Feng felt like his youth had all come back.

And O'Neal, who repeatedly missed free throws at the free-throw line, made Su Feng "burst into tears."

That's right, this is the Lakers!

However, just when Su Feng thought the Trail Blazers were about to stage a comeback from 0-3 down...

He, who had been infected with the poisonous milk attribute by Kobe, never expected that in the fourth quarter of this game, a Lakers "honorary player" named Ryder would take the initiative to stand up and help the Lakers smoothly survive this tribulation.

At that time, in the fourth quarter of the game, with the team trailing by nearly 10 points, Kobe, eager to chase points, forcibly attacked the basket with the ball.

As a result, Ryder, who had been waiting for a long time, directly used a doomsday iron elbow to punish Kobe, who was not yet the Los Angeles Little Malone.

And then, there was no then.

Watching Kobe, whose brow bone was opened by Ryder, fall to the floor, O'Neal, who was still angry with Kobe, didn't care about so much at this moment?

And Kobe, who noticed that O'Neal was standing up for him, didn't say anything at this moment, but in the following game, he reinstalled the pass button and repeatedly played classic OK-style alley-oops with O'Neal.

In the end, 104 to 98, the Lakers successfully turned the game around in the fourth quarter and advanced to the Finals with a score of 4 to 2.

And it is worth mentioning that, after the game, O'Neal took the initiative to carry Kobe on his back and showed off to the reporters:

"See, this is my omnipotent little brother."

……

ps: Classic reduction of 200, will be posted after Qiao wakes up during the day on the 27th.

ps2: Continue to force yourself on the 27th! Another 200 task.

Fa Biao De Wo Niu