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Chapter 330 Five: First in the East, First in the League!

And when LeBron James, the last offensive arrow of the Cavaliers, was also folded in front of the Eagles' defense, the result of this game naturally did not have much suspense.

At the end of the final three quarters, the Cavaliers are already behind the Eagles by as much as seven points!

When the game was just over halfway through the fourth quarter, the Eagles further extended their lead to 14 points.

For the Cavaliers last year, although 14 points is still a big difference, it is not completely hopeless.

However, if it is for this year's Cavaliers, there is still half a quarter left, and the gap of 14 points can basically be regarded as the end of the game!

This is another problem for the Cavaliers this season, they can't fight against the wind!

Although, at this time, LeBron James still didn't end, and he was still trying to shorten the gap between the two teams through his own efforts on the court, and then complete the final Jedi comeback.

However, without the restraint of O'Neal, LeBron James began to grow bigger and lower in efficiency!

Especially after Xu Lang freed his hands to defend LeBron James, LeBron James' performance began to decline across the board.

At this time, some problems of balanced development are also reflected, that is, players with balanced development will be suppressed even worse when they encounter players with the same balanced development and are stronger than them in all aspects.

In the end, in the second half of the fourth quarter, the Hawks scored 21 points in the half quarter, directly shattering LeBron James' last hope of a comeback.

At the end of the game, the Eagles won the game with a 21-point lead.

Fortunately, the Pacers, who were closely behind the Cavaliers the next day, also overturned when they played against the Timberwolves, the second-to-last in the West.

In this game, the Pacers were rarely directly blown away by Zach Randolph and Greg Oden.

At the end of the game, Odenga and Zach Randolph scored 48 points, 31 rebounds and 7 blocked shots together.

The joint efforts of the two ghosts hit the goal, and directly knocked Jermaine O'Neal, who was still an All-Star this season, to the ground.

However, although relying on the final overturn of the Pacers, they barely entered the playoffs.

But LeBron James has become less and less hopeful about the cooperation between him and O'Neal.

The disappointment with the Cavaliers has even deepened!
After a season of running-in, LeBron James also realized that the 35-year-old O'Neal would not be able to take him to the finals.

And the Cavaliers paid a lot of bargaining chips for future team development because of the trade of O'Neal, which led to LeBron James Cavaliers having no way to see the hope of winning the championship in the short term!

The most important thing is that LeBron James not only failed to prove that he was a super insider this season, he was also able to win the championship, and even let him prove it in reverse. .

After all, Wade and O'Neal led the team to the Eastern Conference finals last season.

This also made LeBron James think of the invitation from Pat Riley again.

It's just that, after all, as the No. 03 pick in the [-] class, the former favorite of the emperor, LeBron James still has the last trace of pride in his heart.

It's just that I don't know how long this trace of pride can keep him in the Cavaliers!
Of course, the inner activities of LeBron James have nothing to do with the Eagles, which won 70 wins in the regular season this season!

Xu Lang only knew that in this season's playoffs, the Hawks would not have home court advantage against any opponent like last year!
As long as the Eagles still have games to play in the playoffs this season, the Eagles will always have home court advantage.

After all, the Eagles' record of 70 wins not only makes it the No. [-] team in the Eastern Conference, but also the No. [-] team in the league.

At the same time, after the Eagles finished the last game of the season, Xu Lang also cashed out 10% of the income from the Garfield pizza chain.

After more than three months of constant pulling and negotiation, Garfield's Pizza was finally valued at $23 billion.

After all, in this year's global economic downturn, Garfield's Pizza's terrifying turnover and profit margins can be said to be unique in the United States.

In the end, after discussions, the five original shareholders of Garfield's Pizza took a total of nearly 30% of the shares and sold them to Wall Street investors.

Among them, Xu Lang sold 10% of the shares and directly cashed out 2.3 million US dollars in cash.

Several other people also cashed out 2% to 8% of the share income in different proportions, which made Yi Jianlian and Roy each reap tens of millions of dollars in income.

You know, from the beginning of the investment until now, the two of them have only invested less than tens of millions of dollars.

But just this wave of cashing out, Xu Lang and others' previous investment has all been paid back, and it has been doubled by an unknown number of times.

Of course, after receiving the money, Xu Lang didn't keep it in his hands, but put it all in the hands of the investment team.

The investment team will make some investments. After all, if the money is not spent, more than half of it will be handed over to the United States when taxes are calculated at the end of the year!

Of course, there is no rush to invest in this matter, after all, there are more than 2 million US dollars in funds.Not a small amount either.

Coupled with the pessimistic situation of the global economic downturn this year, it is better to be cautious about investment.

Of course, all this is not something that Xu Lang needs to consider. Xu Lang's philosophy has always been to do professional things, and leave them to a professional team.

Xu Lang only needs to do a good job in monitoring the flow of funds.

And just when Xu Lang and others were proud of themselves and reaped a huge return on investment, the NBA regular season of the 2007~2008 season also officially ended with the end of the last game!

It can only be said that as many teams have at least two core players above the All-Star level, and the league has started a season in which various rules have been changed to promote offense.

This season, the excitement of the NBA regular season has increased a lot.

And this season, nearly half of the teams averaged more than 100 points per game is the best proof.

Of course, the more teams with the same giant players, the more difficult it is for weak teams to stand up.

The regular season rankings of the East and West this season have basically developed according to this law!
The first is the East side. As of the end of the last game of this season, the Eastern Conference regular season rankings are as follows:
1. Atlanta Hawks 70-12

2. The Boston Celtics are 59-23.

3. Detroit Pistons 57-25

4. Orlando Magic 56-26

5. New Jersey Nets 48-34

6. Toronto Raptors 43-39

7. Washington Wizards 41-41

8. Cleveland Cavaliers 40-42

9. Indiana Pacers 39-43

10. Chicago Bulls 37-45

11. Charlotte Hornets 31-51

12. Philadelphia 30ers 52-[-]

13. Miami Heat 19-63

14. New York Knicks 17-65

15. Milwaukee Bucks 10-72

There is no doubt that the Eagles, which achieved 70 wins in the regular season this season, finally stood at the top of the Eastern Conference.

In fact, from the beginning of the season, the Eagles have remained in the No. [-] position in the Eastern Conference and have never been down.

Although the Rockets were blown away in the opening game, the Hawks followed up with a terrifying record of more than 20 consecutive victories.

It also allowed the Eagles to firmly hold the No. [-] in the Eastern Conference and the No. [-] record ranking in the league.

As for the second and third teams in the East, there is nothing to say. The Celtics and Pistons have been entangled for a whole season!
In the first half of the season, the Pistons were in the lead. In the second half, the Celtics made a comeback against the trend and firmly suppressed the Pistons, becoming the second team in the Eastern Conference.

Then there is the last team of the four teams in the upper half of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Magic.

In fact, the Magic should be regarded as the top three teams in the East, except for each other, the last team they want to meet before the Eastern Conference Finals.

After all, Howard's performance after the All-Star Game was really too brave.

Especially for the Eagles, whose internal hardness is not too high, they would rather touch the Pistons before the Eastern Conference Finals than Howard, who ran away after the All-Star Game.

In comparison, the New Jersey Nets, ranked fifth in the West, are relatively not that difficult to deal with!

Although Vince Carter led the team alone this season, he played an extremely good data performance and team leadership record.

However, Vince Carter himself, as a career leader so far in the playoffs, has the best performance, and he is only an outside player who survived to the second round of the playoffs.

It is difficult to rely on one's own strength to give the Eagles, Celtics, and Pistons three championship-level teams too much hindrance.

In contrast, the Raptors, which are ranked behind the Nets, may still be able to create some surprises.

After all, although the Raptors played more hips in the regular season, they are a team with many All-Star players after all, and the Raptors can be regarded as both internal and external.

On the outside, there is Joe Johnson who can still average 21.3 points, 5.7 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game this season.

Inside, there is also Chris Bosh, who has completely exploded with excellent inside talent this season.

This season, Bosh averaged 38.7 points, 24.5 rebounds, 8.8 assists, and 2.8 blocks in 1.1 minutes per game!
In addition, Andrea Bargnani, who was pushed to the small forward position this season, can output 13.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game steadily!

There are plenty of players the Raptors can ostensibly rely on in the playoffs.

At least compared with the Nets, a team with only Vince Carter as an All-Star core player, the Raptors have a group of inside and outside cores.

Whether it is the degree of adaptation of the match, or the upper limit of the attack that the two may explode, they are relatively higher.

As for the remaining two Cavaliers and Wizards who barely made it to the playoffs, they are a bit like 100% cannon fodder teams.

After all, the opponents of the seventh and eighth teams in the first round are the Eagles, which ranks first in the league.

And after the All-Star Game, they were able to play a record performance not weaker than that of the Eagles, and the overall strength of the team has been raised to 96 Celtics.

As long as the core players of these two teams do not have any accidents, they will be completely unable to play.

Sweeping four to zero, or barely winning a game, is the final destination of the Cavaliers and Wizards' journey to the playoffs this year.

As for the other teams in the East that have not entered the playoffs, there is not much value to discuss.

After all, in the East this year, under the pressure of the terrifying dominance of the Eagles and the extremely strong team strength of the top ten teams in the West.

The records of most of the non-playoff teams in the East are not very good.

Even the records of the Cavaliers and Wizards, which are on the verge of the playoffs, are not very good.

In comparison, the record performance of the non-playoff-level teams in the West is obviously much better.

Of course, these teams also struggled against the top ten teams in the West, but most of the non-playoff teams in the West can occupy a lot of non-playoff teams in the East. advantage.

In the end, the 2007-2008 Western Conference, as of the last game of the regular season, the team record rankings are as follows:

1. Houston Rockets 65-17

2. San Antonio Spurs 61-21

3. Los Angeles Lakers 59-23

4. Dallas Mavericks 57-25

5. Utah Jazz 50-32

6. Portland Trail Blazers 48-34

7. Phoenix Suns 46-36

8. Denver Nuggets 45-37

9. Golden State Warriors 44-38

10. Seattle SuperSonics 42-40

11. Sacramento Kings 35-47

12. Los Angeles Clippers 31-51

13. New Orleans Hornets 30-52

14. Minnesota Timberwolves 27-55

15. Memphis Grizzlies 18-64

After seeing the record rankings of the 15 teams in the East.

The first ones that caught Xu Lang's attention were the Grizzlies, which ranked first from the bottom in the west, and the Timberwolves, which ranked second to last in the west.

You must know that in the first half of this season, the records of these two teams were pitifully low.

Especially the Timberwolves, until the start of the All-Star Game, the Timberwolves have been under the Grizzlies, and they are the last team in the West.

As a result, after the All-Star Game, the inside duo of the Timberwolves suddenly awakened, and various 20+10 statistics continued to appear.

As a result, the Timberwolves' record of victory after the All-Star Game has risen to nearly [-]% in a straight line.

If it is purely compared to the team's winning percentage after the All-Star Game, the Timberwolves are not weaker than the fringe playoff teams in the East and West!

It's just a pity that the inside twin towers of the Timberwolves awakened too late.

Because the record in the first half of the season was too hip, the Timberwolves' record after the All-Star Game was extremely impressive.

However, in the end, they could only end the season with the second-to-last team in the West.

It's just that because of the crazy performance of the Timberwolves after the end of the All-Star Weekend, many teams were pulled down because of the Timberwolves.

The most typical representative of them is the last game of the regular season against the Timberwolves, and then the Pacers were beaten up by a wave!

After all, if the Pacers do not lose to the Timberwolves, they can rely on their matchup record to squeeze out the Cavaliers and catch the last bus in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Of course, it is meaningless to say these things now, the competition is over, and the loss of the game has already been lost.

The Pacers can now only see if they can make some trades during the offseason to enhance their team's strength and fight for a playoff spot next season.

Compared with the Timberwolves, who only made efforts in the second half, the Rockets ranked first in the West.

It is a typical representative of the beginning force plus the end force!
The Rockets played in the middle of the season, but they were suffering and struggling.

Since the Rockets lost to the Spurs in the Christmas game, for nearly a month, the Rockets' record has been extremely unstable.

Although relying on the previous record to lead, the Rockets still maintained their No. [-] record ranking in the Western Conference during that time.

But during that time, the Spurs have been in a state where they may overtake the Rockets at any time.

Until entering February, after the Rockets traded for Rajon Rondo.

The entire team has completed an incredible qualitative change. Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, the core players of the team's super giant level inside and outside, have perfectly displayed all their offensive firepower.

Then, the Rockets' record winning percentage rose sharply after February, once approaching more than 90%.

Then, the Rockets, which lost 12 games before the start of the All-Star Weekend, lost only five games after the All-Star Weekend until the end of the last game of the season.

In the end, relying on a record of 65 wins, the Rockets stabilized their No. [-] position in the Western Conference.

At the same time, for his own playoff trip, he won the home court advantage of all matches except the Eagles.

And as the Spurs, who have been biting the Rockets for nearly a whole season, they also ended up with a record of 61 wins.

It also made it rare for the West to have two teams with a record of more than 60 wins in a single season.

In fact, it's not just the Rockets and Spurs.

The record of the Lakers this season is also very good.

If it weren't for the fact that they lost too much against championship-level teams in the early stage, the Lakers also have a chance to achieve a record of more than 60 wins this season.

After all, after the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol, they are also in the Big Three mode of a super giant paired with two All-Star players.

And after a season of running-in, the strength of the Lakers also officially reached the minimum threshold of 95 for a championship-level team at the end of the regular season!