Coach: Coaching the Grizzlies at the beginning, playing the bantam

Chapter 47 Even the Spurs!Regular season honors announced!Depressed Fratello, the duck from his mouth flew away?

On May 5, the first game of the Western Conference semifinals kicked off.

The Grizzlies perfectly demonstrated the advantages of a deep lineup.

In the first half, although they were close to the point difference by the seasoned Spurs, and were even overtaken by the Spurs at one point, since the game entered the second half, the Grizzlies have firmly controlled the game situation.

The Grizzlies are constantly looking for opportunities to shoot through off-ball screens. Mike Miller and Stoudemire both played brilliantly, bombarding three-pointers, and almost made Popovich stunned. .

The style of play in the small ball era may not be successful in this era, but since the rise of the Grizzlies this season, no team in the history of the league has ever been able to play three-pointers.

With no team having any experience in defending three-pointers, the Grizzlies took advantage of the time difference to play a sharp outside offense, and the heat was completely unstoppable.

The Spurs' starting center Elson became an absolute weak link, and was crazily targeted by Pau Gasol. After a heavy output, six fouls left the field soon.

With Elson, the Spurs' protection of rebounds became worse, and they could only rely on Tim Duncan to support them alone.

Being both a father and a mother on both ends of the offense and defense, the physical strength is lost at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The Grizzlies shot very decisively from the outside, from running positions to using screens to catch the ball, they hardly gave the Spurs much reaction time.

Especially Bowen, who was in charge of guarding Mike Miller, several times as soon as he passed the screen, Miller had already caught the ball and shot it, his body drifted and threw the ball. How had he ever seen such a battle in his career?
On the other hand, the Spurs' offense was very slow, and the positional battle was mainly initiated through the pick-and-roll of Parker and Duncan.

There is a lack of change in offensive thinking, and it is not difficult for the Grizzlies to defend, which is exactly the same as when they played against the Hornets in the first round.

Lu Yong's support tactics for Pau Gasol are not advanced. The king's insider Chris Webber played like this.

However, the group of off-ball shooters that Lu Yong built around Gasol is not what this era should have. A large number of off-ball screens lead the era, and it is extremely lethal against teams like the Spurs that focus on defense in the penalty area.

Especially the handoff after the off-ball screen, if the top pitcher in the league executes this move, it will be difficult to defend even in the small ball era, let alone the slow-moving Spurs.

Even if it is as strong as Tim Duncan, it is difficult to encounter the unreasonable play of the Grizzlies. When defending the pick-and-roll, he can only try to jump as far as possible, reaching out and using his wingspan to interfere with shooting.

107 to 93, the Grizzlies easily won the G1 game and won the semifinals.

In the second game, Popovich reduced the playing time of center Elson, allowing Tim Duncan to play center against Gasol.

The effect of this group of substitutions was immediate. The Spurs increased their strength when defending pick-and-rolls. They kept clenching the point difference in the first three quarters, and they were in a stalemate with the Grizzlies until the end.

Unfortunately, Duncan's physical fitness declined severely in the final quarter, and he made 4 of 0 offensive shots and failed to score.

The Spurs can only rely on the breakthroughs of Parker and Ginobili, and the offense is mired in a quagmire.

At the end, 96 to 87, the Grizzlies won another game, rewriting the total score of the series to 2 to 0.

The Grizzlies failed to break 6 points this time, but [-] players on the team scored in double figures.

There are many players who can play in the rotation lineup, which has crushed the Spurs in terms of lineup depth.

After the first two games of the series, the media is generally optimistic that the Grizzlies will advance, and there are even many fans who support the Grizzlies sweep.

After falling behind 0-2 in the playoffs, it is too difficult to reverse the comeback. The Spurs lineup itself has flaws. It is as difficult as the national football team to qualify for the World Cup if they want to eliminate the Grizzlies in four consecutive games.

Halfway through the semi-finals, the league announced the winners of the regular season awards.

Paul Gasol got his wish and won the first regular season MVP of his career, and became the first Spanish player to win the MVP in NBA history.

Many fans think that Gasol's ability to win the regular season MVP this year is pure luck. If it weren't for the blessing of the Grizzlies' first record in the league, Nowitzki, who ranks second in the MVP list, would be the best candidate.

However, the team's record accounts for a lot of points in the regular season MVP selection. Unless Nowitzki can play crushing statistics, he is destined to be the second child this year.

In terms of the best team, the five players selected for the first team are: Nash, Kobe, Nowitzki, Gasol and Tim Duncan.

Pau Gasol, who led the best team, squeezed the Suns star "Small Bully" Stoudemire.

If it weren't for Gasol's sudden emergence, this year should be a big year for the Mavericks and Suns.

Best Second Team: Arenas, McGrady, James, Stoudemire, and "Chinese Giant" Yao Ming.

This time, it was the Raptors star Chris Bosh who was unlucky enough to be squeezed out of the second team. His personal data is not bad, but he is not good enough in front of the "little bully", so he can only be placed in the third team.

The unexpected surprise is that Grizzlies guard Mike Miller squeezed out Pistons star Billups by virtue of his team record, and was selected to the third team of the best team for the first time in his career, which is also a breakthrough in his career.

The other three players selected for the best three teams are Wade, Anthony, and "Wolf King" Garnett.

"Warcraft" Howard's failure did not surprise Lu Yong. This year is only the first year of his rising career. His foundation is not stable. The team's record is also very average, with only 40 wins and 42 losses, ranking eighth in the Eastern Conference.

If you have to choose the one with the worst overall score in the best team, Howard will definitely be elected unanimously, even worse than Billups who led the team to the first record in the Eastern Conference.

Of course, the most depressed person this year is Fratello.

Because he led the team to 64 wins in the regular season, he was defeated and failed to lock in the best coach.

After voting by the judges, the league awarded the Raptors coach Sam Mitchell the best coach award for the 06-07 season.

The reason is that the Raptors only played 27 wins last season and ranked fourth from the bottom in the Eastern Conference. As a result, in the new season, without significant changes in the team's core lineup, Mitchell led the team to a full 20 wins, ranking first in the Eastern Conference. three.

This loss made Fratello very depressed. He was obviously the head coach of the league's No. [-] team, but in the end he could only come in second.

The selection of the best coach is so unreasonable. The important factor to get the first vote is not the ranking, but how many wins the head coach led the team compared with last season.

This is also the reason why "Zen Master" Jackson often played the first record in the league when he was the head coach of the Bulls and Lakers, but he only had one best coach in his career.

The fastest way for a coach to get more COY (coach of the best) is to take over a team that ranked last in the league last season, and then lead this bad team to a good record in the new season.

Just like the "magic fortune teller" Pat Riley back then, the three best coach trophies in his career came from this way.

There is another reason why Fratello did not get many first votes. In the opinion of the judges, the improvement of the Grizzlies' offensive firepower is due to the team's chief assistant coach Lu Yong, rather than Fratello's sudden enlightenment.

In the middle of the season, Memphis fans once heard the voice of letting Fratello get out of class. Awarding the best coach award to Fratello will definitely cause controversy. His real contribution to the team is far worse than that of Raptors coach Sam. - Mitchell.

(End of this chapter)