From sparring to superstar

Chapter 345 343. New Dynasty

The Clippers reached the Finals again, this time with a completely different meaning.

The Clippers are expected to become the first dynasty team in the 21st century!
The collapse of the OK team in the tiebreaker of the Western Conference Finals also announced the end of a short but glorious era in the eyes of the fans.

In this Western Conference Finals, the OK combination has undergone some subtle changes.

The Sharks are still the strongest center, and they will most likely remain so in the next few years.

But time is cruel. In this Western Conference Finals, the Sharks can no longer dominate both offense and defense at the basket as they have in the past four years.

The Sharks now need a more energetic power forward who can defend and shoot. It's not like in the past, just throwing someone at the power forward position and standing with O'Neal is the strongest twin towers.

Clifford Robinson is very good. He played full attendance in the regular season, performed well in assist defense, and was okay in individual defense. But in the playoffs, when the competition reached its peak level in history, besides catching and shooting, he was passable. It seems useless in other aspects.

When O'Neal goes to rest, Spider-Man can even sit in the low post and hit Clifford Robinson with his back. Matt Halprin just runs and cuts in. Clifford Robinson doesn't dare to easily cover up and help defend others. , must follow closely to contain Matt Halprin, and hand over the entire defensive pressure at the basket and close range to the Sharks.

The 37-year-old Clifford Robinson has dropped to a pitiful 100 kilograms in order to maintain flexibility. Not to mention Spider-Man and the Clippers captain, the third-year Gerald Wallace can cut into the frame and get the hang of it. Crush Clifford Robinson into the basket and cause damage to the Sharks.

The reason for the Black Mamba's physical decline this season has been thoroughly analyzed by the media - in order to carry forwards who are much bigger than him, he chose to gain weight to be heavier than the team's starting power forward. This made the past After turning into an iron man in two seasons, he began to suffer from injuries again and continued to plummet.

In this Western Conference Finals, after the Black Mamba played more than 40 minutes, the defensive end became invisible.

Even when Spider-Man is exhausted, he can still have room to take action after catching the ball. This is because the Black Mamba can't keep up with the defense.

The Black Mamba can score no matter how tired he is, but defense is different. Defense requires physical strength.

The glove is excellent. The 35-year-old's glove maintained a first-class defensive efficiency of 32 after his playing time was reduced to 3.8 minutes.

But point guard-sized gloves were completely ineffective when the Lakers encountered Spider-Man.

This is no longer the 90s. Today's NBA has a group of small forwards with monster-like physical fitness.

Spider-Man, Anthony, Artest, James, Marion... These people are a lot bigger than the glove. Even if they are completely crushed by strength, they are still faster than the glove.

The Black Mamba needs a helper who can carry those beasts on the front line, so that he can lose that damn weight, get healthy, and become the physical monster who can break through and dunk in double overtime.

The reason is that the Sharks have experienced a very obvious decline, from the strongest super center in history to the super center in today's league.

The negative impact of the Sharks' decline is greater than the positive impact of the Black Mamba's improvement!

When the OK group began to have various requirements for the strength of their helpers, they were no longer the 'best in the world' OK group.

If it were replaced by the OK combination last season, Gentry would definitely not dare to compete with the Lakers for the whole game when Jordan and Bibby have left the team.

The Clippers' performance in this finals is shocking. Their performance in the Western Conference playoffs in the past three years is destined to go down in NBA history.

When the OK combination was at its peak, Spider-Man led the Clippers to storm out and end the Lakers' quasi-dynasty in full swing.

And in the next two seasons, during the three years when the OK combination was at its peak, they continued to suppress the OK combination, and three kills ended the peak period of the OK combination!

After this Western Conference Finals, in people's eyes, the OK combination has become a thing of the past, and it's time for the Purple and Gold Army to open a new chapter.

This combination will be missed by people in the future for a long time, and people in the future will also deeply remember the new duo who killed this combination.

The media led by ESPN are hyping up the KILL era of Kidd + Li Ao!

...

At 6:13 pm on June 8, at the Palace Arena in Auburn Hills, Detroit, the boos seemed to penetrate the ceiling. The away Clippers entered the stadium first.

Although there is home-court advantage, Pistons fans are beating their drums in their hearts.

They played against the Clippers twice in the regular season and were beaten both times.

During the tiebreaker of the Western Conference Finals, Pistons fans collectively transformed into 15-year-old Lakers fans, reminiscing about the wonderful time when they swept the Lakers in the Finals 15 years ago while cheering for the Lakers.

They would rather meet the Lakers, who have better lineup depth but are mostly veterans, rather than the Clippers, whose core lineup's oldest player is Kidd and everyone else is around 25 years old.

But the fact that the Clippers are younger is secondary. What Pistons fans fear most is Kidd!

The Pistons' ability to break through from the Eastern Conference relies on the stability of Ray Allen, Artest, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Milicic, and Tayshaun Prince. The key point of others' defense is - Billups averaged 47 points per game in the Eastern Conference finals with a 24.7% shooting rate!

In this Eastern Conference finals, Billups performed as the number one guard in the Eastern Conference. With a mid-level contract, he looked even better than Carter and Tracy McGrady in big games.

Perhaps in today's Eastern Conference, the only one who can be better than Billups in the tough playoffs is Iverson, but Iverson did not make the playoffs this year, and Billups is the No. [-] guard in the Eastern Conference this playoffs. .

But Billups meets Kidd...

After the game started at 9 p.m., the worries of Pistons fans became a reality.

比卢普斯半节2投0中，拿到0分1板1助攻2失误！

The Pistons rely heavily on Billups, Ray Allen and Artest for scoring this season.

Among them, Billups is the most critical. Although he scored the lowest among the three outside stars in the regular season, his rhythm control and key ball performance are indispensable for the Pistons.

This is even more true in the playoffs. When opponents are guarding against Ray Allen's shots and Artest's cuts and attacks, Billups' mid- and long-range singles are the mainstay of the Pistons' scoring.

With Billups playing like this, the Pistons' already bad offense collapsed!
Li Ao, Gerald Wallace, and Matt Halprin left the top arc area to Kidd alone.

Matt Halprin went after Ray Allen to catch and shoot, Gerald Wallace went to fight with Artest, and Li Ao defended in series on the strong side to prevent cuts and shots off ball screens.

If Artest and Ray Allen go to the weak side, then Gerald Wallace and Matt Halprin can defend alone.

The difference between the strong side and the weak side is that the weak side can only purely support and play off-the-ball screens, pick-and-roll passes and cuts, high and low distribution...the side that plays tactics is called the strong side.

The Pistons' offense was so bad in this half of the quarter, but their defense was still very good.

Especially anti-counterattack.

Billups's outside attack was not completely useless. Kidd went to the top of the arc and was not in a position to grab the board immediately. The Clippers' counterattack encountered first-level restrictions.

The retreat of Ben Wallace, Artest, and Billups, and the three-line counterattack of Li Ao, Gerald Wallace, and Matt Halprin instigated by Kidd were able to keep up.

In this half of the quarter, the Clippers failed to make a successful counterattack.

But even so, the start was extremely unfavorable for the Pistons at home.

The Clippers scored 9-5 in the first half of the first quarter and took a 4-point lead in the middle of the quarter!
After the official timeout, Carlisle chose to let Ray Allen and Artest attack.

The effect of this offensive adjustment was obvious. The Pistons scored 9 points in the second half of the quarter, which was still poor, but not as ugly as the first half.

It's just that this adjustment allowed Kidd to return to the wing, have the opportunity to grab rebounds, and have better conditions to launch a counterattack. In the second half of the quarter, the Clippers only scored 6 points in the position battle, but they also got it with counterattacks. 6 points.

After the first quarter, the Clippers led the Pistons by 21 points, 14-7!
It's not just Pistons fans who are afraid of the Clippers. Almost all the Pistons players watched the live broadcast of the Western Conference Finals tiebreaker two days ago. When they saw the Clippers defeat the Lakers, they were also trembling in their hearts.

When the game started, they also had the image of being defeated by the Clippers in their two meetings in the regular season in their minds.

Now the Clippers were overwhelmed in the first quarter of the first game of the Finals, and the confidence of the Pistons players suffered a heavy blow.

Billups is well aware of how poorly he performed against Kidd. He has spent the past two days trying to figure out how to make changes and how to break down Kidd's defense.

But after preparing so hard, he was easily handled by the experienced Kidd...Billups had a mental problem, which in turn affected the entire team.

Not only the offense, but the defense is also affected.

Billups' wing defense performance declined, which had a great impact on the Pistons' interior defense.

Seeing that his opponent was in chaos, Kidd issued an order - fight with all your strength!

The Clippers played hard on offense and defense in the second quarter. While scoring 26 points in a single quarter, they defended the Pistons and only scored 13 points.

After halftime, the Clippers led the Pistons by 47 points 27-20!
Billups' mental adjustment ability is quite strong. After falling apart in the second quarter, he picked himself up again after the intermission.

Even though he was 20 points behind at halftime, he still didn't give up.

After joining the Pistons for three seasons, Billups has transformed from a former parallel prospect and bum to a trusted leader for his teammates.

His mentality collapsed, and his teammates were greatly affected.

He bounced back, and so did his teammates.

Unable to beat Kidd on the offensive end, Billups stopped attacking and focused on defense like he did in the second half of the first quarter.

Ray Allen, who was in his prime, and Artest, who was rising strongly, shouldered the offensive burden.

The Clippers fought too hard in the second quarter and were overall weak in the third quarter.

The Pistons scored 25-16 in the third quarter, narrowing the point difference to 11 points entering the fourth quarter.

This momentum of chasing points is very fierce, but for a 20-point point difference, it is somewhat not enough.

At the end of the third quarter, Li Ao, who had rested for half a quarter in the second half of the third quarter, returned to the field. With the passing of Kidd and Odom, the cutting of Gerald Wallace to compress the defense, and the containment of O'Neal under the basket, Li Ao In the final quarter, he made 6 of 3 shots and 3 of 2 free throws to score 8 points!
Under the leadership of Li Ao, the Clippers scored 19 points in the final quarter, while suppressing the Pistons' ferocious offense in the third quarter to only 22 points!
李敖23投11中，其中三分球4中1，加上9中7的罚球，拿到30分5板2助攻2抢断4盖帽。

Kidd only scored 5 points tonight, had only 8 assists, and only had 10 rebounds.

但他在组织进攻方面保证了球队基本得分的同时，把比卢普斯防得10投1中只拿到4分2板4助攻2抢断以及5次失误！
雷-阿伦拿到20分4板2助攻、阿泰斯特20分7板2抢断2盖帽、本-华莱士10分14板2盖帽、天尊7分10板1助攻2抢断1盖帽、米利西奇7分5板2盖帽……活塞队其他主力表现都还可以，但架不住比卢普斯遇到了完克他的基德！

82 to 74, the Clippers defeated the Pistons strongly and took a 1-0 away lead!

...

The first game of the finals was as one-sided as the media and fans expected.

The Pistons had some success chasing points in the second half, showing the strength of their star group.

But the gap in strength is very obvious, mainly due to the gap between the two teams' point guards.

The forward-back combination of Ray Allen and Artest performed slightly better than the forward-back combination of Li Ao and Gerald Wallace.

But in the matchup between Billups and Kidd, Billups was completely beaten.

Fans who watched the live broadcast may be able to see the highlights of Billups' game.

However, the ratings of this game were quite poor. When the game started, the number of paid views did not exceed [-] million.

In fact, many fans choose to wait and see the score after the first quarter or first half before deciding whether to spend the money.

As a result, the Pistons scored 27 points at halftime... In the Eagle Family, except for basketball fans in the greater Los Angeles area and the Detroit metropolitan area, not many people watched the live broadcast.

In previous years' finals, there were many casual sports fans watching the live broadcast, but this year's playoffs have been dubbed the 'ugliest playoffs in history'. The major media have been hyping up how ugly the games are, and there are almost no casual sports fans. I also wanted to see how difficult it would be to watch a basketball game.

By the end of the game, the number of paid views will exceed [-] million, which is less than half of last season's finals.

Stern felt like hanging himself.

The only good news is that the ratings of the Flower Planter have risen instead of falling.

But the local market is the core of the NBA.There are fewer people watching the game, and most people only see Billups's extremely poor statistics.

Billups appeared on the finals stage for the first time and was scolded...

However, Billups, who was the No. 97 pick in the [-] draft but performed extremely poorly at the beginning of his career, is immune to being criticized.

After a day of rest, on the 15th, the Pistons faced the Clippers in the second game of the Finals at home.

After the game started, Billups determined his style of play - pure defense + waiting for Kidd's defensive holes to take shots.

Kidd, who only reached the finals for the first time in his 30s, did not give Billups a chance to find any flaws and continued to lock Billups up.

However, the defense led by Billups was much better than the previous game.

The Pistons were defended to only 13 points in the first quarter, and they also defended the Clippers to only 15 points.

In the second quarter, the Pistons and Clippers tied at 17-18, and the point difference was only widened by one point. At halftime, they trailed the Clippers by 30 points, 33-3, and looked very promising.

The fans at the scene were expecting the Pistons to go on a rampage in the second half like they did in the last game.

But it was the Clippers who went wild in the third quarter!
快船队打出了单节22比11的比分，55比41，快船队领先活塞队14分进入末节。

In terms of defensive continuity in the iron-blooded battle, the Pistons, with plenty of frontcourt manpower, are stronger than the Pacers.

Billups's rampage in the Eastern Conference Finals was the magic weapon for the Pistons to win the Eastern Conference Finals, and their ability to rely on defensive continuity to suppress the Pacers' scoring throughout was the foundation.

In the third quarter, the Clippers' run was limited, scoring only 22 points. In the final quarter, the Pistons pulled the Clippers' scoring down again, allowing the Clippers only 17 points.

However, although the Clippers' defensive continuity is not as good as that of the Pistons, it is not bad enough to be chased by the Pistons by 14 points in a single quarter. The G1 Pistons were so fierce in the third quarter that they only narrowed the point difference by 11 points.

The Pistons scored 23 points in the final quarter, narrowing the point difference by 6 points. The effect was... it made the loss look better.

李敖21分6板2助攻1抢断3盖帽、基德13分9板5助攻、杰拉德-华莱士16分8板……72比64，快船队再下一城，客场2比0领先！

...

After the first two games of the finals, the gap between the two participating teams was obvious.

It's not that the Pistons are not strong enough, but that they were unlucky enough to encounter the Clippers, the team that restrained them the most.

The Pistons' defense against the Clippers was even better than their defense against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. It would be difficult for the Clippers to score 90+ points in a single game.

But their strongest single point in the playoffs was completely blocked by Kidd, and they couldn't struggle at all on the offensive end.

G2比卢普斯只出手了8次，8投2中，其中3次三分出手全铁，加上2中2的罚球拿到6分7板5助攻。

With his performance, even Pistons fans couldn't imagine how to win.

The Clippers only need Li Ao, Kidd, and Gerald Wallace to attack on the offensive end, and the others can focus on defense. They don't need to work hard like they did against the Lakers.

On June 6, the venue was changed, and the Clippers faced the Pistons in Game 18 of the Finals at home.

Leading 2-0 on the road, the Clippers players were full of energy and their goal was clear - not to let the Finals return to Detroit.

快船队延续了前两场的强势，首节22比16、第二节22比21，半场以44比37领先活塞队7分！
However, although the Clippers' lead was larger than that in the first half of G2, the Pistons felt that they played better than the first half of G2.

The Pistons' offense has changed a lot from the previous two games.

In G2, although Billups didn't shoot much, he was still the one who started the offense with the ball.

Tonight, the Pistons let Ray Allen play the main ball-handling role in the first quarter, and the effect was obvious. The Pistons scored more than 15 points in the first quarter for the first time in this Finals, and more than 20 points in the second quarter.

From the Clippers' perspective, the Clippers scored 22 points in the second quarter to suppress the Pistons' counterattack, which scored 21 points.

From the perspective of the Pistons - their scoring sharpened in the second quarter, and they held on to the point difference without allowing the Clippers to further widen the point difference.

And even when the Clippers scored 20 points for the second consecutive quarter, they still held on to the score!

Since Christmas this season, Ray Allen has put aside his meaningless face and focused on playing without the ball.

But in just a few months, his offensive ability with the ball has not deteriorated. The head coach asked him to pick up the ball again, and he performed as a top star should!
半场11投5中，其中三分球2中1，加上2中2的罚球，拿到13分2板3助攻1抢断！

Ben Wallace also contributed a lot to being able to hold on to the score at halftime. He played 18 minutes in the half and got 13 rebounds, 7 of which were offensive rebounds. Although he failed to score with offensive rebounds, Sent 3 assists!
In the third quarter, the Clippers played very cautiously, playing steadily on the offensive end and cautiously on the defensive end... but still failed to suppress the Pistons' rising momentum.

Ben Wallace's offensive rebounding performance in the first half gave Ray Allen and Billups great confidence. Billups was still struggling, but Ben Wallace was able to grab the offensive rebound and throw it away. It's an assist to Ray Allen.

雷-阿伦第三节前半段三分球4投3中，半节时间拿到9分，率队打出了18比10的半节比分，活塞队以55比54反超快船队1分！
Ben Wallace's personal assist count increased to 6, setting a new record for his personal assists in a single game in the playoffs!
Entering the official timeout, Gentry was at a loss.

This kind of climax that relies purely on personal ability is the most difficult to deal with.

At this time, Gentry's disciple quietly suggested that he use that trick.

Gentry felt really dirty when he heard it, and then he used...

After the official timeout came back, Gentry sent Robert Traylor on.

Carlisle focused his attention on the tractor. What kind of trick did the opposing coach have in sending this bench player?
After a while, Carlisle became numb.

The opponent actually started a shark-cutting tactic against Ben Wallace!
This move quickly curbed the Pistons' offensive momentum.

But the smooth offense of the Clippers, which averaged 20+ per quarter, was also interrupted.

The shark-cutting tactic has always been a very good tactic for disrupting the opponent's offensive rhythm. There are too many insiders in the NBA who can't shoot. Every team's main insider has players who are not good at free throws.

But the shark-killing tactic has not become a mainstream tactic.

Because the shark-cutting tactic destroys not only the opponent's offense, but also your own offensive rhythm.

And you can't guarantee that a player who shoots only 50% of his free throws will have that kind of free throw percentage tonight.

This is a tactic that can injure the enemy eight hundred times without knowing how much one will inflict.

However, if used at the right time and at a critical moment, it can occasionally work wonders.

The Clippers made the right bet tonight by using this move!
Ben Wallace, who made 2 of 1 free throws in the first half, returned to the free throw line after the official timeout and made 6 of 1 free throws!

During this period, although the Clippers' offensive rhythm was also disrupted, they had a player who was good at scoring unreasonable goals - Spider-Man!

Li Ao once caught Artest's defense and turned around and hit a mid-range shot, and once he turned around from behind and hit a step-over hook from close range.

58 to 56, the Clippers lead the Pistons by two points!
In the remaining 4 minutes, the two teams started an ugly blacksmith feast. After three quarters, the score was 62 to 60, and the Clippers held on to their weak lead!

In the final quarter, the two teams, whose offensive rhythm collapsed, continued to fight.

In such a game, Li Ao chose to throw wildly, making 9 of 3 shots, no three-pointers, no free throws, and scored 6 points in a single quarter.

In addition to Kidd's corner three-pointer, Gerald Wallace's second attack resulting in a foul and one of two free throws, O'Neal Jr. caught the ball in the low post, turned around and stepped back to make a short-range jumper and scored two points, the Clippers won in the final quarter. to 12 minutes.

This score is very low, too low to bear looking at, but the Pistons only scored 11 points in the first 52 minutes and 8 seconds...

On the last shot, Ray Allen made an angry shot two meters away from the top of the arc and hit a super long three-pointer, which raised the Pistons' score to double digits in the final quarter, but it had no impact on the outcome of the game.

李敖23分7板3助攻3抢断2盖帽、基德12分10板6助攻2抢断……74比71，快船队3分险胜活塞队，大比分3比0，拿到赛点！
...

On June 6, the fourth game of the Finals will continue at the Staples Center.

Trailing 0-3, the Pistons still did not give up. They firmly believed that as long as they were not eliminated, they still had the possibility of winning the championship.

今晚他们延续了G3的进攻表现，雷-阿伦24投11中、其中三分球7中4，加上5中4的罚球，狂轰30分。

本-华莱士拿到12分16板3助攻2抢断3盖帽，比卢普斯今晚也难得的‘高效’，6投3中，其中三分球4中2，加上2中2的罚球，拿到10分4板5助攻。

加上阿泰斯特的14分6板1助攻2抢断，活塞队以81比75击败快船队，拒绝被横扫！
李敖23分9板3助攻3抢断1盖帽、基德15分8板8助攻2抢断，还是没能完成横扫。

The Pistons' style of play tonight was no different from G3, and their performance was even more efficient than G3.

Under such extremely unfavorable conditions, Carlisle came up with effective measures.

Gentry didn't try to hack the shark tonight, and his disciple didn't suggest such a move.

The win in the last game was too thrilling. Ray Allen's three-point touch in these two games, and the last game, Ray Allen really threw two three-pointers in the center circle to win the game.

It's not like they don't have the ability to win against the Clippers normally. Carlisle's contingency strategy only created an opportunity for the Pistons. This opportunity can only appear if Ray Allen feels hot. And the Pistons can win tonight. Damn it. It's still Billups' offensive performance that's getting better.

On June 6, the finals will usher in the fifth game.

The Pistons rallied in the last game and scored 80+ points in a single game, a highlight that exhausted their touch.

今晚雷-阿伦20投仅6中，其中三分球12中3，加上4中4的罚球，也只拿到19分。

阿泰斯特16分7板2助攻2抢断3盖帽，拼尽全力了。

Ben Wallace couldn't be better with 13 points and 17 rebounds.

另一边，李敖27投13中，其中三分球2中1，加上7中7的罚球，拿到34分7板4助攻4抢断1盖帽。

基德13投7中，其中三分球4中2，拿到16分11板11助攻1抢断。

加上杰拉德-华莱士的13分、奥多姆11分6板2助攻、小奥尼尔6分14板6盖帽……

88 to 75, the Clippers defeated the Pistons cleanly, 4 to 1, and won the championship!
After the final whistle sounded, the scene fell into a carnival.

Kidd looked at the big score on the big screen and the words 'NBA Champions' next to his team's logo. He slapped his face, still a little in disbelief.

Last summer, he hesitated for a long time about whether to leave the Nets and where to go.

When Stockton approached him, he refused without hesitation. He initially thought that Stockton wanted him to go to Salt Lake City. When the other party said that he would help him go to the Clippers, he did not He agreed immediately, but hesitated for a long time.

It was because of his hesitation that the Clippers completely missed the stage of reinforcement after the trade, and this season was so difficult.

Because he didn't know what would happen if he came to a team that has been so successful in the past two years.

The lesson learned from the Fliggy's dream of holding two consecutive championships is there. The Clippers have to pay a lot to get him, and the situation after the trade may not be better than the Rockets at that time.

And once the Clippers fail to win three consecutive championships, the blame will have to be placed on him, the newcomer.

Now, Kidd is extremely grateful to Stockton for his persistence!
The celebration time was over and Stern came up to present the award.

Li Ao, Ballmer, and Kidd lifted the championship trophy together!
Later, Li Ao walked up to Stern alone and picked up another trophy.

李敖5场比赛场均26.2分6.8板2.6助攻2.6抢断2.2盖帽，力压场均12.2分9.6板7.6助攻1.6抢断0.2盖帽的基德，连续第三年拿下总决赛MVP！

A new dynasty is born in Angel City!

(End of this chapter)