rpbooks Chapter 235 Playoff preview
Chapter 235 Playoff preview
Chapter 235 Playoff preview
After beating the powerful San Antonio Spurs by one point in an away game, Xu Nuo and his teammates bid farewell to March and ushered in the last month of the regular season—April.
April is a month when the weather is gradually getting warmer. In this month, people will gradually enter the real spring and welcome the coming summer.
And Promise and his Indiana Pacers are looking pretty good for a three-game winning streak to start such a good month.
However, promise that they also know that April will be a critical month for the team to hit the home court advantage in the playoffs. If the game is not played well this month, it is very likely that the efforts of the previous season will be in vain.
Isn't the reason for the long 82 regular season fights to be a mere home court advantage in the playoffs?
No team is willing to give up the home court advantage it has already acquired.
No matter who the opponent is in the playoffs, this home court advantage will be very important and play a very critical role.
After these three consecutive victories, the Indiana Pacers' record has been improved to 54 wins and [-] losses, continuing to rank second in the Eastern Conference behind the Chicago Bulls and ahead of the Miami Heat.
There are still the last twelve games left in the regular season, and among the opponents in these twelve games, except for the Miami Heat, which is a top team in the league, the other teams are not particularly strong.
In this way, it is not difficult for the Indiana Pacers to achieve [-] wins in the season.
But Indiana Pacers head coach Larry Brown doesn't have that in mind.
Coach Larry Brown only had two things on his mind: first, who would be the Indiana Pacers' opponent in the first round of the playoffs; home field advantage in the playoffs.
Judging from the current situation, it will not be too difficult to achieve the second point, but as for the first point, it is not up to the Indiana Pacers themselves.
As of the night when the Indiana Pacers beat the San Antonio Spurs, the standings in the Eastern Conference were: No. 76 in the East, Chicago Bulls, No. [-] Indiana Pacers, No. [-] Miami Heat, No. [-] Boston Celtics The Specials, the Atlanta Hawks fifth in the East, the Orlando Magic sixth in the East, the New York Knicks seventh in the East and the Philadelphia [-]ers eighth in the East.
If they enter the playoffs with their current ranking, the Indiana Pacers, ranked second in the East, will face the New York Knicks, ranked seventh in the East, in the first round of the playoffs.
The New York Knicks were not the ideal opponent for the Indiana Pacers in the way coach Larry Brown had hoped.
In fact, the strength of the New York Knicks on the books is not weak. They have two veterans Baron Davis and Mike Bibby at the point guard position. In addition, rookie Iman Shumpert is also a player who can play Players who have got the table; at the shooting guard position, Landry Fields and JR-Smith will form a very good rotation; at the small forward position, the New York Knicks have the team's ace "little melon" card Melon Anthony, Carmelo Anthony's scoring ability is not inferior to Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James; One offense and one defense with Tyson Chandler, the strength is really good.Playing against such a team, no matter which team will win easily.
This season, the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks have played against each other three times.It is precisely because of this that Coach Larry Brown does not want the team to meet the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.
Moreover, the New York Knicks when they played against the Indiana Pacers was a team that hadn't run in well, and now after a season of running-in, the current New York Knicks are no longer the original New York Knicks. team.Although the New York Knicks are only ranked seventh in the Eastern Conference, if the stars in the team can have a good chemical reaction, this team can be ranked in the top four in the Eastern Conference.
All Coach Larry Brown had in mind right now was to avoid the New York Knicks at every opportunity.In Coach Larry Brown's own words, it's not a fear, it's a strategy.
For coach Larry Brown, the Orlando Magic, currently ranked sixth in the Eastern Conference, and the Philadelphia 76ers, currently ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference, are ideal opponents.
Although it has the current NBA's number one center "Warcraft" Dwight Howard, the weakness of the Orlando Magic is well known.Apart from Dwight Howard inside, the biggest weapon of the Orlando Magic is the three-pointer from the outside.It can be said that the reason why the Orlando Magic can gain a foothold in the NBA depends on the outside three-pointers.If you can pinch the Orlando Magic's outside three-pointers, it is equivalent to abolishing half of the Orlando Magic's team. Dwight Howard alone will not have any future.
Moreover, more importantly, news has spread in recent days that Dwight Howard will definitely miss all the next regular season games due to a herniated lumbar disc, and it is doubtful whether he can even play in the playoffs.If Dwight Howard can't even play in the playoffs, then the Orlando Magic will become the favorite of the Eastern Conference teams and become the target of everyone.
The most important reason why the Orlando Magic can call the wind and rain on the outside is that Dwight Howard on the inside can attract the opponent's defense, thereby opening up space for the shooters on the outside, so that generations such as Hedo Turkoglu can Has the opportunity to shoot outside three-pointers.And if Dwight Howard is reimbursed for the season, the Orlando Magic loses the most important containment point inside, and it is still a question whether the outside players can still have so many opportunities to shoot outside three-pointers.Without Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, Jason Richardson, JJ-Redick, and Hedo Turkoglu, who only rely on the perimeter, will not have any good prospects.
Not to mention that the Orlando Magic does not have Dwight Howard, even if the Orlando Magic has Dwight Howard, the Indiana Pacers will not be afraid of their opponents.During this season, Dwight Howard was not absent in the Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic's several matches, and the Indiana Pacers still have an overall advantage.So it's no surprise that coach Larry Brown wants to play the Orlando Magic in the first round of the playoffs.
In addition to the Orlando Magic, the Philadelphia 76ers are also a good choice.At the beginning of this season, the ranking of the Philadelphia 76ers once rose to fourth in the Eastern Conference, which attracted applause from the entire league.Although the Philadelphia 76ers have fallen to eighth in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers, who are also young guards, have not lost their dark horse qualities.Judging from the current situation, it is absolutely certain that the Philadelphia 76ers will keep the eighth place in the Eastern Conference and enter the playoffs.
The Indiana Pacers have also played against the Philadelphia 76ers a lot this season. The key point is that the Indiana Pacers have won all the games against the Philadelphia 76ers.Should the Indiana Pacers face the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs, the Indiana Pacers will have a huge psychological advantage.Home field advantage plus psychological advantage, the Indiana Pacers can completely eliminate the Philadelphia 76ers based on these two points alone.
Compared with the New York Knicks and the Orlando Magic, the Philadelphia 76ers have a more balanced internal and external strength, and defensive counterattack is their main tactic.But looking at the technical statistics, the Indiana Pacers scored far more points relying on defensive counterattacks than the Philadelphia 76ers!Facing the Philadelphia 76ers, the Indiana Pacers will have an overall advantage, so coach Larry Brown also hopes to meet the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs.
Now the Orlando Magic, the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers are not far behind in wins, and the outcome of a game is likely to change the ranking between these three teams.With a dozen or so games left in the regular season, everything is still unknown.Whether it's the Orlando Magic, the New York Knicks, or the Philadelphia 76ers, the Indiana Pacers are likely to meet in the first round of the playoffs.
Therefore, what promise and his Indiana Pacers can do now is to play the remaining [-] regular season games and keep the home court advantage they already have.If you are lucky, maybe the Indiana Pacers will surpass the current No. [-] Chicago Bulls and become the regular season champion of the Eastern Division.In this way, the Indiana Pacers will have valuable home court advantage over all Eastern Conference teams.
It has now entered April, and the Indiana Pacers will soon face the team's first opponent in April, the Houston Rockets.On the morning of the second day after the away win against the San Antonio Spurs, Xu Nuo followed the team and left San Antonio by bus for Houston.This is the first time for Xu Nuo to play in Houston. Xu Nuo doesn't know how the Houston fans who once owned Yao Ming's senior will think of him, a rookie player from China.In the promise at this time, I have already begun to look forward to this game with the Houston Rockets.
(End of this chapter)