radicalducati Chapter 702 But we're short a center! Then let Durant...
Chapter 702 But we're short a center! Then let Durant...
"I got the number one draft pick!" Bird blurted out as soon as he dialed the number, eager to share his joy.
"Your tone sounds just like a girl who's found a new love after breaking up and is calling her ex to brag about it!" Lin Tian's voice came from the other end of the phone. Of course, he wouldn't say anything like congratulations to Bird.
I'm not in the mood for that!
"What I want to say is, Lin, who do you think I should choose?"
"Will you listen to me? I thought you weren't going to listen to me anymore after McGee picked Aldridge!" Lin Tian was lying comfortably on the physiotherapy bed in his locker room, enjoying the massage from the physiotherapist while waiting for the start of the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals!
He still has about an hour to chat with Bird.
"Everyone makes mistakes, and no one can make the right choice every time." Bird's tone was also nonchalant. Lin Tian could tell that this guy didn't want to hear his advice; he just wanted to show off.
He must have already made his decision a long time ago!
Hmph, if you're still hesitating and haven't made up your mind, given my shameless and cunning nature, I, Lin the Master, might just chat with you casually for a bit and give you two names and that's it.
Who has that much free time when they're playing in the regional finals?
But now that you've made your decision and are here to show off, I'm going to disgust you no matter what!
"If you listen to me, then choose Kevin Durant! He will be the future of the team... um, 7 years, the cornerstone for 7 years!" Lin Tian hesitated for a moment, considering Durant's career, and didn't dare to say anything like 15 or 20 years.
"But we have Danny at the three! You remember Danny, right? He scored over 30 points in one game against you guys this year! I think he can become a top star, he can become a top scorer averaging 30 points per game! He can carry the team's offense and everything!"
"Then trade him and find a good point guard for Durant. It's simple. I suggest Deron Williams or Chris Paul. They're both young and talented! They both have bright futures."
"But we need a center right now! I don't want to drastically change the team's chemistry right now; our chemistry is pretty good."
"What kind of chemical reaction can a team with 19 wins produce? A methane explosion?"
"What is that thing?" Bird's chemistry level was clearly below junior high school level.
"When fermented feces come into contact with an open flame, an explosion occurs, which you could call a feces bomb."
"F*** you!" Bird cursed, "But I just want a center!"
"Then let Durant play center!" Lin Tian said without hesitation. "Anyway, he's almost 7 feet tall, so playing center won't be a problem!"
"Larry, how many times do I have to remind you? In the draft, if it's a low pick, then pick the one you need! If it's a high pick, then pick the strongest one! Let the team adapt to top stars, let the team change around stars."
"Instead of selecting stars to build around the team, you've got it all backwards! No wonder you haven't even made the playoffs in recent years without me; you simply don't know how to build a team! You're utterly incompetent!"
"Nonsense!" Bird exclaimed, his eyes wide with disbelief. "I know more about team building than anyone! I know better than anyone how to build a championship roster! We won the championship in your first year here!"
"With me on the team, you could win a championship even if you sent your grandma!" Lin Tian showed no mercy to Bird, continuing his sarcasm, "And what do you mean by a championship roster you've built?"
"Charles, Joe, Ben, and who else? Anyway, at least four or five key rotation players on that team were brought in by me! You? You call this the team you built? How can you be even more shameless than me?"
"I regret calling you." Bird couldn't hold back anymore; he regretted it!
Why do you have to be so stupid? Why make yourself miserable? Do you think you can out-argue Lin Tian or something?
So you think you're capable?
Naive! Idiot! You deserve to be criticized!
While Bird was internally trying to console and reflect on his actions, Lin Tian on the other side had no intention of letting him off the hook!
"You regret calling me? Let me tell you! This will be the most important and greatest call of your life! It can give your management career a second spring!"
"Choose Durant! It doesn't matter if you're lacking a point guard or a center, and I don't care how many small forwards you have right now. If you trust me, choose Durant!"
Lin Tian stopped talking to Bird after that and hung up the phone, not giving him any chance to say anything more.
Hehe, knowing Bird as he does, after Lin Tian makes this call, Bird will be even more determined to choose Oden!
He will definitely choose Oden.
Then?
Then it will have nothing to do with me, Lord Lin.
I tried my best, didn't I?
For the next 20 years, whenever Bird sees Lin Tian again, he'll have to slink away!
He'll have to keep a low profile in front of Lin Tian for the rest of his life.
otherwise?
Otherwise, a single sentence from Lin Tian could have driven him to despair.
"Larry, if only you had listened to me and chosen Kevin Durant back then..."
Wow, that's wonderful! Just thinking about it is fucking wonderful!
After hanging up the phone, Lin Tian, in high spirits, finished his physical therapy. He walked out of the locker room with his head held high and into the North Shore Garden Stadium.
Time to warm up!
Undoubtedly, Lin Tian was met with another wave of frenzied humiliation, insults, and boos!
The Boston Celtics, who have finally returned to the conference finals, can't wait to bring the team back to its glory days of the 80s!
They're going to crush all those bastards who dare to stand in their way and hinder them from winning the championship again!
This time, the Celtics truly have the strength to win the championship!
Their roster is strong and balanced, with top-tier players in every position!
Starting center: Dwight Howard, the second overall pick in 04!
Although Warcraft is still considered a blue-collar player and his skills are still rough, he has shown too much incredible talent! Even though he lost the Rookie of the Year award that year.
But everyone can see that Okafor has never improved over the years, and that's the end of his career.
Howard's career has only just begun to get on track!
This season, Howard is averaging 13.9 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.9 blocks per game.
Howard's frontcourt partner, the team's leader, "The Big Fundamental" Duncan, was selected to the All-NBA First Team this season and continued his stable, low-key, yet highly efficient and practical performance. Even with Howard diverting rebounds, he still managed to contribute impressive stats of 20+10+2 per game.
The combination of Howard and Duncan is both offensively and defensively capable, and both are in the prime of their careers. Many people believe that they are the best frontcourt duo in the league today!
This pair is composed, quiet, reserved, and stable.
A fiery, passionate, and physically gifted individual.
They complement each other perfectly and achieve great things together; their teamwork is absolutely seamless!
The team's starting small forward is Josh Howard, a tough defender with a practical playing style and an excellent mid-range jump shot in one-on-one situations. This season, he is averaging 16 points and 4 rebounds per game!
At the same time, he is also a bellwether for the Celtics. In the 29 games in which Howard scored 20+ points this season, the Celtics won all of them!
It's safe to say that as long as he's in good form, the Celtics will definitely win!
Then there's the team's starting shooting guard, defensive stalwart Raja Bell, whom they acquired in a mid-season trade with the Pacers.
This season, Bell was selected as one of the top one-on-one defenders on the All-Defensive Team! The three-dimensional defensive line he formed with Duncan is also the Celtics' most solid shield on the defensive end this season!
Many people say that the Celtics brought in Bell mid-season specifically to counter Lin Tian! They wanted a shield to defend against Lin Tian's relentless attacks!
Of course, Bell was repeatedly outplayed by Wade in the semifinals, which prevented the Celtics from advancing easily, and Bell's defense was inevitably questioned by many people.
Is his defense any good?
How effective is the Celtics' defense?
Finally, and of course, is the team's starting point guard, Tony Parker!
Parker was selected as an All-Star this season. Although his average of 16 points and 7 assists per game is not particularly eye-catching, his ability to push the fast break is quite strong. Many people see a bit of Lin Tian in him!
Fast break, fast break layup, drive and pass, score under the basket!
This is Parker's job. He is far less versatile than Lin Tian on the court, but if you only look at his own area of expertise, Parker does quite well!
Of course, there's also the team's sixth man and Manu Ginobili, the best sixth man in the league today!
This season, the Argentine's playing style has become increasingly unpredictable. His serpentine drives have become one of the most feared driving methods by any team in the league. He's as elusive as an eel, yet as cunning as a fox. More importantly, this guy also possesses the vision of a vulture!
This team is incredibly well-rounded. No one on the team averages more than 23 points per game, but six players average more than 10 points per game. They are united and their chemistry is perfect.
Everyone on this team is dedicated and doesn't compete for anything.
It can be said that this team is one of the most enviable and top teams in the league today!
You can even remove one of them!
Their team basketball is the envy of everyone.
All of this reveals one thing!
That's Boston, get ready!
They are ready to recreate their glory and honor from the 80s and even earlier!
Everything is ready!
Then, in the first game of the conference finals, they showed the Knicks what ultimate team basketball is, and also showed the Knicks what a well-prepared Boston team is!
In this game, the Celtics played with incredible unity and balance, and each of them demonstrated what selflessness truly means!
Everyone shared the ball, and everyone was willing to give opportunities to their teammates. With their incredibly selfless offensive performance, they achieved a 55% field goal percentage and a 41% three-point percentage!
At the same time, in addition to their dazzling and fluid offensive performance, they also delivered an amazing defensive performance!
从人盯人到2-3联防，从3-2联防到全场1-3-1紧逼再到尼克斯队上一轮玩儿过的半场扩大区域联防，凯尔特人队这场比赛就跟炫耀自己的防守体系有多幺丰富，就像是小朋友给人迫不及待的给小伙伴展示自己的玩具一样。
They brought out all sorts of defenses and all sorts of defensive formations.
Their defense is constantly evolving; their defensive system is as complex as the blood vessels and veins inside the human body, which is truly astonishing!
Lin Tian was certain that this thing had absolutely nothing to do with head coach Rivers!
Lin Tian's attention was drawn to the middle-aged fat man sitting next to Rivers.
Tom Thibodeau.
The best defensive head coach in the league for the next 10 or even 20 years! But right now, he's just a defensive assistant coach.
The defensive system this guy built is even harder to deal with than the Pistons' iron-fisted defense.
If the Pistons' style was about extreme physical confrontation, using a fierce, brutal, and tough approach to intimidate opponents and force them to miss shots, then this Celtics team uses their teamwork, chemistry, and selflessness to set up defensive traps that force opponents to step into and fall into.
In other words, the Pistons' defense is physical, while the Celtics' defense is technical!
That same night, Lin Tian confirmed it: those bastards hadn't gone all out in the previous series! They hadn't used their full potential against Wade and the Cavaliers!
Even though they were once beaten quite badly by Wade and the Cavaliers, they held back and didn't reveal their secret weapon!
They saved their trump card for the Eastern Conference finals, and it worked wonders! The Knicks were caught off guard and completely outmaneuvered!
In this game, the Knicks committed 22 turnovers, 6 of which were by Lin Tian himself! Meanwhile, the Knicks' overall field goal percentage was only 38%. For an offense-oriented team, winning with a 38% field goal percentage is incredibly difficult!
That night, the Knicks played terribly, scoring only 89 points!
Turnovers, shooting percentage, and points scored are all the worst of the season.
It would be a miracle if they could win under these circumstances!
89: 106!
In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks suffered a crushing 17-point defeat to the Celtics!
This start was absolutely terrible.
In this game, Lin Tian scored 27 points, 10 assists, and 14 rebounds, but he only made 8 of 24 shots and committed a lot of turnovers! And this performance was already considered the best on the Knicks team!
Furthermore, Lin Tian's data is not entirely accurate.
Before the final 5 minutes of the game, Lin Tian went 0-for-4 from three-point range, but in the last 5 minutes, when the Knicks were down by 20 points, Lin Tian's three-point shooting touch suddenly returned!
He sank four consecutive three-pointers, scoring 12 points in a row!
He single-handedly narrowed the gap to 10 points!
Those four consecutive three-pointers really gave the Boston team a real scare! If they hadn't immediately double-teamed Lin Tian, and if Parker hadn't made his floater and Duncan's strong drive, the Knicks would have really turned the game around thanks to Lin Tian's sudden outburst!
Furthermore, after Lin Tian was double-teamed, he found Stoudemire and Anthony, creating open shooting opportunities for them. However, both of them missed their shots, which prevented the Knicks from further narrowing the gap. The Celtics then launched another offensive surge, and the suspense of the game was completely eliminated.
But the people of Boston were truly terrified.
It was so close! If Anthony had made that open three-pointer, if Stoudemire had successfully attacked Howard, the situation would have been completely different!
Thankfully, it's stabilized! It's finally stabilized!
But Lin Tian's explosive performance in the final moments also proved how badly he played in the first 40 minutes of the game.
最后5分钟3分球4投全中拿下12分，全场比赛24投8中拿到27分，这就意味着他前40分钟的比赛之中，20投只有4中，只拿到15分！
This performance, in the context of Lin Tian's entire career, can be described as quite poor!
As for Stoudemire and Anthony, who missed crucial shots, neither of them scored more than 20 points, and their shooting percentages were also negligible. They were also lost in the Celtics' varied and quick-adjusting defense.
As for the Celtics, their stats are the same as always, with no particularly outstanding players; everyone is quite average.
霍华德13分13篮板4助攻，邓肯19分11篮板，霍华德14分4篮板，帕克14分8次助攻，吉诺比利15分5篮板4助攻，贝尔10分3次抢断。
Six players on the team scored in double figures, but only one player scored more than 15 points, and no one scored more than 20 points!
A classic team victory, a classic Celtics victory!
The whole of Boston erupted in celebration after the victory!
Yes! We can! We can win this series! We can shut down the Knicks' offense! We can do it!
Champions, here we come!
Regarding the excitement and jubilation of Boston fans, Lin said: "Are you done celebrating? Have you used up all your special moves?"
So it's my turn!
It's time for me to use my ultimate move! (End of Chapter)