Chapter 1569 The Dust Has Settled in the First Round, and Everyone Is Upset (Part 1)

Ji Feng's domineering declaration gradually subsided the controversy about this year's best defensive player. After all, although Howard's statistics are unique among centers, Ji Feng also stands out on the outside, and Ji Feng's words touched the hearts of many fans. , if you are capable, you still have to compete on the field.

Compared with the best defensive player, the other two awards announced on the 26th and 28th are not controversial.

On April 26, NBA officials continued to announce the winners of major awards this season. This time they announced the award for Best General Manager.

In the end, Milwaukee Bucks general manager John Hammond relied on his excellent recruiting and team management abilities to successfully overwhelm the general managers and presidents of other teams and successfully win this important award.

In the 2009-10 season, the Bucks' record improved significantly. They finally won 46 regular season games and ranked sixth in the Eastern Conference. They won 12 more games than last season. Since the 2005-06 season, the Bucks After returning to the playoffs, Hammond's huge contribution in this process naturally deserves attention and recognition.

In the 2009 draft, Hammond used their 10th pick in the first round to select Brandon Jennings, who would become one of the three best rookies that year. The point guard quickly got a starting opportunity in the Bucks lineup, and averaged 15.5 points per game in his rookie season, and once set a personal scoring record of 55 points in a single game.

At the same time, Hammond has successfully signed Carlos Delfino, John Selmons, Ray Stackhouse and Kurt Thomas through signings and trades. In the 2008 draft, Hammond used The 37th overall pick in the second round selected defensive strongman Aamot, who has now become the team's regular starting power forward. This has also allowed the Bucks to average only 96 points per game this season, ranking first in the league. 7th in the league.

Generally speaking, the Bucks' operation is absolutely successful in the short term.

Unfortunately, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti ranked second with 9 votes, only 3 votes less than the Bucks general manager.

Ji Feng once believed that the Thunder general manager would definitely win this award, but it seems that people don't quite understand what Sam has done.

Then on the 28th, the NBA announced the candidates for this season's Rookie of the Year. This award is the least suspenseful. The Kings' Evans is obviously a lot ahead of others. He is the scoring leader among this year's rookies. He averaged 20.1 points, making him the fifth rookie in the past decade to score 20+ points in a rookie season. The first four were Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Ji Feng.

Evans also ranks fifth in rebounds (5.3), second in assists (5.8), and second in steals (1.51).

Such a performance made Curry, who had played well all season, regrettably miss out on the Rookie of the Year award with 391 points. Ji Feng also made a special phone call to comfort the frustrated Curry.

On the 30th, the Sixth Man of the Year was finally announced, and Jamal Crawford was unanimously elected. There is also no suspense.

Crawford has played in all 79 regular season games this season as a substitute and fully meets the selection criteria. In addition, Crawford averaged 18 points per game this season, ranking second on the team behind Joe Johnson. Although he did not start a game, Crawford still averaged playing time per game. reached 31 minutes and led the team in scoring 27 times.

To put it simply, this is another victory for Popovich's style of employment. Since Ginobili's false starting style successfully allowed the Spurs to win the championship, more and more teams are willing to put a Manu on the bench. Characters like this, Ke Liu, Lu Wei, and JR are among the best.

After announcing these important awards, the Lakers' training finally became tense again, because the first round of the game was finally over!

In the East, the first to advance was not the Cavaliers, but the Celtics, who were not optimistic before the game.

After they successfully won the previous home court, they successfully overturned Wade's Heat in the third game on the road. In the first three games, they beat their opponents by an average of 15.4 points per game, which was the best average win in the first three games except for the Lakers. The team with the most balls!

Although the Heat used their last drop of blood to regain a victory in Game 4, why is it said to be the last drop of blood? Wade played a full 48 minutes in this game without a break. He made 16 of 24 in the game and 7 three-pointers. Hit 5, scored 46 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, led by Beasley who scored 15 points, Richardson with 20 points, O'Neal with 2 points, Haslem with 4 points, and Charr with 5 points. Moss won the game.

"This is just Wade's victory and has nothing to do with the Heat." Barkley's evaluation is not unkind, but it is the fact.

In Game 5, Wade, who had used up all his strength, once again scored a game-high 31 points in 45 minutes. However, Beasley with 2 points, O'Neill with 1 point, and Richardson with 4 points were too much. , the Green Army defeated the Heat with a big score of 4-1 and took the lead in advancing to the second round.

This undoubtedly shocked all those who badmouthed the Green Army before the game and felt their faces burning.

But it’s not anyone else’s fault. The Celtics did not meet people’s expectations this season. In short, a new season with huge expectations, which was originally thought to be able to create records, only finished fourth in the Eastern Conference in the regular season, with only 50 The winning record ended, and even in the last game not many fans paid attention, it must be said that it was a huge cup.

But entering the playoffs, these veterans have found their sense. Wade's playoff dream was once again shattered. He didn't know what else to do besides waiting for his good brother James.

And his good brother James has no idea of ​​swimming to Miami yet. After successfully winning 3-0, although the Bulls broke out in the fourth game, Rose scored 31 points, 7 assists and a perfect shot in the last 10 seconds. Killing away a hard-won victory, which conveniently ended James' 11-game winning streak in the first round. However, the Cavaliers, who returned to their home court, still defeated the Bulls 121-98 without any blood and advanced to the second round with a total score of 4-1.

James played very easily in this round, scoring only 27.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 7.8 assists, which was the lowest in the first round in the past four seasons, but this proves that the Cavaliers' firepower is no longer what it used to be.

"What we have to do is keep winning, whether it's the Celtics or the Magic." James was high-spirited after the game. They will face the Celtics in the semifinals.

In another group of matches, the second-ranked Magic won equally easily. They were only one day behind the Lakers and swept the Bobcats 4-0 to advance to the semifinals. This round of the series was lackluster. Except for Gerald Wallace, the Bobcats barely managed to win. Being able to keep up with the Magic's rhythm, everyone else is out of the game. Howard basically doesn't need to play much to win the game, just like the Cavaliers.

The most intense matchup in the Eastern Conference is undoubtedly the Eagles and Bucks.

When the Hawks easily won the first two games and took a 2-0 lead, everyone thought that this series would also end easily. This was also in line with people's expectations. It would be difficult for the Bucks without Reid to compete with the Hawks.

However, the Bucks returned to their home court and showed great resilience. After easily winning the third game 108-89 and regaining a victory, the two sides battled for 48 minutes in the fourth game. The score was tied at 97 and the game entered overtime. This was also The first overtime of the first round of the playoffs.

In overtime, John Salmons stood up and caused damage in 4 consecutive overtime rounds, allowing Eagles main player Joe Johnson to leave the game with 6 fouls. The balance changed, 111-107, and the Bucks made the score 2-2. !

In the next two games, the two teams each won their home court, and the game came to a tiebreaker!

On May 3, on the last day when the Lakers were preparing for the playoff semifinals, the Hawks finally won 95-74 at home, eliminating their opponents 4-3 to advance to the second round. They will face the Magic in the semifinals!