After successfully eliminating the New Orleans Pelicans, the Lakers' opponent in the next round is the Utah Jazz, who have the best record in the Western Conference.
The Jazz's opponent in the first round was the Dallas Mavericks, who were ranked eighth in the Western Conference.
Doncic is as strong as he is strong, but he is still unable to make a comeback against the Jazz. In five games, he averaged 35.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 10.3 assists per game and was close to a triple-double, but he still lost the game 1:4 and was eliminated.
For the Lakers, being able to play against the Jazz in the second round is already the most ideal result.
Although the Jazz are ranked first in the Western Conference, they are still slightly behind the Warriors, Clippers and other teams. After all, the Jazz are stronger overall, but they lack players like James, Curry, and Leonard.
In this way, top superstars can shoulder important offensive responsibilities at critical moments.
At least in the eyes of the Lakers and Wang Feng, dealing with the Jazz, whose main scoring points are Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, etc., is better than dealing with the Clippers of James + Leonard, and the Warriors of the Splash Brothers.
Much stronger.
It is worth mentioning that the Clippers, ranked sixth in the Western Conference, eliminated the Denver Nuggets with a big score of 4:2 in the first round, successfully meeting the Warriors in the semifinals of the second round of the Western Conference.
Last season, these two teams fought fiercely in the Western Conference semifinals. After a tiebreaker, the Clippers relied on the performance of two top stars, James and Leonard, to win and eliminate the Warriors.
Western Conference Finals.
Unexpectedly, the same script will be played out again this year.
The Clippers are a little weaker than last season, but Westbrook, as a regular season MVP-level player, even if he is pulled now, will still have the opportunity to show super dominance at certain times.
On the Warriors side, the combination of the Splash Brothers and Green is already in its second season. The team's salary space is almost locked up by the three of them. Due to the butterfly effect, there is no Jordan Poole in the lineup, and there is no dimension.
Kings, in the free market last summer, only made small improvements and did not make any big moves. His overall strength is close to last season.
In this case, it is difficult to determine who will win when the two teams meet again.
The two matchups in the East are the Brooklyn Nets vs. the Boston Celtics, and the Milwaukee Bucks vs. the Philadelphia 76ers. The four teams are all teams in the top half of the division. It will also be an extremely fierce battle.
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Before the start of the conference semifinals, the league's official website announced the best lineup in advance.
All 15 spots for the three best teams were determined by voting.
The five players on the best team are Stephen Curry of the Warriors, Wang Feng of the Lakers, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks, Durant of the Nets and Nikolay Yoko of the Denver Nuggets.
Kitchen.
It can be said that the five people in the group are all well-deserved.
Curry averaged 30+7 per game for the second consecutive season, while Antetokounmpo dominated the Bucks' offense and defense as always, averaging 28+11+6 per game.
Durant and Jokic also both had data performances of 28+7+5 and 26+10+8.
Of course, the one with the most explosive statistics during the period was Wang Feng who averaged 40+13+11 per game.
Whether it is the team's victory contribution or simply from a data perspective, Wang Feng is undoubtedly the strongest.
But what makes the majority of Chinese fans aggrieved is that Wang Feng, whose data performance is so explosive that even the peak Qiao gang leader is ashamed, only ranked second in the regular season MVP selection predictions.
Ranked first is Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks.
The Bucks have a record of 58 wins in the regular season this season, which is only 6 games ahead of the 52-win Lakers. Antetokounmpo's average of 28+11+6 per game is even worse than Wang Feng's 40+13+11. It's very far.
But Antetokounmpo's ranking is just above Wang Feng.
Wang Feng can probably guess the reason.
Wang Feng, who has been the MVP of the regular season for three consecutive times, has reached the peak of his reputation. If he continues to win the MVP of the regular season, it will be an unprecedented four consecutive MVPs. By then, let alone all the current players, even the God of Basketball Jordan will have a hard time. Can suppress Wang Feng.
If such an amazing and talented person were born in America, he would naturally be praised without reservation and crazily praised.
But the problem is that Wang Feng is a Chinese player.
For a Chinese player to win so many honors in the NBA, doesn't it mean that the current players in the United States are not good enough?
No American will readily accept this result, at least not the vast majority.
Although Antetokounmpo is not from the United States, he is from Greece and is fundamentally different from Wang Feng, who is from China.
Whether it is the selection of regular season MVP or best team, they are all voted by hundreds of reporters, of which journalists from the United States and Canada account for more than 90%, and all other countries combined only have 10%.
American reporters are also Americans, and of course they don’t want Wang Feng, a Chinese, to be so arrogant and domineering in the NBA.
Assuming that Wang Feng's personal data is impeccable and that the team's record is also first in the league, then even if they are unwilling, the vast majority of reporters will still give Wang Feng their first vote. After all, in addition to being American, they also have a As professional media people, even if it is only superficial, they must maintain the so-called fairness and openness.
However, the Lakers, who were ranked first in the league in the past two regular seasons, are only ranked fourth in the Western Conference and seventh in the league this season. This undoubtedly gives them a "reasonable" excuse.
Most media in China, and even Wang Feng himself, feel that there is a high probability that there will be no MVP for this year's regular season. At least this can be tentatively made based on some faintly revealed voices in the American media.
The Chinese media all felt sorry for Wang Feng. If Wang Feng could achieve the great feat of four consecutive regular season MVPs, he would once again set a new record in the NBA.
Wang Feng, on the other hand, is obsessed with the purple badge of his choice as a regular season MVP reward.
This is no joke, if there is no regular season MVP trophy, his loss will be huge!
But there is no use worrying about this kind of thing. Wang Feng knows very well that in the final analysis, the NBA is just a business league, and everything is just profit and business.
He has done his best, and if he fails to do so in the end, there is nothing he can do. He can just make a comeback next season.
Moreover, taking a step back, the regular season MVP selection is not over yet, and it is not yet known who will win.
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Outside the first team, the five players selected for the best second team are Hawks' Trae Young, Mavericks' Luka Doncic, Lakers' LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard, Philadelphia 76ers' En Bede.
The Clippers were only sixth in the Western Conference during the regular season, but they still had two people selected to the All-NBA Second Team. This shows the status of James and Leonard and their position in the hearts of many media commentators.