Chapter 485: The Bulls are Out of the Western Conference Finals vs. the Magic
In the G3 game, Jordan made 15 of 31 shots and scored 40 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Wang Feng showed no sign of weakness, hitting 14 goals in 26 shots, and once again scored 39 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for a triple-double.
The result of the duel between the two was the same as before. Jordan never completely defeated Wang Feng in terms of scoring, but Wang Feng could also assist and support his teammates while scoring offensively.
To put it simply, Wang Feng did all the work of Jordan and Pippen, and he did it very beautifully, even better.
The Knicks were not weak to begin with, but now they have Wang Feng. How could Jordan and the Bulls, who had never returned to their peak form, win?
On May 14th, the Bulls' second home game, the game was still won by the Knicks, and the point difference in today's game was quite large. The Knicks beat the Bulls by 14 points, 109:95.
The reason why the Bulls lost so miserably was because the Knicks' star player, Gorilla Ewing, finally bottomed out.
In the first three games, his performance was only average, even slightly worse than in the regular season.
Although the Knicks currently have the upper hand, Ewing is not particularly happy and is even a little depressed.
In the G4 game, Ewing's long-suppressed emotions were finally released.
Throughout the game, Ewing made 13 of 26 shots, 5 of 7 free throws, and scored 31 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 assists. He completely dominated the interior and defeated Bulls center Kukoc.
While Ewing broke out, Wang Feng's performance did not decline. He made 11 of 19 shots and scored 30 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, a near-triple-double.
For the Bulls, Jordan had 26 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists, and Pippen had 24 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists. Although their performance was pretty good, there was obviously no way to compare with Wang Feng and Ewing.
At the end of the game, the score between the two teams has reached 3:1. The Knicks have obtained the match point. They only need one more win to send the Bulls home.
No one expected that after Jordan's comeback, the Bulls, who suddenly became the favorites to win the championship, would face the dilemma of being eliminated in the second round.
In a desperate situation, Jordan broke out again.
On May 16, the game returned to the Knicks' home court at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jordan made 15 of 28 shots from the field and scored 39 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists under the Knicks' targeted defense throughout.
But his struggle was in vain.
The Bulls still lost the game 97:103.
For the Knicks, Wang Feng scored 28 points, Ewing scored 24 points, and Starks scored 22 points. Scoring is not the key to the Knicks' victory. Wang Feng and Ewing had 14 and 16 rebounds respectively in this game.
Wang Feng also grabbed 5 offensive rebounds as he grabbed 8 offensive rebounds. In addition, Oakley also grabbed 5 offensive rebounds.
The Knicks grabbed a total of 22 offensive rebounds in this game, completely overwhelming the Bulls' weak inside line.
The famous center Takenori Akagi once said that those who can control rebounds can control the game.
Ewing, who is the prototype of Takenori Akagi, perfectly interpreted the gold content of this sentence in this game.
The total score was 4:1. At this point, the Knicks successfully eliminated the Bulls in the second round and entered the Eastern Conference Finals. It also announced that Jordan's first season back had ended in failure.
In this series, Jordan's personal statistics are extremely luxurious, averaging 33 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 5 games. What is unexpected is that Wang Feng's points per game from the Knicks are almost the same as Jordan's.
He averaged 32 points, 10.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists. Not only was his scoring similar to Jordan’s, he almost averaged a triple-double per game.…
When the whistle sounded at the end of the game, Jordan stared at Wang Feng for a long time, then refused interviews from all reporters and went straight to the players' tunnel.
Jordan knows that Wang Feng will be his biggest threat on the road to winning the championship in the future. If he cannot overcome this obstacle, his comeback will only be a joke.
…
"The Knicks eliminated the Bulls and advanced to the semifinals. Wang Feng averaged 30 points per game and was close to a triple-double. Jordan may have encountered the strongest opponent in his career!"
"Wang Feng and Ewing are the strongest inside and outside partners in the history of the Knicks. What are their chances of winning the championship this year?"
"Wang Feng's contract is about to expire this summer, and teams in the league are ready to make moves. Can the Knicks retain this super perimeter player who is comparable to Jordan?"
While various related reports were flying all over the sky, the league also announced the best lineup for the 1994-95 season as the second round of games came to an end.
The five players selected for the All-NBA First Team are guards John Stockton, Anfernee Hardaway, forwards Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, and center David Robinson.
The players on the best second team are Gary Payton, Mitch Richmond, Charles Bakrich, Patrick Ewing and Shaquille O'Neal.
The five players selected to the All-NBA Third Team are Reggie Miller, Clyde Drexler, Wang Feng, Shawn Kemp and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Jordan was unable to be selected for the All-NBA Team due to insufficient appearances after his comeback this season.
The results of the best team selection seem a little surprising, especially Hardaway, who averaged 20 points and 7 assists per game, was actually selected for the first team. On the contrary, the team leader O'Neal, who averaged 29 points and 11 rebounds per game, ranked second, which is quite speechless.
.
But if you think about it carefully, there is nothing you can do about it.
In the 1990s, the competition inside was much stronger than outside. O'Neal was not competing with Hardaway, but with the other three top centers, as well as Malone, Barkley and other top insiders.
Although his statistics are the most luxurious in the paint, the Magic's record is inferior to that of the Spurs. At the same time, David Robinson's average of 27.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game is not much worse than O'Neal.
With the team's bonus, it is reasonable for Robinson to beat O'Neal to be selected for the first team.
As for Ewing, although the Knicks' record is the same as the Spurs', his personal data is half a step behind Robinson.
More importantly, anyone who knows the Knicks knows how the Knicks' record tied with the Spurs for first place in the league came about.
Wang Feng came out of nowhere to help the Knicks win 26 consecutive victories that shocked the league, and continued to maintain a super high winning rate in subsequent games. This resulted in a record of only 12 wins and 12 losses after the Christmas game, ranking seventh in the Eastern Conference.
The Knicks have been on a roll.
Wang Feng played 51 games in the regular season, averaging 28.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. This data is the most luxurious among the league's outsiders, no less than the four major centers.
But in the end, he was only selected to the best third team.
Wang Feng was a little surprised by this, because in his mind, he might not have these honors this season.
Not only because of the number of games he participated in in the regular season, but more importantly because we are in the 1990s now.
In this era where racial discrimination and political correctness are not as important as they will be in the future, Wang Feng's Asian identity puts him at a disadvantage in various award selections. After all, these awards are all voted for by journalists from the United States and Canada.
.…
Wang Feng was even prepared to receive nothing except championship rewards this season, but he didn't expect to receive any prizes.
As the team with the best record in the league, the Knicks can have two players selected to the All-NBA team at the same time, which is already a very good result.
But Ewing was not satisfied with the result.
He has no shortage of All-NBA teams. Even when surrounded by Olajuwon and David Robinson, Ewing currently has six All-NBA teams and three All-Defensive teams.
A mere second team was insignificant to him, but this second team sent him a bad message.
Robinson is rated higher than him in the media!
Ewing doesn't have to pay attention to the best lineup, but he must pay attention to the regular season MVP.
The team's record this season is excellent. It can be said that this is the season in which he has the best chance to win the regular season MVP. However, if he cannot beat David Robinson, he will not be able to win the MVP.
Ewing was very reluctant, but Wang Feng knew very well that he should not worry about the regular season MVP.
Ewing was selected to the All-NBA Second Team because he hugged Wang Feng's thigh. Wang Feng remembers clearly that the Knicks' original record this season was supposed to be 55 wins and 27 losses. Ewing averaged 23.9 points and 11 rebounds per game, even the best.
He was not selected for the third team, so why should he be compared with David Robinson, who finally won the regular season MVP this season?
Forget about regular season MVP Ewing, but you can still think about the championship.
The Knicks eliminated the Bulls and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, while the Magic and Pacers had a tiebreaker in the second round.
I have to admit that although Miller won very few personal honors, his personal strength was still very strong in the playoffs.
Under his leadership, the Pacers played seven games against the Magic. In these seven games, Miller averaged 25.9 points per game, shooting 51.7% from the field and 45.5% from three-point range. His firepower from beyond the three-point line gave the Magic
It caused great trouble to the team.
But the Magic are O'Neal's team after all, and even O'Neal in his young age was strong enough.
In these seven games, O'Neal averaged 10 of 16 shots per game, 27.3 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 11.6 free throws per game.
After seven games, the Magic finally defeated the Pacers 105:91 in Game 7 and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Regarding the speculation about the outcome of the Eastern Conference finals between the Knicks and Magic, most people are more optimistic about the Knicks.
The Knicks themselves are different from the Pacers. They have an equally powerful super center in Ewing, and the scoring battle between Wang Feng and Jordan has deeply shocked many people across the country.
Obviously, Wang Feng is much better than Hardaway. If the Magic want to win, it is not as simple as O'Neal suppressing Ewing. What they really have to face is this sudden appearance in the middle of the season. Even Jordan
A super rookie who is not an opponent.
…
The Eastern Conference Finals is the Knicks VS Magic, while the Western Conference Finals is the Spurs v Rockets.
The Spurs are indeed very strong this season. While their regular season record is impressive, entering the playoffs is also smooth sailing. They swept the Nuggets 3:0 in the first round and eliminated the Lakers 4:2 in the second round.
In contrast, the Rockets struggled a bit on their way to promotion. They had a fierce battle with the Jazz in the first round and struggled to eliminate the Jazz led by Malone and Stockton 3:2.…
Then they entered the second round and had to fight the Suns led by Barkley in seven bloody games to advance.
The gap between the two sides' promotion paths makes people generally more optimistic about the Spurs' ability to advance to the finals.
But as a time traveler, Wang Feng knows that this year it is still the Rockets who will reach the finals, and without him as a spoiler, the Rockets will sweep the Magic 4:0 and win the championship for the second consecutive year.
On May 23, the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals officially started at the Knicks' home court.
Playing against the Magic is actually very simple, just how to limit O'Neal's performance.
O'Neal is strong, but he is not invincible. Otherwise, he would not have won a championship before meeting Kobe.
If you want to say O'Neal's most fatal weakness, it is undoubtedly free throws.
O'Neal's free throw shooting has long been recognized by the league as poor, and the shark-cutting tactic has also been applied.
No matter how unsolvable O'Neal was at the basket in his prime, this point is absolutely unavoidable.
Pat Riley prepared a number of interior substitutes for this game, preparing to teach O'Neal a free throw lesson.
However, there seemed to be something wrong with O'Neal today. After being sent to the free throw line, his shooting percentage was astonishingly high. He made 2 of 2 free throws in several consecutive rounds, which made the Knicks no longer dare to continue to use shark-cutting tactics against O'Neal.
O'Neal, who was feeling hot, was also very proud and shouted towards the Knicks bench. "Why don't you foul? Let me take a few more free throws?"
Unfortunately, O'Neal's pride did not last long, because although he was extremely accurate at the free throw line and his offensive efficiency at the basket was also quite high, the Magic did not have the advantage as imagined, and even had an advantage at halftime.
Nearly 10 points behind.
The matchup between O'Neal and Ewing, of course, undoubtedly had the absolute advantage, but the worst problem was the matchup between Wang Feng and Hardaway.
Who is Wang Feng? He can have the upper hand against Jordan one-on-one. Even though Hardaway was selected to the All-NBA Team not long ago, he seems to be very awesome, but in front of Wang Feng, he is completely like a younger brother.
Under the care of defensive shock, death coil and dominating skills to lock down defenders, Hardaway was completely out of control in this game, with half-time statistics of only 4 points and 2 assists.
In the second half of the game, the situation remained unchanged. O'Neal could only fight alone, constantly beating Ewing in the paint to score.
A very rare situation happened like this.
O'Neal made 11 of 16 shots in the game, 10 of 12 free throws, 68.8% field goal percentage, 83% free throw percentage, and scored 32 points and 11 rebounds.
But the Magic lost the game 88:103.
Because apart from O'Neal, only two people on the Magic team scored in double figures. One was Denise Scott who made 7 of 14 shots and scored 17 points. The other was only 5 of 17 shots with a shooting percentage of less than 30% and only scored 13 points.
Hardaway had 5 assists and 7 turnovers.
Even though O'Neal played so efficiently and well, his performance still failed to surpass Wang Feng.
Wang Feng played 37 minutes in this game, making 11 of 20 shots, 4 of 8 three-pointers, 6 of 6 free throws, and scored 34 points, 9 rebounds, and 11 assists. He once again had a near-triple-double, and his efficiency was not inferior to O'Neal.
In addition to Wang Feng, Ewing's performance in this game was not bad. Although he was suppressed by O'Neal on the court, he still scored 22 points and 11 rebounds. His unique skill of bunny jumping was also difficult for O'Neal to defend.