basketball scientist

Chapter 290 First Round Series

4 month 17 day.

At dusk in Atlanta, the azure sky slowly turned red, then grayish yellow, then faint grayish blue, and finally, under the stars, it was set against an extraordinarily deep black.

Under the dark and bright sky, the road to Phillips Center is full of traffic, and the headlights of various private cars are flashing.

The parking lot of the Phillips Center was already full of cars, and the cars behind them formed a long queue, and they could only move in slowly. Above them was the dazzling LED sign of the arena.

The several entrances of the arena are also crowded with people. The chatter and laughter of thousands of people converged in one place, as if the buzzing of mosquitoes was amplified a thousand times, stirring up the restless spirit of the fans and making them wait in line. In the process of entering the venue, he became more and more excited.

In one hour, the Eagles' first game on their way to defend the title, the home game against the Wizards will start.Before the game, in the locker room, Ke Yan looked very calm. This is the fourth time he has led a team to play in the playoffs, and he has never fallen in the first round. An ideal opponent.

As time passed, the long queue gradually shortened, and the audience entered the arena, walked through the fan channel, and came to the auditorium to find their own seats.

The ticket price for the playoffs is much higher than that of the regular season. Take the Eagles as an example. The average ticket price for the regular season is 50-60 US dollars, while the lowest ticket price for the playoffs is 150 US dollars. .Not to mention that the ticket prices in the front area of ​​the infield or the "vip box on the top of the mountain" have already reached five figures.

However, it doesn't matter if the ticket price is high. Atlanta is a well-known gathering place for rich people in the United States. There are more rich people living here than in Silicon Valley.500 of the top 430 companies in the United States have established branches here, and hundreds of companies are headquartered in Atlanta.

For Anthony Ressler, having a strong Eagles team is not only reflected in the "increase in team market value", but also an expansion of his personal network. Sometimes, there may be a chance to have a "casual encounter".

In an instant, the lights in the Phillips Center suddenly went out, and flashes of flashing lights wandered in the auditorium. The big screen in the mid-air of the stadium went black first, and then suddenly lit up. The logo of the Eagles exploded on the screen, and then began to play The team's playoff promotional video, the fans also cheered.

With the Eagles players appearing on the screen once, the passionate voice of the live DJ resounded through the Phillips Center!

Wizards starters: Antonio Daniels, Stevens, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Haywood.

With Arenas last season, the Wizards did not make the playoffs; without Arenas this season, the Wizards advanced instead.However, this does not mean that Arenas has a negative effect on the Wizards. On the contrary, it is more because the Eagles think that the Wizards have no threat without Arenas, so they did not play any "micromanagement".

The Eagles' starting lineup has not changed much, and the team has an absolute advantage in strength. This round of the series is more of a process of adapting to the atmosphere of the playoffs.

"drop--"

The referee blew his whistle and threw the ball into the air. Garnett and Haywood immediately entangled each other. Garnett took advantage of the speed of the bullet to touch the ball in the air first and pushed it to the Eagles' backcourt. Johnson picked it up and quickly passed it to Paul, and the game officially started!

Paul held the ball in the middle, Dior came out to pick and roll, and Garnett gave Joe Johnson an off-ball screen on the left.

With the help of Dior's pick and roll, Paul passed Daniels, Haywood switched defenses in time, Paul forced a three-step layup and missed under the interference, and Butler retreated to get the rebound.

The Wizards are attacking, and the main attacker is Caron Butler, which is also the only advantage of the Wizards in this round of the series.

After Butler and Jamison pick and roll, Garnett is attracted to switch defenses, the ball is passed to the middle, Jamison faces Battier, feints, and relies on his height advantage to score with a jumper. 0 to 2.

As an insider with outstanding shooting ability, Jamison does not play a high percentage of pick-and-rolls. He is better at playing singles with the ball in the frame or taking advantage of the opponent's shortcomings that cannot be defended by the insider to pull out shots; It can be seen that it is also an adjustment specially made for the Eagles.

The Eagles attacked. Paul took the ball to the frontcourt and distributed the ball to Joe Johnson on the left.

Jamison grabbed the backcourt rebound and did not launch a fast break. Instead, he held the ball across the half court and played a positional attack.

Butler pulled to the wing to catch the ball, singled Battier, headed straight down, and took three steps as soon as he entered the three-point line, suppressed Battier for a layup with his strength advantage, and pushed Battier away with his physical advantage Er, scored the ball, (0:4)

Butler scored a giant star, and before he could get over it, the Eagles were about to serve the bottom line.Diaw passed to Paul, and the latter advanced quickly, relying on his speed to disrupt the Wizards' defense, and then cleverly distributed the ball. Joe Johnson, who came in behind, did not even need to make any adjustments to catch the ball. He made a silky layup and scored, and Haywood caused a foul, followed by an additional penalty hit. (3:4)

Haywood is the guarantee of the Wizards' interior defense and rebounding. If he can't control fouls well, the Wizards are also very dangerous!

The Wizards attacked and almost used up 24 seconds. Daniels missed a jumper under Paul's interference. Garnett grabbed the rebound and launched a fast break again.This time, it was Joe Johnson who held back the Wizards' defense. After attracting double-teams, Joe Johnson distributed the ball to Paul in an open position, who made an easy mid-range hit near the baseline. (5:4)

With Arenas absent, the Wizards' offense really had a big problem; in the next round of offense, it was still Butler and Jamison's pick-and-roll, but Garnett and Battier, the strongest defensive strikers, did not give Any chance they had, the attack time was almost 24 seconds away, Butler forced a breakthrough layup, was blocked by Garnett, the ball was picked up by Battier, failed to launch a fast break immediately, and had to fall into the position war.

Looking back, the Wizards also successfully defended against the Eagles. Paul held the ball for too long and failed to cooperate with Diaw, so he had to hand the ball to Garnett for a "catch the pot". Leaning on Jamison, he turned over and missed a jumper.

After the opening game, the Eagles’ offensive choices were more or less problematic. Except for scoring in both offensive and defensive transitions, the positional feel was not good; but even so, their tough performance on the defensive end was still something that the Wizards could not break through. Mountain.

"The Eagles really let the Wizards into the playoffs~" Eddie Jordan said regretfully, already feeling a little frustrated.

For the Eagles in front of them, even if Arenas is healthy, they can win at most one game in a series; if they are lucky, they may win two games, which is the limit!

Sure enough, when Paul and Joe Johnson found their touch in the second half of the first quarter, the gap in strength between the two teams gradually emerged.

The two core players of the Eagles, Paul and Garnett, are relatively "stable" players. Sometimes even if the offensive end feels bad, they can contribute to the team in various ways, so the Eagles The lower limit is very high, especially when playing against underdogs, there are very few cases of "overturning the gutter".

This is also the reason why the Eagles' record is thriving in the overall decline of the Eastern Conference.In the entire Eastern Conference, at least two-thirds of the teams have no way to compete with the Eagles in terms of strength.

After the first quarter, the Eagles led the Wizards by 30 points at 22:8.

In the second quarter of the game, the Eagles continued to crush the lineup. Keyan sent Barea, Sefolosha, Joe Johnson, Anderson and PJ Brown to the outside lineup.

The positional battle was handed over to Barea and Joe Johnson to launch the pick-and-roll, Sefolosha opened the space as a qualified outside shooting point, and Anderson and PJ Brown were responsible for eating cakes and fighting for offensive rebounds.

On the defensive end, the two insiders are very capable of protecting the frame, and immediately counterattacked after grabbing it. Barea's impact is still very strong.

Sefolosha, who has always been known for his defense, suddenly played the role of a shooter on the offensive end. He hit two three-pointers from the bottom corner one after another, helping the Eagles to open the point difference to double digits.

On the Wizards side, the starting lineup can't keep up with the strength of the Eagles, and the gap between the bench lineup is even bigger!Eddie Jordan is much worse at building the team's bench lineup than Ke Yan, who is cheating!

After half a quarter, Ke Yan replaced Paul, Garnett, and Joe Johnson and continued to play. Ke Yan employed people without reservation, hoping to seal the victory at halftime.

The Wizards have also replaced the main force here, and the offense is still weak.

At halftime, the Eagles' lead came to 20 points.

In the second half of the game, Ke Yan consciously began to "boil frogs in warm water" and more "experimental" lineups to prepare for the following games.

Taking advantage of the time when Ke Yan started to work hard, the Wizards took the opportunity to recover some points.However, once Paul, Battier, and Garnett came on the court and the Eagles' defensive strength increased, it was difficult for the Wizards to score, and the point difference was easily opened up by the Eagles again.

In the end, the Eagles maintained their advantage until the end, getting off to a good start 113 to 95.

Although it is the playoffs, the playing time of the Eagles players is still balanced. Except for Joe Johnson who played 33 minutes, everyone else played less than 30 minutes. The five players of the team scored in double figures.

乔约翰逊18投9中，三分球5中2，罚球5中5，砍下25分5篮板5助攻1盖帽，荣膺本场比赛最佳球员。

"We performed well in this game, and the progress of the game is basically under our control. The players' attitude towards the game is suitable for playing in the playoffs, which makes me more confident in defending the title." The press conference after the game, Ke Yan took the initiative to bring up the topic of "defending the title".

It doesn't make any sense to blindly keep a low profile. At this time, you can say some harsh words to cheer you up!

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In Game 4 of the series on April 20, the Wizards still struggled to cause trouble for the Hawks.Anderson cooperated with Garnett to control the penalty area at both ends of the court. In the whole game, the Wizards entered the three-second zone 41 times and hit 17 goals. The efficiency can be said to be terrible!

If the "General" is there, with his shooting ability, even if the Wizards can't get into the penalty area, they can win with the firepower from the outside; but the Wizards team led by Butler and Jamison still relies on Butler's singles and Attacking the frame.

The Eagles completely controlled the penalty area, and the Wizards had no choice but to choose medium and long-range shots, which was tantamount to admitting defeat.

In the end, the Eagles defeated the Wizards 100:79 and won two home games in a row!