Chapter 126 Knicks Rank First in the Eastern Conference! The Third Black Eight in History

The final score of the game was 98:111, and the Knicks defeated their opponents again.

Dirk Nowitzki performed poorly in this game, making 24 of 8 shots and scoring only 19 points, in addition to 8 rebounds and 6 turnovers.

On the other hand, Zheng Yang still performed brilliantly in this game, making 22 of 14 shots and easily scoring 35 points. He also got 8 rebounds and 3 assists, with only one turnover.

Whether in terms of influence on the game or the data of the two, Zheng Yang defeated his opponent.

Although this is just a regular season game, it is of no concern to the Mavericks. Their record is still the best in the league, and they still have a high probability of winning 65 games.

At the end of the season, everyone will only praise them for making history, rather than remembering their loss in this game.

But don't forget that this game is about more than just winning a game. More importantly, it largely determines who will win the regular season MVP this year.

It is difficult to determine who should be awarded the MVP based solely on the team record and personal data, but judging from the head-to-head matches between the two, Zheng Yang defeated the Mavericks in both head-to-head matches.

They won the first game by 32 points, and they only won this game by 13 points. But it is impossible for the judges to think that the Mavericks have improved and give the MVP to Nowitzki just because they lost by 32 points last time and only 13 points this time, right?

This is not a joke, right?

Unless Zheng Yang leads the team to a five-game or six-game losing streak in the next ten games, there is no need to discuss this year's MVP too much.

As for the scoring list, Zheng Yang currently tops the list with 33.6 points, while Kobe, who is in second place, can only get 31.6 points, a full 2 ​​points difference between the two.

Unless Kobe scores 81 points in every game like he did in the dragon-slaying battle, he will have to give up the title of this year's scoring champion.

Winning both the scoring title and MVP, plus being confirmed as a member of both first-team and second-team teams, this season can truly be called Zheng Yang's season.

After the game, Sports Daily published an article titled "MVP Determined? Michael Fails Again?", which also predicted that Zheng Yang would win the MVP this year and that he would also win Michael's $100,000.

One hundred thousand dollars is a small matter for Michael, but losing face is a big matter for him.

This bet once again proves that Michael’s gambling skills are as bad as ever!

……

Time flies like an arrow, time flies!
Soon each team finished their next ten or so games, ending the regular season of this season.

Let’s take a look at the final team standings!
Eastern Conference Teams:

New York Knicks, 59 wins and 23 losses.

Detroit Pistons, 53 wins and 29 losses.

Cleveland Cavaliers, 50 wins and 32 losses.

Toronto Raptors, 47 wins and 35 losses.

Miami Heat, 44 wins and 38 losses.

Chicago Bulls, 49 wins and 33 losses.

New Jersey Nets, 41 wins and 41 losses.

Washington Wizards, 41 wins and 41 losses!
Western Conference Teams:

Dallas Mavericks, 66 wins and 16 losses.

Phoenix Suns, 61 wins and 21 losses.

San Antonio Spurs, 58 wins and 24 losses.

Utah Jazz, 51 wins and 31 losses.

Houston Rockets, 52 wins and 30 losses!
Denver Nuggets, 45 wins and 37 losses.

Los Angeles Lakers, 42 wins and 40 losses.

Golden State Warriors, 42 wins and 40 losses.

Judging from the winning rate, the Western Conference teams as a whole are indeed stronger than the Eastern Conference. They have two teams with more than 60 wins. The Dallas Mavericks even made team history with 66 wins, while the Eastern Conference has no teams at all. Their highest is the Knicks' 59 wins.

However, the regular season is just the regular season after all. The ranking here is a key factor, but not a decisive factor.

If the championship is awarded to whoever has the best regular season record, then there will be no need for the playoffs.

Coming back from defeat to victory, coming from behind to win, this is the biggest selling point of the playoffs!
……

"Hey guys, it's been a long journey, we're done, we're done, we're 59 wins, we're No. in the Eastern Conference, and we've managed to pull our team back from the struggles we had last season.

This is something we can be proud of!
This honor is not brought by me alone, but you and I have created this honor together.

But we can't stop yet, remember what I said before the season started?

Our goal this season is to win the championship.

I want to hold the championship trophy in one hand and sprinkle champagne on our coach's head in the other hand in two months! I want to enjoy that wonderful moment with everyone!
So, please continue our journey!

Before you win the championship, don't slack off, don't be lazy, and don't stand on the court with your hands on your hips.

As long as we can win the championship, we will be heroes of this city!
Understand? "

Before the start of the playoffs, Zheng Yang gave a team speech in the stadium. Larry Brown, the head coach who should have had the highest status on the team, stood obediently by the side and watched him give a high-spirited speech.

If you have a player who can help you solve all your problems, you just need to give him enough freedom, and you can enjoy all the honors he brings you. Why not do it?

Larry Brown understood this better than Avery Johnson.

While Zheng Yang was speaking, everyone else was listening to him attentively. Neither Eddy Curry nor Big F was willing to be distracted for even a moment.

Zheng Yang is not the tallest, the strongest, or the oldest here, but he is definitely the one with the most weight of words here.

He has strength and leadership qualities. He can help the team go from last to first. He can also help you be sought after by countless people and get more money. Who would not respect him?

It can be said that in the hearts of these players, what Zheng Yang says is more effective than what head coach Larry Brown says.

"I understand." Everyone responded in unison, and morale was extremely high!
At this moment, on the other side of the stadium, the team's general manager, Smiling Assassin, was sitting there chatting with the team's management.

Over the past year, the Smiling Assassin has been very successful and has received a lot of praise wherever he goes!
New York fans even worship him as a god. Whenever they see him, they will give him the loudest applause and cheers.

The reason is very simple, this guy brought a new king to their team, he deserves the applause!

"To be honest, it was not easy to make this deal with the Dallas Mavericks. As you all know, Zheng was already performing at an MVP level at that time.

Except for the Mavericks, every other team in the league wants him!
I have never made such a difficult deal in my life, but you know, we need him, we know he is the future of this city, so I kept negotiating with the Mavericks..."

The Smiling Assassin crossed his legs and began to brag again, describing the entire transaction process as full of ups and downs, like a novel.

Not to mention, with this guy's eloquence, if he runs out of money one day, it would be nice for him to become a storyteller. At least he won't starve to death!

The others didn't care whether it was true or not, they all listened with great interest!

……

The 06-07 season playoffs are about to begin, and the first enemy the Knicks will encounter is the Washington Wizards!

There's not much to say about the Wizards, with only Antawn Jamison being moderately acceptable.

After all, he is the only one among the starting five who has made the All-Star team.

But it's just barely acceptable, because this guy has only been an All-Star reserve once in the 04-05 season. He is the kind of player who has some skills, but not much.

There is not much to say about the game against the Wizards. The Knicks easily swept them 4-0, proving that their first place in the Eastern Conference was not a fluke.

Among them, Zheng Yang scored 43 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks, 3 steals and 1 turnover in the first game. He completely dominated the game both offensively and defensively.

He only played for 2 minutes in G32, and easily scored 19 points with 13 of 30 shots. After these two games, the Wizards were completely defeated and all their morale was gone.

Therefore, even after returning to their home court for the next two games, they still failed to stop the downward trend and were easily won by the Knicks 4:0 in the entire series.

While the No. 3 team in the Eastern Conference was sweeping its opponents, the No. 1 team in the Western Conference was forced into match point with a score of :.

Note that the 3 here is not the Mavericks, but the Golden State Warriors coached by Nelson Sr.

In Game 1, the "bearded" Baron Davis of the Golden State Warriors used a stat sheet of 33 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists to tell the world, Damn Mavericks, don't think you are safe!
We are the Golden State Gang!

On the other hand, Nowitzki made 16 of 4 shots and scored only 14 points. Although he had 12 rebounds, it was of no avail!
Of course, the Mavericks at this time have not realized the seriousness of the problem. Who are they?

They are the number one team in the league!

The loss of G1 was just a way for them to give their opponents a little face. When they put in their best effort, wouldn't this series be easily won?
They were so proud of having created the best record in team history in the regular season that they didn't even take a playoff loss to heart!
In Game 2, the Mavericks won the game 99:112. Jason Terry, Dennis, and Nowitzki all scored over 20 points. Everyone thought they were going to win the game!
But two consecutive away losses in G3 and G4 made the team fall from heaven to hell in an instant.

In Game 3, four Mavericks players scored in double digits, but the highest score was only 4 points.

On the other hand, the Golden State Warriors' starting five all scored in double digits, and Jason Richardson stood out, proving their tenacity with a 30-point and 8-rebound stat sheet.

They are the Golden State Gang. They are barefoot and not afraid of those wearing shoes. They may pull the arrogant Mavericks players down from their thrones at any time.

In Game 4, the panicked Mavericks lost the game again. Even though Nowitzki played 47 minutes and Dwyane Wade played 46 minutes, they still failed to win away from home.

因为主场作战的金州匪徒比他们还要勇猛，大胡子再次砍下33分8篮板4助攻，另外还有2个抢断1个盖帽。

And his hit rate was quite high, 17 of 12 shots, a hit rate of 70.6%.

He played better than Nowitzki on the opposite side, much better!
The Mavericks, who were suppressed to the brink of the cliff, returned to their home court. Before this series started, no one must have known that they would be pushed to this point!

In the imagination of Dallas fans, they should have defeated their opponents 4:0. Even if it was 4:1, they should have been that 4.

What they want to be is the champion, not the joke that is nailed on the shame list by being eliminated in the black eight.

The Mavericks know better than anyone what a shame it would be if they were eliminated from the first round!

All their previous pride and all their capital for showing off will instead turn into slaps in their faces over and over again.

They will never be able to wash away the stain on them!

In Game 5, the entire Mavericks team tried their best. They didn't want to be eliminated, and they didn't want to be swept 4:1.

They want to turn the tables, they want to prove themselves!
The excited Golden State Gang was quite willing to beat their opponents on the road, so they also tried their best.

In the first quarter, the Mavericks, who were in great form, scored 38 points and were 10 points ahead of their opponents. The excited Avery Johnson felt that the game was in his grasp.

But in the next two quarters, the Warriors kept chasing points. After three quarters, they were only 3 points behind their opponents.

The suspense still exists!

Both sides continued to go all out and the game went on until the very last minute. In the last 20 seconds of the game, the Mavericks narrowly won the game thanks to Nowitzki's 5 of 4 free throws.

They kept the suspense going!
But the suspense did not last long. In Game 6, the Warriors returned to their home court and eliminated their opponents in one go, winning by a huge margin of 25 points.

In this crucial battle, Nowitzki was overwhelmed, making only 13 of 2 shots and finally scoring only 8 points.

When the core of the team performed so poorly, the Mavericks had no chance of winning.

In the end, the Golden State Warriors, who were 24 wins behind in the regular season, relied on their bandit spirit and eliminated their opponent 4-2 under the leadership of Nelson Sr.

As a result, they became the third team in NBA history to create the black eight miracle!
Remember we said before that the team that helped the Golden State Warriors enter the playoffs was the Dallas Mavericks.

What does this sentence mean?

Because at the end of the season, the Warriors and the Clippers were competing for the last ticket to the Western Conference Finals, and the Mavericks still had a game left with the Warriors.

In order to make sure their opponent was the Warriors, the Mavericks deliberately rested their main players in this game, and ultimately they lost the game as they wished.

They helped the Warriors advance to the eighth place!
But the imagined soft persimmon was not so easy to pinch. They bit down the soft persimmon of the Warriors, but unexpectedly broke a mouthful of teeth!

Of course, this is not surprising, because the Mavericks lost all three regular season games against the Warriors.

But at that time, they were all immersed in the pride of making history, and no one smelled the danger!
And now, they paid the price for their arrogance!
(End of this chapter)