Chapter 128 The Youngest MVP in NBA History
It was clearly expected that the Heat would be swept 4:1, but when it actually happened, everyone still felt a little unbelievable!

That was last year's championship. Their regular season record was not good because their two main players missed the team's games for most of the season, but now they are playing in the playoffs.

Their lineup hasn't changed much compared to last year!

But they lost to the Knicks, and were swept 4:1.

It turns out that the bottom-ranked team last season has become so strong now. Are they really going to win the championship?

The slogan that Zheng Yang shouted before the start of the season was treated as a joke at first, but now they are really getting closer and closer to the championship. They are only two steps away from winning the championship.

The young man named Zheng showed with his actions that the reason the Mavericks won the championship that year was not because of anyone else, but because of him.

In this series against the Heat, Zheng Yang averaged 30.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game, and his true shooting percentage was 61.5%, which is terrifying!
On May 2007, 5, the league announced this year's regular season MVP candidate, and there was no doubt that it was Zheng Yang.

At this point, Zheng Yang became the youngest MVP in NBA history. He is only 21 years old. Even Rose, who came later, was 22 years old when he won the MVP.

It seems that it will take a long time for his record to be broken.

It is also worth mentioning that Zheng Yang is also the youngest FMVP in NBA history. Originally, the youngest FMVP in history was Magic Johnson, but he was already 20 years old when he won the FMVP in his rookie season.

But Zheng Yang was only 19 years old when he won the FMVP in the second season of his career. In other words, Zheng is currently the youngest winner of MVP and FMVP in NBA history.

When the news of Zheng Yang's election as MVP came out, the first thing people discussed was not Nowitzki's failure to be elected, but the bet between Zheng Yang and Michael Jordan.

The basketball god Michael once again proved with his strength that if he didn't play basketball and made a living by gambling, he would have starved to death on the streets long ago.

Sitting at home and watching the media focus on Zheng Yang and Jordan, Nowitzki felt inexplicably relieved for some reason.

If anyone is still discussing why Nowitzki didn't become MVP, he would be ashamed of himself.

Now people outside describe him as a "soft egg", and he is full of anger, but he doesn't know how to refute it, because he has never successfully proved himself, whether before Zheng Yang came or after Zheng Yang left.

We didn't win a championship before you came, and we didn't win a championship after you left!
Zheng Yang formula, perfect closed loop!
……

Since the Knicks only lost one game in the two series, they are the first team in the league to advance to the conference finals.

They have plenty of time to recover and study their opponents.

Of course, their opponents have not yet appeared. The winner between the Cavaliers and the Pistons will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals and become their opponents.

Originally, these two teams were supposed to meet in the Eastern Conference Finals, but now with the presence of Zheng Yang, they met in the Eastern Conference semifinals in advance.

The two teams are currently playing in full swing. They have each won two games at their home court, which means that the total score is now 2:2!
In the original history, the Cavaliers would win Games 5 and 6 and advance to the Finals.

Many people should know that Duncan once said to James, "The future is yours", but the source of this sentence is not very clear. In fact, this sentence was said by Duncan to James who entered the finals for the first time in the 07 finals.

In 07, in the fourth year of his career, James made it to the finals. Although he had a shaved head, he did make it to the finals.

In 07, Kobe sought a trade. At that time, the Lakers management proposed to swap Kobe with James, but the deal was ultimately rejected by the Cavaliers.

why?
This is because James has already led his team to the finals and proved his ability to lead a team, while Kobe at that time had not yet proved himself in the playoffs.

After the OK combination disbanded, he never made it past the first round!

However, after you see the Cavaliers' roster at this time, you will begin to wonder why the Cavaliers, who appear to be so weak on paper, can actually make it to the finals?

Their starting lineup is James, Drew Gooden, Alexander Pavlovic, Larry Hughes, and Zadjunas Ilgauskas.

Apart from James, Ilgauskas is the only one who has been selected to the All-Star Game twice.

At that time, they first swept the Wizards 4-0 in the first round of the Eastern Conference, and then defeated the Nets with the Three Musketeers and the Pistons' Big Five, and finally entered the finals.

Although the East is weak and the West is strong at the moment, the fact that this team can break out from the Eastern Conference powerhouses is enough to prove that it is indeed the best team in the Eastern Conference this season.

So why is this Cavaliers team playing so well?
There are three reasons. The first reason is that head coach Mike Brown temporarily changed his strategy and did the opposite.

While other teams reduced their rotations after entering the playoffs, he expanded his team's rotation.
Under normal circumstances, the playoffs usually involve a rotation of eight core players, but some teams may have only seven players under special circumstances.

But that year, the Cavaliers had a total of ten players who played more than double-digit games in the playoffs, and the lowest average playing time was 10.7 minutes.

In other words, this team had multiple players actively participating in multiple rounds of offense and defense.

Why would Mike Brown do this?

First, let’s talk about Mike Brown!
Who is Mike Brown?

A coach who is very good at coaching the team's defense!

This guy really has a way to coach the team's defense. In the 21-22 season, the year the Warriors won the championship, Mike Brown was serving as an assistant coach for the Warriors. At that time, the Warriors' defensive efficiency was second in the league, second only to their finals opponent, the Celtics.

In the following season, after Mike Brown left the Warriors, the Warriors' defensive efficiency ranked 20th in the league.

The gap between the two is huge!

As for the reason why Mike Brown increased the team's rotation players, it was because at this time the Cavaliers, except for James on the front line, had little advantage in other positions no matter which team they met.

Increasing the number of rotation players and adopting a "round-robin" approach can ensure that the players on the field have enough combat power and physical strength to engage in fierce battles with their opponents.

It was precisely because of this bold idea that the Cavaliers team was able to finally make it to the finals as they wished.

The second reason is the Cavaliers' defense!

Under the coaching of defensive master Mike Brown, throughout the entire Eastern Conference game, the Cavaliers' defense is extremely strong!
The Cavaliers limited their opponents to less than 16 points in 100 of their 14 games. It was surprising that the Nets did not score more than 100 points in any game against the Nets, who had a fierce offensive firepower. The Cavaliers' excellent defense is also closely related to the first reason mentioned above. It is precisely because of their sufficient physical strength that these players can constantly limit their opponents on the court.

Sufficient physical strength may not necessarily make the team's offense stronger, but the impact on defense is definitely immediate.

As for the third reason, it is James' outstanding performance.

Although James performed extremely poorly in the finals, averaging 22 points, 7 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game, his shooting percentage was 35.6% and his three-point shooting percentage was only 20%, but he averaged 5.8 turnovers per game, 2.8 more than Parker, who came in second.

But his performance in the first three rounds was indeed very good, which was also the key factor why this Cavaliers team was able to advance to the finals.

Of course, these are things that happened in the original history. If the Cavaliers want to advance to the finals this year, they must first overcome the huge mountain of the Knicks.

In the fifth game against the Pistons, James played well and completed a near-game-winning shot in the last 2.2 seconds, helping the team win the decisive battle.

本场比赛他33中18，狂砍48分9篮板7助攻。

而在G6中，詹姆斯手感冰凉，11中3，但罚球19中14，最终拿下20+14+8的准三双数据。

同时替补席上的吉布森补上了火力，9投7中，三分5中5，罚球15中12砍下31分6篮板，帮助球队取得了胜利。

At this point, the Cavaliers successfully won this series and met the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.

James avenged his 4:3 elimination by the Pistons last season and reached the conference finals for the first time. The first trip to the finals in team history is just around the corner.

But James knows that it is not that easy to defeat the Knicks.

Of course, winning against the Pistons did boost his confidence, and he remains optimistic about the upcoming Eastern Conference Finals.

At the same time, deep down in his heart, he was eager to prove himself in this Eastern Conference Finals. He wanted to prove that he was better than that yellow guy. He was tired of that guy always suppressing him.

The best player of the 03 class and the future face of the NBA can only be LeBron James!
……

"Ladies and gentlemen! The first game of the 06-07 NBA Eastern Conference Finals will be held at Madison Square Garden on May 5st. The two teams are the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The core players of these two teams are the best among the 03 players. Among them, Zheng has performed the best. He has already won the NBA championship and is the youngest MVP and FMVP player in NBA history. He has won the scoring title twice and is currently the youngest scoring champion in NBA history.

This season, he led the Knicks, who were at the bottom of the league last season, to first place in the Eastern Conference, and helped the team return to the Eastern Conference Finals.

His story is still being written!

The Cavaliers' core player LeBron James also took one step at a time and led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals. It should be noted that the Cavaliers' history in the Finals is blank.

In other words, as long as he can lead this team to the NBA Finals, he can write a new historical story.

There is no doubt that this series between the two teams will be as intense as a collision between Mars and the Earth.

Will Zheng create another miracle and lead the team directly to the finals, showing his MVP strength, or will LeBron re-prove the value of his No. 1 pick, go against the current and win the championship?
Stay tuned for this series! ”

"The Knicks' advance to the Eastern Conference Finals was beyond many people's expectations, but the Cavaliers' success in defeating the Bulls and the Pistons was also beyond many people's expectations.

Especially the Pistons, they just eliminated the Cavaliers last season. Although they lost Ben Wallace this season, they also recruited Chris Webber!

So the outcome of this series is really hard to predict.

According to ESPN's prediction, the Knicks' chances of advancing are 62.7%, but the chances of going to the sixth or seventh game are 88.9%. It is basically impossible to decide the winner within five games.

Major basketball stars and media outlets also published their predictions for this series. Among them, Michael Jordan believed that the Cavaliers would win this series, but he did not give a specific reason. Many media outlets believed that Michael's remarks were due to his previous grievances with Zheng.

In a previous bet, Michael lost 100,000 US dollars to Zheng. After receiving the bet, Zheng stated in front of the media that even if Michael did not lose the money to him, he would eventually lose it in the casino.

The feud between the two has been going on for a long time, so it is normal for Michael not to support Zheng. "

Barkley also expressed his views when he mentioned this issue on the show.

"Michael? Haha, I admit that he is unmatched in basketball, and I admire him very much.

But I have never been optimistic about his vision.

Will the Cavaliers win this game?

No, it won’t. No matter how big the unexpected events are in this series, as long as Zheng does not miss the game due to injury, the Knicks will be the only ones who win the game in the end.

Is the Cavaliers' offense sharp enough? Is the Cavaliers' defense solid enough? Is the Cavaliers' coordination good enough?

They have indeed improved a lot from last season, but they still haven't reached the strength level of a championship team. If it weren't for the Knicks, perhaps they could have made it to the finals.

But I'm sorry, there are no ifs in this world.

The Knicks are a better team than them and they’re going to get to the Finals and chase that championship trophy.”

Barkley is still his usual "Zheng fan". Of course, Zheng Yang's performance is indeed worthy of his praise.

If it were before, Barkley might have deliberately gone against everyone and deliberately not supported Zheng Yang in order to stand out.

But as Zheng Yang continues to grow this season, his strength has improved again, and Barkley will no longer have any other ideas.

Zheng Yang is the only person he supports. No matter what the circumstances are, no matter who he is compared with, Barkley will not choose anyone else.

Zheng Yang is his only true love!
(End of this chapter)