Original title: The District Finals are quick to launch
Lv Hang, reporter of Yangcheng Evening News
On May 20, Beijing time, with the completion of the two "seven grabs" in the division semi-finals, the top four teams of the NBA 2023-2024 season finally came out: in the Eastern finals, Boston Celtics, who have the best record in the league this season, will face the young Indiana Pacers; The Dallas Lone Ranger will play the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals.
In the two group matches, Celtic has undoubtedly been a frequent visitor to the regional finals in recent years (six times in the eastern finals in recent 10 years). The lone ranger has also reached the western finals twice in recent three years. Although the other two teams have no experience in the regional finals in recent years, they still have the ability to use their opponents' worries to create threats. It remains to be seen whether the old and powerful "green shirts" continue to march towards the 18th championship or whether the young teams will meet in the finals.
Lone Ranger vs Wolverine: It's not just superstars talking directly
Twenty years later, the Timberwolves entered the Western Conference finals again. Twenty years ago, on May 20 of the same year, Kevin Garnett, the "Wolf King" at that time, led the Timberwolves to reach the Western Conference finals for the first time in history, and finally lost six games against the "F4" Lakers.
What is different from that in the past is that the new "Wolf King" Edwards is not alone. He is surrounded by four DPOY (the best defensive player in the regular season) Goebbels, the all-around forward Downes with excellent projection, the old and tough guard Mike Conley, and the tall and long armed forward defender Mike Daniels, On the bench are Lee Kyle, who is well organized and defensively organized, and Naz Reid, an excellent interior player who can run and jump.
Of course, the lone ranger's lineup is not the Lakers' "F4", which was forced to mix in those years. Compared with the latter, this lone ranger has two rhythm masters, Doncic and Owen, and a stagger. The comprehensive strength of other role players is not inferior to that of the Timberwolves. The team's interior combination, Leffley II and Garford, is famous for their athletic ability, Forward PJ Washington and swingman Hardaway play a stable firepower point outside of the "Eastern European Group". After Dongqi's state has been on the right track, this team has the strength to impact the finals.
Compared with the direct dialogue between Edwards and Doncic, the focus of this group of matches is mainly the strategic and tactical application of the two teams. However, in view of the slow pace of the games of both sides, the enjoyment of this group of matches may not be very good: The lone ranger needs to seize the shortcomings of Goebel's slow movement in positional warfare, and use Doncic and Owen to take turns to fight outside the three-point line, And seize the time period when Gobel was forced to leave the court to try to fight for control of the rebounds in the front court; The Timberwolves need to adjust their lineup to do a good job of defense rotation, and try to ensure the playing time of the "Twin Towers". At the same time, they need to do a good job in Plan B - that is, whether the second leader, Downes, can take advantage of the technical advantages to carry the team's offensive flag after Edwards is encountering the opponent's attack line group.
However, judging from the process of the Western Conference semi-final, although the Timberwolves were excellent in defense, they were always stumbling on the offensive side. Although they achieved an epic reversal of 20 points in the "seven grabs" with Denver, the team's attack problem in the first half when "two towers" were present at the same time was very prominent. Another hidden worry of the Timberwolves is experience. Although Edwards emerged as a new force this season and really entered the discussion range of the first player in the league, his style of play depends too much on his athletic ability. The problem of making poor shooting choices in adversity cannot be completely corrected in just one year. Although the second leader, Downes, has excellent skills, However, judging from his previous performance of leading the team alone, he was also difficult to show an unusually stable and efficient offensive performance in adversity due to his lack of lower limb strength.
In general, although the lineup of the Lone Ranger was built through mid season trade, months of running in has made the team form a chemical reaction. Except for the state and temper of Dongqi, the Lone Ranger has almost no obvious weaknesses. Facing the young Timberwolves, the Lone Ranger is expected to completely control the trend of the series, and it is expected to solve the battle within six games.
Pacers vs Celts: Asymmetrical Battle of Experience and Impulse
In terms of experience and strength, there is a big difference in the eastern group of matches: first, in terms of lineup strength, the "green shirts" double explorers (Tatum and Jay Brown) have become excellent team cornerstones in the playoffs in recent years. Hollady and White are the strongest backcourt combination in the league in terms of defense ability. Old explorers Hoford still has some heat, The main lineup has generated enough chemical reaction. With this lineup, the "green shirts" can quietly play a proud regular season record of 64 wins and 18 losses, and easily pass the first two rounds of the playoffs.
But the Celtics are not without worries. The first is the injury of the interior pillar Boer Zinnis. He suffered calf injury in the first round of the playoffs and has been injured so far. It is reported that he will continue to miss the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals. Without Boerzingis, the team will face a severe test at both ends of the attack and defense in the eastern finals - this 7-foot man is an extremely important space fulcrum, endpoint and important rebounder and basket guard at the defense end in the "green shirts" array, whether it is the old Hoford or the substitute inside Cornett, In fact, it can not replace the role of Polzingis on the court. Secondly, the injury of Boerzingis made the rotation of Celtics' already nervous players even worse - in important games, Celtics actually only had 7 players to rotate, and now only 6 are left.
If we turn our attention to the coaching style of the coach, we can see that although the coach Mazula has got rid of the title of "rookie" this season, there is no major innovation in the team's tactical style. In the playoffs, the Celtics actually still rely on a large number of three-point shots and various singles tactics to reach the eastern finals. Considering that the Heat's lineup is seriously incomplete and the Cavaliers' locker room conflicts are quite serious, it doesn't mean much to eliminate these two opponents to enter the Eastern Conference finals. If we consider the unstable performance of the Celtic star Tatum who suffered serious interference and easy "crotch pulling", the green shirts will encounter the most difficult blocking battle in the eastern final.
On the other hand, the Pacers, although this young team lacks star flavor, and only Halliburton and Sikayam have the all-star level in the array, their rotation lineup is the best in the league, including basket guard Turner, backcourt ripper TJ McConnell, and forward defenders Tuoping, Nembuhad and Nesmith. Since the playoffs, the Pacers have ranked first in the league in terms of average points per game, average assists per game, shooting percentage, three-point shooting percentage, offensive efficiency, and assists per game.
For the Celtics, the focus of the team in this group of matches is undoubtedly to use the backcourt defense combination of White and Holliday to consume the Pacers' leading star Halliburton in turn. At the same time, it is necessary to be careful that the opposite side finds the second ball holding point to continue to attack. However, the Pacers' coach Carlyle is not easy to match, and he will probably master the rhythm of the game by speeding up. In any case, without Boerzingis's "green shirts", it is impossible to solve the opponent in five games. The Pacers may directly overthrow the top seed of the league through seven wars and reach the finals.
