Chapter 801: Chapter 273: Miami People, Cherish This—It’s the Heat’s Big Three’s Last Dance!
In Su Wan’s view, this Philadelphia 76ers team is a bit unlucky.
Because originally they completed the "Black Eight Miracle" this season, although this miracle was caused by Derrick Rose’s injury, years later, who cares whether Derrick Rose was injured or not, anyway, in the playoff history of the Philadelphia 76ers, there is such a "glorious moment".
Of course, from the perspective of later generations, this "Black Eight" indeed cost the Philadelphia 76ers a lot of fate.
They went through all sorts of insane tanking, until they finally picked "Great Emperor" Embiid, which began their rebuilding path.
During this time, for at least five or six years, they had high draft picks year after year, but every year they failed to pick a cornerstone. Isn’t this the fault of fate loss, what else could it be?
This season, from the paper, the Philadelphia 76ers’ lineup actually looks quite luxurious:
"Point Guard is Zhu Holiday, two is Lou Williams, small forward is Iguodala, power forward is Thaddeus Young, five is Elton Brand;"
If this lineup was all at their peak, it would at least be a team at the finals level in the West and East.
Even now, there isn’t much of a problem, the biggest problem is...
Lacking a "Boss"!
Put it this way, if Su Wan joined this team, then the Philadelphia 76ers would take off immediately.
They have defense, they have the "Sixth Man", maybe just the inside is a bit lacking. But the Philadelphia 76ers have Spencer Hawes and this year’s rookie Vucevic on the bench...
If we let the inside grow for two years, using the grown-up Vucevic to replace Brand.
Su Wan feels there shouldn’t be a big problem taking a "Dynasty", provided they don’t meet the "Cosmic Warriors".
Of course, with Iguodala in this lineup, Warriors can’t form the "Cosmic Warriors".
However, this problem sounds simple, just lacking Su Wan, but actually...
How many teams in this league don’t lack a cornerstone like Su Wan?
Everyone wants Su Wan!
The game officially started quickly.
Tonight, the Philadelphia 76ers are in good shape, relying on Zhu Holiday and Iguodala’s "outside chain", the Knicks’ three-point shots were slow to open, D’Antoni called a timeout to adjust, but the effect was still unsatisfactory.
Fortunately, when the east side isn’t shining, the west side is shining, the Knicks’ outside wasn’t opened, but Su Wan and Dior made breakthroughs to the basket, plus assists to Tyson Chandler for his rampage under the basket, still made the Knicks’ score keep rising.
Brand, as a ’99 No.1 Pick, isn’t very old, now just 33, as an inside player, he’s at the tail end of his peak. But due to injury issues, he is now just a purely second-rate inside, completely outperformed by Tyson Chandler’s mobility.
He can’t keep up with Tyson Chandler’s steps, and Thaddeus Young, who is of the same type as Chandler, is two sizes smaller than Chandler. Even if he can keep up with Chandler’s movements, in terms of static talent, he’s eaten up by Chandler.
This isn’t the worst...
What truly widened the gap between the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks is that person:
Su Wan!
When the New York Knicks pulled the gap to 9 points, Iguodala broke through for a layup, passed to the better-positioned Brand, the "Old Captain" couldn’t finish the shot. Su Wan grabbed the rebound, turned his head for a three-point shot, pulling the gap to 12 points.
After that, the New York Knicks extended the gap to 15 points, both sides raised the defensive intensity to the max, exchanged a few rounds of iron, the Knicks saw it wasn’t working, and gave the ball to Su Wan.
Su Wan mismatched against Holiday, crushed him to complete a near basket jump shot, expanding the gap to 18 points.
The game thus completely lost suspense.
And if Brand had made that previous shot, the gap would’ve been only 7 points, because Su Wan wouldn’t have had the fast-break counter opportunity, not necessarily hitting the "chasing three points"; later Su Wan went single against Howard to make a basket, if someone from the Philadelphia 76ers could step up, then the game suspense could still be maintained for a while.
Bill Walton summarized this game: "This is a game that vividly showcases the role of a superstar in the playoffs. Why do we need superstars? Watching this game, you’ll find the answer!"
The next three games almost replayed the first game of the series.
The Philadelphia 76ers, several times at key moments, needed someone to step up, but no one could, watching helplessly as the New York Knicks widened the gap, accumulated more victory momentum, and gradually locked in the victory.
Finally, with a big score of 4-0, just like the experts predicted, the New York Knicks swept the Philadelphia 76ers, not giving them a single chance.
This was their correctly predicted matchup.
But not all of their match predictions were correct...
Take for example the Heat Team versus Celtics matchup, in their view, the Heat Team’s group of young and strong players were all at their peak, whereas the Celtics were a bunch of "old gun" sliding from their peak, they should’ve taken it easily, but the result was, after the 3 games already played, their big score was 2 to 1.
The Celtics won a game.
And after they found a way to win, in the next home game, they won again.
Tied the big score at 2 to 2.