noveldrama
Chapter 927 927 556 Seize the Time_3
Chapter 927 927 556 Seize the Time_3
?Chapter 927: Chapter 556: Seize the Time_3 Chapter 927: Chapter 556: Seize the Time_3 “`
And the most important award of the regular season finally broke away from the competition between Yu Fei and Kobe.
Due to voter fatigue, those with voting rights decided to cast their votes for a new MVP.
Wade, who led his team to the best record in the League this season, became the big winner.
Prior to this, he had already been selected to the All-NBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team, and had become the regular season steals leader. Now, having won the MVP and led his team to the Eastern Conference Finals, it could be said he was the leading man of the season so far.
Due to Yu Fei’s influence, James’s “Decision” occurred ahead of time, and the Miami Heat’s Big Three never came into existence in this world. However, this allowed Wade to find himself in even better circumstances.
He no longer needed to step back and let someone else lead, nor did he need to gain weight to match up against the other team’s key player. He just had to continue being the core of the Miami Heat, and then he was joined by star teammates like Love, Curry, and Yao Ming.
Before the summer of 2013, the Heat had one more season of opportunity, and they swore to achieve success before their salary cap exploded.
Yu Fei was looking forward to facing off against Yao Ming in the Finals, but before that, both he and Yao Ming had formidable opponents to deal with.
After six grueling games, the Spurs eliminated the Mavericks to advance to the Western Conference Finals.
Yu Fei and Duncan knew each other very well.
Yu Fei’s first championship had come from defeating the Spurs.
That was also Duncan’s peak year.
At the same time, Duncan was lucky to have seized the opportunity when the Bucks were significantly weakened by the Palace of Auburn Hills brawl and failed to break through the Eastern Conference, making him the only person on Yu Fei’s path to the GOAT title to have been a winner.
Over the years, Yu Fei had more wins than losses against Duncan, and this was even more the case after transferring to Seattle.
This year was the first time since Yu Fei’s arrival in the West that Duncan’s team had the strength to compete with him.
This was thanks to the addition of Pau Gasol and the superstar rookie Paul George. On the surface, the Spurs were a perfect mix of veterans and youth, competitive in the present yet with a future.
But the SuperSonics were pragmatic; they were a team built to win now.
No one knew what the team would become after the season was over.
Giving their all for the victory at hand was their belief.
Was this the end of a long-standing rivalry?
“It won’t end,” Duncan announced before the series began. “Whoever continues on, we’ll keep playing. So this won’t be our last time meeting at this level of competition.”
He was right.
But the SuperSonics valued every moment in the here and now even more.
Internally, they had two understandings.
Chris Bosh would leave the team after the season ended, and Kevin Durant, who had yet to apologize for the little recorder incident, was very likely to request a trade.
The rift was that big, but now they shared a common desire: to go down in history as part of a modern dynasty that won four consecutive championships.
This could be the most glorious moment of their careers.
This period of time was to be measured in seconds, with every second worth remembering.
The Spurs lost the first game of the Western Finals, and then the second. Their problems finally became apparent against their biggest division rivals—Paul George and Kemba Walker were too young and inexperienced. They might bring some surprises, but relying on them too much would reveal their rookie flaws.
Without the rookie magic, the Spurs’ core competitiveness lay in Duncan, Ginobili, and Pau Gasol.
In the end, these three aging veterans weren’t enough to compete with prime Yu Fei, Roy, and Durant.
The SuperSonics secured two home victories in a row.
The battlefield shifted to San Antonio.
The Spurs finally showed their home-court strength.
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Popovich is a great coach, having designed the Twin Towers for Duncan and Robinson in his early years, and later on, as Duncan aged, he actively transitioned the team from one heavily reliant on interior offense and set-piece play to a dynamic offensive team that, like the wind, could play high-post pass-and-cut basketball to perfection.
The Spurs’ pass-and-cut was beautiful, and once they got it going, it was bound to leave the opponent unable to cope at both ends.
It was with this beautiful pass-and-cut that the Spurs handed the SuperSonics their first defeat in the playoffs.
However, compared to space basketball, the pass-and-cut is still a tactic that seems “slightly outdated.”
This is determined by the era and the simplification of small-ball tactics.
The space basketball of today, either features a big core driving with four shooters or has five players spread out to constantly attack the opponent’s weaknesses with endless pick-and-rolls. The endless pass-and-cut of the Spurs that tests both their own and their opponents’ basketball IQ may look good, but in the end, it seems redundant and sluggish.
Therefore, when the SuperSonics broke the pass-and-cut with endless switching in Game 4, forcing the Spurs to rely on isolation to win, the San Antonians were pushed into a corner.
Duncan scored 18 points in half a game, Ginobili looked like Jordan for 15 minutes, and then there was nothing more.
Big Jah’s one-on-one playing appeared weak, rookies like George couldn’t step up, but on the SuperSonics’ side, starting with Fei, Durant, and Roy, one after another, they stepped up with their personal abilities to plunge the Spurs into despair.
No one understood the feeling of hope being shredded better than those present in Saint City.
The Seattleites lit a great fire in their home court, turning the San Antonians’ dream of revival to ash.
1 to 3.
“We will not give up,” Duncan said, quoting Fei’s famous words on this desperate night, “because we do not know if there is still enough time.”
But the SuperSonics really did not give them any more chances.
Because Fei and Durant were very clear that this season would be the last peak of their sole empire.
If they wanted to do something, it had to be now.
So, Fei and Durant reminded the Spurs of the terror they once felt under the rule of the OK combo.
In terms of offense alone, Fei and Durant tonight might have been even more ferocious than the OK combo.
On the night they topped the Western Conference, Fei had 46 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists. Durant was no less impressive, scoring 44 points with just mid- and long-range shots, along with 5 rebounds, 5 assists. The two combined for 90 points, 16 rebounds, 12 assists, concluding the Spurs’ most hopeful year since 2005 with the most primitive methods, the most explosive performance, and the most soul-stirring display of dominance.
Duncan said he didn’t know if there was enough time, and that was the truth.
Nowitzki lost to Fei’s Bucks in the Finals when he thought he was still young, that there was enough time, yet after lifting the FMVP, Fei mockingly pressed close and asked, “Is there still enough time?”
That was a thought-provoking rhetorical question.
The older Duncan got, the deeper he felt it.
He is still competitive this year, but what about next year?
Sooner or later, he would become a useless old man.
If 30 is the beginning of the end for an athlete, then Duncan had already walked a good part of that road.
He could even see his own end.
Not far now.
In the competition between victory and defeat, joy and sorrow are never interconnected.
After winning the division championship for the eighth time in his career, Fei no longer considered it an honor.
When an ESPN reporter asked him, “How did you recover from the brink of collapse?”
Wearing the division champion’s cap, Fei looked at his teammates with a smile.
Like a retired veteran, filled with infinite desire and nostalgia for this time that’s both quick and slow, both long and short, the most ordinary and the most special.
“We just want to seize the time.”