The Bulls were pushed to the brink of elimination by the Celtics, and disappointment permeated the entire team.
The strengths of a young team are obvious: they are fearless and dare to challenge any opponent.
The weaknesses of a young team are also very apparent: when facing adversity and do-or-die situations, they tend to fall into disarray and self-destruct.
Everyone wants to be the hero of the team, everyone wants to help the team reverse the current unfavorable situation... but often, under the interference of such thoughts, the team's rhythm is disrupted by individualistic play. The result is a situation where individual statistics soar, but the team's score is a mess...
In Game 5, playing at home, Luol Deng and Ben Gordon fell into this predicament.
Both of them wanted to be the King of Chicago, and they played as individuals, unable to form effective team cooperation. The result was that the Celtics took advantage, ending the series in five games with a 4-1 lead, continuing their underdog success and advancing!
Yao Ming was the most outstanding player among the Celtics' Big Three in this round, averaging 21 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3.5 blocks!
In another Eastern Conference matchup, the Nets failed to break through the Pistons' ironclad defense, losing 2-4.
In the Western Conference, the Warriors, who had successfully achieved a "black-eight" upset and were masters of chaotic play, found themselves unable to create chaos against the Jazz.
The Jazz have always been known for their tough defense and strict discipline. Under the tutelage of iron-willed coach Sloan, the combination of Deron and Boozer, the new Utah duo, was complete, and it was time for the Jazz to achieve results.
Teams that overemphasize speed and offense, with an imbalanced focus on power and defense, find it difficult to go far in the playoffs.
4-1, the Jazz defeated the dark horse Warriors without breaking a sweat, advancing to the Western Conference Finals first.
The other Western Conference Semifinal matchup was between the Spurs, who also adopted a balanced approach, and the Suns, who ran an up-tempo offensive style.
The Spurs came out with a flurry of punches. Duncan scored 33 points, 16 rebounds, and 3 blocks, while Parker had 32 points, 8 assists, and 3 steals. Ginobili didn't play much. The Suns' first home game was broken by the Spurs!
After realizing this, D'Antoni had Raja Bell switch and guard Parker, which managed to salvage a game.
Back in San Antonio, the Suns continued to focus their defense on Parker. Since Duncan couldn't guard him, and Ginobili had been somewhat subdued in the first two games, scoring 8 points in one and 6 points in the other, he seemed harmless, right?
However, it was this seemingly harmless Ginobili who, upon returning to his home court, unleashed a performance of 24 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block, directly taking down the Suns.
In Game 4, the Suns, having learned from their mistakes, dared not underestimate Ginobili again and decided to increase their defensive pressure on the "demon blade." However, the Suns were not good at defense. If they could contain Ginobili, they couldn't contain Parker!
In this game, Parker had an all-around performance of 23 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals.
Fortunately, after scoring 30+ points in three consecutive games, Duncan showed signs of fatigue in this game, only managing 21 points and 11 rebounds with 3 blocks. The Suns, relying on their offensive firepower, narrowly defeated the Spurs, successfully tying the series at 2-2.
In the crucial Game 5, the "King of the Mountain" game, the Suns were dragged into a defensive struggle by the Spurs.
Popovich had the starting lineup focus entirely on slowing down the pace and grinding out possessions.
To achieve this, the Spurs were willing to sacrifice their own offense. Parker's scoring in this game dropped to his lowest single-game total of the playoffs so far: 11 points.
At the same time, Popovich gave Ginobili free rein, especially during the rotation, handing over all authority to Ginobili!
Ginobili then went on a scoring spree, leading all players with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block!
Through this extreme strategy, Popovich successfully disrupted the Suns' offensive and defensive rhythm, limiting the Suns, who averaged 110.2 points per game in the regular season, to just 85 points in this game!
In such an inefficient defensive game, how could the Suns possibly win?
In Game 6, at the Spurs' home court, D'Antoni issued a strict order to the entire Suns team: "We must run!"
The entire Suns team understood their current predicament: if they couldn't run, they would lose. No one wanted to lose, so the Suns exerted all their effort to raise the pace of the game to their preferred fast-paced style...
The result? The Spurs also sped up!
Popovich anticipated that the desperate Suns would go all out in this game. Therefore, instead of solely focusing on defense, he went with the flow and engaged the Suns in an offensive shootout...
Who said the Spurs only played defense?
When it came to offensive games, the Spurs were equally formidable!
Especially with Parker and Ginobili playing in tandem.
Parker scored 30 points, 6 assists, and 2 rebounds, while Ginobili was even more dominant, scoring 33 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals!
Chaos, the demon blade's favorite!
And so, the Suns died in their most favored offensive game, unhappily...
This season, Popovich, while lamenting the team's poor form and obvious weaknesses, steadily advanced to the top four of the playoffs, easily defeating the Nuggets and beating the Suns!
In the Western Conference Finals, the Spurs' opponent was the reborn Jazz!
Before the series began, Popovich remarked to the media: "Coach Sloan has brought another Jazz team to peak form! This is a formidable and intimidating iron army..."
The result? The Spurs swept them 4-1, easily eliminating this formidable and intimidating iron army from the Finals stage.
While this Jazz team was brave, they were ultimately too young!
The Jazz couldn't contain any of Duncan, Parker, or Ginobili.
Perhaps, the Jazz wanted to contain them all, preventing any single player from exploding.
The result was that Duncan averaged 21.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks, Parker averaged 20.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 6.8 assists, and Ginobili averaged 17.6 points, 4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.4 steals!
With the GDP trio all online, they combined for an average of 60 points per game!
Both teams had a tradition of tough defense and habitually kept their single-game scores around 90 points. 60 points from three players was not insignificant...
However, Coach Sloan was not too disappointed after the loss.
After all, the team's core, Deron, was only in his second year! Sloan firmly believed that he had plenty of time to coach Deron and this new Jazz team, until he could lead them to fulfill the dream that the previous generation of Jazz players couldn't: a championship...