Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA-Chapter 637 - 218: Wild East, Consecutive MVPs! (Only 1 update today due to Ah Qiao’s birthday)_2
The Knicks smoothly advanced to the next round.
In contrast, the other three teams in the Eastern Conference's upper half had significantly more challenging paths to progression this year.
The Heat and the Magic battled through seven games, only narrowly winning thanks to the alternating explosions of the Gua Wei Brothers in the seventh game showdown.
Frankly speaking, the "Magical Beast" Howard performed outstandingly in this series. On the defensive end, it was his presence that greatly diminished Wade's breakthrough power on the court.
However, due to the impression left by his various baby behavior last season...
After the Magic's first-round exit, the Orlando media not only failed to praise Howard but even regarded him as the top culprit for the Magic's elimination in the eyes of Magic fans and the Orlando media.
Undoubtedly, this is an unfair assessment.
Because if only "Martial Saint" Jackson and "Grand General" Arenas had utilized the double team attracted by Howard on the court to make a few more open shots and missed a few less...
Then the Magic would have had a great chance to upset in this series, overturning the Heat, who just finished another round of intense training before the start of the playoffs' first round.
Unfortunately, prejudice in the hearts of people is like a mountain.
And due to his baby behavior last season, Howard happens to be the tallest mountain in the hearts of Magic fans.
"I don't know what I have to do to satisfy them."
Howard said after losing the game seven battle: "If in their eyes, only my departure can make this team better, then I think I will seriously consider whether I need to leave Orlando."
Normally, when the star player of a team makes such statements, both the team's management and fans should cooperate with the local media to appease them.
However...
Regarding Howard's petulant remarks, The Orlando Sentinel said: "Dwight wants to leave? That's great; now we can finally use him to trade for a real superstar."
With the joint targeting from the fans, management, and local media, it is foreseeable that Howard's departure from the Magic is only a matter of time.
On the other hand, the Bulls, who also went through a game seven battle, were eliminated by the Bobcats.
The Bobcats, who performed a Black Eight miracle last year in the playoffs, showed clearly superior performance over the young Bulls in key rounds of this battle.
Of course, the Bulls' loss to the Bobcats in this round of playoffs, Tom Thibodeau is absolutely at fault.
Due to over-exerting the main players' stamina during the regular season, the Bulls led by Thibodeau could only be described as underwhelming in the last two games.
As for this year's other Eastern team that got upset...
In the first round of the playoffs, facing the Pacers, who once double-killed the Warriors in the regular season, the Celtics, who had advanced to the Finals for the past three years, were finally out with a 2-4 score.
In this series, the Pacers' two young forwards, Granger and George, suppressed "Jet Fighter" Pierce on the court with a fearless momentum of newborn calves.
And "Gao Yuanyuan" Hibert and Boozer jointly held up the Pacers' interior.
Last summer, the choice of going back to his roots by Little O'Neal became the X-factor in the team.
Plus this season, with Lowry, who has gradually developed a star guard aura, shining brightly.
When after many years of reconstruction, Larry Bird reassembled a highly competitive lineup for the Pacers, and with his hometown team flattened the Celtics crafted by his old rival Angie...
According to Qin Yue's old teammate Chris Mullin, Bird sent him a party invitation on the night the Pacers advanced.
"Larry has already prepared the best wine waiting for me to join," Mullin laughed, "This victory over the Celtics could be the happiest thing for him in recent years."
In the NBA, where people's sorrows and joys are not interconnected, some are happy, while others are worried.
Although after the Celtics were eliminated by the Pacers, Angie stated in an interview that the Celtics' exit was just an accident.
But regardless of how hard Angie pretends...
As early as when he cold-bloodedly chose to trade Carter midway through the season, the morale of this Green Army had already been irreversibly impacted.
Moreover, no matter how lamentable the Celtics' elimination is...
In the eyes of the bystander Qin Yue, he must salute the exciting games that these potential competitors for the Warriors contributed in the first round of the playoffs.
The wild East does live up to its name!
In contrast, to the West....
Except for the Lakers dragged into a tough battle by the Grizzlies, both the Mavericks and the Supersonic effortlessly resolved their playoff first-round opponents.
On May 1st, the day before the Eastern and Western Conference playoff semifinals began, the NBA officially announced all the awards for the 10/11 regular season.
Qin Yue was named the Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive year, and for the fourth time in his career.
Despite the Warriors' significantly declining regular-season performance this season, Qin Yue, who created the myth of scoring 101 points in a single game on Christmas, still garnered the favor of the majority of the judges during the voting process.
"A great season, a great MVP, at this moment, no words are needed!" — ESPN headline
The Warriors held a grand award ceremony for Qin Yue on the day the award results were announced.
"Being named MVP again, I think this already fully proves how excellent I am," Qin Yue laughed during the award ceremony, "But at this moment, I still want to dedicate this trophy to my teammates because they are the MVP in my heart."
