No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 1410 - 550: Dynasty Dream Shattered (Part 3)
For the first time in four seasons, the Magic Team didn’t achieve 50 wins, ending with only 47 wins and 35 losses, ranking sixth.
Although they traded Carter with the Suns and the Toronto Raptors, acquiring Turkoglu, Howard and Van Gundy had already drifted apart, and Turkoglu’s personal form crashed after a year with the Toronto Raptors. He’s no longer the European magician from 2007-09 who averaged 19+5+5, the charisma is gone, and he’s now just an ordinary organizing forward.
After nearly 10 years, Knicks Team finally returned to the playoffs with 45 wins and 37 losses, ranking seventh in the East, followed by Bucks with 41 wins and 41 losses, ranking eighth.
The West side was impressive, with two 60-win teams!
The Spurs extensively rested in the second half of the season; Duncan who appeared in all of the first 52 games, ended up playing less than 70 games, resting for a total of 14 games in the second half, eventually finishing with 60 wins and 22 losses, ranking second in the West.
The Thunder Team concluded the regular season with a 9-win streak, achieving 61 wins and 21 losses, outshining the Spurs, and securing first place in the West.
This marks the first time in 6 years that a Northwest Division team has taken the top spot in the West, last seen during the 03-04 season with the Timberwolves.
Rose and Durant were hailed by the media as ’two MVPs,’ considered a rare duo capable of fully unleashing their individual abilities.
Lakers with 57 wins and 25 losses ranked third, Mavericks with 57 wins and 25 losses ranked fourth, Rockets with 56 wins and 26 losses ranked fifth, Grizzlies with 55 wins and 27 losses ranked sixth, Kings with 48 wins and 34 losses ranked seventh, and Suns with 42 wins and 40 losses ranked eighth.
With 41 wins, Nuggets Team and 39 wins, Trail Blazers, didn’t make the playoffs.
While the playoff threshold didn’t start at 50 wins like the previous four seasons, the top six collectively securing 55 wins means the sixth-ranked Grizzlies swept the Chicago Bulls in the regular season and could rank second in the East!
Kings’ operations are always unexpected; last season they seemed like they were about to disrupt again, but eventually didn’t make any chaotic trades. Korver left when his contract expired, they signed Boozer openly, renewed Stephen Jackson, and stood up strong, making a playoff dash.
Paul returned from injury, but he didn’t play enough games or perform as well as in the past three years. With Zhang Yang shifting to the small forward, Rondo was anticipated to make the best team, maybe even the first defense!
Among the Western Conference playoff teams, four belong to the Southwest Division, three to the Pacific Division, with Thunder Team topping the West but being the sole representative from the Northwest Division.
The Southwest Division remained wild; if Paul hadn’t been injured, the Hornets were likely to achieve around 50 wins and secure a playoff spot in the West, leaving no room for Nash’s Suns Team. Chances are they could make history by having five teams from the same division enter the playoffs since the new division alignment. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
In the first round of the playoffs, Bobcats advanced easily by 4 to 1.
The management of the Bucks truly showed their effort; signing John Samuels for 24 million over 3 years, absorbing Corey Maggette’s large contract, trading for Gooden, and renewing Bogut for 5 years at 60 million, well above market value in 2009, never abandoning reinforcement.
Paired with Jennings, Delfino, Ilyasova, Boykins, Kenyon Dooling... the roster doesn’t look bad.
Regrettably, Jennings couldn’t bear the weight of being the major player for the perimeter; in his rookie year, he averaged 16 points and 5.7 assists, but in his second year, it was just 16.5 points and 4.8 assists. He wasn’t seen as a core player for a championship team, had no All-Star potential, and even lacked the potential to be a second option at the ten-million level.
Indeed, Bucks’ management were willing to spend, the recruitments were targeted, and through their roster, they entered the playoffs; the one game they won had little to do with Jennings. Maggette scored 29 points, Samuels 27 points, struggling after trailing 0-3. In Game 5, neither continued to explode, after a too casual Game 4, Bobcats woke up and slaughtered Bucks by 30 points in Game 5.
Zhang Yang, who received three Eastern Conference Player of the Month awards this season, was elected regular season MVP again after a year.
His first-choice ratio was higher than he expected, receiving 99 out of 110 first-choice votes, accounting for 36% of the total score, garnering the MVP with an absolute advantage, equaling the score proportion of second and third places combined.
Interestingly, second place was Rose, with 20.8% of total score, third was Durant, with 14.4% score proportion.
Having two players from one team rank in the top three MVPs was unprecedented and indicates that both players’ individual performances received high recognition from the media.
James placed fourth in votes, averaging 28.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 2 steals, and 1.1 blocks.
Criticism about Cavaliers’ players being weak holds certain truth; although their records weren’t as good as Cavaliers’, they had Lowry as a secondary playmaker, Kevin Martin as the sixth man, Brook Lopez in the interior line, Brooks for when daring throws were needed, Yi Jianlian who could keep up with fast breaks, along with Scola, Battier, Courtney Lee, among other substitutes. Midseason acquired talents like Jordan Hill and Dragic also bolstered the strength...
Rockets’ roster of just over 60 million dollars performed better in actual combats than Cavaliers’ 96 million, James didn’t even need to compete for rebounds, with his weight gone back to just over 110 kilograms.
This time, Royal Media’s comments gained majority approval—James’ led Rockets Team would be challenging for league first if in the East.
James also played remarkably in the playoffs, averaging 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 11 assists, feeding Brook Lopez in close and mid-range positions for an average of 22 points.
Daring to take matters in his own hands yet sensibly refraining from hogging screens, Lowry, situated alongside James, during the regular season soared from a few years of averaging 7 points and 4 assists as a substitute, evolving to a quality secondary game manager with per game of 13 points and 5 assists, furthering in the playoffs to 15 points and 4 assists.
