Bishop of the Devil

In the fourth game of the first round of the playoffs for the Buccaneers, the Buccaneers maintained a huge lead, and it was already halfway through the fourth quarter. The 76ers had no chance to turn around. The Buccaneers were basically guaranteed to win the season. Tickets for the second round of the playoffs.

But Richard was sitting on the sidelines at the moment, frowning.

Paul was hurt again...

Paul was injured in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, and this season was even worse. The injury occurred directly in the first round of the playoffs.

Richard sighed. This matter made no sense at all. Paul's luck was simply terrible.

However, although Paul was injured, the injury did not appear to be too serious. Richard had no plans to use an injury scroll for Paul at the moment. He would wait until the team doctor's diagnosis is over after the game.

If it's a minor injury, it doesn't matter. After all, the Pirates easily passed the first round and can rest for a few days until the Magic and Cavaliers decide the winner.

During this waiting period, maybe Paul can recover from his injury...

Even if they can't recover from the injury and play against the novice Magic or Cavaliers, Richard feels that without Paul, the Pirates can still beat their opponents.

Rondo's offense is not as good as Paul's, and his personality is not as good as Paul's. In other aspects, there is not much difference between him and Paul.

The most indispensable thing on the field for the Pirates is offensive points. Even if Rondo's offensive strength is not good, it will have almost no impact on the game.

…

After the game, the Pirates easily defeated their opponents at the 76ers' home court and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.

The Green Kai and Pistons teams also swept their opponents to advance. In the first round of this year's Eastern Conference playoffs, it was quite rare for three teams to advance.

In the West, the Lakers swept their opponents to advance. As for the Spurs, Jazz and Suns, they currently lead by a big score of 3:1.

It's not that these three teams are not strong, but the four teams in the bottom half of the Western Conference playoffs are much stronger than the Eastern Conference.

It is normal that these three teams failed to sweep the promotion.

…

Early the next morning, the Buccaneers officially announced Paul's injury.

Paul will be out for about two weeks, maybe earlier, or maybe later due to unsatisfactory recovery. Anyway, he will definitely be able to come back during the Eastern Conference Finals.

Originally, Green Kai fans were a little excited when they saw Paul injured. If the Pirates removed Paul, Green Kai's chances of stopping the Pirates would be greater.

But the Pirates' official announcement poured cold water on them. There is a high probability that Paul will return before the Eastern Conference Finals.

…

A week later, the Magic and Cavaliers finally decided the winner.

Howard led the Magic to eliminate the Cavaliers with a score of 4:3, gaining a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Richard actually doesn't really want to face the Magic, because the Magic's lineup is full of uncertainty.

Magic's tactical system may be complicated at times, but it couldn't be simpler at all. It is a tactical system that focuses on everything.

It's not a one-man shooting, it's a core inside with four shooters outside.

Howard is naturally the core inside, with Turkoglu, Lewis, Nelson, and Evans on the bench. There are also three-pointers such as Bogans, Dulin, Arroyo, Cook, and JJ Redick on the bench.

If you take a closer look at the scoring rankings of Magic players, you can easily find that among the top Magic scoring players, except for one Howard, the other players are all three-pointers...

This Magic's average number of three-pointers per game can reach a terrifying 25 or more, which is much higher than the opponent's average of 16!

You must know that the Suns, who play small ball, actually averaged just over 21 three-pointers per game this season...

Richard loves and hates three-pointers. The opponent may not be strong, but once the three-pointers go crazy, it will be even more difficult for the Pirates to win.

This is the reason why Richard doesn't want to encounter the Magic. He prefers to play the Cavaliers who have no special characteristics. In Richard's eyes, the Cavaliers are not much better than the 76ers in the first round. They are all in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference anyway. The district’s rookie team.

Richard had expected that the Magic could eliminate the Cavaliers. Under normal circumstances, the Cavaliers have suffered a lot from the Magic in the past two years. To be precise, they have suffered from Howard...

In the 08-09 season, the two teams met in the Eastern Conference Finals. As a result, Howard defeated the Cavaliers with a score of 4:2 and led the team to the finals.

This is also the only time in Howard's career that he led his team to the finals and stepped on the corpse of the Cavaliers...

…

On May 5th, the Eastern Conference semifinals began at the Buccaneers' home court.

As soon as the game started, Richard smiled bitterly. Van Gundy looked like he was going to break the pot...

All kinds of three-pointers bombarded the basket like hail. The Magic took six shots in the opening game, five of which were three-pointers. The remaining one was a second offense when Howard grabbed an offensive rebound under the basket.

Obviously Van Gundy is going to try his best to shoot three-pointers tonight...

He knew very well that if he didn't shoot three-pointers like crazy and played step by step, the Magic would probably be beaten quite miserably by the Pirates.

In this case, it is better to take a gamble. If you win, you will be glorious. If you lose, there will be no shame.

There’s no shame in losing to the Buccaneers.

…

This crazy three-pointer made by Van Gundy is where Richard has a headache with the Magic.

When it comes to who is the top center in the league, there are many answers to this question, but when it comes to who has the strongest rebounding ability and defensive ability under the basket, it must be Howard.

Such a top rebounder, playing with four shooters, can sometimes exert incredible power.

At least the Magic's tactical system is working well right now. They scored eight points in six shots in the opening game, which is on par with the Pirates.

Now it depends on how valuable the Magic's three-point shooters are. If they can break out, it may be possible to complete the feat of counterattacking the Pirates.

However, this possibility is very slim. Richard feels that as long as the Magic don't have the crazy situation of taking 50 or 60 three-pointers and hitting 50%, then the Pirates will not have a big problem winning.

After the 48-minute game ended, the Pirates fans at the scene breathed a sigh of relief. The Magic's madness was truly astonishing.

In this game, they took 42 crazy three-pointers and hit 17. The shooting rate was actually quite good, reaching 40.5%.

But their two-point shooting percentage today was not high, not even 40%.

In this case, the Pirates relied on a solid lineup to win with an 11-point difference.

Richard knows very well that after winning this game, the Magic's three-pointers in the next game will become even crazier.

Because they tasted the sweetness in this game!

If they take more three-point shots and reduce mid-range shots with low scoring efficiency, they may really be able to defeat the Pirates tonight!

Two days later, the Buccaneers played their second game against the Magic.

What makes Richard smile bitterly is that the Magic tonight obviously do not have the same good luck as G1.

Although the three-point shots were more crazy than in G1, their shooting percentage was ridiculously low. After the game, they took 48 three-pointers, but the shooting percentage was less than 30%...

This directly caused the Magic to collapse in the third quarter, and were eventually beaten by the Pirates with a huge 31-point deficit.

…

The next two games were the Magic's home games. I wonder if G2's performance was too poor, which caused the players to lose confidence. The Magic's touch was not very good in these two games, and they were easily dealt with by the Pirates.

With another sweep, the Pirates secured a ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals.

It's just the conference finals, so Richard naturally doesn't care much. He is now focusing on Green Kai and the Pistons, who can advance to the Eastern Conference Finals and become his opponent.

Right now, Green Kai and the Pistons are fighting in full swing, and the two sides are tied at 2:2.

The two sides are equally matched, and Richard naturally hopes that they will fight as fiercely as possible. After the tiebreaker, they will drag their tired bodies to the Eastern Conference Finals.

In the West, the Lakers lead the Suns with a score of 3:1. Kobe can be regarded as seeking revenge on the Suns. When he led the team with a single core, he was eliminated by the Suns in the playoffs.

As for the Spurs and Jazz, they are currently tied at 2:2. This makes Richard look at Sloan more and more. This old coach really has something in his hands.