After a day of rest, on May 2, the Trail Blazers continued their preparation training.

Before the training started, Liu Xiu and others received a small amount of money to advance to the second round, which was less than the bonus for the second place in the Western Conference to advance to the playoffs, $3,992.

The bonus for advancing to the second round is less than the bonus for the top three teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences during the regular season to advance to the playoffs, because under the current ranking rules, the third place in the Western Conference in the regular season actually refers to the regular season division champions of the three conferences in the Western Conference.

The one with the third best record has the division championship banner.

If you can win the second round, the bonus for advancing to the Eastern and Western Conference finals will be similar to the first place in the Eastern and Western Conferences during the regular season.

If you get money, no matter how much it is, the players will naturally be happy. There is no salary in the playoffs.

Moreover, getting the bonus means that they have advanced to the next round, which is a small amount of glory.

However, Liu Xiu found that the team staff were even happier. Only a short time later, bonuses were paid out again.

The two tactical training sessions in the morning had nothing to do with the opponents. They were all summed up in the first round of practice. They will be suitable for their small-scale coordination in the playoffs. That is, the team members themselves improvise coordination on the court. Some of them are actually

It was a style of play that several players discussed privately and has now been adopted by the coaching staff.

This kind of thing is something worth being proud of for players.

This kind of training is actually the improvement of tacit understanding.

The head coach of a championship-level team likes a stable lineup, and this is why.

The longer the cooperation lasts, the more diverse the tactics will become.

Of course, the reality is that those championship-level teams can ensure a stable core lineup, which is already very good.

After the morning training, Liu Xiu was called to the office by the vice president. The coach and assistant coaches were all there.

The more the vice president looked at Liu Xiu, the more satisfied he became. In the first round, Liu Xiu no longer had the crazy state he had in April, but this guy knew his situation very well and did not act randomly just because he had played well before. Instead, he made good use of his threats.

, He just works when he needs to, integrates into the team play when he needs to, he doesn’t show off when he needs to rely on his teammates, he has full trust in his teammates, but he can stand up at critical moments when he is needed...

Moreover, he averaged 31 minutes of playing time per game and scored 24.25 points with a 51% shooting rate. His performance was nothing to criticize.

Compared with last season's playoffs, Liu Xiu is obviously more mature this season.

However, this time the management and coaching staff called Liu Xiulai not to see how handsome their star player is, but to discuss and speculate on who the opponent will be in the next round and in which direction they will mainly prepare for the game.

The Mavericks and Kings play completely opposite styles. The Mavericks rely purely on star players, while the Kings play traditional team basketball based on pick-and-roll, pass, and cut.

In the end, the discussion did not come up with a result. We will wait until the winner is determined in the battle of Tianwang Mountain tomorrow night before making a decision. If this is not possible, we must make two preparations.

In other words, this discussion is equivalent to no discussion.

But the vice president was very satisfied with the meeting.

After Liu Xiu left, the vice president said: "We can let Jace participate in more meetings in the future, increase his participation in team work, enhance his sense of belonging, and increase the success rate of contract renewal."

Coach Bu didn't understand and asked: "I think Warden is very happy playing here, and the lineup is built around him. He shouldn't want to leave, right?"

The glasses of the vice president shone with wisdom: "It's hard to say this kind of thing. Who would have thought that Martin would want to leave the Nets? If he wanted to go to Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago, that would be understandable, but

He went to Denver, so just like what he said, he wanted to prove himself..."

Huo Tu agreed: "Yes, it's hard to guess the thoughts of today's players. I worked for the Grizzlies before, and we didn't expect that after we trained Bibby for three years, he would refuse to renew his contract and ask for a trade. He is applying for a trade.

I have never shown any intention to leave the team before."

In the labor agreement before 1998, there was no home team matching clause in rookie contracts. Bibby's contract was signed after being drafted and before the lockout.

Bushai: "I see, it seems that we really need to have more communication with the core players in normal times... Do you think there is a high possibility that Warden will renew his contract?"

Vice President: "It shouldn't be a problem, but we can't be careless..."

Listening to the conversation between his boss and his subordinates, the coach was speechless.

Why do these guys do all these things whenever they have free time?

The coach put forward a constructive suggestion: "If you want to know what he thinks, just ask him directly."

Bu Shuai: "What a good idea, let me ask?"

Vice President: "No, no, no. Chinese people are very reserved. When talking about money, you can't be so direct, otherwise they will think you look down on them."

Huo Tu said: "Yes, yes, I had a neighbor who was Chinese before. That's how they are. Our two families once made an appointment to have dinner together. They paid first, and I wanted to pay our share.

Give it to them, they won't be happy."

Bu Shuai: "I see, fortunately you have experience, otherwise I would accidentally offend him."

Coach:???Warden, is he being reserved??

Forget it, this is not a bad thing. If you have to say it, this is definitely a good thing. At least it can increase daily communication and increase the warden's participation in team work, as the vice president said.

Spend.

Let them do whatever they want...

…

Liu Xiu returned to the lounge to get his things and saw his teammates gathered around the TV. He remembered that today was the day when the best sixth man was announced.

Liu Xiu came up and asked, "Are you nervous?"

The little flying squirrel immediately responded: "Nervous? How is that possible! I don't care."

Liu Xiu smiled and said nothing, and Xiao Fei Shou said angrily: "You don't believe it? I will throw away my Best Sixth Man trophy last year when I go back tonight!"

Liu Xiu nodded and said, "Do you want me to book a hotel for you? I used to have a sleeping partner who owned a hotel."

Little Flying Squirrel: "..."

After harvesting some healing points, Liu Xiu did not continue teasing the little flying squirrel. It would be a pity if this teammate really went back and smashed the Best Sixth Man trophy later.

Best Sixth Man, this award is already a grand prize for most players. After all, it is an individual award in the regular season.

Flying Squirrel's career is not considered a failure. He won the Rookie of the Year award and averaged 20+8 per game in a season. But before meeting Liu Xiu, the only trophies he had at home were the Rookie of the Year and First Team Rookie trophies.

At his peak, the Flying Squirrel was already considered the league's top player.

Also, in the past two or three years, the value of the best sixth man has greatly increased.

The Trail Blazers put the Flying Squirrel on the bench, the Mavericks put Stackhouse on the bench, and the Bulls put Ben Gordon on the bench... These operations have abruptly raised the value of the best sixth man.

Already.

On the TV screen, hosts, experts, and commentators are discussing the candidates' probability of winning.

Flying Squirrel, Stackhouse, Ben Gordon, Boykins, Ricky Davis, this year's Best Sixth Man candidate list, the winner will not be other than these five players.

Looking at this list, Liu Xiu thought of yesterday's list of candidates for the Most Improved Award. He found that this year's individual awards were so valuable!

Brian Colangelo defeated Pat Riley to win the best manager, D'Antoni defeated Maurice Cheeks and Lawrence Frank to win the best coach, and Bobby Simmons defeated a class of 2001 to 2003.

A bunch of geniuses won the Most Improved Award...

At 12:05 noon, the NBA officially announced the winner of the Best Sixth Man Award.

When he saw his photo and name, the little flying squirrel, who didn't care about the award at all, screamed and jumped up from the sofa.

The Flying Squirrels won the Sixth Man of the Year award for two consecutive years, replicating the achievements of Kevin McHale and Detlef Schrempf!

After screaming, Little Flying Squirrel suddenly remembered that Liu Xiu was still there, so embarrassed!

The little flying squirrel immediately said: "I'm not screaming because I won the prize. I remembered the tomato business in my field. The early-season tomatoes will be harvested next month..."

Liu Xiu nodded quickly: "Yeah, yeah, I know, I understand, but you won the Sixth Man of the Year award for two consecutive years. Before you, only McHale and Schrempf could win the Sixth Man of the Year award consecutively.

It just so happens that we haven’t trained much these past two days, why don’t we have a party to celebrate?”

"Is it necessary to hold a party for such a trivial matter? Ahem, since you brought it up so sincerely, I happen to have time now to book a restaurant first..."

…

At night, the Rockets became the second team to go out, being swept by the league's number one Suns 0-4.

The Suns averaged 113.5 points per game, and the Rockets averaged 101.5 points per game, with an average margin of victory of 12 points per game. The Suns beat the Rockets inhumanely.

Yao Ming averaged 30.25 points, 16.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.5 blocks in 4 games, with a shooting percentage of 55.6%, and did not win a single victory.

He could help the team withstand the Suns' offensive, but in the decisive stage, no one of them could stand up to compete with Nash, Joe Johnson, Big Q and other outside scorers, and there was no suspense about their defeat.

In the other two games tonight, the series between the Heat and the 76ers, Iverson did not have C in G4. The overall strength gap is still so big. The Heat defended very well tonight, and Iverson made 24 shots.

He only made 7 shots and scored 19 points and 10 assists. He couldn't score, and the 76ers were miserable. They only scored 84 points. They lost the home court advantage 84-91, and the big score was tied 2-2.

In the battle between the Mavericks and the Kings, the Mavericks did not give the Kings a chance. Nowitzki made 15 of 28 shots, including 6 of 13 three-pointers, plus 5 of 5 free throws. He scored 41 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists.

, led the Mavericks to a 115-99 victory over the Kings.

The Kings gave the Mavericks a chance to start in G3, but now they can't even suppress the Mavericks' offensive rhythm or lower the scores of both sides.

The Kings lost one game in G3 and lost hope!

On the afternoon of the next day, during the Trail Blazers' preparation meeting, Maurice Cheeks announced that the Mavericks would be preparing for the next round of games.

There is no need to wait for G6 anymore. The Kings have no chance. Although Bibby averaged 22.5 points and 7.2 assists in this series, he can no longer lead the team. Peja faltered in the playoffs, finishing with 37

14.6 points on % shooting.

This is reminiscent of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. Peja only shot 30.6% from the field in 7 games and averaged 6.7 points per game. His scoring performance was not as good as Fisher. Peja averaged 21 points per game in the regular season that year...
To be continued...