The playoffs have reached the stage where there are only four teams. The Eastern Conference semifinals ended early, so the Eastern Conference finals started one day earlier.
On May 20th, Eastern Time in the United States, all the eyes of the United States were focused on Boston.
"The Knicks vs. the Celtics...oh no, to be precise, the annual Lin Yu vs. the Celtics Big Three is about to begin!"
ESPN chose veteran commentator Mike Breen to partner with Marv Albert to commentate on this game. Before the game even started, Mike Breen had already pointed out the key points of this game.
"Last year's battle between Lin Yu and the Celtics' Big Three ended with Lin Yu winning, but at that time, he had the help of LeBron and Rashard Lewis. Now, he only has Zach Randolph next to him...
…”
Mike Breen began to analyze the paper strength comparison between the two sides, and the final result was naturally that the Celtics won, which is natural.
With the Knicks' original strength, they should have been eliminated in the second round or even the first round of the playoffs, but Lin Yu brought the Knicks to a position they shouldn't be in.
Compared with this group of commentators and commentators who are constantly analyzing the strength comparison between the two teams before the game, Lin Yu has long ignored the strength gap between the two teams and never considered his teammates.
Because if you really have to analyze the paper lineup comparison, the Knicks will be completely beaten. The only position with an advantage is the shooting guard. Even if it is Randolph mentioned by Mike Breen, Lin Yu always feels that Randolph
If you don't get beaten up by Garnett, you've already helped him.
The North Shore Garden was quickly filled up. At the level of the Eastern Conference Finals, even in a shrinking market, it will become extremely hot, because they are not far away from becoming the final winner.
At this time, some ten-year-old fans will be inspired and reappear in the home arena.
This is the case in Boston. At the beginning of the season, due to the loss of the championship last season and the retention of Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers, the attendance rate of the North Shore Garden was only more than 80%. The large tracts of empty seats spoke to the fans.
Dissatisfaction with team management.
However, as the Celtics advanced by leaps and bounds to the top of the league and became the favorite to win the championship with an absolute advantage, the attendance rate of the North Shore Garden improved, but it was only over 95% and was never full.
Until the Eastern Conference Finals, when they faced Lin Yu again, North Shore Garden burst out with their enthusiasm again, but it was not clear who this enthusiasm was aimed at.
Suddenly there was a round of boos in the stadium. Amidst the boos, the players of the away team stood in the stadium one by one. Lin Yu came out last. There was a round of applause in the stadium, and there was a cheer in a corner.
Lin Yu waved towards the corner where the cheers were ringing. There, he saw a group of fans wearing Lin Yu's Celtics jerseys. This was the group of die-hard fans he developed while playing in Boston. They were mainly Chinese, with some white people mixed in.
and black people.
No matter where Lin Yu goes, these fans will always support Lin Yu.
"Back at North Shore Garden, Lin was welcomed by a small group of Celtics fans. It seemed that the fans here still missed Lin's crazy days."
After the away team came out, the lights suddenly dimmed, and then came the home team's entry ceremony.
The substitutes came on stage one by one, and there were constant cheers, some big and some small.
Then came the starters, with Ray Allen coming on first, followed by Perkins, Rondo and Garnett, and finally Paul Pierce.
Pierce still received the wildest cheers from the audience, which is reasonable. Ray Allen and Garnett are both outsiders. In a short period of time, they will not be able to completely conquer the Celtics fans because they have not yet given this opportunity.
Support the Celtics to bring them the success they dream of.
To Lin Yu's surprise, Rondo almost won a cheer second only to Pierce, and he quickly understood why.
"Boston fans encouraged Rondo with cheers and hoped that he would not be affected by Lin Yu's pre-game trash talk."
Lin Yu showed an unexplained smile. If his pre-game shout-out could make Rondo's fighting spirit extremely strong, that would be great.
"The game is about to start. The referee Dick Bavetta signaled the starting lineup of both teams..."
Lin Yu has developed a habit of paying attention to who the referee is before every game, because he is a bit intimidated by the referee.
Lin Yu still had fresh memories of those black whistles against the Cavaliers.
However, after much thought, he felt that the referee would not criticize him when playing against the Celtics. Even if he really wanted to criticize him, it would still be the Celtics.
Seeing Dick Bavetta, Lin Yu knew that there was no bias in the whistle in this game. For the Knicks, the only remaining question was whether the referee's whistle was tight or loose.
A tight whistle will tie up the Celtics' defense, while a loose whistle will cause the Knicks' offense to be inaccurate due to the collision and confrontation of muscles. The impact is still very big.
However, no matter what the referee's whistle was, Lin Yu was prepared to perform a performance that would make everyone open their mouths at the beginning of this game.
What he relies on is shooting practice that he practiced for two consecutive days before the game.
In the warm-up before this game, he also used a series of consecutive three-pointers from the top of the arc, which confirmed his touch, which was very hot and excellent...
"The starters of both teams came on the stage, Kwame Brown faced Kendrick Perkins, Zach Randolph faced Kevin Garnett, and Wilson Chandler faced Paul Pierce.
, Lin Yu versus Ray Allen, Kyle Lowry versus Laga Rondo.”
"Both teams are regular starters, there are no changes, Kwame Brown will have a jump ball duel with Kendrick Perkins."
Kwame Brown stood opposite Perkins, Dick Bavetta buzzed the whistle, and the next second he threw the ball into the sky above the arena.
Snapped!
Kwame Brown caught the basketball, Lowry controlled the ball, and the Knicks rushed to the frontcourt, ready to start their first attack.
In the first attack, Lin Yu did not choose to hold the ball directly, but let Lowry and Randolph work together, and he rushed to the bottom corner and went around the baseline.
This is a change advocated by Lionel Hollins. Hollins decided to let Lin Yu enter an off-ball state in the Eastern Conference Finals to avoid the Celtics' iron-clad defense.
Lin Yu also accepted this arrangement from Hollins. He is also good at off-ball. If he has extremely high-quality screens and excellent organizational support, he can play more easily without the ball.
Lowry and Randolph cooperated in the pick-and-roll and broke through, but failed to achieve results. The defense of second-year Rondo is still very impressive.
Although the breakthrough was fruitless, Lowry immediately passed the ball to the ground and found Lin Yu who came around from the baseline.
Lin Yu caught the ball, took two steps outward, then suddenly stopped, turned around, and moved two more steps to the left.
At this time, he was already completely outside the three-point line, and Ray Allen, who was guarding him, was puzzled by Lin Yu's continuous operations. He never imagined that Lin Yu, who was receiving the ball, would choose to withdraw, so
He also followed hesitantly, fearing that Lin Yu would turn back and rush towards the basket.
This was exactly the effect Lin Yu wanted. Facing Ray Allen's defense that put no pressure on him, Lin Yu added another step back after retreating to the three-point line.
This time, he was completely outside the three-point line.
After completely shaking off Ray Allen, Lin Yu jumped up and shot a long-distance three-pointer very decisively!
Whoosh!
"Hit a three-pointer and the game just started. China Lin showed everyone his excellent touch and fiery state. This game was exciting!"