The Heat ranked second with 57 wins. James averaged 26.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7 assists per game, Wade averaged 25.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, and Bosh averaged 19.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.

The Celtics are third in the Eastern Conference with 56 wins;

The Magic are fourth with 52 wins;

The Pacers, Hawks, Knicks and Digital Man ranked 5th to 8th.

Because of the Pacers' joining and Boozer's early rise, the first-round matchup in the Eastern Conference has changed greatly from the history that Xu Yong knew.

The Magic's first-round opponent changed from the Hawks to the Pacers, while the Hawks' opponent became the Celtics.

As for the Heat, they will face the Knicks in the first round, and the Banana Boat Brothers will meet in advance. This will be the most watched round of matchups in the Eastern Conference.

The Bulls encountered the Digital Man team a season early.

As for history, in the next season, due to Rose's injury, Digital Man completed another black eight.

It's time to introduce this team of digital people.

They missed the playoffs last season, but returned to the playoffs this season under new head coach Doug Collins.

Collins is a legendary digital player. He was the No. 1 pick in 1973, was selected to the All-Star team three times in his career, and led the team to the finals in 1977 with "Dr. J" Irving. Unfortunately, he failed to win the championship. He then suffered a serious injury and retired hastily after playing only 400 games.

He is a coach who advocates team basketball. This season under his coaching, the team's highest scorer Brand averaged only 15 points per game, but 6 players on the team scored in double digits.

Although the team's record is not particularly outstanding, the 76ers' lineup is not weak.

The starting lineup includes Jrue Holiday and Jodie Meeks on the outside, Iguodala and "Old Captain" Brand on the front line, and Spencer Hawes at center.

On the bench, there are also a number of strong players such as Louis Williams, Evan Turner, Thaddeus Young, Nocioni, Marreese Speights and others.

This is a young and aggressive team, and in some ways they are very similar to the Bulls last season.

As in previous years, before the playoffs officially started, the league announced the first batch of awards for the season, including Best Sixth Man, Most Improved Award and Best Coach.

The Most Improved Award went to Love of the Timberwolves. Love averaged 20.2 points, 15.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game this season. He took 3 three-pointers per game and had a 41.7% three-point shooting percentage. He is a true rebounding machine and space inside player.

As a 2.03-meter inside player, these stats are crazy enough.

The best sixth man award went to Harden of the Thunder.

History deviated here. Harden improved himself faster and won this honor earlier.

On social media, some fans posted a video of the game between Arizona State University and UCLA three years ago, featuring Love, Harden, Xu Yong and Westbrook, which was very interesting to watch.

The best coach award was unsurprisingly given to Thibodeau, who was at the peak of his career.

Although the Bulls were already a team that completed the black eight last season, they also recruited a series of strong players such as Yao Ming in the summer.

But Thibodeau really deserves credit for the Bulls' current numbers.

The first step was to establish a tactical system, creating the Bulls' defensive counterattack style of one big and four small players. The next step was to use and protect the veterans, so that the Bulls did not have the injury problems predicted by ESPN.

After the award was announced, when Thibodeau came to the locker room after the Bulls' training session ended that day, the players suddenly shouted and picked up the mineral water bottles and gave Thibodeau a mineral water bath, expressing their affirmation and support for the team's head coach.

Thibodeau also accepted it all with a smile, wiping the water off his face. It was a lucky thing for him to be able to coach such a strong team when he became the head coach for the first time.

"I hope you can use champagne in June." After wiping his face, he also said something very impressive to his players.

These words immediately caused cheers in the locker room.

Xu Yong also laughed at this time. He didn't expect that Thibodeau, who usually seemed to be focused on basketball, also had a sultry side.

After the "celebration", Xu Yong returned to the training hall that night to practice shooting.

When he was almost done practicing, he found Thibodeau coming in. It seemed that he was busy in the office before.

The two of them were already accustomed to such scenes, and after sitting down, they chatted intermittently.

What we talked about, of course, was the first round of the competition against digital people.

"I played against Jrue Holiday when I was in college. He has strong perimeter defensive capabilities," Xu Yong said.

He was talking about what happened during his sophomore year. At that time, UCLA's overall strength was not as good as Arizona State University, but Holiday still restricted Harden's performance. Although Rose was stronger than Harden, his performance would also be restricted.

This means that he will most likely need to take on more offensive tasks in the game.

"They also have Andre Iguodala," Thibodeau continued.

Xu Yong nodded. Although the game had not started yet, the tone of the defensive battle in this series could be seen.

"That Hoyes, although he doesn't shoot much, he has three-point shooting range." Xu Yong reminded.

A center like Hawes who has outside shooting ability is also the type who can restrain Yao Ming.

Thibodeau nodded. Although it was the first against the eighth, this series would not be as easy as it seemed.

The Bulls must be prepared for a tough battle.

…

Two days later, the playoffs will officially begin, and the first and fourth place games in both divisions will begin.

In the East, the game between the Bulls and Digital Man started first.

The United Center was packed tonight and the fans' enthusiasm was at an all-time high.

Although it was only the first round, Chicago fans were looking forward to it. This was the second time they saw the dawn of a championship since Jordan, so how could they not be excited.

Miami, private beachfront mansion.

James was alone in his custom-made King's chair, ready to watch the game.

Because of the Arroyo incident, he is now very dissatisfied with the management and coaching staff, so he doesn't care about the first round now, he only focuses on the Bulls.

To put it bluntly, it is difficult for the Heat to lose against other teams now, but it is also difficult for them to win against the Bulls.

He has to seize every possible angle to win.

The warm-up at the United Center ended and the opening ceremony began, with the starting lineups of both teams announced one after another.

On the Digital Man team side, there are Holiday, Meeks, Iguodala, Brand, and Hawes.

On the Bulls side, there are Rose, Xu Yong, Artest, O'Neal Jr., and Yao Ming.

Both sides used their regular starting lineups.

Amid the cheers of the fans, Yao Ming pushed the ball back to half court, officially opening the game.

The Bulls started the game with a pick-and-roll between Rose and Yao Ming, but just as Xu Yong expected, Holiday had strong defensive abilities and was not affected by the pick-and-roll.

Yao Ming finally went to the free throw line and left the basket empty, allowing Rose to drive directly through.

Rose changed direction and broke through to the basket without slowing down, but Holiday retreated in advance to defend against the breakthrough, and Rose's final quick stop and jump shot failed to score.

In the transition from offense to defense, the digital man lifted the ball to the basket and hit Brand.

However, the Bulls had already prepared a response, and the person defending Brand was Yao Ming.

This is also Thibodeau's response to Xu Yong's question about Hawes' outside shooting ability.

If it was Brand at his peak, this matchup would be similar to the situation when Yao Ming defended Boozer on the Rockets.

However, Brand was already 32 years old at this time, and his condition declined rapidly. He had long since become an ordinary starter from an All-Star power forward.

He tried to make a shot, but under Yao Ming's close defense, the shot bounced out of the rim and the rebound was secured by O'Neal Jr.

The Bulls got the rebound, but they were unable to launch their defensive counterattack, which they are good at.

Because the digital people had already retreated immediately.

It was similar to the communication between Xu Yong, Xi Bodu and Durant two days ago. The two teams were engaged in a defensive battle.

Five minutes into the game, the score was 4 to 6, and every point scored was extremely difficult.

Miami, James smiled happily after seeing this scene.

Digital Man's starting lineup on the court, Holiday is the defensive gate on the outside, Mix's defense is also on point, plus Iguodala is a sweeping defender, plus the 2.16-meter-tall Hoyes under the basket, this is also a standard defensive iron net.

He was tortured so badly by the Bulls' iron net before, now let the Bulls have a good taste of this.

Moreover, even if Digital Man's style of play cannot beat the Bulls, it can at least make the Bulls suffer.

Once the Bulls have exhausted their energy and then face the Heat, the Heat's chances will naturally increase.

During the Bulls' offensive round, Xu Yong stretched out his hand to signal Rose and took the initiative to move to the high position on the strong side.

Now that the Bulls are stuck in a rut, it's time to find a breakthrough from his position.

In fact, when I communicated with Thibodeau before, there was one thing he didn't mention, and that was the issue of the starting number man.

If the digital man takes Meeks off the court and starts Thaddeus Young, the positional battle will be difficult to win.

However, the digital man did not choose to do so, not because Collins had problems with his coaching ability, but because of the problem of offensive space in positional warfare.

Holiday and Iguodala's outside shooting are both unstable. If the equally unstable Young is allowed to start, the Bulls will not have to play with a 2-3 zone defense.

This is actually why Thibodeau valued Allen, but after playing with the regular lineup, he was unable to use Allen as a starter and even excluded him from the rotation for a time.

As basketball continues to evolve, spacing in positional battles becomes increasingly important.

Back to the present, although Mix's defense is on point, his barefoot height is only over 1.9 meters, which is a big difference in size from Xu Yong.

Therefore, this matchup on the field is the best breakthrough point.

Rose fed the ball to Xu Yong, and then tacitly moved the man to the weak side, leaving space for Xu Yong to play one-on-one.

The digital man reacted quickly, and Brand had already let go of O'Neal, whom he was defending, and attacked him.

However, Xu Yong was faster. He made a fake left turn to force Mix to lower his center of gravity. He then turned right to quickly distance himself from Mix and leaned back to shoot.

Mix was at an absolute disadvantage in height to begin with, and now after being pressed, he had to defend against the backward move, so he had no chance at all. He could only stretch out his hands to symbolically defend on the spot.

“Swish!”

Xu Yong demonstrated his shooting stability and made a steady hit with his backward shot.

Different from the previous physical confrontations between the two sides, Xu Yong's goal was scored with ease and a sudden change of style.

But this is the benefit of mastering the turning and leaning back technique, it is the most deadly offensive weapon in high-confrontation games.

Digital Man head coach Collins was beaten so hard that he stood up directly from the bench.

In fact, he had been worried about this all along, and even Brand's assist defense was an arrangement he had made before the game.

But Xu Yong's choice was too decisive. He didn't even leave time for the digital man to assist in defense. It was as if he had been prepared to play that way.

In Miami, James was so angry that he clenched the armrest of the soft chair.

Damn Xu Yong, what method did he use to develop such a skill of turning around and fading away in less than one season?

Obviously he...

Others may not know this, but as a fan of Jordan, how could he not have practiced this move?

But eight years have passed and he still hasn't figured it out.

It’s really frustrating to compare yourself with others!

In the attack of Digital Man, Holiday made a sudden pass to Hawes.

Hawes took a mid-range shot against Rose's defense but still missed.

This digital team has first-rate defense, but has not been able to produce first-rate results because of its offense, which is highlighted by its inefficiency.

So they can only hope for defense.

At Collins' signal, Iguodala switched to defend Xu Yong.

Xu Yong was also very straightforward. He chose to face the basket directly and then let Artest sink to the low post.

After the ball was fed in, Mix had no choice but to foul early.

It is more difficult for him to defend Artest than to defend Xu Yong.

Seeing this, Collins had no choice but to turn around and call up Thaddeus Young.

Young came on to replace Mix.

There is nothing wrong with Collins' choice at this time. Anyway, the positional offense is already so bad that he can accept it if it gets worse. However, if the defense is successful, there will be a chance to launch a defensive counterattack.

And this idea is correct. Fighting in positional warfare with the Bulls with Yao Ming is a slow death, but there is still a glimmer of hope in defensive counterattacks.

The Bulls have the ball in the frontcourt and Xu Yong continues to receive the ball.

He simply stretched out his hand to signal Yao Ming to move to the high post for a pick-and-roll.

Yao Ming's pick-and-roll caught the opponent, and Xu Yong took advantage of the pick-and-roll opportunity to directly make a mid-range jump shot.

“Swish!”

There was a crisp sound of the ball going into the net, and Xu Yong's pull-up jump shot hit the target again.

This is actually the difference between Xu Yong and Rose. Although Rose has practiced shooting more during the offseason, his killer move is still breakthrough.

When encountering this kind of iron net, the effects between him and James are actually not much different.

But Xu Yong makes his living by shooting from mid-range and long-range.

As long as you have a good feel, such an iron net can still be easily broken through.

That’s why they say that the regular season is all about three-pointers and dunks, while the playoffs are all about mid-range kills.

In Miami, James couldn't help but dropped a punch on the hand.

It's clearly an iron net, how come it's so vulnerable in front of Xu Yong? !

Xu Yong: Isn't this very simple? Just pick and roll and shoot. Shoot and you've got it!

James: You really are Michael Xu, right?