"You know, our opponent is the team with the best record in the league. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that they are the strongest team. You know, I think we are the strongest. In fact (pause, pursed lips) the victory or defeat of a game does not mean too much. You know, we played evenly with them in the second half. We just slacked off at the beginning. I believe that next time, it should be the playoffs (confirmed to reporters), yes, we will win the game."

"You ask me how I can do better? Man, look at the statistics. I scored 25 points in the second half. That's the most points scored by any player on the court. I don't know why you would ask such a question."

(Davis suddenly turned his head and looked at James in surprise. Seeing that James didn't seem to notice him, he turned back helplessly. Just after he turned back, James turned his head and looked in his direction)

The atmosphere of the Lakers' post-game press conference seemed somewhat tense and unpredictable.

"The empty stadium has no impact on us because we know that there are the same number of fans watching our live broadcast and we will all give our best."

"We don't consider the Lakers as our biggest opponent. Our biggest opponent is ourselves."

"I'm not worried about DeMar. He has proven himself this season. He just needs some time to recover, and I believe that will be quick."

On the other hand, on the Mavericks side, Xu Yong's relaxed words have already reflected the overall state of the team.

Although the argument was not appropriate, they continued in this state until they reached their goal.

In the second game against the Grizzlies, Jokic played bravely against the Memphis team that had lost their black and white duo, scoring a big double-double of 30 points and 16 rebounds.

In the third game against the Clippers, Irving was in hot form and scored 40 points, leading his team to a back-and-forth battle with the Mavericks. In response, Xu Yong scored 51 points.

In the fourth game against the Celtics, Jokic was unable to perform well in the interior against Horford and Porzingis, and Xu Yong scored 54 points again.

In the fifth game against the Thunder, the Mavericks and the Thunder were evenly matched. Xu Yong also had a scoring battle with Durant. Durant scored 46 points and Xu Yong scored 58 points.

This is the first time since Xu Yong's comeback, and the second time in his career that he has scored 50+ points in three consecutive games.

Even though everyone already knew his strength, his bravery after returning from the epidemic still stunned everyone outside.

In this situation where the performance of most players was weakened, Xu Yong played even crazier than before. This is simply unfair!

In the sixth game against the Bulls, DeRozan finally recovered his form. He made almost every shot from mid-range and scored a game-high 30 points.

But unfortunately, the Mavericks lost the game in the end.

You can feel that the momentum the team had when they first arrived at the park has weakened over time.

And the Bulls showed great resilience and competitiveness.

Fortunately, after a slight adjustment, the Mavericks won the Magic and Jazz in succession, ending the park battle with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss.

This record is also the best among all 22 teams.

The end of the park competition also means the official end of the season.

This is probably the most special season in NBA history, because the teams that came to the park had different numbers of games before, and 8 teams did not come. As a result, the team with the fewest games played only 64 games in the season, and then 65, 66, and 67. The Grizzlies played the most games, and they played a full 74 games.

This has also caused a lot of controversy in the final ranking of the season, because playing more games than others means having an advantage in the ranking.

Of course, there is no suspense about the first place.

Thanks to their outstanding record before the epidemic and the best record in the park, the Mavericks eventually led the league with a record of 65 wins and 7 losses.

This record gives fans a lot of room for imagination.

"If there was no epidemic, would the Mavericks have broken the regular season win record that the Warriors had just broken?"

At first this was just a discussion among fans, but it soon spread to the media and was then asked questions by reporters to Xu Yong.

"Because of the epidemic, you played 10 fewer games and missed the opportunity to break the Warriors' 73-win record. Do you regret this?"

When asked this question, Xu Yong couldn't help but ponder for a while, because what he was thinking about before was the championship and how to better compete for the championship.

But after thinking for a while, he smiled and answered: "I think this question is like when Kobe scored 62 points in three quarters and people asked him if he regretted not playing in the final quarter."

Although Xu Yong did not seem to give a direct answer, he had already given the answer.

The Mavericks are number one in the league and naturally number one in the Western Conference.

The other seven teams that advanced to the playoffs in the Western Conference are the Thunder, Lakers, Warriors, Clippers, Jazz, Trail Blazers, and Grizzlies.

The Mavericks' first-round opponent is the Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies' Randolph and Gasol Jr. have left the team one after another, and now the little guys are in charge.

Among the five starting players, three are still in the rookie contract period. The backcourt is the third-year Dillon Brooks, and the inside is the second-year Jaren Jackson Jr., partnering with the new No. 1 pick Zion Williamson.

In addition, the remaining two players are veteran Conley and Jae Crowder, who is in his prime.

This team formation method of old, middle-aged and young players is the most conducive to the development of the team.

Especially Conley, his leadership of the team is seriously underestimated.

A very critical part of the Timberwolves' rise in history was their trade for Conley, which is a part that cannot be reflected in the data at all.

So this will not be an easy game for the Mavericks.

Before the playoffs officially started, the league announced the first batch of awards for the season.

Mike Malone was unsurprisingly elected the best coach of the season.

Although he did not reach the peak as soon as he debuted like his former boss Thibodeau, it is quite good to get this honor in the second season.

And unlike Thibodeau, he was elected almost unanimously, which means that the outside world fully recognizes his coaching ability.

However, among this first batch of awards, there is another award that is very interesting.

That is the [Park MVP] award that was added in addition to the regular awards.

That’s right, although there are only 8 games in the park, there is an MVP award.

Perhaps not many people knew this in the world before Xu Yong's rebirth, but Xu Yong, the commentator, certainly knew about it.

At that time, the choice was given to Lillard, and now, Xu Yong was elected without any suspense.

In 8 games, he scored 50+ points in 3 consecutive games, which is a height that others cannot reach.

So before the opening game of the series between the Mavericks and the Grizzlies, two award ceremonies were held in succession.

Although there is actually no distinction between home and away games in the park, the Mavericks already have a psychological advantage.

It was also with this momentum that the Mavericks defeated the Grizzlies in the first game with a score of 118 to 83.

This game made many people think that this series has lost its suspense.

However, on the Mavericks side, both head coach Malone and core player Xu Yong held a cautious view of their opponent.

"I always think they (the Grizzlies) are the best team in the bottom half, and underestimating them will cost you in the end."

Ma Long's mouth is a bit big, so this is an AOE.

"They will be one of the most competitive teams in the Western Conference in the future."

Xu Yong's words were more about praising their opponent.

Although their words were ultimately considered overly cautious by fans, the Grizzlies played impressively in the second game.

As long as the Mavericks did not perform poorly, they fought with the Mavericks until the decisive moment.

However, Conley is not a player with a big heart. They lacked players who could make key shots at critical moments, which ultimately led to their defeat.

But their performance also made the media give them the evaluation of "honor in defeat" and agreed with what Xu Yong said, that the Grizzlies are not the Timberwolves, and they can convert their potential into combat power.

Of course, the performances of the two previous games were almost like two different teams, which also reflected the characteristics of the Grizzlies as a young team. Their performance had ups and downs.

This continued in the third game.

Malone showed his best coaching skills in Game 3, taking advantage of the Grizzlies' outside shooting weakness and tightening up the defense during the game.

Especially for Williamson, as a rookie, he also enjoyed the treatment that only rookie James had, with no one within three meters in front of him.

But as soon as Williamson rushed forward with the ball, the Mavericks would immediately shrink and help defend, and Williamson would immediately run into a double or even triple human wall.

Although in the end, Williamson gave people the feeling of forward O'Neal in terms of the scene, his performance was very poor.

Because he could neither break through that kind of human wall, nor pass the ball to an open teammate before the collision.

But this is a bit too much to ask. If he can do all this, then he will really be a combination of O'Neal and James as the media hyped before the draft.

Once Williamson loses his threat with the ball and has no shooting threat, he will play a negative role on the court just like rookie James.

So in the third game, the Grizzlies lost with basically no temper.

3 to 0, this result is similar to what the outside world had speculated before.

But the reason why they are almost the same is also because the Mavericks have paid enough attention to the Grizzlies.

There was no suspense in the end in this series. The Grizzlies' outside shooting exploded in Game 4 and they held on to their home court, but it's hard to have an explosion again. The Mavericks eventually swept their opponents 4-1 and advanced to the semifinals.

Their opponents have not yet been announced.

The series between the Warriors and the Clippers was extremely intense.

After four decisive games, the battle will not be over without six games.

But this also gives the Mavericks some time to rest.

Speaking of which, since entering the park, due to time constraints, the competition arrangements have been relatively rushed, basically one competition every two days.

It was at this time that a piece of news of some significance broke out in the park.

Clippers' Daniel House was anonymously reported for violating rules by allowing a strange woman without permission from the park to enter his hotel room and stay there for several hours.

It was obvious to everyone that they were playing poker (the wrong kind).

In the end, the league imposed penalties after obtaining evidence. House was asked to leave the park, and the Clippers were unable to add any new players.

This is the first time the maximum penalty has appeared in the 113-page manual. Prior to this, Paul George was also warned for allowing his wife into the park.

Of course, even the Clippers did not appeal the penalty in the end.

Because it is obvious that an outsider woman brings great risks to the park. Once she is infected, it will ruin this hard-earned competition opportunity.

This punishment also served as a sufficient warning. After making an example of someone who was no longer a threat, no one else dared to take such a risk again.

It was at this time that the league announced the third and most anticipated award of the season, the season MVP.

In the end, with the team's impressive record of 65 wins and outstanding statistics of 31.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.7 blocks per game, Xu Yong was unanimously elected the regular season MVP of the 2019-2020 season.

This is also the second time that Xu Yong has won the MVP honor after two seasons.

The result was not in doubt at the end of the season, but when he really arrived, the fans were still filled with emotion.

Fans thought Xu Yong's performance this season would be better than last season, but they didn't expect him to be this good.

Moreover, Xu Yong is very likely to lead the Mavericks to win the championship this season.

Now when fans look at the words under the statue that the Bulls have erected at the United Center, Xu Yong is completely worthy of the title of GOAT.

By winning this MVP, Xu Yong also unlocked a unique achievement in history, that is, he became the first and probably the only player in the regular season to win double MVPs.

This is only because Silver is no longer in the league, otherwise the winner would have to wait for the entire mid-season tournament to get there, giving others a chance to get close.

Shortly after the MVP award was presented, the game between the Warriors and the Clippers came to an end.

House was a member of the Clippers' rotation. His departure not only affected the Clippers' rotation (the playoff rotation was already relatively compact), but more importantly, it made the team's morale unsettled. The Clippers' performance was obviously not as good as before.

So one bad apple can really spoil the whole barrel.

The Warriors eventually won two games in a row and eliminated the Clippers with a score of 4 to 2.

It is worth mentioning that when the Clippers were eliminated, Griffin covered his face and cried on the bench. This should be the closest he has been to the championship in all his years with the Clippers.

This also caused many fans to sigh and lament. Griffin once beat Xu Yong to be elected the No. 1 pick, but now he can only watch Xu Yong continue his legendary journey.

The Mavericks vs. the Warriors, the encounter for the second consecutive season, plus both teams have high traffic, this has really raised the fans' expectations to the maximum.

But for the Mavericks players, they don’t care what the outside world thinks or sees at this moment, because at this moment they only have one thought in their minds: revenge!