Shoot, shoot into the sky.
If they win, the Kings' home stadium Golden No. 1 Center Arena shoots a purple laser into the sky.
Strictly a four-in-one laser beam, that's where King's slogan "Light the Beam" came from this year. According to the team's Indian boss, this light energy reaches the universe, and from the spirit of Bollywood, this statement should be true. Last night they shot their 46th time of the season, which means that a big thing is officially reached:
16 years of sharpening a sword, the Kings playoffs reappeared.
Remarkably, the record for the longest playoff miss in the four major leagues has finally stood at 16 years. Now a whole new rotten team is needed to break through this data, and before this day finally comes, the kings will be carved on this pillar. In other words, the king is now just coming out to let the wind go, and their nameplate is still engraved outside the solitary cell. In fact, it is basically certain that the Kings will enter the playoffs this season, but the data and theory do not allow us to celebrate too early.
I used to widely publicize my identity as a Kings fan, holding up the signboard "Bad team out of die-hard loyalty", saying "My heart will always belong to Sacramento", making myself look like a Sha County person. But I have to tell the truth, on the one hand, these expressions are just the need to make a play and write articles that stir up emotions; On the other hand, perhaps this is an inexplicable sentiment that people like me will believe in their hearts: we always believe that as long as you insist on doing something for many years, you will have the capital to show in front of you.
Many things in this world, no matter how small they are, many people can do, but they are not worth wasting their precious time. And you have no other strengths, the best thing is to stretch every day to many years, and then do one thing, this kind of thing is not about failure, but after doing it for so long, you should always sigh to Lao Tzu! So 16 years of perseverance in eating has also become a pride, which is why some people are able to insist on liking a bad team. Like a bad team and eat is as contrary to human nature, can do it for so long, you should always give Lao Tzu a sigh!
To be honest, I'm not such a long-term lover. What I do best in self-assessment is conformance to human nature, with a little bit of a bottom line, but not very high. When it comes to watching sporting events specifically, I like a team very much at some point and pay extra attention to a team for a long time, but I really can't do it if I like a team very much for a long time. For example, if you ask Mainland King what happened in 2006, without Baidu, I can only be as frank as Tatum: I don't know, I don't remember.
Of course, I know, or I'm doing it myself. I understand that most people see the news of the King's return to the playoffs, and they are not moved by the King, but by 16 years, and that in 16 years, the fight has changed its appearance. As for what happened to the king himself, it doesn't matter, we just need some opportunity to do such emotion, if we casually reminisce and sigh on a daily basis, it will only be reduced to hypocrisy.
So what really happened to the king? How did they get up and make it to the playoffs and hold first-round home court advantage? I know you're not interested in stats, and it seems a little late to go back to the Kings game, so let me briefly describe this team that is likely to be an exquisite icon of the era:
All-time No. 1 offensive efficiency, a super-versatile big inside, a small guard who performs best in key moments, a bunch of flanks capable of shooting three-pointers. And behind the all-time good offense is their health management that is out of step with this era - they are very healthy, playing 76 games so far this season, with a maximum of 8 breaks in the core 8-man rotation, and only 30 in total.
Eastern Conference boss Bucks, who took 16 breaks, Holladay 13 and Middleton played only 30; Western Nuggets, Jokic took 8 breaks, Murray 14, Gordon 12, Porter Jr. 17; Eastern East second Green Kai, Jaylen took 12 breaks, Smart 18, Horford 16; Western second Grizzlies, Bane 23, Morant 19, Adams and Clark directly gone; Among the top three in the East, Harden has 22 games, Embiid has 14 games and Maxi has 19 games.
Of the two divisional playoff teams, the only team that can match the Kings in core roster health may be the fourth Cavaliers in the East, but their core eight-man rotation has also rested a total of 50 games. It may also be a coincidence that both teams have an average age of 25.3, and youth is certainly not the only reason why these two teams are so durable, but young + luck may be able to make up an important reason.
Perhaps this is why many people are not very optimistic about the king, they eat some very healthy dividends, but why is staying healthy not part of the strength? We don't like to rush for quick success, mostly because we are in a hurry to get closer, but we still don't get the credit and benefit. Now that the Kings don't have a large rotation and finally reached the effect of entering the playoffs, that's good, as for the playoffs can continue to be so healthy? Unimportant. Do you think you'll be healthy during the regular season break and run into the playoffs?
Of course, fitness aside, there is a reason why people are not optimistic about the Kings, first of all, they have the 4th easiest schedule in the league, and the more important question may be their 7th bottom defense in the league this season. So the biggest rumor about the playoff version of the Kings right now isn't about them, but about the teams in the second half of the division competing for No. 6, because that's basically a ticket to the second round, and the playoffs must still depend on the defense, right?
That's generally true, but a small reminder is that the Kings have one of the best half-court offense in the league and are sparse on fast breaks, but on the other end of the court, their half-court defense is at the bottom of the league and the defensive transition is not very bad, so in the playoffs, if you're not a well-organized positional warfare master, opposing the Kings isn't the best option.
In addition, it is more noteworthy: the Kings mostly choose to target people in positional defense, but because they do not have any players who are good at defense, the ability to rotate the frame and close out is also limited, which is the main reason for their poor positional defense, but from their performance in defending the joint defense, they are one of the best teams in the league.
In the first round of the playoffs alone, the Kings' positional warfare tendencies match the slower pace of the playoffs, and once they can't completely suppress their opponents with offense, they are entirely likely to change formations on the defensive end and choose joint defense, which means that it is difficult for the Kings' offense to slide too much into the playoffs, but the defense is entirely likely to improve, and their ceiling has not yet been fully revealed to the world. Playing the Kings in the playoffs won't be as easy as you might think.
What's really interesting for the Kings: Even the now much-lauded Sabonis hasn't gotten a big boost since the Kings traded him last season, winning only five of the 15 games they have played for Sa, and finishing 12th in the West, playing the playoffs with the Lakers. The loudest public opinion at the time evaluated the deal as another rare operation for the Kings, just like their countless rare operations in the past 16 years, so good Halliburton was easily surrendered and hitched a ride with a space shooter Hield.
A year later, the wind about the king has taken a sharp turn, if you want to find a variable, Sabonis's high-level data for a comprehensive upgrade, the big heart of Fox's great progress, the addition of Hult and Monk can explain one part, and better chemistry can explain another, but who makes this part of the chemical reaction quickly generated? They brought in Warriors defensive assistant Mike Brown as coach, but the team played the all-time first-class offensive efficiency and poor defense, a change that is difficult to explain.
An explanation was given that the king had finally established a culture of victory. I've heard too many locker rooms boast that they have a culture of victory, and it feels like it's a culture that only comes when you win, and I'm not sure if the culture of victory is a fictional concept, I just know that the team that has won the most games since the 21st century and most often talked about the culture of victory is now crawling in the mud, and I haven't heard much of them talk about this culture lately, in fact, it's just a matter of the past two years. And what kind of culture is a culture that cannot be passed on and will suddenly disappear?
My idea is actually not complicated, in the field of professional sports, there is neither a winning culture that can be passed down for thousands of generations, nor a toxic environment that will be left behind for thousands of years, the tenacity philosophy of the old Green Kai has not been inherited to today's Green Kai, and the old king's aged grain rotten rice is not the nourishment of today's king. A generation has a story of a generation, a group of people has a destiny of a group of people, and that's it. Of course, I'm talking about real professional sports, if it involves some less professional sports, it's hard to say, two days ago I saw someone write a thick book for Chinese football to study the road of Chinese men's football to the World Cup, I was very impressed, and at the same time very ashamed of the smile in my heart, I felt that I still lacked a little courage to win the day, and secretly vowed to have it in the next life.
Overall, the tragic experience of the past 16 years has little to do with the Kings' return to the playoffs, but for us ordinary people and the like, things may be different. Recently, Stetson became popular on the Internet again, mainly because of a paragraph: A person who is thirteen or fourteen years old in the summer picked up a real gun on the road. Because he was young and ignorant, he was not afraid of heaven and earth, and he pulled the trigger. No one died and no one was injured. He thought he had fired an empty shot. Later, when he was thirty or older, he was walking down the road and heard a faint wind behind him. He stopped, turned around, and the bullet hit the center of the eyebrow.
The most striking thing about this passage is the lingering smell of fatalism, as if everything is fixed. But the contrast between the King's year and the past 16 may indicate something else about our own methodology, which is that there is no 16 years to sharpen a sword.
Really, who will sharpen a sword in 16 years? Don't have to bring children? Don't you need to relearn linear algebra? Do you remember why Sabah is suitable for oil palm growth? Why does ammonium bisulfate clog the air preheater, have you figured it out?
16 years will only wear out the original sword, and the bullet that was shot at him at the age of thirteen or fourteen is long gone. The reason why you think you've sharpened a sword or think that the bullet has finally hit you is because you have received some hint from life. When people can't explain what is happening in reality, they tend to go back and look for a reason, even if it is an unreliable reason, it is easier to reassure you because you have received an explanation. We are so obsessed with getting a clear answer.
But the truth is that some things are both obscure the cause and the effect. If someone sneakily tells you that you can succeed if you persevere, or give up, everything is already doomed, you come to see me this sword sharpened for 16 years, it is cold.
I have only one piece of advice: you must not believe this compulsion.