In the 2019 Finals, when Durant, who came back from the line of fire, suddenly fell to the ground injured in an ordinary breakthrough, and his eyes were complicated to hold his calf, everyone's heart clattered. At this time, the Warriors, who are already 1:3 behind, probably understand that the "triple crown" is cold.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > warrior with a poor chess game</h1>
In fact, in order to replicate the miracles created by Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, and the "ok combination", the Warriors of that year could not do any better.
They struggled to maintain the core foursome of Durant-Splash Brothers-Green, and they could still rule the league when they were present.
They unexpectedly poached All-Star center Cousins, and although he was recovering from a major injury, Kaoshen was effective against small balls such as the Rockets.
They also retain the champions of Iguodala, Livingston and Looney, just to keep the team's championship heart for as long as possible.
In the 2018-19 season, they seemed unable to be beaten by any team in the playoffs, and three consecutive championships were not far away. But the hardships and bitterness in it are only known to them.
Between their core teams, the cracks are becoming increasingly impossible to bridge. Durant and Green have gotten into a public fight.
Except for Durant, Curry and Thompson, who averaged 20+ per game throughout the season, no one else scored in double figures.
The playoffs first round faced the Eighth-Place Clippers of the West, though eventually advanced. But he lost two games, including a big reversal that led by 31 points.
And most importantly, they are becoming more and more dependent on Durant.
In that regular season, Durant averaged 34.6 minutes per game, the Warriors' highest in three years. In the playoffs, he averaged 35.3 points and 20 shots per game against the Clippers, curry had fewer than 15 and Thompson had only 14.3. In the four games before the rockets were injured in the semifinals, Durant was the team's top scorer in each game, averaging 36 points per game.
Durant's fiery feel → the Warriors have to rely more on him on the offensive end→ the passing system that once swept the world is playing less and less→ the rest of the players are in a state of decline→ relying more on Durant.
So Durant, who played 78 regular season games that year, finally fell in his fifth game against the Rockets. The Splash Brothers led the Western Conference Finals past the Blazers, but the Finals faced a more balanced and fierce Raptors. Without Durant, they won only one of the first four innings, then Durant returned to the line of fire, then suffered a major injury, and then the "Warrior Dynasty" collapsed.
The Warriors' fall at the last moment of the impact of the three consecutive championships is both an accident in reality and an objective inevitability.
Their core lineup is one level ahead of the league in luxury, but you can't use them for the entire 82 regular season games and 48 minutes. Durant and Thompson, who fell in the playoffs, were the two most appearances in the regular season (78 games).
With Dukutang chasing four high-paying contracts, the Warriors' luxury taxes and salary pressures had been squeezed to their limits that year. They can only fill the squad with most NBA-caliber players like Jerebko, McKinney and Evans.
The aging Iguodala, Livingston and even the returning Bogut are far from the momentum and strength they had when they won the title in 2015.
The swelling of a player's inner desires after holding two rings, the pressure of salary, age and injuries, and some inexplicable luck have become stumbling blocks in the progress of every team that has hit the triple crown.
How difficult it is to win three consecutive championships has been proven time and time again by history.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > two, the hardships of those who succeed</h1>
(1) Jordan, who is half a son of The Heavenly Son
Before the start of the 1992-93 season, the Chicago Bulls had a lot of trouble.
Jordan and Pippen played almost three seasons in the regular season and playoffs since 1989, during which time they also went to Barcelona with the Dream Team to play the Olympics.
The team's starting center, Catwright, is 35 years old, and that year, in addition to Big Dream, The General and Ewing were at their peak, there were also young Sharks and Alonzo Morning. Even the knight with Dahdy looks more powerful than the bull.
The team's big forward, the three-boss cobra Grant, is also increasingly dissatisfied with the Bulls' "star treatment" of Jordan and Pippen, and is not willing to be a "quasi-two-double coolie" who is not in the limelight. His playing time (35.3→35.6), shots (9.8→10.8) increased that year, but his points (14.2→13.2), rebounds (10.0→9.2), and shooting percentage (57.8% →50.8%) all declined.
Parkerson, the team's starting point guard of the previous two years and who scored a big attack in the 1991 Finals, is also 34 years old. So the former Zen master put him on the bench at the beginning of the season, and put the same accurate but younger Armstrong three-pointer into the starting lineup.
But even with such deliberate thought, the Bulls' record has declined. The big losses in the regular season to the Knicks with Ewing, the Rockets with Big Dreams, and even to the Lakers without magic and the Pistons without assassins were unimaginable in the first two championship seasons.
In the end, it only finished second in the East with 57 wins and 25 losses, and the first place in the league for two years was won by the Suns led by the mighty Barkley, and even in the East, it was suppressed by the old rival Knicks (60 wins and 22 losses).
Fortunately, Jordan was in the best combination of technology and physical peak that year, and he would not allow the team to play eggs easily.
In the first round, the Eagles led by Wilkins swept the "essence of human cinema" Wilkins 3-0, averaging 34.3 points per game and still invincible.
In the second round, he killed his best backing board in the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-0. Averaging 31+5+5 per game has embarrassed old rivals Price, Dahdi → old Nances again.
The Eastern Conference Finals faced their toughest rival, the Knicks, who lost two games away from home. But Jordan's 11 assists in game three, 54 points in game four, and a triple-double of 29+10+14 in game 5 helped the Bulls pull three games in a row.
Then back in Chicago 96-88 to send the Knicks off.
In the Finals, facing Barkley, who stole his regular season mvp, Jordan presented the highest finals performance of his career.
With 31 points in the first game, the suns were caught off guard.
Barkley exploded with 42 points and 13 rebounds in game two, but Jordan returned a 42 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists to give the Bulls a 2-0 lead.
Jordan scored 44 points in the third game, but the Suns pulled back a city.
Jordan's 55 points in game four made Barkley's 33 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists useless.
The Fifth Suns all-team erupted in the Bulls' road win, but Jordan scored 41 points.
In Game 6 at Phoenix, Jordan scored 33 points, 8 boards and 7 assists to lead the Bulls to complete a three-game winning streak on the road.
In the entire six games of the Finals, Jordan played four games 40+ and one game 50+, averaging 41.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game.
That year he averaged 32.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.8 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, the most exaggerated in his six championship-winning seasons. It was the pinnacle of Jordan's personal dominance.
Without Jordan's near-hysterical obsession, the Bulls of that year would not have been able to leapfrog the Knicks and Barkley, who were at the peak.
(2) The "ok combination" favored by fate
Compared with Jordan's personal dominance, the triple crown of the "ok combination" 10 years later is even more thrilling.
By the 2001-02 season, the conflict between Kobe Bryant and O'Neal was an open secret, and the Lakers' locker room was even better than their game.
O'Neal officially entered the year of the establishment, two champions + fmvp in hand, he has more reason to enjoy the joy of Hollywood, rest in peace of mind to recuperate from injury. His size and ass are getting bigger, but the coverage and fitness on the defensive end is slowly regressing, and he missed 16 games in the regular season that year.
And the young Kobe Bryant continues to hone his killer skills, and in the offseason he uses the devil training of shooting 2,000 goals a day to polish himself into the NBA's most terrifying jumper. He was increasingly unable to accept that the sharks, who were not trained seriously and were distracted by enjoyment, were still on top and let the whole team run around him.
The old king refused to hand over his scepter, and the young offspring were no longer willing to be subordinated. Kobe Bryant averaged more shots per game (20.0) than the Sharks (18.3) for the first time that year, but O'Neal still overpowered him with better efficiency scoring (27.2 Vs 25.2).
But even then the Lakers are terrifying enough, and although the discord between the two is well known, and although the team's third scorer is Fisher, who only has 11.2 points per game, the Lakers can still play the second in the league with 58 wins and 24 losses.
But that year they had a formidable rival, the King of Sacramento.
In the 2001 playoffs, the Kings were swept 4-0 by the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. Kobe Bryant scored 84 points in two games in Sacramento. Williams, one of the Kings' iconic figures at the time, had just 5.3 points and 2.8 assists in four games, shooting a pitiful 29.2 percent.
So the Kings were in pain during the offseason and exchanged white chocolate for another white guard, Mike Bibby the White Devil.
And their styles are far from each other, white chocolate is smart and jumpy, and it is imaginative. His instigated assaults and dazzling, unpredictable ghost horse passes allowed him and the King to garner a large number of fans. But his defense and projection weren't top-notch at the time.
Bibby is a solid white defender who was on the charts in 1998. Relying on calm organization and precise and fierce shooting, he is more inclined to traditional point guards like Lupps and Kidd in style. But his shooting skills are more modern, and the rookie scored double-figures in all the Grizzlies in three years.
At that time, the King's Princeton system, the offensive core was more of a Weber Divac pair of interior towers, for the organization of defenders, scoring attributes are more important than organizational ability.
So after getting Bibi, who was more consistent in projection and tandem, the Kings began to take off in the 2001-02 season.
They were 61-21 in the league that year, with Big Boss Webb 24.5 points, 10.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists, and second-in-command Stojakovic averaging 41.6 percent from 21.2 points and three-point range.
But even more exaggerated is their team offense, averaging second in the league in points per game (104.6 points), shooting percentage (46.7 percent), and first in the league in terms of game rate (95.6) and net efficiency (+7.9).
Usually the faster you play, the more mistakes there are, and the strong teams of the past are accustomed to torturing their opponents with their rhythms. But that king used his skillful passing and various incredible running positions to play the fastest speed in the league while playing the best offensive and defensive effect in the league.
The next team to play the fastest and still play the strongest is the Warriors in 2014-15.
In the Western Conference Finals, they and the Lakers arrived as promised.
The first game the Kings still couldn't figure out OK, and they lost the Lakers a 1-3 in the regular season. This time Kobe Bryant scored 30 points, the Sharks 26 points, and the Lakers 106-99 took the next set.
In the second game, Webb had 21 points, 13 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and 5 blocks, and Bibby also had 2 of 20 three-pointers on 3-of-3. The Sharks scored 35 points and Bryant 22 points, but the rest of the Lakers only scored 33 points. The Kings won 96-90 on the road.
In the third game, Peja missed with an injury, but the Kings hit the Lakers 106-90 on the road. Seven players played six in doubles. Bibby and Weber scored 50 points.
The King also understood that I couldn't hold on to your shark and Peter Pan, but your old Holly and Fisher couldn't stop my Webb and Bibby.
In game four, the two teams struggled into the final minute, with Divac taking a 99-97 lead with two free throws in the last 12 seconds. In the last leg, Kobe Bryant broke through and missed a single, the Sharks were still a millimeter away from the basket, and in the confusion, Divac slapped the ball beyond the three-point line.
The NBA's most cold-blooded key killer, Robert Holly, who followed Big Dream, the Sharks, and Duncan with seven rings before and after, received the ball and shot, and Webb couldn't cover it, watching the basketball slip through his fingertips and fall into the basket.
100-99 Lakers waded through the border.
In the fifth game of the Battle of King's Mountain, the Kings killed the Lakers 92-91 in the cheers of 20,000 fans at the home of Arco Arena (the most famous Devil's home stadium in the league at the time). Bryant's 30 points and the Sharks' 28 points are still unstoppable duo. But the rest of the Lakers only scored 33 points.
In addition to Weber and Bibby, the Kings also had Divac and Turkoglu, and most importantly, Peja, a "Slavic Arrow" who had stopped injured two games, returned.
In the sixth game, the Lakers were forced to the edge of the cliff, the Sharks cut 41 points and 17 rebounds, And Bryant also had 31 points, 11 boards and 5 assists, but the Lakers' third scoring point was only Fox, who scored 11 points. And the king is still in full bloom.
But there was only one protagonist in that scene, the referee.
In the sixth game, they gave the Lakers 40 free throws, especially in the fourth quarter, 21 of the 31 points the Lakers scored came from free throws. In the end, the Lakers took the game to the seventh in a 106-102 draw.
NBA referee Tim Donagi, who later went to jail for "betting on the goal," happened to be one of the three referees on duty, and in his later memoirs he confirmed that "at that time the league did not want the series to end with six games."
But the Kings flinched in the worst of the seven battles, and in their home arena, where the whole league smelled discolored, they suddenly lost the courage to fight the Lakers.
The Lakers showed their championship spirit in the most critical moments, with the Sharks 35 points and 13 rebounds, Kobe Bryant 30 points, 10 boards and 7 assists, Horry 16 points, Fox 13 points and Fisher 13 points. In the "win or go home" seven-and-die battle, the Lakers started and scored in double figures for the first time.
In that game, Weber only had 20 points on 9 of 21 and Peja 8 points, and only Bibby scored 29 points on 11 of 25 of 25 that constantly caused trouble for the Lakers.
In the end, 112-106, the Lakers defeated their strongest opponent of the year to advance to the Finals. Compared to this set of Mars-to-Earth collisions, the Lakers finals 4-0 to kill the Nets is simply a daily punch to work.
Their three-game winning streak was already set at the end of the spectacular Western Conference Finals.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, the regrets of those who lose</h1>
But the Lakers and Bulls are lucky after all, in the most difficult third year, each has the peak of the "ok combination" and Jordan dragging the whole team forward, while there are key killers such as Parkerson and Horry who stand up in life and death. The most important thing is that the most terrible injuries have not found their core players.
The Warriors and Durant of 2019 aren't the only unlucky guys, the Magicians and Lakers went through it once thirty years ago.
In the 1988 Finals, the Lakers fought seven games before the Pistons completed the defense. Ambitious, they even persuaded the 41-year-old to fight for another year, hitting a three-game winning streak that only Bill Russell had completed at the time.
But when they reached the 1989 finals, they found that the opponent was still a fierce and vicious Piston.
And most damningly, The team's starting quarterback and defensive Assassin's first choice, Byron Scott, was injured.
In the first game, the Assassins scored 24 points and 9 assisted the game highest, and the Pistons went down first.
In the second game, the Detroit Lakers desperately resisted, with six people in doubles, but the opponent could not beat the sudden rush of Dumas with 33 points, 0-2 behind.
But the doom is not over, the third game back to Los Angeles, the Lakers wanted to recover the lost ground, but the Magician left the field injured in the opening five minutes. Even though Tiangou and Worthy fought hard to score 50 points, they still didn't play the Pistons, 110-114.
In the fourth game, the Lakers have no fighting spirit, even if Varcy cut 40 points, it still can't stop the Pistons from winning the championship in Los Angeles, allowing the NBA to briefly enter the "dark age" ruled by them.
But in 1991, they were defeated by the 29-year-old Jordan and declined, and in the NBA, a league with overflowing talents and a group of heroes, it was too difficult to beat everyone for three consecutive years.
The Lakers tried in 2011, but the 33-year-old Kobe Bryant could no longer ask Gasol, Athai, and Bynum to maintain their former morale and morale.
LeBron tried in 2014, but the comeback Spurs turned the misfortune of the previous year's defeat into a blazing fire of revenge, a 4-1 successful revenge, and completely broke the heat.
The Spurs have also tried, winning more than 50 games each season in the nine years of 99-07 and winning championships in four odd-numbered years, which can be called the "Silver Dynasty".
But whenever they try to finish defending their titles, they are always beaten by stronger opponents, injuries, and even luck.
After winning the championship in 1999, he met the peak of the "ok combination",
After winning the championship in 2003, he was sent away by Fisher's "0.4 seconds kill" the following year.
After winning the title in 2005, Manu's stupid foul in the seventh game of the 2006 Western Conference Finals gave Dirk a 2+1 equalizer, and finally lost in extra time.
After winning the championship in 2007, the next year met the more mature Kobe Bryant, followed by Gasol and Odom.
They were the team with the best chance of reaching a triple crown after the "ok combination", but fate repeatedly joked with them.
Think about how great Duncan and the Spurs are, and you know how hard it is to win a triple title.