Five key words review: The 2023-24 regular season NBA has really "changed".

The 2023-24 regular season has come to an end with arguably the most suspenseful finale in NBA history, and it's been a season full of changes, from the competitive landscape, to innovative formats, to related rules.

These changes have pushed the Jin Ge Iron Horse on the court to rush forward, and converged into a brilliant picture of the 2023-24 regular season, let us use five key words to tell the story of this season, and review the endless and courageous progress of basketball.

Keyword 1: Era

From James' 2012 championship to Curry's fourth championship in 2022, ten years belong to the reign of Jandoku, and together they have supported a basketball era.

The 2023-24 season is the arrival of a new era in the NBA, Jokic made the basketball game look like an easy game, averaging 26 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists per game, 68 double-doubles, 25 triple-doubles, smiling and turning into "Thanos" on the court, and the third MVP trophy is beckoning not far away.

Jokic and his Nuggets are not as high-profile as the Cosmos back then, but their low-key but also have the power to destroy the rock, they are the strongest in the NBA today, and they are the protagonists of the new basketball era.

If Jokic is the male No. 1, Doncic is the male No. 2. When you think that he has been strong for four consecutive years, he uses the game to show you that he can be stronger, averaging 33.9 points per game to dominate the scoring list, and 73 points per game is the first in the season, and he is only 24 years old. Every year, there are questions about whether Doncic has reached the ceiling, and he is breaking through the so-called ceiling set by the outside world every year, and the ceiling of combat power is unfathomable.

The plot of youth without limits has been fully interpreted in the 2023-24 season, 26-year-old Tatum and 27-year-old Jaylen Brown led the Celtics to dominate the record list, the only 60+ wins in the league (64 wins), and the Boston double Tanhua can already be included in the group of the Mesozoic generation in the wave of newcomers in the league, because the younger new forces are rising strongly.

Before the start of the season, if the Thunder would win the first place in the West, probably not many people would believe it, but the 25-year-old Alexander led this youth team to do it. Last season's selection was just the scenery on Alexander's growth road, this season continued to maintain an average of 30+ points per game, and also ranked second on the steals list, with the performance of both offensive and defensive outputs, leading the Thunder to the first 50+ win season (57 wins) after 2016, 2016 is Durant's last season in the Thunder, and the glory of Russian basketball finally shines again after eight years.

Also paying tribute to the glory days of the team's history are the 22-year-old Edwards and his Timberwolves, "Huazi" four years and four big steps, this season in addition to a career-high 26 points per game, there is also an improvement in defensive level, leading the Timberwolves to 56 wins to create the second-best regular season record in team history. Prior to this season, the only Timberwolves won 55 games or more was in the 2003-04 season, during the Garnett era in Minneapolis, and now a new generation of Wolves has taken over.

Keyword 2: Nova

How much hope you carry, and how much doubt you will endure, and Wembanyama is like that, he is known as the strongest champion after James, and he is also suspected of being tall and thin in the NBA.

Wembanyama gave time-limited protection to the Spurs, averaging 21 points and 10.6 rebounds per game and an unrivaled 3.6 blocks in the league under the premise of averaging less than 30 minutes per game.

Somewhat similar to Wembanyama is Holmgren, although due to the team's role positioning and other reasons, Holmgren's ball possession is limited, but his average of 16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game has become an important driving force for the Thunder's rapid development in the West.

Wembanyama and Holmgren represent the NBA's new generation of interior players, tall but not slow, with agility to switch defenses, three-point shooting and basket protection, and a guaranteed range and defensive area.

Keyword 3: reform

The launch of the mid-season tournament has refreshed the content of the NBA competition format, with a single game elimination, and the winner gets the prize, from the game mode to the reward method, raising the enthusiasm of teams and players to participate, forming a new ratings explosion point in the regular season.

In the first mid-season match, Zhan Mei led the Lakers to the top, in the context of the replacement of new and old league stars, and the emergence of new upstarts in the competition pattern, the Lakers' good and bad performance seems to be difficult to match the label of the championship, but in the mid-season This is a winner-win framework, the Lakers, who have the advantage of size and rich experience in the knockout round, have become the big winners of the midseason.

Mid-season is a successful attempt to make the game even more exciting, and a great game requires good players to put in the performance. In response to the trend of load management in the past few years, the NBA has come up with a new rule that only 65 games can be awarded, and NBA players, especially stars, usually have bonuses linked to awards in their contracts, and the new rules are equivalent to directly stimulating players to play as many games as possible from an economic point of view.

Take Kawhi Leonard, for example, as a representative of load management, played 68 games this season, which is a record high for the number of games played since the 2016-17 season, and returned to the All-Star team, and the new 65 games are immediately visible in the "small card".

The NBA has also adjusted the scale of blowing penalties this season, especially in the middle and late stages of the regular season, referees encourage more physical confrontation and improve defensive freedom, which forms a team with good defense and is more likely to get the ideal record.

The first to fourth places in the defensive efficiency list are the Timberwolves, Celtics, Magic and Thunder, the Celtics have the first record in the league, the Thunder and the Timberwolves are ranked first and third in the West, respectively, and the Magic are the dark horses in the East to lock up the playoffs for the first time since 2020. The Knicks can finish second in the East, and the Cavaliers can take fourth place in the East, which is inseparable from their defensive efficiency in the top 10 in the league, and the Rockets once saw the hope of the playoffs.

Keyword 4: intense

It is unimaginable that before the last game day of the regular season, except for the Celtics first in the East, the Bulls and Hawks in the ninth and tenth in the East, the Clippers fourth in the West, and the Mavericks fifth in the West, all other rankings related to the playoffs are in suspense and need to be seen on the closing day.

The suspense of the ranking is so extreme that it is rare in the history of the NBA.

Eighteen teams have won at least 45 games this season, compared to 10 teams that won 45 last season. This season's competition in the West is even more hellish, the top ten in the West are at least 46 wins, the top five in the West are all 50 wins, the Lakers' 47 wins in the West last season can be ranked fourth in the West through the playoffs, and the eighth in the West this season can only play the play-offs.

The fierce competition is rooted in the stable basic market of the Mesozoic generation at the star level, and the new generation has played a piece of the sky, and the star resources are no longer concentrated in a few teams, but many teams have very capable trump cards. At the same time, the league adjusted the scale of blowing penalties to improve the impact of defense on the game, so that some teams that are not outstanding in offensive ability but particularly defense can play well, such as the Cavaliers, who are 16th in the league in offensive efficiency, but seventh in the league in defensive efficiency, and have fought out the fourth place in the East by relying on strong defense.

Keyword 5: veteran

The era of Janduku is passing, but Janduku is still the top of the NBA, they are not only high traffic, although the combat power of the game has decreased from the peak, but they are still at the top of the league and are still refreshing history.

Curry expanded his streak of at least one three-pointer to 268 games, Durant scored more than 28,000 points, and raised his ranking to eighth on the NBA's all-time scoring list, James became the first Mr. 40,000 points in NBA history, and reached the NBA career total points, total rebounds, and total assists of 40,000+10,000+10,000 milestones.

Durant's Suns barely caught the last bus to the playoffs (sixth in the West), James's Lakers and Curry's Warriors are both in the play-in area, the Warriors are ranked tenth in the West, and the play-offs have only one life.

However, the play-offs and the subsequent playoffs are coming, and the hard resolution of the stars will have a greater impact on the game, and last season's Lakers went all the way from the play-offs to the Western Conference finals.

Conclusion: The end is also the beginning

The end of the regular season means the beginning of the play-offs and playoffs, whether the hegemony of the Mesozoic generation is stable, whether the new generation can go further, and whether the afterglow of the veterans can bloom more dazzlingly, waiting for the answer in the next games.

The regular season has been so exciting, the play-offs and playoffs will be even better.