Seven males compete for supremacy and chase deer in the Central Plains.
In the blink of an eye, as the Sun swept through the Nuggets, only the last seven NBA teams remained this season. Throughout the ages, these giants who are still fighting seem to be strong contenders for the O'Brien Cup, but there is only one team that stands out in it: The Atlanta Hawks, this team is still alive?
In essence, I don't know if you found it, the first round of this season's NBA playoffs, the process is tortuous and arduous, but the result is not too unexpected, all 8 groups of first-round showdowns Only one team has achieved the next gram, that is, the Eagles.
It's a team that just won 20 a year ago and is still 11th in the East in the middle of the season. But in the playoffs, they not only unexpectedly broke the Knicks, but even reversed the 76ers yesterday Beijing time, forcing the Eastern Boss into the Battle of Tianwangshan.
No matter how far they can go in the end, with their performances in the second half and playoffs, the Eagles are already the well-deserved dark horse of the NBA in 2021. But if there's anything more unexpected than the Hawks' performance, it's probably their number one, Trey Young.
For the past three weeks, I don't know how many friends have been curious like me: Is this really the Trey Young we knew before?
Like many of the superstars who are playing in the playoffs, Young has been plagued by injuries lately, and in the 4th game with the 76ers, he just sits on the bench and wraps a thick ice pack around his right shoulder. However, unlike other players, Young has been trying to hide his injury situation, and even coach Nate McMillan only discovered this on the day of the game, and he couldn't help but stare at Trey Young with wide eyes.
"He looked at me and he obviously didn't know about it," Young said after the game, "so I was relieved, 'Hey coach, we're okay, let's go and win the game together.'" ”
Injuries have clearly had an impact on Trey Young, the right shoulder has bothered the players, and we saw it in Chris Paul a few days ago, and Young's opponents, in addition to injuries, have Ben Simmons, who is half a head taller than him in front of him — ben Simmons, who just made a full vote for the NBA's best defensive team first team on the day of the game, is simply the biggest nightmare for all the NBA guard players in the game today, after all, they can't meet a bigger defender than Simmons on the guard line.
Trey Young is 1 meter 85 and 81 kilograms, and Ben Simmons's official registration information is now 2 meters 11 and 108 kilograms, which is a match that is unlikely to occur in indiscriminate combat events, which has become the biggest focus of the 76ers Eagles series. Immediately after losing G1 at home, the 76ers decided to take turns guarding Young with Ben Simmons and Sebel, who was selected for defensive second.
So, in the three games that followed, Trey Young shot 39.0 percent from the field and 7-of-24 from three-point range.
If this is trey Young, whom we used to know, his shooting efficiency is so inefficient that his game influence is likely to fade away, and he will become a defensive black hole, a mistake machine, and a ball-eater.
But the reality is that Trey Young survived, trying to climb the mountains and look for every hint of willow. Trey Young eventually delivered 18 assists, a career record, which is not enough to describe the specialness of these 18 assists.
He's facing one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, with three players from the 76ers named to the All-Defensive Team, and no one has been able to deliver more than 15 assists in front of them this season;
Moreover, this is on the playoff stage, Young's single 18 assists can rank second in the history of the Hawks playoff team, and the record holder is Doug Rivers, who is standing opposite that day;
What's more, Young still scored 25 points, making him the second player to score 25 points and 18 assists in the playoffs since Tim Hardaway in 1991.
And when people are praising Paul as the god of assists and turnovers, Trey Young also played a game with 18 assists and 2 turnovers, 25 points, 18 assists and 2 turnovers in a single game in the playoffs, such games magicians have not been, Paul has not been, Kidnash and Stockton have not been, and the NBA has only had 3 times since statistics.
Finally, this season is just the first playoff trip of Trae Young's career, and he's only 22 years old now, and he can do all of these things, not just Tre Young, but Trae Youngest.
Coach McMillan, who took over the team halfway through this season, was also a well-known tough guy in the player era, and was injured in the 1996 Finals G4, which was a regret in McMillan's life, and he always believed that if he could play in the Finals, then his supersonic speed of 2 wins and 1 loss in his first 3 games had a good chance to beat the invincible Bulls.
So, when McMillan saw his disciple playing with an injury, he couldn't help but sigh infinitely, "That's when he took off his warm-up suit before the game, I found that his right shoulder had been wrapped very thickly," McMillan said, "His shoulder is obviously something wrong, but he didn't complain a word." He lost some of the balls he could hit on a daily basis, but he persevered, which is really a strong child. ”
Of course, it wouldn't be fair to say that Trae Young was the only culprit for the Hawks trailing by 18 points and eventually reversing the 76ers. Bogdanovic's projections, John Collins' energy, Capela's rebounding were all credited, and even the Eagles were lucky enough to encounter Embiid's physical slump on the night - this is not a situation that everyone wants to see, but Embiid's second half 12 of 0, the whole game 4 of 20 objectively left the Hawks a chance, especially the last-minute layup, Embiid's knee was loose, and he actually flew up.
But the snake is headless, the eagle is headless, the Eagles are the most inexperienced team in the current final seven, and too many of their players are on the playoff stage for the first time. As you can imagine, if their leader were a stage-timid, nervous, poorly chosen player, the Hawks would never have been able to climb out of the pit of trailing by 18 points against a formidable opponent.
So John Collins said bluntly: "I can feel that in every game so far in the playoffs, he is our leader, his snakehead." ”
I don't know how many people remember that John Collins and Trey Young were once rumored to be at odds at the beginning of the season.
They had argued bitterly in video lessons, and Trae Young's passing to Collins had dropped significantly compared to the past two seasons. Not only that, because of a sharp brake to create a foul, Trey Young was questioned by his idol Nash that "that's not basketball", and his wind rating once fell to the bottom, a year ago was the All-Star starter Young, this time not even fishing for the backup identity.
But in the world of competitive sports, victory can heal all the cracks, and the strong will naturally win the respect they deserve. When Trae Young began his first playoff journey from Madison Square Garden, all the doubts were left behind, he almost forgot about himself on the field, teammate Bogdanovic exclaimed "he is a Ferrari", the Knicks could not catch up with his speed, could only watch him do whatever he wanted on the court: throwing a shot, sneering in the face of insults, bowing goodbye, he became the first player since Jordan to play in Madison's three consecutive playoff 30+ players, and like Reggie Miller The villain's character and the entire city of New York – Spike Lee, 18,000 live fans, the great basketball Makkah? Sorry guys, Trey Young's playoff career began with conquering Gotham.
Up to G4 against the 76ers, Trae Young has played nine playoff games, averaging 28.3 points and 10.7 assists per game, and not a single game has scored under 20 points. It doesn't seem complicated to say, that is, "listen to the coach".
The Eagles' former coach, Lloyd Pierce, was the only coach in Young's NBA career, but after McMillan took over halfway, the team quickly established a tacit understanding.
During a few days off after the regular season, McMillan sent a text message to Trey Young, saying, "The playoffs are coming, and you're the one who made it." ”
McMillan said it wasn't just an incentive, it was a conclusion he had come to after a full season of going from assistant coach to executive manager, looking up close, because he decided that Trey Young had one of the most important qualities, "He's a fearless man." ”
Young is by no means a player without flaws, and it can even be said that among the star players in the NBA, he is the most weak and the most impeccable. But with the handsome heart, McMillan discovered the most precious quality of this young man, because he was fearless, he should be born for the big scene.
"I knew about it before he said it," Trae Young joked about the manager's text message, "I've always had faith in myself and I know I'm born for it." Well, no kidding, seriously, when your coach believes in you so much and injects that confidence into you, you feel a tremendous amount of power. ”
So Trey Young also accepted many of McMillan's suggestions for improvement in the playoffs, and the coach wanted him to reduce his mistakes, and his turnovers dropped from an average of 4.2 in the career regular season to 3.1 times in this year's playoffs; the coach wanted him to reduce his bad three-point shots, and he made corrections from the regular season stage. That's why we're witnessing an unprecedented Trey Young, a best Trey Young, a Trae Young who was born to play in the playoffs.
Their showdown with the 76ers isn't over yet, and they're going to Philadelphia again at King's Hill, and if they want to win the series, the Hawks will have to conquer Philadelphia again.
It's certainly an extremely difficult task, but Trey Young is a guy who can suck energy from huge boos, and the Hawks have won 3 times on the road so far in the playoffs, how can you deny them in advance?
Trey Young's basketball life, because of the deal on the night of the 2018 draft, was destined to be associated with the name Luka Doncic.
If Doncic's growth was almost smooth before, Trey Young's journey was relatively bumpy. People used to laugh at him, how dare they call themselves and Doncic as "the magician and big bird of the new era", but in the 2021 playoffs, Trey Young almost overtook in a corner.
Doncic is great enough, but Trey Young has achieved a late strike in the playoff rounds and games he has won, and Chinese fans have given him the wonderful name of "Yang No Regrets" and has become worthy of the name again.
You can still question him, deny him, and even some away fans may not be able to control their mouths and want to spray him, but John Collins said it well: "He is a man who will use all the negative energy as fuel, those who want to continue to humiliate him, please continue, he will never bother with it." 」 ”
Because those who can't kill him will eventually make him stronger.