If the scoring champion is considered the sharpest spear on the offensive end of a season, then the best defensive player is undoubtedly the toughest shield in the league during the season.

Like Howard and Link during the Magic period, they were the most successful draft picks before. Like Wallace, "African Mountain" Mutombo and others, the person who can win the best defensive player is generally able to support a team's defensive system, and such a player definitely deserves the title of the best defensive player in the league.

But defense is something that, to be honest, really hard to judge. The scoring champion only needs to look at the score data, and the MVP's record and data performance can often get a reliable answer. But on the defensive end, the level of defense is difficult to measure with statistics, and many times defense requires the efforts of the whole team, and it is difficult to quantify the defensive ability of individuals.

As a result, it's hard to judge a player's defensive performance based on statistics alone, and it's easy to have multiple criteria.

The annoyance of this difficulty in selecting the best defensive player has also led to many embarrassing incidents in the history of the NBA. Since the 1968-69 season when the All-Defensive Team was chosen, there have been three occasions when the best defensive player in the league has not been named to the All-Defensive Team!

The most recent was last season's Tyson, who won the Defensive Player of the Year award. Chandler, in the end, only relegated to the best defensive second team.

Even Mutombo, known as "the best defensive center in NBA history", has won the best defensive player once, but was not selected for the best defensive team.

And this time, in the eyes of many media outlets, Mark. Gasol is very likely not to even make it to the best defensive second team!

Because as far as we know so far, Chandler and Noah are likely to have more votes in the All-Defensive Team than Gasol.

If they do compare Gasol to Gasol in the end, Gasol will become the first best defensive player in NBA history who can't even make the All-Defensive Second Team.

In this regard, the media hyped it up, especially those who voted for Noah and Chandler, and they scoffed at the outcome of Gasol's award.

"Joaquin. Noah, averaging 2.1 blocks, 1.1 steals and 11.1 rebounds per game! Mark. What about Gasol? Averaged 1.7 blocks, 1.0 steals and 7.8 rebounds per game! He didn't have any stats better than Noah, but he won the best defensive player? ”

"Tyson. Chandler propped up the Knicks' defense, and one thing you need to know is that Chandler's partner at the No. 4 position is Anthony. Even so, he was able to protect the basket very well. Mark. How could Gasol be able to trample Chandler under his feet? ”

"When Gasol is on the floor, opponents concede 95.4 points per 100 possession of the Grizzlies. And in his absence, that number increases to 102.8 points. It's a gorgeous stat, but I'd say it's not just Gasol Jr., who isn't even the best defensive player on the Grizzlies. ”

"LeBron. James defended so well this season that he actually lost to a mere mark. Gasol? Amusing! ”

Mark. Gasol has faced many skepticism in his career so far, but not at once has the scale of the skepticism been.

Just won the first regular season award in his career, and instead of receiving praise but doubts, anyone will be frustrated.

Gasol is no exception.

"They voted for me for this award, and now it's good, they're all coming to question me again."

The next day, on the plane back to Memphis, Gasol looked at the newspaper and smiled self-deprecatingly.

In fact, not everyone questioned Gasol, after all, the best defensive player award was voted for by the media. It's just that during this time, the voices of doubt have overshadowed the voices of support.

"Don't read the newspapers, especially the sports section. Otherwise, you might even wonder if the journalists have a brain. Link reached out and snatched Gasol's newspaper from the side, and the award was in hand, and he didn't care what the reporters were doing.

"They said I couldn't play in the NBA, and what happened? We're in the Western Conference semifinals now, Mark! Concentrate and leave the idiots behind. After Link, he put on headphones for Gasol so that the Spaniard could relax.

Gasol nodded slightly, not paying any attention to the reporters' rhetoric.

Gasol prefers to listen to the voices of people he trusts more than journalists.

Seeing that Gasol's mood had calmed down, Link was also a lot more relieved.

Link doesn't question the value of Gasol's Defensive Player of the Year award, and as Gasol's teammate, Link is well aware of Gasol's importance on the defensive end.

It's true that Gasol doesn't have that exaggerated athleticism, so his block also looks "soft". However, 1.7 blocks per game is a lot of money, and in this era when the rules are trying to protect offensive players, it is almost impossible to average more than three blocks per game like Mutombo.

And many of Gasol's defensive abilities cannot be reflected in the statistics, such as his co-defense, such as his deterrence in the penalty area, etc.

It's true that the Grizzlies' overall defensive level is very high, which has caused Gasol's shine to be somewhat overshadowed. But Link's most intuitive feeling is that he is very comfortable handing over his back to Gasol. Even if he is broken through, Link won't worry too much. Because he knew that the penalty area was guarded by Spaniards.

The Gasol brothers actually had such an experience in the NBA, when the first year of Gasol joining the Lakers, the finals were abused by Garnett, and Pau Gasol was also questioned at that time.

But it turns out that without Pau Gasol, there would be no Kobe Bryant's last two championships.

Link believes that when the second round of the series begins, the doubts about Gasol Jr. will fade away.

In competitive sports, the results speak for themselves. When the Grizzlies make it out of the West, no one will question Gasol's worth as the best defensive player.

Right now, Link is more worried about the Clippers.

Following a 2-0 deficit to the Nuggets in Los Angeles, the Clippers have now stubbornly pulled the series to a 2-2 draw! Tonight, the Clippers are back at home, and they are likely to win three consecutive game points to get the game point!

Link sat back in his seat, turned on his computer, and watched the footage of the Clippers' two games.

After losing two home games in a row, the Clippers didn't let themselves go. In the third game, after trailing by 13 points in the fourth quarter, the Clippers were stunned to reverse the situation and finally overtake and win.

The Clippers' tenacious fighting spirit surprised Link. Speaking of which, the Grizzlies won the game with 68 wins, and the Clippers seemed to fight tenaciously to the end and did not admit defeat. In Link's mind, the Clippers have always been a team that always drops the chain in the playoffs. But at least so far, the Clippers are still strong.

In the fourth game of the series, Paul scored 35 points! Put Thai. Lawson was beaten by George. Carl scolded for being autistic.

Great. Lawson has always thought that he is also a superstar-level player, but this game, he was undoubtedly taught by Paul to be a man, and he also saw what it means to be a real superstar.

In the past, Paul would only actively attack on his own when it was critical moments, and the rest of the time he was mainly in tandem. But in this game, he explained what it means to "I can score if I just want to".

The "captain" refused to capsize this time.

In addition to Paul in the fourth game, Griffin, Billups, Barnes and others also played well.

On the Nuggets side, once they enter the fourth quarter, it is easy to collapse because there is no decisive character.

The two games that the Clippers have won in a row have indeed played their bones. Link wouldn't be surprised if the Clippers pull back four straight games to win the series against the Nuggets.

But if you really run into such a clipper, the grizzlies will be quite tricky. If you are not afraid of the strong, you are afraid of the one who cannot be killed.

The second round of the series could be more difficult than Link had anticipated at first.