Chapter 739: Regaining the Championship
After the Boston Celtics defeated the Trail Blazers, they also ended their entire March schedule, and in all 75 games before March, the Boston Celtics achieved a 66-9 record that is far higher than many people's expectations, you know, the Celtics' record before the All-Star is 50-7, that is, in the last 28 games, the Boston Celtics only lost 2 games, and it is precisely because of this performance, The Boston Celtics are now two and a half games ahead of the league's second-place Lakers with seven games remaining, and the Lakers' current record is 63-11 in 74 games.
After all, it is basically unrealistic for the Lakers to expect the Boston Celtics to lose two games in the last 7 games, after all, the Boston Celtics only lost 2 games in the first 28 games, and in the next 7 games, the Boston Celtics' opponents are not those teams that can really pose too much threat to the Celtics. In the future, the biggest opponent of the Celtics' game is the Wizards, who are third in the East, and the Wizards are also one of the most feared teams of the Boston Celtics.
It can be said that the Wizards' win rate against the Celtics or against Zhuang Fei has always been very low. So in this case, although it is close to the end of the game, it was originally an extremely nervous time for many other NBA teams, and this is also a time when the sprint needs to heat up. But in such a hot time, the Celtics are very relaxed, much easier than the previous time, and even at this time, the Celtics can adjust their state for the playoffs during this time.
"Zhuang, you mean to give me all these tickets? You're not kidding."
April 1, 2004, April Fool's Day, Office of the President, Boston Celtics. The assistant coach of the Boston Celtics looked at a delicate silver box in his hand, judging from this very exquisite box, the contents of this box are also absolutely extremely precious, and in fact, the contents of this box are treasures for all basketball practitioners or basketball fans or even players in the United States, because this box contains tickets to this year's NCAA finals, and in the United States, no one will give such things to others easily.
This is not the reason for the price, for them NBA coaches, although the salary is not very high, but the budget to buy an NCAA finals ticket is still willing to pay, but this thing is priceless, and like Zhuang Fei, it is unprecedented to send a box by box, and it can even be said to be a strange addition, if other people in the United States who have worked hard for NCAA finals tickets know that Zhuang Fei is like this, it is estimated that they will come directly to the door.
"Although today is April Fool's Day, I don't plan to joke," Zhuang Fei said with a helpless look at his assistant. Tickets have been given away, how can it be a joke, Zhuang Fei received a lot of tickets this year, this year's NCAA finals were held at the F.Z Memorial Arena in Windsor City, the NCAA finals are changed courts every year, and this year, it is hosted by the Wake Forest Devils Deacons, and it is precisely because of this.
Zhuang Fei received 100 NCAA Finals tickets from Wake Forest this year, which would cost more than $100,000 if it were only worth it in the world. So for Wake Forest, they're willing to give that to the greatest man in their team's history. Moreover, the F.Z Memorial Arena of this year's finals is named after Zhuang Fei, F.Z is the English abbreviation of Zhuang Fei, and the full name of Wake Forest's home stadium is Feng.Zhuang-Memorial-Coliseum.
For such a head coach, his social circle is also very wide, so it is estimated that a lot of tickets are needed, after all, the home stadium of this year's final is in Wake Forest, and there will definitely be many people looking for Zhuang Fei to ask for tickets at that time. If you give less, then those who want to find Zhuang Fei to ask for tickets will not be able to ask for it in the end, so many have no face, Zhuang Fei is the face of this university, in this case, the president of Wake Forest University gave Zhuang Fei one-tenth of all 1000 free tickets this year, which is also the most bizarre thing in the history of American basketball, but what surprised the president of Wake Forest University is that although Zhuang Fei is now famous, his social circle is really not very wide.
In addition to some basketball coaches or some players, he does not have too many social complexities, and for basketball coaches who have a good relationship with Zhuang Fei, such as some college coaches John Wooden, NBA coach Pat Riley and others, they can also get free tickets and do not need Zhuang Fei at all, so these 100 tickets were finally sent by Zhuang Fei everywhere, and all the players of the Celtics were sent by Zhuang Fei once, and they were all more than two people, even the senior management of the Celtics was also sent by Zhuang Fei. In the end, there were still leftovers, and in addition to being sent a lot by Zhuang Fei to the Timberwolves, they were all packed into a silver box and given to his assistant coach Xibodu.
It's just that for the coach who followed Van Gundy before and had never been to the NCAA finals, for him, the NCAA finals can only be a dream, where would he have thought that the coach he is following now is actually a handsome and rich, and in the end, when the assistant coach of the Boston Celtics looked at Stephen Green on the side, the coach, who is also produced by Wake Forest, also shook his head, and he also received 5 bonus tickets from Wake Forest University, which was enough for him.
"Tom, if you can't use it, you can give it away, I can't care about it anyway" In the end, Zhuang Fei also said with a smile, he really didn't want to deal with these extra tickets. It's too troublesome, it's better to hand it over to Xibodu to deal with, which can be regarded as the benefit of Zhuang Fei's hard work for his assistant this year. And in the end, Xibodu, who was still a little embarrassed, finally nodded reluctantly, looked at Zhuang Fei gratefully, and then accepted it.
Zhuang Fei was very happy to see that Thibodo had received all of these free tickets, and this year's NCAA Finals will be held on April 5, four days away, and in those four days, the Boston Celtics still have two games to play.
2 April 2004. On the first day after April Fool's Day, Kyle hosted the Golden State Warriors, the team's boss this year, Anthony Walker, after the fall. This team's current record has also become the second-to-last in the West, and Anthony Walker, a player who could play 25+8+5 two seasons ago, has now become a player who averages 18+7+4 per game, and more importantly, the shooting rate is amazingly low, and when attacking, he is basically only left to dry outside the three-point line, and the body is getting fatter and bigger, and the former Celtics boss has lost confidence and goal since he was completely defeated by Maddy.
And in this game, the Celtics naturally can't lose to Larry Hughes, who is now struggling to support the team alone, and even Fisher, the No. 3 man of the team who was exchanged from the Lakers, wants to seek change, but it is a dream to beat the Celtics by relying on these two people. And in the end, the result of this game was 122 to 86. Celtic won by 36 points at home. In this game, Maddy scored 20 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds in the third quarter, and the efficiency was still excellent, while Anthony Walker on the other side only scored 11 points and 4 rebounds, completely losing his previous domineering, and what is even more speechless is that the player made 8 three-pointers in 11 shots in the game. And after beating the Warriors at home, the Celtics challenged the Wizards, who are third in the East, on the road.
This team is now adjusting for the playoffs, like the Celtics, and they now pose no threat to the Celtics and Grizzlies, who are first and second in the East, and there is no chance of falling to fourth in the East, so the Celtics and Wizards are almost all benches in this game. In the end, the Celtics defeated the team 100-90 away, and after defeating the Wizards on April 4, the Celtics did not return to Boston, but flew directly to Windsor City, North Carolina with Zhuang Fei, in which the Wizards' players Nash and Jordan and Crawford and head coach D'Antoni also followed Zhuang Fei and the Celtics, apparently they also received a gift ticket from Zhuang Fei.
This year's NCAA finals are held at the home of Wake Forest, and this year's NCAA finals are against the ACC League's Wake Forest and the Big-East League, that is, the University of Connecticut in the Great East League, that is, the alma mater of Ray Allen and Hamilton, so today with the Celtics is also the Wizards' Hamilton, of course, his ticket is naturally not sent by Zhuang Fei, as the other side of this year's finals, UC also has some free tickets.
These two are NCAA's traditional giant teams, and Kangda's head coach Jim Cajon is also one of Zhuang Fei's best friends, plus Zhuang Fei's first defeat in his life and the first game was against Kangda, so these two teams are also very fateful, of course, such fate is definitely impossible to be friendly in this game.
Today, Zhuang Fei is not just a spectator watching the game at the scene, the whole United States knows that this stadium belongs to him, and he is also the greatest symbol of this place, the life-size statue of him outside the stadium door can prove this, in this case, this game for Zhuang Fei Although he is no longer the head coach of this team, but before the game starts, he is even busier than the head coach, whether it is the opening speech before the game or the interactive activities arranged by the TV station and the NCAA league with him and the fans and TV fans, It can be said that the warm-up part before the start of the game was all Zhuang Fei's figure, so the NCAA league and TV station were very premeditated to invite entertainment superstars to perform an hour before the game.
Obviously, Zhuang Fei's effect is much better than those entertainment superstars, especially in this arena, and in this case, Zhuang Fei also saves the NCAA league and CBS millions of dollars. Of course, no matter how lively it is before the game, it is also before the game, the protagonist of this game is still the two sides of the game, Wake Forest and Kangda, led by Chris Paul and Gerald Wallace and Yi Jianlian, Wake Forest against Ben Gordon and Okafor, Kangda is also the two strongest teams in NCAA this year, in the NCAA competition throughout the year, Wake Forest only lost two games and UC only lost four games, so this is a well-deserved final.
Of course, although the strength of the two teams is similar, Paul, Wallace and Yi Jianlian, who are known as the new big three of Wake Forest this year, are still more optimistic about the side, and the public opinion before the start of the game is so, because before that, Wake Forest has beaten the opponent by more than 15 points in five consecutive tournament games since the beginning of the championship, which can be said to show absolute dominance, you know, the last team to do this was Wake Forest in 1998, Wake Forest's back-to-back wins were over 25 points, and the team's 90 points in five consecutive games since entering the tournament is also a record.
The last team to do this was still the 1998 Wake Forest, when all the games in the Wake Forest Championship scored more than 100 points, so under such data analysis, although Kangda is also very strong, especially their team's inner line Okafor is still this year's champion, but it is clear that this is not enough for Wake Forest, especially this champion is in the opinion of many experts is unable to control the Chinese of Wake Forest, This year, the blocking combination of Chinese Yi Jianlian and Paul of Wake Forest can be said to have swept the entire NCAA, one can average 18 points and 10 assists per game, and the other can contribute 16 points and 7 rebounds per game.
It can be said that it is the most tacit combination of inside and outside in the NCAA, and on the other side, Ben Gordon and Okafor of Kangda are slightly worse, Kangda is the most traditional inside and outside team in the NCAA, this team is still a top outside shooter with a top inside line in the era of Ray Allen and Hamilton, and the same is true this year, but this year's combination of their inside and outside is still a level behind Wake Forest in tacit understanding, compared to Ben Gordon is not the kind of stable outside player like Ray Allen and Hamilton, It is precisely because Kang Da's strongest is not as strong as Wake Forest, so before this game, Wake Forest is likely to win the championship again after six years, and the betting company's odds for this game can also illustrate this, Wake Forest's odds are 1 to 1.5, plus home advantage, it can be said that Wake Forest's victory in this game is very stable.
In fact, the final score of this game was 92-81, and Wake Forest defeated Kangda at home, and won the NCAA championship again after Zhuang Fei. (To be continued.) )