(Ask for a commuter pass)

"We played well in this game, we did everything we could, it was our normal level, but luck didn't get on our side in the end, the Boston Celtics played a great game, Coach Z? He's always been one of the best coaches in the league, he's successful on any team, but his achievements in Boston are still amazing, but in the end, congratulations to them, congratulations to them for winning the first place in the East, but the winner will be us in the next meeting."

At the post-game press conference of this game, Grizzlies head coach Jerry West looked depressed, although he kept saying that he was satisfied with the team's performance in this game, but it was obvious that the coach was not satisfied with the loss of this game, in fact, the Grizzlies did a good job in this game without hanging any aspect, but they never thought that there would be an interior line that made them powerless, which disrupted all their plans and deployments. {}

And in Jerry West's view, Yao Ming's performance in this game is definitely an accident, among all the current interior lines in the league, the only interior lines that can have such scoring dominance are the Lakers' O'Neal and the Spurs' Duncan, and even the Timberwolves' Garnett may not have such a strong scoring dominance.

"Yao Ming? Yes, he's a great young player, and in my opinion he's the best of all the rookies this season, Kwame and Gasol? I haven't played against these two guys yet, but in my opinion, even if these two are very good, they can't compare to Yao Ming, that's my opinion, because the rookies who can be better than Yao Ming are probably the previous Mourning, Duncan and O'Neal, and obviously Gasol and Kwame are not."

Although he was not convinced by Yao Ming's game in his heart, the legendary general manager still gave the best player of the game the highest rating. This also made Zhuang Fei on the side a little surprised. He rarely heard Jerry West compliment a player like this, Zhuang Fei remembered that when the general manager was with the Lakers, he often stood up and commented on one or two players every once in a while, and many times the Lakers godfather said it in a critical tone. In the American basketball world, this 'legendary general manager' is a well-known 'poisonous tongue'.

However, Zhuang Fei understood after a little second thought, if he lost to a team or a player in the NBA, then he should not belittle the opponent, and to belittle the opponent is to belittle himself. At this point, Zhuang Fei still needs to learn from this Jerry West.

"I totally agree with Mr. Jerry, it was a great game on both sides, it was a fluke that we won this game even though it was the Boston Celtics, and there were a lot of things that were not possible before, and this kind of accident may not happen once in a season or even several seasons."

When Zhuang Fei was asked about his views on this game, Coach Z was also extremely modest, constantly echoing Jerry West's words, which also made the following reporters and Jerry West himself a little speechless. {}

"Of course, we are not without our shortcomings in this game. We had a lot of defensive problems in this game, especially the leakage of the interior defense, and our interior line still lacks tacit understanding in defense. Obviously we need to improve on this point."

When the reporters asked Zhuang Fei to summarize the game. Zhuang Fei did not repeat Jerry West's words as reporters expected, but directly bombarded the team's interior defense. In fact, the interior defense of the Boston Celtics in this game is not bad, at least it did not give the Grizzlies too many opportunities, of course, for Boston's interior defense, the whole league knows one or two, this season This problem has been considered Boston's biggest weakness for a long time, the key to this problem is of course not the team's big forward Jermaine O'Neal, as an international player, but also a Chinese insider, Yao Ming did not systematically learn defensive positions and defensive tactics when he was in China before, The Boston Celtics are admittedly poor on the inside defensively. If it weren't for the Grizzlies' center offensive ability in this game, Yao Ming would not have been able to put all his energy into the offensive end, and he would not have had such a brilliant performance in this game. …,

But saying such things under the victory of this game somewhat surprised Rywest and reporters, Coach Z rarely reveals his team's scars, this Chinese is quite short-guarded, and the player who was exposed by him performed so well in this game.

In fact, for Zhuang Fei, he is really reluctant to speak ill of his players, which is a fact, but after this game, Zhuang Fei can imagine how these American media will tout Yao Ming, and Zhuang Fei is very relieved about Yao Ming, this Chinese inner line is not like Wang Zhizhi' Delicate', and he doesn't need his care very much, but after all, this is also a young man, for any young person, no matter how much they can resist pressure, it is their common problem to be easily affected by the outside world, at this time, there are already so many people ready to praise him, so Zhuang Fei naturally has no need to be the same as others, he just needs to pour cold water on the side. Just like this time, Yao Ming's defensive problems were brought out, so that even if these people touted it, they would not dare to tout Yao Ming as an 'omnipotent god man'.

"Not satisfied with Yao Ming's performance? No, I'm happy with his performance, it was an epic performance and I'm very happy to see it, he's a star in our team now and I don't think anyone in the world will say he didn't have a great performance tonight."

Originally, when these people thought that Zhuang Fei had an opinion on Yao Ming, Zhuang Fei praised Yao Ming, which also made these reporters a little confused about what Zhuang Fei meant.

In fact, Zhuang Fei's idea is very simple, he will not deliberately belittle a player's performance, nor will he excessively praise a player's performance, this game Yao Ming scored 26 points in the second half, and scored 32 points in the whole game to create the highest score in his career, such a performance is indeed worthy of anyone's praise, Zhuang Fei will naturally not be surprised.

"And what about Maddie? He had a terrible performance in this game and it looked like he was defeated against Carter."

When the reporter asked about the performance of Maddie and Carter in this game, even Jerry West, who was already a little absent-minded, sobered up and looked at Zhuang Fei expectantly, he really wanted to know what Zhuang Fei thought of these two players, in fact, Jerry West loved these two people very much in his heart, and Carter was his disciple. And Maddie's talent amazes him. While Maddie's performance in this game looked awkward, it wasn't much for Jerry West.

"Well, Tracy was really bad in this game, maybe his worst game of the season. Especially after comparing it with Carter," Zhuang Fei looked at the surprised reporter below and smiled.

Maddy scored 14 points on 5-of-19 shooting and dished out six assists, the lowest performance of the season in any respect, while Carter, who was across from him, had 32 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds on 12-of-22 shooting. Easily another quasi-triple-double with a score of 30+.

"But in my opinion, Maddie's defeat in this game is not a bad thing, he should understand that the gap between himself and Carter is definitely not the gap between sixth and first in the MVP rankings, I believe that in the next game against the Grizzlies, you will see a different selling point" When Zhuang Fei finally finished with a smile, the reporters below also sighed, while Jerry West on the side nodded, in fact, for him, his own thoughts were similar to Zhuang Fei, For a player with excellent talent, it is impossible to fall twice in the same place.

Of course, Jerry West judged from past experience that Maddie would grow to another level next time. As for Zhuang Fei, he is well aware of Maddy's psychological state after the game, and the Boston Celtics' leading player did not have too much frustration, and even returned to the locker room after the game to talk and laugh. As if the game didn't leave any impact on him. It's just that Zhuang Fei saw some other things in Maddie's eyes, such as the flame hidden in the depths. …,

Zhuang Fei is sure that his team's forward swingman will work harder to catch up after this game. So there's no need for him to worry. Maddy's performance in this game is not so important, and the final victory in this game is his own team.

"Mr. Zhuang, after you beat the Grizzlies in this game, you will go straight from third place to first place with a 15-5 record, do you think your team can maintain this ranking for now? Ahead of this game, Heat head coach Pat Riley thinks the game will be theirs for the first place in the East, what do you think? ”

In fact, there is a lot of content involved in this game, for the previous heroes in the East, Zhuang Fei and the Grizzlies, who are new to the East this season, are outsiders, and they are extremely vigilant about such 'outsiders', but they are a little helpless about the strength and record of these two teams.

"I don't know what the final ranking of the East will be this season, but I will understand Mr. Riley's thoughts" Zhuang Fei smiled and glanced at the reporter below and said: "Mr. Riley is not the only one who thinks that his team can reach the top of the East, I also think that after the end of this season, the first place in the East will be our Boston Celtics, of course, I believe that Mr. West next to me also thinks so" When Zhuang Fei said this, he deliberately squeezed his eyes at Jerry West, which also made Jerry West on the side smile bitterly.

"So Mr. Pat Riley's words don't mean anything, of course, now our team is the first in the East, I'm happy about that, our team is not the strongest, for us we still have a lot to do, but one thing for sure is we will do our best to be the first in the East this year, of course, we are always ready for any team to challenge, including the Heat"

For Zhuang Fei's straightforward determination, these reporters also couldn't stop nodding, Zhuang Fei's words were undoubtedly in front of Jerry West's face to Pat Riley, this is another big news for them, and Jerry West's eyes on the side also narrowed after hearing Zhuang Fei's words, and it was obvious that the fighting spirit in the legend's heart also came up.

Perhaps it will also be from this press conference that the situation in the east will be more interesting

After the home victory over the Grizzlies, the Boston Celtics won the battle for the top spot, and at the same time, it also made many bookmakers and media dumbfounded in the United States, the Boston Celtics seem to have embarked on the fast track, and there has been some unstoppable taste, of course, this victory is also an extremely memorable thing for Boston Celtics fans, this is the first time they have topped the Eastern Conference when they were in Bird, of course, after this game, Yao Ming is also officially in the field of vision of all NBA coaches, The Boston Celtics' new core player may have considerable difficulties in future games, and now no one in the NBA will treat him as an ordinary rookie or role player, and the Chinese interior will 'enjoy' star treatment from now on.

December 8, 2001, North Shore Gardens, Boston

The Boston Celtics were challenged by the Phoenix Suns from the West immediately after the victory over the Grizzlies, and this season the team is also rebuilding, and this summer the team sent away the team's boss Kidd in exchange for the lone wolf Marbury, and now compared to the Nets that have rebuilt successfully, the Suns are worse than before, and what is even worse is that the two bosses of this team, Penny Hardaway and the lone wolf Marbury, are arguing.

Although there are all kinds of indications that this game is an easy game for the Boston Celtics, who are the first in the East, the final process of this game is surprising, because the game was tied at the end of the fourth quarter, the Boston Celtics played the first overtime of the season, and the two teams also played a big score of 17-10 in overtime, and the final result of this game was that the Boston Celtics defeated the Suns 127-120 at home. In this game, Maddy scored a triple-double of 38 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds, which also swept away the resentment of Carter in the last game.

The win in this game cemented the Boston Celtics' first place in the East.