Chapter 372: Draft Lottery and Conference Finals!

Friday, May 18, 2007, at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Accompanied by a whistle from the referee Bavetta.

The tiebreaker between the second-place Detroit Pistons in the East and the third-place Washington Wizards in the East ended.

110 to 108.

With Arenas' crazy 51 points, the Washington Wizards defeated the Detroit Pistons in an away game and became the last team to advance to the conference finals.

In this round of competition between the ultimate offensive team and the ultimate defensive team, the offensive team had the last laugh.

With the Pistons out.

The Eastern Conference also ended its dominance by the Pistons after 2002.

Since 2002, the Detroit Pistons' regular season record has been among the top two in the Eastern Conference every season, and they have also been able to enter the Eastern Conference finals in the playoffs.

Stable ones are scary, powerful ones are scary too.

In the past five years, the West is strong and the East is weak, the Pistons are even the only Eastern Conference team to fear.

In the past five years, the Pistons have been almost the only face of the Eastern Conference!

During this five-year period, the Pistons also won one of only two championships in the Eastern Conference.

And it's not the same as the Heat's controversial championship victory over the Mavericks.

The Pistons defeated the F4 Lakers in 2004 without any controversy, only admiration and respect.

Now, the most respected Eastern Conference team in the past five years has come to an end.

At the beginning of the season, Ben Wallace's departure had long signaled that it was time for the Pistons to call time.

The era of the Detroit Five that once suffocated everything is truly over.

It was the Washington Wizards and Arenas who ended the Pistons' dominance.

And their opponent in the Eastern Conference finals is the new ruler of the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics who advanced early!

The first game between the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards was played on May 21, 2007.

The Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards is a very interesting matchup.

The Boston Celtics have the Big Three of Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen.

The Washington Wizards have Arenas, Caron Butler, and Antawn Jamison.

After the showdown between the Celtics and Wizards was announced, experts across the country quickly made predictions about this matchup.

The Wizards are the dark horses in the Eastern Conference this year.

After the Wizards were controversially defeated by the Cavaliers led by James in the playoffs last year.

After making a comeback this year to avenge last year's defeat, it can be said that the more we fight, the better.

Even Arenas, the head player of the Wizards, showed very good defense in the playoffs.

Above-average on-ball defense.

Top-notch off-ball defense.

Coupled with Arenas' already domineering offense and physical strength.

This year is a year of transformation for Arenas.

Agent Zero, who can only score and is ready to assassinate and overwhelm others, has completely transformed from a general to a marshal in this year's playoffs.

"Eastern Conference Finals? Celtics? I have only one goal, the Finals, Yes!"

This is what Arenas said in an interview with the media after scoring 51 points in the tiebreaker with the Pistons.

In this year's playoffs, at the end of every game, Arenas would shout to Yes like this from afar.

At first no one took it seriously.

Let’s not talk about Wizards.

On the other side, the SuperSonics' opponent in the first round was the Mavericks, who were considered a historical team before the start of the playoffs!

The SuperSonics and Wizards meet in the finals.

Please stop making such international jokes.

But now, when Arenas shouted this sentence domineeringly again.

None of the reporters present had a look of disdain on their faces.

Because when Arenas shouts this sentence again, he has already stepped into the conference finals. If he goes one step further, it will really be the finals!

Arenas wasn't the first person to shout out Yes after the conference semifinals.

Not the first, not the second, not the third, not the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh...

The last time I shouted to Yes from afar, it was not just one person, but a team, a team whose entire destiny changed because of Yes!

Just like the team whose destiny was changed by Yes.

Arenas' fate was also changed by Yes.

In this year's playoffs, Yes is the best player in the Western Conference.

Then Arias is the best player in the Eastern Conference.

Arenas, who has completed his transformation, is nearly invincible on the entire Eastern backline.

In addition, his teammates have the help of two excellent offensive players, Jamison and Butler.

Even a defensive team like the Pistons can't hold him down.

Yes entered the playoffs and scored 30+ points in 9 consecutive games.

After Arenas entered the playoffs, he has scored 20+ points in 12 consecutive games!

After Arenas made a lot of noise in this year's playoffs, the whole world now knows that Arenas has changed so much in this year's playoffs entirely because of Yes.

"Yes is the first person in the NBA that I can't defeat with just offense. Even Kobe can't do this!"

"Facing Kobe, I can beat him with my offense. In the past few seasons, I don't think I have been worse than Kobe in any game!"

"But facing Yes, I found that no matter how I attacked, it was useless. I needed to stop his attack!"

"I'm not saying that Kobe is not as good as Yes, I'm just telling you that if I want to defeat Yes, I need to make tremendous efforts and changes, greater efforts and changes than before!"

"Now, I tell you, I did it!"

Arenas is the league's most famous hard worker.

After determining that Yes was the target to defeat, it was discovered that Yes could not be defeated by attacking alone.

In order to defend Yes without the ball, Arenas practiced off-the-ball defense like crazy.

In order to defend against the ball, Yes and the strongest Yes, they also practice ball defense crazily.

This is an extremely difficult journey to listen to.

In the end, no one knows whether Arenas can meet Yes in the finals as he wishes.

No one knows whether Arenas can now defend Yes without the ball or with the ball.

But Arenas has indeed trained himself to be a bug on the Eastern backline!

Arenas is a bug that even the Boston Celtics can't seem to solve.

If it were the contest between the Washington Wizards and the Boston Celtics of the Big Three a season ago.

Expert fans will definitely believe that the Celtics can win.

But now, because of the variable Arenas, the matchup in this series has become less clear, and at the same time it looks good.

Of course, although the series between the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards is very interesting, after the conference finals matchup is announced.

Everyone's focus is on the Western Conference Finals, the matchup between the SuperSonics and the Suns.

The first game of the Western Conference Finals between the Seattle SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns was on May 20, 2007.

Neither the SuperSonics nor the Suns played a tiebreaker, so the Western Conference Finals will be played one day earlier than the Eastern Conference Finals.

Of course, the Western Conference finals between the SuperSonics and Suns are so eye-catching not because this series is more intense than the Eastern Conference.

This matchup between the SuperSonics and the Suns is not as intense as expected in the Eastern Conference.

After the Western Conference Finals matchup between the Suns and SuperSonics was announced, experts overwhelmingly sided with the Suns, while fans sided with the SuperSonics.

"I support Yes, I will always support Yes, but as an expert invited by TNT, I need to be responsible for my professionalism. I really can't find a reason for the SuperSonics to defeat the Suns. Sorry, the Suns will advance in 4 games!"

"I think the Suns are stronger. After watching the series between the Suns and the Rockets, I really don't know how the Sonics can beat the Suns. Maybe it's like those experts said, it's hard for the Sonics to beat the Suns in one game. , the Suns don’t have softies like Nowitzki, nor do the Spurs have a group of dilapidated old cars that allow Yes to ride. The SuperSonics face the Suns, which is the most difficult matchup. If I choose, I would rather choose the Rockets, SuperSonics I really don’t have any chance against the Suns, I know all this, but I support the SuperSonics, I support Yes, he is my belief!”

What do you think of this matchup between the SuperSonics and the Suns?

This is the statement that best represents the views of experts and fans.

After the conference finals matchup was announced, the eyes of the United States were focused on it.

until……

May 19, 2007.

Before the SuperSonics left for Phoenix, Yees, Nelson and the team's general manager Presti were all staying in the team's general manager's office watching the TV not far away.

What is currently playing on TV is the lottery ceremony for the 2007 NBA draft.

As a team still in the playoffs, this draft lottery ceremony has nothing to do with them.

But now, they have a first-round pick from the Milwaukee Bucks.

19.9% ​​chance of No. 1 pick, 18.8 chance of No. 2 pick, 17.1% chance of No. 3 pick, 31.9 chance of fourth pick, and 12.3 chance of fifth pick.

The best is number one, the worst is fifth.

Now that the SuperSonics are still in the playoffs, the lottery representatives will certainly not be players like Ye Si.

The person who represented the SuperSonics in the lottery was the team's former general manager and current president Rick Sander who traded Yeas for him.

Rick Sander went to New York with the expectations of the entire Seattle.

The anticipation of bringing Oden back.

"The team that won the fifth overall pick in 2007 was the Portland Trail Blazers!"

Entering the top four!

"The team that won the fourth overall pick in 2007 was the Minnesota Timberwolves!"

Entering the top three!

"The team that won the third overall pick in 2007 was the Atlanta Hawks!"

Entering the top two!

"The team that received the second overall pick in 2007 was..."

Ye Si quietly watched David Stern on TV who was deliberately creating suspense.

Indifferent.

but……

Yes could feel how nervous Nelson and Presti were next to him.

"The team that received the second overall pick in 2007 was...the Milwaukee Bucks!"

When David Stern read out the name of the Bucks, Yes clearly felt the sighs of Nelson and Presti beside him.

And David Stern’s fleeting smile on television.

Almost at the same time.

Oden was sitting in the audience at the draft lottery with a confused look on his face.

The Grizzlies drew the lottery on behalf of the Grizzlies on the stage. Pau Gasol, who had recently been making noises about leaving, had an extremely embarrassing expression on his face.

The national media howled.

Only Jerry West is laughing…