Chapter 617: First in the Western Conference

Green lost!

There were 82 games in the regular season. Losing one game was not the end of the world; it was acceptable. Still, the head coach of the Celtics, Arnold, felt that the loss today was very embarra.s.sing.

Vincent had started playing like the superstar he had been a decade ago. He destroyed everyone in the game. The Celtics rotated shooting guards into the game and whoever went on the court was utterly destroyed by Vincent.

No matter how good the Celtics’ players were, how could they stand up to a “Half G.o.d!”

The thing that annoyed Arnold the most was that the Celtics had discarded Vincent.

In the deal before All-Star Weekend, Vincent had been a bonus meant to balance the deal and had been sent to Boston. After the deal, the Celtics had immediately bought out Vincent. They had basically told Vincent that they did not want some as old as him playing for them!

The Celtics had a lot of talent, especially in the shooting guard and small forward positions. On the surface, it seemed like they didn’t need a veteran like Vincent.

In the game today, however, the player they had discarded, Vincent, had utterly destroyed them. None of the shooting guards and small forwards that the team was so proud of could stop Vincent.

A person who was discarded by a team had turned around and crushed that team. Things turned around way too quickly. This had been a textbook situation of buying the case and returning the pearl. The entire management team of the Celtics would probably feel fairly embarra.s.sed about the entire debacle.

…

Vincent’s existence increased the strength of the Clippers’ bench. The current Clippers’ bench was even stronger than the starting lineups of some of the weaker teams.

As the team continued to synthesize, victory became a rather simple thing for the Clippers. As long as two players performed well in each game, they were able to obtain victory. With the number of star players in the Clippers, it was extremely reasonable to a.s.sume that at least two players would be in top-form.

Maintaining a good form was a prerequisite for being a star player. There were no star players who’s form fluctuated or was inconsistent for too long. Stars typically had stronger self-regulation. Even if they were out of form for a game, the player would get better fairly quickly. The form of NBA stars was generally stable. An inconsistent player who played great in a match while playing badly in the next one would never deserve to be called a star.

Ending games after the third quarter had become a normal occurrence for the Clippers. With his streak of winning, Dai Li’s job also became much easier.

The coaching staff on NBA teams generally had a.s.sistant coaches who specialized in offense and defense, so the head coach naturally did not need to handle such things personally. Dai Li’s current main task had turned into regulating the relations.h.i.+ps between players so that players could get along with each other in harmony.

The team would still be fine if they were weaker and lost a little bit more. The worst thing that could happen would be internal conflict between the players. Even on a champions.h.i.+p-level team, if players did not get along with each other or, worse yet, tried to undermine each other, the team would collapse instantly.

Dai Li did not want something like that to happen to him.

The current Clippers was full of superstars, so it was a given that there would be problems. The problem was the possession of the ball. Every star player hoped to handle and hold the ball. If the ball possession was uneven, players might make a fuss over it. That could cause internal conflict.

Incidents like that had happened in the NBA before. For example, during an important play, a particular star refused to pa.s.s the ball and did everything by himself to the end, but it didn’t end up working out for him. His teammates started to complain and ask him to pa.s.s the ball to him. In the end, both players started a big argument and someone received an internal match ban as a punishment.

Even if both players had been calm, their hearts and actions would not have been in sync. It was hard to guarantee that no issue would appear during a game.

After all, in the NBA, selfless players were rare.

Perhaps, during the offensive planning phase, one star would say that they should play one way while another would say that it was better to play a different way. Then, a third star might voice another opinion. In the end, everyone believes that their view is correct, and everyone wants to play according to their plan. That would be chaos.

Sometimes, the star players on teams are such big shots that even the coaches failed to contain them. Similar incidents had occurred before in the NBA. Once, during a critical play, the superstar of a team had had a disagreement with the coach. While the coach was explaining his play, the superstar walked to the side and made a gesture that implied he did not want to listen.

The media companies were also a problem because they were always trying to stoke conflict. Sometimes, rumors became truths. Trivial arguments between players would be picked up by the media and they would fan the flames. There was no limit to their ability to create issues.

Of course, Dai Li had to prevent situations like that from arising.

It was a good thing that the stars of the Clippers had all been recruited by Dai Li personally. They had only been able to return to the court with the help of Dai Li. With that alone, Dai Li already took up an authoritative spot in their hearts. They were willing to listen to Dai Li’s instructions, so Dai Li’s control of the team was respectable.

Dai Li, however, still needed to cautiously regulate the relations.h.i.+ps between players. Ball possession was certainly a serious issue and Dai Li’s arrangement was to pa.s.s the ball to whoever was in good form. Since they played superstar-style basketball anyway, no one could question their plays as long as the ball made its way into the basket.

The Clippers’ players were no longer young kids. They were not as hot-blooded as the younger players who became enraged at the slightest provocation. After playing basketball for so many years, they were old veterans, so they knew what to do and what not to do. They knew how to control their emotion and they were not impulsive.

Many of the Clippers players had already experienced the lowest point of their careers. Players who grew up experiencing failures and setbacks were mentally different from other players.

Superstars that constantly stayed at their peak would always maintain their superiority complex wherever they went. On the bench, if these players were not used as the tactical core of the team, they would make a fuss. There were lots of instances where star players were at odds with their teams.

The stars of the Clippers were different. All of them used to be among the best, but they also each experienced a fall from grace, either through injury or age. They went from being superstars who everyone looked up to to n.o.bodies that no one cared about. The consequence of this fall from grace was that it forced people to grow. For them, it was fine even if they were not the boss or the tactical core of the team. At least they could stay on the court and enjoy basketball.

It was possible that older players had lost the sharpness they once possessed, but they had gained the willingness and understanding of cooperation. Not only did they learn to share the basketball, but also share the joy that basketball brings.

As the games progressed, the synergy and chemistry between the players deepened. A tactical system also gradually formed. The cooperation and understanding between the players also grew day by day.

The Clippers, however, played superstar-style basketball. For them, cooperation was merely trying to come up with different ways to create one-on-one situations for their teammates. Even high school basketball players understand this tactic, so this strategy was a piece of cake for NBA players.

…

For teams going for the playoff, March was an exceptionally important month.

For the entire month, the Clippers were quite decent. Because of this, the Clippers managed to win all their games in March. It was rare in the NBA.

Many teams were able to win all their games in February. For one, there were fewer days in February. Secondly, All-Star Weekend usually fell in February, which made it so that there was an entire week less of matches. One week less of matches meant fewer games, so it was naturally easier to win all of them.

As for March, it was the golden phase for teams going for a final push to enter the playoff. Many teams would exert extra effort throughout March. To win every game of the month meant that the team really showed their strength.

As such, the Clippers also caught up with the top-ranked team in the Western Conference, the Warriors. By the end of March, the difference between the two teams was only a 0.5 win margin.

They had the second place in the Western Conference and they were also only one step away from first place. It should no longer be a problem for them to make it into the playoffs. Dai Li was dissatisfied with being only the second-placed team in the Western Conference. He initially set the season objective as number one in the Western Conference. It was not only to be crowned the champion of the regular season, but he wanted to gain a home advantage during the playoff season.

In April, the first opponent of the Clippers was the Golden State Warriors.

The two teams only had a slight margin of 0.5 wins between them. If the Clippers won this game, it would be the equivalent of winning two. They would get first place.

…

The Warriors were challenging the Clippers away.

There were only eight minutes left in the game. The Warriors were, however, behind by 20 points. The head coach of the Warriors subbed their key players out. It was an indication of the Warriors giving up on the game. They had raised the white flag and surrendered.

With the firepower of the Warriors, it was not normally difficult for the Warriors to catch up 20 points in eight minutes. In tonight’s game, however, the head coach of the Warriors, Nicholas did not see even a single ray of hope.

“A game has once again been dissected and turned into a one-on-one solo match,” Nicholas mumbled to himself.

The players did not carry out the team’s tactic and ended up playing superstar-solo-play. It was the thing that Nicholas had wanted to avoid. Nicholas could not help but remember the final of the Western Conference the previous year when the Warriors had faced the Rockets. The game constantly broke off into individual solo plays. Sometimes, it even turned into a shooting contest between the two teams. The game was completely up to the shooting form of the players.

For a master tactician like Nicholas, a game that relied on shooting form was the same as gambling. It was way too untechnical!

The only thing that the Clippers excelled at was creating opportunities for solo play. For example, on offense, everyone would stop and attempt to create s.p.a.ce for the one with the ball, forcing a one-on-one situation. The ball handler would attempt to attack and, upon noticing there was no chance, he would pa.s.s the ball to another person. Then, there was another attempt at a solo play. A 24-second offensive phase was enough for this to happen three to four times.

Try to imagine how Nicholas must have felt. Basketball is a game that involves five people at most. If one of the four attempts at individual play in every attack worked, an opportunity to score will most certainly appear. Worse comes to worst, many of the Clippers players had exceptional endgame abilities, so forcing a buzz-beater shot often worked too.

This superstar-style play was determined by two things. The first was the individual ability of the star and the second was the number of stars in a team. The Clippers had advantages in both aspects, so when the game became individual-solo plays, no one could beat them.

“This Clippers team has already matured!” Nicholas complained.

Looking at the result, both teams were the first and second-ranked teams in the Western Conference. Once the playoff season started, as long as both teams did not get eliminated prematurely, they would face each other in the final. By that time, the Warriors and the Clippers would face off against each other after having four wins in seven games.

“How are we supposed to play by then?” Nicholas was filled with anxiety and worries.

…

It was the last month of the regular season. Dai Li had already started his preparations for the playoffs.

Dai Li began to emphasize defense for the team.

The playoff season was much more intense than the regular season. When it came to defense, they were going to have to play on a whole different level. Many stars’ stats would drop during the playoff season. Of course, during the playoff season, the stats of the entire team would drop.

Throughout history, there had been many teams that were average on offense that ended up winning the champions.h.i.+p because of their incredible defense. There had never been a team that was awful at defense that went far in the playoffs. Generally, by the third round of the playoff, which is the final of the Eastern and Western Conferences, the remaining four teams were most definitely among the top ten in defense in the NBA.

If the Clippers wanted to go far in the playoffs, they couldn’t just rely on their superstars. They needed a better defense.

Defense in the NBA was mainly man-to-man marking, which relied on the individual abilities of the individual athlete. Once upon a time, the NBA did not allow players to double team. Back then, the double team was deemed an infringement and was considered a foul. Later, as the NBA started to connect to international basketball, rules on double teaming gradually s.h.i.+fted. Teams were allowed to use the double team. The NBA, however, still maintained the three-second-defense rule, so the double team defense effect under NBA rules was far less effective than under international rules.

The question of how to overcome a double team used to be a difficult problem in international basketball. As basketball gradually evolved, however, the method for overcoming the double team was no longer a secret. European basketball coaches took action to show the entire world how easy it was to overcome the double team. They needed either a top-notch breakthrough player or an accurate three-point shooter. If a team had either one of those players, it would easily overcome a double team tactic.

American athletes were one level above European players in terms of both physique and technique. As such, that method was very effective in the NBA. Due to that, the double team was limited in the NBA. Only when there were clearly no sharpshooters on the opposing team and the team could control the defensive paint would a team employ a double team. As soon as an accurate three-point shooter got off the bench, the double team tactic would stop.

The defense tactic of the Clippers was to switch their defensive target whenever there was a mismatch. This was one of the most popular defense tactics in the NBA. There was a demanding requirement: the center had to be quick enough. If the center was too slow when dealing with a defensive mismatch due to a cover, he would not be able to switch in time.

The center of the Clippers, whether it was the starter or the bench player, was fast enough. As such, they were one of the few teams in the league that could perform an unlimited defensive switch.

All the Clippers players used to be All-Stars or even superstars. Players at this level would never be that bad defensively.

People would often say that a particular All-Star player was bad at defense, describing these players as defending with their gaze, mouth or intention. These derogatory descriptions were even used for star players. In truth, it was not because stars did not know how to defend, it was because the players did not pay much attention to defense. In blunter terms, they had a bad defensive att.i.tude.

When it comes to defense, the two most important elements are the body and the att.i.tude. Defensive techniques and awareness come second.

If a player was not strong enough, even if the player had an Oscar-winning acting ability that could easily earn an offensive foul, he would never be able to become a superb defensive player. Similarly, if a player’s att.i.tude towards defense was not serious, he would still be the weakness on the court, no matter how good his body, technique or awareness.

Players who became All-Stars were naturally top-notch when it came to their physique. As long as they were serious and put in the effort to defend, they would not be too bad. At the very least, it would be above the average level of the league.

On defense, the most important factor was the players’ att.i.tude. At the same time, a good defensive att.i.tude was exactly the hardest thing to possess.

…

The regular NBA season ended in the middle of April, so April did not have that many games. The Clippers only had five matches in April. To improve the defensive capabilities of the team in just five games was clearly impossible.

Dai Li put more hope in the first round of the playoffs. The first in the Western Conference was going against the eighth in the Western Conference. The probability of an upset happening was very low. Dai Li hoped that through the first round of the playoffs, he could get the team to adapt earlier to the intensity and rhythm of the playoff season.

At the same time, the awards for the NBA regular season were also out. Dai Li was once again nominated for the Best Coach Award. Unlike the previous year, this time Dai Li was the one most likely to win the award.

Last year, the Clippers did not even make it into the playoffs. The nomination Dai Li obtained last year was more like a consolation prize for Dai Li entering the NBA.

The situation was different this year. The Clippers were ranked first in the Western Conference. That alone was a sufficient enough reason to make Dai Li a strong contender for the award.

Dai Li did not care about this honor, he put all his focus on the playoffs.

On April 12, the Clippers played their last game of the regular season and secured the first place in the Western Conference.

At the same time the team won, Dai Li’s system received two huge chunks of experience. The first was the reward for leading the team into the playoffs while the second was for becoming the champion of the Western Conference in the regular season.

“System level up!” Dai Li was overjoyed. He had finally leveled up and moved into the senior phase. He was now a celebrated coach.