Five Hundred and Forty-Two: Paul Refuses to Capsize

If the scoring title is considered the sharpest offensive spear in a season, then the best defensive player is undoubtedly the toughest shield in the league in a season.

Just like Howard during the Magic period, Link's most successful undrafted Ben Wallace, "African Mountain" Mutombo and others, those who can win the best defensive player are generally able to support a team's defense System, such a player is definitely worthy of the title of the league's best defensive player.

But defending this kind of thing, to be honest, is really very difficult to judge. The scorer only needs to look at the scoring data. In the case of the MVP, the record plus the data performance can often get a reliable answer. But on the defensive end, it is difficult to measure the level of defense with data, and in many cases defense requires the efforts of the entire team, and it is difficult to quantify the individual's defensive ability.

As a result, it is difficult to judge a player's defense is very good from the data alone, and it is easy to have multiple criteria.

The troubles brought about by this difficulty in selection have led to many embarrassing incidents for the best defensive player in the history of the NBA. Since the 1968-69 season began to select the best defensive team, the best defensive player who symbolizes the best defense in the league has not made the best defensive team three times!

The most recent one was last season, when Tyson Chandler, who won the best defensive player, ended up in the second best defensive team.

Even Mutombo, who is known as "the best defensive center in NBA history", has once won the best defensive player, but has not been selected for the best defensive first team experience.

And this time, in the eyes of many media, Marc Gasol is very likely to not even enter the second team of the best defense!

Because from what we have learned so far, Chandler and Noah are likely to have more votes than Gasol in the Best Defensive Team selection.

If they really compare to Gasol in the end, then 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 are hyping up, especially those who voted for Noah and Chandler, they even scoffed at the ending of Gasol's winning.

"Joakim Noah, 2.1 blocks, 1.1 steals and 11.1 rebounds per game! What about Marc Gasol? 1.7 blocks, 1.0 steals and 7.8 rebounds per game! He doesn't have any stats Binoa was great, but won the Defensive Player of the Year?"

"Tyson Chandler propped up the Knicks defense, and you have to know the fact that Chandler's partner at the 4 is Anthony, the big colander. Even so, he can protect the rim very well. Mark How can Gasol, how can he put Chandler under his feet?"

"The Grizzlies allowed 95.4 points per 100 possessions when Gasol was on the floor. When he wasn't, that increased to 102.8. That's a gorgeous stat, but I would say it's It's not just Gasol, who isn't even the best defensive player on the Grizzlies."

"LeBron James defended so well this season, but he lost to Marc Gasol? Ridiculous!"

Marc Gasol has been questioned many times in his career, but there has never been a time when the scale of the questioning has been so huge.

I just won the first regular season award of my career, and what I get is not praise but doubts. Anyone who changes it 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 doubts Gasol. After all, the Best Defensive Player Award is voted by the media. It's just that during this time, the voices of doubt overshadowed the voices of support.

"Don't read the newspaper, especially the sports page. Otherwise, you will even wonder if those reporters have brains." Link reached out and snatched Gasol's newspaper from the side.

All the prizes have been won, and it still cares what those reporters do.

"They said I couldn't play in the NBA. What happened? We're going to the Western Conference semifinals now, Mark! Focus and forget about those idiots." Link finished, Tigaso Ir put on headphones so that the Spaniards could relax.

Gasol nodded lightly, and no longer cared about what the reporters said.

Compared with those reporters, Gasol is more willing to listen to the voices of people he trusts.

Seeing Gasol's mood settled down, Link was relieved a lot.

Link does not question the gold content of Gasol's Best Defensive Player Award at all. As Gasol's teammate, Link is very aware of the importance of Gasol on the defensive end.

It's true that Gasol doesn't have that exaggerated athleticism, so his blocks look "soft" too. However, averaging 1.7 blocks per game is quite a lot. In this era of rules that try to protect offensive players, it is almost impossible to average more than 3 blocks per game like Mutombo.

And many of Gasol's defensive abilities cannot be reflected in data, such as his help defense, his deterrence in the penalty area, and so on.

Indeed, the overall defensive level of the Grizzlies is very high, which has caused Gasol's light to be somewhat obscured. But Link's most intuitive feeling is that he is very relieved to give his back to Gasol. Even if he was breached, Link would not be too worried. Because he knew that the penalty area was guarded by the Spaniards.

The Gasol brothers have actually had such an experience in the NBA. When Big Gasol joined the Lakers in the first year, the finals were abused by Garnett. At that time, Big Gasol was also questioned.

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

Link believes that the doubts about Gasol will gradually disappear after the second round of the series starts.

Competitive sports, the results speak for themselves. After the Grizzlies get out of the West, no one will question Gasol's gold content as the best defensive player.

Now, Link is more worried about the Clippers.

After trailing the Nuggets 0-2 in Los Angeles, the Clippers have now tenaciously tied the series at 2-2! Tonight, the Clippers are back at home, and they are likely to get match point for the next three games in a row!

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

After losing two home games in a row, the Clippers did not fall for it. In the third game, after trailing by 13 points in the fourth quarter, the Clippers stumbled to reverse the situation and eventually overtook the victory.

The Clippers' tenacious fighting spirit surprised Link. Speaking of which, the Grizzlies won 68 games, and the Clippers seemed to have fought tenaciously to the end and did not admit defeat. In Link's impression, the Clippers have always been a team that always falls off the chain in the playoffs. But at least until now, the Clippers are still strong.

In the fourth game of the series, Paul scored 35 points! He beat Ty Lawson so much that he was scolded by George Carr as autistic.

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

In the past, Paul only attacked actively and autonomously at critical moments, and at other times, he was mainly connected in series. But in this game, he interprets what is called "as long as I think, I can score".

"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 it enters the fourth quarter, it is easy to collapse because there is no finalist.

The two games that the Clippers have played in a row have indeed played their character. Link wouldn't be surprised if the Clippers reversed the Nuggets in four straight games to win the series.

But if you really run into such a Clipper, the Grizzlies will be quite tricky. Not afraid of the strong, but afraid of the unkillable.

The second round of the series may be more difficult than Link initially expected.