The top six teams all seem likely to appear in the finals.

The most anticipated games in the first round are the Lakers VS Jazz and Rockets VS Spurs series.

NBC TV station said directly: "From the first round, we will witness a conference finals-level showdown!"

I don’t know whether the Spurs and Rockets matchup is not a Western Conference Finals-level matchup, but Shea knows very well that the Lakers vs. Jazz is indeed a Western Conference Finals-level matchup.

Because in original history, the Jazz in 1996 actually reached the Western Conference Finals.

And they also played against the SuperSonics until the final moment of the tiebreaker.

In the tiebreaker, the Sonics finally defeated the Jazz by only 4 points and advanced to the finals.

In the first round, the Lakers met an opponent from the Western Conference Finals who was even close to the Finals level!

Before the game started, experts couldn't predict who would win.

Because the Jazz are a team that almost never makes mistakes.

This season, the Jazz lead the league in assists but have the seventh-fewest turnovers.

Using very few mistakes in exchange for the most assists in the league, this is probably the style of the Jazz's ball.

Just like an army, they faithfully execute their tactics with almost no mistakes. Their strict tactics are a vivid interpretation of pragmatism.

In fact, jazz has been this style throughout the 1990s.

Perhaps only the newly introduced Strickland, who has a promiscuous playing style, can occasionally add some surprises to this "boring" team.

I don’t know who will win between the Jazz and the Lakers, but it is generally believed that Shea is a stronger star than Malone and Stockton!

Back then, Shay had Malone score 50 shots in a game, and the media was also madly angry between the two.

But reporters found that the usually irritable Karl Malone was very calm this time when faced with the media's madness.

"What conflict? What stitches? I already told Shay that it was accidental! Don't frame good people out of thin air!"

Ma Long is so cowardly that he feels confident.

Karl Malone is not a fool. One Shay is already difficult enough, but there is a gorilla in the Lakers' lineup this season.

If he plays dirty tricks with Shay again, Malone is afraid that he will break the record of "most stitches in a single game" again.

This kind of record only needs to be broken once.

You have to give the people behind you a chance!

He really didn't want to recreate the famous scene where Jordan was beaten and danced on the basketball court.

This kind of honor should be reserved for Jordan alone~

But from the bottom of his heart, Malone really hates Shay.

No matter which man dares to fight back after being beaten by another person, he will hate the other person.

Although he didn't dare to have sex with Shay, Ma Long still had the courage to humiliate Shay with his mouth, and he was very brave!

So the day before the game, Malone, who arrived in Los Angeles, also expressed his disdain for Shay in an interview:

"Shay is strong, really strong.

He is the only player since me in the 1989-90 season who can average 30+10 points per game in a single season, and he is also the tenth player in history to average 30+10 points per game in a single season.

We both averaged 30+10 per game, and the 30+10 season happened to end up fourth in the Western Conference.

But this season Shay is much more popular than I was back then.

Why? Because there's more attention in Los Angeles, that's all.

Many years ago, I played Shay's performance this year and reached his current level.

There’s nothing special about him!”

As Malone said, Shea averaged 30.4 points, 10.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 1.3 blocks per game this season.

Data crotch explodes.

Because after Barkley and the Madman left, Shea gained more rights to take shots, so Shea's assists per game dropped a bit this season, and he no longer won the assists title.

But overall, averaging 30+10 per game, this is the strongest single-season average in Shay's career!

As strong as Jordan, as versatile as Da Meng, he has never averaged 30+10 per game in a season!

And Malone is reminding the world: "Shay's performance this year, I did it six years ago! He is nothing!"

Malone went on to add:

"Don't always say how powerful Shay is, we are both men, he doesn't have anything more than me.

What he can do, I can do too.

He can do 30+10, I can.

He can lead the team to victory, and so can I.

Scoring champion? I did not win the scoring champion, but I averaged 31 points per game in a single season.

By the way, Shea didn't average 31 points per game this season.

My 30+10 is 31+11, and Shay’s 30+10 is just barely 30+10.

So don't pretend that he is much better than me.

Soon, I will prove that there is no difference between us. In fact, I am stronger.

The only thing that makes Shay better than me is that he has more exposure than me."

After Malone's interview was released, people discovered that history is really surprisingly similar.

The same 30+10, the same fourth place in the division.

And if Shay loses, he will also be in the first round of the playoffs!

From this point of view, it seems that Malone is really not much worse than Shay?

Is Shay stronger, or is Shay more exposed?

Shay's star quality will be tested by Malone!

In the second day of the game, Karl Malone and Shay really started to fight each other at the beginning of the game, and they were evenly matched with Shay!

In the first game of the series the next day, Shea naturally had to let Malone know whose territory this was after the game started.

So as soon as the game started, Shea used Ewing's pick-and-roll to easily break through to the inside and score a layup and score a goal.

Although Jazz center Antoine Kyle is very mobile and Karl Malone is vicious, Shea still bravely attacks the basket and succeeds.

After all, Shay is the scoring leader this season. He is trying to beat Malone and let Malone see how the scoring leader can score points at will.

Let Malone know they are not the same level of players!

But Karl Malone actually responded immediately to Shay on the offensive end!

In this round, Stockton dribbled the ball past half court and did not engage in a pick-and-roll with Malone. Instead, he fed the ball to Malone, who was trying to reach the position with his back on the edge of the right penalty area.

Malone didn't hesitate after catching the ball and turned over directly!

Clifford Robinson didn't expect Malone to be so decisive, but because of his height and long arms, he still caused a lot of interference to Malone.

As a result, with his line of sight blocked, Karl Malone was stunned to make a steady shot.

After the goal, Malone looked at Shay and shrugged: "I can do what you can do!"

One round later, Shea turned over from mid-range and scored again.

This season, Shay has begun to become more and more a scorer.

Because of Barkley, Shea didn't need to score all the time.

But this season, Shea needs to shoulder more scoring responsibilities, so he took consecutive shots after the start.

Who knew that after Shay scored the second goal, Malone immediately responded again!

This time the Jazz attacked, Malone still leaned on Robinson in the low post.

However, the position is deeper than the previous round and closer to the basket.

Robinson tried hard to push Malone out, but Malone was not exercising dead muscles.

He is so talented! He really knows how to do hair extensions!

Robinson was stuck so tightly that he was completely unable to stop Malone from catching the ball. Moreover, Malone's iron elbow, which was bigger than Barkley's butt, was constantly tormenting Robinson's body.

This is too big, I really can’t stand it!

Stockton fed the ball lightly and gave the ball to Malone again.

Due to the last defense, Robinson only missed the ball.

So this time he tried to press forward against Malone's iron elbow, hoping to complete the defense faster.

But Malone seemed to feel Robinson's change in center of gravity. He did not continue to turn over and shoot jumpers, but turned his back and broke through!

Malone's back-turning breakthrough relied not only on speed, but also on strength.
To be continued...