NBA s "defending curse" is actually Xiao Hua s most proud big shot

As the Nuggets lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semi-finals on May 19, the NBA's "defending curse" continues:

Since 2018, there has never been a team in the league for two consecutive championships. What's even more exaggerated is that none of the winning teams even made it through the second round.

To put it another way, in the past seven years, only the Boston Celtics have reached the Finals twice (2022, 2024), and the rest of the teams have not even maintained the most basic championship competitiveness.

nba has officially entered the era of "great change" where heroes emerge and take turns to take turns to take over.

Since the 2019 Warriors, we can roughly divide the failures of these seven teams into the following types:

① Core "storm" type (19 Warriors, 21 Lakers, 25 Celtics)

In 19, the Warriors have won three consecutive championships and suffered consecutive major injuries from Durant (Achilles tendon) and Clay (cruciate ligament). That year, Durant's Warriors' career was the highest in 34.6 minutes in the regular season. From the fifth game against the Clippers in the first round, his playing time soared to 41, 42, 43, 44, 49, and 43 minutes. He eventually broke his muscles in the battle against the Rockets. He broke his Achilles tendon in the quarter and a half in the finals.

Clay returned to the front line after a thigh muscle strain in G2 in the finals (similar to Curry and Gordon this year) and suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in G6.

The Warriors failed. In the 20-21 season, the Lakers started the new season with only 75 days off after winning the championship.

Although the beginning was smooth sailing and ranked first in the West, the two leaders, Zhan Mei, were injured continuously. Especially before James was injured in his ankle against the Hawks, he was the first in the MVP list. Although both cores returned in time at the end of the regular season, his condition was not as good as before.

The first round of the playoffs was once 2-1, but the fourth game of Davis was injured and the season was reimbursed. The Lakers lost three games in a row and were eliminated in the first round.

Lakers failed. In the just-concluded Eastern Conference semifinals, Tatum suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in Game 4. Although the Celtics were already behind 1-2 at the time, if Tatum did not suffer this bad luck, there might be a glimmer of hope for a comeback. After all, the Celtics have had many cases of backward and turning against the wind in recent years.

But when the team's real thigh Tatum fell, many people realized that he had carried so much for the Celtics over the years. No one fills the position on the outside defense, no chance of a substitute, and the team can't even hold on to the critical moment. It's a shame to be beaten by the Knicks 81-119 in the last game.

Celtics failed.

②The lineup "collapse" type (20 Raptors, 24 Nuggets)

The Raptors won the championship that year, which included Leonard's win of the basket and the injury wave in the Warriors' Finals.

After winning the championship, it is difficult to retain the stars due to the team's location factors (located in Canada). Leonard and Danny Green for 20 years, Gasol and Ibaka for 21 years were pried away by the Los Angeles two heroes, and then Powell, Van Vritte and Siakam also left the team one after another. They simply do not have the ability to keep such a luxurious army. The Raptors' failure

Nuggets may be the most regrettable. They have the league's number one player, Jokic, Murray, Gordon, and Porter have all had a long appointment, but the other important players such as Jeff Green, Bruce Brown and Pope are unable to stay in the team due to contract reasons.

For two consecutive seasons, they failed in the Western Conference semi-finals. One of the important reasons is that the rotation is too short.

At the same time, they spent too much energy on the Lakers and this year on the Clippers. In the end, they were exhausted and burned themselves.

Nuggets failed

③Strength "internal consumption type" (22 Bucks, 23 Warriors)

Both teams did not suffer core injuries in the defending season, but due to the accumulation of many unfavorable factors, they ultimately failed to defend.

Warriors lost Payton Jr. (returned), Belicia and Otto Porter in the championship lineup in the 22-23 season, but also added DiVicenzo and Ja Green.

What really made their competitiveness significantly reduced that year was the conflict between Poole and Zhuang Meng, and the contract renewal problem that Clay could not resolve for a long time.

The playoffs met LeBron who knew them best and the big eyebrows who couldn't solve the problem. He lost after six hard games.

The Warriors failed. In 21, Antetokounmpo "footstep" Irving after eliminating the Nets, but although the Bucks did their best to retain almost all the championship core rotations, injuries almost became their biggest enemy in the playoffs afterwards.

Middleton was reimbursed in advance in the 22 playoffs and lost to the Celtics after seven games.

23 Antetokounmpo was injured in the first round and was successfully blacked by the Miami Heat. Last year, Antetokounmpo and Lillard were both injured and had a holiday early. This year, the two bigwigs tried their best to persevere, but the result was that Li Gui's Achilles tendon ruptured, and Antetokounmpo was unable to support it.

Now it seems that Antetokounmpo is also moved, and the

Bucks failed.

In fact, defending the title is never an easy task.

There are a total of four defending teams throughout the 21st century. The Lakers have won three consecutive championships (00-02), Kobe, Lakers (09-10), the Big Three Heat (12-13), and Durant +73 wins against the Warriors (17-18).

Even if the stars of the four teams are not compared, just looking at their years of defense, the difficulty can be seen..

In the 2018 Western Conference Finals, the Warriors only solved the Rockets in seven games. I have to thank Paul for his injury and his 27-point three-pointer in the seventh game.

The Heat in 2013, if it weren't for Ray Allen's desperate three-pointer, they would have failed in the sixth game.

In the 10th year, the Lakers fought the most classic tiebreak battle in the 21st century with their old opponents, and fell behind by 13 points in the last game.

The easiest thing was the Lakers in 2001, with 15 wins and 1 loss in the playoffs, but that year the conflict between Kobe and the Sharks was completely publicized. Since Xiao Hua took office, he has tightened all kinds of terms in the labor-management agreement step by step. While preventing some teams from spending a lot of money, he has also raised the difficulty of winning the championship for the past giant teams and top stars to a historical level.

Many fans still have the understanding of some labor and capital regulations at the level of "benefiting to XX" and "not good to XX". In fact, what Xiao Hua wants to achieve is the ideal situation of "equalizing the rich and poor" and "taking turns to take over the banker".

① Launch a playoff and mid-season system.

The former has made the difficulty of the regular season sharply increase, and from the previous top eight to the playoffs to the top ten, they all have a chance. This has made many teams that had given up resistance in February and March have to struggle until April. The regular season has been in a row for several years until the last day.

At the same time, the play-off system also hides the hidden conditions that the seventh place can "select" the division, further narrowing the gap between teams and increasing suspense.

Since the introduction of this system in 2021, there have been two black sevens and one black eights.

And in the 75 years before this, there were only 6 and 5 times in total. The impact of the mid-season game cannot be ignored. Although it is embedded in the regular season, the single-game winning system of knockout matches makes all participating teams invest no less than the playoffs.

In the two Mid-Season Cups that have been held, the final winners, both the Lakers and the Bucks, have suffered a huge decline in the regular season after winning the championship.

The Lakers ranked fourth in the Western Conference before the mid-season Cup, and finally seventh, while the Bucks were third and fifth in the end, and also lost Lillard's health.

Xiao Hua made the regular season look better, but the burden on the players is also heavier.

What's more ruthless is the new "65 games" award rules.

requires that only players who have played 65 games in the regular season can participate in the evaluation of important awards such as MVP, Best Lineup, and Best Defensive Player.

This is not only related to personal honor, but also linked to the benefits of the players, which determines whether many young players can trigger the "Ross Terms" to renew the contract with the team at the highest maximum salary.

So we see that many players would rather play with illness at the end of the regular season, and even only play halftime, they should maintain their own behavior of winning the season.

The advantage of doing this is that it avoids some "malicious rest adjustments" affecting the view of the game, but it also forces many players to take risks and use up their physical fitness that should have been given to the playoffs in advance in the regular season.

Of course, the most effective way is the invisible big hand of the "labor-management agreement".

Jordan won the NBA in the last three consecutive championships, and there were still many loopholes in the luxury tax when the Ok combination won the last three consecutive championships.

When the Heat's three giants form a team, the three can sacrifice a little salary for each to facilitate the team. The Warriors also rely on the sharp increase in their salary cap in 2016 to have a chance to get Durant.

But in recent years, the increasingly strict and complete terms have made NBA bosses realize that unless you can form a 100% team to win the championship, no one can withstand the huge expenses of luxury taxes that exceed the salary, and the total salary tax exceeds 500 million (the Celtics next year). There were many challenges in this system, such as Ballmer and Cai Chongxin, and in the end, they did not make the championship.

The latest victim is Suns owner Ishbiya, who has replaced Knicksdoland as the worst boss and laughing stock in the league in the past two years.

The Warriors once hoped to challenge the Bay Area's economic advantages to continue to invest in a "more winning championships and more profits".

However, the "Second Rich Line" system that began to be implemented in 23 completely shattered their hopes.

After more than two years of practical practice, most teams have experienced the terrifying suppression brought by surpassing the "repeated rich line".

surpassed the first tycoon line, there is no full middle class, no biennial special, cannot sign and exchange, cannot sign buyout players with a salary higher than the middle class, cannot exchange more (salary), and the trading space will be further narrowed.

surpassed the second rich line, and on the basis of the first rich line, it also deprived of the right to package transactions, could not use the mini middle class, could not get special transactions, and locked in the first round of picks seven years later.

In a word, the more you spend, the more operational restrictions will be.

Once the second tyrant line is exceeded, the management will be almost completely unable to move.

So now there has been an era when the richer the boss is and the more willing he is to spend it, the stronger the team will be.

NBAs today have a very good test of the management's operating standards, and they must quickly achieve results in the very short championship window (2-3 years).

Everyone builds a temple in the snail lion shell.

This is what Xiao Hua wants. Everyone has a chance, but no one can dominate for too long.

is as strong as Jokic, and when faced with poor management and a shorter rotation lineup, he had to accept the bitter fruit of failing to tiebreak for two consecutive years.

A team like the Warriors and Celtics that rely on their own rookies to play well will eventually collapse with their higher and higher wages, so they can only start over.

Even teams like the Lakers that have always liked to buy and buy stars are becoming more and more cautious in their operations. Under Xiao Hua's rule, the NBA has changed, but the fans have not adapted yet.