Promoted 4-2 and made a comeback 4-1 again! The favorite to compete for the championship slowly fell down, you are about to get out

This season's NBA playoffs will reach the division finals, with four final teams, the Thunder and Timberwolves in the West, and the Knicks and Pacers in the East, and the Division and the Pacers in the East, who will fight for the division and championships. Judging from the Thunder and the Timberwolves G1 game, Alexander's foul caused public anger, but behind this is the Thunder's strong team foundation. They can suddenly explode in the second half when they are passive in the first half, scoring 70 points in the half and shooting percentage of both events to 61.9% + 61.5%, the first team in the playoff history! We can complain about the unfair punishment the Timberwolves received, but we must face the Thunder. Alexander has the finishing touch, and the Thunder has been unstoppable this season. The two dark horses that the East finally stood on the final stage were the Knicks and the Pacers.

Pacers did not encounter pressure in the first two rounds, easily eliminated the Bucks 4-1 in the first round, Halliburton led the team to a 20-point reversal + layup kill in G5; eliminated the Cavaliers 4-1 in the second round, Halliburton led the team to a 20-point reversal + step-and-retreat three-point kill. The team's overall rotation was 9 people, and cooperated with the offensive firepower suppression of 6 people per game, and there was no obvious shortcomings. The most important thing is that as a young man who is only 25 years old, Halliburton averaged 17.5 points and 9.3 assists per game in the playoffs, but he can always stand up at critical moments! Even James sighed that no one said that Halliburton was an overrated player anymore. He led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals for two consecutive years and was already the best young man in the league. But here, there is an undercurrent.

Knicks' first two rounds of the playoffs were very dangerous. In the first round, he played against the Pistons and made a profit in two games. One was Brunson's last minute return to the game for violations, and the other was Hart's three-point foul on Hardaway Jr., and the referee refused to swear, and admitted his mistake after the game. Including the G6 game, the Knicks narrowly won by 3 points and finally advanced 4-2, but the process was staggering and very thrilling. In the second round, the Celtics completed a 20-point comeback at home, but lost to the Celtics in two games, the Knicks lost a total of 47 points. After Tatum fell, the Knicks, who returned to the home court, finally won 38 points and advanced, completing a 4-1 upset counterattack, eliminating the defending champion! But summarizing the first two rounds of journey, winning and losing games was a huge hit.

First of all, we must admit that this Knicks are full of tenacity, especially the two core players Brunson and Towns, who are both stars that can be trusted at critical moments. Brunson scored first in the league at critical moments in the playoffs, and Towns hit the two goals at critical moments, with a shooting percentage of 87.5% + 100% in both events. It does look strong, but the Knicks are on the verge of collapse! Let’s look at several sets of data. This year’s playoffs, the Knicks started the Big Five, and Bridges’ On-Off value was -23.6. The team lost 2.7 points in a hundred rounds, while the team lost 20.6 points in a hundred rounds; Anunobi’s On-Off value was -21.5, the team lost 2.0 points in a hundred rounds, and the team lost 19.5 points in a hundred rounds; including the Towns On-Off value was also -5.0, which also means that their performance was better if they were not present.

Including Brunson, who is the team's boss, the On-Off value in the playoffs is only +2.4. The key to the problem is here. The Knicks' real winning points in the playoffs is the substitute, McBride +11.8, Mitchell Robinson +16.8, Payne +0.4. This is just a regular rotation for calculating the effective time! The essential reason for this phenomenon is that the starting five giants are too tired. Bridges and Hart ranked first and second in the league in the regular season, and Anunobi is also in the top ten, and there is no substitute at all. In the playoffs, Anunoby + Bridges averaged 40 minutes per game, Brunson averaged 39 minutes per game, Towns averaged 36 minutes per game, and Hart averaged 37 minutes per game. When playing against the Pistons, coach Thibodeau increased his substitute time, but when playing against the Celtics, he was overdrawn in the starting lineup.

It is certain that when the Eastern Conference Finals competed with the Pacers, the Knicks' bench may only be McBride and Mitchell Robinson to get a stable 10 minutes or so. Don't think about it, because Thibodeau had performed the ultimate five-man rotation in the playoffs last season, and the starting lineup was more than 46 minutes. The team did not suffer much injuries in the playoffs, unlike the Cavaliers and Celtics bosses who took turns falling down, but after the fatigue accumulated, their efficiency dropped sharply, which was clearly reflected in the forwards Anunoby + Bridges + Hart. This is equivalent to a chronic disease. There is no big harm in a short period of time, but this harm is irreversible. It will only be exposed as the playoffs deepen, and then slowly fall down!

It must be admitted that the lineup specially created for the Celtics last summer has indeed achieved results, and the Big Four + Hart each performs their duties and does not fall off the line of fire due to minor injuries. This is really admirable. But the upper limit of the Knicks team will be lower and lower. It is not that Brunson and Towns are not leading the team well enough, but that the hole behind the team will become bigger and bigger. If a starting player is injured, the sky will collapse halfway for Thibodeau. But what is even more embarrassing is that the Knicks started with the Five Tigers, played 266 minutes on the field in the playoffs, with a net loss of 5.9 points in a hundred rounds, and the only team in the four division finals lost! They are really out.