NBA's King of Talking

Chapter 301 Eastern Conference Finals Game 2

This is Jia Fei's second consecutive season being selected to the All-Defensive Team. Last season he was selected to the Second Team, and this season he was directly selected to the First Team.

Being selected for the All-Defensive First Team is a testament to his defensive prowess. This season, he won the steals title, boasting phenomenal defensive efficiency, making him a defender many of the league's star perimeter players dread facing. He can guard all four positions, and even against opposing centers, he can hold his own one-on-one, demonstrating formidable strength in both individual and help defense.

The Defensive Player of the Year award this season went to Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs, an honor announced on April 23rd. After the All-Defensive Teams were announced, many experts discussed how the league could have easily awarded the DPOY to Jia Fei. While Leonard's defense is strong, his strength lies in one-on-one defense; in help defense and rotations, he's not as good as Jia Fei. Against fast guards, teams often assign Danny Green to guard them, as he's better suited to guarding the 2/3 positions.

Of course, the league has its reasons for doing this. Jia Fei has won both MVP and DPOY, isn't that too much? And his outstanding performance on the offensive end has somewhat overshadowed his excellent performance on the defensive end.

Just like Duncan, he never won the Defensive Player of the Year award, while Ben Wallace won it four times, Dwight Howard won it four times, and even a stat-padder like Marcus Camby won it once. Can you say that Duncan's defense is worse than those three?

In fact, Duncan is one of the two best interior defenders in the league over the past 15 years (the other being Harden). They are the core of the team's defensive system.

Jia Fei's selection to the All-NBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team coincided with their loss in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, prompting the haters to start jumping up and down again. Many haters said that if the Hawks were swept by the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, they would be forever nailed to the pillar of historical shame, just like the Running Man who was defeated by the Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals.

Charles Barkley, a well-known critic of Jia Fei, said: "The league is really sick now. A weak guy like Jia Fei can be selected for both the All-NBA First Team and the All-NBA Second Team. It seems that the All-NBA First Team is not as good as it used to be. Although I don't like LeBron either, LeBron is obviously a better player than Jia Fei."

Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen said on a television program: "The league is too soft now. If a player like Jia Fei had played in the 90s, I, Gloves, and Harper could have made him question his existence!"

Socialite Kim Kardashian said, "Jaffy is a great man, I admire him, and he will become the number one player in the league."

Former Chinese men's basketball head coach and renowned commentator Zhang said, "Hey, Jia Fei plays rationally, he's really becoming more and more like Kobe."

Clippers starting center DeAndre Jordan said on Rachel’s show: “Jaffy was just lucky. His team is in the West. If they had met us in the playoffs, they would be out by now.”

Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer said, "I told Jia Fei that it's an honor to coach him, and I hope we can have a good season. Best wishes!"

On the evening of the 21st, at the Philips Arena.

Jia Fei and his best friend Art Mayor went to the gym early to practice. Everyone on the team knew how important this game was to them.

But they aren't under that much pressure. As long as they can play to their strengths, they have a chance to turn the tide of the battle.

According to reliable sources, Cavaliers All-Star guard Kyrie Irving will not play in this game, which is naturally good news for the Hawks. This is a golden opportunity, as the opponent only has one superstar in this game.

Jia Fei remembered that in his previous life, the Hawks were swept by the Cavaliers, who only had one superstar, and their elimination was indeed very embarrassing. But this Hawks is different. This team has him, the newly crowned MVP. If they are swept again, what use is he?

Tencent broadcast the match live, with commentators Wang Meng and guest Yang Yi providing commentary.

The Philips Arena was still 100% full, and you'd have to pay extra to get a ticket for the Hawks' Eastern Conference Finals.

Before the game, both teams practiced, and the Cavaliers seemed very relaxed, laughing and joking. The Running Man member's handling of relationships with teammates is truly at the level of a doctoral supervisor; in this respect, neither Durant, the Los Angeles blacksmith, nor Jia Fei can match him.

Many people consider Jordan a god, but in reality, he wasn't particularly adept at managing relationships with his teammates. If Kwame Brown had received more encouragement from him back then, perhaps he wouldn't have faded into obscurity so quickly.

To take a recent example, the Cavaliers acquired JR Smith this season. This troublemaker has surprisingly become more diligent and focused on playing well since joining the Cavaliers, with fewer off-court issues – a true "prodigal son turned over a new leaf." Keep in mind, this guy was a cancer in New York; the Knicks even included defensive stalwart Iman Shumpert in the trade, treating JR as merely a bonus to Shumpert. However, judging from the Cavaliers' playoff performance, it seems Shumpert should have been the one added on.

The starting lineups for both teams have been announced. The Hawks have kept their lineup unchanged, sticking with their five All-Star players.

The Cavaliers made some changes to their starting lineup. Kyrie Irving, who started in the last game, did not play in this game. Instead, he was replaced by "Australian powerhouse" Matthew Dellavedova.

Dellavedova was an undrafted player with terrible ball-handling and offensive skills. However, thanks to his relentless defense, he managed to get playing time on the Cavaliers, a team that lacked a backup point guard. He is a prime example of an underdog's rise to success.

Jia Fei is naturally very familiar with Dellavedova. He became famous for his defense against Curry during the Cavaliers-Warriors rivalry. His aggressive defense is controversial, but it has to be said that he really plays with all his might. And playing with all his might and being aggressive seems to have become the label of Australian players. Every time the Chinese men's basketball team faces the Australian men's basketball team, they are not used to the physical contact and play very awkwardly.

Jia Fei felt that the Chinese men's basketball team players did not pay enough attention to physical confrontation in normal times, and they were easily defeated when facing strong confrontation in international competitions.

You can't match their fundamentals, physical talent, tactics, or even their strength. So what makes you think you can beat them? Aside from being taller, you're inferior in everything else. That only gets you playing against smaller teams on the largest continent. A 210cm+ tall guy beating a 1.9m+ center might be fun for a while, but you'll get completely destroyed in international competitions…

The Cavaliers still started with two centers. In the last game, TT and Mozgov grabbed a lot of rebounds under the basket, and the Hawks were dominated on the boards, thanks in no small part to them.

Mozgov and Horford jump for the ball near the center circle, and the game is about to begin.

The jump ball began, and Horford won it in a rare move, giving the Hawks possession for the first offensive possession.

Teague dribbled over and directed traffic at the top of the key.

Delavedova didn't give him a chance to be a traffic cop; like a jackal seeing a little rabbit, he pounced on it.