The Basketball Court Swordsman

For the guy Kavai Leonard, Henson really has too many deep memories. To be precise, Henson has always remembered Leonard from the moment he saw Leonard running silently on the college arena. He is also very fortunate that he was able to coach such a player.

He still clearly remembers the season in which Leonard won the FMVP, when the finals reached the third game, Henson had a tactical meeting the next day.

In the conference room, Henson asked the players to watch a video of their first day's game. The video faithfully recorded how Leonard caused trouble on both ends of the offense and defense, and how silently became an important gear in the Pacers system.

Henson also happily commented on Leonard's beautiful rounds, and Henson was never stingy with players who praised him. He knows that proper praise will not make the players proud, but will have unexpected effects.

At that time, facing the praise of Henson and his teammates, Leonard didn't say a word or expression, and seemed to be thinking about something.

So a few days later, he raised the FMVP trophy and showed a shy smile. Finally, he still laughed.

Henson had known since then that Leonard would not be satisfied until he won to the end.

Before winning, no matter how good his performance was, he could not be satisfied. Without being satisfied, Leonard won't put a smile on his face.

Just like now, when he killed the 76ers with a thrilling shot in the tiebreaker, Leonard just shouted, but didn't laugh.

It's like when Henson praised Leonard, he didn't laugh at all.

The day after Leonard killed the 76ers and was promoted, the whole world went crazy. There is no doubt that this number 2 from Toronto has become a more popular superstar than Stephen Curry and James Harden.

Suns veteran and ever greatest sixth man Jamal Crawford commented, "This is the most important lore in the history of the Raptors."

"If you haven't seen Michael Jordan, just look at him! Look at the attitude! Look at the will! Look at the murderousness! He is the Michael Jordan of this era!" An eSPN commentator wrote in his column. .

Leonard wrote history by hand, a career best shot that touched the back of Michael Jordan. Thirty years later, another life-and-death battle to win the ball.

"It's great, I haven't experienced anything like this before the 7th game. At that moment, I was favored by the goddess of victory. I came there, got shots and was able to experience that moment. This will be the most fascinating moment of my career. Be proud of things!" Leonard himself was delighted with this lore.

Of course, between the lines, Henson also found that Leonard was only happy with that lore, but not satisfied.

He is still not satisfied, his ambition is bigger than everyone thinks.

This lore of Leonard reminds Henson of a comment that Popovich once made to Leonard.

"Leonard can do what Michael Jordan can do on both offense and defense."

Yes, Michael Jordan. When a player starts to be compared with that "god", you know how strong he is.

And now the most frightening thing is that this guy who was compared with Michael Jordan is about to become Henson's opponent!

What was Henson's mood the last time he met the Toronto Raptors? Henson had no impression at all. Because it is very likely, he did not have any special emotions at the time.

Generally speaking, Henson is only a little nervous when facing a five-star warrior. As for facing other teams, if Henson has any special emotions, it is probably self-confidence.

But this time, facing the Toronto Raptors, Henson found himself nervous. It has been a long, long time since he has not felt nervous when facing a team other than the Warriors.

In the previous Eastern Conference finals, his opponents were all LeBron James. Henson is very familiar with James himself and his team. For the familiar things, Henson would certainly not be nervous.

Last season, Henson's opponent in the Eastern Conference finals became the Celtics. Although the opponents have changed, the Celtics did not have Irving and Hayward last season. Henson was confident from the beginning, and naturally he would not be nervous.

But this year, for the first time in so long, Henson felt nervous for the Eastern Conference Finals. He is afraid, what should he do if he can't make it to the finals?

In the previous six years of Henson's coaching career, five of them have reached the finals. For him, winning the scoring zone championship is just needed.

But this year, Henson is even nervous about whether he can win the scoring zone championship.

Although the Pacers took a long break because they swept the Celtics to win, Henson didn't think he had the advantage. He still said that if he could win the victory after a long rest, wouldn't he be invincible if he sent Bird on the field?

Therefore, the players also found Henson very serious these days. He often puts himself in the office to study tactics as soon as he arrives, and only comes out to command during confrontational training.

Henson values ​​the next round very much, and fools can see it. His efforts were not in vain, Henson found many loopholes in the Raptors.

Indeed, Leonard's performance in the series is very good, so outstanding to be compared with Michael Jordan. But the performance of other Raptors players is not so satisfactory.

During the regular season, Lowry made 34.7% of his three-pointers and only 28% in the playoffs. Gasol shot 44% from three in the regular season and only 33% in the playoffs. As for Van Fleet... this guy has made 0 in 5 of the last 7 games.

So, the problem for the Raptors is that, except for Leonard, the performance of their other players has regressed across the board! In fact, if you think about it, if the rest of the Raptors can play better, Leonard won't have to rely on lore to win the game.

Outside, people are publicizing the battle between Antetokounmpo and Leonard, and publicizing who is the most versatile forward George and Leonard.

But in the small head coach's office, Henson plans to rely on the depth of the lineup to win the game, and rely on the role players to win the game.

Leonard is like Michael Jordan? Then why should I be an enemy of Michael Jordan?

Rondo, Rose, Green, Stephenson, Kuzma, Tucker, Siakam...

George and Antetokounmpo will take great pains for Leonard, and the task of killing the game can naturally be given to others.

Henson turned off the video of the game, even if the real Michael Jordan came, he had to win!

How big is the gap between professional players and prospective players and amateur players? Last summer, there was a title on the tubing called "Can You Defend a 6-foot NBA Player?" "The video has become popular on the Internet.

In that video, a player from the Development League and an NCAA player who just joined Michigan played a 1v1v1 bullfight with an NBA player.

Even though the NBA player is just a marginal man in the league, his performance in a season is only 2.9 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists. But in this interesting bullfighting game, he appeared to do whatever he wanted, whether it was a static draw or a jump shot combined with a dribble.

As long as he is willing, he can easily break through to the basket to score points at any time. Even as long as there is a slight gap, he can use skilled skills to firmly put the ball into the basket. In order to desperately guard this guy from the top league, one of them even got his shoes off, twice!

And the NBA player in this video is Van Fleet. It's just a pity that this video was his brightest moment last season.

But all this has changed since this year.

Through a summer of hard work, Van Vleet has become a surprise player for the Raptors this season. His high-level data is very beautiful, and he is often praised by various experts for this reason.

However, this year's playoffs, Van Fleet's performance was a disaster. Especially in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the 76ers, Van Fleet did not score in five of the seven games.

However, even so, he still has a solid playing time, which put Jeremy Lin firmly behind him. Coach Nick Nas's employing strategy has also attracted a lot of criticism.

Now, Van Fleet is almost everyone's laughing stock. He doesn't want this situation to continue. He needs to use performance to break doubts and help the team.

Just like he did in the regular season this year.

Thinking of this, this man, who was ridiculed by Chinese fans as "Fan Jordan", continued his shooting and training.

He believes that Indianapolis and the Eastern Conference Finals are the beginning of his Nirvana rebirth...