The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball-Chapter 479 - 242 MVP

The Warriors were pushed to the cliff’s edge, if they lost another home court game, the 1-3 deficit would essentially mean saying goodbye to this season.

It was at this point that Jackson finally realized Curry’s importance. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

People are like this, they don’t reflect and make changes unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Fortunately, Jackson’s various lineup experiments against the Grizzlies last season showed he wasn’t as stubborn as Hollins.

Jackson designed a large number of tactics for Curry, which put his personal abilities to a tremendous test.

Whether a player can transform from a star to a superstar is determined by whether he can handle such key battles.

Those who can’t handle it are called All-Stars, while those who manage are like breaking out of a chrysalis into a butterfly, rising from the ashes like a phoenix.

As it turned out, Curry might have had a slender physique, but his mental toughness was very strong.

In Game 4, he scored 7 out of 14 three-point attempts, 10 out of 20 field goals, racking up a series-high 33 points plus 7 rebounds and 7 assists, even adding 2 steals and 1 block.

Under his leadership, the Warriors once again went wild from beyond the arc, hitting 15 of 32 attempts, nearly a 50 percent conversion rate.

Of course, there were many other details in the game, such as Jackson replacing O’Neal with Green in the starting lineup, sacrificing low-post defense for better pick-and-roll and three-point scoring opportunities.

As it turned out, he bet correctly.

The only way for the Warriors to beat the Grizzlies was to open up their outside three-point shooting to exploit the defense’s weaknesses against the Grizzlies’ pair of big men.

However, this also had to do with the Grizzlies’ dip in form. Last season, the Warriors’ combination of Bo Guote and Green had been blown away by the two-tone giants, but this season the Grizzlies relied even more on Hansen, which made it impossible for Joerger to have Hansen stick to Curry the whole time.

The Grizzlies and Warriors fought at Heavenly King Mountain, but this didn’t surprise the outside world.

Because in The West’s four first-round matchups, after all having gone through complete 1-1 scorelines before, they all reached the Heavenly King Mountain stage!

"This is the most intense first-round matchup in NBA history," O’Neal couldn’t help but express after witnessing such a progression.

Goodbye Heavenly King Mountain battle, Hansen’s Grizzlies’ third time in four years at this crucial point.

Joerger also took the initiative to change tactics in this game by starting Battier over Randolph as power forward.

Besides that, there was another change: Hansen started guarding Curry right from the beginning of the game.

This wasn’t Joerger’s arrangement, but rather Hansen’s own plan to test his limits at Heavenly King Mountain.

Hansen’s personal dictionary led with "Brave", and in the most critical games, this trait became even more apparent.

As it turned out, the Grizzlies’ motto "In tight corners, the brave win" was proven correct once more.

The Grizzlies defeated the Warriors 100 to 93 to win the Heavenly King Mountain battle.

Curry was defended by Hansen to only 14 shots, with just 3 makes, managing only 11 points for the whole game thanks to free throws.

Hansen also played a stunning game.

He was on the court for 45 minutes, took 24 shots, made 11, and put up 31 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and 4 blocks.

"I know many people might disagree, but I have to say, based on tonight’s game, Han and Michael are on the same level," Jackson remarked to reporters after the game.

He had played against both Jordan and Kobe, but Hansen’s performance tonight shocked him more than the time Kobe had played the finals with a grade-3 ankle sprain.

Because just defending Curry, Hansen had to run two to three times more than anyone else on the court, not to mention having to take care of offense.

What’s more, 6 of Hansen’s 11 rebounds were offensive boards.

This showed that tonight, Hansen was not just omnipresent defensively, but on both ends of the court!

Of course, what Jackson didn’t know was that after the game, Hansen got IV hydration.

Pushing oneself to the limit has a toll: slight dehydration.

It was after the Grizzlies won Heavenly King Mountain battle that the League announced the biggest award of the season, the MVP of the regular season.

Before the results were announced, it was suspenseful.

In terms of record, the San Antonio Spurs’ 62 wins were the League’s best, but they had played team basketball standard this season, with 6 people averaging double figures in scoring and Parker leading with only 16 points per game.

Under these conditions, MVP was unlikely to go to them.

This was also why the Grizzlies didn’t push hard at the end of the season to surpass The West’s first place.

Because overtaking the Spurs wouldn’t affect Hansen’s MVP competition, the focus was to beat the Heat.

And the outcome was indeed that the Grizzlies ended up with one more win than the Heat Team.

Theoretically speaking, with better performance and stats, Hansen had more than enough to win MVP.

But you have to consider that the League is still the Nike Alliance; there was precedence like James winning MVP with the fourth-ranked Heat in "history".

This season James was out of the running, but Durant remained.

Especially now that Nike seemed interested in promoting Durant to their main face, or if Durant won the championship this season, he would become the new face of Nike.

So before the final results came out officially, anything could change.

In the end, Hansen won with a 38% vote share, defeating Durant who had 27%, and was elected the regular season MVP for the first time in his career!

As it turned out, award season evaluations consider a mix of factors.

Just like the draft lottery draw, how ping pong balls spin is one thing, but how the League considers it all is another significant matter.