Free Web NovelChapter 386: Chapter 121: The Awarding of the Regular Season MVP
Starting from the third quarter, it was a slow, grinding process, as the Pacers painstakingly chipped away at the Brooklyn Nets’ lead.
By the end of the third quarter, the Pacers were only trailing by one point.
After entering the fourth quarter, the Pacers quickly went on a small run.
During the rotation when the Brooklyn Nets’ J Kidd and Carter were on the bench, Su Xi led the team in a powerful offensive surge. They had been grinding out the pace slowly before, but once the rotation began, Su Xi led them into an abrupt run-and-gun offense. In less than two minutes, they unleashed an 8-0 scoring burst.
The Brooklyn Nets’ Coach Frank had no choice but to call a timeout and put all his starters back in.
At the same time, the Pacers also brought their starters back in. The two sides went back to grinding it out, as if the furious storm of the last few minutes had never happened.
The Brooklyn Nets lost because of their lack of bench depth.
Caught in the Pacers’ tempo, they were powerless to turn the tide.
101–89.
The Pacers won by 12 points in the end.
Su Xi posted a triple-double in this game with 15 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 block.
Su Xi’s shooting touch was ice-cold tonight, and he mostly focused on distributing the ball when he drove. This was a significant drop from his regular-season average of 22.5 points per game.
However, Su Xi was the main reason the Pacers won tonight, making him the undisputed MVP of the game.
On the Brooklyn Nets’ side, Jason Kidd also got a triple-double, with 11 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Jason Kidd is the NBA’s active triple-double king. His are the economical, no-frills kind; his points, assists, and rebounds all just barely cross the threshold.
Su Xi is the league’s season leader in triple-doubles. At this rate, it wouldn’t take him more than four or five seasons to break J Kidd’s career record. Besides, Su Xi is different from J Kidd. Many of Su Xi’s triple-doubles are massive ones, with high point and assist totals.
After the game, the media heavily reported on the triple-double battle between the two. In the NBA, it’s relatively rare for two opposing core players to get a triple-double in the same game.
These were the 2005 playoffs, a time before stats became as explosive as they would in the future.
There weren’t as many players who ’lived for the stats’.
Furthermore, this era was simpler. Even if players padded their stats, they took pride in padding their points. It wasn’t like later superstars who were more cunning, padding all sorts of stats to show off their versatility, making their ’advanced stats’ look particularly good. Even in a loss, they could manage to have one of the highest plus-minus ratings on the court.
In other words, playing with your ’brain’.
...
The Pacers beat the Brooklyn Nets without any major upsets, while the Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, and Boston Celtics also secured smooth victories.
There were no upsets; the strength of the top half of the bracket was undeniable.
The same was true over in the West.
The top four seeds all won.
Then, the Pacers and the Brooklyn Nets played their second playoff game.
It went more smoothly than the first game because Vince Carter didn’t score another 29 points on 12-for-18 shooting. Stephen Jackson’s performance in the second game could be described as turning shame into courage; he relentlessly harassed Carter, never letting him get into a comfortable position.
After clanking his first two shots, Carter reduced his number of attempts.
For one, this was the Brooklyn Nets, not the Toronto Raptors, where he had once held absolute authority.
For another, Carter’s personality was different from Iverson’s or Kobe’s. Those two could miss 20 shots in a row and would still take the 21st.
Defenders could never expect to see a hint of hesitation in their eyes.
That’s why so-called basketball experts called them ’lone wolves’ and ’selfish’.
But if you were to ask their defenders, they would all say those two were the hardest to guard.
It was nothing more than their overbearing force of will.
The Pacers secured an easy victory in this game. They smothered the Brooklyn Nets with defense from start to finish, and the Nets had no answer.
Most importantly, Su Xi frequently used screens to cut to the basket against the Brooklyn Nets.
After losing Kenyon Martin, the best rim protector in their franchise’s history, the Brooklyn Nets’ paint became incredibly vulnerable, and Su Xi all but completely destroyed them there.
It’s worth noting that Su Xi got another triple-double in this game: 22 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds, and 4 steals.
After the game, one commentator remarked sourly, "The Pacers have established a system for Su Xi to pad his triple-doubles. They have Foster, Little O’Neal, Tony Battie, and others intentionally box out for Little Sheep Su Xi, giving him the chance to just pick up defensive rebounds."
"At this rate, triple-doubles in the NBA are going to become cheap and commonplace."
Su Xi couldn’t be bothered to respond to such comments.
’Come back and whine when triple-doubles actually are cheap and commonplace,’ he thought. ’Right now, it’s just the useless squawking of a lame duck.’
Besides, if what Su Xi was doing was stat-padding, then what would you call LeBron James’s playstyle—a positionless tactic created purely to manufacture stats?
As the playoffs progressed, the announcements for the regular season awards were drawing near.
And the debates were heating up.
Currently, there were two main points of contention in the media. The Cleveland media was lobbying for LeBron James to make an All-NBA Team—specifically, the First Team. They felt that there was no small forward in the league better than James, and that he deserved a spot on the All-NBA First Team roster.
The other point of contention involved another prodigy from the 2003 draft class.
Little Sheep Su Xi.
"Why can’t Jack be the regular season MVP? Why?! Look at the stats: 22.5 points, 10.5 assists, 8.6 rebounds, 3.6 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game. He’s the league’s steals leader, second in assists, and eleventh in scoring. Are there any more dominant all-around individual stats in the league today?"
"And on top of that, the Pacers firmly held onto first place in the East even with such a depleted roster. When it comes to team record, who can compare to Jack?"
"If Little Sheep Su Xi isn’t this year’s regular season MVP, then this year’s award will have the least prestige of all time."
Larry Bird was the first to step up and speak out against the injustice for Su Xi.
Bird’s standing in the basketball world was immense, and his public support for Su Xi put a lot of pressure on the league.
In fact, it wasn’t just Pacers-affiliated figures like Bird, Carlisle, Artest, and Little O’Neal who were championing Su Xi’s cause.
Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Isaiah Thomas... all these big names were also speaking out for Su Xi.
Everyone knows that the regular season MVP is judged on two main criteria: team record and individual stats.
In terms of individual stats, Su Xi was just as strong, if not stronger, than the other two main contenders. Although Steve Nash and Shaquille O’Neal also had great individual numbers, they were still a notch below Su Xi’s.
In terms of record, although the Pacers had two fewer wins than the Phoenix Suns, the Suns had maintained a mostly healthy and intact roster all season. The Pacers, on the other hand, had lost three starters due to the Auburn Hills Palace incident, causing their entire defensive system to collapse. Under these circumstances, Su Xi still led the team to first place in the East.
And it goes without saying that the Heat’s record was worse than the Pacers’.
Therefore, starting from the second half of the season, the question of who would win regular season MVP gradually became a mystery, no longer as clear-cut as it had been mid-season.
This was because Su Xi’s stats and record were just too solid.
His stats were a cut above Nash’s, and his team’s record was better than O’Neal’s.
The arguments against Su Xi winning the regular season MVP now boiled down to the same two points, repeated over and over.
First: the Pacers’ record had declined compared to last season. Meanwhile, the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat had improved by leaps and bounds after acquiring Nash and O’Neal, respectively.
Second: Su Xi was too young. He was only 20 years old. This was just his second season. If he won the regular season MVP, wouldn’t that make his legacy and accolades even more impressive than those of some all-time greats at the same stage?
But, if you didn’t give it to Su Xi...
The authority and prestige of the regular season MVP award would definitely take a hit.
Although there had been controversial MVP awards in many years, some with even obvious bias...
...the voters had to consider a very harsh reality: Little Sheep Su Xi was the type of person to hold a grudge over the smallest slight.
If he didn’t get the regular season MVP this season but ended up winning the championship and the Finals MVP...
...can you imagine how he would mock the regular season MVP award?
He wasn’t exactly known for being magnanimous.
Last year, he had to share the Rookie of the Year award with James, and after winning the championship, he mocked it relentlessly and even casually gave away his trophy.
Given Su Xi’s history, there was still no clear prediction for the award.
Would it be Nash, O’Neal, or Su Xi?
...
