176: 089: Secrets Beyond Basketball (Vote for monthly tickets!)_3 176: 089: Secrets Beyond Basketball (Vote for monthly tickets!)_3 Riley didn’t say much more and stood up to leave Dolan’s office.
He couldn’t believe he was being compared to a speculator like Phil Jackson—what a profound humiliation!
That afternoon, the Knicks players started to suffer.
The only difference between Pat Riley and the slave owners of the 19th century was that he had no whip or shotgun in his hands.
The fact that there are still coaches like Pat Riley in this world proves that the heavens are unjust; civilization has progressed, yet serfdom hasn’t been completely eradicated.
However, the heavens still have some conscience; at least they never let Pat Riley and Tom Thibodeau be on the same team—two nightmares at once.
Driven by Riley, the New York Knicks players entered the Orlando Arena with the same bloodthirsty vigor as the previous year.
In the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Magic continued their playoff winning streak.
O’Neal scored an easy 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the game because that night, the Knicks’ “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy resulted in Shaq going 9 for 9 from the free-throw line.
Adding to that, Roger scored 24 points, leading the Magic Team to a 94-81 victory over the Knicks.
After the game, O’Neal boasted happily, “I’m the center version of ‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich.
Foul me, and you might as well be pulling the trigger on your own head!”
But in Game 2, the Knicks immediately shut O’Neal up.
They aggressively doubled him, forcing early fouls, and made Shaq take 17 free throws, but he made only five.
By halftime, with the Knicks leading by six points, Riley told reporters, “Shaq probably doesn’t know that Pete’s free throws in the playoffs are not stable.”
However, in the second half, another problem arose.
Roger’s off-ball offense reminded Derek Harper, Anthony Mason, and Starks of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals despair.
Roger hit jumpers from all angles, scoring one two-pointer after another over the fingertips of the Knicks’ perimeter players.
On the NBC live broadcast, Ian Eagle reminded everyone, “New York is facing a team that has two players who can average 26 points per game!”
This season, Roger averaged 28.4 points, and O’Neal averaged 26.1 points.
There wasn’t a second duo in the entire league with such explosive scoring ability.
With Roger’s performance, the Magic Team gradually caught up with the score.
With the final 36 seconds left, the Knicks were down by two points.
Riley, sweating profusely, knew that including this year’s regular season, Roger had killed the Knicks three times in critical moments.
It wasn’t hard to imagine how tense the Knicks were right now.
The New Yorkers concentrated all their attention on Roger and Shaq, but at the end, Ron Harper unexpectedly scored the crucial basket with a mid-range jumper after a pick-and-roll with Horace Grant.
The four-point difference remained until the end, and the Magic led the Knicks with a 2-0 series score!
Riley hadn’t anticipated the Magic giving the final shot to Harper; Brian Hill had successfully played a reverse strategy.
Harper was thrilled: “You know, although I’m averaging less than 10 points this season, this is where veterans shine in the playoffs!”
Roger didn’t forget to mock his old acquaintance, Pippen: “Thank goodness I didn’t refuse to play in the last moments.
Otherwise, I would have been too embarrassed to celebrate with Ron.”
By now, the Magic Team had achieved five straight wins in the playoffs, unstoppable
Everyone believed that Roger and Shaq would easily advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, even the Finals.
ESPN writer Howard Cooper even commented, “They might not lose a single game in the East.”
Of course, there were also dissenting voices.
“USA Today” columnist Sam Amick believed, “The Magic is not invincible; Roger and Shaq are just two strong individuals playing together.
I think they’re not a true team.”
The comments from the reporters sparked discussions among fans, but nobody paid attention to what Pat Riley said at the press conference: “This is a seven-game series!”
The New York Knicks are, after all, the toughest team in the East.
Pat Riley, craving power, would never allow his team to fall just like that.
Returning home for Game 3, the Knicks indeed claimed a victory.
In that game, Starks found his shot and scored 31 points, combined with Ewing’s 28, leading the Knicks to avenge their loss successfully.
In Game 4, people discovered that the Knicks’ defense had become even more extreme.
When O’Neal got the ball, they immediately triple-teamed him.
When Roger got the ball, they double-teamed him right away.
The rest of the Magic Team could be left wide open, even Harper who played the hero in Game 2 could be unquestionably abandoned.
This extreme defensive strategy unraveled the secret of the magical Magic.
It’s true that Roger and O’Neal were the league’s most explosive scoring duo, but apart from them, the only other player on the whole Magic Team averaging double figures was Horace Grant with 12.9 points.
The whole team had only three players scoring in double figures.
Moreover, Horace Grant’s scoring average of 12.9 points was dependent on cashing in on the double-teaming of O’Neal and Roger; his own offensive capabilities weren’t strong.
Last season, to protect Roger and Shaq, Pat Williams traded away almost all the scorers in the team, creating this fiercely defensive, tough, and solid lineup putting all offensive responsibilities on Roger and O’Neal.
In the highly targeted playoffs, the flaws of this lineup became evident.
By the second round, the average playing time for Roger and O’Neal had exceeded 45 minutes each game.