There were two days of rest between the regular season and the playoffs. Link took one day to go to Oklahoma, then hurried back to Memphis the next day to prepare for the postseason.
Rather than feeling tired, Link was more excited than ever.
Because the summer he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
This was his final push for the championship, and the last step toward surpassing Michael Jordan.
Four straight championships—a feat no one had accomplished since 1985.
Seven championship rings—looking across modern basketball history, only Robert Horry, that god-tier role player who became more like a superstar the later a game went, possessed that many.
During the regular season, Link had already left Jordan behind.
These playoffs would be the final step in Link achieving his goal!
After the Grizzlies' dynasty roster broke up last year, many people had not been optimistic about their prospects this season.
Experts had previously believed that the Western Conference was simply too competitive, and that it would be difficult for the Grizzlies to break through so easily.
But now that they looked at it, everything seemed no different from the previous few years.
The Grizzlies' first-round opponent was the Dallas Mavericks, who had delivered some surprising performances this season but were still not strong enough.
The Mavericks' stars, Luka Dončić and Porzingis, were both playing in the playoffs for the first time. They had no concept whatsoever of playoff-level physicality.
Facing seasoned veterans like the Grizzlies under such circumstances, the odds of the Mavericks pulling off an eighth-seed miracle were extremely low.
Therefore, most people believed that the Mavericks were unlikely to be the Grizzlies' undoing.
If the Grizzlies advanced smoothly out of the first round, their opponent in the conference semifinals would be the winner between the Jazz and