April 20, 2007

Finally playoffs are here! After 82 games, the playoffs have arrived.We are scheduled to play the Utah Jazz in a best-of-seven series that begins in Houston on Saturday night. It will be a very difficult series to win because Utah is a very good team. They beat us three times during the regular season. They are a big, strong, physical team led by Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur. They have a great young point guard in Deron Williams. They have active wings in Andrei Kirilenko, Matt Harpring, and Gordon Giricek.

It will be fun for me to play against my old college teammate Carlos Boozer.  We won a national championship at Duke together in 2001. While it will be smiles and hugs before the game, as soon as the ball is tipped, we will both focus on the game and try to out-compete each other. That is one of the most fun parts of our job, we get to compete and try to beat our friends! As soon as the game is over, Carlos and I can be friendly again, but not when we are playing.

The key to winning this series will be rebounding. We have rebounded well in the regular season, we have played very well. When we have struggled to rebound, we usually lose the game. It is as simple as that statistic for our team.

Wish us good luck for the series, we need all the help and support we can get. Stay tuned and I'll be checking back in a few days.

Your friend,

Shane

　　终于，季后赛要开始了。在经历了82场比赛之后，季后赛来到了。根据赛程，我们将于周六晚上(美国时间)在休斯顿和犹他爵士队展开七场四胜制系列赛中的第一场较量。

　　要赢得这轮的系列赛将会十分困难，因为爵士队是一支非常出色的球队。他们的球员身材都很高大、强壮，在卡洛斯-布泽尔和奥库的带领下，爵士是一支打法非常硬朗的球队。同时，他们还拥有一个虽然年轻，但非常优秀的控球后卫德隆-威廉姆斯。他们的前锋位上的球员也非常活跃，包括有基里连科、哈普林和吉里塞克。

　　和我过去大学的同队校友布泽尔同场竞技将会是件非常有趣的事情。我们曾携手在2001年为杜克大学赢得过全国冠军。当然，虽然我们会在比赛之前微笑致意、互相拥抱，但一等跳球下来，我们都会将注意力集中在比赛上面，并会努力压制住对方。这是我们这项职业中最有乐趣的地方，我们不得不互相竞争，并要尽力去击败自己的好朋友。而当比赛结束之后，卡洛斯和我将又会变得非常友好，不过，你可不会在比赛中见到这点。

　　要想赢得这个系列赛，关键是篮板球的控制。常规赛的时候，我们在篮板球上做的不错，所以我们打的也很好。而当我们在篮板球上做的不好的时候，我们通常就会输球。事情就是这么简单，这项技术统计的好坏会直接影响我们球队的成绩。

　　希望我们在这个系列赛中能有好运，我们需要所有我们能得到的支持和帮助。请继续关注我的博客，过几天我还会回来的。

　　你们的朋友

　　肖恩