warrior godfather

Chapter 290 Ross can do it, can't I?
The G1 of the Warriors and Grizzlies didn't get much attention from the outside world, and it wasn't even too high when there was no overlap in other games.

There is no other reason. No fans like to watch slow-paced, ground-breaking, and inefficient defensive battles, and the Grizzlies happen to be the best of them. Zhang Yu put on a one-star four-defense, which perfectly fits these characteristics.

But this is only for American fans. They have a high demand for the ball in the game. There must be a star and a viewer. The viewership of the Warriors and Grizzlies has fallen to the bottom, and the star is only a newly-emerged Curry. Naturally Can't attract too many eyeballs.

In China, the attention of this game is even higher than the battle of the Big Three that will be held later.

For the Huaxia fans who regard the Warriors as their home team, as long as the Warriors can win, no matter how ugly the scene is, they can accept it. Now is not the era when data is king, and no one is going to criticize Curry for not being efficient enough.

Contrary to the lack of fan attention, many commentators, like Van Gundy, praised Curry's performance. Bill Simmons wrote in his ESPN column:

"Stephen Curry made 1 of 30 shots, 13 of 15 three-pointers, 6 of 6 free throws, and scored 6 points in G38 of the Grizzlies. From the data I listed, his efficiency is not high— — This is a comparison with his performance in the first round of the Thunder. In the first round of the series, Curry was able to average 65.6 points, 35.3 assists and 6.4 rebounds per game with a true shooting percentage of 5.3%, which is among the best in history. Playoff performance in the ranks! Compared with everyone else, Curry's performance against the Grizzlies is undoubtedly phenomenal."

"Many people have put their eyes on the game between the Celtics and the Heat. Of course, including me, who can resist the temptation of the Big Three vs. the Big Three? But I invite everyone to take a look at this Jeff Van Gundy He may be the point guard with the strongest scoring ability after Iverson, and he is the only super scorer who can combine Nash's shooting with Iverson's breakthrough..."

Maybe it's because Curry's 38 points led many stars in the second round, or maybe it's because many reports praised Curry at length. The G2 between the Warriors and the Grizzlies after a lapse of one day attracted many viewers to watch, and the ratings were comparable. There is no small improvement over G1.

Curry did not let them down either. The 1-minute fierce battle in G40 did not seem to consume too much of his physical energy. In the Oracle Center, in front of 19596 spectators at home, he played 43 minutes and made 29 of 12 shots, including three-pointers. 18 of 7, 7 of 6 free throws, scored 37 points, 4 assists and 5 rebounds, leading the Warriors to a 95:89 victory over the Grizzlies, leading the opponent by 2:0 in the series.

Compared with G1, G2 came more directly. The two teams did not test after the opening, and fell directly into a strangling defensive battle.

Clay lost his focus under this high-intensity confrontation. His confrontation ability and shot stability were not good enough to score stably under the Grizzlies' defense. Zhang Yu only let him play for 3 minutes, and he used Tony Allen Replace him, improve the team's defense, and then play Pai Klay in the transition period. He can get some points under the defense of the Grizzlies' rotation.

Unlike the previous game, Randolph was in excellent form this time, scoring a double-double of 25 points and 13 rebounds. His excellent performance also helped the Grizzlies lead the Warriors in the first half, but waited until his physical fitness declined in the second half After that, facing the Warriors' inside defense, it was difficult to attack successfully. The Warriors relied on Curry's scoring to even out the point difference and overtake it, and kept it until the end of the game.

Although the Grizzlies set off a counterattack in the fourth quarter, scoring is not their strong point, especially in front of the Warriors' one-star four-defense lineup, the shortcomings of the Grizzlies' lack of outside ball handlers are fully exposed.

Without outside stars, the Grizzlies must attack the low post, and the development of low post offense requires a lot of upfront costs, and they must also penetrate the Warriors' inside defense head-on, which happens to be the hardest part of the Warriors' defensive system.

Chandler showed his value, he achieved the ultimate in single defense, assist defense, and rebound protection. Although he only scored 8 points, he had 16 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. In addition, he successfully interfered with Lando many times The shooting of Husband and Gasol Jr. is an important contributor to the Warriors' victory, which is comparable to Curry's contribution to the victory of the game.

Butler and Clay scored 16 points and 10 points respectively. No one else scored in double figures. Green had 6 points, Jeremy Lin had 7 points, Kirilenko had 6 points, Tony Allen had 5 points...but they all did their best on the defensive end. With all their strength, the three of Green had 2 steals respectively. Jeremy Lin completed his duties as a backup point guard, stabilized the rhythm of the Warriors' transition, and sent 4 assists. Without their contributions, the Warriors would not have won this game. Contest.

In contrast to the Grizzlies, Gasol Jr. is the most powerful partner around Randolph, but his ability to digest the ball is limited. He only made 12 of 6 shots, 5 of 3 free throws and scored a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. Conley and OJ Mayo and other outside players performed mediocrely and could not give effective support to the Twin Towers.

At the critical moment when they need to chase points, they can only go around the Warriors and throw the ball to the Twin Towers again and again. Time is wasted on passing the ball inside, but they themselves have no hard solution to help the team score. .

Hollins looked at Randolph and Gasol who were out of breath after the game, but the Grizzlies were still unable to win, and he couldn't help feeling a little doubt in his heart.

In this alliance, can the insiders really win the world?

……

The victory of G2 made the Warriors fans rejoice and made the Grizzlies fans sad, but unfortunately, Curry's 37 points did not make headlines. It's because Rose won the MVP.

On the afternoon before the start of the Warriors and Grizzlies G2, the NBA official website issued an official announcement that Rose won the 2010-2011 regular season MVP award. The youngest MVP in history.

The previous record was set by "Bone Crusher" Unseld in the 1968-69 season. He won the regular season MVP at the age of 23, but that was the ancient times of the NBA. Unseld's MVP was still a player. Selected, he only had 13.8 points and 18.2 rebounds in the regular season, and was swept by the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs, which is very lacking in gold content.

However, Rose scored 26.4 points, 8.1 assists and 4.6 rebounds. He led the Bulls to a league-best record of 62 wins and 20 losses, and his usage rate in the team was as high as 32.2%. Starting the Bulls' offense, he is the only player in the league with both scoring and assists in the top ten in the league-the other is Curry.

Such an outstanding performance also allowed Rose to get 113 first votes in the MVP selection, with a total score of 1047 points, and was elected as the regular season MVP with an overwhelming advantage.

Behind Rose is a list of star-studded names, the second is Howard with 534 points, the third is James with 468 points, the fourth is Kobe with 436 points, the fifth is Curry with 405 points, and the sixth is 183 points. Durant.

This is also the first time that Curry has entered the top five positions in the MVP selection. Combined with the fact that Zhang Yu ranked second in the selection of the best coach before, it is enough to show that the Warriors' performance this season has been fully recognized by the outside world.

The release of the MVP results also made everyone focus on Rose in the Windy City. Some people even wondered whether the Bulls could make it to the end of the playoffs, so that Rose could reach the sky in one step and become a true historical superstar.

However, the general opinion of the outside world is that the Bulls still have great limitations. They have the power to fight against the Heat and Celtics of the Big Three, but it is very difficult to break out from the East. Until the Bulls reach the top, but judging from the terrifying progress Rose has shown, the Bulls will be the new overlord of the East.

For a while, Rose became the most sought after superstar in the United States, and even overshadowed the Big Three Heat and the defending champion Lakers.

Looking at Rose standing on the floor of the United Center and receiving the MVP trophy from David Stern, the fans seemed to be pulled back to the distant 90s in an instant, the decade when the NBA was dominated by the Bulls.

With the support of emotional filters, Ross has dominated the basketball headlines of all media, from the United States to China, from the East to the West.

Almost everyone is asking, is the era of the bull coming again?

……

Just as the frenzy triggered by Rose swept across the United States, the Warriors "quietly" lost the G3 against the Grizzlies.

With a big score of 0:2 behind, from the head coach Hollinsey to the players, and then to the fans, they all know that if they lose another game, the Grizzlies will bid farewell to this year's playoffs, never before in NBA history It is already a miracle for the Grizzlies to be able to make a comeback after falling behind 0:3. They don't even have the confidence to create an even bigger miracle.

In this desperate situation, the Grizzlies, who had returned to the home court for a three-day rest, were united as one. Everyone showed their full potential and beat the Warriors 3-8 as soon as they came up.

This is not all because the Grizzlies are in full swing. After the Warriors took a 2-0 lead, they inevitably developed a sense of underestimation and arrogance. This is a common problem of young teams. , also to no avail.

Although the Warriors tried their best to adjust afterwards, the Grizzlies completely had the upper hand in terms of momentum. Li is even more accurate, and he is less reasonable than Curry, which makes the Warriors have no temper at all.

Seven minutes into the fourth quarter, the Warriors trailed the Grizzlies by 7 points, and their morale was completely lost. Both offensive and defensive ends lost their game. Shrinking, the offensive end was cut off, and the defensive end was leaked. It was impossible to implement the tactics arranged by Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu saw that there was no hope of chasing points, so he simply withdrew all the main players, and sent Danny Green, Whiteside and others to feel the atmosphere of the playoffs.

In the end, the Grizzlies beat the Warriors 113:95 and pulled back a victory at home. The big score in the series became 1:2, breaking away from the cliff of being eliminated.

In this game, only veterans such as Curry and Chandler performed normally for the Warriors.

Curry was a bit turbulent in the first quarter and sent 3 turnovers in a single quarter, but he quickly adjusted and scored 10 points in a single quarter in the second quarter, just because the Warriors fell behind too much and the game entered garbage time early. Played for 32 minutes, only took 17 shots, scored 23 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds, and Zhang Yu conceded the shot.

The veterans such as Chandler, Tony Allen, and Kirilenko have rich experience in the playoffs, can maintain a stable mentality, and perform very stable.

But other young players don’t have this kind of concentration. Under the touting of the media, they all feel that the Warriors are very strong. The Grizzlies, who have lost two games in a row, have no resistance. It is a certainty for the Warriors to enter the Western Conference Finals .

But when they realized that the situation was not good and paid attention to the Grizzlies, it was too late, and they were stunned by the Grizzlies players with bloodthirsty eyes.

After losing G3, Zhang Yu canceled the rest of the day. He gathered all the players in the conference room of the hotel, analyzed the video replay of the game from beginning to end, and was furious throughout.

Under Zhang Yu's anger, no one dared to speak, and the huge conference room was silent, only his furious roar echoed for a whole day.

After watching the video, Zhang Yu also asked everyone to conduct a self-criticism. Even Curry was not spared. Only Chandler, Tony Allen and a few other veterans with stable performance were not blamed by Zhang Yu.

After everyone finished their review and it was night, Zhang Yu glanced around with unemotional eyes, and said coldly:
"It's okay to lose. No team wins and loses. In the history of the NBA, there is no team that can win the playoffs. I don't blame you for losing, but I can't accept such a loss. "

He suddenly raised his voice, and his voice was as cold as a wind mixed with snowflakes, sweeping across the entire meeting room:

"Win two games in the second round, and you are satisfied? What kind of bullshit is this?! Do you really believe what the media says, and think that our reconstruction is 'successful'? Childish! There is only one standard of success in the NBA, and that is Champion! Without a champion, you are nothing!"

Snapped!
Zhang Yu slapped the table heavily with his hand, and said sharply:
"I was a champion coach in the NCAA. I ruled the NCAA for two years, and I can even continue to rule. I gave up the opportunity to become an NCAA legend and came to the NBA. I didn't want to bring a bad team into the playoffs! I didn't win the championship last year. , I can accept that I didn’t win the championship this year, and I can also accept that nothing can be achieved overnight, but this does not mean that you can be satisfied with your current results! We are a young team, and every playoff game is an exercise Opportunity, these two years are the best growth period for you, and the best foundational period that you must grasp if you want to compete for the championship. As a result, you actually underestimated the enemy in the playoffs, and underestimated the enemy in front of the opponent who created the black eight miracle. This is violence, this is playing with fire and self-immolation, do you understand?!"

Zhang Yu took a breath and looked around. All the rookies lowered their heads in shame. No one dared to look at him. The veterans also looked solemn. He snorted coldly, and his voice softened slightly:

"How many teams are struggling to find a ticket to the playoffs, but you don't cherish this opportunity. You really think you are a peerless genius? Rose just became the youngest MVP in history. You have Rose's astonishment. Is it amazing? In the next game, I don’t want to see you play like the first quarter today! Stephen, remember, you can play wild in the regular season, but in the playoffs, I will never allow you Bring that casual attitude to the game!"

"Think about it all. If you want to stand on the biggest stage, compete with the strongest team, and reap all the flowers and applause, then go all out for every playoff game!" After he finished speaking, he glanced again. Everyone glanced at them, turned around and left the meeting room, and slammed the door behind them.

After a long time, breaths of relief resounded one after another in the meeting room. Everyone looked at each other with a look of fear on their faces. Curry looked at the closed door thoughtfully, and his heart gradually burned. Get up the fighting spirit.

Ross can do it, can't I?
(End of this chapter)