warrior godfather

Chapter 504 Doesn't Conform to the Laws of Basketball

June 6, Oakland, Oracle Center.

Today is G1 of the finals between the Warriors and the Heat. The Warriors relied on a 2-game lead to gain home court advantage in the finals.

However, it is hard to say whether this home field advantage is useful or not.

This year's finals still adopt a 2-3-2 format, that is, the Warriors play two home games first, the Heat play three more home games, and finally the Warriors play two more home games.

If the Warriors are a little careless and overturned in the first two home games, the Heat will gain a huge home court advantage. The Warriors are the one that needs to be more careful. The first record in the regular season is not as good as the Heat's second. Take advantage.

However, starting next season, the format of the finals will be the same as that of the playoffs, changing to 2-2-1-1-1, and there will never be a party with a worse record, winning three consecutive The situation at home.

The start time of this year's finals is a bit later than before. This is mainly due to the tie-breaks in different rounds in the East and West, which slowed down the overall progress of the playoffs.

Because of this, the league has a relatively tight schedule for the finals. On June 6, G7 will start; on June 1, G6 will start; on June 9, G2 will start; on June 6, G12 will start. In G3 on the 6st, the two teams will play seven games in half a month, almost every other day.

There is no doubt that such a schedule is very beneficial to the Warriors. The Warriors are full of young players, while the Heat have more veterans, and the lineup is not as deep as the Warriors. The deeper the finals, the greater the Warriors' physical advantage .

However, at the beginning of the finals, both sides stood on the same starting line, and the competition was hard power. If the Heat can establish a large enough advantage, the Warriors will have no chance to exert their physical advantages.

But the Warriors are the defending champions, and the Heat are the challengers. People have more confidence in the Warriors, but most of the doubts about the Heat.

Before the start of the finals, the league gave the Heat a three-day rest period. Since the Warriors eliminated the Spurs early, they had a longer rest period to wait for work.

During this period, major media have made forward-looking predictions for the finals, and commentators and celebrities from all walks of life have also stepped forward to gain a sense of presence before the finals.

Of course, the fans of the Warriors and the Heat did not dare to show weakness, and launched a scolding war on the Internet.

The turmoil of Curry's re-elected MVP has not yet passed, and the Heat fans are also eager for revenge. The old and new hatreds are mixed together, which makes the fans of both sides explode into a strong fighting force, and other neutral fans can only be reduced to spectators.

As the most "authoritative" media, ESPN took the lead in making predictions in the program, and invited [-] well-known football critics and commentators to vote. Among them, [-] people supported the Heat to win the championship, and [-] people supported the Warriors to win the championship.

This result is somewhat unexpected. After all, the Warriors are the defending champions. This year, they have easily advanced all the way to the playoffs. No one in the entire Western Conference can force the Warriors to their strongest state. The result is that the approval rate is so much lower than that of the Heat, which makes the audience feel. very shocked.

In this regard, one of the reporters who predicted that the Heat will eventually win the championship, "Cleveland Honest" reporter Wen Horst said:
"The Warriors are very strong, but I choose to believe in James. He played a phenomenal performance in the series against the Bulls. He is obviously ready for the finals. A fully fired James is invincible. Heat Targeted reinforcements have been carried out this year, and their strength has improved to a higher level than last year, so I believe that James is the best reason for the Heat to win the championship in the end."

TNT also previewed the finals, but TNT's style is different from ESPN's. They pay more attention to entertainment. After voting, debates started immediately, or in other words, it was a happy tear between O'Neal and Barkley.

O'Neal is naturally the one who supports the Warriors to win the championship. Everyone knows his love for Curry. In his mouth, Jordan is number one in the world, he himself is second in the world, and Curry is the third in the world. No matter who the other players are, You have to go back a little bit.

And Barkley looked down on the Warriors at the beginning, and even made a bet with Zhang Yu. The fact that he wore Curry's jersey for one year on the show was widely circulated. Even after the Warriors won the championship, he made no secret of his love for the Warriors. The dislike of the fans has always had grievances with the Warriors fans.

This time, I don't know if he really recognized the strength of the Heat, or it was mixed with personal grievances, or it was TNT's pursuit of program effects. Barkley once again stood on the opposite side of O'Neal and became a supporter of the Heat.

The debate between the two on the show was very fierce, and O'Neill took the lead in attacking:
"Chuck, you should respect the defending champion. The Warriors are obviously stronger than the Heat. Curry is the best player in the league right now. The Warriors' defense is better than the Heat. The Heat are not the Warriors' opponents."

Barkley retorted:

"No, no, Shaq, Curry won a lot of honors last season. In terms of honors, he is indeed No.1 in the league, but in terms of pure strength, James is No.1, especially in the season. In the playoffs, there are always teammates around Curry who stand up, but James can only fight alone. If you watch the last two games between the Heat and the Bulls, then you will come to an obvious conclusion, that is, James It is the league No.1!"

O'Neill gave an exaggerated "wow" and said:

"Are you kidding me? Who's James' teammate? It's Dwyane Wade, it's Chris Bosh, it's Ray Allen, it's Rashard Lewis, all established stars! Curry Who are your teammates? It’s Jimmy Butler, it’s Klay Thompson, it’s Draymond Green, none of their rookie contracts have been fulfilled! You tell me that James is alone?”

Buckley shook his head and said:

"That's not the case. Wade and Bosh are both downhill. Ray Allen is no longer a star. Lewis is just a rotation player. The Warriors are all potential rookies. They all played very well in the playoffs. Excellent performance, so Curry's teammates are stronger, this is an indisputable fact..."

"Come on, you just can't get used to Curry winning the championship at a young age, and you still have jump shots that you don't like. You are just jealous of Curry's achievements!" O'Neal said disdainfully.

Barkley immediately seemed to have poked a sore spot, and said loudly:
"I don't! I'm not! Don't talk nonsense! I'm just objectively analyzing the situation of the Heat and the Warriors. You're making a personal attack!"

"Okay, don't analyze it anymore. This is the finals. You haven't won the finals. If you can't analyze it, you should listen to me. I have experience in this matter."

"Shaq O'Neal! You..."

Barkley became angry and angry, and the show quickly changed from a preview of the finals to a confrontation between O'Neal and Barkley.

This scene has been staged countless times on TNT's programs, but as long as the audience loves to watch it, it will continue to be staged until the audience gets tired of watching it.

Other traditional media such as "Sports Illustrated", "USA Today", and "New York Times" also invited writers to predict the upcoming finals in their columns, including emerging online football commentators. The finalists expressed their views.

Generally speaking, there are still more ball critics who support the Heat. Even though the Warriors are the defending champions, they still act as dogs in front of the Heat.

Most of these people who support the Heat have the same reasons as Wen Horst and Barkley. James is the No. 1 hard power in the league today. Although Curry has won the most honors, his strength is still not as good as James.

Some celebrities, players, and coaches also stood up to speak. Surprisingly, most of them also supported the Heat.

Marshal Larry Brown said:

"The Warriors' tactics are very novel. They broke the rules of the NBA and won the championship with jump shots. But it must also be seen that the Heat last season were not perfect. Now, the Heat are stronger. I don't think the Warriors can The defense was successful, they shot too many threes, which is not a good sign."

Scottie Pippen said on the show:

"I heard a saying that someone compared Stephen Curry to Michael, which is obviously ridiculous. Curry did get a lot of honors in the first few seasons of his career, including three scoring champions, two MVPs, and a championship. , This is a great achievement. I look forward to Curry's miraculous performance to continue, but I don't think he can shoot three-pointers so accurately all the time. This is not in line with the laws of the basketball world, so I am more optimistic Heat."

The American sports world in June belongs to the NBA, and the other three major leagues have to make concessions for the NBA finals, and the same is true in China.

Even because the domestic sports industry in China is very small, the NBA is the most watched sports league in China, even more popular than the five major European leagues.

After all, it is easy for people to spare time in the morning to watch the NBA, but few people often get up in the middle of the night to watch the five major European leagues.

As the finals are approaching, domestic media and football critics in China also looked forward to it, but unlike the United States, most people are more optimistic about the Warriors winning the championship.

Major media such as CCTV5, Sina Sports, and Tencent Sports, as well as football critics such as Yang Yi and Su Qun, are all optimistic about the Warriors. Only a handful of lesser-known commentators are optimistic about the Heat.

Who made Zhang Yu and Yi Jianlian both be in the Warriors? The patriotic complex of the Chinese people is deeply rooted. No matter what they think in the bottom of their hearts, it is impossible to support the Warriors' opponents.

Only those commentators and commentators who are eager to gain fame will pretend to be astonishing. After all, black and red are also red, as long as they can be popular, they dare to do anything.

The domestic media and football critics in China almost all support the Warriors, but there are many fans who support the Heat. To be precise, there are many people who support James.

James' performance in the last two games of the Eastern Conference Finals doubled their confidence, and the media and celebrities' remarks from ESPN, Barkley, Pippen, Larry Brown and other media made them feel that the Heat are already sure of winning.

Yes, after watching them watch the game for so many years, when did someone win the championship by shooting three-pointers?Isn't this a joke?
The Warriors made a joke last year, so don't think about it this year. If Bosh and Wade weren't in good shape and James couldn't support himself, could the Warriors win the championship?Dream it!

They began to cheer for the Heat and James, sparing no effort to wave the flag, and launched a fierce scolding battle with Warriors fans.

Maybe it’s because they think it’s not enough to scold each other on the forum, and the two sides have also created a “Warrior-Heat scolding group”, both on WeChat and QQ.

Fans from both sides started a passionate scolding in the group.

But these fans with strong fighting power are a minority after all, and the fans can't affect the game. Most of them silently support their team. They will feel happy when they win, and angry and sad when they lose, but they will not invest in it All the energy.

However, it is impossible for the Heat and the Warriors to ignore the influence of public opinion. During the interview before the game, both teams were asked similar questions. The reporter took the remarks of the media and celebrities to ask them about the finals.

The PR departments of the Heat and the Warriors have already anticipated the reporter's operation. After all, the NBA is a fairly mature sports league. This has been a set of procedures that have been in operation for decades. The PR departments of the two teams have prepared templates for answers in advance. .

The content is roughly that we will play well and have the confidence to win the finals, but the opponent is not easy to deal with. We will fight game by game and focus on the game itself. I am very grateful to those who are optimistic about us. For For those who are not optimistic, the game will reverse their perception...

These answers are very official, but there is no mistake. In the pre-match interviews of the two teams, the players’ answers were similar. Under Zhang Yu’s strict constraints, the Warriors will not be young and vigorous. The Heat were beaten twice. Don't dare to be arrogant.

However, as a party that wants revenge, the Heat are still more daring than the Warriors. James, who just played two games in the Eastern Conference Finals, said:
"We came here with the belief of revenge. This year is our best chance. We will definitely leave with the championship trophy. I will do my best to win the first championship trophy in my career!"

Wade also said:

"Our chances are running out. The team is in a good state now. We are united and are going to attack the championship trophy. I have no doubts about our determination. I am willing to give everything to win the championship!"

Bosh said:

"I'm very happy, there are many people who are optimistic that we can win, and we will use actions to prove that they are right!"

The statements of the Big Three showed the Heat's belief in winning, and they also knew that the Heat couldn't afford to lose again.

When Zhang Yu was interviewed, his answer was completely different from that of the Warriors players:
"I don't know why so many people are more optimistic about the Heat, but maybe that's why they are just commentators. If they know the ball, they should sit on the sidelines and direct the Heat to the finals instead of talking nonsense there! I like O'Neal very much If there are many of them, they don't know what the finals are, and they can't even coach an elementary school team, but I understand them, because it's their job to tell nonsense, and my job is to shut them all up !"

(End of this chapter)