warrior godfather

Chapter 650 This Is Why I Drink Champagne

The Eastern Conference Finals between the Bulls and Cavaliers lasted until the tiebreaker, which consumed too much time and ended on May 5.

At this time, 6 days have passed since the Warriors eliminated the Thunder, and only 2 days before the start of the finals.

That's right, the league only left the Cavaliers with 2 days of rest time. On June 6, the two teams will start the first contest of the finals at the Chase Center.

This is very unfavorable to the Cavaliers who have fought a round of the series, but after the tiebreaker reversed and eliminated the Bulls, the morale of the Cavaliers has reached its peak, and they are not afraid of it.

Richard Jefferson said:
"This is the most talented team I've ever played for, and we're heading toward a championship, but I'm probably not the happiest. I've been to the Finals, it's been 13 years ago. I still enjoy being in the Finals." The joy of the final, but also the feeling of being very comfortable. But if you want to see my smile and tears? Come to me after winning four more games. We don’t open champagne, we don’t party with our loved ones, our goal is only one, and then 4 wins."

JR-Smith said very firmly in the interview:

"Yes, we will win the championship. We have paid too much along the way... The Warriors are very strong? We have LeBron, Kyrie, and Kevin. We will definitely win the championship. I firmly believe this! "

Tyronn Lue, who led the team to the finals in the rookie season, is very relaxed:
"I don't have much experience coaching an NBA team, but I'm ready to compete for a championship. I know that many people don't like us, but it doesn't matter. The game is fair to everyone. We will do our best. Fight to win every game."

James sent a very personal tweet:

"Finals, your emperor is back! #来自Akron的儿童#王#骑士办#皇冠.jpg"

After the baptism of the seven battles in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cavaliers are full of fighting spirit from top to bottom, their confidence has reached the peak, and they are ready to fight the Warriors.

But apart from themselves, no one is optimistic about the Cavaliers.

The TNT team is all optimistic about the Warriors winning the championship. O'Neal has always been a diehard Curry fan. Reggie Miller also admires Curry, who is also a super shooter. It is normal to be optimistic about the Warriors, but Barkley, who has always disliked the Warriors. But this time he also stood on the side of the Warriors, which is very surprising.

O'Neill immediately asked on the show:

"Chuck, are you serious? Did you say something wrong? You are optimistic about the Warriors? Could it be that a Warriors fan sent you a blade?"

Facing O'Neill's ridicule, Barkley shrugged:

"Man, I'm not stupid. To be honest, before recording this episode, the director approached me and asked me to predict the Cavaliers' championship. I refused at that time. I really don't want to see the Warriors win the championship, but no one can stop the Warriors, plus Last season, only the Thunder and the Bulls each won a game against the Warriors, and the Cavaliers reversed and eliminated the Bulls after a tie-break—it was the Bulls who were reimbursed by Noah for the season. It is impossible for them to win the Warriors! I don’t want to play for the show , let the fans call me a fool..."

After Barkley's voice fell, the live camera specially gave the director a shot.

The director stared wide-eyed, looked at Barkley, spread his hands, with an expression of disbelief on his face, as if to say "how can you say such a thing", which made other people in the studio burst into laughter, watching this program The audience, in front of the TV, also laughed up and down.

TNT is the number one in the United States in terms of overall activities, which is also the biggest reason why viewers like to watch TNT programs.

However, this plot also shows that the director is not even the same as before, arranging two parties to oppose to attract traffic. It can be seen how much he is not optimistic about the Cavaliers, and Barkley doesn't want to play a clown anymore.

Based on BPI calculations, ESPN predicts that the Warriors have a 98% chance of winning the championship, while the Cavaliers have only a 2% chance of winning.

BPI refers to the Basketball Power Index (Basketball Power Index), which is a measure of team strength developed by the ESPN analysis team. It is considered to be the best predictor of the team's performance in the rest of the season. The efficiency of the game, schedule intensity, pace, rest days, game location and pre-season predictions.

Of course, the accuracy of the BPI is not high, and it often overturns, but this is the first time since the birth of the BPI that such a disparity in predictions has been given, which shows how big the gap between the Warriors and the Cavaliers is.

Not only that, ESPN's expert group is also not optimistic about the Cavaliers. In the preview program of the finals, 11 data analysis experts, commentators, and reporters all predicted that the Warriors will successfully win the championship, and no one is on the side of the Cavaliers.

You know, ESPN is the sports media that is most biased towards James in terms of public opinion, but it made such a prediction, which is enough to show that these experts really can't find a reason for the Cavaliers to win.

而且他们预测比分最多是4:2，以4:1居多，史蒂芬-A-史密斯更是大胆地给出了4:0的预测：
"I promise, the Warriors will sweep the Cavaliers. I can't find any reason why the Warriors will lose. Stephen Curry-No.1 in the league, the most powerful star; Kawhi Leonard-the best defensive player , a top striker with both offense and defense; Klay Thompson-the league's second-leading shooter; Draymond Green-also the best defensive player...I don't know how the Cavaliers can win with such a lineup."

"LeBron James - the underdog for the Warriors; Kyrie Irving - the No. 1 pick who couldn't make the playoffs; Kevin Love, the statist for a weak team... It might be mean to say that, but they couldn't Comparing with the Warriors, look at how hard the Cavaliers went to get out of the East. They almost lost to the Bulls, and the Bulls lost to the Warriors 4:[-] in the Finals last season. Of course, this comparison is a bit rough, But it is obvious that the gap between the Warriors and the Cavaliers is too great, and this is a round of finals without any suspense!"

The media, commentators, reporters, fans... almost everyone is optimistic about the Warriors. Except for the Cavaliers themselves and their fans, no one is optimistic about the Cavaliers. They want to be enemies of the whole world.

It was at this time that some media reported that after the end of the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors opened champagne in the locker room. After the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cavaliers just celebrated briefly and went home early that night to prepare for the Finals. Get ready.

This made some people turn to support the Cavaliers. Their reason is very simple, a proud soldier must lose, and the Warriors will celebrate with champagne just after reaching the finals.

After the baptism of seven games in the Eastern Conference finals, the Cavaliers, although physically disadvantaged, have been fully stimulated in terms of state, morale, and fighting spirit, and no one is optimistic about them. They will definitely explode with all their energy and prove themselves in the finals , It's not that there is no possibility of changing fate against the sky.

On June 6, the entire Cavaliers team came to the Bay Area for a pre-match interview. A reporter mentioned the champagne opening after the Warriors' Western Conference finals and asked the Cavaliers general for his opinion.

Richard Jefferson replied:

"We are not favored, which is great, and we will use our own hands to gain respect."

JR-Smith said:
"Warriors will pay for this behavior, they are so disrespectful!"

Tristan Thompson said directly:
"We will beat the Warriors, no one can beat us, the champion must be ours!"

Both rotation players and role players were very indignant at the Warriors' behavior, and their expressions were very direct, but further up, the style of painting changed suddenly.

Tyronn Lue's answer was very sophisticated, not at all like a rookie coach:
"Warriors open champagne? This is their freedom, I have no right to interfere, this is not a bad thing, it inspires our fighting spirit."

At this time, Owen was not yet a god, and he would not say anything amazing, and his answer was very flat:

"The only thing we can do is to give our all in the game, nothing else matters..."

With James' character, no matter what he thinks in his heart, he will never say anything inappropriate in front of the media, and the answer is tight:

"I don't know if this news is true or not. The Warriors are a very strong team. They only lost one game in the West. Maybe they are happy to advance to the Finals. You know, they are the defending champions. Qualified to do anything, but the Finals is different from all other games, we will fight for the championship, they will not have a chance to open the champagne...”

From top to bottom, the Cavaliers have expressed their determination to compete for the championship, but the speeches from bottom to top have become more and more dull.

When the Warriors were interviewed before the game, the reporter also asked about opening champagne. The players all gave the same answer, saying that they were celebrating their promotion to the finals, but Zhang Yu's answer caught the reporter by surprise.

The reporter asked:
"Ronan, after winning the Western Conference championship, you opened the champagne in the locker room to celebrate, right?"

"That's right." Zhang Yu answered simply and neatly.

"Why did you do this?" the reporter asked.

"Of course it's a celebration, otherwise what else can we do?" Zhang Yu laughed.

The reporter asked again:
"Celebrate entering the finals? You are the defending champions..."

"Of course not." Zhang Yu interrupted the reporter.

The reporter was puzzled:
"Then what you're doing is..."

Zhang Yu smiled slightly, with a warm expression, and said in the most gentle voice:
"We're just celebrating the championship in advance."

"..."

After a brief silence, the reporters were all blown away.

"What? What is he talking about? An early... championship?!"

"This this this..."

"Fack! What did I hear?"

Everyone was stunned. There are many people who utter wild words in the history of the NBA. There has never been a head coach who said that his team is the championship before the finals!
The reporter immediately asked Zhang Yu one question after another:
"Ronan, do you think the Warriors will definitely win the championship?"

"Ronan, do you underestimate knights by saying that?"

"Ronan..."

Zhang Yu kept smiling, waited for a while, pressed his hands down, and when the reporter calmed down, leaned forward slightly, approached the microphone, and said:
"Yes, we will definitely win the championship. The Thunder is the biggest obstacle on our way to the championship. We have crossed the biggest obstacle. We will solve the Cavaliers within five games. This is why I drink champagne!"

(End of this chapter)