warrior godfather

Chapter 752

After James came on the court in the fourth quarter, he faced the Warriors' rotation and killed all sides.

Since the Warriors had already achieved a big lead, Zhang Yu went straight up and down, but replaced Jaylen Brown, the second starting position in the opening game, and partnered with four substitutes.

In the first quarter, Jaylen Brown performed well and scored 12 points. He had a great advantage in one-on-one against Thomas Jr., and he was an important contributor to the Warriors' lead.

But in the subsequent games, Zhang Yu paid more attention to defense. Wiggins was moved to the second position, Covington played the third position, and Jaylen Brown, who was inexperienced in defense, could only sit on the bench.

In the last quarter, the Warriors had a huge lead, and Zhang Yu replaced him again and moved him to the third position.

Covington played almost the full third quarter and was replaced by Zhang Yu to rest. Bogdan played the second position and Jaylen Brown played the third position.

This is the advantage of having a large number of forwards and guards in the team, and there will never be a shortage of strikers.

But what people didn't expect was that Jaylen Brown was going to face James.

After James played in the second quarter, he didn't take a rest, and he didn't rest in the fourth quarter. Does he want to play the Christmas game as a playoff or even the finals?

But thinking of the huge contribution James made to the Cavaliers' rebounds on the defensive end in the first three quarters, it seems reasonable not to rest.

He managed to save so much physical energy, isn't it just to be used on the offensive end?
The third quarter is useless, of course it cannot be wasted, and the fourth quarter will continue to be used.

Jaylen Brown is not afraid to play against superstars at all, he is full of fighting spirit, and wants to prove his defensive strength against James.

He scored 12 points in the first quarter, but rarely played in the last two quarters. He was quite depressed and wanted to prove with practical actions that his defense was not bad and he deserved Zhang Yu's trust.

Jaylen Brown threw himself into the game with great fighting spirit, and played the quasi-garbage time in the fourth quarter as a critical moment, trying to block every attack of James.

But he soon discovered that he seriously underestimated James' strength.

His thin body couldn't stop James' impact at all, so he could only stagger back, his chest hurting from being pushed by James.

James seized the opportunity and succeeded in eating Jaylen Brown in a row. In less than 1 and a half minutes, he narrowed the point difference to 16 points.

The sound of celebration in the Chase Center subsided, and the morale of the knights gradually recovered.

Bay Area fans began to get nervous. This season, they often experienced this long-lost feeling.

Last season, they hardly had this kind of emotion. The Warriors have the best lineup depth in the league. The rotation lineup is not even weaker than the starting lineup of some teams.

But now, the Warriors have lost a lot of players, the rotation is too young, the offensive end is not as sharp as last season, and the defensive end is not as solid as last season. As long as the opponent has a strong point, it is easy to break the deadlock.

When James broke through and caused a foul by Jaylen Brown and stood on the free throw line, Zhang Yu made timely adjustments, replacing Zhou Qi and Jerebko with Antetokounmpo, Markkanen, and Brogdon , Jaylen Brown, and Bogdan form another version of the dead five.

On the court, James made two free throws, and the point difference came to 14 points. The Warriors' new version of the dead five immediately set off a counterattack.

After Antetokounmpo came on the court, he solved the Warriors' penalty area defense problem and added an absolute strength to the Warriors, which happened to be able to hit the Cavaliers' weakest inside.

Markkanen is also a more accurate shooter than Jerebko. He can open up space for Antetokounmpo. Facing the weak defense of the Cavaliers, he can also play a dozen balls. The Cavaliers' backup fourth position is Jeff- Green, who has a huge size disadvantage, can't interfere with Markkanen's soft throws and hooks.

The Warriors shrank the frame, James was restricted, stabilized the score that was constantly approaching, and even reopened the point difference.

Director Lu switched back to the starting lineup, and the Cavaliers started chasing points again. At 5 minutes and 14 seconds into the fourth quarter, with Smith hitting an open three-pointer, the Cavaliers chased to 13 points.

But Zhang Yu didn't hold back anymore, Curry came on and sent the final blow, and the Cavaliers could no longer narrow the point difference.

In the end, the Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 132:115, winning nine consecutive victories and securing the No. [-] ranking in the West. The Cavaliers fell to No. [-] in the East, and the ranking was overtaken by the Raptors.

Relying on his excellent performance in the second half, Curry scored 34 points, 13 assists, 6 rebounds and 2 steals in a large double-double, and made 5 three-pointers. Almost all of the remaining points came from the basket.

阿德托昆博砍下26分12篮板6助攻3封盖1抢断，禁区之内13投11中，称霸篮下。

Wiggins scored 23 points, Markkanen scored 21 points and made 6 three-pointers, creating a new career scoring high. Jaylen Brown scored 12 points in the first quarter and 16 points in the game. Five Warriors scored in double figures.

For the Cavaliers, James scored a triple-double of 36 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 1 block and 1 steal. He scored the highest in the game, but he took 28 shots, with a hit rate of less than 40%, and 7 turnovers. Huge amount of moisture.

James scored at least 20 points in the first quarter due to the Warriors' slack defense and the rotation of the Warriors. When the Warriors took out defensive targets, eliminated dislocation weaknesses, and strengthened the strength of shrinking the frame, James' scoring efficiency dropped greatly.

On the contrary, in the last 2 minutes of the fourth quarter, Curry scored 3 points in 10 minutes, and the Warriors opened the gap to more than 20 points. After the overall situation was settled, James suddenly broke out again, scoring 5 points in a row, closing the gap Narrow it down to less than 20 minutes.

In the end, the Warriors kept the victory, James took the data, and everyone has a bright future.

Love scored 24 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists, and made 6 three-pointers. Although he did not protect the frame or switch defenses, he did his best and provided great help to the team in terms of three-point shooting and rebound protection. .

Thomas Jr. only took 13 shots and scored 19 points, but only had 2 assists. He had almost no chance to attack with the ball.

Playing like this was a huge waste of Thomas Jr.'s ability to hold the ball and the threat of breakthroughs, but James faced his old enemy—no, it should be the natural enemy warriors, eager for revenge, he could only express his understanding and accept such tactics.

No point guard is willing to play off the ball all the time, but who makes him next to James?
In the James system, the first duty of the point guard is not to control the ball, but to catch and shoot the ball. No one can make exceptions, even the mvp cannot escape this fate.

The most suitable point guard for James should be Curry. He can switch between on-ball and off-ball modes at will.

Curry played like this in the first half today. When he found that the Cavaliers were not defending at all inside, he sent assists to his teammates, and then reduced his holding of the ball. After the pick-and-roll, he gave the ball to Antetokounmpo and let him Attack the inside, attract the defense and then pass the ball to the open space, while running without the ball to open up the space.

In the second half, Curry switched to the ball-holding mode again and took the game away.

When Thomas Jr. sat on the bench and watched James break through with the ball again and again, envious in his heart, James watched Curry score again and again, and he was also extremely envious.

If he can have Curry as a teammate, how can he have no championship so far?
Unfortunately, this wish will never come true.

……

It is not surprising that the Warriors won the Cavaliers in the Christmas game, but the way the Warriors won is surprising.

Originally, people thought that the Warriors were weak inside defense, even the Cavaliers could not defend inside, but the Cavaliers have James, and they all rush inside, so they should have an advantage over the Warriors, right?

However, the Warriors only failed to defend the inside line in the first quarter. Zhang Yu sent five small players in the second half, and the inside defense became solid. The outside line did not miss many three-pointers.

This is the Warriors' favorite style of play in the past few seasons. They often don't lead much in the first half, and they take the game away in waves in the second half.

This season, the Warriors have seldom played such a game, but they can achieve a wave against the Cavaliers, which shows that the Cavaliers' defense is poor, and people have completely lost confidence in the Cavaliers' championship.

It's just the Cavaliers' counterattack in the fourth quarter that still exposed the Warriors' decline.

The strength of the Warriors' rotation lineup has dropped severely, unable to withstand the opponent's counterattack. In the end, Curry and Antetokounmpo still need to close the game.But this is not a problem. The Warriors' previous lineup with four main players and a substitute who can block the starting lineup is not normal.

Now is the era of grouping, which team is not a few stars + a bunch of basic salaries, the stars are responsible for output, and the basic salary is responsible for defense. The Warriors play like this, which is in line with the trend.

The real surprise is the Warriors' nine-game winning streak.

During this period, the Warriors avenged the Nuggets and defeated the Cavaliers. In the previous game, as long as the opponent hit the inside, the Warriors were helpless.

In the post-match interview, Zhang Yu also talked about this topic again:

"Obviously, we're on the right track, we've won the last nine games, no one can beat us, today we completed 18 successful rim defenses, the team sent 8 blocks, put the The Cavaliers were limited to 23 percent shooting from the paint, which is something that only the top defensive teams in the paint can do, and we did it."

"Does anyone still say that the Warriors are a team that can't defend inside? Does anyone else say that the Warriors are a team that is afraid of the inside? A center like Jokic and a star like James can't break through our defense. , that's why we don't need to supplement the insider answer..."

This time, there were far fewer people questioning Zhang Yu.

The record of the Warriors is there, and the victory will not lie. As long as the Warriors keep winning, any problems will not be a problem.

But as long as the Warriors lose, all doubts and criticisms will come back overnight, and everything about the Warriors is a problem.

Barkley was blunt on the show:

"Warriors better keep winning, or they're going to be a shit in no time! Of course, I still think the Warriors have a big problem inside, but they won a lot of balls, so I'll shut up for now— I hope the Warriors don't give me a chance, I'm not like Shaq, who will be merciful because of Curry!"

(End of this chapter)