With three points at the start, Nash begged for a maximum salary to renew his contract

Chapter 307 Kill the Warriors First, Then the Knights!
The speed-up Warriors with the death five small lineup, the offensive firepower is indeed very strong.

But in today's league, any team that plays against the Nets is looking for a dead end.

Seeing the Warriors' change of formation, the Nets also decisively chose to change their formation, replacing Jokic, who lacked mobility, and Durant directly at the center position.

Originally, it was relatively reluctant for Durant, who weighed only 109 kilograms, to play the center, but the problem is that the inside center of the Warriors was 2 meters 01 and Green, who weighed 104 kilograms.

Even this guy can play as a guest center, why can't Durant?
The player who replaced Durant's original power forward position was Harrell on the bench.

标准的野兽派前锋哈雷尔身高虽然只有2米03，但是臂展却达到惊人的2米24，几乎接近2米28的杜兰特，比伦纳德还要更长。

It is this wingspan and excellent dynamic talent that support Harrell's capital to play in the league.

In the original 16-17 season, Harrell, who played as a substitute for the Rockets, averaged only 18 minutes per game, but he could get 9.1 points and 4 rebounds, shooting 65.2% from the field, and his efficiency was quite good.

However, the Rockets did not choose to keep the brutalist power forward, but chose to trade him to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The two seasons in the Clippers were the period of Harrell's personal growth and data explosion. As a substitute player, Harrell could contribute 16.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 18.6 points and 7.1 rebounds in the two seasons respectively. His offense is extremely impactful, and his shooting percentage is also considerable.

Of course, Harrell also has weaknesses. First of all, the height of 2 meters is not enough for an inside player. Players like Green who are only 03 meters but can mix inside are very few in the league. Harrell does not have it Green's defensive ability, at the same time, the offensive end relies too much on the empty catch dunk after cutting without the ball, lacks outside shooting ability, and at the same time, the inside footsteps are also very bad, and he does not have the ability to attack independently. This makes Harrell's strength only in chaos. Played out in combat and extremely easy to target.

More importantly, as the time spent in the NBA game increases, the accumulation of injuries and age will make his athletic ability continue to decline. Once he loses his athletic ability, it will decline rapidly. By the 22-23 season, Harrell, who is only 28 years old, is close to the point where he can play without the ball. He can only serve as a substitute player for the 76ers, playing very little time, and averaging only 5.6 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.

Regardless of Harrell's development prospects and shortcomings, one thing is undeniable. At this stage, Harrell, with his young, strong and extremely impactful style of play, is very suitable for the image of charging in the small ball lineup.

With Harrell's debut, the Nets and Warriors, who also changed into a small ball lineup, staged a confrontational battle in the second quarter.

The result is self-evident, the Warriors lost again.

In the second quarter of the game, the main offensive points revolved around the two splash brothers Curry and Thompson, while for the Nets, it was Wang Chao who started to exert his strength, so that Durant, who made a lot of shots in the first quarter, breathed a sigh of relief.

One against two is naturally not a problem for Wang Chao, and he is not alone, beside him are Devin Booker, Bogdanovic and Harrell who just appeared on the stage.

In fact, Wang Chao did not take many shots in the second quarter. He scored 8 points on 5 of 12 shots. However, he sent 5 assists in a single quarter, of which Harrell alone had 3 times, each of which was a pick-and-roll cover. After cutting the basket and catching the ball to eat the cake, the score was scored.

The result of the confrontation was that the Nets beat the Warriors by 35 points in a single quarter at 29:6 in the second quarter. At halftime, the two teams scored 71:57, and the Nets led the Warriors by 14 points.

"If the Warriors want to win this game, they must not attack the Nets. No team in the current league can win against the Nets. Their offensive firepower is too strong! Both the starting lineup and the bench have players who can score efficiently, even the Warriors, known for their super offensive ability, are no match for them."

"In the second half of the game, the Warriors must redisplay the power of the inside All-Star player Cousins. In the first quarter, Cousins ​​did not play very well and failed to help the team take the lead. If in the second half or If so, then the Warriors' loss in this game is not wronged at all."

The result of this game is also expected by most fans. After all, the current lineup of the Nets, just Wang Chao + Durant is enough to play more than 95% of the teams in the league, plus other players Playing normally, it is not surprising to beat the Warriors at home.

In the third quarter of the game, the Warriors, unwilling to fail like this, began to launch a fierce counterattack. Cousins ​​frequently attacked the inside and finally suppressed Jokic to improve his offensive efficiency. Curry also showed his power outside the three-point line. Hit 3 three-pointers in a single quarter.

Relying on the joint efforts of Curry Cousins, the Warriors once chased the point difference to single digits, but it was nothing more than that.

The first half of the game has been in a half-stroke state. Wang Chao, who only scored 15 points, chose to start at this time. First, he used his teammates to cover the outside line and scored two consecutive three-pointers, and then successfully intercepted the Warriors' fast break pass. Scored, and finally broke through the basket with the ball, causing Cousins ​​to score 2+1 for a defensive foul and scored a free throw.

A wave of 11 points in a row opened the gap between the two teams again, and this time it was difficult for the Warriors to catch up.

121:109, this is the final score of the two teams at the end of the game. The Nets beat the Warriors by 12 points at home. The point difference is not particularly big, but the Nets have always been in the lead from the beginning of the game, and scored The difference has not narrowed to less than 5 points, the game is basically a one-sided situation, and the Warriors have no chance to fight back.

The highest scorer in the entire game was Durant, who scored 37 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. He scored 19 points in the first quarter alone, helping the team quickly establish a score advantage at the beginning.

Wang Chao, as always, contributed a steady triple-double of 31 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists.

In addition, a total of 6 players from the Nets scored in double figures throughout the game. Except for the 68 points scored by Wang Chao and Durant, Jokic, Booker, Bogdanovic and Harrell who came off the bench all Scored in double figures.

On the other hand, for the Warriors, Curry's 27 points were the team's highest score, followed by Cousins' 25 points and 10 rebounds. It took 18 shots and barely scored 9 points with free throws.

Klay Thompson played mediocre, scoring 21 points can only be regarded as quite satisfactory, and the Warriors only scored in double figures with these three players. The remaining players, including Iguodala and Green, did not score more than 10 points. .

In this case, losing is a matter of course, and Cousins ​​​​is the biggest war criminal for the Warriors in losing. All advantages are gone.

After the game, there were criticisms of Cousins ​​from various media everywhere.

"As the Warriors currently have the highest salary in the team, although Cousins ​​has performed well in the regular season so far, his performance is still not stable enough. As a center, he only shoots 45% of the field, which is even better than Curry, especially against Curry. When playing against key opponents, they will always drag the team down because of poor performance."

"In the previous game against the Cavaliers, Cousins ​​didn't take advantage of Embiid, which caused the Warriors to lose. Embiid was the No. Nikola Jokic's second-round pick is actually like this, it's really unreasonable."

There is no way, any time you lose, there must be someone who takes the blame.

Curry, as the head of the team, did not have any major problems in the game. Thompson and Green also did their respective jobs in the game. If Cousins ​​did not take the blame for the loss, who would be able to bear it? Blame?

This is the same reason that Bosh was always the one to blame in the Big Three era of the Heat, and Kevin Love was nicknamed General Guo Fu in the Cavaliers 2.0 era. No one can blame this kind of thing. Who made you the main force in the team? The player who performed the worst among the players, if you don't take the blame, who will take the blame? ——
After defeating the Warriors at home, the Nets had no time to rest and boarded a plane to Cleveland, ready to meet their next formidable opponent, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It is indeed not an easy task to deal with two powerful enemies in a row. It can be clearly seen that Durant showed fatigue during the away game against the Cavaliers. Obviously, the previous battle with the Warriors was quite exhausting.

Although Durant only scored 37 points in the last game, compared to his scoring ability, it was just an ordinary performance, but after all, Durant was facing Green throughout the whole process, and it took Durant a lot of energy to break through the opponent's defense. More importantly, the Nets' previous schedule was also relatively intensive, which led to Durant's fatigue.

In the case of Durant's poor hand feeling, the Nets were once behind at the beginning of the game, and the Cavaliers seized the opportunity to gain the upper hand.

However, the out-of-control situation was quickly stabilized by Wang Chao who made a timely shot through a few long three-point shots.

When the game entered the halftime break, the scores of the two teams were close to a tie, and the game was inextricably linked.

Wang Chao has realized that in terms of real combat effectiveness, the Cavaliers are stronger than the Warriors. Although the Warriors have a better record in the regular season, they are not like James who can carry the entire team on their shoulders. As a player on the offensive end, Curry is limited by his height, and his offensive ability is lacking after all. This is also the reason why he has only one FMVP in his four championships. It should be Kevin Duran who originally supported this point for the Warriors. Special, but now Adu has chosen to join the Nets.

The Cavaliers revolve around James as the main core tactical point, with Irving and Embiid as the left and right arms, and Paul Gasol, Tristan Thompson and others as role players. The team is really much stronger.

Although Love had a luxurious data performance of 26+12+4 per game when he was in the Timberwolves, the data generated by a bad team like the Timberwolves has no reference value, and the registered height is 2 meters, but the actual height is not as high as James. Similar to Love, the main tactical play is more inclined to the outside small forward, and the shooting percentage is only about 10%. No matter how you look at it, Embiid is not suitable for the Cavaliers.

He also likes to shoot in the middle and long range on the offensive end. Embiid, who is 2 meters tall, is more troublesome to defend than Love, and the Cavaliers also have an insider who can cooperate with Embiid. Gasol forms the twin towers, which is naturally more difficult to deal with.

Even comparing the current Embiid with the Warriors' Cousins, the former is not much inferior.

And Cousins' hip stretching will cause the Warriors to lose, but if the Cavaliers Embiid performs poorly, the Cavaliers will not necessarily lose the game, because they still have James and Irving.

In this way, the question returns to the original point, Curry + Thompson or James + Irving, under the high-intensity and high-pressure defense of the playoffs, which team combination do you think is more stable?

Wang Chao even felt that although Curry and the Warriors won two consecutive regular season MVPs, it would be very difficult for Curry and the Warriors to win an NBA championship. They are definitely not rivals for the Nets this season. As long as the basic lineup of the Cavaliers is still there, and it is still the combination of James Owen Embiid's top three picks, it will be difficult for the Warriors to win the opponent.

The topic is a little bit far away, so let's get down to business.

After the two teams tied in the first half, the situation changed suddenly in the second half.

Originally, when the scores of the two teams were tied, the Cavaliers planned to continue to play steadily and rely on the inside advantage to accumulate advantages little by little to win the game.

Unexpectedly, in the third quarter of the game, a player on the outside of the Nets broke out, Devin Booker.

As the saying goes, there is no light in the east and light in the west.

When Durant didn't feel good, Wang Chao chose to give more opportunities to Booker, Bogdanovic and others.

Then Booker actually seized the opportunity, making 2 consecutive three-pointers from outside the three-point line, and then hit 3 mid-range shots, scoring 12 points in a row, just like Booker, a future super scorer.

The Cavaliers didn't even think about Cheng Yaojin halfway through. Durant didn't play his due level, but Booker jumped out. He was in a hurry and couldn't deal with it. The Nets took the lead in the third quarter.

Taking advantage of your illness to kill you, Wang Chao took over the game throughout the fourth quarter. No matter whether James or Irving tried to launch a counterattack on the Cavaliers side, he would stand up and smash the opponent's goal with scoring.

As a result, the Nets defeated the Cavaliers 113:108 and won the first meeting between the two teams in the regular season at the opponent's home court.

Kill the Warriors first, and then the Cavaliers. The Nets won all the two focus games. What is even more desperate is that not only Wang Chao and Durant played well in the game, but even many role players of the Nets also played well. Highlight performance, such as Booker.

Even role players can play so well, so how can other teams play?
(End of this chapter)