At the beginning of the death entanglement, Curry followed me to slam dunk

Chapter 232 A Turbulent Alliance

At the beginning of the fourth quarter of the game, Deng Huade, who had no choice but to make a living, could only keep the main players on the court.

The decline in physical fitness of the national team has also become more obvious.

The American Dream Team also took advantage of the situation and began to press the whole game, intending to expand its lead and end the game.

Facing the veteran Billups, the national team point guard Liu Wei began to make dribbling errors.

In this case, Du Zhe, who was already heavily burdened, had to take on the task of dribbling the ball through half the court.

This also makes the national team's situation on the field even more embarrassing.

Once Du Zhe holds the ball, he will often face double-teams, and it becomes increasingly difficult to hold on to the score.

After the final four quarters, the national team still lost the semi-final match 96:104.

Du Zhe still performed well in today's game. Facing an NBA-level defense, he made 27 of 15 shots and 5 of 4 free throws. He scored 40 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals.

UAE's performance in the paint was equally eye-catching. Although his efficiency dropped at the end of the game, he still scored 21 points and 8 rebounds.

Although the Chinese men's basketball team still lost this game, Du Zhe led the national team and showed fighting spirit in this game and was respected by everyone.

The 8-point difference is also the lowest point difference between the national team and the Dream Team in the World Series.

Although most Chinese fans expected the national team to continue its miracle before the game and defeat the Dream Team to advance to the finals, everyone also knew that the gap between the national team and the Dream Team was all-round, and it would not be easy for Du Zhe to do so. Smoothed.

What's more, the national team's World Championship journey is not over yet.

In another semi-final, the Litao Bowl lost to the host Turkey 82:83. They will compete with the national team for third place the next day.

…………

On the second day, the third place battle between the national team and the Litao Bowl started first.

Yesterday, the Lita Bowl team also fought to the last minute with Turkey, but at the end of the game, they suffered a tragic defeat.

In today's game, the Litta Bowl team obviously has not gotten over the shadow of being defeated.

Both teams did not want to leave empty-handed at the beginning, and both teams played extremely aggressively, but the Litao Bowl team had a slight advantage due to the overall quality of the team.

But at the end of the first quarter, Du Zhe stepped forward and scored 7 points in a row with one shot from inside and outside to reverse the situation on the court.

At the end of the first quarter, the national team led the opponent by one point 23:22.

In the second quarter, both teams increased their defensive intensity and wanted to take the initiative through tough defense.

This also resulted in a low overall score in this quarter.

But in the middle of this quarter, Du Zhe suddenly felt good and hit three three-pointers in a row in 1 minute, leading the team to a small climax.

After the first half, the national team had extended its lead to double digits at 48:38.

However, in the second half, the national team's physical disadvantage reappeared.

Fortunately, the lead was relatively large before, and the Litao Bowl was weaker than the Mengjiu team, so the national team maintained its lead until the end of the game.

In the end, with the Litao Bowl's winning three-pointer, the national team successfully defeated its opponent 92:89 and won the third place in this world championship.

This third place is of great significance to the Chinese basketball community.

In the past, although they were able to dominate in Asia, they had little success in the international arena.

The best result is just a top eight finisher.

Now, Du Zhe has led the national team to achieve a historic breakthrough. How can the whole country not be delighted?

From Sixth Man of the Year, DPOY, NBA championship, FMVP, to leading the national team to third place in this World Championship, Du Zhe has created too many miracles this summer.

His influence is no longer limited to the basketball world. He has become the only leader in the Chinese sports world.

After this trip to the World Championships, more than a dozen large media outlets, including TVB, wanted to interview Du Zhe, and even said they would make a documentary or promotional video for him.

But he declined them all politely.

On the one hand, Du Zhe is not interested in these things and does not want to have much to do with the media.

Another reason is that it is not long before the start of the new season, and he still needs to take time to actively prepare for the new season.

Therefore, after the World Championships in Turkey, Du Zhe rejected the invitation from the national team to return to China to celebrate his victory, and instead boarded a plane back to the United States alone.

By the time Du Zhe arrived in the United States, it was already September 9th, and there was still a little more than a month before the start of the new NBA season.

After returning to his mansion in San Francisco, Du Zhe planned to rest for a week.

Although his body has a strong endurance, it is still made of flesh and blood. If it keeps operating under high load, it may get injured.

For Du Zhe, there is still a long way to go, and there is no need to overextend himself.

After careful calculation, Du Zhe did play a lot of games this summer.

First, he led the Warriors to advance all the way in the playoffs. After the finals, it was already mid-June.

Then he warmed up with the national team and played many games in the summer league.

Although I briefly left for a month, I was still undergoing special training, and the burden was not lighter at all compared to the competition.

Then from mid-August to now, I have played more than 8 games in warm-up matches and world championships.

In most of these games, Du Zhe needs to play the entire game, and the consumption involved can be imagined.

While Du Zhe is busy competing in the international arena, the teams in the NBA are not idle either.

It can be said that compared with Du Zhe's previous life, the NBA has undergone earth-shaking changes this summer.

Because of James's journey to the west, the Heat did not form the astonishing Big Three combination, but they still had salary space and made attacks in various places during the offseason.

Atlanta Hawks general Joe Johnson chose to become a free agent after his contract expired, and then switched to the Miami Heat, joining forces with Wade and Bosh to prepare for the championship.

Johnson just had the peak performance of his career with the Hawks, averaging 21.3 points, 4.9 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game.

Although he is not as big as James and does not have as strong a physique as James, he has a stable jump shot, simple cuts, accurate passing and active fighting. He is definitely a high-quality forward and guard swingman.

With the addition of Johnson, the Heat's overall strength has reached a new level. Du Zhe even feels that if their lineup is united, it will definitely not lose to the Big Three combination in the first year.As a result, the entire eastern region immediately changed.

With the Green Army falling apart, James heading west to the Warriors, and Warcraft Howard alone unable to support themselves, the Heat are beginning to gain momentum to dominate the Eastern Conference.

The only one who can compete with them may be the Chicago Bulls.

This veteran team has powerful new star Derrick Rose, and this summer signed Carlos Boozer who left the Jazz.

With one inside and one outside, plus the quasi-All-Star player Luol Deng on the front line, he has the strength to compete with this new Heat team.

And the powerful powers in the west have started a crazy arms race.

The Dallas Mavericks, who lost to Du Zhe in the first round of the playoffs, introduced Dream Nine member Tyson Chandler this summer.

Although Chandler can basically only watch the bench in the Dream Nine team, Du Zhe knows that his addition will bring an excellent chemical reaction to the Mavericks and greatly improve the strength of the Mavericks.

Compared with other strong teams, the Mavericks' operations are still relatively low-key.

The Denver Nuggets sent away a bunch of draft picks and potential rookie Ty Lawson, and finally cleared Kenyon Martin, who had only one year left on his contract, after a complicated three-way deal.

After freeing up salary space, they spent a lot of money and offered an olive branch to Stoudemire, who left the Suns.

The little overlord who was supposed to travel east to join the Knicks was inspired by last season's tragic defeat in the playoffs and chose to stay in the West for a few more years.

In this way, the Nuggets have formed a luxury battleship of Billups + Anthony + Stoudemire.

With Billups in the middle directing and dispatching, coupled with the two offensive players Anthony and Stoudemire, the Nuggets' offensive firepower next season will be scary just thinking about it.

Another youth army also began to quietly rise in the west.

Their rise also begins with the decline of a wealthy team.

This declining giant is Du Zhe's opponent in the finals - the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics, who were originally a patchwork team, were defeated by Du Zhe, and their internal conflicts intensified in advance.

Danny Ainge, the general manager of the Green Army, who has always been cold-blooded and profit-seeking, saw that there was no possibility of defeating Du Zhe, and he immediately gave up the Big Three model and began to rebuild.

The first to bear the brunt is Ray Allen, whose contract expires this summer.

This legendary three-point shooter is the oldest among the Big Three. He usually can't play with Pierce, Garnett, Rondo and others. The Celtics began to rebuild, so naturally they had to take action on him first.

Ray Allen, who was abandoned by the Celtics, was holding back his breath to prove himself. During the offseason, he contacted many strong teams, hoping to find a new foothold and prove his worth.

During this period, Ray Allen's agent even had contact with the Warriors. However, the salary and tactical status that the Warriors can currently provide are still far behind the other party's requirements, and the negotiation ended in vain.

However, the recruitment of the Oklahoma Thunder, a youth army from the west, moved Ray Allen's heart.

Several of the main players in the Thunder are still on rookie contracts. In recent years, the salary space has been relatively abundant, and they can provide a salary consistent with Ray Allen's status.

The team includes young talents such as Durant and Westbrook who have already made a name for themselves, as well as rising potential rookies such as Harden and Ibaka.

Especially Durant, who shined in the just-concluded World Championships and led the Dream Team to the top, becoming the leader of the new generation of American basketball players.

Such a Thunder team, after growing and strengthening, obviously has the ability to compete for the championship.

What's more, the Thunder's predecessor, the SuperSonics, also has a close relationship with Ray Allen.

Although the Sonics have never recognized the Thunder as their successor, the two teams have broken bones and tendons after all. Ray Allen joining the Thunder can be regarded as a fallen leaf returning to his roots in a sense.

Although Ray Allen is old, he also averaged 16 points per game last season. In addition, he is usually quite self-disciplined and still has a lot of gas in the tank. His experience and strength can also provide a lot of help to the Thunder.

In this way, the two parties hit it off immediately, and Ray Allen signed a two-year, 2000 million contract with the Thunder.

And when this contract expires, he can just renew with the team at the veteran's minimum salary, which will not take up the salary space of Westbrook and others.

With the Thunder's three young men with unlimited potential, coupled with the experienced veteran Ray Allen, the Thunder's competitiveness in the Western Conference has instantly improved a lot.

In addition, although the Hornets, Trail Blazers, Grizzlies and other teams are limited by salary space and cannot spend a lot on signings, they have also made a lot of reinforcements piecemeal.

The purpose of strengthening these teams is simple, so that they can have a little ability to fight back when facing Du Zhe and the powerful Warriors.

It can only be said that Du Zhe's performance in the playoffs last season was too shocking. Coupled with James' shooting in the off-season, the Warriors have become a terrifying behemoth in the minds of other teams.

Under this pressure, these teams were unwilling to sink and strengthened one after another.

Compared with the previous teams that moved frequently, the other two Western Conference powerhouses - the Spurs and Lakers - seemed much quieter.

The Spurs only extended Ginobili's contract in the summer, when his contract expired, but other than that they didn't make any major moves.

This is partly because the Spurs like to develop players through the draft, and more importantly because the Spurs have not directly played against the Warriors in the playoffs.

Even in the regular season, their record against the Warriors still prevailed.

This also made the conceited Popovich become blindly optimistic. He believed that Du Zhe was no big deal. As long as they exerted their full strength in the playoffs, they should have the ability to fight against him.

The Lakers' failure to operate would be purely helpless.

The team owner, Bass, watched various teams making reinforcements one after another, and he was anxious in his heart.

But there is no point in rushing. Next season, the contracts of Kobe, Gasol, Bynum, Artest and Odom alone will total 7000 million, which is more than the entire team contract of many teams. The amount is large.

In the absence of salary space, it is simply impossible to strengthen without making transactions.

But Kobe is basically out of action next season, which also makes the Lakers' attractiveness significantly reduced.

In the final analysis, no one wants to waste a year waiting for Kobe to recover.

Moreover, after Kobe's comeback, it is almost certain that his strength will decline, and it is obviously impossible for the Lakers to sign him a veteran's minimum salary contract.

This means that the Lakers have extremely limited room for future reinforcements, and therefore ordinary stars are unwilling to take a trip into this muddy water again.

Looking at the team lineups that were completely different from the previous ones, Du Zhe couldn't help but sigh, this Western Conference and this league are really going to change.

But in the final analysis, it depends on Du Zhe's face how things will change today.

He can turn his hands into clouds and rain. He has absolute confidence to control the situation in this increasingly wild west.

(End of this chapter)