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

Chapter 34 Visiting Cleveland
In the subsequent regular season, the Warriors played against five teams including the Kings, Timberwolves, and Knicks.

In this round of competition, the team has 3 wins and 2 losses, and the record is acceptable.

In this way, after the first 9 rounds, the Warriors ranked fourth in the Western Conference with 6 wins and 3 losses.

In these 9 games, Du Zhe averaged 14.2 points and 2.8 steals per game as a substitute, becoming the team's super sixth man at critical moments.

And the team's outstanding performance at the beginning made the fans who had been depressed for many years feel elated, and everyone shouted "it's dawn".

However, although the fans were flustered, Du Zhe was not overwhelmed by the smooth start.

He knows that although his joining has improved the strength of the Warriors to a certain extent, it is still far from reaching the top four in the Western Conference.

You must know that in the past few seasons, the competition in the West has become fierce. 50 wins, which can even be ranked in the top three in the East, are just enough to make the playoffs in the West.

The reason why the Warriors started so smoothly is that Du Zhe, a surprise player, broke out at critical moments and helped the team win several tense games.

On the other hand, the opponents the Warriors encountered at the beginning were not too strong.

Among them, although the Rockets were a playoff team last season, after Dayao retired due to injury, the team's strength also dropped a lot.

Other teams such as the Timberwolves, Clippers, Knicks, and Kings have been ranked at the bottom of the league in recent years. Compared with the original Warriors, they are half a catty, and defeating them does not mean anything.

It was the team's loss to the Suns that made Du Zhe soberly aware of the gap between the Warriors and traditional strong teams.

After 9 games, the Warriors' main player Stephen Jackson's deal was finally finalized.

After negotiating with multiple teams, the Warriors finally chose to reach a deal with the Charlotte Bobcats.

While the Warriors sent Stephen Jackson, they also added point guard Acie Law, who had just transferred this summer, as an addition.

In contrast, the Bobcats are going to send Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovich two veterans.

In terms of player strength alone, the Warriors obviously do not take advantage. After all, Bell is already a veteran at the end of his career, and Radmanovic has been just an ordinary role player in most seasons of his career. In most cases, He can't even make the starting lineup.

On the other hand, Stephen Jackson's performance in the past few years can be described as impressive, and he even set a career scoring average last season.

However, the purpose of the Warriors management for this transaction is not to reinforce.

The reason for this transaction is that Jackson has repeatedly made transaction requests, and the relationship with Nelson has also cracked.

Second, the management also has the idea of ​​using this transaction to clear up the salary space.

After this transaction, the Warriors can get rid of Jackson's four-year long-term contract of more than $4 million.

And the contract of the traded Bell is about to expire, so that the team can get more salary space in the summer to chase their favorite star players.

But in any case, the loss of general Stephen Jackson is a blow to the overall strength of the Warriors.

To make matters worse, in the just-concluded game against the Bucks, Kelanna Azubuike, the main rotation player of the team, was accidentally injured in a breakthrough, causing his left kneecap to fall off.

This also led to the immediate reimbursement of this agile and defensive swingman for the season, and gradually disappeared in the NBA since then.

Under the successive blows, the Warriors are about to face a real challenge.

In the next 10 days, the team will usher in a devil's schedule, and have to compete with the Eastern and Western Cavaliers, Celtics, Mavericks, Spurs, and Lakers.

The intensive schedule and difficult opponents made even Du Zhe feel numb.

On November 11, the Warriors went to the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland to challenge the Cavaliers.

In recent years, with the continuous growth of the "little emperor" LeBron James, the record of the Cavaliers has also increased, and it is now one of the best teams in the East.

Although the team has never been able to achieve a breakthrough in the playoffs, James is at his peak at this time. With his strong physical fitness, he often crushes opponents like a steamroller in games.

It can be said that no matter which team it is, they dare not underestimate James now.

In this game, after Jackson left, the Warriors made a lot of adjustments to the lineup. Except for Curry and Ellis, the starting players at other positions have changed.

Among them, Du Zhe served as the starting small forward and shouldered the burden of directly confronting James.

The power forward was replaced by the newly traded Vladimir Radmanovic, a space-oriented power forward with a certain shooting ability.

As for the center, the veteran Mickey Moore just signed this season was replaced.

Before the start of the game, in the Cavaliers locker room.

"Le, LeBron, the Warriors have changed the starters against you. They didn't send Maggette to start, but replaced a young man named Du Zhe." Cavaliers coach "Bread" Mike Brown Wiping the sweat off his bald head, he said cautiously.

At this time, Mike Brown has only been the head coach for a few years. Although he also won the best head coach award last season, under the aura of James, it is difficult for him to win this award. It is recognized by many fans.

Especially for picky fans, James alone can take care of the world, and even a dog on the coach's bench can achieve good results.

What's more, as a young coach, Brown does have some shortcomings in coaching now, and he is far from as calm and sophisticated as when he won the best head coach again more than ten years later.

"Du Zhe? You're still a Huaguo player by name?" James continued to organize his jersey without looking up.

"Yes, he was an undrafted pick signed by the Warriors with a basic salary last season. Although he has been playing as a substitute this season, his performance is still..." Brown took out the coaching staff's report and prepared to introduce it to James in detail.

But he had just finished speaking when he was interrupted simply and directly by James: "Okay, I understand."

Brown was slightly taken aback when he heard the words, and waited for a while. Seeing that James had no further words, he left the locker room wisely.

After walking out of the locker room, Brown breathed a long sigh of relief, as if he had lifted a heavy burden.

I can only say that it is difficult to be a head coach, but it is even more difficult to be the head coach of talented players.

…………

Magnesium powder was sprinkled into the air like smoke and mist, and fell like flying snow.

With the flying chalk and the whistle of the referee, the game officially started.

To be honest, Du Zhe doesn't have much confidence in facing James.

James is less than 25 years old now, and he is in the prime of his life.

Although there is still some room for improvement in personal skills, but in terms of physical fitness, few people in the league can match.

I don't know if my body can hold it. Although Du Zhe has no idea, once he plays, he will devote himself wholeheartedly and no longer have other selfish distractions.

In every game, his goal is very simple, that is to strive for victory with all his strength.

After the opening, Du Zhe's defensive strategy against James was also very simple, that is, to prevent breakthroughs and not prevent shots.

After all, with his current strength, it is basically impossible to completely lock the opponent against a player of James' level. What he can do is to limit the opponent as much as possible.

According to Du Zhe's understanding, although James can be regarded as capable of shooting suddenly in the early days, compared with his extremely powerful breakthrough, his shooting stability is obviously insufficient.

Therefore, Du Zhe decided to take a gamble, betting that he can withstand James' breakthrough, and betting that the opponent's shooting touch is not good today.

On the court, James, who got the ball and was about to start attacking, looked at Du Zhe, who let him go, and made a jumper.

"Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu I don't know whether it was because Du Zhe's defense was more timely, or because James' opening hand hadn't warmed up yet, and the goal was missed.

However, James didn't take it seriously when he only missed a goal. Originally, this goal was just a test of his hand at the beginning, and it was normal to miss the shot.

In the next attack, James was no longer polite. He chose to directly use his physical advantage to crush him.

In his opinion, the opponent is just an undrafted player, and there is no need to put any effort into dealing with it.

He wants to teach this Chinese player a good lesson, and let him know the difference in talent between the No. 03 pick of the [-] Platinum Generation and the undrafted pick.

At this time, the shouts of the fans on the sidelines continued to come.

"LeBron! Stop wasting time with that rookie, beat him! Beat him!"

"KING! Let that Chinese boy go home and feed himself!"

With a slight movement in James' mind, he quickly started, killing like an insider.

Facing James' breakthrough, Du Zhe stepped forward without any hesitation.

As soon as he touched it, he felt an extremely tyrannical force attacking him, making him back again and again.

Although Du Zhe had been prepared in his heart, James' overbearing breakthrough was still somewhat unexpected.

"What a little emperor, he really lives up to his reputation." Du Zhe took two steps back, stabilizing his figure, and couldn't help admiring secretly in his heart.

While admiring, he was secretly rejoicing.

Fortunately, he did not waste the last offseason, and has been training diligently, which has improved his physical fitness a lot.

Otherwise, with the thin body of last season, even if his perimeter defensive ability is at the top level, as long as he can't withstand James' rampage, everything will be useless.

This is what is often said in Chinese proverb, "One force can defeat ten groups".

Du Zhe regained consciousness and stopped retreating.

And this time it was James' turn to be surprised.

"Oh?" James, who was forced to stop, was slightly surprised, but only a little surprised.

As a young veteran with many battles, he took his time and made a turn-up jump shot.

For Du Zhe, it is relatively easy to defend the ball. After all, after stopping the ball, James only has two options left: pass and shoot.

However, although James hit the ball hard, JJ Hickson in the paint shot out from the diagonal, grabbed the offensive rebound, and completed the tip-in.

James missed two offenses in a row. Although he didn't think it was a problem, Mike Brown, who was sitting on the coach's bench, could see the way.

He found that Du Zhe's defensive method was very clever. It was not just as simple as letting James shoot, but focused on blocking the right breakthrough route that James was most accustomed to, leaving only the left side for James to break through.

In this way, the probability of James' breakthrough being blocked will be greatly increased, and at the same time, he will be more inclined to end the offense with a jumper that depends on the sky.

"That's right! It must be like this!" After thinking about it for a while, Mike Brown became more certain of his thoughts.

When he was an assistant coach, his defensive insights were praised by many famous coaches.

Now as the head coach of the Cavaliers, although he has received some criticism in other areas, he still believes in his own vision in his old profession.

"Do you want to call a timeout and remind James?" Mike Brown hesitated for a moment, but gave up the idea.

He believes that James will be able to create miracles.

It's a pity that the miracle that Brown was looking forward to did not happen. In James' third attack, because he was too sticky to break through, he was intercepted by Du Zhe and played a fast break.

After defending against James' offense three times in a row, Du Zhe also regained some confidence.

On the offensive end, he also began to actively move, exhausting James' physical strength as much as possible.

James, who failed in several attacks, also reduced the number of shots and shifted his energy to supporting his teammates.

Finally, at the end of the first quarter, at 30:33, the Warriors were temporarily behind by 3 points.

Du Zhe focused most of his energy on marking James in this quarter, and did not perform much on the offensive end. He only scored 3 points on 1 of 3 shots.

But James was also a little uncomfortable being restricted by him. In the entire first quarter, he also hit 3 goal in 1 shots.

"Du! Well done! You just need to restrain James, and you will continue to fight like this!" Although Du Zhe's statistics are not outstanding, Old Nelson is very satisfied with his performance.

As for the performance of the Cavaliers in the first quarter, the fans in the Cavaliers' Quicken Loans Arena are obviously not particularly satisfied.

As a strong team in the Eastern Conference, it is difficult for them to accept that the team played back and forth with a fish belly last season, let alone James' sleepwalking performance.

"James! Are you awake?"

"Stop holding back your strength LeBron!"

"Show some energy, Cavaliers!"

The fans at the scene were discussing one after another.

However, most fans still choose to believe James.

Du Zhe heard several fans behind him whispering.

"James is angry, it feels good to have this rookie from Huaguo in the second quarter!"

"Look at James' resolute eyes, be careful!"

"Yeah, this look can kill people. It seems that James is going to use his full strength."

(End of this chapter)