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

Chapter 63 The stepping stone dispute

"Du, since you entered the NBA, you have lost to the Suns twice in a row. In a sense, has the Suns become your suffering?"

"Du, you only signed a one-year contract with the Warriors. Do you have any thoughts on your future career plans?"

"The opponent Suns in this game is also a running and bombing team. Can we expect a confrontation battle today?"

……

In the locker room, several reporters were surrounding Du Zhe, asking questions one by one.

The other members of the Warriors seem to be used to this.

Over the years, under the leadership of hard-working president David Stern, the NBA is no longer limited to the United States and has begun to expand to the world.

And Huaguo, a blue ocean with a large population and a vast market, is undoubtedly the most important part of Stern's strategic layout.

Now Huaguo's biggest star Dayao is reimbursed for the season, and another star, Ah Lian, is also playing mediocrely and suffering from constant injuries.

As a result, Du Zhe, who has been in the limelight recently, has naturally become the face of China in the league and has begun to become the focus of the media.

In addition, he is now considered one of the leading stars of the Warriors, and it has gradually become the norm to be chased by the media all day long.

Not only that, because the Warriors will face several traditional strong teams in the league in the near future, and the stars of these teams also have a good fan base in China, this has also led many Chinese media to travel thousands of miles to follow and report on the Warriors. of this series of games.

…………

On December 12, the day after Christmas, the game between the Warriors and the Suns officially started at Oracle Stadium.

Although it is not as eye-catching as yesterday's Christmas game between the Lakers and Cavaliers, due to the presence of Du Zhe, Nash and Stoudemire, this game also attracted the attention of many local San Francisco fans and Chinese fans.

The Suns' starting lineup is still the same as the last match, still consisting of Nash, Hill, Richardson, Stoudemire and Frye.

The Warriors want to continue to speed up the game to the end. The starting lineup is the same as in the previous games, with Randolph still the only insider.

After the opening, the two teams played quickly and quickly set off a whirlwind of attacks.

Since neither team is good at defense, the offensive efficiency of both sides in the first few rounds was quite high, almost as if they could shoot whatever they wanted.

Maggette hit a mid-range shot here, and Nash immediately returned a three-pointer there.

As soon as Ellis completed a layup, Stoudemire immediately responded with a dunk.

Although in the eyes of many professional players, defense can win the championship.

But in the eyes of the fans, the back-and-forth battles like today are the most enjoyable.

In the first quarter, although the Warriors performed well outside the three-point line, only Curry made two shots and two three-pointers.

However, Ellis and Maggette used their strengths to avoid weaknesses, relying on their good breakthroughs and mid-range shots to continuously create damage, and they were barely evenly matched with the Suns.

Seeing that today they can only draw [-]-[-] with the Warriors even if they try their best, this makes the main players of the Suns on the field a little impatient.

They also couldn't figure out why the Warriors had become so difficult in just over a month.

And the boss of the team, "Son of the Wind" Nash, looked at the Warriors' bench with concern.

As the league's top point guard, Nash has a strong ability to read the game, and after carefully watching the Warriors' previous game videos, he already understood the root cause of such earth-shaking changes in this team.

Du Zhe, a rookie who only entered the NBA at the end of last season, has the ability to change the face of a team, which Nash never expected.

Even though the entire Sun team has heard of Du Zhe's name, they all know that he is a good Chinese player.

But except for Nash, no one really realized the horror of Du Zhe.

Unlike those teammates with average golf intelligence, Nash has been keenly aware that Du Zhe's strength is much stronger than his data!

Thinking of this, his anxiety couldn't help but increase a bit.

Because in the opening match against the Warriors' starting lineup, the team didn't take much advantage.

Once Du Zhe comes on the stage, the Warriors' strength will be further improved. He is not sure how the situation on the court will change by then.

Maybe the current balance on the scene will be broken in an instant.

Although Nash is worried, what should come will come after all.

With 4 minutes left in the first quarter, the Warriors made personnel adjustments in advance, replacing Anthony Morrow, who was not feeling well, with Du Zhe.

"Du! Du! Du!" Amidst the cheers of the home fans, Du Zhe took off his coat and entered the battle lightly.

Although there was no expression on the surface, Du Zhe was quite benefited from the fans' shouts and cheers.

This also made him, who had just returned from an away game, couldn't help feeling that it was more comfortable to play at his home court!

On the other hand, the Suns on the opposite side will be booed by mountains and tsunami as soon as they get the ball, and they will be disturbed by spectators with good things on the sidelines when they make free throws.

Needless to say, pediatrics such as using inflatable sticks to make noise and interfere with the line of sight, there were also a few big and three thick Warriors male fans at the scene who sacrificed their appearance, wore bikinis shirtless, and stood in front of the Suns players every time it was time for free throws Keep shaking.

This kind of interference method is naturally of limited effect for a master like Nash who is a good free throw shooter.

But Stoudemire, who is a little weaker in free throws, was obviously disturbed by the surrounding environment. With a career free throw percentage of more than [-]%, he only made one of four free throws in the first quarter, which is equivalent to losing two or three free throws in vain. point.

And on the basketball court, sometimes a point difference is all that matters.

After Du Zhe came on the field, the Warriors' defensive strength immediately reached a new level.

The Suns, who were able to barely suppress the Warriors, are now somewhat unable to withstand it.

Although they have Nash, a top star with his own system, Du Zhe is also a top defensive player with his own defensive system.

What Du Zhe has to do is to isolate Nash from the Suns so that he cannot drive his teammates.

After the first quarter, the Warriors successfully overtook and temporarily led by one point with a score of 36:35.

Both teams scored 30+ points in the first quarter. It can be said that the tone of the game was set from the very beginning-offensive!attack!Still attack!
After the start of the second quarter, since the Warriors still have a combination of 4 outside + 1 inside, the Suns can only adapt to the situation and let the substitute small forward - Jared Dudley go to match Morrow.

The task of defending Duzhe is undertaken by the Suns' backup power forward-Louis Amundson.

As a draft pick, Amundson can be called a model among wandering players. In less than 6 seasons in the league, he has played for the Jazz, 76ers and Suns.

Although Amundsen's strength is mediocre, in the eyes of the Suns' coaching staff, it seems that there is no big problem for him to temporarily stand up to Du Zhe.

Du Zhe is 2 meters tall, and Amundsen is 05 meters. The two are similar in shape and weight, and Amundsen will not suffer in size when facing each other.

What's more, Amundson has played in the NBA for many years and is considered to be experienced.

Although he is just an inside blue-collar coolie with no offensive skills, he at least has good athletic ability, good defensive awareness, and is always full of energy and positive attitude on the defensive end.

Such a player, even if he is a coolie, is still a high-level coolie who can stay in the NBA for five or six years by relying on defense and rebounding.

Therefore, the Suns coaching staff believed that sending Amundson to defend Du Zhe, even if he couldn't lock Du Zhe, there shouldn't be any major problems.

"Louis, do a good job, hold down that Huaguo boy!" Before Amundsen appeared on the stage, Suns coach Gentry gave him a wave of anger.

The energetic Amundsen replied loudly: "Just look at it, coach!"

After his debut, facing the boos of the Warriors fans, Amundsen showed his muscles quite excitedly, which was quite provocative.

To be honest, he has been waiting for this moment for a long time. To be able to face Du Zhe today is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in his opinion.

Because a role player like him lives a precarious life in the league every day, and must be prepared to be eliminated by the league at all times.

In order to gain a foothold in the league as much as possible, he needs to seize every opportunity to express himself.

And Du Zhe in front of him is undoubtedly the best opportunity God has given him.

As a young player who has been in the spotlight recently, Du Zhe is currently considered a minor celebrity in the league.

Asia's No. [-] perimeter player, China's No. [-] player, the Warriors' Trident... all titles that sound extremely domineering have been placed on him by the media.

Does Du Zhe have the strength?
In Amundsen's view, this Chinese player should still have some strength.

It's just that he thinks that Du Zhe's strength is not worthy of the fame blown out by the media.

In his opinion, Du Zhe should just be a signboard that the NBA forcibly launched in order to open up the Huaguo market.

What's more, Amundsen didn't believe that Du Zhe's strength was much higher than his as he was also a draft pick. After all, if this kid is really talented, how could he not even make it to the second round?
When he thought of this, Amundsen couldn't wait to play against Du Zhe.

He was so anxious that he even threw out the coach's explanation before the game. He was accurate in three-pointers and strong in dunks. In the first quarter, he would just run back and forth with the team. Isn't this kind of player just criticized by the media and the navy? Did you come out?

At this time, Amundsen couldn't help but thank God from the bottom of his heart. He wanted to thank God for giving him such a good stepping stone to make him stand out.

At the same time, Du Zhe also smiled happily after seeing the personnel adjustments made by the Suns.

He couldn't help but thank God for the gift in his heart: "God still takes care of me, and finally let the Suns replace with a mediocre substitute in the second quarter."

Du Zhe, who had held back for several minutes in the first quarter, could finally show off his fangs unscrupulously.

But now he has fallen into the trouble of happiness, because there are two dunk masters in the Suns team, whose skill should he use the stealer's glove for nothing?

Is it "Small Bully" Stoudemire?Or is it Jason Richardson, the veteran warrior and the hero of the black eight?

Both dunks are very strong, and it is difficult for Du Zhe to choose for a while.

In the end he chose to prostitute Jason Richardson's dunk skills.

Because Richardson is also a two-time slam dunk champion and an outside player, Du Zhe felt that Richardson's dunk skills were obviously more suitable for him.

Although the Suns coaching staff could make an accurate assessment of Amundsen, they never imagined that Du Zhe had the magic weapon of being a bad guy on the court.

It was just a simple physical contact, and Amundsen felt a chill in his heart, and even the pace under his feet couldn't help but stagnate.

Du Zhe seized the opportunity to start suddenly and cut directly to the inside. After receiving a pass from Watson, he just dribbled briefly, and then made a three-step layup and went into the Suns' inside.

Facing the "little bully" Stoudemire who came to defend him, he took off without any fear, and made a tomahawk dunk.

Although "Little Bully" Stoudemire has great physical fitness and is a powerful dunker who can fly into the sky and escape from the ground, his defensive ability, especially his ability to protect the frame, is very weak.

"哐!" The basket was trembling slightly. The "little bully" who has been dunked on other people's heads all year round has also tasted what it feels like to be dunked by others today.

"Crack! Crack!" The cameras on the sidelines kept flashing, scrambling to record the classic scene in this game.

Although Du Zhe had dunked a lot before, most of them were unknown people.

Occasionally he dunked on a star, but it was always against a short point guard like Paul, and the visual impact was far from enough.

Today's dunk is not only a highly ornamental Tomahawk dunk, but also the target of the dunk is the league's well-known violent power forward-Stoudemire.

The media present, especially the Huaguo media, lamented that today's trip was not in vain.

But this is not over, after the dunk, the referee's whistle sounded immediately - 2+1.

This makes Stoudemire feel that he has lost face. After all, he is also an NBA All-Star star. If he cannot return the favor today, how will he be able to walk around the league in the future?
Then he tried his best to dunk one as a response to Du Zhe.

But what was embarrassing was that Stoudemire, who was obsessed with attacking the frame, was about to stand up for a dunk, but was flanked by Du Zhe, who easily cut off the ball in his hand.

However, Stoudemire's hands were still raised under the influence of inertia.

He stopped in mid-air with empty hands, making the scene quite embarrassing.

Turning around, everyone in the Warriors except Randolph had already rushed to the frontcourt and completed a simple and rough fast break.

Stoudemire's performance in these two rounds completely disrupted Du Zhe's plan to use Amundson as a stepping stone.

He didn't expect that even the competition for stepping stones would be so fierce now.

(End of this chapter)