NBA: Starting with Jokic template

Chapter 240: Season debut, battle against the Knicks!

"Catch the ball!"

"Snapped!"

The basketball was passed to Curry. He raised his head slightly, glanced at the basket, and then stopped and jumped.

The basketball flew out of his hand, drew a beautiful arc in the air and went into the net.

"competition is over!"

Brooks blew his whistle hard on the sidelines.

"Ness!"

"Won again!"

Durant threw a punch, then trotted over to Curry and patted him hard on the shoulder.

He heard Curry complaining quietly that he was hitting him too hard, but he didn't care at all. He laughed and patted the other person's shoulder a few more times.

Then he pointed at Lin Chuan and said,
"It seems like you're no longer good. You've lost three consecutive team training matches!"

"It seems that even if you have worked hard to train during this off-season, you still can't beat us!"

"But I have to say it."

Durant recalled Lin Chuan's breakthrough dunk with some lingering fear.

"You are really ferocious when you charge. You are so big and yet you charge so fast. You are scarier than all the dunkers now. Even James can't compare to you."

"Oh, James? He wants to compete with me? He has never won a championship in his career, and he has even fewer honors than I did in my rookie season. He wants to compete with me in breakthrough dunks? It's hard to say whether he can dribble smoothly after removing the traveling step! Let's practice the basic skills first!"

Hearing that Durant actually compared himself with that man, Lin Chuan immediately curled his lips in disdain and complained.

Durant also laughed and agreed with his opinion.

"Indeed, if he hadn't been so famous when he debuted and the league hadn't supported him enough, he wouldn't have won so many honors. When he came to the finals stage where real strength was put into practice, he wilted and couldn't win a single championship. This became the biggest shock."

Lin Chuan nodded, agreeing with his point of view.

Then he glanced at the scoreboard that the staff was flipping through, and it was currently at 67:65.

Then he looked at Curry, who was rubbing his red shoulder next to Durant, and said helplessly,
"Damn it, if you and Curry hadn't teamed up to beat me, how could I lose so easily?"

Durant laughed.
"I don't care. Anyway, you didn't beat me. I finally made you lose so many times in a row. This is the first time."

He looked at Curry, his eyes full of joy.

"To be honest, before the joint practice and scrimmages, I really didn't expect that I would get along so well with Curry. We couldn't even beat the B team led by you."

Lin Chuan rubbed his hair to relieve the frustration of losing the game.

His eyes were still on Curry who was walking off the court to rest.

The opponent sat down on the bench at the sidelines and wiped the sweat off his body with a towel.

Then he noticed Lin Chuan's gaze and nodded.

Lin Chuan smiled.
"Of course, you don't know how well-suited you and him are to the level where you can easily win the championship."

Durant didn't understand what Lin Chuan meant, he just nodded.
"Indeed, I also think that with Curry joining us, it will be easier for us to win the championship."

Walking off the court, Lin Chuan found Curry.
"It was a high hit rate and a good fight."

"Four out of eight three-point attempts. With your three-point shooting, we can stretch our space to the entire half court."

Curry smiled and nodded to Thompson beside him.

"You're too kind. And Klay, he shot a lot in this practice game, but he didn't feel good today and didn't make many shots. Otherwise, you would have won today."

Clay sat there for a long time without saying anything.

Today he was on the same team as Lin Chuan. The opponent trusted him very much and passed the ball to him a lot.

He shot with confidence and without any hesitation.

But he was obviously in poor shape in today's training match. He only made one of seven three-point shots. All his points in the training match came from layups, which made him a little embarrassed.

After all, I was traded for my talent, but I can't shoot three-pointers well, which makes me feel a little embarrassed.

Lin Chuan did not blame the other party.

He is well aware of Klay Thompson's three-point shooting level.

If this guy explodes, he will be even more powerful than Curry, who is next to him and is striving to be in the top ten of history.

37 points in a single quarter, 14 three-pointers in a single game, and 3 points in 60 quarters in a single game are not games that a normal person can play.

His three-point shooting percentage has always been high, above 40% every season. There are few people in NBA history who can match his level.

But the most amazing thing about him is that he has a very bad touch at the beginning of every season, and even frequently has a hit rate of only 10 or 20, which makes people wonder whether this guy can play basketball and how he got into the NBA.

But in this outrageous first half of the season, after the regular season, people were surprised to find that Klay's three-point shooting percentage had recovered and reached more than 40% per game at some point.

This player is so amazing.

So I didn’t think it was unreasonable that he occasionally had a bad performance.

After all, if he could play so well in every game, Klay would have been the best in history long ago.

"Snapped."

Brooks' sudden clapping attracted everyone's attention.

"Boys, the pre-season will begin next week, and we can hone our team coordination and tactics."

As he spoke, he looked at several core players of the team.

"I have designed a lot of new tactics for you. Practice them well in the preseason and try not to lose in the regular season due to adjustment. We won 74 games last season. If we lose too many games in the regular season, there will be a lot of public opinion."

Several people nodded.

But Curry was a little nervous.

He always felt that Brooks was pointing at him when he heard what he said.

As the new starting point guard of the team, the coaching team did design a lot of tactics for him in the previous two months, as well as cooperation with other players on the team.

He suddenly felt very stressed.

The sweat that had been wiped off his forehead suddenly appeared again.

I always feel that if I lose in the new season, I will definitely be criticized.

To bring a team that won 74 games last season to 60 games is not satisfactory.

"Hey."

Suddenly, Curry felt someone calling his name quietly.

When I turned around, I saw Lin Chuan's smiling face.

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. The responsibility for the team's victory or defeat will not fall on the new teammates."

"That's right. Even if we lose, the media and netizens will only scold me and Lin Chuan. Just relax."

On the side, Durant put his hands behind his head, pretending to listen carefully to Brooks' speech, and spoke.

The words of the two also relieved Curry's pressure, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"As for the preseason, it doesn't matter. Anyway, it's just to practice tactics and get the team in shape. As long as the tactics are implemented, winning or not is secondary."

Lin Chuan added again.

Curry nodded thoughtfully.

"I see. Thank you both."

....................................

"Although it's a preseason game, you guys are still going a bit too far..."

In the locker room after the game, Brooks covered his head helplessly.

What caught his eyes was the somewhat humorous score.

78:96. The Thunder lost to the Milwaukee Bucks by 18 points.

"The opponent is the team whose winning rate last season was less than 50%. Everyone, please take it seriously."

He spread his hands towards the people who were changing their clothes on the bench, expressing his dissatisfaction.

"We haven't won a single game in eight games. This is a bit outrageous. After all, we are the most watched team in the new season. We can't do this in the preseason. We are being scolded online before we even start the official game. This is unacceptable."

Hearing that Brooks finally couldn't help being dissatisfied with them after losing 8 consecutive preseason games, Curry felt the pressure, scratched his head, and said guiltily,

"I'm sorry, coach. I'm just too incompetent. I was supposed to help the team win the championship, but now we can't even win the preseason."

"Do not blame you."

Brooks interrupted him and pointed to the two people laughing beside him.
"The responsibility for the loss lies with Lin Chuan and Durant. You don't have to blame yourself. One of them was the MVP last season, and the other was the FMVP last season. You can blame them for the loss. You played well in this game. You played for 25 minutes and scored 17 points. You tried your best."

"Hey, coach, that's not right. The preseason is for honing tactics and for the newcomers to find their form. We've only played for a short while."

"That's right, I only played for 20 minutes in this game, it's not my fault/"

Durant scratched his ear.

“一个20分钟10投3中拿7分，一个18分钟出手五次拿五分，还觉得自己没问题是吧！”

Seeing the indifferent looks of the two leaders of the team, Brooks became furious and rolled up his sleeves to teach them a lesson.

"Hey! Don't worry, coach! Trust me, we will play well in the regular season and surpass last season's results, okay?"

Seeing that Brooks was really angry, Lin Chuan quickly made a promise.

"Okay, that's what you said. If we don't win more than 74 games at the end of the season, you know what I'm going to do."

Brooks adjusted his suit sleeves and spoke in a calm tone, but his words made Durant and Lin Chuan shiver uncontrollably.

Yes, it was the same last season. Brooks was so angry that he made them do extra practice after the game, and it ended only when they almost vomited.

He didn't dare to provoke the other party again.

Lin Chuan quickly raised his arms.

"Absolutely, I swear I've won more this season than last season!"

Lin Chuan was so sure that Curry couldn't help but feel curious. He approached Lin Chuan and asked in a low voice,
"Lin Chuan, do you really think so? I always thought your record last season was amazing, not to mention a breakthrough. You know, the NBA has only broken 70 wins twice."

Lin Chuan smiled and replied to him,
"Of course, with you and Thompson joining the team, the team's strength has soared a lot. It's easy to break 74 wins!"

Then he stood up with confidence.

"Not only that, I firmly believe we can win 80 games this season!"

Brooks, who had calmed down just now, couldn't help but get angry again when he saw him like this.

If we win all the preseason games, it would be fine to make such bold statements.

We didn’t win a single game this preseason and we’re still dreaming. I don’t know where the confidence comes from!

Losing only two games in a regular season, isn't this pure fantasy!
Lin Chuan just smiled slightly.

Just watch it.

A few days later, the preseason came to an end.

The regular season is finally about to begin.

Before the game started, ESPN made its usual predictions.

In the team strength rankings, the Thunder ranks first.

However, the comments mentioned their 8-game losing streak in the preseason, and specifically commented that perhaps this deal would not help them improve the team's shortcomings as they thought, but might pose hidden dangers.

Whether they can win three consecutive championships and establish a dynasty this season is also a question mark.

In terms of player rankings.

Lin Chuan topped the list for the first time, while Durant ranked second.

Anthony, who led his team to the finals last season, ranked third.

Seeing this ranking, Durant was very dissatisfied.

It was difficult to pin James to death.

As a result, he was pushed to second place by his good friend on the same team.

Lin Chuan burst into laughter.

Laughing at Durant for always being the runner-up.

But there was one more thing that eased Durant's depressed mood.

It was James, who had been favored by the media countless times before, who was ranked 7th in personal strength by ESPN this time.

He was even overshadowed by the aging Kobe, Curry who just changed teams, and his good brother Captain Chris Paul.

It seems that even the media that favors him the most doesn't want to give him face this time.

Some even think he doesn't have the strength to be in the top five.

What makes people feel most humorous is...

After ESPN released the news about individual strength rankings.

James responded by posting a picture on his Instagram.

In the picture, there is a gorgeous crown made of pure gold.

It is inlaid with various gemstones.

There is also a throne in the background.

But instead of anyone speaking up for him, the comments were all mocking him.

For example, calling himself a king without a crown?

You can't win the championship by working together, it's all just talk.

and many more.

This also caused James to delete the post himself an hour later.

But it also seems more humorous.

It can be said that even he himself does not have the confidence to call himself the king.

After ESPN released all of his rankings, the regular season officially started the next day.

The Thunder also faced their opponent from last season in their first game of the new season.

Knicks.

The starting lineups for both sides were announced.

The Knicks are the same as last season, but the difference is that JR was promoted to the starting lineup, replacing last season's starter Shumpert.

They knew that facing the Thunder's offensive firepower, Shumpert's defense could be ignored, and it would be better to replace him with JR who has more firepower to fight head-on.

At least there's still a chance.

And the Thunder team.

They were replaced by Lin Chuan, Ibaka, Durant, Thompson, and Curry.

Before the game, Anthony made a bold statement in an interview with the media.

For the Thunder team that lost all the preseason games, he will give them a big defeat in the regular season!
When it was the Thunder's turn, Lin Chuan just smiled, made a 4 with one hand and a 0 with the other.

"If you played as hard on the court as you trash-talked, we wouldn't have swept you."

After talking trash before the game, both sides returned to the locker room to make final preparations.

Lin Chuan had just packed his clothes and stood up when he heard the mechanical voice coming from his head again.

"Ding!"

(End of this chapter)