NBA: Starting with Jokic template

Chapter 99 Prelude to the Great War (45)

"I didn't realize you were quite skilled at using chopsticks. Have you eaten Chinese food before?"

Seeing that Durant was very skilled in using chopsticks and could pick up the diced chicken accurately, almost as good as the Chinese, Lin Chuan couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, this."

Durant was eating spicy chicken, gesturing with his chopsticks and said vaguely,

"I didn't learn this from eating Chinese food, but from Japanese food. You've tried sushi and ramen, right? You can't eat them without chopsticks."

"Oh, I'm a little greedy when it comes to Japanese food. I'll treat you to a meal when I have time. There's a Japanese restaurant in Oklahoma opened by a Japanese. It's called Izakaya or something like that. How about it?"

Hearing Durant say this and even inviting him to eat Japanese food, Lin Chuan nodded decisively, and then couldn't help but sigh.

Chinese cuisine was not promoted well in the United States, which allowed the Japanese to take the lead and take root and flourish in a foreign country, and its business has become bigger and bigger.

Americans learned to use traditional tableware such as chopsticks through Japanese cuisine. This is indeed a shame for a great country like China.

"Oh, by the way, before coming to your house to eat this spicy chicken, I didn't have much impression of Chinese cuisine. I only ate Panda Express occasionally. Their food is completely different from yours, but I think it's also delicious. I like it, haha."

Durant's subsequent words were another heavy blow, making Lin Chuan even more helpless.

Panda Express is the largest Chinese cuisine chain in the United States, but the so-called Chinese cuisine is just their modified American-style Chinese cuisine. Lin Chuan went there to eat when he first arrived in the United States, and it’s hard to describe.

BJ beef, orange chicken, fried broccoli...

Lin Chuan was speechless while eating.

Asking him to admit that something like that is Chinese food is like forcing him to admit that the Zongzi Festival is a stolen invention.

impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
"Which do you think is better, my chicken or the tangerine peel chicken from Panda Express?"

Lin Chuan asked again without giving up.

"Hmm...it's hard to tell them apart. They each have their own characteristics. I like them both."

Seeing Durant pondering for a long time before giving this answer, Lin Chuan almost fainted.

This American! What kind of tongue is this!

"The wild boar cannot eat fine chaff!"

Lin Chuan complained.

"What do you mean?"

"Praise your ability to eat, gourmet!"

Durant didn't hear the sarcasm in Lin Chuan's tone and was still smiling happily.

Just when Lin Chuan was still struggling with the issue of American-style Chinese food, Durant made another shocking statement:
"I didn't realize you were so frugal, considering the place you live in is so small."

Lin Chuan held his forehead and said speechlessly,
"Kevin, did you buy the Last Whisper and Infinity? I'll treat you to a meal and you'll break my defense with every word you say."

Durant didn't understand and was too lazy to ask. He thought it was some internet meme. He and Lin Chuan were four years apart, so there was still a generation gap between them. He simply buried his head and continued eating.

"I'm different from you, Kevin. I got such a big contract extension, and I was able to sign a 7-year, $6000 million shoe contract with Nike when I first entered the league. I only make a few million dollars in salary now, which is not enough to buy a car, let alone a house."

"How about you buy me another one?" Durant almost choked on his food after hearing Lin Chuan's shameless remarks.
"That's enough, you really treat me as a vault, it's impossible to explode gold coins!"

Lin Chuan laughed, he also knew it was impossible.

Durant is not a good man, and he is already very grateful to be given a Ferrari 458.

"In order to repay your gift, we must thoroughly beat the Heat in tonight's Christmas game and make this Heat team of the Big Three look disgraced!"

Lin Chuan said seriously.

It is the end of December, and the Thunder is still making great progress. They have achieved 12 wins and 26 losses so far this season, far ahead of the Western Conference, and have won 4 more games than the second-placed Spurs in the Western Conference.

The two losses were also due to bad luck, as we encountered back-to-back games.

After losing to the Grizzlies in the second game, the team's 10-game winning streak came to an end, and in the third game they even lost to the Trail Blazers, the 12th-ranked team in the Western Conference.

After being beaten by a bottom-ranked team and suffering his first losing streak of the season, Lin Chuan felt speechless and just wanted to curse the league for arranging a terrible schedule.

Playing three games in a row, won’t this make them so tired that they might get injured?
On the contrary, as the runner-up last season, the Heat have performed poorly in the Eastern Conference this year.

In 30 games so far this season, the team has only achieved 20 wins and 10 losses, ranking second in the Eastern Conference, and is actually surpassed by this year's Knicks.

The Knicks are ranked first in the Eastern Conference with 21 wins and 9 losses, 0.5 wins ahead of the Heat.

The main reason why the Heat did not rank first this year was because of Wade.

After colliding his knee with Fisher in last season's finals, Wade spent the entire summer recovering with the help of doctors.

But for him, who had his meniscus removed in college, it was difficult for him to recover from this kind of impact on his knee.

So far this season, the former "Flash" Wade's athletic ability has declined rapidly, and many of the skills he relied on for his survival are no longer able to perform.

The 31-year-old Wade has degenerated into a complete veteran, playing only based on his own experience. Now, half a season has passed, Wade has made 16 of 7 shots, with a hit rate of only 43.8%, which is a 6-point drop compared to last season. He can only get 18.5 points per game, becoming the team's third scorer with very low efficiency.

On the contrary, Fisher, whose knee was hit by him, was lucky. He recovered completely after just half a month of rest in the summer. He has not had any problems in the game so far, only with a slight decline due to age issues.

The Heat's current Bosh has been upgraded to the No. 2 scorer, averaging 18.8 points per game with a good shooting percentage of 53%.

This year's Heat are no longer as invincible in the Eastern Conference as they were in the previous two years. Instead, more and more people are beginning to favor the Knicks.

This Christmas battle seems to be just an ordinary game for the Thunder.

But for the Heat, it's more like a test.

The process and result of this game will determine whether this year's Heat team is still a team strong enough to compete for the championship!
The game is about to start and the fans are all in their seats.

Facing the Heat players on the court, they did not hesitate to use insults.

Facing the Thunder team, the crowd cheered loudly and called out the players' names.

The noise from the fans in the stadium has reached hundreds of decibels, comparable to an airplane roaring overhead.

If an ordinary person appeared in the Chesapeake Energy Arena now, just standing in the stadium and listening to the cheers of thousands of people would be a huge pressure, and even make him tremble.

For fans, this game is more like a continuation of last season's finals, an unfinished battle.

(End of this chapter)