I’m Really Playing Basketball

Oden's tears on the court after the Eastern Conference finals resonated with many people, even Chen Xiao was moved.

Although Oden has been the chosen one since he was a child, his career has definitely been extremely bumpy.

As a super rookie who entered the league as a combination of O'Neal + Yao Ming + Duncan, after entering the league, he, the No. 1 pick, has been suppressed by Durant, the No. 2 pick.

Durant has won two regular season MVPs early in his career, but he still hasn't won anything in the league.

Durant has already had a bunch of bursts early, but Oden has not had any bursts so far.

Therefore, throughout Oden's career, fans, experts and celebrities alike like to compare him with Durant.

The result of the comparison is, of course, Oden's complete defeat. After the complete defeat, there are always bursts of joyful atmosphere in the air.

In this regard, if you are Oden, you must be very unhappy.

In particular, Auden is also a very sensitive person.

This kind of suffering was really devastating to him at first.

In fact, after failing to lead the U.S. team with Leonard in 2016, Oden finally collapsed amidst everyone's ridicule and scolding.

As a super giant center in the NBA, he was said to be like a waste. If his big brother James of the Cavaliers hadn't saved him in the end, let's put it this way, Oden would have completely collapsed.

As a career, Oden can definitely be regarded as a player who has "died once."

He can definitely be called a player who has climbed back from hell.

For Oden, he may have never thought about the championship in his career, but he definitely thinks about it every day and night to prove himself in front of Durant.

And this time, he finally defeated Durant head-on!

In this year's Eastern Conference Finals, Durant and Oden are definitely the MVPs of their respective teams.

Durant averaged 35 points per game in the entire series, which is actually incredible. You know, the scoring in this series is not very high.

It can be seen that Durant is really good in singles. The Cavaliers let him play in singles, and he can really hit in singles.

With others blocked by Oden and Curry being flanked crazily, Durant's performance was absolutely wonderful.

It is no problem to say that Durant is the best player in this series.

But the MVP is Oden.

There is no problem with this either.

Because Oden won.

Because after the Cavaliers fell behind 2-3, Oden scored 30+15+7 in both G6 and G7. He grabbed more than 15 rebounds in both games and scored more than 30 points in both games. What's amazing is that in the two games, he blocked 7 shots in one game and blocked 8 shots in the other, directly suffocating the Bucks' breakthroughs and impacts.

Oden's 15 blocks in these two games are definitely the most important key to the Cavaliers' advancement.

Therefore, the No. 1 pick, who has been suppressed by Durant throughout his career, finally won in this series, in a direct confrontation with Durant, and in a game where Durant and Durant were both protagonists.

Such a victory would definitely subvert the level of Oden's career.

Since then, Oden has completely stepped out of Durant's shadow. At the same time, Oden has also completely changed his destiny.

Therefore, the day after the Eastern Conference Finals, the entire NBA's public opinion on Oden completely reversed.

After his failure in the 2016 Olympics, Oden, who was wildly criticized by the United States, finally became completely white.

In last year's playoffs, Oden faced Milicic and won.

In this year's playoffs, Oden faced off against Durant and won again.

Now he has finally emerged from all the haze.

And now the knight is finally completely liberated.

On May 31, the NBA Finals G1 started at the Oracle Center in Oakland, Golden State.

Today has just been four days since the Eastern Conference Finals G7 on May 27.

In the tiebreaker of the Eastern Conference finals, the Cavaliers must be very tired.

After all, Oden and James both played 48 minutes in G7.

But the four-day rest period can give James and Oden a good opportunity to adjust.

In terms of physical strength, the Cavaliers players are definitely not as strong as the Warriors players.

However, for the Cavaliers who are extremely excited now, physical strength will definitely not be their weakness in G1 of the finals.

Of course, before G1 started, experts and fans were still more optimistic about the Warriors.

After all, the Warriors are now striving to achieve perfection for Chen Xiao.

The Cavaliers are in high spirits right now, and so are the Warriors.

Although the Cavaliers are one of the most restrained teams in the league against the Warriors, there is no doubt that the Warriors are indeed stronger than the Cavaliers.

Similarly, it is also true that the Cavaliers restrained the Bucks more than they restrained the Warriors.

The Bucks have too many forwards with poor shooting ability.

So he was restrained by Oden.

As for the Warriors, whether they are starting or coming off the bench, they have a bunch of players with excellent outside shooting.

It is impossible for the inside combination of Oden and James to restrain the Warriors' outside line.

Let's put it this way, the most restrained of the Cavaliers' twin towers is the inside combination of Chen Xiao and Nong Mei.

Chen Xiao and Nongmei will have a very difficult time in this finals, especially Nongmei, but Klay, Luo Ge and Wade, Devin Booker and Jaylen Brown and other Warriors outside players, this finals should be There will be many opportunities.

During G1 between the Warriors and the Cavaliers, while the two sides were warming up, James, the leading player of the Cavaliers, and Chen Xiao, the leading player of the Warriors, once again hugged and chatted together in a very friendly manner.

This is the second time the two have met in the finals after being separated.

During the last Finals, the Cavaliers were coached by Rick Carlisle.

This time, the Cavaliers' head coach has been replaced by Tyronn Lue, and Carlisle is now the Cavaliers' general manager full-time.

And Tyronn Lue, the head coach, is indeed very good.

That move against the Bucks: ‘The game can be lost, but Curry must die! ’’s tactics are indeed eye-catching.

It can only be said that the current group of rookie head coaches in the NBA are really struggling.

There was Jordan in the past, Cole in the middle, Ray Allen in the middle, and now Tyronn Lue. Each of these players showed extremely strong standards during their rookie period.

After Chen Xiao and James exchanged greetings, the starting players of the two teams also appeared on the court under the leadership of Chen Xiao and James.

The starting players of the Cavaliers are Oden at center, James at power forward, Danny Green at small forward, Matthews at shooting guard and Conley at point guard.

The youngest starter for the entire Cavaliers is Oden, who is 30 years old this year.

Others, James is 34 years old, Danny Green is 31 years old, Matthews is 32 years old, and Conley is also 31 years old.

It can be said that the Cavaliers' starting five are definitely mature men.

The Warriors are actually doing their part. The Warriors' starters are center Chen Xiao, 36 years old, power forward Dwyane Wade, 25 years old, small forward Wade, 36 years old, shooting guard Klay, 28 years old, and point guard Luo Ge. 36 years old.

Calculating the average age, the Warriors' starters are slightly older than the Cavaliers' starters.

The average age of the starting players of both teams is over 31 years old, and even the Warriors' starting players are over 32 years old.

It's not that often in the history of the NBA that two teams of such an age play in the finals.

Therefore, before the start of the finals, many fans and experts laughed and said that in this year's finals, fans will not see two teams making mistakes in the game. These two teams will provide all the fans with Staged a perfect finals without any mistakes.

Just like the 2003 Champions League final. Don't look at the 2003 Champions League final. Milan and Juventus played 0-0. The score may seem boring, but the content of the game has been called this year's Champions League final by many experts and fans. It is the most perfect final in the history of the Champions League.

Neither team made a mistake in this game, and both teams played a perfect game.

Both teams made no mistakes or errors, so it was 0-0.

Therefore, the expectations of fans and experts for this finals match between the Warriors and Cavaliers are really high.

Back to the game, in the middle circle, Oden and Thick Eyebrow jump ball.

With a snap, his concentration was extremely concentrated and his mood was extremely exciting. Oden, who had just finished the game and was in a better state of play, defeated the thick eyebrows and won the first attack opportunity of the game for the Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers attacked first. James, who received Oden's jump ball, did not return the ball to Conley behind him. Instead, he directly dribbled the ball and quickly advanced to the frontcourt.

The power forward receives the jump ball from the center and directly drives the ball for a fast break. This is not common in the NBA.

To be able to do this, there are only three teams in the entire NBA, the Warriors, Cavaliers and Bucks.

The Warriors' inside combination is Chen Xiao and Nong Mei. Nong Mei is responsible for jumping the ball, and Chen Xiao can directly advance after receiving the ball.

For the Bucks, Antetokounmpo is responsible for the jump ball, and Chai Meng can advance directly after receiving the jump ball.

As one of the strongest teams in this move, the Warriors must know the power of this move.

When your defensive footing is not stable, the opponent's two inside players will attack directly like sharp knives. This will cause the outside players standing behind to directly face the opponent's inside players, and all the matchups on the court will be directly misaligned. This is very powerful for offense.

Just this time, although Chen Xiao followed Oden very vigilantly, his thick eyebrows were directly passed by James, and then James faced the Warriors point guard Luo Ge.

Facing James's sudden advance, Luo Ge could only try his best to fight and retreat, because if he really went up to block it, he would definitely be knocked away by James, and what would be waiting for him would be a violent dunk from James.

Faced with James pushing the fighting and retreating Luo Ge away from the basket, other Warriors players did not dare to attack because Conley, Danny Green, and Matthews can all shoot three-pointers. , and last year's playoffs, their three-point shooting percentage exceeded 40%, which was quite accurate.

Therefore, there must be no flanking attack!

In the end, the Warriors could only watch as Luo Ge, who was fighting and retreating, retreated to the basket and could no longer retreat. Then he got up to block James' layup, but failed, and James succeeded in a layup.

2 to 0!

James, who succeeded in the layup, fell directly off the court.

I have to say that James played beautifully in this offense.

And Luo Ge's defense this time was also beautiful.

So much so that James, who was pulled up from the ground by his teammates, looked at Brother Luo in shock.

To be fair, most of the time in this kind of sudden fast break at the beginning, James either dunks or distributes the ball to his teammates to hit three-point fast breaks.

Such a difficult pull-up layup was almost missed. To be honest, it was the first time.

Although Ron Howard's talent is not that great, his defensive skills and defensive awareness are really art-level.

No wonder many experts say Ron Howard is the strongest defensive perimeter player in NBA history.

After all, he is the perimeter player with the most Defensive Player of the Year awards in NBA history.

This level is truly unparalleled.

And this is where the Warriors are more difficult to deal with than the Bucks.

Although these players on the Warriors are older than the Cavaliers.

But just like Ron Howard, such a top 10 player in history, they can pretend to be dead in the regular season and perform ordinary in the playoffs, but they can be in the finals. In a game, you can play at a very high level.

Therefore, the Ron Howard the Cavaliers faced in the Finals and the Wade they faced in the Finals were completely different from those they faced in the regular season and ordinary playoffs.

This can be seen from the fact that this time Ron Howard almost blocked James and forced James to pull the lever.

In the regular season and in the previous playoffs, how could you see such a peak-level defense as Luo Ge?

even……

In this finals, maybe you can see Wade at his peak level!

It was the Warriors' turn to attack. Facing the Cavaliers, who were very strong at the beginning, Wade, who was responsible for driving the ball in the Warriors' attack this time, was very old-fashioned. He was not slow and slow when advancing, and he did not try to steal the fast break at all. the meaning of.

Seeing Wade like this, Conley didn't dare to press and pick up Wade's rhythm.

Against a player of Wade's caliber, you can't leave anything to chance.

You're kidding if you want to disrupt Wade's rhythm by pressing.

In fact, Conley was very cautious in defending Wade.

Because he is shorter and has much faster speed and explosiveness, he does not need to be afraid of Wade's breakthrough, but can stick a little closer to Wade.

This will make Wade very uncomfortable, unable to break through, and difficult to shoot.

This is why the Cavaliers did not let Matthews or Green guard Wade.

Luo Ge's style of play is back-turn shooting with changes in rhythm, which is suitable for Green's defense.

I have to say that Tyronn Lue's defense change is indeed the essence.

but……

A swipe!

Wade, who was originally unhurried, advanced to the three-point line, and faced Conley who suddenly came up to him, and he just passed by!

"Lightning breakthrough!"

"Another lightning breakthrough!"

Wade broke through Conley so suddenly that Oden and James, who were pulled out by Chen Xiao and Big Eyebrow, had no time to react and heard a bang!

This is the sound of Wade violently beating the basket!

With this speed, this bounce, and these dunks with both hands, do you dare to say that he is a player who is over 36 years old? !

James and Cavaliers fans on the court, and Tyronn Lue on the sidelines were stunned.

Even the Warriors fans at the scene were stunned for a moment.

But soon, the scene was filled with extremely warm cheers and shouts!

G3!

“This year’s stage is still theirs!”