Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA-Chapter 407 - 136: 3 matches remain... (5,000-word Chapter, begging for subscriptions and monthly votes!) _3
More outside shooting options have indeed given James more passing choices during his breakthrough.
But Qin Yue and Brown each completed a steal in the latter half of the first quarter because of it.
The angle of James’ passes after jumping is limited...
So with the coordinated play of Qin Yue and Brown, only one needs to seal off the passing angle to one side after James’ breakthrough, and the other can easily take this gift from the Kings.
End of the first quarter, 17 to 34.
During the intermission, James, biting his thumb continuously, began to feel anxious and uneasy.
Meanwhile, his "close brother" Shaquille O’Neal walked onto the court with a complex expression.
According to the Warriors’ usual rotation strategy, the first half of the second quarter would be one of the few opportunities for O’Neal to prove himself during this finals series.
However...
After the intermission, seeing Qin Yue not planning to rest in the first half of the second quarter, O’Neal suddenly felt confused.
Come on, man, is it necessary?
Is it not necessary?
No, it’s very necessary.
Given the current game situation, Qin Yue is likely to clock out after the first three quarters, so how could he choose to rest during those quarters?
Oracle Arena.
The Warriors’ lineup for the second quarter is — Qin Yue, Murphy, Barnes, Little Deng Liwei, Jack.
This is a lineup that made O’Neal feel hopeless.
And what’s more hopeless... 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
During O’Neal’s time on the court, the Knight players couldn’t even pass the ball to him.
The Warriors’ unwavering 2-3 zone defense firmly locked the entire paint area.
If the Knight players can’t take advantage of the corner three-pointer opportunities the Warriors are bound to leave open for them...
Then the Knights, lacking a strong solution against zone defense, can only let O’Neal run up and down the court.
On the Cavaliers’ bench, Bread, on the verge of shutting down, realized that...
It turns out, the team that was dragged down by the body’s allowed intensity and defensive scale of the current era, affecting their shooting percentage, was themselves.
After the Game 7 battle with the Supersonic, the Warriors’ players’ superior mentality compared to the Knight players decided that, even under the same intensity of confrontation, the Warriors’ three-pointers would be more reliable.
And even if the Warriors miss those threes, it doesn’t matter.
Because as long as they lock down the paint...
The Warriors have absolute confidence in stopping the Knights’ majority of offensive possessions.
On the court, it was the Warriors’ offensive possession.
Long uninterested in O’Neal, Qin Yue didn’t bully this "Big Shark" for personal reasons.
But what can you do when his model is so large that Qin Yue can always spot him first?
At the top of the arc, after a quick wall-off with Murphy, Qin Yue once again switched to face O’Neal.
This night would be the end of the position of center.
Thump, thump!
With a butterfly-like grace, Qin Yue left O’Neal behind and drove to the Knight’s paint area, dunking with one arm.
"From now on, there is only one center in this league. Apart from ’Big-Yao’, everyone else is just small fry!"
Looking back at the dejected O’Neal, Qin Yue deliberately raised his voice to remind him and the big Z sitting on the Knight bench.
Qin Yue remembered O’Neal’s famous quote, saying that there are only two and a half centers in the NBA, one being himself, one being Yao Ming, with the other half being big Z.
So, since on this night, both the usually low-profile, non-contentious big Z and his former number one center appeared so powerless in the game, naturally, there would be only one center in the NBA in the future.
On TNT TV Station, Barkley expressed a similar view almost simultaneously: "The Messiah has personally ended the center era, even ’Big-Yao’ needs the protection of super power forward Kevin Garnett to compete on the court."
The center era is bound to be gone forever.
After all...
It was a highly improbable event that the NBA saw Olajuwon, Ewing, Robinson, and O’Neal appear in the same era.
With each change in basketball rules, seven-footers are further limited...
Therefore, aside from a few extraordinarily gifted individuals, most seven-footers are destined to become utility players in the future.
Qin Yue, coming from the future, understood why in later generations, teams preferred more mobile four-position players to double as centers rather than giving those seven-footers opportunities.
In the evolution of basketball, there have been technically skilled center prospects.
It’s just that with the introduction of zone defense, the cancellation of the Hand-check rule, and subsequent vertical jumping and joint-ball rule changes, the survival space for these seven-footers has been gradually eroded.
End of the first half, 40 to 67.
At the start of the second half, James tried to break through with outside shooting, but frequently hit the board instead.
The Knights’ outside offense could only be barely sustained by Xiaomo.
However, compared to the future Owen, Xiaomo’s output and personal ability are obviously inferior.
In the third quarter, even reaching the LOGO area for a couple of three-point attempts, Qin Yue had already shown the world how big a lead the Warriors had established on the court.
"Young James’s" defensive efforts are certainly commendable.
But facing the exhausted Qin Yue who had fought through a Game 7 war and a full-strength battle, his defense was riddled with faults.
After three quarters, the game had completely turned into garbage time.
Qin Yue played for 36 minutes, scoring 41 points, 17 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks, and 3 steals, shooting 15 of 27 from the field, 3 of 9 from three, and 8 of 8 from free throws.
Through the perfect offense and defense performance, "Thanos Qin" once again made the entire basketball world fully feel the dominance of the best player.
Final score, 89 to 123.
The Warriors, with a 34-point blowout in the finals opener, extinguished the Clevelanders’ hope.
Before the finals began, if the Clevelanders still dreamed of the Chosen One leading them to miracles...
Then, compared to the final score of the first game of the finals...
The process on the court, where the Knights could not make an effective fightback at all, had already made the Clevelanders completely lose confidence in winning the game.
After the game, ESPN commentator A-Smith bluntly said: "I think what we need to pay attention to now is whether the Warriors will set a new record for the largest point differential in NBA finals history."
After the game, many of James’ fans tried to use the undercover method to prove that James only suffered defeat in the finals opener because of teammates.
Then, they saw Xiaomo, who was entirely burned out with a total of 7 of 17 shots, and big Z, who scored 12 points and 8 rebounds under enormous pressure, and Gooden, who didn’t get many shooting opportunities but went 3 of 5.
Pavlovic and Marshall, who shot 1 of 4 and 2 of 6 from beyond the arc, and Gibson, who went 1 of 3, could indeed become the scapegoats after the game.
But, on the night of the game, a total of 0 of 8 from the three-point line...
Isn’t that LeBron James himself?
After the game, James, somewhat confused by the beating, even said nonsense during an interview: "There are still three games, I believe we can perform better with each game."
...
PS: 5K word Chapter up! Begging for subscriptions and monthly tickets! (The 5000-word Chapter owed yesterday, Ah Qiao may need to recover after staying up all night to repay it, but today Ah Qiao aims to smoothly complete the guaranteed 10K words update first)
