Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA-Chapter 409 - 137: Does Anyone Want to Bet on This? (10,000 Words Updated in a Single Day, Begging for Subscriptions and Monthly Tickets!)
In the first quarter, James accounted for half of the Cavaliers’ offense. Although he only made 3 out of 11 shots, those ill-advised attempts, combined with free throws, indeed got James into double figures.
Moreover, James exchanged three turnovers for three valuable assists and, with the careful assistance of Big Z, Gooden, and Vallejo, grabbed 5 rebounds.
In the second quarter, after resting for only four minutes, James returned to the game.
This quarter, James finally found his rhythm on the outside through previous "testing the waters," making 4 out of 7 shots, including 2 out of 4 three-pointers.
However, by halftime, the score was 47 to 71.
The Warriors had already made the outcome of this finals game clear within just half a game.
However, James did not give up for this reason, or rather, the advice from Rich Paul finally made him realize how to continue competing with Qin Yue in such circumstances.
In the second half, James quickly reached double figures in rebounds.
Although affected by declining stamina, he had to make many inefficient shooting attempts, but invoking the "never give up" mentality, he aggressively attacked for half a quarter after what had already become garbage time in the fourth quarter...
For the whole game, James made 12 out of 31 shots, including 3 out of 8 three-pointers, and 8 out of 14 free throws, indeed delivering an impressive stat line of 35 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, and 9 turnovers.
Moreover, James’ relentless attack in the final quarter also spared the Cavaliers from a too embarrassing loss in the second game.
The final score was 94 to 125.
After the game, James explained away the nonsense he said after the first game: "People misunderstood what I meant. You know, I am a player who never chooses to give up. The fighting spirit on the court has guided me to where I am today.
I have always followed Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson as role models. I know I am still a long way from becoming a great player, but I am sure I have the potential."
Under James’ explanation, the "three more games" comment after the first game was described as a slip of the tongue due to being too sad about the loss.
For always tolerant fans, James’ words gained wide acceptance.
Qin Yue knew very well that those big figures were definitely helping behind the scenes.
After all, James’ technical statistics in the second game were indeed quite good.
Even compared to the 42 points, 18 rebounds, 14 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals he achieved in just three quarters, it can only be described as "equally matched."
According to the "232" schedule of the finals, the next round of the finals will move to Cleveland.
Having learned from last year’s lessons, Artest only took four days of luggage this time, "I don’t want to end up on that damn regular flight again!"
To this, Barnes, who brought six whole suitcases, asked puzzled, "Why do you have to take a regular flight if you bring more luggage?"
And for Barnes’ question...
Quickly, led by Qin Yue, the Warriors Team Committee proceeded to make Barnes understand why Artest only dared to bring four days’ worth of luggage through an unpleasant regular flight experience.
"Matt, why are you so unsure about us completing the sweep with a 4-0 score on the road?" 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
And then, after the team reunited in Cleveland, Qin Yue immediately assigned Barnes some "homework."
He required him to write a self-examination essay of over 500 words by tomorrow morning and perform a public self-examination in the team’s first training session.
"Players lacking confidence are not worthy of wearing the Warriors jersey, Matt." Brown said with a smile, patting Barnes on the shoulder.
Seeing this, Barnes said aggrievedly, "I... I don’t doubt that we can sweep and win the championship on the road. I just asked out of curiosity."
Brown shook his head and said, "But you indeed brought much more luggage than all of us."
Barnes argued for himself, "This is my first time playing in the finals in my career, I just didn’t know which outfit to choose for such an important occasion."
Brown nodded and said, "I understand you, brother, but rules are rules, you’d better get on with writing that self-examination."
Barnes complained, "How can I write a 500-word self-examination?"
Brown laughed and said, "Go to Mike (Deng Liwei), as long as you can show him your sincerity, I believe he will be very happy to help you."
The next day, Barnes, who spent a total of 2000 USD to escape trouble, didn’t know that Little Deng Liwei originally only planned to charge him a 1000 USD writing fee.
It’s just that, since the middleman, Brown, also wanted a cut, Little Deng Liwei could only double the fee for Barnes with tears.
A day later, the third game of the finals kicked off at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Successive heavy defeats had completely destroyed Clevelanders’ confidence in continuing to compete with the Warriors in this finals.
However, on the night of the game, the entire Quicken Loans Arena told the world with its capacity crowd...
They were long accustomed to failure, and they were willing to fail together with the Cavaliers who had entered the finals.
Returning to Cleveland with the Cavaliers, James put in a lot of extra shooting practice before the start of the third game.
Additionally, based on Rich Paul’s suggestion, James proactively approached Mike Brown before the game, hoping that he would strictly enforce the double-team strategy against Qin Yue during the game.
"Brown, Messiah is 6 feet 11 inches tall, his skills are incredibly flexible, if it isn’t necessary to double-team on essential possessions... the double-team would inevitably only help them play even more fluent offense."
Brown, who had used the double-team strategy against Qin Yue early in Qin Yue’s rookie season, said to James.
