NBA opening draw to twilight Shaquille O'Neal

Chapter 327
"I said it earlier, the so-called strong contender for the championship is actually not that scary!"

— ESPN's Mike Kellerman
"Is this behind the glamor? How strong is the pioneer who searched for the sun?"

— ESPN expert Kevin Pelton

"Even the Suns can lose, is this our No. [-] team in the Western Conference?"

— Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

There is a saying that everyone pushed the wall against the wall. In the past week, the Trail Blazers had 4 games and 3 losses, and only won 1 game. The Blazers became the laughing stock of many players, fans, and the media overnight.

No way, who made them strong for more than half a month before, and the rare 13-game winning streak in history certainly made them get a lot of attention and heated discussions, but at the same time, they inevitably encountered the jealousy of other teams.

In the game against the Suns yesterday, the Blazers lost 106:120 to their opponent by 14 points. It is not an exaggeration to say that it was a one-sided game.

Now, after showing obvious signs of decline, it is inevitable that some people will "beat the dog in the water" behavior.

During the team training on December 12, the atmosphere of the entire Trail Blazers team has shown a sluggish state, and the previous laughter and laughter can no longer be seen during training.

Naturally, their recent encounters cannot be discussed, falling from heaven to hell, but no one is really willing to take the initiative to accept such a huge gap.

At this time, every Trail Blazers player is training hard with a determination that is bound to change.

With 14 wins and 3 losses, the Blazers, who started in Tianhu, have been confused for too long after winning streak, and only won one victory...

However, Wang Zelin still wants to compete for this season's regular season championship, and such setbacks still can't beat him.

With the same idea as him, in addition to his teammates, there are also a large number of Portland Trail Blazers fans.

On the evening of the 3rd, the Trail Blazers ushered in a back-to-back home game against the Dallas Mavericks, who are ranked ninth in the Western Conference. The current record is 9 wins and 8 losses.

The current state of the Mavericks players is not very good.

Just the day before yesterday, the Mavericks ushered in the challenge of the Eastern powerhouse Hawks at home, leading by three quarters, and the biggest advantage was as high as 17 points.In the end, the Eagles launched a counterattack in the last quarter, and evened the score with a 20:8 offensive wave!
Even 4.2 seconds before the scene, Horford made a mid-range shot and made a lore. The score was 88:87, and finally succeeded in killing the game.

In the end, the Hawks defeated the Mavericks in back-to-back away games with Horford's 17 points and 12 rebounds, ending the team's previous three-game losing streak.

So to be honest, the Mavericks players are also quite troubled now.

After entering the Rose Garden, the Mavericks players saw a series of signs full of slogans in the auditorium, such as "The Blazers will win!", "Don't be discouraged, you are the best!", "Kill the Dallas people, the glory of victory will belong to Portland"...

Even if the whole world does not support the Trail Blazers, at least there is still a group of lovely fans silently supporting them.

After entering the arena, Wang Zelin and his teammates couldn't help being moved after seeing the heart-warming actions of the fans, and what's more, the eye sockets have become moist.

They decided: not for anything else, even for the overwhelming cheers from the audience at this moment, they must win this game and overthrow the Mavericks!
However, such a move completely annoyed Mavericks owner Mark Cuban who came to Portland with the team to cheer for the team.

As we all know, Cuban's passion and straightforwardness made him called "the roaring god of the NBA boss world". For the team, he has criticized the referee many times, and even had physical conflicts with the referee in his early years.

However, because of this, he won the appreciation of all Mavericks fans.

Then, before the game started, Cuban, who was sitting in the VIP auditorium, said to the interview media: "The Portland Trail Blazers are a shit team made up of shit after shit. The moment I entered the arena, I was almost fainted by the smell inside! I really don't know why the league arranges such a team to be our opponent..."

Next, when Cuban was asked by the media, "How do you view the outcome of this game?", he bluntly said that Dirk is the best big man in the league.

Obviously, Cuban was attracted to Shi Lezhi by the actions of the Portland fans, otherwise, no matter how "unruly" his character was in the past, he would not publicly say such remarks that offended the Blazers to death.

As soon as this remark came out, it was tantamount to announcing that the Mavericks and the Trail Blazers would become another rival team in the league... the kind that would be jealous when they meet.

Soon, the reporters rushed to convey this passage to Wang Zelin. The latter listened to the whole process with a blank expression, and after a long time slowly said: "Dirk can't win, I promise, they will never win!"

This is very simple to understand, and it has two meanings. One is that the old driver can't beat himself and Aldridge, and the other is that the Mavericks can't beat the Trail Blazers.

It's so tasteful!

The scene that reporters like most was born, and they immediately used their communication devices to log on to their social accounts and began to write about it.

Speaking of which, Wang Zelin is also angry now.Because he lost three games this week, even though he maintained a luxurious data of 26.6 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3.3 blocks this week, he still lost the Western Conference Player of the Week.

The first week of December is the best, and the East has given LeBron James. This week, James led the Heat to a record of 12 games and 1 wins, and his personal data is also quite luxurious.

In these four games, James played 36 minutes, 15.8 shots in exchange for 9.5 hits, shooting 60.3% from the field, 3.8 shots from three-pointers, 1.8 hits, and a hit rate of 46.7%.With super high efficiency, he scored 29 points, 6 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.8 blocks, with an average of 2.8 turnovers per game.

Everyone is familiar with James' title of "high-level data" king for a while.But when people once again witnessed James as an outside player, but was able to average 29 points per game with the shooting percentage of a high-quality inside player, they still sincerely sighed: This guy is really perverted!
Perhaps, this is why many fans frame James' peak period at the stage of the Heat's two consecutive championships.

Just looking at the data, the Heat Zhan's Cavaliers may not be comparable to the young Zhan in the 1.0 period, but in terms of offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency, the Heat Zhan's high efficiency is definitely second to none in his career.

In the West, the best of the week was won by Kevin Durant, and it was also his first best of the week award this season.

In the last three games, Durant led the Thunder to win all three games, averaging 36.7 minutes per game, 20.3 shots in exchange for 11.7 hits, and a shooting percentage of about 57.4%.The three-pointer is even more outrageous, 5.7 shots are 3, and the hit rate exceeds 5%, as high as 52.9%.

32分10.7个篮板5.7次助攻1个抢断0.3个盖帽，以及2个失误……这就是杜兰特了最近三场比赛的场均数据。

Wang Zelin, who has the memory of later generations, knows very well that Durant will average a career-high 32 points per game this season, along with 7.4 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game, and eventually win the regular season scoring champion and regular season MVP awards.

The team is also very good. At the end of the regular season, the Thunder won 60 games and became the regular season champion of the Western Conference.

This means that this year Wang Zelin and the Blazers will face the Thunder led by the MVP version of Durant.

Last season, Durant's comprehensive score reached 95 points, a proper superstar level, and Durant will only be stronger this year!
Thinking of this, Wang Zelin couldn't wait to meet the Thunder. He wanted to see how strong Durant was in the MVP year in the original history.
The minimum guarantee is 96!

97... or 98?
After playing the Mavericks, the Blazers will meet the Thunder for the first time in the new season, which is really exciting!

……

At 19 o'clock in the evening, Wang Zelin and Nowitzki led their respective teams to meet in the player tunnel.

Nowitzki hesitated for a while, and finally chose to bite the bullet and walked in front of Wang Zelin: "Wang, what Mark said before the game...was not intentional. His eldest daughter fell ill recently. As a father, his mood is inevitable..."

"Stop!" Wang Zelin interrupted Nowitzki with a wave of his hand, and said coldly: "I don't care what the reason is for what he said, but he is an adult after all, and an adult must pay for what he says and does!"

"I don't have any other ideas, I just want to hear Mark apologize to you."

The guilt on Nowitzki's face grew stronger.

"Forget it, see you in the game!"

After speaking, Wang Zelin led the team to move forward.

"Ugh!"

Speaking of this, Nowitzki knows that tonight will inevitably have a hard fight, no, maybe every time he meets the Blazers in the future, the Mavericks will not have good results.

Thinking of the last few years of his career, he will always be remembered by a young man with unlimited potential, and he feels more and more helpless: the ghost knows that Cuban will say such ugly words before the game to provoke his opponent.

It wouldn't matter if I said that two years ago, because Dirk Nowitzki wasn't an old driver at that time, he was the famous Nuo Tianwang in the league, and the Mavericks still had the fighting power to compete for the championship.

It's really different from the past. Now it's hard for the Mavericks to make it to the playoffs!

Could it be that, I want to experience the tragic experience of the old admiral when he met the Lakers big shark... That's really not necessary for ducks!

Of course, if you are upset, it is impossible for Nowitzki to have any negative emotions such as complaints and dissatisfaction towards Cuban.Because he knew that Cuban's original intention was to benefit himself and the Mavericks, but the means were somewhat indecent.

It seems that there is a reason why the friendship between owner Cuban and player Nowitzki can become a good story in NBA history.

There is no other way, what happened to the boss can only be paid by the players in the end.

When all the Trail Blazers players enter the court, they will go to the Mavericks.

Nowitzki suddenly glanced at Vince Carter in the middle of the team, and the latter nodded understandingly.

Nowitzki clapped his hands and saw his teammates looking at him: "Guys, cheer up. Today we are about to face a fierce battle. Everyone must know how strong the opponent is, so I won't say more here. What I want to say now is, don't forget, we are only one rank away from the playoffs, so no matter what opponent we face next, I will go all out to play every game well. But it is not enough for the team to have only one person, and everyone needs to work together, please!"

After finishing speaking, Nowitzki even made a move of "bending 90 degrees". Not to mention how the rookies who just joined the Mavericks feel, even Carter, who was mentally prepared in advance, was moved.

"Dirk is right," Carter understood, and took the lead in responding: "Boys, the NBA is a land of miracles. Since its establishment, there have been countless nights where the underdog defeated the superior and the weak defeated the strong...How can such a night be without the Dallas Cowboys? I believe in Dirk, and even more believe that as long as everyone works together, the Portland Trail Blazers are not invincible."

"Haha! Damn him!"

Shawn Marion's response was far more bold.

From Dirk Nowitzki to Carter to Sean Marion, through the continuous cheering of the three old guys, the timidity of many young players facing the Trail Blazers finally gradually dissipated.

Seeing that the military spirit is available, Nowitzki finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he said verbally how easy it is for the Blazers to beat, in fact he knew very well in his heart that there is a certain strength gap between the Mavericks and the Blazers after all, and it is too difficult to defeat the opponent.

However, as long as the Mavericks are united, there is no hope of winning... although this hope is too slim.

After all, it's not every night for the Blazers to experience downturns.

……

The two sides made their debut.

For the Mavericks, the starting five are Jose Calderon, Monta Ellis, Sean Marion, Dirk Nowitzki and Dalembert.

After seeing the Mavericks' starting lineup, Terry Stotts nodded as expected.

In this game, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle put center DeJuan Blair, who had performed well in the first two games, on the bench and replaced Dalembert as the starter.

There is no way, no matter how bad DeJuan Blair's performance is, no matter how fierce his rebounds are, in the final analysis, he is just a short insider with 2 meters 01.

If you really want him to start against Wang Zelin, it's no different from delivering food, and it's a bit too embarrassing.

No matter how Dalembert's recent performance is turned off, he also has a height of 2 meters and a good weight of 11 kilograms. At least he is much stronger than Dejuan Blair in terms of resistance.

For the Blazers, the starting 5 players and the media's pre-match expectations remain unchanged, namely Lillard, Matthews, Batum, Aldridge and Wang Zelin.

"Wang, change to another tactic tonight." Terry Stotts held a meeting before the game: "Don't hesitate after you get the ball, just go in boldly and storm in. Tonight you have only one task, and that is to destroy the Mavericks' inside defense."

It seems that not only the players, but the coaching staff and management were also stimulated by Cuban's words before the game, and they actually chose to change the team's style of play.

However, Terry Stotts' arrangement tonight must have been studied by all members of the coaching staff.

The reason is simple. The Mavericks' inside line is really bad enough, so there is nothing wrong with playing like this.

Originally, this tactical system was the main tactic of the Blazers last season. After revisiting it tonight, the players said that there is no problem.

　Well!It's snowing in Liupanshui, and the author has been shivering all day long!The weather is cold, everyone should keep warm, the cold in winter is really uncomfortable (the author Zha has experienced it himself).

　　
　
(End of this chapter)