Basketball K God

Chapter 401 Christmas Battle
The Grizzlies' season program battle will take place on December 12 against the San Antonio Spurs, their opponents in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs last season.

The NBA is a very successful commercial league. They chose to start this shrinking season during Christmas, which is intentional.

Starting the season with the Christmas game as a gimmick could re-engage fans who had turned their attention to other sports due to the NBA suspension.

From the arrangement of the Christmas battle, the alliance has spent a lot of thought.Grizzlies VS Spurs, the latest Black Eight miracle opponents; Mavericks VS Heat, the Finals opponents; Bulls VS Lakers, the league's first and defending champions last season.

This is the first time in the history of the Grizzlies team to participate in the Christmas game. You must know that this team has been poor and weak since its birth in 1995.

Things are different now, last season they reached the Western Conference finals, one of four teams to reach the conference finals.This team also has a popular and capable star like Xie Kai. Whether it is performance or topicality, it is enough, and it has created a black eight miracle. Naturally, it has won the favor of the league. It seems that there is no problem in being arranged for a national live broadcast. .

Xie Kai has renewed his contract in advance, and what the outside world will always want to know is how he will perform after getting the big contract.You must know that it is not uncommon for the NBA to start healthy basketball after taking a big contract, and then start desperately collecting data in the contract year. They all want to know if he is one of them.

Of course the Grizzlies are also afraid. With such a big contract, if Xie Kai starts to play health preservation, they will have no place to cry.

Before the start of the season, the topic of "how high can the Grizzlies reach this season" attracted a large number of fan votes.Most people think they are unlikely to surpass the results of last season's Western Conference finals.Their performance last season was too outstanding, and their luck was also good. They caught up with the Spurs Duncan and Yaodao were injured.

Most people's point of view is that the Grizzlies can break into the second round of the playoffs. If Xie Kai and other young players continue to improve, they may break into the Western Conference Finals or even the Finals, but winning the championship is still unlikely.

The reason is simple: the starting lineup of this team is indeed strong, and the internal and external strength is very balanced, but the bench depth of this team is not enough, and there is no stable substitute scoring point. Apart from Tony Allen, the second lineup, Others can't get it out at all.

Moreover, the salary space of this team is almost gone. Unless a trade is made, the way to strengthen by signing free agents is no longer feasible.

When Barkley was doing a show with his partner, he said that last season was the pinnacle of Xie Kai's NBA career, and he could no longer reach a higher level.

Barkley seems to have never predicted Xie Kai correctly, so he has been designated as "Xie Black" by his American counterparts. Many people filter his views on Xie Kai and don't pay attention at all. .

Although looked down upon by many people, Xie Kai has confidence in himself and the team.He spurs himself with the goal of a championship.Only he himself has a deep understanding of how hard the offseason training is.

On December 12, the Spurs played against the Grizzlies at home, which was a nationally broadcast event.

Because it is a Christmas game, the Spurs are looking for the atmosphere of Christmas at the AT&T Arena at home.The mascot dressed up as Santa Claus and distributed gifts to fans at the scene.

Christmas is a very common foreign festival for eastern countries, where businessmen and young people have fun, but for many western countries, it is an important festival.

Players from both sides entered the court to warm up, and boos sounded from time to time in the AT&T Arena.It is not difficult to understand who this booing is for.Last season, the Grizzlies completed a black eight and entered the second round of the playoffs in history. The opponent of the black eight is today's home team, the Spurs.

Since the first round of the playoffs last season, Spurs fans have always remembered the heinous behavior of the Grizzlies deliberately losing and falling to 8th.Although more than 7 months have passed, this feeling of disgust has not disappeared with the passage of time.

The NBA likes these somewhat tense matchups the most, which allows the league to have more topicality, thereby attracting more people's attention and allowing advertisers to invest more money.

The starting players of the Grizzlies seem to be very relaxed, they have signed big contracts, and their mentality is stable. Although this game seems very important, the Christmas game is against the Spurs, but everyone is clear about it-this is just Just one of 66 regular-season games.

The game was explained by ESPN top names Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy.

"The booing is really intermittent, it seems that it hasn't stopped!" Mike Breen laughed.

Jeff Van Gundy replied helplessly: "San Antonio has been hacked, and the fans are suffocating!"

"It seems difficult for Memphis to win easily today!" Mike Breen laughed.

"It's hard to win on this field. It's the same for the other 29 teams in the league." Jeff Van Gundy explained.

The two sides quickly announced the starting lineup for the game.

The starting lineup of the Spurs at home is center - Tim Duncan, power forward - DeJuan Blair, small forward - Richard Jefferson, shooting guard - Manu Ginobili , Point guard - Tony Parker.

The Spurs' starting lineup is a combination of GDP+1 blue-collar insider +13D small forward.Popovich likes to partner Duncan with a blue-collar insider and let the blue-collar insider do the dirty work.In fact, although McDyess had a lot of tricks on the offensive end last season, he didn't do the dirty work well. Many times it was Duncan who did the dirty work.

Veteran McDyess announced his retirement on the 20th of this month. He still failed to get the championship ring in the end, which is also a big regret in his career.

For the Grizzlies, the starting lineup is: Center—Marc Gasol, Power Forward—Zach Randolph, Small Forward—Rudy Gay, Shooting Guard—Xie Kai, Point Guard— — Mike Conley.

Rudy Gay was reimbursed for the second half of the regular season last season due to a shoulder injury. He has recovered this season and is currently in good shape.

The paper strength of the Grizzlies' starting lineup is top-notch in the entire league, both offensive and defensive. It can be compared with it, and only the Big Three Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers have it.

The two teams are very familiar with each other. You must know that the two sides fought 6 games in the first round of the playoffs last season.Although Rudy Gay is not there, the core framework of the lineups of both sides this season is a continuation of last season.

(End of this chapter)