Chapter 19: The Ball Storm

After the season, the Warriors suddenly cut head coach Mark Jackson, citing a decline in performance, the Warriors also reached the second round last season, and this season the Warriors only stopped in the first round, so taking Jackson down, this reason seems reasonable, but no one can forget that it was Mark Jackson who trained the former bullying team into today's Western powerhouse, although the decline in performance is true, But being able to play seven games with the powerful Los Angeles Clippers has shown that Mark Jackson has been very successful in the Warriors, and I believe that the management of the Warriors also knows it, and the reasons why Mark Jackson got out of class are different, and that Mark Jackson scolded the boss's daughter for being gay, and that Mark Jackson was too religious to be religious, and that Mark Jackson refused to move his house in Los Angeles to the Golden State, etc., I don't need to dig into it here, just need to know, Mark Jackson has always been stubborn and has no deal with management at all, he is out of class, and his replacement is Stephen Cole.

Kerr played for the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers when he was a player, but the best time of his career was undoubtedly when he was with the Bulls, when he founded the Bulls dynasty under Phil Jackson with Jordan and Pippen, Kerr was a very good shooter, shooting 45.4% from three-point range in his 15-year career, including more than 50% three-point shooting in five seasons! Kerr retired as a TV commentator, and when he expressed his desire to become a head coach, as many as eight teams threw olive branches to Stephen Kerr, who did not have any coaching experience, especially the Knicks and Warriors.

The Knicks play the love card, the general manager of the team is Kerr's former coach Phil Jackson, it is a good thing to be able to continue to grow and learn under the teacher, but it is clear that Kerr does not want to be controlled by others, and compared to the Knicks, the Warriors are better in terms of lineup and future stability, so Steve Kerr officially took over the Warriors and signed a five-year contract worth $25 million. is also a 5-year, $25 million contract, look at Kerr's reorganization of the Warriors, and then look at Fisher's rectification of the Knicks, and the level is judged at the moment.

The Warriors for the new season are basically the same as last season, with only a few minor fixes, and on July 7, the Warriors signed the former best sixth man, Leandro Barbossa, with a veteran base salary. The latter averaged 7.1 points in 15 minutes per game in the regular season, while signing Sean Livingston on a three-year, $16 million contract, and in November, the Warriors signed Klay Thompson to a four-year, $70 million contract, which had caused huge controversy, and it was widely believed that Thompson was not worth the price, but Thompson kept everyone's mouth shut with his 21.7 points per game and more than 43% three-point shooting in the new season.

Curry averaged 23.8 points and 7.7 assists per game this season, he took on a more important passing responsibility in Kerr's small-ball storm, Bogert as the team's starting interior line, averaged 6.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, Draymond Green became the basis for Kerr's experiment with small-ball tactics, Green was pushed to the No. 4 position this season, his strength is not at a loss compared to most of the No. 4 positions in the league, and he is also flexible and able to shoot three-pointers, he became the team's thunderous starter, he can average 11.7 points and 8.2 rebounds per gameThe biggest change for the Warriors this season has come from small forwards, with Harrison Barnes, who had been a backup before, promoted to start. handed over an average of 10.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, previously, Andre Iguodala, who started 758 consecutive games in his career for nine years, became a substitute this season, and did not play a start, I have to say that Steve Kerr still has a few brushes in the mentality of treating players, and it takes great courage and self-confidence to demote Iguodala with an annual salary of $12 million to the bench, and Iguodala did not complain on the bench, but played better than the starter! Iguodala is averaging 7.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game this season, and although he has been relegated to the bench, Iguodala is always on the court at every critical moment. This season, the Warriors' offensive focus has become more and more focused on the outside, and the interior is mainly responsible for defense, blocking and grabbing rebounds, so David Lee, who is strong in offense and weak in defense, has gradually faded out of the rotation lineup, while Azeri, who is tough on defense, has become a stable rotation player on the team's interior.

Steve Kerr studied under Phil Jackson, and when everyone thought he was going to build a triangle offense that belonged to the Warriors, who knew that Kerr didn't know which nerve was wrong, and took out the old Nelson's bombardment, before that, Kerr was dismissive of the old Nelson's bombardment, when Kerr was the general manager of the Suns, head coach D'Antoni and the old Nelson were the same goods, and they were both loyal fans of small ball. He firmly believes that the playoffs are the world of the inside line, who would have thought that in less than ten years, Kerr's attitude has taken a 180-degree turn! This season, the Warriors relied on fast and steady small-ball tactics to make the whole league miserable, and throughout the season, the Warriors achieved a record of 67-15 in team history! Holding the West high is also the first place in the league!

In the first round of the playoffs, facing the New Orleans Pelicans, who only took the last train of the playoffs at the last moment, the Warriors played with ease, swept the opponent 4:0, Curry and Thompson combined to score 9 three-pointers per game, and scored nearly 60 points! Such ferocious firepower made the Pelicans unable to parry at all!

In the second round against the Grizzlies with excellent defensive ability, the Warriors lost two games in a row after winning the first game, and for a while, all walks of life understood the ball, and the commentators talked about what playoffs to fight defense, and what rebounders won the world, but then, the Warriors slapped these people hard with their performance, and the Warriors won three games in a row, eliminating the Grizzlies 4:2, and in this round of the series, although the Splash Brothers (referring to Curry and Thompson, indicating that every time they shoot, the basketball passes through the Nets as crisp as a splash, Since 2012) has been interfered with by the Grizzlies' strong defense, but still leads the team to a strong advance by averaging 41 points per game.

In the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors defeated the Houston Rockets with a score of 4:1 and advanced to the Finals strongly! (For the details of the game, see Chapter 20 of the Rocket Chapter: New Glory, which will not be repeated here).

On the floor of the 2015 Finals, waiting for the Warriors is none other than the Cleveland Cavaliers led by European tactician David Blatter.

In this series against the Cavaliers, the good news is that Kevin Love, one of the Cavaliers' Big Three, suffered a shoulder injury in the first round of the playoffs against the Celtics and was reimbursed for the season, and the other giant, Kyrie Irving, was injured due to tendonitis in his left knee and was in good and bad shape, while Vallejo, the main center of the former Cavaliers, had already been reimbursed for the season due to a torn Achilles tendon, but the bad news for the Warriors was that the remaining giant of the Cavaliers was named LeBron James.

James has reached the Finals five times before, and only won two championships for the Heat in the last two seasons, and this time he announced that he would go home to fulfill his promise - to win an O'Brien Cup for the Cavaliers!

The game is played to this point, both teams have almost no repertoire, state and self-confidence are the key to whether the team can win the final victory, the Warriors face such an "enemy" as James naturally can not be taken lightly, in the first game of the Finals, Kerr sent Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala two people to defend James.

Love was injured, Irving's injury was undecided, James could only carry the team alone, gritting his teeth and rushing forward, in the first quarter of the game, James turned on the "full Zhan" mode, rarely shot as many as 9 times in the first quarter, hit 4 balls and scored 12 points, while the Warriors were still a little slow to heat up, and the Cavaliers hit a 19:29 attack wave in the first quarter. In the second quarter of the game, the Warriors turned around, Curry contributed 10 points on 4 shots in a single quarter, and the Warriors also scored 29 points in a single quarter, and after the first half, the Warriors trailed by 3 points at 48:51.

In the third quarter, James did not have the slightest reservation, and contributed 12 points again in a single quarter, so that James who spared no effort on the offensive end is indeed rare, and the Warriors are more flowering, playing team basketball, but in the third quarter, they scored three more points than the Cavaliers, and at the end of the third quarter, the two teams tied at 73. With 55 seconds left before the end of the game in the fourth quarter, James passed to Mozgov, who turned around and drifted backwards in the air to shoot, the ball naturally didn't go in, to be exact, it only hit the rebound, not even the frame, Boggart took the rebound, Curry rushed all the way to the frontcourt, bypassed JR Smith, and made a pull-up jump shot on the head of Tristang Thompson, with these two points, the Warriors led the Cavaliers by 2 points at 98:96!

At the critical moment of the game, James incarnated as Coach Zhan, holding the ball and commanding on the outside, Mozgov stepped forward to prepare to block and dismantle, Coach Zhan waved his hand, you go down, JR came over, JR stepped forward and desperately squeezed Iguodala who defended James behind, so changed, the Warriors turned out to be defended by Curry James, the latter of course ruthlessly rushed to the basket to crush Curry, the Warriors inside four people sandwiched James, James did not do it strongly, one looked back at the moon, and passed the ball to Mozgov, who rushed into the basket from the outside, The latter received the ball and opened his hand to split the dunk with one hand, but was slapped by Andrew Boggart, and even smashed the ball on the floor, "toot" defensive foul, Mozgov hit both free throws, and the Warriors' two-point lead was leveled. After the timeout, Curry singled Irving, and a change of direction burst to the basket, but was slapped by the Irving hat behind him, leaving the Cavaliers with 24 seconds of offensive time.

The Cavaliers came back from a timeout, James didn't force a step-back jumper in the face of Iguodala, Shambaugh grabbed the rebound in the front court and threw it away, the basketball turned twice on the basket, and finally didn't fall into it, and the fourth quarter ended, and the game went into overtime at 98:98.

In overtime, the shooting rate of both teams was not high, Irving hit the Warriors' hinterland, the pull-up layup missed, Curry advanced all the way to the outside of the Cavaliers' three-point line, at this time it was Tristan Thompson who defended Curry, Curry used skillful dribbling to tease Thompson continuously, and then suddenly held the ball high above his head with the intention of shooting, Thompson jumped, Curry retracted, and leaned towards Thompson!

"Toot toot!" Cavaliers fouled on the 13th defense, and the Warriors made two free throws!

After Curry hit both free throws, in the next round, he once again used this set of porcelain touching techniques to play Irving, and Curry hit two free throws again, and the Warriors already had a 4-point lead at this time! Then there was an accident on the court, Irving suddenly fell to the ground when he broke through Klay Thompson, it turned out to be a sprained ankle, Irving passed the ball to JR, who did not check Irving's condition after receiving the ball, but shot a three-point shot, missed, the Warriors rebounded, Curry advanced all the way, Irving limped back to the defense after getting up, but the pace could not keep up, the Warriors naturally would not miss this rare opportunity, Harrison Barnes hit an empty three-pointer in the bottom corner, With two minutes to go, the Warriors held a seven-point lead at 105-98. Irving went straight back to the locker room, and Matthew Dellavedova, who came off the bench, quickly advanced to the front court, passed to James, intending to fight back, but was successfully stolen by the quick-eyed Curry, and the tone of the game was set. The Warriors scored 10 points in overtime, while the Cavaliers didn't score a point other than James' last inconsequential layup.

Irving, who left the game due to injury throughout the game, scored 23 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks on 10-of-22 shooting, Mozgov scored 16 points and 7 rebounds on 5-of-10 shooting, Tristan Thompson grabbed 15 rebounds, James scored 44 points, 6 assists and 8 rebounds, but he used up a full 38 shots. Iguodala was the biggest contributor to the Warriors' opening win.