Chapter 15: Phoenix Nirvana

On June 29, 2012, the NBA draft was held as scheduled, and the Warriors selected Harris Barnes from North Carolina with the seventh pick in the first round. The offensive end is a little hehehe, but he is tall and long-armed, strong, and a big shield on the defensive end, and he should be a good interior defensive finisher if he cultivates it well, the fifth pick in the second round and the thirty-fifth pick in total, the Warriors selected Draymond Green from Michigan State University, Green is actually a very powerful player, versatile and efficient, he was the rebounding champion of Michigan State University when he was drafted, and his scores, blocks and steals are also on the team history list, and the draft pick can fall to the second round, It can only be explained by the fact that Green is a senior, has limited potential to tap into, and has "intermittent big mouth disorder". ,

In addition, the Warriors have made minor repairs this season, on July 12, 2012, the Warriors sent Dorrell White from the New Orleans Hornets to trade the strong Galette Jack, Jack is a better than the league average guard, almost omnipotent on the offensive end, has a big heart at critical moments, and does not suffer on the defensive end, he played 45 games with the Hornets last year, 39 of which were starts, Averaging 15.6 points and 6.3 assists per game, the Warriors can only play off the bench because of the presence of Currick Thompson, and Jack has also shown a high degree of professionalism. On July 27, the Warriors signed NBA draft loser Kent Bazemore with a two-year final salary, and on July 31, the Warriors signed "God Bird" Carl Landry for two years and $8 million.

No. 7 pick Harrison Barnes has fully occupied the team's starting small forward position in the new season. The starting 81 games averaged 9.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, which is considered a decent performance, and the first-round pick Festus Azeri started 41 of the 78 games he played, but averaged less than 15 minutes per game, averaging 2.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, and second-round pick Draymond Green played about the same time as Azeli, averaging only 2.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, and Andrew Boggart, who was traded last season and was recognized as the most versatile center after Yao Ming was hit by injuries last season and reimbursed 70 gamesThe injury that cost him another 50 games, which is two years of injury, has completely changed Boggart's style of play, from the previous all-powerful All-Star play to the current interior coolie that only focuses on defense and rebounding. He averaged 5.8 points and 7.7 rebounds in 24.5 minutes per game. Another interior player, David Lee, performed well, he averaged 18.5 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, shooting 51.9% from the field, Klay Thompson began to have a hint of "starlight" at the beginning of this season, he was full of 82 games, averaging 16.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game, shooting 42.2% from the field and 40.1% from three-point range. Galette Jack and Carl Landry have both been the most successful bench signings at their respective positions, with the former averaging 12.9 points and 5.6 assists per game and the latter averaging 10.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, and the once-glamorous Andris Biedrins and Richard Jefferson have completely fallen out of the team's rotation this season.

Stephen Curry, who was criticized last season, had a very brutal training this season, especially his very fragile ankle, first of all, he would like to thank Kirk Lyles, the head of the Warriors' athletic ability department, for his help, it was he who developed a complete and effective training plan for Curry, so that Curry completely got rid of the injury and attacked his peak, Lyles first let Curry do a lot of strength training, so that strong muscles surround the ligaments and bones, which makes the current Curry look still very thin, But the strength confrontation is not a loss at all, Curry's deadlift can reach 400 pounds when he is in the best body, second only to Azeri in the team, this data is very surprising for Curry's size, secondly, Lyles let Curry practice a lot of yoga training aimed at strengthening the hip muscles, in Lyles's opinion, Curry's repeated ankle injuries are not because of insufficient ankle strength, but because Curry's hip muscles are not developed enough, Not all of the stop-and-go movements on the court require the ankle to control everything, the hip muscles can control more and better, and it turns out that all of this is what Lyles said.

Curry worked very hard this season, spending more than 18 hours a day in the arena, and two years later, the year he won the championship, he mentioned it in another TV interview, and he said that there were three reasons why he worked so hard at that time, first, he wanted to be worthy of the contract with an annual salary of 10 million, second, he wanted to be worthy of the boos of those Oracle Arenas, and third, he wanted to prove that he didn't have to be Monta Ellis!

Curry played 78 games in the new season, averaging 22.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 45.1% from the field, 45.3% from three-point range, and 90.0% from the free throw line.

The Warriors are back in the playoffs this season under head coach Mark Jackson, winning 47 games and finishing sixth in the overall strong West, while their first round of the playoffs is against the Denver Nuggets led by veteran coach George Carr.

In a way, George Karl and Nelson Sr. are both head coaches of the same series, and the teams they coach have distinct personal characteristics, Nelson Sr. is running and bombing, no inside, no matter who carries the explosives bag and rushes in, and throws it out if he can't rush in, the outside line is a row of muskets in turn, and the old Carl is a group of muscles, and he also rushes in with the dynamite bag, and he has to rush in if he can't rush in, and his players are all short and concise, with extraordinary physical fitness, dare to fight and dare not to die, Kenneth Farid in the team, Andre Iguodala, Javier McGee, Wilson Chandler, Anthony Randolph are all flying away, first-class players in physical condition, and even players such as Ty Lawson, Costa Kufors, and Kony Brewer are also physically strong players who are not afraid of physical confrontation, so playing with the old Karl's team, the game is often played with passion, full of various muscle confrontations, and the physical exertion is extremely great. The altitude of 1600 meters allows you to take a walk, and you want to play? Please bring an oxygen cylinder, this season's Nuggets home court is known as the NBA's No. 1 devil's home court, once undefeated for three consecutive months, it is with this unique condition that can reach the third place in the strong West.

On April 20, 2013, the first game between the Warriors and the Nuggets in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs officially kicked off at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

In the final 2:30 of the game, Klay Thompson blocked Koufors' shot, and Andre Miller grabbed the offensive rebound and scored 2 points! The Warriors trailed by five points at 86-91, and then Jarrett Jack assisted Bogut for two points, and the Nuggets responded with Miller Sr., who hit another 2-pointer from mid-range range, 88-93! Curry misses a three-point shot, Draymond Green makes a layup, and the Warriors are 90-93! At 1:14, Jarrett Jack rushed inside and hit two free throws, both of which were missed, and the Warriors were only one point behind at 92:93! Stephen Curry made a mistake at a critical moment! Curry stopped the ball and was cut off by Tylawson and quickly went down against Boggart's defense to steal 2 points, Curry's mistake allowed the Warriors to trail by 3 points with 35 seconds left in the game, 93-95! Then Curry completed the redemption and came back from a timeout, Jarrett Jack used Boggart to block and rush to the inside with the ball, Javier McGee defended, Jack quickly passed the ball to Stephen Curry who was ambushed on the left foot, and at this time, Ty Lawson, who was responsible for defending Curry, did not lose his position, he followed Curry to the death, Curry made a feint to pass the ball to the right after receiving the ball, and then jumped to the left side to shoot three points, but Curry's feint did not deceive Lawson, he did not hesitate to pounce on Curry, but to no avail, Curry forced a three-pointer against Lawson's defense! The Warriors tied 93-93! There are 14.5 seconds left in the race! The Nuggets have one last chance to attack!

After the pause, the old Miller controlled the ball at the top of the arc and overwhelmed the time with three seconds left to suddenly attack, defending him was Draymond Green, the old Miller didn't do any feints, two crotch dribbles and then went directly to the basket by Green's right hand, Green defended, and Boggart also came to make up for the defense, but the old Miller sent the ball into the basket with a low hand under the combination of the two defensive masters! Miller Sr. has since completed a 1.3-second quasi-lore!

In this game, Miller Sr. came off the bench to score a full 28 points and handed out 5 assists on 11-of-16 shooting, including a full 18 points in the fourth quarter, which broke the Warriors' guard group, Iguodala scored 8 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals, Lawson scored 12 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals, Danilo Gallinari did not play in the entire series because of an ankle injury in February, and Farid also sprained his left ankle five days ago, although there was no structural damage, but the Nuggets were conservative, No Farid was arranged. On the Warriors' side, Klay Thompson was the best player on the team, he scored 22 points on 10-of-19 shooting, Curry hit just 1 of his first 10 shots, and only scored 19 points and handed out 9 assists on 7-of-20 shooting, while also committing 5 turnovers, backup guard Jarrett Jack almost had a triple-double, he scored 10 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds, but only shot 3-of-12, David Lee scored 10 points and 14 rebounds on 4-of-14 shooting, and Boggart scored 9 points, 14 blue picks and 4 blocks. Draymond Green played only 4 minutes, scoring 2 points and 3 rebounds, but became the background of Miller Sr.'s killer shot......