Chapter 161: 365 days
A quasi-lore, a steal that buried the Trail Blazers' last chance. What Yiyang did in the last 30 seconds of the game became the topic of conversation on the basketball program and all the fans that day.
If it had been before, the Mavericks would have swallowed a two-game losing streak with Nowitzki's poor play. But now, as it turns out, the Mavericks aren't going to sit back and play any longer when Nowitzki can't step up.
Yiyang, this player is no longer as simple as "future investment" for the Mavericks. For the Mavericks, he represents both the future and the present.
In the future, when Nowitzki and others get old, you can count on Yiyang to lead the Mavericks to remain among the top teams in the West. Now, Yiyang's immediate combat power and vitality are also an important addition to the Mavericks in the No. 1 position.
This is also the reason why Cuban insisted on acquiring Yiyang in the first place, a player who can not only quickly help the team improve its strength, but also make the team's future hopeful like other rookies. Yiyang undoubtedly did everything Kuban expected.
Early the next morning, the official website of the Dallas Mavericks also put the report of yesterday's game on the front page. The accompanying picture is a close-up photo of Yiyang calmly throwing a whistle ball in front of Aldridge.
The message below this report is even more exciting. In addition to the usual English, there are also a lot of comments from Chinese fans.
Watching the traffic on the Mavericks' official website skyrocket, Cuban was also smiling from ear to ear at this time. This time, the Mavericks can be regarded as priing open the Chinese market, which has always been closed!
In addition to the Mavericks' official website, on the streets of Dallas, you can always find newsstands with newspapers with Yiyang on the front page. After all, for a city like Dallas, a wonderful victory for the Mavericks is indeed worth a good report from various media outlets.
As for the news about Yiyang hitting the rookie wall a few days ago, not many people remember it now. Fans may be blinded, but they will never turn a blind eye to a player's performance. When Yiyang played such an excellent result, the news of those rookie walls was like garbage, crumpled up by everyone and thrown into the garbage heap. Do you remember the garbage you threw away when you left the house in the morning?
The win in this game not only gave the fans but also more confidence to the Mavericks players. The Mavericks' increasingly serious locker room atmosphere has recently started to lighten up again.
"Look at this photo, it's so handsome that it's almost catching up with me!" Terry saw Yiyang walk into the locker room, and deliberately picked up Yiyang and was ridiculed by the photo hanging on the headline of the official website.
"Come on, Jet, Dallas may not have your female fans anymore. Looking up at the stands, all the girls were wearing Yi's No. 1 jersey. Seeing that Terry was stinky again, Kidd naturally sang a contradictory tune with the old unscrupulous fellow.
"Cut, it's a waste for this stupid boy to take these resources. It's normal if you have a wife, you don't have a female companion by your side, and I don't see you do anything to that Italian hottie. Did you see Jason, there were a few female fans waiting for her at the door of the stadium yesterday, and he actually signed someone and left. On a cold day, you don't invite others to your house to sit? A single man is so cold to a woman who takes the initiative to send it to the door......" At this, Terry paused. "Also, you shouldn't be uninterested in women......
Yiyang, who was tying his shoes, raised his head and gave Terry a blank look. Looking at the Chinese's deflated expression, Terry, the old rascal, laughed contentedly.
"You guy, you don't want to take care of it. I see you, you are jealous of people and people who send them to the door. Let's go, accompany me to practice hitting the ball. Kidd got up and jumped twice after changing his gear, and Terry knew, although Kidd said that he asked Yiyang to accompany him to practice. But in fact, this guy has a new trick to hand over to that kid.
The pleasant dressing room atmosphere not only relaxes the players, but also carries over the good form to the training ground.
I saw that my players didn't neglect training because they only played a game yesterday. Carlisle couldn't have been happier. If this virtuous cycle continues, it will not be a fantasy for the Mavericks to win another series of wins!
December 17, 8 days before Christmas. After a day of recuperation in Dallas, the Mavericks pounced on Phoenix to take on the Suns, who are currently seventh in the West.
In this game, the meeting of the two generations of defenders Nash and Yiyang is a long-awaited matchup for all fans. Although Nash is past his prime, the former MVP will not be tied down in front of young people.
Whether Nash's passing is more lethal or Yiyang's organization is more exciting, with doubts, Phoenix's Meixi Arena is full of seats, and everyone wants to see this guard battle. Nash also became famous on the Mavericks back then, who knows if the current Yiyang will become the next "Son of the Wind"?
However, what people didn't expect was that the matchup lasted only five minutes before it ended early.
In the fifth minute of the first quarter, Nash sprained his knee during a breakaway and fell to the ground. The Suns team doctor immediately stepped forward to check on the veteran's condition, but they could only shake their heads gently at the team's coach Gentry.
Even if there are no words, everyone can see it. The team doctor means that at least Nash can't play anymore.
Nash's departure took a big blow to the morale of the Suns' players. Not only is this guy able to help the team with scoring and passing, he's the spiritual leader of everyone on the Suns. Nash fell, and the spiritual pillar in the hearts of the Suns players also fell.
Without Nash, the Suns were sleepwalking throughout the game. In four quarters of the game, no one of the Suns scored more than the Mavericks.
Eventually, in Phoenix, Suns fans were disappointed. The wonderful duel between Nash and Yiyang was not seen, and the team also lost. 106-91, the Mavericks easily crushed the Suns, a team that once stormed the league but is now sinking deeper and deeper into the struggles on the verge of the playoffs.
Yiyang "only" scored 15 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds in this game, because when the outcome of the fourth quarter was decided, Carlisle did not continue to let his main team play, which can be regarded as one of the unwritten rules in the NBA league.
After this easy game, the Mavericks will have two more days of respite, and after those two days, the Mavericks will face a terrible opponent, the Miami Heat, who have a big three.
This time, the Mavericks will play away from Miami. And the Big Three, who have already lost to the Mavericks once, also hope to regain what they lost.
December 20, 5 days before Christmas. The Dallas Mavericks, who are on the rise, meet again with the Miami Heat, who have experienced a slump in the early part of the season but are now gradually finding their groove. There is no doubt that this will be the most important competition before Christmas, and almost all sports television stations will broadcast the game live in the United States.
The Mavericks currently have a 22-4 record, the best in the league. And the Heat's record has also become 21-8, which is quite outstanding. To know. At the start of the season, the Heat had almost as many wins and losses.
After losing to the Mavericks on Nov. 27 and now meeting again, the Miami Heat haven't lost again. An unstoppable 12-game winning streak has allowed the Big Three to break everyone's doubts.
Today, against the Mavericks again, the Heat will naturally go all out to win. After 12 consecutive wins, the Big Three don't want to lose again!
Both sides played very hard in this game, and Carlisle's defensive set-up against James reached a playoff level intensity. Naturally, Spoelstra also did everything he could, which was bound to make the Germans suffer heavily on the offensive end.
It can be said that both coaches succeeded. Whether it's James or Dirk, both of them were very inefficient offensively today.
James finished with just 19 points on 6-of-17 shooting from the field and shooting just 35 percent. Nowitzki wasn't much better, scoring 26 points, but 10 of those points came from the free-throw line. The German shot just 38 percent from the field today.
With the stars of both sides being restricted, the role of the others has undoubtedly become very huge.
Today, Wade and Yiyang are in the opposite position again, but this time, "The Flash" did not give Yiyang face. The soul of this Heat team was sudden, which made Yiyang's defense very difficult.
However, Yiyang, who came off the bench, did not give the Heat peace of mind. He scored a third-high 17 points and dished out nine assists for the Mavericks today. If it weren't for Nowitzki's fact that he was too iron today, Yiyang's assists might have doubled long ago.
Under this tragic situation, the two sides fought until the last moment. Yiyang's breakthrough layup made Wade pay the price of the foul. After the foul, Yiyang still scored the ball.
The one-pointer gave the Mavericks a six-point lead in the final 40 seconds. Spoelstra began to use foul tactics, but the Mavericks' free throws today really didn't give face.
In the end, the Mavericks won another thrilling victory over the Miami Heat by 2 points. 98-96, if the game is played for even 30 seconds, the Mavericks will most likely not be able to hold on to the victory. Because of Wade's powerless but very resolute three-point whistle at the last moment of the game, it still made Carlisle break out in a cold sweat.
Yiyang, who had 17 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds, once again became the key to the Mavericks' victory. Compared with the previous game, Yiyang has made significant progress against Wade.
This game also made Carlisle and Spoelstra both sound the alarm bell for themselves in their hearts. They're all praying that they won't meet each other in the playoffs, and if they do, the Finals will be pretty bad.
The Heat's 12-game winning streak came to an end, and the end of the winning streak happened to be the name of the Dallas Mavericks. And the Mavericks also became the second team after the Celtics' Big Three to beat the Heat twice in a row.
The road to the championship of the Heat Big Three may not be so easy.
After a narrow win over the Miami Heat, the Mavericks have one more game to play before Christmas. This time, the Mavericks will play Orlando from afar to face the Magic.
The Orlando Magic, who currently have a 16-11 record, are by no means an easy opponent to mess with, but the Mavericks, who played a playoff-level confrontation with the Heat yesterday, played very well today.
Even though the Monster only allowed the "King of Fighters" to grab four rebounds, even though Howard had a terrifying double-double of 26 points and 23 rebounds.
But the Mavericks, who bloomed more, defeated the Magic 105-99 with a double-double performance of 6 players, and won 4 consecutive games before Christmas.
"Warcraft" Howard is not the only player to cut a double-double in this game, Yiyang's score of 15 points and 13 assists today made Howard cut a beautiful statistic.
With that, the Mavericks players ushered in their Christmas holiday with a gratifying result of a four-game winning streak. For five full days, starting on Dec. 22 and ending on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas, the Mavericks didn't have a game to play.
These 5 days are undoubtedly extremely luxurious for NBA players who do not have a winter break. Not every season, the Mavericks' players have that kind of good luck.
Another year passed, and sitting on the plane back to Dallas, Yiyang kept looking out the dark window.
In the past 365 days, there are really countless things that are worth remembering......