Chapter 523: Confrontation with the Knights
After a game, Ye Xuan's combat effectiveness can be regarded as suppressing Embiid, after the game, Embiid came up honestly and hugged Ye Xuan like a good baby, and then all kinds of greeting scenes also made Ye Xuan a little unresponsive.
After the game with the 76ers, the Lakers finally ushered in a strong opponent - the Cavaliers, as the defending champion of this season, the strength of the Cavaliers should not be underestimated. The 2015-16 season was undoubtedly historic for the Cavaliers. Although there were all kinds of twists and turns along the way - Kyrie Irving was out injured at the beginning of the season, and in the middle of the season, when the team was firmly in first place in the division, the decision to change the coach was made only because of the heavy defeat to the Warriors at home (the main trigger....... But in any case, in the end, they escaped in a desperate situation and lifted the first trophy in the club's history. And that, everything else doesn't matter.
In the regular season, the Cavaliers are not the top team in the league, with a record of 57 wins, not only not as good as the Warriors, but also a full 10-game gap compared to the Spurs. However, they still have solid play on both ends of the floor - after all, they are the Eastern Conference boss led by LeBron James.
In the 2015-16 regular season, the Cavaliers averaged 104.3 points per game, 8th in the league, 110.9 points per 100 possessions, 3rd in the league, and they averaged 98.3 points per game, 4th in the league, and 104.5 points per 100 possessions, 10th in the league. From this, we can find that compared to the offense, this team has more room for improvement on the defensive end, and there is an important reason for this, that is, the Cavaliers lack real defensive elites both inside and outside.
Last season, the Cavaliers averaged steals (6.7, 28th) and blocks (3.9, 27th) per game, both of which were at the bottom of the league, and the reason why they were able to maintain a good defensive effect was directly related to the team's good mental outlook and excellent tactical discipline. And all of this, thanks to James.
On the offensive end, the stats also show a typical "James characteristic": although he is not a good shooter himself, because of his containment and vision, the team takes up a fairly high proportion of shots and points from beyond the three-point line. The Cavaliers averaged 29.6 three-pointers per game last season, third in the league, and second in the league in 10.7 shots, and given their third-to-last offensive cadence, three-point shooting is even more important to their offense than the Warriors (the Warriors, who are the top players in three-point shooting and field attempts, play a full six more rounds per game than the Cavaliers).
Compared with the Lakers, Warriors, and Spurs in the West, and the Raptors, Hawks, and Celtics in the East, the Cavaliers' summer seems too quiet, and occasionally something happens a few times, and most of them are bad news. After spending a lot of money last summer to renew Loew and Thompson, the team's salary roll has been seriously inflated, so Mozgov's departure is a long foreseeable thing.
And Dellavedova, although once an important member of the team's rotation, was gradually abandoned by Lu during the finals last year. In this way, it is too extravagant to match the Bucks' offer of nearly 10 million annual salary - after all, for the Cavaliers, the only imaginary enemy is the Warriors, and if Irving falls, no matter how well Della plays, it will not help, so the so-called spare tire function will lose its meaning.
What makes the Cavaliers embarrassed is that veteran Mo Williams also resolutely chose to retire - it seems that he was not happy after joining the Cavaliers last season, and the lament that no one cared about him when he blew up the surgery photos not long ago also confirmed this. So all of a sudden, the Cavaliers' responsibility as a backup point guard fell to rookie Felder, and although the second-round pick had a reputation as the essence of the small (anti-harmony brackets) movie, he still couldn't get rid of the suspicion of catching ducks on the shelves, at least in the early part of the season, and it was thanks to Hill's assistance from the side.
Mike Dunleavy is a good fit to play next to James, he is not only a great shooter, but also a smart player, and if he is a few years younger and has not experienced a major injury, it is a good signing. And now, it's better than nothing. The same goes for Birdman. Oh almost forgot to mention James' contract extension, because it was a sure thing for a long time, and there was no surprise. The only thing that makes it happen: it finally allowed James to live up to his value as the league's number one.
On paper, the Cavaliers' overall strength is no longer than last season. They lost Dellavedova and Mozgov on the free market, but they did little to gain. Even after James' successful contract renewal, it can only be regarded as maintaining the stability of the lineup at most.
Although Mozgov has largely fallen out of the regular rotation after Coach Lu took office last season, his presence has provided a possibility for the team. Without the Russians, the knights completely lost the ability to protect the basket. Not to mention the importance of Dellavedova, with him, Coach Lu can safely arrange a chance for Owen to rest, and his bulldog-like style of play is a very strong mental force.
However, sometimes the situation on the basketball court is complicated, and the psychological aspects are often more important than the hardware. Isn't there a famous saying about Tomjanovich? "Never underestimate the heart of a champion." staged a big reversal in the situation of falling behind 1-3 in the finals, so that this team can complete the sublimation mentally. If James determines the team's floor, then the performances of Irving, Loew and even Thompson do. Irving publicly said in the interview that the seventh game changed his life, and a similar impact is believed to exist in other young players of the Cavaliers.
In the East, the Cavaliers have no opponents, and the biggest obstacle to defending the title is still the Warriors and the suddenly emerging Lakers. In front of the Big Four and the Super Scoring Maniac, the Cavaliers are obviously on the underdog, but how to win or lose, you have to fight to know.
And this encounter, in addition to being one of the rehearsals of the possibility of the Finals, the biggest attraction may be the love and killing between James and Wade, which is different from the previous situation, this season the teams of the two have a very good chance to hit the Finals, which will make the confrontation between the two more interesting and give more meaning to the game.
But just when everyone was looking at Staples Arena, there was another news from the Cavaliers that made Xiao Hua very unhappy - the Cavaliers chose to rest Irving in rotation, because Irving's ankle was sore in the last game against the Suns, so in order to avoid injury, he could only choose to take a week off, and this game with the Lakers was the first game of the truce.
Xiao Hua really couldn't bear it anymore, and immediately issued a clause that was still being discussed, which was named 'Rotation Prohibition Order' The content is also very simple - strong teams are not allowed to rotate their main forces without a valid reason, once this proposal is finally passed, then Xiao Hua will have the right to impose additional fines on teams that rotate in a single game and rest without injuries in some games broadcast live across the United States. Xiao Hua's move is aimed at restricting the rotation of players without injury, especially in some games broadcast live across the United States, in order to ensure ratings, some abnormal rotations should be completely eliminated.
And the appearance of this clause is clearly aimed at the Lakers, Warriors, Spurs and Cavaliers, which are very combative, and often give their All-Star players a rotational rest, of course, the Pelicans also had this situation some time ago, which made Xiao Hua very unhappy, especially in the two battles between the Lakers and the Pelicans this season, one was due to the absence of Anthony Davis, which led to a great reduction in the intensity of the game, and the other was because of Ye Xuan's suspension and became no competition at all.
However, although it should take some time for this clause to be officially introduced, Xiao Hua announced the existence of this clause at this time, which is to warn these teams who like to take turns to rest. But no matter what he does, the Cavaliers are not prepared to put Irving on the court in this game anyway.
At the beginning of the game, although the Lakers were fighting back-to-back, but because Ye Xuan didn't have to be distracted to defend Irving, the Lakers' offense and defense had an advantage, and although the Cavaliers were able to rely on Lao Zhan and Lefu to play a dozen, but after all, it was still lacking compared to the Lakers in terms of combat effectiveness, and Hill's state this season did not feel particularly ideal, which was also something that the Cavaliers did not expect, after all, when they won the championship last season, Hill's performance can be called the fourth big man of the Cavaliers.
In the second quarter of the game, James also suddenly broke out, with 17 points and 6 assists in a single quarter, helping the Cavaliers, who were originally nearly 10 points behind in the first quarter of the game, directly overtake the difference, of course, this is also to blame Ye Xuan, in the second quarter of the game, not only did the shooting rate not be high 7 shots and 3 shots, but also was given a chase hat by James in the fast break, which boosted the morale of the opponent.
However, Ye Xuan's mentality adjustment ability is still good, and he immediately fought back against the Cavaliers in the third quarter of the game, first hitting 4 three-pointers in less than 3 minutes after the start of the second half, directly reversing the situation of the game again. It wasn't until the fifth minute of the fourth quarter of the game that Lao Zhan once again broke through into the Lakers' inner line, but was ambushed by Ye Xuan who dropped his layup cap, which not only allowed Ye Xuan to avenge his revenge in the second quarter, but also allowed the Lakers to win the game.
In the end, the Lakers defeated the Cavaliers and made their 15th consecutive victory. Lao Zhan got 44 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists in this game, but the Cavaliers with one less Irving, the combat effectiveness is still a little weak, and their interior Tristan Thompson This game also made many people on the team very dissatisfied, TT played 31 minutes in this game, but only 3 points and 5 rebounds scored, and he also carried 5 fouls, which is also because of his dereliction of duty, so the Cavaliers will have such a big disadvantage.
And the Lakers are much simpler, Wade performed well in this game, with 19 points and 6 assists, and Gasol also achieved a great advantage against TT, scoring 23 points on 10-of-12 shooting in the whole game, as for Ye Xuan, the data is very powerful, Ye Xuan played very happily in this game because there was nothing to restrain his players, although his performance was not particularly good in the second quarter, but he quickly adjusted back, and finally played 33 minutes in the game, contributed 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, of course, the rebounds are actually suspected of brushing, but no matter what, Ye Xuan finally got another triple-double data, and at the same time, Ye Xuan also has a very bright data in this game, that is, steal data, Ye Xuan sent a total of 6 steals in this game, two of which were broken by Ye Xuan after Lao Zhan broke through the ball, and two times Ye Xuan broke the ball directly in Hill's hands, although there was a steal when Ye Xuan was about to get down, Ye Xuan was rewarded with a big hat by Lao Zhan, But overall the performance is still very good.
And after this game, the combat effectiveness of the Lakers team also shocked many people in the outside world, they didn't expect that the Lakers, a seemingly ordinary Big Three lineup, could actually play this effect, of course, this is also because they underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Lakers' role players, first of all, Solomon Hill, as Ye Xuan's younger brother in the Pacers period, Solomon Hill's role on the defensive end is very obvious, and he is under Ye Xuan's guidance, The shooting percentage is also very good, and now the 39% three-point shooting rate and the average of 2.1 shots per game have always been among the top in the league.
In addition, Randle's performance is also very good, at the beginning, everyone thought that Randle was a blue-collar player, and the Black of the Mavericks should be about the same, but now playing by Ye Xuan's side, Randle's specialties have also been brought into play, he has a certain projection ability, and he also has excellent rebounding ability, and he has no disadvantage in protecting rebounds because of his height. This makes the Lakers' interior line not be caught by the opponent because of the emptiness of the interior line in actual combat, although it is still not enough to see when facing a strong interior line such as Anthony Davis or DeMarcus Cousins, but it is enough when facing ordinary power forwards, such as Lefu and Ibaka power forwards, in fact, it is just five or five with Randle.