After a night's break in Los Angeles over the Clippers, the Mavericks flew straight to Cleveland the next morning.

Although Chen Zhi had specially put on a thick windbreaker before getting off the plane, the moment he stepped out of the cabin, he still felt the cold from the early winter of Cleveland.

Los Angeles is not as warm as spring all year round, but there are still many young people wearing short sleeves at this time, and in Cleveland, people are already wearing winter clothes, and it feels like waking up from spring to winter.

Cleveland isn't as famous for its cold as Milwaukee in Canada, but Cleveland in the southern Great Lakes region isn't that far from Canada, and the winters here are extremely long, with cold weather lasting for half a year, and it's not surprising to see the occasional light snow in May.

The cold weather, coupled with the fact that the village is just a few minutes' drive from the city centre, even Anderson, who loves to go out and have fun on the road, is in no mood to go out and play. It's no wonder that JR Smith, the little prince of the nightclub who was famous in the New York Knicks, turned into a good baby in Cleveland.

The Mavericks players went back to their rooms early to sleep shortly after dinner, waiting for tomorrow night's game, and everyone knew that this game against the Cavaliers was definitely a tough one.

Although the Clippers are the team with the best record so far this season, and even ranked first in the previous NBA team power rankings, all players in the league know that the Clippers, who have never made it to the Western Conference Finals, are definitely not at the same level as the defending champion Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers are strong not only because they are a real Big Three team, the Clippers are two and a half giants, and they can barely be regarded as the Big Three, but the main thing between the two sides is the difference in spirit, or team chemistry.

Any championship-caliber team tends to have good chemistry, and in a really tough game, this chemistry often makes the team extremely resilient, and the Warriors' tough 3-1 victory over the Thunder in seven games in the Western Conference Finals is a sign of tenacity.

Not to mention that the Cavaliers won the championship last season and completed an unprecedented 3-1 comeback in the Finals against the Warriors, and the strength and resilience of this team speak for themselves.

As the defending champions, the Cavaliers have also had a good record this season, losing only two games like the Clippers and Mavericks, one of which was lost when James was sidelined.

After the last game in Los Angeles against the Clippers, the Mavericks successfully drove the Clippers off the top of the league, but it was not the Dallas Mavericks and Cleveland Cavaliers who came up on top, but the Golden State Warriors, who beat the Lakers by 43 points at home. The Warriors also played one less game than the Clippers because of the schedule, so they were overwhelmed by the Clippers and ranked second in the league.

Both the Mavericks and the Cavaliers had an easier schedule than the Warriors at the beginning of the season, with the Mavericks heading into Game 15 and the Cavaliers Game 14.

After the Mavericks defeated the Clippers, who are at the top of the league, the three strong teams have risen in the rankings at the same time, and the current top of the league record Warriors, the Mavericks have jumped to second, followed by the Cavaliers.

The upcoming Mavericks-Cavaliers battle is a head-to-head clash between the two teams currently ranked second and third in the league, and the winner will join the Warriors in keeping the league first with only two losses.

However, the media doesn't even need to use this information for publicity, because the game against the little emperor James is enough to watch.

Chen's momentum on the Internet is very amazing, and many fans, especially those who have been following Chen Zhi's game, have nominated Chen Zhi, a rookie who has just entered the league, as the first candidate in the league.

Of course, this kind of call has not received much support, because Chen Zhi's super anti-sky performance in the early part of the season does seem to have a lot to do with luck, and the high scores he cut down are due to his three-point sense against the sky.

However, Chen's three-point shooting performance in recent times proves that even if Chen Zhi may be ranked as the most unruly three-point player in the league like Curry, he is no longer as accurate and lawless as he was in the preseason and the first few games of the season.

Now Chen Zhi is still very strong, but to say that he is already the first person in the league, I am afraid that he is still a little hot, at least play his rookie season and prove the true strength of his team.

Although fans don't think that Chen Zhi is already the real number one in the league, James has already felt the threat of Chen Zhi, especially when he sees the performance of Chen Zhi first blocking Little Jordan, and then directly dunking Griffin to the ground to the ground.

"Wow, is this the latest tyrant of the demon?" As LeBron was about to watch other technical details about Chen, he heard an exclamation in his ear, "Dad, I'm replaying the video just now, I heard that the idol injured Griffin, I want to see that footage." ”

Hearing this, James turned his head and glanced at his eldest son LeBron James Jr., who didn't know when he had come to his side, and immediately turned into a loving father and asked with a smile, "Isn't your idol Russell Westbrook, when did it become Chen again?" ”

"Please, what's the big deal with a kid changing an idol! Now the children who play basketball, the idols are all demons, whose idol is not him, then out! ”

Little LeBron James's words suddenly made Dad speechless, and he could only tilt his head and grin.

"I'm afraid Westbrook would be very sad if he knew the news." James jokingly played back the video material he had just played.

"No, he won't be sad, at first my idol was still you, and then it became Westbrook, aren't you not sad." Little LeBron looked at the picture of Chen to dunk little Jordan and said casually, "Of course, this is all to blame for your continuous paddling in the past two years, and you don't have the passion to watch you compete when you were a child!" ”

When James heard this, he couldn't wait to immediately put two lines of tears on his face, and showed him sadness.

"Dad, can you win this game?" After watching the video of Chen Zhi violently overturning Griffin, LeBron Jr. asked, apparently he also knew that his father's Cavaliers were about to play against Chen Zhi's Mavericks.

James blinked when he heard this, "Do you want me to win or do you want him to win?" ”

"Frankly, you're my dad, and of course I want you to win." Little LeBron laughed.

"Every time you add the word 'frankly', it's the opposite!" James laughed when he heard this.

"I really hope you win." Little LeBron spread his left hand, indicating whether you believe it or not, anyway, what I said is true, turned around and walked two steps and turned back, "Hey, Dad, don't forget to ask me for his autograph!" ”

When James heard this, he immediately saw his son's careful thinking clearly, and couldn't help but shake his head helplessly. No wonder to be so "confessed" to the sycophant, it turned out to be to help and autograph!

After that, James continued to devote himself to the study of Chen Zhi's offensive and defensive details, because in tomorrow's game, he will personally limit Chen Zhi, and he has to make some preparations, that demon is definitely not an ordinary player, and he can't be careless.

Cleveland is indeed a small town, and it takes less than five minutes for a bus from the Mavericks to the Quick-Loan Arena.

Entering the arena from the visiting locker room, as he listened to the shouts of the fans, Chen couldn't help but look up at the empty air as he looked around the full crowd in the stands, where the championship flag that James won for Cleveland was also the only one in Cleveland.

Seeing Chen Zhi's eyes looking around the audience, the shouts of the fans couldn't help but be louder.

The Mavericks and Cavaliers, two teams in different leagues in the East and West, only meet twice a year in the regular season, and these two teams have never played each other in the finals, so the two teams have no grievances at all, and the Cavaliers fans applaud Chen Zhi and the Mavericks players much more enthusiastically than Clippers fans.

Maybe this is the confidence of the defending champions, or maybe there are a large number of fans who came to watch this game.

With Chen's rise in the NBA, tickets for the games between various teams and the Mavericks were sold out a week ago, and tickets for the Cavaliers and Mavericks were sold out a few days ago.

Even in the high-level stands behind the rebounds, which is the cheapest spot for full-court tickets, the price of a ticket has increased countless times, and the transaction price in the second-hand market is even as high as 300 US dollars, which is much higher than the ticket price during last year's Riding Finals battle.

Come to think of it, after all, there are seven games in the finals, even if there is no home court advantage, there are still three games locally, and Chen Zhi's game with the Cavaliers is likely to be only one game a year in Cleveland!

With James' return, the price of Cavaliers tickets has risen a lot, and the arrival of Chen Zhi has completely exploded the price of Cavaliers tickets.

The second-hand ticket market is so hot, most of it is because there are too many fans who come to watch Chen Zhi's game, which is also the reason why the Cavaliers' home stadium cheers for the Mavericks are very high.

This game has good news for the Mavericks, following Nowitzki and Bogut, the second brother Deron Williams finally ushered in a comeback, and the strength of the Mavericks' bench lineup suddenly rose to a new level.

The starters from both sides quickly took to the court, with the Mavericks still the starting five against the Clippers and the Cavaliers fielding their most solid lineup.

Point guard Kyrie Irving, split J.R. Smith, small forward James, power forward Kevin Love, and center Tristan Thompson.

Both sides take their respective positions on the court and wait for the jump ball.

James, who walked onto the court, immediately turned into an unsmiling leader, no longer smiling like when talking to LeBron Jr. at home.

After studying the recent game between Chen Zhi and the Mavericks last night, he found that even the Cavaliers had to fight for twelve points against the Mavericks team led by Chen Zhi.

Under the leadership of Chen Zhi, the latest rising demon, the Mavericks seem to have gradually gotten better and found a winning culture.

If it weren't for the Mavericks' special trip to compare and watch a few games, James would never believe that in the absence of Nowitzki, a rookie who has just entered the league, can lead the team to form this winning culture, but the Mavericks' weak lineup, especially the performance of the bench in recent games, is simply a championship-level bench team, a fact that James has to believe.

The biggest change is Stephen Curry's younger brother, Seth Curry. James yesterday just studied Chen's game materials from the beginning, and finally directly studied the Mavericks' complete game video, because he saw that Curry Jr. was different from the past.

James Jr. has an impression of Curry, not only because he is Curry's younger brother, in fact, Curry Jr. once played for the Cavaliers, when the Cavaliers signed Curry Jr. on a 10-day short contract, although James was in the Heat, he still paid special attention to the changes in the Cavaliers, but after a 10-day contract, this guy disappeared.

After returning to the Cavaliers, when I happened to talk to the management about the strong rivals Warriors and Stephen Curry, I talked about his brother Seth Curry, who used to play for the Cavaliers.

Griffin, the general manager of the Cavaliers, commented that this guy's thin physique can still make up for it with ball skills, but nothing can save his heart that hesitates because of lack of confidence.

But Curry Jr.'s recent shots in the game have been as confident as a superstar, even if he played a highlight moment for the Kings last year, but he didn't have that decision. After watching the performances of other Mavericks off the bench, James is even more convinced that the Mavericks have built a winning culture like all championship teams.

All of this James can only be attributed to the sudden rise of the young man, after the disbandment of the Mavericks' championship roster, although it has always seemed to be weak and strong, but it has not really established this winning culture for many years, especially when Nowitzki is not on the court.

Seeing that Chen Zhi on the opposite side seemed to feel his gaze and looked at him, James pretended to inadvertently turn his gaze to the two people who walked to the middle circle to jump ball.

Compared with James, who quickly looked away, the battle spirit in the eyes of the second leader of the Cavaliers, Irving, was even more high, even if he saw Chen Zhichao looking at him, he still looked at Chen Zhi deeply, and then turned to pay attention to the two people who jumped the ball.

Head coach Tyronn Lue specifically suggested at the team meeting that ball carriers must be extra careful when facing Chen to minimize unnecessary dribbling.

Although it is not specifically specified that Irving is very good at face, everyone knows that this is to remind Irving, the league's top dribbling master, and also especially rely on the rhythm of the dribble to play the offensive strength of the player.

Except for Irving, the other players of the Cavaliers basically do not have many opportunities to attack with the ball, and James himself is also characterized by stability and rarely has fancy moves.

For the three-point shot, Owen feels that he can only bow down to the strength shown by Chen Zhi, but for dribbling, he really hasn't served anyone!

You must know that Paul is calm in possession of the ball and does not get stealed, and Irving is still rarely tackled under the fancy dribbling in each center, and Irving, who steals and dribbles, can immediately reach the level of the best steal of the day.

Tyronn Lue's special reminder not only made Owen cautious, but also inspired him to fight endlessly.