After the training camp, the relaxed but exciting pre-season begins.

The Bucks won three out of four games in the preseason, and Yu Fei only played 10 minutes in the game they lost.

Carl is interested in testing the quality of the new players, especially the two rookies.

The results were not ideal, with Pachuria's defensive problems magnified and Haslem's technical roughness exposed.

'I also hope that they can contribute to the team immediately, but obviously they still have a long way to go. "You can't expect every rookie to shine like Fry. ”

After the preseason, the Bucks had a few days at home to prepare for the 2003-04 season opener.

As the defending champions, the Bucks sat at home and welcomed the Minnesota Timberwolves, the first opponent of the new season.

Kevin Garnett, the core of the Timberwolves, as one of the most successful high school rookies in history, came to the away game and saw Yu Fei, who is also a high school rookie, leading the team to the top in the second year, raising the flag at home and claiming the championship ring.

What is certain is that he has no idea of "having honor".

This summer, Garnett, who has only one year left on his contract, did not agree to an early contract extension with the Timberwolves. Although he has spoken about his love for "Sota" (1) on various occasions, the failure to renew his contract represents doubts about the future and is a statement of "I don't know if I want to stay here".

It's no wonder that the Timberwolves have spent time in continuous rebuilding since the establishment of the team, and finally drew Garnett's "big ticket", but stopped in the first round of the playoffs for seven consecutive years.

Whatever it is, Garnett needs to put pressure on the team, and he can't afford to get by.

As a result, the Timberwolves, who were worried about losing Garnett, brought Garnett the best team in team history in the offseason.

The Timberwolves first signed parallel No. 1 pick Michael Olowokandi and then traded Sam Cassel from Washington in a trade. Subsequently, they had to face a situation in which the world line was changed.

Since Sprewell was sent to Milwaukee from New York as early as last year, and the Mad Man was the hero of the championship, the Bucks had no reason to trade him.

Therefore, the famous timberwolf three-headed monster is impossible to form in this world.

In fact, in the original timeline, the Timberwolves themselves were faced with two choices. The Sprewell trade came from a four-team trade, and the Timberwolves chose whether to get the Kings' Sido Cotteglou and the 76ers' Keith Van Horn or bet on Sprewell.

Garnett preferred Sprewell, so they chose the latter.

There is no such thing as a Sprewell in this world.

The Timberwolves weighed up and traded Mark Jackson and Trill Brandon from the Kings for Siddo Turkoglu and Glenn Robinson from the Knicks.

Suddenly, the Timberwolves got a decent starting lineup: Kassel, Szczebiak (Turkoglou), Robinson, Garnett, and Olovo Kandi.

The Timberwolves' new roster has also been endorsed by the Galactic.

At a recent media day, a reporter asked the Lakers' Gary Payton who their biggest threat to winning the championship was. Payton directly said the Timberwolves' name.

"They have a starting five that can match us, and they can't be underestimated."

That's Peyton's exact words.

It's not everyone's idea, but that's how the Timberwolves feel.

Today, as the team's debut, they traveled to Milwaukee to see the Bucks raise their second championship flag on the road.

However, it was not Garnett who felt this scene the most in the Timberwolves, but Robinson, the big dog.

The big dog watched the flag rise into the air, and there was infinite emotion in his heart, which seemed to explain the necessity and correctness of the team to trade him, and from now on, people will no longer care about his existence and contribution.

Only champions last forever.

The flag rises and Yu Fei gets his championship ring from Stern, and he tries to put it on, then sees Garnett staring at him.

"Do you want it, KG?"

Yu Fei still has a good impression of Garnett.

And that sentiment is entirely practical — Garnett played well in last year's All-Star Game and helped the Western Stars seal the win in overtime and win the AMVP.

With this, it is enough.

Garnett looked at the ring he could only get in his dreams, and now it was on Fei's hand.

And Yu Fei didn't cherish it at all, tried it on a few times, and felt uncomfortable, so he threw it to the assistant.

"I'll get it sooner or later." Garnett said.

"If you leave Minnesota." Yu Fei said, "You won't get anything here. ”

Garnett now has his best roster since joining the Timberwolves, but Yu Fei directly poured cold water?

He's confident because their roster is so good that even the Lakers are afraid of it.

"I'm not leaving." Garnett said confidently, "You don't understand my connection to this place, you're too young, so you don't know how close your connection is after almost a decade of continuous fighting in a city." ”

Yu Fei really didn't understand this, but he knew that one person and one city were often a two-way choice.

"In that case, then I wish you good luck and hope that you will renew your contract with the Timberwolves soon, and I suggest that you renew your contract with them for seven years so that you can be together forever."

Yu Fei's "suggestion to lock up" remarks sounded very unpleasant to Garnett.

How can a good thing come out of this person's mouth so yin and yang?

After the pre-match ceremony, everything that belonged to last season will be a part of history.

For the upcoming season opener, what happened last season no longer makes sense.

Yu Fei heard that the defending champion would slack off, but he didn't feel that way.

He was only excited and excited, because it has already been said that they took advantage of the OK Lakers to blow themselves up to win the championship, which gave him enough motivation.

He can't wait to prove himself again.

After the warm-up, both sides started the game.

The only change in the Bucks' starting lineup from last season is the center position.

Former starting center Dan Gazuric is currently out of action due to an injury sustained in the preseason, so Karl decided to make an exception for Zaza Pachulia to start the Georgian in the first game of his NBA career.

Yu Fei was also surprised by this.

Although he knew that Pachulia would grow into a qualified NBA interior player in a few years, it was too much to directly start him.

But if you look at the team's squad, you can understand Karl's approach.

The most useful center in the Bucks' roster is Gazuric, and the rest are power forwards with very different functions. Normally, Gazuric lasts 28 minutes, and the rest of the time is divided equally between the big forwards, but now he is suddenly unable to play, and the center position has become stretched.

The Timberwolves won the jump ball easily.

As soon as Robinson came up, he wanted to remind the old owner of what it was like to play here.

I saw the big dog holding the ball in a high position, and after making continuous foot movements, he turned over and jumped to shoot.

Sprewell gave a strong jam and the big dog missed the shot.

Big Dog started the season with an iron strike and set a clear tone for the game.

The Timberwolves, although they are a Western Conference team, have done a good job defensively.

The Bucks, under the defense of the Timberwolves, also did not get into the groove, and the two sides played back and forth.

Until the third offensive round of the Bucks, Ray Allen held the ball outside and scored under the basket and was blocked by Garnett.

The big dog picked up the ball and wanted to play a defensive counterattack, but when facing the defense of the fly, he made some moves for granted.

Yu Fei's eyes were like lightning, and he shot quickly, cut off his ball, dribbled forward, and stopped his three-point shot.

"Huh!"

"Dribbling doesn't look at people, no wonder the team traded you in the first place." Yu Fei habitually satirizes his opponents.

It's not the first time that the big dog has fought with Yu Fei, knowing that this guy likes to talk trash and engage in mentality, he doesn't refute it at the moment, whatever you say is what it is, I will lose if you say it.

In the minutes that followed, the Timberwolves demonstrated their eighteen martial arts.

Kassel's three-pointer.

Turkoglu was almost sealed in the Kings with the ball.

And the most classic, Garnett's high block pulls open to the top of the arc inside the three-point line to catch the ball and jump shot.

Yu Fei remembered that in the sixth game of the finals, Duncan had hit shots in this position for two consecutive rounds, and at that time, his teammates were a little desperate. Because that's not Duncan's usual way of attacking, but he still shoots.

Duncan doesn't expect the key ball to be a long-range shot, which is the biggest difference from Garnett.

Garnett's long-range mid-range shot is beautiful and has a beautiful arc.

"Huh!"

Pachuria's athleticism is so bad that Mason's height is destined to make him a good match for Garnett's pick-and-roll style of play, and if Garnett insists on playing like this, the Bucks' defense will be helpless.

In terms of style of play, Garnett is the most beautiful interior player Yu Fei has ever seen.

But because he is so beautiful, Garnett is not as tough as Duncan and others at critical moments.

Yu Fei didn't want Garnett to play too easily, so he called Mason's block.

Garnett has been known for his rare ability to defend small and small since his debut, and like Nowitzki, he is a player who can get better in the small-ball era.

Yu Fei couldn't shake off Garnett, however, he managed to break through to the free throw line, and Garnett was worried about his passing, and he didn't dare to press too hard, which gave him more room to operate.

Yu Fei's offense not only made Garnett jealous, but also made the Timberwolves unable to care about each other inside and outside, and Szzzerbiak, who was responsible for defending Ray Allen, couldn't help but shrink the defense in.

Ray Allen is ready to catch and shoot. However, basketball did not come.

Yu Fei roughly leaned on Garnett's body and forcibly jumped, and in the air, he really felt all kinds of changes in his body.

One of the most special points is that after such a fierce confrontation, Yu Fei found that the amplitude and intensity of his movements were greater than before.

Is this what Tim Grover calls "more muscle, more power"?

Yu Fei didn't delve into this issue, and he scored a spectacular mid-air hand-to-hand lever high board at the cost of ignoring Ray Allen's vacancy.

"Like my movements?" Yu Fei teased Garnett, "People who have championships play like this. ”

Garnett on the pitch and two off the pitch.

Garnett is like being robbed of another personality on the court, full of black features, and the feeling of anger overflowing from her body is like a woman with a giant murderer, no matter how conservative her clothes are, the big rabbit looks like she is about to jump out.

“！ @#！ #¥" Garnett cursed in a broken voice, extremely unhappy with Fei's words.

Instead, when flying back to defense, he got negative feedback from another person.

Ray Allen said with a blank look: "I got the space, I hit more in the bottom corner, you should pass the ball to me." ”

Yu Fei said confidently: "This is a punishment for you for not being able to control your mouth." ”

After speaking, Yu Fei separated from Ray Allen.

This made the latter extremely annoyed, on the one hand, he thought that Yu Fei's dissatisfaction was excusable, he really didn't control his mouth, but on the other hand, he didn't feel that he had said bad things about the other party.

He just wanted to express his frustration that the media focused too much on Yu Fei and ignored the rest of the team.

But for most people, this kind of expression is to express dissatisfaction with flying.

Ray Allen said this only because he did not dare to face the core and crux of the problem.

When Yu Fei began to ask for guilt, Ray Allen's penchant for self-censorship made him doubt his remarks. Then, he would decide that he was right, but when Yu Fei hit him again with this question, he would fall into self-doubt again.

The big dog then reciprocated the Timberwolves' choice with a high single.

It looks like the Timberwolves got the independent singles they wanted. Because Garnett is not the kind of core that is good at attacking, once the game enters a critical moment, the Timberwolves need a deputy who can attack to help the team get out of trouble.

In Yu Fei's previous life, this role was filled by Sprewell, and now it has been replaced by a big dog.

Although the difference between the two points per game is only 1 point, as a secondary attacker, his role and value at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends are actually far from Sprewell.

Yu flew past half the court and passed the ball to Sprewell.

Sprewell called out Pachuria's block and took the first step with great vigour, and the old man who had a chance to compete for the league's fastest first move at his peak still broke through at this age.

Olovocandi's feet were too slow, and he was caught by Sprewell, who directly hit a small and big one, and took a goal lightly with speed.

The Timberwolves continued to play the signature Garnett on the high post and Kassel's pick-and-roll offense.

The Bucks' choice is not to switch guards.

Cassel couldn't find space to shoot under Yu Fei's interference, so he returned the ball to Garnett.

Unexpectedly, this scene was predicted by Mason in advance.

Mason's hand crossed forward, destroying the pass, and Yu Fei immediately went down.

The Timberwolves switched from offense to defense, but it was too late, so Yu Fei rushed to the whole court and scored a dunk after receiving Mason's pass.

The Timberwolves may be the new seed in the West, but the defending champions are by no means the lucky team that won the championship just after eating the bonus of the OK Lakers' self-destruction as rumored.

This was clear to the Timberwolves in the opening minutes.

(1) It is not very clear whether Sota is an abbreviation for Minnesota, but what is certain is that this is Garnett's name for Minnesota.

PS: There is only one chapter today. I thought there were two more chapters left in the manuscript, but I only had one chapter in the morning. This chapter is what I owe, which means that I now owe two more chapters.

(End of chapter)