Chapter 409 Grinding the Knife
The Knights and the Celtics make an appointment for Christmas, and the duel may be the most eye-catching in the Christmas war.
Even Murphy and Xie Miaomiao have booked seats early, and the online ticket hype for this game can be said to be difficult to get a ticket. Even if you have money, you may not be able to buy a suitable position.
There may not be a game in Cleveland's Quick Loan Arena that can sell the first few seats for more than 3,000 US dollars. This is not Los Angeles or New York. This kind of ticket price is already a record.
They reached the finals last season, and they have never seen such a hot situation. It can be seen that too many people are looking forward to such a confrontation, including local Cleveland fans.
Of course, those guys are waiting to see the Celtics fall. The harder they fall, the more excited they will be. However, the strength of the Cavaliers cannot guarantee that this scene will definitely be staged.
But the Cavaliers' fans are now full of energy, waiting for the arrival of Christmas, and then they can roar, making the Boston beasts who come to trouble feel a sense of pressure.
This may be just a good wish, but you can't stop the Cavaliers fans from being immersed in it.
Compared with the idea of the Cavaliers fans, the Celtics are much calmer. Although they have been in the hot Christmas war in all aspects, they even take them as the main publicity goal and advocate the confrontation.
But the Celtics didn't hear it, and the progress of the regular season is still progressing step by step.
Before hitting the Cavaliers, they still had two fights in the east to deal with. For the result of the Christmas war, they don't have much heart to predict what to do, and the most critical problem is to deal with it in front of them.
Rivers has always been a very down-to-earth coach. Everyone else is talking about the Christmas war. What he can see is just the opponent he wants to meet in front of him. Is it really necessary to be so far forward-looking?
Before Christmas, some teams still have bad luck. For example, as soon as Kidd's New Jersey Nets were poached, they had no choice but to hit the Celtics.
Although it is playing at home, without Kidd and one more Harris, the fans of the Nets feel that they are no longer a strong team in the Atlantic Division.
It can only be regarded as a second-rate team that is barely able to fool around and is not at the bottom of the division. The temperament of being able to reach the finals has long disappeared.
Especially after Kidd left, there was no accumulation left, and the confidence was a little insufficient.
But there are also people who don't accept their fate, such as Harris, who has just transferred from the Mavericks. At the beginning, he always thought that he was the boss in the Mavericks, and when he came to New Jersey, he positioned himself in this way.
But yes, when this guy was in Dallas, his scoring efficiency was quite high. Some even said that after Nowitzki, he could be the second offensive point of the Mavericks.
But such a guy was given up by the team, directly used as a trading chip, and thrown into New Jersey, which is undoubtedly a blow to an arrogant person.
Harris was not knocked down, but the unwilling feeling of boredom has almost made him crazy!
As soon as he transferred, he met the Celtics head-on. Others may be sighing, but Harris saw a real opportunity to make a come-up.
If you can overturn the league's top name, or give them a head-on blow, will someone say that Harris is just a brush, a person who only cares about scoring but forgets the overall cooperation?
With such an idea, Harris's charge starts from the first quarter. He has to prove his value with his hands and make the Dallas Mavericks regret giving up!
I have to say that this guy still has two brushes, otherwise not so many people would have been optimistic about his prospects at the beginning. At least in terms of scoring, Harris's feel and breakthrough rhythm are considered the best choice.
Especially in terms of speed, especially in the first step, this guy can be said to be very fast. Even a gibbon like Rho has suffered a secret loss on the first contact.
Lightning-like cut, Rondo was not even ready to intercept. Harris had slipped in close to him, and then shook his hand with a beautiful throw, which made Garnett empty.
With such a guy lighting the court, the New Jersey Nets also seem to have found a little feeling. The successive breakthroughs and shots have really caused some trouble for the Celtics.
Even the DJs at the home court of the Nets are shouting, "The Nets! You are the strongest! You can overcome everything! Run! Devin Harris! Our new core in New Jersey! You are so great!"
Such flattery is not too much. Maybe without Kidd's Nets, we really need to find another person to rely on, so the appearance of Harris also indirectly completes them.
And this guy is also really competitive. It feels hot, not to mention the throw after the breakthrough, or the weird layup, really let Harris find a chance to score in a row.
Not only did he score, but he also made 2+1 twice, which made Rondo a little stuffy behind him. Until he was replaced by Rivers, the boy was still a little annoyed and covered his head with a big towel.
But Rivers' substitution became a turning point in the game. Chen Feng and Weber, who were still resting, played together, and then Kassel was pushed down the guard line, and he and Sprewell began to lock the periphery.
Originally, the inside line of the New Jersey Nets was very fragile, but as soon as Chen Feng and Webb came up, the two of them scored and responded to each other on the inside line, which directly depressed the New Jerseyers.
Weber, whose average score per game has been low, is even more rare. In the 30-minute playing time, he scored 19 points, plus 8 rebounds, and assists as many as 5 times.
As for Chen Feng, it is very rare for the boy to score that he didn't score 20+, but the rebounding ball was crazy by him. He salvaged 22 rebounds in a game and added 5 blocks, which made people alive!
Harris didn't jump for a long time under Kassel's staring. He scored 15 points crazily in the first half, but he withered in the second half. Under the close guard, only 8 points were scored.
Although he has won a total of 23 points and 5 assists in the whole game, everyone can see that this guy's ability is just like this. It's really incompetent to expect him to connect the whole team and be the core.
He played quite cheerfully, but for the rest of the Nets, the highest score was only 9 points. Harris himself scored double in the team, and his shooting rate was less than 40%.
It can be said that this guy's data of 23 points is completely obtained by his high turnover rate. Even if such a player can get beautiful data, he can't compare with Kidd's old fried dough sticks.
Even the Nets' own fans said, "We got a scoring madman, that's all."
When Harris was in the Mavericks, he was said to be a good scorer. Now he has proved this, but I'm afraid not many people will be satisfied with his efficiency. In addition, don't forget that his assists are simply dispensable. Let's see how many assists Ron has sent and how to connect the team. And look at Harris, No wonder when he exchanged Kidd, he would be thrown out as a trading chip. This time, Kuban didn't go ast.
Now what New Jersey fans can look forward to is that they will get some big fish in the transfer market next season. That's all. As for this new core, NO, don't talk about him.
Whether Harris can take root here or not, perhaps the management of New Jersey will soon understand that the style left by Kidd is not something that can be replaced by a casual person.
On the guard line, you can be a player as old as Kidd, but it's not easy to find, Harris? He is obviously two grades worse than Kidd. At most, he is a good player.
The score is guaranteed, but the victory has slipped away, and the big score of 95:70 makes the Nets slip faster in the Atlantic Division. It seems that the road to rebuild is not so easy to walk.
After this defeat, the Nets' record is even worse than that of the 76ers. In the Atlantic Division, he can only be a difficult brother with the New York Knicks.
The Knicks are now completely at the bottom of the East, with a large amount of bad contracts. Now Dolan and Thomas have to consider, I'm afraid how to remove these non-performing assets instead of considering the results.
In the rotten state of New York, even if God comes, I'm afraid he will feel very scratching his head.
And the Nets, after finally letting Kidd go, also experienced a feeling of sinking. The previous scenery has completely disappeared. Waiting for the New Jersey fans may also be the next reincarnation.
At that time, no one really knows whether the team is in New Jersey or Brooklyn, New York.
At least for now, no matter where they are, they can only survive so half-dead in the short term. If they want to have a chance to turn over, they may have to wait patiently for the first or two seasons.
And that must be lucky enough. Otherwise, once you fail in the draft, you may be like the Celtics, and you may have to struggle at the bottom for more than ten or twenty years.
However, because of the fall of the Nets, the pattern of the Atlantic Division has been completely broken, polarized, and showing an increasingly serious attitude. New York and the Nets are completely dead.
In the area adjacent to these two cities, even the record is about to be posted. I really don't know what qualifications those Nets fans have to laugh at those guys in New York.
Although the Raptors are still overwhelmed by the Celtics, at least they can still take the second place in the Atlantic Division. The threshold of the playoffs is not too difficult for these guys.
After finishing New Jersey and then killing the Celtics, they also quickly killed the Bulls, which had been in a sluggish state recently, at home.
Ben Wallace has gone to Cleveland. For the "Big Ben" who has never been able to integrate into the Bulls' tactics, walking may be a relief, and the Bulls can only have a reputation for not being able to use people.
After all, it's not that everyone has never seen how brave Wallace was in the Pistons, but after arriving in Chicago, he could almost only use it as a pure coolie, and there was no barrier at all.
It may also be that the Bulls have hoarded too many offensive hands, and then the defense leaks on all sides, and the result can only rely on Wallace alone. In addition, he is no longer at the peak, and the result can be imagined.
Now the Bulls are completely in two states with the previous season. They have been half-dead in the 89th place in the East, which makes Chicago fans feel very confused.
They don't know what's wrong with their team and why they have slipped from the peak to this point after a season. You know that they are a new generation of bulls with high expectations!
When the Bulls lost Joe, they were not so confused, but at this moment, those supporters in Chicago really don't know why their calves lost their sharp horns.
Have these guys changed their genders after a holiday? Have all the bison turned into cows?
With several offensive good attackers such as Sinrich and Roll Deng, they can still play to this extent. Even the Bulls themselves don't know what it is because they have signed big contracts?
Or the injury at the beginning of the season has worn out their sharp feeling? You should know that they were eliminated in the playoffs last season only because of the gap in experience.
I thought that after a season, they could make a comeback and shock the Eastern Conference for their arrival. The ideals were very full, but the reality was very skinny. After all, their dreams did not become a reality.
And the reality has given them a heavy blow. Now it is unknown whether the Bulls can even enter the playoffs. Chicago is still waiting for a revival. Can they do it?
I'm afraid that even the management of the Bulls doesn't know how to answer this question, otherwise they won't have been trying to use trades to save the team's decline, but is it really useful to do so?
The basic personnel of the Bulls have not changed much. Even if Wallace is traded, their framework is still there, but such a combination of personnel is less bravery of last season.
Including the teams that have played against them, they also have this feeling. When the Celtics continued their unbeaten record at home, the Bulls, who were cut down by them, could only leave with a loss.
"They want to play smoothly too much. Even when they succeed in the attack, they don't know how to control the rhythm. As a result, once they get out of control, they will become themselves."
Perhaps only after the game can Rivers understand where the Bulls are losing. Last season, those guys appeared as challengers, and now their mentality has changed.
In the past, it was a momentum to fight with anyone to the end. What about now? They prefer to be a person who controls the rhythm of the field, rather than every ball has to fight to the end.
You don't have the temperament of a king, but you have to learn that way of playing. Even a team like the Pistons has to lie on the floor and compete with their opponents for the right to play. The Bulls may not have got rid of the brand of Joe.
But they have paid the price for such a change, and even now, they are still addicted to it.
I really don't know if these guys can wake up this season. Otherwise, they can only say goodbye to the playoffs. With this half-dead record, it is really difficult to enter the playoffs.
It's just a season. The change of mentality and the interference of injuries make the Bulls' group of calves lose a sharp feeling of forging ahead and begin to become warm, like an old buffalo.
Riverster took out the current situation of the Bulls and showed it to his players, which was to remind them.
Don't change your mentality like each other. You are not the champions yet. The way we want to go now can only rush down in one breath without any hesitation. Otherwise, you will slack off.
"If you still want the Celtics to become a great team, then each of you has to play with your life. Not only this season, we want everyone to remember the existence of this team!"
Auerbach brought a long-lasting dynasty to Boston, and Rivers's current task is to continue this dynasty. When they climb out of the ruins, they don't want to sink again.
In the two games before the Christmas War, Rivers does not value winning. For the current Celtics, winning streak is no longer news, and that self-confidence is the most important thing.
Whether it's the Cavaliers or the strong in the West, Rivers requires his team members to maintain this mentality and dare to show a fierce side to any opponent!
We can be the first in the league by not bullying the weak team, let alone the Bulls, the Nets, or the Cavaliers who are about to meet. When you try to stop the Celtics, you will be knocked into powder!
This is not intimidation, but a declaration of victory! Only with a strong self-confidence can you have such fierceness and domineering. You may not like him, but you can't deny the impact he has brought to you.
The Celtics are like this, and so is Chen Feng. His existence is to tell those competitors that your good days are gone, and now is the era of green shirts! I'm coming!
Just like when killing the Bulls, in the locker room, Chen Feng grinned and said to his teammates around him, "Now I'm just sharpening my knife. If you really want to kill someone, it's a matter of going to Cleveland."
Isn't there an emperor? I'm about to step on your head to kill the championship!
If you Cleveland idiots feel uncomfortable, you can wait in the quick loan stadium to see if you can kill me! Can you defeat our Celtics!
If you think you can do it, let's fight! Look at who has the right to speak in the east!
Don't think that you have a little emperor who is a noble! When Boston was the boss in the league, you didn't know where to count the ants!
In front of the Celtics, you can only accept failure! Don't believe it? Then try it!
The Clevelands won't hear the roar in the locker room, but when these beast-like guys step on the floor of the quick loan stadium, maybe those Cavaliers supporters will find their horror...