warrior godfather

Chapter 385
Day 08, 30:[-] PM, Oracle Center.

In the locker room of the visiting team, the Mavericks players looked stern, looking at Carlisle standing in front of everyone, listening carefully to his tactics:
"...Although we are eighth in the Western Conference, it is not impossible to win this round of the series. The Warriors are the first in the league and were eliminated by us last season. Those young players are likely to underestimate the enemy. G1 is our last chance. Be sure to catch it! From the first minute, we have to raise the intensity to the highest level and not give the Warriors a chance to breathe, Dirk, I need you to stand up and score a lot of points to change the Warriors' defense..."

Nowitzki sat in his seat, exchanged glances with Carlisle, pursed his lips, and nodded slowly but firmly, signaling that he understood.

Carlisle nodded with satisfaction and looked at Kidd:

"Jason, you play pick-and-roll with Dirk more, pay attention to pass the ball to Dirk, especially when he has a chance to play alone... The others follow the tactics of yesterday's drill, keep moving, try their best to catch air cuts and open spot shots give Dirk enough support..."

What Carlisle said meant the same thing. The Mavericks are counting on Nowitzki to play tonight. They want to win the Warriors. This is the only way. No one else can pose enough threats to the Warriors.

And he believes that Nowitzki will be able to do it.

"...Okay, let's go, it's time to warm up, guys, forget about our status as the defending champions, we are the dogs now, play every minute as if it were the last minute, and use the black that the Warriors once gave us Return the shame to them!" Carlisle said loudly, took two steps forward, and stretched out his right hand.

Crash.

The Mavericks players got up one after another, came to the center of the locker room, put their hands on it, shouted a slogan in unison, and filed out of the locker room.

Nowitzki was at the end. He walked in the player tunnel, his eyes swept away, his eyes suddenly paused, and his steps slowed down.

As far as he could see, there was a sunken hole in the wall, covered with a piece of transparent glass with his own signature on it, and above the hole, there was a piece of paper with the words "We Believe" on it. The bright yellow warrior T-shirt with the words on it is slightly darkened, and it seems that it has been around for a long time.

Nowitzki stared intently for a while, shook his head slightly, gave a wry smile, quickened his pace, and walked forward.

He is very familiar with this hole. After the first round of G2007 in 6, the Mavericks were eliminated by the Warriors. Throwing it to a high place, a hole was made in the wall, and it was unwilling to leave.

Interestingly, the Warriors did not repair the hole afterwards, but covered it with a piece of glass to "protect" it, and put a "We Believe" T-shirt on it to show respect for the 2007 first-round black team. In commemoration of the Eight Miracles, after Zhang Yu acquired the Warriors, he naturally would not destroy it for no reason, and this hole has been preserved.

Last season, when the Mavericks eliminated the Warriors in the Western Conference finals, Nowitzki's knot was finally lifted. He was so happy that he even signed his name on the glass covering the hole.

But now Nowitzki once again sees that this place was "created" by him five years ago, and it has already brought a trace of legendary holes.

Past careers flashed through Nowitzki's mind one by one, and he was a little surprised to find that the Warriors appeared so frequently in his memories.

He entered the league in 1999. The first game of his career was the Mavericks' home game against the Warriors. He also scored his first career goal in that game.

In the first round of the 2007 playoffs, the Mavericks were eliminated by the Warriors Black Eight. After the team was eliminated, he received the regular season MVP trophy from David Stern and received overwhelming ridicule from the outside world.

In 2011, that is, last season, the Mavericks eliminated the Warriors in the Western Conference finals. After five years, he entered the finals again, and finally defeated the Big Three Heat, won the championship, and washed away the burden of many years in one fell swoop. In the name of the soft egg, the life is perfect.

These three years are the most unforgettable three years for Nowitzki, representing the beginning, trough and peak of his career, even surpassing the 2006 finals loss to the Heat, although he fell at the last moment in that year , but he was never discouraged. He immediately made a comeback in the second year and won the regular season MVP, but lost to the Warriors in the first round by surprise. The feeling of shame, shame, anger, and despair is something he will never forget.

He was able to defeat the Heat last season with a single-core team, and after the Warriors were eliminated in the Western Conference Finals, he completely walked out of the shadow of being hacked, and his momentum and self-confidence climbed to the peak.

And now, he is standing in front of the Warriors again.

But in contrast to the previous two matches, the Warriors won the first place in the league, the Mavericks barely ranked eighth in the West, Nowitzki changed from being challenged to a challenger, and Curry became the leader of the regular season MVP. The most popular candidate, everything is reversed, the difference is that the Mavericks are not gangsters, but veterans, and the Warriors are the vigorous youth army.

In a trance, Nowitzki felt a sense of impermanence in the bottom of his heart.

"Whoa, Curry, come on!"

"Let's make a super long three-pointer!"

"Clay, come on, kill them!"

"Jimmy, look at me, Jimmy!"

Suddenly, a burst of noise reached Nowitzki's ears, and he realized that he had already walked out of the player tunnel and came to the side of the court.

He looked intently and saw that the Warriors players were already warming up. The Warriors fans who arrived in advance came to the front row to watch the home team's warm-up up close, shouting loudly, wanting the Warriors players to hear their voices.

There were also a few Mavericks fans who passed on Nowitzki's jerseys, and they stood guard at the entrance of the player tunnel. When they saw the Mavericks players entering the field, they hurriedly bent down, extended their hands and gave them high fives. exclaimed excitedly:
"Hi, Dirk, I flew over from Dallas to watch the game yesterday, come on!"

"Dirk, it's up to you, as long as the Mavericks win tonight, I dare to dance in front of those Warriors fans!"

"Dirk, don't listen to them, don't feel pressured, as long as I can watch you play, I will be satisfied!"

"Dirk..."

Nowitzki heard a sentence of earnest encouragement in his ears, even though this is something that has been commonplace in his more than ten years of professional career, but in this arena that has left him an unforgettable memory, the dog below him When the identity challenged the warrior, he was still greatly moved.

Nowitzki stopped, and the bewilderment in his eyes disappeared without a trace, replaced by firm eyes. A relieved smile appeared on his face, and he raised his hands, like the fans who bent over and stretched out their hands on both sides of the player tunnel. With a high five, he said:
"Thank you, thank you, I will definitely play well, and I will never let you down, thank you, thank you..."

Nowitzki kept repeating the word "thanks" in a low voice, but full of strength.

……

brush!
Clay, who was warming up, raised his hands high, following the action, staring intently at the basketball he had just thrown, passing a standard to the extreme trajectory, and falling straight into the net.

The corner of his mouth was slightly raised, and then he picked up the basketball that was shot by some teammate and bounced to his side, dribbled, and raised his hand to shoot another three-pointer.

brush!
It was a textbook-like shooting posture and a standard round trajectory. After the basketball was hollowed into the net, Clay quickly ran from the left corner to beyond the 45-degree three-point line, picked up the bounced basketball, and threw it out again.

Swipe-swipe-swipe-swipe-swipe!

Five quick shots in a row, all of which were hollow into the net, Clay shook his hand, stuck out his tongue, and came to the top of the arc.

Bruce Fraser noticed his strangeness, shouted at him, and then passed the ball towards him.

Bruce's passing position is very comfortable, and Clay doesn't even need to look at it. After receiving the ball, he doesn't need to make any adjustments, and he throws it with his hands raised.

Swipe-swipe-swipe-swipe-swipe!

Bruce kept passing the ball to Clay, and Clay caught and shot the ball without stopping. In the blink of an eye, he hit the net five times in a row.

"Good! Go on!" Bruce yelled, approvingly.

Clay adjusted his breathing, came to the right 45 degrees, and took the pass from Bruce. As before, he did not make any adjustments, and shot the ball as soon as he caught it.

Swipe-swipe-swipe!brush!brush!

It was another five consecutive three-pointers that went into the net. Other Warriors players also noticed Clay's fiery touch, slowed down their shooting speed, and did not compete with Clay for "ballistic".

Under the watchful eyes of his teammates, Clay's expression was still very indifferent. He came to the position of 45 degrees on the right and the bottom corner on the right successively. He made ten textbook-like quick shots and ten hollow shots. point.

"Wow!" Curry held his head and looked at Clay with an exaggerated expression, "Your hand is too hot, let me touch it!"

He trotted to Clay's side, grabbed Clay's right hand with both hands, and rubbed it vigorously twice.

Clay smiled, looking at Curry with a look of disgust and helplessness, but he didn't stop him.

This is not an official game. Even if Clay's shot is a hundred shots, Curry will not be so surprised.

But his shots are lightning fast. Whether it is from the waist or from the chest to receive Bruce's pass, Clay does not make any adjustments, and throws it as soon as he raises his hand. There is no rhythm, but the trajectory of each shot is almost the same. They are exactly the same, they are all hollow into the net, this is what makes people surprised.

Even if it's just a warm-up, Clay's touch is very rare, showing his extraordinary fiery touch.

"Okay, Stephen, I still have to warm up." Clay shook off Curry's hand and said in a muffled voice.

Curry laughed:

"OK, play well, Klay, I'll give you more passes."

When Clay heard this, his eyes lit up, and he nodded heavily:

"it is good!"

He ran to the side and continued to warm up, still hitting every shot, and his eyes became sharper and sharper.

brush!
It was another hollow three-pointer, and the warm-up time was over. Clay stopped, took a few quick breaths, shook his shoulders, walked towards the Warriors bench expressionlessly, sat down, and looked at the opposite Mavericks The player suddenly shook his right hand a few times.

He couldn't wait.

……

"Audience friends, good morning, everyone. I am very happy to meet you on Sunday morning. Today is the NBA game day. We bring you the first game of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs between the Warriors and the Mavericks. , The one who came to the studio as a guest commentator today is Zhang Weiping, who everyone is very familiar with... I hope that the audience friends will actively send text messages to communicate with us while paying attention to the game. A is to support the Warriors, and B is to support the Mavericks..."

In Yu Jia's very familiar opening remarks, the broadcast camera switched to the court, and Chandler and Brandon Heywood stood on both sides of the center line, ready to jump the ball.

"The Warriors started with Curry, Klay, Butler, Green and Chandler, and the Mavericks also started with Kidd, Delonte West, Marion, Nowitzki and Brandon Hay. Wood's starting lineup, it seems that Carlisle has no intention of making adjustments, Carter and Terry are still acting as substitutes, making contributions in the transition period..."

Yu Jia continued to introduce the situation of the two teams very quickly. On the court, the referee's whistle also sounded. The old Heywood couldn't jump up at all. Chandler was one step ahead and passed the ball to Curry.

"Let's go, warriors!"

Amid the deafening cheers, Curry squinted, chewed on his braces, and dribbled the ball across half court, while the rest of the Warriors settled in orderly.

Curry came to the top of the arc, made a gesture, and passed the ball to Butler at 45 degrees on the left. Butler kept the ball and passed it to Green who asked for the ball in the low post, and then ran to the 45 degrees on the weak side , Take away your own defenders.

At this time, Chandler lifted from the inside line and came to the left 45 degrees. Brandon Haywood was too slow to follow, and stayed in the penalty area to defend the basket.

Curry suddenly started, and with the help of Chandler's cover, he ran to the left sideline. Delonte West, who was following him, was blocked by Chandler, and Curry got rid of the defense. The ball is passed.

Haywood rushed towards Curry in a hurry, but his footsteps were too slow, and Curry's shot was fast. Haywood didn't interfere with Curry's shot, and could only watch Curry complete the shot easily.

brush!
The basketball went into the net hollow, 3:0.

"Beautiful! This is a three-man match that the Warriors often play, creating an open shot for Curry. The Mavericks made a careless shot, and Haywood didn't follow it." Zhang Weiping praised.

Yu Jia said:

"It's not to blame Haywood. In fact, he extended far enough, but Curry shot too fast. Give him a little space, and he can make a shot. Haywood really can't keep up. He really wants to completely defend. There’s no one on the inside anymore.”

On the sidelines, Carlisle frowned when he saw this scene. He didn't mean to blame Heywood, but shouted to Delonte West:
"Pay attention to follow him, stand in advance!"

Delonte West hurriedly raised his hand, indicating that it was his fault.

The Mavericks carefully rehearsed their tactics before the game, and summarized the Warriors' common tactics, including this one. He was a little careless just now, and didn't realize that Chandler was going to cover for Curry and was blocked. It was not Heywood's. wrong.

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(End of this chapter)