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Chapter 210 I fucking swear at this stupid world! (First update, begging for monthly votes!)
At Oracle Arena, Qin Yue's tomahawk dunk over Mozgov ignited the home crowd, but what truly shocked James was the psychological trauma he had suffered at the hands of that opponent.

When James came to the same conclusion as Barkley after this play—that Qin Yue's physical and competitive condition had been adjusted to its best—probably no one knew better than James just how torturous Qin Yue was.

So James immediately made a decision in his mind.

In the next round, he plans to test Qin Yue using a retreating defense.

In James's view, as long as Qin Yue's shooting touch is not at its best, he is still confident that he can compete with him on the court.

On the court, the Knicks' offensive possession.

Li created space on the left side, high up.

Since Qin Yue could only choose to defend either James or Durant against this Knicks team, if Westbrook moved the ball to the weak side, Durant would have an excellent one-on-one opportunity on the other side of the court.

However.
Since Westbrook was blocked by the second-greatest center in history in the last round, why wouldn't the young and hot-blooded Westbrook seek revenge in this round?

At the high post, with Westbrook ramping up his pace again, Nash was left behind as if he were air.

Although Westbrook's offensive initiation was reckless, if he had chosen to pass the ball after penetrating the Warriors' defense and encountering Brown's help defense, it would still have been an excellent offensive play.

However, Westbrook, who at this moment made both James and Durant show helpless expressions, would have been more than just brainless if he had any sense at all.

Warriors' interior defense saw Brown once again sack Westbrook in mid-air.

As the block hit the ground, Brown, feeling utterly invincible, immediately roared to the sky, "Who else?!"

Meanwhile, on the sidelines, even Ben Wallace, who never understood why Brown was so confident, gave his opponent a very high evaluation: "That block was really something."

On the court, Qin Yue protected the second landing point and gave Brown a thumbs up.

Then, Qin Yue dribbled the ball to the frontcourt.

Seeing Brown leave Mozgov far behind in the race, Qin Yue rewarded him for his two successful rim protections at the start of the game with a well-placed bounce pass that led Brown to cut into the Knicks' paint.

Bang-dang——!
On the court, Brown, displaying his sharpness on both offense and defense, roared after powerfully slamming the rim with both hands, "Anyone who gets in my way dies!"

Although many fans who dislike Brown's arrogance may not agree, Brown has indeed evolved into the ideal form in Qin Yue's mind this season.

Three championship rings, the confidence instilled by Qin Yue, and the support Qin Yue provided even when the player made mistakes—all these factors combined to transform this former underperforming champion into a remarkable figure.

Knicks ball.

To stop Westbrook from making further mistakes, Durant moved up to the high post to receive the ball.

James' attempt to cut directly down the weak side was unfortunately foiled by Qin Yue, but it also provided Durant with a more comfortable one-on-one environment on the wing.

Seeing this, Durant met Wallace head-on and brought his knife down—swish!
In fact, judging from this particular play alone, James and Durant are absolutely a perfectly compatible forward pairing.

Unfortunately, the Durant of this life is the Durant who grew up under Qin Yue's tutelage.

On the court, watching James and Durant, each harboring their own thoughts as they punched, psychologist Qin Yue almost simultaneously foresaw the inevitable war that would break out between the two in the future.

A Durant who is incapable of keeping a low profile and enduring hardship.

And a James who is just keeping a low profile for the time being.

Qin Yue was really curious about how their future would unfold.

The Warriors then launch their attack.

Facing James's relentless defense, Qin Yue, who was looking to test his shooting touch, attempted a three-pointer, but it bounced off the rim.

However, just as all the fans were lamenting Qin Yue's shot, a dark figure suddenly flew over Mozgov's head and performed a spectacular aerial maneuver!
It's Hakime Brown again!

Bang-dang——!
In the Knicks' paint, Brown, who had just made a powerful putback dunk, drove straight to Qin Yue without looking back, shouting, "Shoot with confidence! That Russian country bumpkin is softer than I thought!"

For a long time, a famous saying has circulated within the Warriors team: "Never let Brown know you're a pushover."

As everyone knows, Brown is also someone who has always bullied the weak and feared the strong.

Therefore, once he finds out you're an easy target, he's destined to exploit you relentlessly.

"Since you've put it that way, then I'm going to remove the pass button next," Qin Yue laughed. "You know, I've been a fan of Kobe for almost a year now, ever since the Dallas incident."

Upon hearing this, Brown said with absolute confidence, "In this game, you can just relax and be a Kobe fan!"

Qin Yue has never liked being polite to others.

After all, if you don't take what Heaven has given you, you will surely suffer the consequences.

In the next round, seeing that James was still trying to use a sinking defense to stop him from breaking through, Qin Yue didn't hold back and fired a sniper rifle shot.

Swish-!
"Brown, you're not betting that my gun isn't loaded, are you?" Qin Yue teased James about his defense after scoring.

It is said that companionship is the most enduring expression of love.

However.
Over the past few years, in the daily races and chases, James has almost never experienced the "brotherly bond" between him and Qin Yue.

He could sense it
Only Qin Yue's ugly face, always arrogant and condescending in his presence.

However, in order to maintain the Chinese market, James did not want to really fall out with Qin Yue.

Therefore, only James himself knew how frustrating he felt every time he played against Qin Yue.

The Knicks were on offense, and Westbrook, who had regained some composure, attempted to connect with Durant by driving to the basket and dishing the ball out.

To be fair, Westbrook does have a certain ability to spot openings.

Throughout his career, Westbrook's most notable passing characteristic has been that he averages one turnover for every two assists he delivers.

The reason is that, most of the time, even fans watching on TV can predict Westbrook's passing route.

On the left wing, Wallace, who was already trying to stop Durant from receiving the ball, readily accepted this gift from Westbrook.

Seeing this, Qin Yue took the lead and rushed towards the Knicks' half of the court.

James noticed that Qin Yue was now unleashing his signature move – a fast break.

In this game, Qin Yue was matched up against James, who was ultimately an outside player.

This also means that Qin Yue, who doesn't need to constantly protect the rim inside, will be closer to the opponent's half of the court when the opponent completes their attack.

Therefore, Qin Yue should take advantage of this to score more points easily on the court.

At Oracle Arena, Qin Yue made a powerful counterattack and scored a layup.

To conserve energy, Qin Yue didn't even choose to dunk for the home crowd during this fast break.

At the scorer's table, in an effort to improve the Knicks' offense, before the first quarter was even halfway through, D'Antoni substituted his favorite player Harden for Westbrook during a dead ball situation. This was a very timely substitution.

Because compared to his second brother, who is prone to overthinking.
During this phase, Harden, known as "Wrong Brother," was not only more willing to play the role of a subordinate to James and Durant on the court, but also, after being coached by D'Antoni last season, his playmaking skills have clearly improved a lot.

The Knicks' greatest strength lies in their offense.

Because Lee is one of the best open-play power forwards of the current era, it means that whoever runs a pick-and-roll with the Knicks' perimeter trio will cause great damage to the opponent's defense.

In Qin Yue's view, compared to Lee, who has always been on the trading block by Walsh, if the Knicks want to acquire a more reasonable roster...
The player they need to trade is actually Russell Westbrook, who is very popular with Knicks fans.

Moreover, Qin Yue can draw a conclusion now.

In the current era, apart from him, there is not a single superstar who can be compatible with Westbrook.

Qin Yue, who came from the future, knew very well that Westbrook had always been a sharp knife with equally obvious strengths and weaknesses.

If wielded properly, it can be very sharp.

But if you don't know how to use him, he can turn around and hurt the team.

Furthermore, such damage cannot be reflected in technical statistics.

As a result, during the same period in history, Westbrook even left many fans with the stereotype that he often shut down Durant on the court.

On the court, the Knicks are on offense.

With Harden on the court, Lee, whose desire to set screens surged, quickly popped out after setting a screen for the opponent at the high post on the wing.

This was undoubtedly a clear-cut offensive exchange.

In Qin Yue's memory, as long as you were willing to run pick-and-rolls with Harden, your stats were destined to be good.

On the perimeter, Li Yuan, who has developed a three-point shot this season, sank into the net.

On TNT, watching the Knicks quickly catch up and whose talent was almost overflowing the screen, Barkley commented: "After watching the whole quarter, I think no one would doubt that this Knicks team will become the Warriors' number one rival."

At the end of the first quarter, the score was 34-37.

After a quarter of back-and-forth action against the Knicks, Warriors head coach Malone was undoubtedly most relieved that Qin Yue had successfully regained his form on Christmas Day, and that Brown had remained consistently effective throughout the season.

otherwise
Based on the quality of the Knicks' offense in the first quarter at Oracle Arena, the Warriors are likely to be the ones being suppressed.

"Can't you guys step up a bit?" During the break, Brown reprimanded the Warriors' other three starters on behalf of Qin Yue. "Messiah and I have already combined for 30 points (Qin Yue 18 points, Brown 12 points). You can't keep relying on Messiah and me!"

This summer, the Warriors' key players, who were given a long break by Malone, showed noticeably different speeds in regaining their game form.

For example, veterans Nash and Bell.

Compared to Qin Yue, they need more time to regain their rhythm in the game.

As for Wallace...
If we only look at defense, Wallace has basically recovered to his form from last season on the defensive end since December.

However, on this particular night, the player Wallace was tasked with guarding was Durant, who always seemed to be taking unexpected shots.

During the game, Qin Yue did consider switching defenses with Wallace so that he could take care of his younger brother.

However, under the new rules, when James is at his peak and in full physical condition, he can only be described as unstoppable.

After tonight's match, Qin Yue was well aware that James' "Nightmare Step" had already begun to show its lethality.

Because James can move his pivot foot freely when receiving the ball statically, it makes it impossible for the defense to use traditional defensive methods, that is, to predict his offensive route based on his pivot foot.

Therefore, it is by no means that Qin Yue distrusted Wallace.

Rather, he was worried that Wallace's mentality would be completely broken by James on the court.

After all, compared to Wallace, Qin Yue could at least use his physical advantages to adopt a defensive strategy of "if the enemy doesn't move, I don't move" to limit James.

In short, after the first quarter, Qin Yue was fully aware that this would not be an easy Christmas Eve.

The second quarter.

After only three minutes of rest, seeing Westbrook, who had traveled during off-peak hours, lead the Knicks to take the lead, Qin Yue took the initiative to walk to the scorer's table.

Qin Yue didn't want to make things difficult for himself on Christmas Eve.

He also doesn't want to end his undefeated record against James so far.

On the court, Qin Yue, having just returned to the game, scored an AND-ONE under the basket against Turiaf, whom the Knicks signed this summer.

Meanwhile, on the Knicks' bench, D'Antoni turned his gaze toward James with deep affection.

At that moment, James suddenly regretted asking D'Antoni before the game to let him be the main defender against Qin Yue.

With Qin Yue's relentless attacks, who says James doesn't need more time to rest?
Moreover, if he could, James really wouldn't want to play with Westbrook.

James knew very well that when he and Westbrook were on the court together, their teamwork always had an indescribable quirk.

James couldn't stand Westbrook's side that could hurt the team.

But at this moment, James, who still needed to keep a low profile, quietly walked to the scorer's table at D'Antoni's request.

Then, in James' first possession back on the court...
Westbrook then ignored James's hard-fought cut and launched a powerful personal attack, which made James immediately think of starting a fire and stewing him alive.

Qin Yue said he had seen that episode.

However, it was about ten years earlier than he remembered.

On the court, it was the Warriors' turn to attack.

Looking at James standing in front of him, his heart aching, his expression bitter, and every part of him suffering, Qin Yue felt no pity for James for a moment.

On the right wing, Qin Yue, who pulled the ball to the left but actually retreated to the right, almost single-handedly got James up.

Then, he calmly adjusted and executed a pull-up shot.

Swish-!
TNT's Barkley commented on Qin Yue's attack: "A charade! A pure charade! The Messiah has completely outmaneuvered the Chosen One!"

Westbrook, who has been helping Durant guard against the opponent every day since James joined the team, complained to James with a dissatisfied look: "Before the game, you promised 'KD' that you would keep Messiah's score below 30 points, but now the first half is not even over and he has already scored almost 30 points."

Upon hearing this, James, who thought to himself, "I never promised Durant that I could limit Qin Yue's scoring to less than 30 points," suddenly felt an urge to destroy the world.

I fucking swear this stupid world!
At this moment, James, with his brows furrowed, thought to himself.

……

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(End of this chapter)