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Chapter 230 He's not there, but he's important to me! (First of two consecutive updates!)

The day after Game 1 of the Finals, the Knicks held an internal meeting at their hotel.

During the meeting, D'Antoni repeatedly mentioned the team's poor offensive choices in the first game.

"The Warriors scored 48 points in the first game solely through transition offense."

D'Antoni said, "If we can't maintain our offensive efficiency in the game, they will continue to score relatively easily through fast breaks."

Although, as with the press conference, D'Antoni did not name names.

But in the conference room.
At that moment, all the Knicks players turned their attention to Westbrook.

Seeing that the time was ripe, James didn't hesitate to switch from simmering to boiling, saying, "Mike is right. If we want to beat the Warriors, we have to find a way to improve our offensive quality."

"Especially our offensive options."

James's statement was echoed by the Knicks' core players, including Durant.

This season, the Knicks have the second-best offensive firepower in the entire league, second only to the Warriors.

They averaged 119 points per game in the regular season and 116 points per game in the playoffs.

But the first game of the finals.
The Knicks conceded 135 points while scoring only 108.

What caused the Knicks to be unable to score on offense and defend on defense?

In fact, Westbrook wasn't the only one to be blamed for the Knicks' mistakes in Game 1 of the Finals.
During the game, when the Warriors pulled away and the Knicks were trying to catch up, the entire team, making their first appearance in the Finals, was filled with tension.

This kind of emotion led to their offensive decisions on the field being nothing more than aimless and chaotic.

However.
If it's just about finding problems, how could James, who has always been good at locker room politics, possibly get everything he wants?
then
When reviewing the video replay, James deliberately exaggerated the mistakes Westbrook made on the court.

How to zoom in?

"If only we had made one more pass on this possession, the Warriors' defense had been pushed back into the paint by us."

"It's a pity. Russell's breakthrough was brilliant, but wouldn't it have been better to pass the ball to a teammate who was following up?"

"To ensure their defense in the paint, the Warriors gave us plenty of opportunities to shoot from the outside, but as you can see, we were clearly too hasty on this possession."

During this internal meeting, James, in a rational and objective tone, repeatedly and subtly pointed the finger at Westbrook.
Rather than a free-flowing internal meeting aimed at defeating the Warriors, this was more like a trial for Westbrook.

Following the meeting, D'Antoni stated at the press conference, "For Game 2, I've decided to make changes to our starting lineup."

As expected, Westbrook was placed on the bench by D'Antoni.

Furthermore, D'Antoni decided to give James more ball possession so that he could use his basketball IQ to ensure the quality of the Knicks' offense.

These two tactical changes
Not only did it help James "eliminate" Westbrook, with whom he had a long-standing feud, but James, who had been working tirelessly for the Knicks for a whole year, also finally saw the dawn of transforming back into Jordan.

James himself certainly knows that he might indeed be a better fit to play the role of Pippen than Jordan.

But if James had been constantly running back and forth with his teammates on the court, how could he have put on a great comeback in this Finals series?
Defeating the Warriors is certainly James' primary goal.

Without impressive statistics, how can James prove to the world that he is still the chosen one, second only to one person?
And even if we take a step back...
If they lose this Finals series, James's stats might not look good.
Wouldn't that mean James would be doubly defeated?
Furthermore, from a longer-term perspective...
If James wants to gain more influence within the Knicks in the future, he will inevitably have to find a way to kick out Westbrook, the Knicks' young trio with whom he has the worst relationship.

Now, through this Finals, James, who completed a stunning off-court comeback, has successfully torn a hole in the Knicks' young trio.

Because, no matter how reasonable James's statement may be.

After this internal meeting, Westbrook couldn't understand why Durant and Harden didn't defend him.

"Do you also think I'm the culprit for the team's big loss?"

The young and ambitious Westbrook was not unable to accept D'Antoni's decision to place him on the bench.

However, Westbrook couldn't accept Harden's silence and Durant's similar views when James repeatedly targeted him.

Why did Harden remain silent throughout this internal meeting?

As a beneficiary of Westbrook's move to the bench, what can Harden say?
He can't exactly tell D'Antoni, "Coach, I don't want to start, I want to be a substitute."

Furthermore, facing a well-prepared James, Harden simply didn't know how to defend Westbrook.

after all
Which of James's statements wasn't true?
Was Westbrook's missed layup because James forced him to fly?
Wasn't it Westbrook who frequently assisted Qin Yue with rebounds during the crucial stage of the Knicks' comeback?
Wasn't it Westbrook himself who repeatedly disregarded his teammates and charged for the sake of charging on the court?

Harden is well aware that James has indeed artificially amplified Westbrook's weaknesses.

But faced with the irrefutable evidence presented by James, Westbrook had no choice but to admit defeat this time.

As for why Durant and James share similar views?
The answer is, of course, that when James presents himself as a "rational and objective person," given Durant's current life experience, how could he possibly see that James is trying to gradually move towards the center of power in this Knicks team?

Especially after James made it clear on multiple occasions that the Knicks should build their offense around Durant.

"'KD's offensive efficiency in the first game was not much worse than Messiah's; we just didn't create more shooting opportunities for him."

"I have no doubt that as long as we work together to support 'KD', he will have an impact on the field that is no less than that of a messiah."

"In this Finals series, if we want to defeat the Warriors, 'KD' is our only trump card."

When James unexpectedly unlocked his potential in locker room politics in this first game of the Finals.

For James, who has already disguised himself as a loyal subject
As the king of the Knicks, Durant accepted the loyalty of this devoted subject almost without hesitation.

Two days later, the second game of the finals continued at Oracle Arena.

As the last year of the NBA Finals' "2-3-2" format, the Warriors, who needed to win this game to secure home-court advantage, continued with their starting lineup from Game 1 of the Finals.

On the Knicks' side, when Harden actually replaced Westbrook as the Knicks' starter, Qin Yue, who had a pre-game bet with Brown, couldn't help but look at Detective Brown with new respect.

But what truly made Qin Yue realize that Brown was a clever little devil was...
It was James who repeatedly positioned himself high to receive the ball after the game started and controlled possession for the Knicks.

During the first quarter, the official timeout was called. Looking at Brown, who was standing on the sidelines waiting for him with his shoelaces untied, Qin Yue, who never reneges on his promises, said as he bent down to tie Brown's shoelaces, "I didn't expect you to actually guess right."

Upon hearing this, Brown helped Qin Yue up, but didn't dare let him tie his shoelaces. He laughed and said, "I told you, you may know more about basketball than I do, but you definitely don't know LeBron as well as I do."

Last summer, Brown, who was chatting and laughing with James at DreamWorks, had already labeled James as a businessman and politician on the court.

Brown knew very well that James never acted without a profit motive.

Therefore, even though James had been living under constant media criticism since that Christmas Day game, he was still able to maintain a good mood after a big loss in Game 1 of the Finals.
In Brown's view, there is only one explanation for why James was in such a good mood.

That is, in the conflict that occurred within the Knicks, James was the big winner.

"How did you guess that there were internal conflicts within the Knicks?"

"Observation: you are better at observing on the field, while I have always been better at observing off the field."

In Game 1 of the Finals, when Westbrook was substituted by D'Antoni in the second half of the third quarter, Brown, who did not play in the remainder of the game, almost instantly thought of himself being replaced in the starting lineup by Jamison due to tactical reasons.

However, compared to himself, who is merely the second-best center in history despite his undeserved reputation.
The Knicks' choice of DNP with Westbrook and the Warriors' choice of DNP are clearly not on the same level. Brown is well aware of this.

Therefore, when Malone arranged for him to be a substitute for tactical reasons, he never cried or complained even once.

But Westbrook is different.

Because this is a genuine star guard.

However.
The Knicks said they would DNP the other team, and then they DNPed the other team. What does that prove?
This proves that someone within the Knicks must have stirred up discontent towards Westbrook at the time.

"Businessmen will stop at nothing to pursue profit. And politicians will always strike at the most opportune moment to seize power," Brown said. "You know, your former good friend was never a pure basketball player."

In Brown's eyes.
Perhaps both Michael Jordan during his playing days and Qin Yue today are the kind of bullies on the court who wouldn't feel comfortable unless they completely humiliated you.

But compared to James, Jordan and Qin Yue are undoubtedly purer basketball players.

Because humiliating opponents is always just one way for them to gain emotional value in a game.

Moreover, while humiliating their opponents, Qin Yue and Jordan never said that they would not allow their opponents to humiliate them back.

Brown believes that if you have the ability, Qin Yue and Jordan will only be happy for it.

After all, being invincible can be really lonely sometimes.

"LeBron never played basketball just to win, but more to maintain his fame and status."

Brown concluded, "I could tell from his past interactions with you that it's not that he can't accept being inferior to you, it's that he can't accept you monopolizing all the exposure."

According to Brown's description.

Recalling what James said to him when he first entered the league, Qin Yue nodded and said, "I think you are right. You do understand LeBron better than I do."

The timeout ends and the game continues.

Have the Knicks, who adjusted their starting lineup and gave James more ball possession, really solved their problems on offense and defense?

The answer is obviously no.

In the opening stages, the Knicks' offense was indeed quite impressive.

But every time Qin Yue exerts a little effort, the Knicks will return to that old problem.

In other words, because they couldn't stop the Warriors' tsunami offense, once the Knicks' own shooting touch dropped and Durant's stamina couldn't support him scoring continuously, the increasingly anxious Knicks would make a lot of unforced mistakes on the court.

That night, in front of Iguodala, Qin Yue once again demonstrated his unstoppable individual offense—outside breakthroughs, inside scoring, low-post back-to-the-basket moves, and those terrifying pull-up three-pointers when they were on target.

全场比赛，27投16中，其中三分球8投5中，罚球8罚8中的秦岳总计为勇士砍下了45分17篮板12助攻4封盖2抢断。

It is worth mentioning.
When Westbrook came off the bench, the player who had frequently acted as an offensive booster for the Warriors in the previous game became the Knicks' most efficient offensive player that night.

全场12投7中，其中三分球3投1中，罚球8罚6中的威斯布鲁克，本场总计为尼克斯拿到了21分4篮板5助攻，成为了第二战尼克斯阵中唯一一名可以昂首挺胸离开甲骨文球馆的球员。

James, who gets more possession of the ball on the court, actually performs quite well if you only look at a few key statistics.

However, with the Warriors' defensive strategy of tightly blocking the paint, if James can't find his outside shooting touch during the game, his offensive efficiency will inevitably drop significantly.

Of course, after Game 2 of the Finals, James certainly wouldn't be the one to take the blame.

Since Durant is nominally the leader of this Knicks team, after leading the Knicks to a 112-127 defeat and their second consecutive loss in the Finals...
If Durant wants to gain the loyalty of James, a loyal subject, he can't just run away when it's his turn to take the blame, can he?
That's right, in Game 2 of the Finals, Durant, who only made 9 of 25 shots, was the main culprit for the Knicks' loss.

Post-game interview session.

Although no reporters asked James about Durant.

But to express his loyalty to Durant, James still took the initiative to "exonerate" Durant, saying: "I don't think people should focus too much on the shots 'KD' misses in the game, because every scorer has nights when he doesn't shoot well."

James's high emotional intelligence statement, on the surface, appeared to be in defense of Durant.

However, with James's deliberate reminder...
The media, however, all focused on the key points of the issue.

Furthermore, Durant, who was immediately criticized by the media after the second game, still expressed his gratitude to James in person the next day.

Indeed, Durant, who has been learning from Qin Yue all his life, is no longer the same person he used to be.

However, Durant's IQ will not improve as a result of learning from Qin Yue.

So when Durant discovered that while he was being heavily criticized by the media, only the loyal and courageous James was willing to speak up for him, the overly young Durant could not have imagined that James's initial intention in "whitewashing" him was simply to make him take the blame.
“'KD', you don’t need to care about what others think of you.”

James, speaking from experience, told Durant, "Those guys don't understand basketball at all. They have no idea what kind of defensive pressure you face as the absolute core of this Knicks team."

Correct!
That's absolutely right, bro!

At that moment, looking at James, whose words resonated with him, Durant suddenly realized that James was simply the perfect second option that God had given him.

And what about James?
Although James will have to remain low-key and patient for the time being.

But when James noticed that Durant had become addicted to his sweet talk and couldn't extricate himself, James, who decided to change course to seize power, almost instantly felt his bright future with the Knicks.

Perhaps the Knicks are currently in a very unfavorable situation in the Finals.

Perhaps, the Knicks, trailing 0-2 in the series, will most likely lose this year's NBA Finals.

But in James's view...
This time, he has only lost now.

James knew very well that with Durant and Harden continuing to grow, plus Iguodala who was in his prime, this Knicks team was destined to only get stronger year by year.

So what's so terrible about losing?

Since joining the league...
Hasn't James lost to Qin Yue enough times?

In James's eyes, only by winning the future could he have a chance to turn the tables on Qin Yue.

In fact.
For James, his top priority right now is to figure out how to completely kick Westbrook out of the game.

Because after a full season together
James knows better than anyone that Westbrook is completely incompatible with him, and in terms of personality, Westbrook is also the biggest enemy preventing him from gradually moving towards the center of power in the Knicks.

Yes.

How well the Knicks perform in this year's Finals is not important to James.

But without Westbrook
But it's very important to James.

……

PS: I know you readers will be anxious seeing this short update, but don't worry, because there are two updates today. Remember to refresh the page again, there's another chapter coming up.

(End of this chapter)