This wave of enthusiasm about Li Kaiming lasted for three full days in America. There were various discussions about him every day during these three days, and it is said that some media have begun to rank Li Kaiming as the number one player this season. , but after all, there are only a few who do this, and they are basically small media that don’t pay much attention. They want to take advantage of the popularity to publish some violent comments and attract attention.
The real big media have set their sights on the next finals. The duel between Kevin Durant and Li Kaiming, the two unicorn strikers of the new century, is very interesting in the eyes of many people.
Both are players with an actual height of over 2.1 meters, but their playing style is more towards the outside. Before Li Kaiming appeared, Durant was the only player in NBA history, but now he has the same style and looks even better. The perverted Li Kaiming appeared, and the two met in the finals. This was indeed a feast for those who really like basketball.
What's more, now that Kobe Bryant and others from the previous era have reached the later stages of their careers, NBA just lacks a real leader, the "number one in the league" as fans call it. Before that, LeBron James had the highest voice.
It is a pity that James, who won two MVPs in the regular season, did not win the championship. It is not impossible to insist on being elected as the league's number one, but he still lacks something to prove himself.
Originally, fans would have thought that after James formed the Big Three, he would naturally win the championship, and then use this corporate style to cooperate with publicity to successfully ascend to the top and become the true number one player in the league. Unfortunately, Li Kaiming appeared halfway.
So now the question is, whoever wins the championship between Li Kaiming and Durant will become the pioneer of the next era and become the real number one in the league!
Especially since the two teams still have some ancestral grudges. In 1978, the Washington Bullets defeated the SuperSonics and won the only championship trophy in team history. The next year, the two teams met again in the finals. , this time the SuperSonics came to the end and won the only championship in team history!
Before this year, the two teams just went back and forth, each winning the other once, and they were considered evenly matched. But after this year's finals, one of the teams will break the record of not winning a championship in more than 30 years in team history, and at the same time successfully win the championship. Attacking the opponent in the finals was simply a script prepared by history!
Therefore, whether this game is based on reality, historical grudges, or even playing style, it is a very interesting game.
Three days have passed, and Li Kaiming's enthusiasm has not completely subsided. The finals have arrived!
On June 12, 2012, the first game of the NBA Finals officially started at the mcI Center, home of the Wizards!
Before the game, the starting lineups of both sides have been announced. Washington Wizards: point guard Kirk Hinrich, shooting guard Klay Thompson, small forward Kawhi Leonard, power forward Li Kaiming, center Andre Blache.
Oklahoma City Thunder, point guard Russell Westbrook, shooting guard Thabo Sefolosha, small forward Kevin Durant, power forward Serge Ibaka, center Kendrick Perkins.
Tonight's commentator is also a very heavyweight combination. The combination of Wizards home commentator Justin Kutcher and tNt chief commentator Marv Albert plus Steve Kerr looks like a great combination, but it all works. It's time for the finals, and it's normal to have this combination of commentary lineup.
In the signal broadcast by Huaguo, the on-site commentators were still Zhang Weiping and Yu Jia, and the pre-game analysis was still Yu Jialai, who was also fully prepared.
"In my opinion, the Wizards have a bigger lineup advantage than the Thunder. They have Leonard at the small forward position who is very defensive, and the combination of Li Kaiming and Blatche in the interior is better than Yi in both offense and defense. The combination of Bacca and Perkins is stronger, so in my opinion, as long as Coach Sanders performs normally and the Wizards players perform at the level of the Eastern Conference Finals, the victory in this game belongs to the Wizards."
Zhang Weiping is also optimistic about the Wizards, "The Wizards should take advantage of their inside advantage. The threat of Li Kaiming and Blatche in the inside can also bring open shooting opportunities to outside shooters."
While the two were talking, tonight's game had already begun. Sanders relied on his height and arm length advantage to beat Perkins with a jump ball and put the ball in Li Kaiming's hands.
The ball was given to Hinrich, and the Wizards took the lead after halftime. In the first game of the series, the first game was of course based on testing, so Li Kaiming went to the top of the arc to screen Hinrich. The Wizards chose a very ordinary tactical start.
As always, Westbrook was a bit confused when faced with a screen. Ibaka, who was clearly standing on the inside, shouted to bypass it, but the Turtle still chose to squeeze the screen with his head on, and was stuck by Li Kaiming as expected. live.
Westbrook was stuck behind, Li Kaiming turned around, and Hinrich rushed in with the ball, forming a two-on-one advantage locally.
Of course Ibaka knew that Li Kaiming was a greater threat, so he focused most of his attention on Li Kaiming. Li Kaiming directly pushed Ibaka and rushed inside, so Hinrich was directly let go in the mid-range. He put his hands together The ball was successfully thrown in the penalty area, and the Wizards scored the first point of the finals.
The Thunder were attacking from the bottom line. Westbrook came up and was hit by Hinrich using a pick-and-roll. Naturally, he felt unhappy, so he waved his hand directly to his teammates and started to challenge Hinrich one-on-one.
Faced with the choice of the Turtles, Hinrich was not afraid. He stepped on the three-point line to lower his center of gravity, took a defensive posture, and waited for Westbrook to rush inside.
At this time, Westbrook was young and frivolous, and he was on the rise both physically and mentally. Even if he faced the famous old defender in the league, he was not afraid. After a simple change of direction, his feet looked like It's like stepping on a spring and diving into the restricted area!
Although Hinrich's defensive skills are very good, sometimes he is very effective in defending ordinary players with skills, but he is afraid of facing a stupid young man, and Westbrook is undoubtedly a stupid young man, from his appearance to his behavior, from talking to playing, The word "Stupid" stood out all over his body!
Of course, this is not a derogatory sense of stupefaction, it just means straight to the point. When Westbrook entered the league, he had a nickname called "Little Rose", which shows how fast he is. Hinrich only followed the first step, and then the second step. Westbrook was thrown away by Westbrook in just one step. After breaking through Hinrich's defense, Westbrook held his neck and rushed to the basket. Li Kaiming next to him directly let go of his opponent Ibaka, and then came to help defend.
Seeing Li Kaiming coming, Westbrook was not afraid at all. Instead, he drew his bow full in the air, tensed his body and jumped high, trying to dunk Li Kaiming!
snort! It doesn’t matter if you dunk someone else, am I the one you can dunk if you want? Li Kaiming sneered in his heart, kicked off his feet and jumped, then stretched out his hand in the air to intercept Westbrook's dunk, and slapped the latter to the ground!
Leonard, who was next to him, rushed over to grab the ball and handed it to Hinrich. The Wizards launched a fast break, with Li Kaiming rushing in front. When Hinrich saw that the distance was close, he directly passed a long pass, aiming directly at the basket. Li Kaiming took the last few steps, took off in a big step inside the free throw line, caught Hinrich's pass in the air, and then dunked with both hands!
4 to 0!
The smooth fast break and the wonderful dunk made the mcI center burst into cheers!
It seems that the Wizards overwhelmed the Thunder at the beginning, and they are expected to win the championship!
Of course, this Thunder team is not easy to mess with if they can defeat the powerful players in the Western Conference, especially since their star player Kevin Durant has not yet made a move.
Seeing that the Wizards had already gained momentum, after the Thunder served halftime, Kevin Durant was ready to step forward to help the team stabilize the situation. He asked for the ball with one hand, and Westbrook naturally passed it to him.
As soon as Durant got the ball, he came up with a paralyzed face. Durant had experienced this kind of paralyzed defense in the regular season, so he was very serious at this time. First, he made a three-point threat on the spot, and then suddenly made a big loop!
beep!
The referee on the sideline immediately blew the whistle. The power of the golden free throw king was indeed well-deserved. Leonard didn't even get involved in the confrontation and he made three free throws!
Of course the fans at the McI Center didn't do it. This damn body hair whistle came to the Wizards' home court, so a large number of spectators began to curse the referee and boo Durant for taking the free throw.
However, Durant just shook his shoulders and easily hit three free throws, 4 to 3!
The Wizards still mainly play inside. Li Kaiming, as the center of outside and inside operations, played an important role in the first quarter. Ibaka is a very good player in assisting the defensive frame and has very good bounce, but the Thunder's One common problem between these two insiders is that they are not tall.
So Li Kaiming used his height advantage to play singles in the paint or pass the ball to Blatche, who then beat Perkins under the basket and quickly opened up the score. At the end of the first quarter, the Wizards led 30-25-5. point.
In the first half of the second quarter, Sanders replaced Li Kaiming to let the rotation play, and the Thunder won the sixth man of the season James Harden. After the master appeared on the stage, the first 6 minutes of the second quarter The game lasted for nearly 20 minutes. Brother Deng was either making free throws or on the way to make free throws.
Fortunately, the referee also knows that his life is at stake. He can't just let Thunder players go to the free throw line at the Wizards' home court, so the scale of the second quarter is very tight. Sometimes the whistle can sound several times in one offensive round. In just 4 minutes, When it comes to bonus, that is, if there is any foul after that, you will go directly to the free throw line.
Fortunately, this scene only lasted half a quarter. After the starters from both sides returned one after another, the game returned to the level of the finals. In the second quarter, the Thunder strengthened their interior defense and began to shrink inside.
This is a situation that Sanders and Li Kaiming are happy to see. The Wizards' five-out lineup is starting to work hard. Thompson, Hinrich, Lewis and others have successively hit three-pointers from the outside. The Thunder can only rely on Duran. Special and Westbrook scored, and it was difficult for them to beat four with two fists. Especially on the Wizards' side, Li Kaiming also added shots from time to time, which led to the score quickly opening up in the second quarter.
At the end of the first half, the Wizards led the Thunder by 13 points, 59 to 46. It can be seen from the half-time offense that the Thunder's configuration was completely unable to prevent the Wizards' offense. They played 7 games with the Heat. , only in the tiebreaker Li Kaiming scored 37 points at halftime, and the team's total score exceeded 60. In the first game of the Finals, the Wizards scored 59 at halftime. The audience did not feel any explosion on the offensive end of the Wizards. …
Even Zhang Weiping in the broadcast area smiled and said tactfully, "The Thunder's defensive pressure on the Wizards is not as strong as the Heat's. I wonder if they didn't show their full strength in the first game. If they just do this If the level is good, then this championship will be in the Wizards' bag..."
Back in the second half of the game, Durant began to explode. In the eyes of the arrogant Durant, he could not lose to anyone named Li, so at the beginning of the third quarter, he made sudden shots from inside and outside and drew fouls, and scored consecutive goals. 7 points, narrowing the difference to 6 points. Just when the mcI center was beaten by Durant and became a little quiet, Li Kaiming, who had been paddling for a long time, stood up!
If the tiger doesn't show off its power, you think I'm Hello Kitty!
If you are running wild on my territory, I must teach you a lesson so that you know who owns this mcI center!
Facing the two insiders from the Thunder, Li Kaiming began to ruthlessly post-up and attack the basket. In just one quarter, Ibaka was fouled 3 times and Perkins was fouled 2. He scored 15 points in a single quarter. Leading the team to open the score again...
At the end of the game, Li Kaiming scored 38 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks, leading the team to easily defeat the Thunder 117-102, winning the first game of the Finals, and was only one step away from the O'Brien Cup. 3 wins.
