The Golden State Warriors are a weak team all year round in the eyes of fans, especially Chinese fans.
Even in 2007, the year when they succeeded in the eighth round, they could only be dark horses and troublemakers, and they were absolutely incompatible with championship-level teams.
The Warriors are actually a veteran team in the NBA. They have won championships in the league's ancient times. The last time they won a championship was way back in 1975, and most of their fans weren't even born yet.
In the 1980s and 1990s when the NBA was booming, the Warriors were just a supporting role in the league, a footnote.
Their most prominent stages during this period were one was TMC and the other was Black Eight in 2007.
In these two stages, they have only become a more eye-catching team in the league, and have never been related to competing for the championship.
The Warriors' weakness is, on the one hand, caused by management chaos and the boss's blind actions.
The team's previous owners are all miraculous in the history of the NBA. They are typical laymen leading experts, short-sighted and having an idea every three days.
For example, Chris Webber, the No. 1 pick in 1993, had some conflicts with the team after playing for one year, so he was sent to the Washington Wizards.
It shows that the team is very impatient when it comes to lineup construction, and they come up with every idea.
On the other hand, the Warriors have been an anti-version team for a long time.
This team doesn't like to play defense, it likes to attack, and it has emphasized offense for decades.
The Warriors' team ethos is to attack, attack, and attack again.
Although team temperament sounds a bit metaphysical, it does exist.
This has a lot to do with the team's management style, the character of the fans in the region, and the city's atmosphere.
For example, in a blue-collar city like the Detroit Pistons, there are many industrial workers. The fans are simple and rough in temperament and like to watch high-intensity basketball.
Therefore, the Pistons' most successful period relied on crazy and tough defense.
Once they start playing offense and playing beautiful basketball, the Pistons are basically doomed and have a discordant temperament.
A star-studded West Coast city like Los Angeles needs superstars and a gorgeous offense. Without superstars, there would be no basketball.
As long as the Lakers dominate the league, they must have the league's top superstars, and ordinary All-Stars simply cannot support the stage here.
The Warriors, like the Lakers, are located on the West Coast. The Bay Area, where San Francisco and Oakland are located, is a gathering place for emerging technology companies in the United States. There are a large number of big bosses and practitioners in the new economy industry here.
When these people are sports fans, they are not very interested in rough and brutal high-intensity confrontations. They like to watch beautiful offenses, light and agile players, and stars with a strong academic temperament.
If you look at the Warriors' interior choices in the 1990s, you will know that Chris Webber, Joe Smith, and Antawn Jamison are all offensive four positions with flexible bodies and academic playing skills. The Warriors are very interested in this type of player. His hobbies can be described as tireless.
Unfortunately, from the 1980s and 1990s until about 2010, the version of the NBA was not an offensive version, but a defensive + superstar version, with centers and power forwards emerging one after another.
Don Nelson persisted in running his small-ball concept basketball in the Warriors and Mavericks. In the reverse version of the state, he was repeatedly shut out of the playoff conference finals.
Finally in 2012, Don Nelson retired, but his spiritual and tactical legacy remained with the Warriors, helping the Warriors start their rebuilding road.
The boss of the Warriors has also been replaced by a new economic consortium headed by Lacob. These Bay Area consortium bosses are different from those engaged in real estate, industry and agriculture. They are more open-minded, less arbitrary in character, and can fully respect professional managers. and opinions from basketball professionals.
After missing out on Curry in the 2009 draft, the Warriors never gave up their efforts to acquire a good point guard.
Although Rubio is a very good talent at the No. 1 position, his shortcomings in shooting are so great that there is no way to make up for them through acquired training.
So the Warriors sent him away after three years of training, and in the 2012 draft, the management unexpectedly picked up older rookie Damian Lillard.
In fact, when the decision was made to select Curry in 2009, there was a lot of internal opposition.
But as Curry won the championship in 2012, no one doubted his strength and playing style.
Fans just feel that it is a pity. If only the Clippers had not cut off the numbers and had taken Griffin with the No. 1 pick.
This time, Lillard, who is also an older rookie, is much less controversial.
And Lillard quickly used his excellent performance to prove that the Warriors made the right choice.
Although his physical fitness is not very strong, he has excellent shooting ability and calm shot selection.
His playing style and state are completely unlike a rookie. He scored 20+10 in the first game of his career, showing his amazing combat effectiveness.
Many commentators say that Lillard is a player who is ready to fight at an older age and has little potential to be tapped.
But the Warriors don't see it that way. They have seen a lot of energy in Lillard through trial training, summer league, and official regular season.
After the start of this season, the Warriors showed strong combat effectiveness.
Against a weak team, the Warriors have a lot of firepower and can dominate their opponents for the entire game.
Playing against a strong team, the Warriors can open 50-50, and anyone can compete for several rounds.
In the last game at Oracle Arena, the Warriors successfully sunk the Clippers with three-pointers, adding another step to their victory book.
Mark Jackson runs the army very strictly. He not only requires the Warriors to have strong firepower, but also has high requirements for defense.
Balanced offense and defense is a basic requirement for every strong team. The Warriors in the past were lame too badly.
Even if the NBA is gradually entering an offensive version, defense cannot be lost.
In about a week, the Warriors played against the Clippers for the second time, and the whole team was full of confidence.
The entire Western Conference team, especially the motivated young teams, are targeting the Clippers and want to defeat and surpass the Clippers.
This is especially obvious for the Warriors. Firstly, both teams are in California, very close to each other. Secondly, they are both young teams that have emerged from the quagmire. Thirdly, the Clippers and Warriors have a hatred for Curry. Fourthly, Mark -Jackson has a grudge against the Clippers.
The superimposition of multiple buffs gives the Warriors a lot of motivation when they beat the Clippers.
But before tonight's game started, the Warriors took a look at the Clippers' starting lineup: four of the five main starters were rested, and Curry, Harden, Randolph, and Gasol were not on the roster.
The only starting player to appear is third-year Paul George, who has the lowest position among the starting five and is the least important.
Good guy, who can’t afford it? You lost the last game, why are you still taking a break here?
Warriors head coach Mark Jackson was very unhappy.
Jackson has always been a grudge-y person and is not very open-minded.
Therefore, since his playing days, although Jackson is very capable, his relationship with the team and teammates has never been very good.
He changed 7 teams in his 16-year career and jumped repeatedly between teams. After retiring, he ranked fifth in history with more than 10,000 assists in his career. He is definitely a character.
But no team was willing to keep him and give him even a position. In the end, he had no choice but to go to the TV station as a commentator.
He once played for the Clippers, and his previous bid for coaching failed because he was not appreciated by Min Congda.
Later, he joined the Warriors and formed his own team. At this time, the Clippers had already risen, and they began to compete against the Clippers.
Before the start of tonight's game, Jackson gave a passionate speech, telling the young Warriors to make the arrogant defending champions pay the price by taking advantage of their opponents' losing streak to rub salt into their wounds.
The Warriors' starting lineup is capable of offense and defense. Bogut, David Lee, Thompson, and Barnes Gallillard have great potential.
But the Clippers' second lineup is not bad, and with Milicic and Anthony Davis teaming up inside, the Clippers' inside height and defensive coverage have improved to a higher level.
Since Milicic settled down to play defensive center with the Clippers, he has gone further and further as a boxer.
Don't look at Bogut playing against other teams. He has a big mouth and dares to criticize anyone. Even Yao Ming dares to go up and say hello.
But when he met Milicic, Bogut really had to think about himself.
In terms of height and weight, Milicic was not at all inferior to Bogut, and even had an advantage.
In terms of his ferocity in the paint, Bogut, an Australian, is a typical bully and a foul-mouthed man.
And Milicic is a Serbian. This nation has experienced wars all year round, and its people have a fierce character.
Milicic, who had been depressed in the United States for many years, finally found his place in the Clippers. In addition to completing basic basketball exercises every day, the rest of the time was spent on fitness and hitting sandbags, making him the league's number one boxer.
If Bogut doesn't want to get punched, he has to keep his mouth shut during the game.
Not to mention Davis, after experiencing poor performance some time ago and pretending to be a rookie wall, Davis readjusted his mentality.
Starting tonight is a good opportunity for him to prove himself.
He put all his energy back into defense.
Just like he did at Kentucky.
In the 2012 NCAA Finals, Anthony Davis only scored a measly 6 points.
But he was able to get the MOP in the end because he also scored 16 rebounds and 6 blocks in the game, truly dominating the defensive end.
When he got rid of some obsession with statistics and focused on doing what he was good at, he was already one of the best interior defenders in the league under the age of 20.
On the front line, the Clippers also have Leonard and George.
The two of them were also holding back their breath. After the Clippers lost three consecutive games, many media criticized the two: "a rigid forward duo with no offensive talent" and "when the two are on the court at the same time, the Clippers' offense changes." It has become a disaster.” “It’s like dried horse manure on the western grasslands. It’s dry, smelly, and hard, with no silky texture at all.”
Today's NBA media is very developed, and fans can express their views on the game on Twitter almost all the time.
Often just after a game, players turn on their phones and receive relevant post-match notifications.
The criticism from the media and the ridicule from the fans pierced the self-esteem of these two young people like needles.
If they are over 30 years old, successful, mentally mature, have a high salary, and are full of honors, then you can just scold them. Anyway, I have already gotten what I deserve, so I just look away and don't care.
But they are still young. Although they have won the championship, their basketball career has just begun.
Any harsh criticism will become a motivation for them to improve.
Before the game started, Mike Malone even reminded them with one sentence:
"If they say you are dry and hard horse dung, then you might as well be dry and hard. But remember, you are not horse dung, you are steel and diamonds. Use your toughness to put your opponents at risk. Death place!"
It's not like the Clippers' second team has never used defense to strangle the opponent.
When Min Congda first took over as the head coach, the players in the Clippers' second lineup figured out a tough defensive style of play. They exhausted their opponents in the transition period, and the energy-consuming opponents were worse than dead.
Nowadays, it is not difficult to pick up this style of play again, because they all have a defensive heart and talent for defense.
So, five minutes into the first quarter, the Clippers beat the Warriors 11:0.
The Warriors didn't score a point for nearly five minutes. It wasn't that they didn't feel good and couldn't make a shot, but that they really couldn't find a chance!
The Clippers' defense is simply airtight.
It's not that Mike Malone established a system. In this short period of time, he had no time to build a system.
This group of people, if they focus seriously, their single defense ability is really strong!
Barnes and Thompson were constantly guarded by George and Leonard.
Insider David Lee even took two big blocks from Davis in a row, making the Warriors' offense extremely difficult.
At the same time, when it comes to defending Lillard, the Clippers learned the lesson from the previous game and did not give Lillard a good shooting space, but let him break into the inside.
Randolph and Gasol lined up in the three-second zone, and Lillard still had a chance to score.
Milicic and Anthony Davis guard the three-second zone, which is a treat for hot pot.
In the first quarter of the game, Anthony Davis contributed three big blocks, David Lee had two, and Lillard had one.
The big-mouthed Bogut made no sound at all under Milicic's watch.
Although the Clippers' own offense is mediocre, they mainly rely on Dragic to handle the ball outside.
However, relying on their tough defense, the Clippers fought back many times, and Leonard and George vented their inner anger with dunks again and again.
After George dunked, there was a roar.
Not to mention Leonard's roar, his expression didn't change when he dunked.
There are two people, one cold and one hot, but they are secretly trying to express themselves.
The Clippers' lineup is top-notch in height, defensive strength, hardness, and speed.
At the end of the first quarter, the Clippers actually beat the Warriors 25:12, leading by 13 points.
If it weren't for the Clippers' defense to save some energy in the middle, it would be a question whether the Warriors could score in double digits in the first quarter.
Seeing the strong defensive ability of the Clippers' second team, Mike Malone sighed in his heart that he was in the right place.
(End of chapter)
