Although many people are actively discussing that Wang Zelin has become the first MVP winner to be expelled in the finals since O'Neal in 2000, when the total score of the series was tied at 2 to 3, the outside world criticized him overnight. There have been earth-shaking changes, and the number of fans who recognize that the Cavaliers can win the championship has surged.
In the past two days, the small town of Cleveland has become extremely lively again.
June 16th.
When Wang Zelin and his teammates came to Cleveland again, they found that the streets and alleys of the entire city were posted with slogans such as "Tie 3-3," "Game 6," and "Cavaliers Championship." words.
At 19:00 in the evening, the Cavaliers ushered in the sixth game of the series against the Trail Blazers at home.
After the game started, the Cavaliers, who returned home, led by James, did whatever they wanted on the offensive end, beating the Trail Blazers 8:0 from the start.
Wang Zelin turned over and hooked in the low post, which barely helped the team open the scoring and break the scoring drought.
But then, the Trail Blazers, whose away game was like a graveyard, failed to maintain their usual impregnable defense. James, Irving, and JR scored consecutive points, and the Cavaliers successfully opened the point difference to double digits.
In the 5-on-8 situation, the Blazers completely lost their way. They kept shooting and made continuous mistakes. The Cavaliers stole the ball and turned into a counterattack.
After a single quarter, the Cavaliers beat the Cavaliers 31:17, leading by a big score.
Data shows that this is the first time the Trail Blazers have fallen behind by so much in a single quarter in this year's playoffs.
In the second quarter, the Trail Blazers finally found their shooting touch. Lillard hit three-pointers and free throws successively. Wang Zelin, Patton, and Connett Lee also scored consecutively, and the point difference continued to narrow.
In the middle of this section, James scored a three-pointer to help the Cavaliers stabilize the situation again.
But soon, Wang Zelin took advantage of the referee's less attention on him and kept scoring under the basket, forcing the Cavaliers to call two timeouts in one minute.
Before the end of the first half, the Trail Blazers recovered. Veteran Vince Carter once again played the role of a surprise player, scoring consecutively through jump shots and fouls.
After halftime, the Trail Blazers were 53:59, only 6 points behind the Cavaliers.
However, when the side changed and the game resumed, James came up and went to the inside, causing Wang Zelin to make a defensive foul and made two free throws.
In the next round, it was the same attack to the basket, and it was the same foul that caused Wang Zelin. Seeing that something was wrong again, Coach Terry had to follow Wang Zelin back to the bench.
Taking this opportunity, James started his dominant performance, scoring 14 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds in the third quarter.
After three quarters, 86:73, the Cavaliers extended their lead to 13 points.
The core of the team was severely targeted, and the teammates were unable to catch up with the score, which made the Blazers generals feel very bad.
Entering the final quarter, James still insisted on staying on the court, helping the Cavaliers bite the lead that lasted until the end of the game.
At the end of the game, with James' outstanding performance, the Cavaliers defeated the Trail Blazers 118:110, successfully tying the series at 3-3.
In this campaign, James continued his stellar performance. He scored 41 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists. Counting the 40 points in the last game, James has scored 40+ in two consecutive finals.
In the past 23 years, apart from James, only Jordan, O'Neal, and Wang Zelin have accomplished such a feat.
In addition, after this campaign, James' total score in the finals has reached 1,052 points, successfully surpassing John Havlicek's 1,018 points and Tom Heinsall's 1,037 points, surpassing the two Green Army legends, and rising to 7th in history.
At the same time, he hit three three-pointers in this game, and the total number of three-pointers made in the playoffs reached 286, surpassing Derek Fisher and rising to fifth place in history.
Among other Cavaliers players, Irving scored 23 points, JR scored 14 points, and Cousins had a double-double with 15 points and 16 rebounds.
For the Trail Blazers, although Wang Zelin was not ejected again tonight, he only scored 29 points, setting a new low in this year's finals.
Among the other Trail Blazers players, Lillard scored 26 points, Barton had 11 points, and substitute Jokic had 15 points. No one has scored in double figures yet.
No matter how the outside world evaluates the two games of G5 and G6, the finals will inevitably be forced into a tiebreaker, which has become a foregone conclusion.
If the Cavaliers can win three games in a row and win the tiebreaker, they will become the first team in NBA history to successfully reverse a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.
"Let's be the greatest team in history!"
Both Cavaliers fans and James fans are beginning to look forward to it.
James' first championship after returning to the Cavaliers, and Cleveland's first championship in the four major leagues after half a century, these are enough to make them excited.
If you add the first team to reverse 1-3 in the finals, it is not just a simple maneuver, but also an exciting and inspiring move!
For the Trail Blazers, playing at home will be their only advantage in the robbery battle.
However, considering their experiences in the past few games, home games are like away games, and away games are like graveyards!
If the referee is still like this in the last game, then this only advantage will be gone.
At the same time, from a 3-1 lead to being tied by the Cavaliers in this way, the Trail Blazers' morale inevitably declined, and some players even felt frustrated.
That's right. There are only two games like this. Who wouldn't be tired of changing?
Now that the Cavaliers have such strong support from the league, since they can play two or three games, you can imagine how difficult it is for them to win in the long term.
The bad atmosphere can be felt when the team returns to Portland for training. The team's morale has reached its lowest point since the finals in the past three years.
However, there is one person who is just the opposite.
"Nicholas, did you forget to eat breakfast? Your defense is as weak as noodles!"
"Montrez, with your terrible movement, do you want your opponent to score 50 points on your head?"
"Damien, you forgot your three-point shooting bag, right? Or maybe you were frightened by the referee, and you can pass open balls like this..."
"..."
In this team training match, Wang Zelin kept trash-talking his teammates from the beginning. Such an unexpected move made people clearly feel that Wang Zelin is very angry now, very, very angry!
This kind of Wang Zelin has never been seen by old teammates including Lillard.
Wang Zelin was really irritated, and this anger quickly spread to his teammates. There were no referees on the training ground, and the Blazers' defensive intensity also returned a lot.
Even when they thought about the unfair penalties they encountered in the past two games, Lillard and Barton started to get angry.
At precisely this time, anger is the only thing that can boost morale.
After the training match, Coach Terry didn't even dare to talk to Wang Zelin.
However, this did not mean that he was willing to give up and head to the general manager's office.
After the Portland Trail Blazers suffered unfair treatment one after another, Paul Allen, the team owner, was naturally unhappy.
"We need a fair game!"
Paul Allen tweeted.
Originally, there was a problem with the referee's whistle-blowing standards in these two games. The matter caused a stir outside, and fans at home and abroad have long criticized it.
In the sixth game, many fans turned off the TV in anger when they were halfway through the game.
NBA ratings dropped by nearly 10 million in an instant, which was a cliff-like drop from the previous five games.
This was not only beyond the expectations of the joke, but also dissatisfied other senior leaders in the league.
The NBA is a business league. Everyone agreed with the joke's suggestion before, and the secret operation helped the Cavaliers win. The main reason is that doing so has indeed brought greater benefits to everyone.
But now it is obvious that the matter has become serious, and there has been a backlash. Everyone knows that the situation must not be allowed to develop like this.
Recently, under the joint efforts of Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen, many NBA team owners have launched complaints and protests to the league.
In the face of absolute unfairness, even Americans who were subjected to racial discrimination stood up to speak for Wang Zelin and the Trail Blazers.
Regardless of the fact that Wang Zelin and the Trail Blazers were injured today, once the league is allowed to manipulate the game so blatantly, there is no telling whose turn it will be next.
"What the hell are the NBA's current penalty rules? Is it to maintain authority if you know your mistakes and don't correct them? This is not called authority, this is called dictatorship!"
"It's really painful to watch. I'm not a Trail Blazers fan, and I'm not a Cavaliers fan, but I really feel heartbroken for the Trail Blazers."
"The Cavaliers are the championship determined by the league in advance, right?"
"I'm afraid this finals will be recorded in the 'shit' book. Let me ask you, is it disgusting to watch?"
"Disgusting! Too special meow is disgusting!"
"It is strongly recommended that the NBA revise its rules and never allow the referees to be so monopolized. At least the team should be given an opportunity to challenge the referees in every game."
"Yes, I think so too. The referee is certainly the authority on the field, but sometimes the authority is too strong and can easily influence the trend of the game. Isn't this a waste of the players' efforts?"
"..."
The number of public opinions on the Internet has increased to tens of millions in a short period of time, and most of them are based on the referee's judgment.
On this day, after training, Wang Zelin was also surfing the Internet, paying attention to the direction of public opinion.
The result made him quite gratified. The world was still full of justice.
However, he is quite familiar with the "teams can challenge the referee" rule that netizens are currently discussing enthusiastically.
I remember that in the previous life, when the NBA developed into the 2019-20 season, it introduced similar challenge rules:
The coach can issue a challenge when he disagrees with the referee's decision, but issuing a challenge requires a timeout. If the challenge is successful, the referee will change the decision and the timeout will not be consumed;
However, if the challenge fails, the referee will uphold the original decision and the timeout will be deducted.
The introduction of this new rule seems to be beneficial to maintaining fair penalties, but it is a bit useless in actual combat.
On the one hand, a challenge can only be initiated when the referee blows the whistle. If the referee does not blow the whistle, there is no way to challenge it. On the other hand, many penalties, although challenged, will most likely remain the original verdict in order to maintain credibility; Moreover, having only one opportunity to challenge the referee in one game is a drop in the bucket.
But in any case, it is gratifying enough that the unfair treatment encountered by the Trail Blazers has caused such unprecedented discussion and attention online.
Under the general trend of public opinion, Wang Zelin does not believe that the alliance will not make some changes. Losing in the first two games is irreversible. As long as a fair whistleblowing scale can be maintained in the last game, the Trail Blazers are fully confident in defeating the Cavaliers and winning the championship in an honest and fair manner.
Although there are many twists and turns ahead, as long as he can win the cup at home, he is not unacceptable.
…
…
Fast forward to June 19th.
The tiebreaker of the 2015-16 NBA Finals kicked off at the Portland Rose Garden Arena.
Although fans' doubts about the league reached a peak, the ratings of this tiebreaker had already reached a season high before the start of the game.
A battle to determine the outcome, this is a real life and death battle.
The eyes of basketball fans across America and even the world are focused on this game.
Will the Trail Blazers defend their final home court and win the fourth championship in team history, establishing a three-peat dynasty? Or will the Cavaliers achieve an epic 1-3 comeback and win Cleveland's first-ever championship? Half a century of four major championships.
No matter what the outcome is, attention should be paid to exciting and climaxing the respective fans.
This time, Bill Russell, who had been running around since the fifth game, finally breathed a sigh of relief. No matter who wins tonight, his trophy is finally determined.
Of course, if he had to choose one, he would be more happy to see Wang Zelin win.
As one of the legendary centers in the NBA, he hopes that the great torch of the center can be continued in the hands of the Kings.
However, compared to Mr. Russell's trip, what really surprised the world was the person sitting next to him...
David Stern!
That's right, David Stern, the great manager who has served as NBA president for thirty years and successfully introduced the NBA to the world, unexpectedly attended the tiebreaker between the Trail Blazers and Cavaliers today.
The former president's attendance immediately attracted the attention of countless people in the arena and triggered various discussions.
After the end of G5 and G6, not only the league was questioned, but the referee's planning standards in the finals were also pulled out by countless fans and treated as a joke.
The authority of the league and the referee team has been pushed to the forefront by public opinion at this moment.
Fans unanimously demanded the rights of weak referees in the league. Yesterday, the current president Joke had to come forward to assure fans that the league would give fans a satisfactory answer as soon as possible.
And today, former president Stern appeared at the battle scene again. Does it mean that this game will be different from the previous two games?
Everything will only be known after the game starts.
"Old man, we meet again."
Before the game, Wang Zelin came to Mr. Russell as usual and greeted him warmly.
"Haha, I hope you won't let me make another trip tonight." Russell smiled and stood up to hug Wang Zelin.
"I hope so too, but..."
With that said, Wang Zelin turned to look at Stern next to him.
"King, please feel free and bold to fight tonight."
Stern showed that familiar smile and gave him a positive answer.
(End of chapter)
