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After making the preparations, Liam Gonzalez and Jonathan left the office, took the elevator down to the first floor, exited the office area, and walked a long way through the internal passage to the home team's locker room.
Liam pushed open the door, and the players who were about to enter the game were also preparing for the game.
Butler sat alone, seriously putting on his shoes, while Whiteside, Danny Green, and a few other players at the end of the bench were chatting quietly.
Green and Tyson Chandler were discussing defensive tactics enthusiastically, while Kirilenko and Tony Allen listened and occasionally offered their opinions.
Jeremy Lin was asking Yi Jianlian about Chinese pronunciation. He had been learning Chinese for a season, and although he wasn't very proficient, he could communicate with Yi in simple Chinese for a short time.
Curry took a small bag of popcorn and threw them one by one, entertaining himself, while Klay sat next to him, silently watching him eat popcorn, but his eyes were unfocused, and no one knew what he was thinking.
When everyone saw Liam enter, they all greeted him, and Liam responded with a smile. He walked over to where the coaching staff was and had a quick meeting with them one last time before the game.
After a brief discussion, the coaching staff finally decided on the tactics to use in the game, and Liam slowly approached the players and conversed with them.
"Jimmy, fight hard. Today is a tough battle that requires your ..."
"Tyson, what are you talking about? So happy, let's hear it... Oh? Are you teaching Drummond? In that case, Drummond, let me give you some advice: You'll be playing against Randolph. He's a star, and you're a rookie. The referees will definitely be very tough on you, don't argue with them..."
"Emirates, get ready. Your playing time today might not be too long, but you need to give your best every minute you're on the court, which is completely different from the intensity of the matchup against the Thunder..."
"Jeremy, you played well in the last round, keep up the good work today, I have high hopes for you..."
Liam turned around and walked over to Curry, nodded at Klay, who was sitting there in silence, and despite Klay not responding at all, he directly turned his head to look at Curry.
"Is the popcorn good?"
The popcorn in Curry's hand had hit the bottom. He shrugged, threw the last handful of popcorn into his mouth, tossed the bag into the trash can next to his seat, and complained:
"Boss, can you change the popcorn? Why are the popcorns at the Oracle Center so disgusting..."
His eyes suddenly lit up, and he said:
"Hey, boss, why not change the main sponsor of the arena?"
"Eh? What did you say?"
Curry counted on his fingers seriously:
"Boss, I've eaten all the team's popcorn. The best were the Mavericks', then the Nets', and the Heat's were third. The Oracle's were okay, barely made it into the top ten. I won't even mention the Lakers and Clippers. If it weren't for Ayesha in LA, I really wouldn't want to play at Staples..."
He clicked his tongue in disgust, looked directly at Liam, and said:
"Look, the Mavericks' and Heat's home arenas are the American Airlines Center, and their popcorn is so delicious. Let's change it to the American Airlines Center!"
"Stephen, you really love popcorn..." Liam had a black line on his face. "The title can't be changed right now. The contract Oracle Group signed with the team will have to wait a few years before it expires, and after we build a new arena, if American Airlines makes a high offer, I could let them name it."
Curry's attention quickly shifted to the words "new arena" and he exclaimed:
"New arena? Boss, are you going to build a new arena?"
His voice was a bit loud, attracting the attention of several players around him. Liam waved his hand and said:
"I only have this plan, and it's still far from building the stadium."
"Oh, okay..." Curry was a bit disappointed, but then he immediately remembered something else and smiled happily:
"Hey, boss, when I was video chatting with Ayesha yesterday, I heard her talk about an interesting story on set..."
After chatting with Curry, Liam gathered all the players, raised their morale, and finally emphasized the tactics for this game:
"On defense, pay attention to reducing the interior line. You might miss some three-pointers, but you must protect the paint. This is the foundation for us to win. Who can make it, who can't, everyone must be clear. Forget about it, then look at the scouting report in your hand. If you let someone go who shouldn't be let go, or let someone shoot who shouldn't shoot, tomorrow, just expect the training volume to double!"
Everyone nodded repeatedly. Liam continued: "The core of our offense is two words: cover. Whether it's blocking or passing, the interior players must do a solid cover. Cover is the foundation of everything. We must focus on the Grizzlies' interior line for 48 minutes, make them defend, consume their energy. If they don't step up, we'll shoot them to death!" The changes after the coverage, you've practiced them in the last two days. If anyone stands still after a block, the training volume will double tomorrow!"
Everyone felt much more relaxed when they heard this. In the Warriors' training over the past two years, the movement of off-ball players had always been the focus, and they had initially cultivated the awareness of active running, which is also an important reason why the number of shooters in the Warriors is small, but the spacing is not congested.
After Liam finished speaking, the players left the locker room and came to the court to warm up.
There were already many spectators sitting in the stands, skillfully wearing jerseys that covered the backs of the seats and watching the players warm up, most of whom were focused on Curry.
With everyone's eyes on him, Curry began to ring his bells and whistles.
He reached the baseline and took the two basketballs passed to him by the coach. First, the two balls were dribbled vertically at the same time, then the two balls were thrown horizontally in the same direction, then the two balls were thrown horizontally in opposite directions, and the two balls were thrown vertically in the same direction... until one ball dribbled under the legs + a crossover dribble forward, and finally, a crossover dribble forward + a ball behind the back crossover, the entire dribbling process was extremely powerful, the dribble rate was extremely fast, the rhythm was unpredictable, the movements were clean and tidy, and the embellishment was extremely high, making many fans exclaim.
Afterward, Curry carried out reception and passing drills, full-court shooting drills within the three-point line, fixed-point shooting drills, and squat jump shooting drills, all of which maintained a shooting rate of over 90%. Even the few balls that missed the rim were few, and almost all the shots swished through the net, with the entire process being smooth and pleasant to watch.
But that wasn't what the fans wanted to see the most. After these drills, Curry picked up the basketball, dribbled, and walked toward the player tunnel. The crowd inevitably stood up, took out their phones, and pointed them in Curry's direction. Whistles and applause rang out.
When Curry reached the entrance of the tunnel, almost everyone in the arena was looking at him, including the Grizzlies players warming up on the opposite side and Hollins on the other side of the technical table.
Curry handed the ball to Johansson, the security guard at the Oracle Center, who took the basketball and laughed, shouting: "Ready, Stephen?"
During his rookie season, Curry had made a bet with him before a home game that he could make a three-pointer from the entrance of the tunnel, and Johansson had expressed disbelief. Curry had immediately raised his hand to convince Johansson, and since then, Curry had kept this habit.
Curry nodded, Johansson passed the ball, Curry received the ball, ran two steps, lifted his hand from his chest, and shot it. The basketball glided in a perfect arc, traveling the long distance from the player tunnel entrance to the basket, and dropped directly through the net in front of everyone's eyes.
"Ooohhhh!"
"YES!!!"
"Stephen, can you sign for me? You're so handsome!"
After the shot went in, the first row of fans, including those who had come down from the hill to watch Curry warm up, cheered, and Curry himself enthusiastically high-fived the security guard Johansson and ran around half the court.
But while the crowd went wild over Curry's ultra-long threes, on the other side of the court, Hollins frowned as he watched Curry, who was playing basketball like bowling, soccer, and even golf with his coach.
He was a very traditional old-school coach, running his team like an army, and was very strict with his players. Even a notorious figure like Randolph had been trained by him to be a veteran model, and he was very displeased by Curry's playful behavior on the court.
Like Larry Brown, he believed that players should treat the game like a war and approach it with the utmost seriousness, not play "happy basketball."
In Hollins' mind, basketball could not be "happy," and if you wanted to win a championship, you had to go through a painful and long struggle.
But it was Curry, the representative of "happy basketball" in the new generation, who made Hollins feel more complicated.
After the Grizzlies eliminated the Spurs, Hollins began watching footage of the Warriors' games that night and studied it late into the night. The next day, he repeatedly discussed it with the coaching staff, but still couldn't figure out how to deal with Curry.
Curry's first-round training camp against Ibaka had left a deep impression on Hollins. The Grizzlies had played four regular-season games against the Thunder, and he was very familiar with Ibaka's defensive capabilities. Yet, Ibaka, known for his mobility and defensive switches, allowed Curry to score 35.1 points, 5.3 assists, and 4.7 rebounds against him. Curry's performance in the first round was insane, and all the stars were unparalleled.
Hollins thought about Randolph's and Marc Gasol's defensive abilities...
No, he couldn't bear to think about it. But the offense in black and white is based on weight and strength, which turns out to be the biggest disadvantage when defending perimeter players.
What frustrated him the most was that the Grizzlies' offense was entirely centered around the twin towers, and he knew their defensive disadvantage. However, he dared not break them up, for fear that the Grizzlies' offense would collapse.
This is just a matter of the interior. If the Grizzlies have a defensive warrior on the outside, they can also limit Curry, but Mike Conley is still immature, and Battier is a small forward, not suitable for a full-court defense against Curry, which makes Hollins regretful when he has a headache.
If the Grizzlies could have signed Tony Allen last summer, he wouldn't have to worry so much, but not only did Tony Allen not join the Grizzlies, he signed with the Warriors. He didn't have to think hard to know that Coach Liam would definitely reuse Tony Allen to defend against the Grizzlies' outside players, which made him feel doubly regretful.
In the last two days, Hollins racked his brain and could never come up with a good way to defend Curry. Finally, he got so distracted that he stopped thinking about it altogether.
As a defensive warrior in his playing days, the fierceness accumulated over the years made Hollins decide to use interior offense and tenacious, unrelenting defense—representing the glory of NBA tradition—to compete with the Warriors. He didn't believe Curry could always be accurate.
After decades of experience, Hollins chose the basketball philosophy he believed would bring him a championship, an All-Star Game, and a head coach position after some internal doubts and concerns.
Whoever wins the interior battle, wins the world, and defense wins the championship.
It's just that Hollins seems to have intentionally and unintentionally overlooked one thing: the Grizzlies certainly have interior strength and defense, but the Warriors are not just about projection.
...
The warm-up time quickly ended, the Oracle Center gradually filled with spectators, the atmosphere in the arena heated up, and the fans were still immersed in the frenzy of defeating the Thunder in the first round. The Warriors were playing against the Grizzlies, who were eighth in the West, in the second round, which excited them even more, as if they saw the Warriors' path to the Western Conference Finals. But they completely forgot that the Spurs, who succeeded with the Grizzlies' Black Eight, were the number one seed in the West.
"The starting lineups for both teams have arrived on the court. The Warriors continue with the starting combination of Curry, Klay, Butler, Green, and Chandler. The Grizzlies' starting lineup hasn't changed from the first round. Mike Conley, Randolph, Marc Gasol, Sam Young, and OJ Mayo make up the six-man combination used by Hollins, and it's also their most used starting lineup in the regular season..." In such a hot atmosphere, Mike Breen's voice also unconsciously amplified.
The game was broadcasted by ESPN, who sent a team of Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy to the Oracle Center for a live broadcast.
Mike Breen quickly and clearly presented the situation of both teams: "Purely from a statistical standpoint, there is undoubtedly a large gap between the starters of the two teams. Curry is the regular season scoring champion, and in the first round against the Thunder, he had a crazy 35+ point performance, while Randolph only put up 21+9 stats in the first round, and Marc Gasol posted a double-double of 14+12. There is a large gap in scoring between Curry and Randolph, of course, their strength lies in defense, not just in scoring."
Jeff Van Gundy nodded:
It's related to the difference between the two teams in the first round, but after the double test of the regular season and the playoffs, Curry is recognized as a super scorer, and everyone is eager to see what he can do against the Grizzlies, known for their defense. Randolph and Marc Gasol are the famous Twin Towers, and the collision between them and the defensive titan Chandler will largely determine the direction of this series..."
"Alright, the game is underway: Marc Gasol beat Chandler with a jumper, the Grizzlies got the ball on the first offensive possession, and the ball came to Mike Conley..."
Under the watchful eye of Mike Breen, Mike Conley dribbled past half-court, and the Grizzlies attacked.
End of this chapter
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