After defeating the Grizzlies, the Warriors rushed to Salt Lake City overnight to challenge the Utah Jazz back-to-back.
As we all know, the Jazz’s home stadium, Energy Solutions Arena, is known as the “Devil’s Home Arena”.
Playing here not only has to overcome altitude sickness, but also endure the boos and abuse from the home fans.
These are only external factors and cannot play a decisive role. The most important thing is that the Jazz itself is not weak.
They are a strong team that has made the playoffs all year round and are known for their iron-blooded defense. No matter who wants to withdraw from Energy Solutions Arena, they have to lose a layer of skin.
Therefore, most players in the league dislike coming to Energy Solutions Arena to play.
Their state is very easily affected here and they cannot produce good data.
The most important thing is that there are very few bars and nightclubs in Salt Lake City, and there is a lack of places to relax.
To sum up, it is very difficult for the Warriors to escape unscathed, so they can only give it a try.
During the entrance ceremony, Sun Yi felt the "enthusiasm" of the Salt Lake City fans.
"Oh my goodness, these fans are so crazy. They remind me of the game against North Carolina in the NCAA finals. I wonder what it would be like to silence these lunatics."
Sun Yi listened to the boos and curses and complained to Curry on the side.
"Sun, you still have a strong psychological quality, and you can still talk and laugh at this time."
Curry eased his nervousness by chatting and joking with Sun Yi.
After that, the two came to the bench and got ready to play.
After the entrance ceremony, the starting lineups of both sides were displayed on the big screen.
Warriors starting lineup: Curry, Moreau, Maggette, Sun Yi, Randolph.
Jazz starting lineup: Deron, Matthews, Kirilenko, Boozer, Okur.
Seeing the Jazz's starting players reminded Sun Yi of the Mosaic team's game against the Jazz in the past.
Under the guidance of coach Sloan, the Jazz were simply the Mosaic's nemesis. They continuously eliminated the Mosaic in the playoffs, making it impossible for the Yao-Mai combination to overcome the Jazz.
Moreover, Boozer also became famous and was labeled as Yao's nemesis.
Sun Yi doesn't think Boozer is better than Dayao. It's just that this guy relies on the Jazz's tactical system to avoid the important and take the easy.
If Dayao is given a reliable fourth position, he can hang up Boozer and Okur with one hand.
Without thinking too much, Sun Yi swept away the distracting thoughts in his mind and concentrated on preparing for the battle.
Not long after, the game officially started.
Not long after the game started, the Warriors fell into a disadvantage.
It may be due to back-to-back reasons, or it may be due to the influence of the Devils' home court, which makes the Warriors' players out of shape and their strength is greatly reduced.
The two shooters Curry and Moreau encountered the Jazz's strong defense and frequently failed to shoot three-pointers.
Even if he can't score from the outside, he often makes mistakes in passing and cutting coordination.
Sun Yi found that when he passed the ball, his teammates were always half a beat too slow to react, leading to passing errors.
For this reason, he did not dare to lead the ball again, but waited for his teammates to reach the designated position before passing the ball.
The shortcomings of this are very obvious. It is impossible to avoid interference from opponents, and the shooting percentage will also be affected.
In this way, the Warriors couldn't open up the offensive end, couldn't play smooth running and gunning, and it was very difficult to narrow the point difference.
As for the defensive end, the Jazz used a classic pick-and-roll tactic to defeat them.
As a run-and-gun team, the Warriors have no need for defense and can only rely on offense to compete with their opponents. Now that they don't even have an offense, it is natural that they lose.
In the second half of the fourth quarter, Sun Yi and Curry could only sigh together on the bench, feeling that they were pitiful and weak.
It’s so miserable!
He was beaten by the Jazz throughout the whole process, and was badly damaged on both offense and defense.
Without the powerful output point of Ellis, it is indeed impossible to compete with a strong team at the playoff level, even if all members of the Warriors perform normally.
In the end, the Warriors lost to the Jazz 84-102.
The performance of the Warriors Gemini was a bit disastrous.
In the 36 minutes played, Sun Yi scored a double-double of 15 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks.
Although his data seems to be quite satisfactory, there is still a certain degree of moisture in it.
When most teams play against a run-and-gun team, they basically don't fight for offensive rebounds, but seize the time to quickly return to defense.
This allowed Sun Yi to seize the opportunity and easily pick up a few backcourt rebounds, which made the data look better.
Curry's performance can only be described as outstanding. In the 30 minutes he played, he scored 9 points and 3 assists.
It was the first time this season that the juniors scored less than 10 points.
Under high-intensity defense, Shaku's physical strength has problems and he cannot support him to play for longer. 30 minutes is basically the limit.
Moreover, a primary school student was at a disadvantage in all aspects against a defender with strong physical fitness like Deron. His thin body could not withstand the impact of Deron, and he was severely taught a lesson.
Back at the hotel where he stayed, Sun Yi did not go back to his room to rest, but went to the gym to use training to relieve the grief of being crushed.
"Hey! It's still too weak to hit more with less like Naocha. It seems that we need to seize the time to upgrade the system level."
Sun Yi devoted himself to training and turned his grief and anger into motivation.
…
After losing back-to-back games to the Jazz, the entire Warriors team flew back to Oakland the next day.
The loss to the Jazz did not frustrate the Warriors players.
Because the strength gap between the two sides is indeed too large, the Warriors, who are short of major generals at this stage, simply cannot defeat them.
After returning to Oakland, general manager Larry Riley announced good news.
Former Suns general manager Steve Kerr officially joined the Warriors as an assistant coach in player development.
Warriors players gave Cole a symbolic welcome to Cole's joining, but the management's arrangements have nothing to do with players like them.
Kerr also didn't expect that fate would be so wonderful, and he would still be able to coach Sun Yi, Curry and others after going round and round.
Although he is only an assistant now, he will one day become the head coach of the Warriors.
After the welcome ceremony, Cole couldn't wait to come to Sun Yi's side.
"Sun, long time no see."
"Mr. Cole, long time no see."
After greeting each other, the two exchanged a few words and then went about their respective affairs.
"At this stage, Sun's function is too single, which is simply a waste. I must tap out all his talents."
Cole made up his mind, went to the office, and began to formulate a plan to train Sun Yi.
Sun Yi didn't know that he was being targeted. Even if he knew, he would actively cooperate with Cole. After all, he also wanted to become stronger quickly.
Training time always flies by, and in a blink of an eye it’s game day again.
After a day off, the Warriors faced the Chicago Bulls at home.
At this stage, Derrick Rose has not yet become the youngest MVP, but his strength cannot be underestimated and he has already shown his talents.
This season, he averaged 22.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, and his strength has reached the All-Star level.
During the warm-up activities, Sun Yi looked at the "roses" that were gradually blooming, and felt silently for the primary school students.
I met two big guys one after another, and their styles were very different. I wonder if Shaku did something sinister and unlucky to be so unlucky.
"I hope Shaku will still be strong after this game."
Sun Yi didn't think much and continued his warm-up activities.
Not long after, the game officially started.
Not long after the game started, it was just as Sun Yi expected.
Rose, who was not seriously injured, was extremely sharp with his dribbling breakthrough. He easily passed Curry and rushed into the paint without any help from his teammates.
Sun Yi rushed back to the penalty area to defend, but was unable to stop Ross who was flying and escaping.
This guy is so fast!
Although they could not prevent the Bulls' offense, the Warriors made up for it on the offensive end.
In this game, the Warriors players regained their form and felt better.
Relying on smooth running and gunning, the Warriors and Bulls were inseparable.
When the game entered the fourth quarter with about three minutes left, the Bulls led by 2 points.
I thought I could reach the final decisive moment.
But at this time Rose stood up strongly and scored 5 points with sudden shots, widening the point difference.
The Warriors wanted to attack from the outside, but Curry and Morrow's three-pointers hit one after another, and they lost the best opportunity to chase points.
In the end, the Warriors lost to the Bulls 101-108 and suffered a two-game losing streak.
Sun Yi performed pretty well, scoring 18 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals in the 36 minutes he played.
Gibson, who faced him in this game, was also a rookie in 2009.
Against such a rookie, Sun Yi, who has rich game experience, played very easily.
Curry's performance was pretty good. He adjusted his condition and didn't stretch his hips as much as he did in the last game.
In 32 minutes on the court, he scored 17 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds.
After losing to the Bulls, all members of the Warriors rushed to Detroit overnight to face the Pistons back-to-back.
In the game against the Pistons, the Warriors also dragged the game into the decisive moment.
With 15 seconds left in the game, the Pistons only led by 2 points and the Warriors had the ball.
After returning from the timeout, Sun Yi received the pass and came outside the three-point line to organize the attack.
The other four members of the Warriors moved quickly without the ball.
Due to the Warriors' excellent outside shooting in this game, the Pistons expanded their defense and focused on defending three-pointers.
Sun Yi saw that his teammates had no chance, so he had no choice but to complete the victory by himself.
To be conservative, Sun Yi broke through inside and did not gamble on a three-pointer.
When the Pistons players saw Sun Yi breaking through to the basket, they immediately retreated towards the penalty area.
Sun Yi, who was dribbling a breakthrough, saw the Pistons players forming a double-team on him. He wanted to pass the ball but there was no space.
Seeing that time was almost up, he could only stop and shoot a fadeaway jumper against the defense of Prince and Ben Wallace.
"when!"
The basketball bounced out of the frame and missed!
In the end, the Warriors lost to the Pistons 96-98 and suffered a three-game losing streak.
The audience suddenly burst into deafening cheers and shouts.
The fans of the home team were thankful that the Pistons survived the disaster.
On the court, Sun Yi froze on the spot, looked at his hands, and didn't know what he was thinking.
It wasn't until Curry came over to comfort him that Sun Yi came back to his senses.
"Stephen, thank you, I'm fine."
After Sun Yi finished speaking, he went straight to the players' tunnel.
All great players will experience such losses, and only by becoming stronger will they not feel the pain again.
After returning to the hotel where he stayed, Sun Yi deliberately found a nearby court to practice shooting.
He didn't want the same thing to happen in the future.
…
…
The next day, on "The Barkley Talk Show," Barkley and Kenny Smith talked about the Warriors' recent performance.
"After the Warriors lost to the Pistons today, they suffered a three-game losing streak and their ranking has dropped to the second to last position in the Western Conference.
The lack of core player Monta Ellis has a great impact on the Warriors, and it seems that they are going to go the same way as last season."
Kenny Smith was the first to express his views.
"Kenny, I don't agree with your point of view. The Warriors have been playing as a playoff-level team during this period. They are playing pretty well despite the lack of core players, and the Warriors have added Sun and Steph. They have become completely new and I am very optimistic about their future." Barkley expressed his opinion.
"Charles, then I have to hit you again. The data from these games show that the personal data of Sun and Stephen Curry have a clear downward trend, and they may encounter the rookie wall."
Kenny Smith looked at the data sheet and analyzed it rationally.
According to big data analysis, after the rookie has played almost six games, he will face his first challenge.
At this time, the head coaches of each team have a certain understanding of this group of rookies who have just joined the league, and have formulated some targeted measures for some key targets.
"Oh, since you are so optimistic about the Warriors, let's take a gamble."
Kenny Smith lured Barkley to the bait step by step.
"Oh, let me tell you whether it's worth the bet."
Having learned from past mistakes, Barkley will not be easily fooled.
"The Warriors will face the Mavericks in the next game. These two teams will definitely create some different sparks, you know."
"Kenny, let me think about it." After Barkley finished speaking, he thought about it seriously.
He and Kenny Smith partnered as commentators, and Kenny Smith always cheated him, and he had never cheated anyone else.
This time, he felt that Kenny Smith suffered a big loss.
"Kenny, how about I propose the bet and you propose the bet?"
Kenny Smith thought for a while and agreed to Barkley's proposal.
If the bet goes against him, the punishment will be reduced; otherwise, the punishment will be increased.
"Kenny, if the Warriors upset the Mavericks in the next game or Sun can score 30 points, how about I win as long as I complete one goal?" Barkley proposed a bet.
"No, no, no, this is obviously unfair. I have to make some changes before I agree." Kenny Smith shook his head and said.
"Well, let's talk about it first."
"If you complete both of the above conditions, you win. Otherwise, I win. If you only complete one of the conditions, it's a tie without any penalty. How about that?"
"Where's the bet? What's the bet?" Buckley didn't agree immediately and asked about the bet just to be on the safe side.
"The bet is to kiss the pig's butt, okay?"
"No, I don't agree!" Buckley objected immediately.
Kenny Smith ignored it, nodded and said: "I agree! Charles's objection is invalid, that's it!"
At the same time, the fans in front of the TV became excited.
They love to watch such excitement and have made reservations for tomorrow's game between the Warriors and the Mavericks. They look forward to seeing one of these two guys cash in their bet after the game.
This chapter has been completed!