On the importance of being one step ahead.

He, Warden Liu, works so hard every day, but now he is still stuck in the mid-range of good ability evaluation of 74.

The No. 1 pick took one more step, and his three big steps from 71, which was just a good level, jumped directly to an excellent level of 80, his layup soared from 90 to 93, and his ability evaluation jumped by two points!

People are more irritating than others...

Seeing James advancing, Liu Xiu called on his teammates to shrink and attack.

James attacked with the ball. As Liu Xiu expected, James still chose to continue to break through and attack the frame in three strides.

The teammates heard Liu Xiu's call, and so did the opponents.

Boozer decisively pulled away when Randolph moved his position, actively looking for opportunities to catch the ball, and James passed!

Boozer caught the ball and took a long two-point shot...hit!

17 to 21, James led the team to hold on to the score.

Looking back, Randolph continued to attack in the low position, and Liu Xiu went around the baseline to catch the ball and distribute the ball.

The Cavaliers' defense was also adjusting, shrinking to protect the frame. Wagner moved back and teamed up with Kapono to flank Travis Outlaw for a breakthrough.

But this defensive movement was too obvious. Liu Xiu cut in and saw the opponent's movement. He received a hand-to-hand pass from Randolph and passed around. He passed a long pass to the left at a 45-degree angle. Matt Carroll received the ball for a three-pointer...

The opportunity is great, but it’s a pity!

Liu Xiu received the prompt of ‘No response for 1 consecutive time’.

Randolph and Liu Xiu rushed to grab the ball. Although they did not grab the offensive rebound, they prevented the Cavaliers from counterattacking immediately.

Matt Carroll missed a three-pointer and was very annoyed when he retreated. Tianzun patted the rookie on the back and comforted him: "Don't worry about it, defend well next, like this..."

After comforting Matt Carroll, Tianzun also said a few words to Travis Outlaw, and then waited for Randolph and Liu Xiu to come back and said a few more words.

Tianzun rarely directs his teammates on the defensive end!

James received a pass from Chris Mihm and advanced with excitement in his eyes as he continued to break through!

Liu Xiu can only prevent James from directly breaking through the middle, and occasionally prevent James from breaking through from the right side as he is used to, but he can't do much more.

James continued to rush to the low position on the right side of the three-second zone, grabbed the ball, and took three big steps...

Randolph retreated under the basket, and Tianzun just followed James but didn't jump!

Randolph acts as a roadblock, and Tianzun covers the sky!

After James took the "three big steps", he didn't shoot. He felt completely covered by Tianzun, and he looked for passing opportunities.

Wagner stood still on the right sideline, and Liu Xiu was still behind James. It was too risky for James to pass the ball over.

Boozer was replaced by Travis Outlaw, and Kapono was replaced by Matt Carroll.

James passed to Chris Mihm who was close to the free throw line on the left side of the three-second area!

This is obviously not a good choice...

Chris Mihm's mid-range shot hit the rim hard on the neck!

Randolph collected the defensive rebound.

Tianzun's command made a great contribution on the defensive end. Looking back, Liu Xiu advanced to the frontcourt and saw Tianzun leaning against Chris Mihm on the left baseline of the three-second zone, pointing with his right hand behind his back...

Liu Xiu nodded, seized the opportunity and shot the ball to the left side of the basket.

When Liu Xiu released the ball, Tianzun had already turned around and cut around Chris Mihm.

Tianzun took off on the left sideline of the three-second zone, leaped high, and glided for an alley-oop dunk!

The scene was instantly set on fire!

Tianzun landed and roared: "Basketball doesn't lie!"

"beep"

The referee blew the whistle and made a T sign to Tianzun.

However, this time the referee ignored Tianzun's subsequent expression that could scare a child to tears.

Even though Tianzun still takes technical fouls very frequently in games this season, most of the technical fouls were canceled after the game.

It's just that the referee couldn't help but give Tianzun the whistle...

Of course, free throws given to the opponent on the court will not be cancelled.

23 to 17, the Trail Blazers continued to keep the point difference at a relatively safe level.

Kapono takes a technical free throw.

Liu Xiu and Tianzun discussed how to defend, and took the time to read the mission.

Just now, Liu Xiu and his teammates cooperated to defend James once and added 100 healing points, but it still showed 'no response for 1 consecutive time'.

“When LeBron James scores or assists under the defense of the host, the host needs to respond immediately. If the host fails to respond immediately, the second round will be invalid.

When LeBron James scores or assists under the defense of the host again, the host can try to respond again. If a response is made, the number of consecutive unresponsiveness will be cleared; if the host fails to respond again, the mission will fail."

Looking at the mission prompt, Liu Xiu thought that if he could earn more healing points, he would earn more, otherwise he would be defeated... Defeating James was more attractive to him than responding to a few more goals.

Kapono made a solid free throw, helping the Cavaliers chase the score to 18-23.

Cavaliers attack.

Even though James' breakthrough offense has been greatly enhanced, the Trail Blazers' initiative has not been weakened!

The threat of James' breakthrough has become greater. Tianzun's response idea is very simple, just block the basket and interfere with James's passing after the breakthrough.

Naturally, this cannot completely lock James. James has a high basketball IQ and is very capable of seizing opportunities to shoot or pass.

However, James' teammates were not that well prepared to respond, and the Trail Blazers' defensive coordination became more and more proficient. The improvement James' "improvement" brought to the Cavaliers was quickly adapted to the Blazers.

After the first quarter, the Trail Blazers led the Cavaliers by 7 points 31 to 24 entering the intersection!

…

Played for more than 7 minutes, scored 6 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists, helping the team score 20-17.

The data is far from the ratio of James' 12 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists in a single quarter... but Liu Xiu is already very satisfied.

‘Let’s go head-to-head with the No. 1 pick!’ This mission has not yet failed. Liu Xiu completed an assist in response and made a jumper from the free throw line at a 30-degree angle in the remaining time of the first quarter, continuing the mission.

In the second quarter, Liu Xiu did not continue to play, James was also replaced and rested, and the Cavaliers sent Ricky Davis as the core.

The Trail Blazers sent out the twin towers of Tianzun and Dale Davis, along with the Flying Squirrel, Ruben Patterson, and Travis Outlaw to defend.

Ricky Davis led the team alone, with the ball in his hands, and his performance was no worse than James who had freed up his feet!

But his teammates are worse than James.

Good teammates, Cavaliers coach Paul Silas left James...

In the middle of the second quarter, when James replaced Ricky Davis, the score was 41-30, and the point difference widened to 11 points.

At this time, Wagner, Kapono, Boozer, and Big Z were replaced by four players who were more suitable to partner with the core of the score.

Would the Cavaliers players feel embarrassed not to take advantage of James's breakthrough attack? Of course it's impossible. Cavaliers coach Paul Silas took the lead in directing the attack to prevent James from being embarrassed.

However, the Trail Blazers were also prepared and their defense was better than in the second half of the first quarter.

At the end of halftime, the Trail Blazers tied the score at 55-41, with the point difference widening to 14 points!

The Cavaliers made adjustments on their own in the second half of the first quarter. In fact, there are some changes. Boozer can pass the ball after receiving the ball, because it is not a "must play how to play" arranged by the coach.

But when the head coach of the Cavaliers arranged to play like this, the priority must be to follow the tactics, but the details of this temporary arrangement were too vague, and there was too little experience in cooperation!

Paul Silas's adjustment this time is not so much to play better, but to further consolidate James' core low position and let his teammates get used to James' inside pace.

This kind of thing should happen sooner rather than later. Just like Ricky Davis was not given to teammates who worked well together, Paul Silas decided to do it immediately after seeing the signs.

Although they will not mess up again this season, he will try his best to find ways to win more games, but the game can be given up... and the players are not playing randomly, they just don't cooperate well.

…

In the third quarter, Liu Xiu, who had eaten a bunch of strawberry-flavored lollipops, continued to take turns guarding James with Reuben Patterson.

Unfortunately, the task of "confronting the No. 1 pick", which contributed 1,000 healing points in the first quarter and 900 healing points in the second quarter, was ended by Boozer's two consecutive mid-range shots in the third quarter.

Boozer caught the ball twice in a row, turned around and made two consecutive shots, giving James two consecutive assists and helping the Cavaliers hit a small climax at the beginning of the third quarter. Then James directly threw a three-pointer from the top of the arc.

After entering, the Cavaliers went on a 7-0 run to narrow the point difference to 7 points, trailing 48-55.

James made a three-pointer, and Liu Xiu got an unattended three-pointer that went around the baseline and ran to the bottom corner!

The Cavaliers had just started to gain momentum, but were knocked back by Liu Xiu's unexpected three-pointer...

Facing James' breakthrough and ball-breaking style, the Trail Blazers got used to it in the second half, and their defense became more targeted.

Big Z moves slowly, Wagner is unwilling to move, and Kapono is still weak...Only Boozer moves diligently and can maintain a high shooting percentage.

Although the task has little impact on Liu Xiu, he is very calm when playing and has winning as his first goal, but when his strength advantage is obvious, he will still care about the task.

When the task was ended, he did a better job on the defensive end and did a better job of blocking the baseline cuts from both sides.

After three quarters, the Trail Blazers led the Cavaliers by 15 points 79-64 entering the final quarter.
To be continued...