The whistle at the end of the game has sounded, and the Quicken Loans Center, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is eerily quiet. Most of the Cleveland Cavaliers fans looked at the score recorded on the big screen with expressions of disbelief.
87:95, the home team is in front and the visiting team is behind, and the game time is all over.
To be honest, although the Cleveland Cavaliers quickly completed their reconstruction after acquiring James with the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, they jumped from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to the top of the Eastern Conference. But who on the basketball court can guarantee inevitable victory?
?Losing one game or two is normal, and Cavaliers fans are not so fragile that they cannot even accept a loss in one game.
It’s not like the Cavaliers have never lost anyway.
What really makes them find it unacceptable, what really makes them find it difficult to understand, is that their idol, the undisputed king of Quicken Loans Center Arena, LeBron James, was actually guarded to death.
He was guarded to death by the Lakers' rookie, Adrian Kwilter. Now, LeBron James, who has played 42 minutes, only made seven of 26 shots, with a low shooting percentage of 26%, plus nine free throws.
He made five free throws and just scored 21 points.
To be fair, for an average player, scoring 21 points in a single game is not a small amount, but for LeBron James, this score is really not enough. What's more important is that these 21 points were shot.
After doing it twenty-six times, it seemed like... the performance was too poor!
Although LeBron James also got 8 rebounds and 4 assists at the same time, his performance can be called all-round. If you just look at the data, no one will think that James' performance is abnormal.
But only those who have watched the game will find that today, throughout the game, James was trapped on the outside by Adrian. He struggled to break through to the inside, but was always forced to stop.
It’s not that LeBron James has never been guarded. He has spent two and a half seasons in the league, and he has faced most of the situations. In his rookie season, he once
I have experienced the power of Artest, the league's top perimeter defender, and that was on LeBron James's 19th birthday. Artest was so fierce that the proud little emperor only scored seven points in the second half, and he swallowed it bitterly.
The result was failure.
After the game, LeBron James even said without fear that Artest was the "toughest" defender he had ever faced.
However, after two seasons in the NBA, LeBron James has long been transformed. There are fewer and fewer people in the league who can guard James, let alone death. Who can guard LeBron James? This
It is also one of the issues that the media is most concerned about. With so many players in the league, who is the 'James nemesis'?
Of course, James is not invincible. He will always encounter some setbacks. For example, in the seven games against the Pistons last season, the Detroit Pistons were quite successful in defending James. But that is not the 'Little Prince' Prince.
The credit of one person belongs to the Pistons as a whole. In that series, almost every player on the Pistons participated in the defense of James.
Therefore, this is not considered a 'James nemesis'. After all, no matter how powerful one person is, there is no way to fight against an entire team. The same is true for James. With the strong overall strength of the Pistons, the defeat was due to the lack of strength of the Cavaliers.
There's nothing wrong with James.
At least that's how the media interpreted it.
But this game is different. Adrian is obviously defending James alone. Starting from the first confrontation between the two of them at the beginning of the game, that confrontation ended with Adrian's blocking foul. But all the time
To this day, this counterpoint continues,
Speaking of which, perhaps due to some subtle influence from the league, the media has been actively looking for the so-called 'James nemesis', 'Kobe nemesis' or even 'Little Giant nemesis', 'Warcraft nemesis' and 'Shark nemesis'.
, because this is a topic with great hype value, which can greatly stimulate newspaper sales. At the same time, for the league, these topics can undoubtedly increase the ratings of the game.
And now, the media can't help but put the name Adrian in the category of 'James nemesis'. Then thinking about it carefully, it seems that Adrian is not only able to defend James, but his defense... is really strong.
!
At this time, they remembered that in addition to James, Adrian had already faced off against a bunch of tough swingmen, including 'Eagle King' Joe Johnson, tmc, 'Melon' Carmelo Anthony,
'Flash' Dwyane Wade, 'Truth' Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Stephon Marbury, etc... until today's LeBron James.
It seems that in Lakers games, Adrian will always face off against the opponent's most powerful swingman, and he can always achieve good results. Whenever he defends those powerful swingmen,
Sometimes, it can always make them feel uncomfortable and their performance will decline.
They have been paying attention to Adrian's assists, always paying attention to Adrian's scoring ability, always paying attention to Adrian's ranking on the rookie rankings, and always paying attention to Adrian's All-Star list. It seems that they have always been
Ignore Adrian's tough defense!
Adrian took off his No. 1 jersey. The jersey made of special fabric was heavy and filled with Adrian's sweat. LeBron James played for 42 minutes, and he played almost the same amount.
Time, as long as James is on the court, he must maintain his confrontation with James on the court. This kind of fiercest confrontation in the game is extremely physically demanding.
Putting the thoroughly wet jersey on his shoulders, Adrian was about to return to the locker room to take a good shower and rest, when a sudden voice suddenly stopped him.
"Hi, Adrian." Adrian turned around and saw LeBron James walking towards him with his jersey draped over his shoulders.
"What's wrong, James?" Adrian was really confused about LeBron James suddenly calling him. Theoretically, he and James should have only heard each other's names, and they had not even met each other.
We've met before, it's our first time playing against each other this season, so there's no familiarity at all.
Adrian didn't know what purpose James had for suddenly calling him out at this time, but he still stopped, turned around and looked directly at LeBron James and said, "What's the matter?"
"No, you played great today." LeBron James smiled. To be honest, his smile was quite honest, giving people a sense of humility and confidence: "I just want to talk to you.
chat."
LeBron James really just had a chat, and the main topic was today's game. He chatted with Adrian about his defense, and then suddenly proposed to exchange jerseys with Adrian.
