After winning against the Spurs, the Warriors players are more confident and their cooperation with each other is obviously better.
It can be said that the Spurs are the touchstone for Western Conference teams. Any team that wants to pass the Western Conference must pass the Spurs!
The Warriors have undergone a lot of changes in the offseason. Not only experts and fans, but many players also lack confidence in the Warriors defending their title.
After a few games of the new season, all doubts and worries have disappeared.
Curry is still the same Curry, the splash is still the same splash, and the Warriors are still the same Warriors!
The championship is still ours!
After defeating the Spurs, the Warriors pursued the victory. A wave of 17 consecutive victories directly locked the league's first position, and no one could shake it until the end of the season.
On the Eastern side, the dark horse Hawks took the lead and stole the limelight from the Cavaliers. They also played a small-ball lineup and shot a lot of three-pointers, making the game highly entertaining to watch.
From this point of view, the "small ball model", "pragmatism" and "offense first" have become the mainstream of the NBA. Once defense determined the championship, and dominating the inside led to dominating the game. These traditional concepts have been thrown out of the window.
In fact, the Cavaliers also want to do this - LeBron controls the ball, Irving plays the main attack, and Love has enough accurate shooting skills and rebound control, so some people say that this is an upgraded version of the Heat's Big Three. But the problem is that Irving and LeBron
There is no tacit understanding of the "Janeway Connection" between Brown, and there is also a crisis of trust between new coach Blatt and Love.
The most important thing is that LeBron James is also 30 years old. He is no longer the young boy he was 12 years ago, and his physical load is also heavy from years of fighting.
At the end of December, LeBron began to take a truce. In 8 consecutive games, the Cavaliers only won one game.
"We thought we could at least maintain a 50% winning rate," Love said.
This sentence fully proves that LeBron is everything to the Cavaliers. Irving and Love must step forward to protect LeBron like Wade and Bosh did in the past, but they are obviously still far apart.
The Cavaliers only won 21 games in the first half of the season. It was not until the "Zen Master" came to the rescue that the Cavaliers picked up Shumpert and JR Smith, as well as the Russian big white bear Mozgov in the mid-term trade.
The Lions suddenly woke up and won 30 games in the second half of the season, entering the playoffs with the second best record in the Eastern Conference.
There were many major events happening in the league in the 14-15 season:
The first is Durant's season reimbursement.
On March 28, the Thunder officially announced that Kevin Durant was injured for the season and is expected to be sidelined for 4-6 months. Durant's injury also dimmed the Thunder's playoff prospects.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti announced the sad news of Durant's reimbursement. According to official reports, Durant's fractured right foot injury has recurred again, and he will undergo bone transplant surgery to solve the problem.
The expected time of absence is 4-6 months.
His right foot has become Durant's Achilles' heel. In October last year, Durant was diagnosed with a fracture of the fifth metatarsal of his right foot (scientific name is Jones fracture). He subsequently underwent surgery on his right foot. However,
, this operation did not completely improve the condition. Because the screws left in the foot kept rubbing against the bones in other parts of the foot, causing discomfort to him, Durant suffered from pain symptoms again in the middle of the season. At that time, Adu also hoped to overcome the past.
He fought through the injury, but in the end the pain was so unbearable that he underwent another minor surgery in February this year to implant a steel nail in his foot.
In the first few weeks of the season, Durant has been in the recovery stage. Not long ago, he participated in the team's 3-on-3 training. In an interview, Durant also said that his foot feels much better.
He promised to return this season. However, the plan could not keep up with the changes. After the latest inspection, the Thunder suddenly announced that Durant had been "banned from participating in any basketball operations."
The official explanation was that Durant's recovery from injury was not as expected. To be conservative, the team would make a new assessment of his injury. When talking about whether Durant would be reimbursed, the Thunder
It was not directly denied, but it can already be felt from just a few words that the possibility of Durant returning to the game this season is very small.
Since entering the NBA in 2007, Durant has maintained a very high attendance rate. Looking at the past, the most games he missed in a single season was only 8. In the previous two seasons, Durant played 81 games.
He only missed 16 games in the previous seven years. However, due to foot injuries, Durant sat on the sidelines for a long time this season. He only played 27 games, averaging 25.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
4.1 assists.
Durant's season reimbursement also makes the Thunder's prospects this season bleak, which means that Westbrook can only shoulder the important tasks of the team. This season, Wei Shao averaged 27.3 points, 8.7 assists, 7.1 rebounds, and 2.2 rebounds per game.
Steals are the main contenders for the regular season MVP. In addition to Durant, power forward Ibaka also underwent right knee surgery at the beginning of this month and will miss 4-6 weeks. He has played one-third of the season. The Thunder platoon
Ranked eighth in the Western Conference, three games ahead of the ninth-ranked Suns.
The Warriors were in turmoil during the offseason, and the Thunder must have some ideas. However, due to Durant's injury, the Thunder's goal has also become to reach the playoffs.
In addition to this is Nash's retirement and Kobe's comeback.
"I'm finally retiring." Steve Nash said on March 22. "No one can play basketball for a lifetime. It's time to start the next chapter."
In the 13-14 season, Nash only played 15 games due to continuous injuries. At that time, many fans speculated that it would be the last season of Nash's career. But when this moment came as scheduled, there were still more fans.
Expressed feelings of reluctance.
This kind of reluctance is not only because Nash is the spokesman for running and gunning and has redefined a playing style, but also because after his departure, only Kobe is left in the 1996 golden generation. An era that has accompanied fans for nearly 20 years may be the only one left.
It's about to come to an end.
Nash retired and Kobe Bryant returned, but the Lakers' record was extremely dismal.
In the first five games of the season, Kobe averaged 27.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, including 39 points against the Trail Blazers on November 5. Kobe seemed to be back as a king, but the Lakers suffered a five-game losing streak.
Only 1 win in the first 10 games.
Kobe is still the Kobe who refuses to admit defeat. Everyone admits this, but he can no longer change the entire team by himself like he did in 2006 and 2007, even if on December 15th, he surpassed him with two free throws.
He defeated Michael Jordan and rose to third place on the NBA's all-time scoring list, and was unable to bring the Lakers out of the haze that has been lingering over the Staples Center since the death of Buss.
Gasol, his former best partner, went to Chicago, and the much-anticipated rising star Randle was retired for the season before playing a single game. Apart from Jeremy Lin, the Lakers seemed to have nothing else to attract the attention of fans. They finally won
The team's 21 wins were the worst record since the team moved to Los Angeles.
The same nightmare belongs to Anthony and the Knicks. A few years ago, "Zen Master" Jackson, whom Buss took drastic measures to eliminate, went to the Big Apple City, and Fisher, who had just retired, became the coach of this legendary team. Anthony under his command
Having been struggling in a bottomless abyss for too long, the arrival of Jackson and Fisher not only failed to change the bad situation at Madison Square Garden, but instead posted the worst record in team history of 17 wins in a single season, which made Anthony forget about it.
The only thing the Knicks accomplished was to kick Shumpert and J.R. Smith out, but Jackson thought he had cleaned up the trash, but who would have expected that the Cavaliers would pick up the treasure instead.
During the Christmas Day war, the Pistons waived Josh Smith. Their previous record was only 5 wins and 23 losses, and they were last in the Eastern Conference. After laying off Josh Smith, they went on a 7-game winning streak, winning 9 of 10 games. The only goal that defeated them was
The team is Smith's former team, the Eagles.
For a while, the "Josh effect" became a joke in the market, but Josh himself was calm enough. After all, the Rockets signed him for a bargain price, and because of him, the Rockets were able to continue to exert strength in the second half, relying on Harden and
Howard took the top spot in the Southwest season, which is called the "Death Division", beating the Spurs, who had won 50 games in 16 consecutive seasons and set another new record in NBA history.
Of course, no matter how well the Rockets perform, they are still second in the Western Conference, because there is one team they cannot surpass, and that is the Warriors!
The Warriors had an unbelievable record at the beginning of the season. They began to take turns in the second half of the season, but the substitutes performed well and the record remained quite stable.
In the end, the Warriors won 71 and lost 11, leading the league in record.