One day before the opening game, the fiery atmosphere of the regular season had begun to sweep into every corner around Lin Yu.
Early in the morning, before the team's training began, he entered the locker room and heard his teammates discussing a pre-season ranking recently launched by Zach Lowe - the NBA's new season player rankings.
"Hey, have you heard? ESPN has released a player ranking for the new season. Do you know who is ranked first? It's LeBron! I have to say, ESPN is too proud!"
James ranked first? Lin Yu was a little surprised. Zach Lowe promised to only be my mouthpiece? If he doesn't give me the first place, give it to LeBron James?
Lin Yu flipped through the newspaper and magazine racks in the locker room and found some other media's reprints of ESPN player rankings.
Ranked first is LeBron James. The reason given by Zach Lowe is very simple and crude: "If the second player in the regular season last season and the absolute core of the final championship are not the first person in the league, other players
I don’t dare to stand in this position anymore.”
Ranked second is Tim Duncan, for a similar reason to James: "As the core of the overall runner-up, Tim Duncan should be the second player in the league in the new season."
Then came Kobe Bryant. This time Zach Lowe gave a completely different reason. Who made Kobe's record so eye-catching?
"Although the record is not good, Kobe Bryant, who leads the team alone, has obviously tried his best. Last season, he was the league's scoring leader, and his statistics at various critical moments also ranked among the top..."
Then came Wade, who exploded last season, Kevin Garnett, who joined the Celtics and became the real core of the Big Three, and Dirk Nowitzki, who won last season's regular season MVP trophy...
It wasn't until the 22nd place that Lin Yu found his name.
"It's quite reasonable..."
Lin Yu shook his head secretly. He felt that the ranking given by Zach Lowe was very reasonable. It had too few flaws and was still not thick-skinned enough. With such a ranking, except for a few players whose fame is greater than their strength, or whose strength is greater than their fame,
There is no topicality to speak of.
"It seems that I have to teach Zach Lowe next time. For example, he can rank Dwight Howard in the top five in this ranking. The reason is that the young Warcraft is about to have an explosive season. In this way, Yao Yao
Fans and Sharks fans will be unhappy, isn’t there a topic?”
"Or he can also rank me first because I was the FMVP of last season's finals. With this ranking, the fans of LeBron James will definitely disagree..."
During training, Lin Yu continued to think about this list. He suddenly thought that as soon as this list came out, football critics and fans had no objections to LeBron James ranking first. Does this mean that LeBron James has changed from 2007 to 2007?
/Since the beginning of the 2008 season, he is already the number one player in the league in the eyes of many fans?
"The number one person in the league...this seems to be a joke!"
Lin Yu, who was running back and forth on the training ground, quickly thought of this. The reason why the number one player in the league became a joke is because in the past life and the future, the James fans were very concerned about the title of number one player in the league, even at the end of their careers.
, and also have to compete with young people like Durant and Leonard for the illusory reputation of being the so-called number one player in the league.
Lin Yu had no idea about this meme about the number one player in the league, because at this time he did not have the strength to compete for the number one person in the league, but he took note of this meme and would use it in the future.
The routine training in the morning ended, and then it was lunch, when the teammates gathered in the restaurant to enjoy chicken sandwiches.
Mike Brown took this time to talk about tomorrow's game.
"Tomorrow our game against the Celtics will be our opening game of the new season. A good start is very important, but more importantly, we will receive the championship ring at home tomorrow, and there will be a celebration at Quicken Loans Center.
And the Celtics would really like to disrupt our celebrations."
"So, in order to have a celebration without regrets, in order for our face not to be damaged, and for a good start to the new season, we must win the opening game."
This was considered a pre-game mobilization, and the effect was pretty good. At least everyone was enthusiastic about the targeted training before the game that followed.
"The Celtics rely on their defense. Last season we were able to defeat their defense with our offense, but in the new season, we have also become a more defensive team. We will face the Celtics again.
We have to make changes."
Mike Brown believes that if the Cavaliers want to win in the opening game, they must first lock down Pierce's singles on the defensive end and limit Garnett's contribution to the Celtics' overall offense.
From these two points, Mike Brown first accumulated some defensive power in the mid-range. He asked Darko Milicic and James to use force at the same time to completely lock down the mid-range.
But on the other hand, the task of defending Pierce alone will become very serious. Mike Brown can only hand over this important task of single defense to Lin Yu.
"Lin, in tomorrow's game, your task is to keep an eye on Paul Pierce. Is that okay?"
Lin Yu, of course, nodded to confirm that there was no problem. If it were Lin Yu last year, he might have hesitated to focus on Pierce's single-defense task, because he could not guarantee death protection, and at best it could only limit it.
But now, after his physical fitness has improved, it has become possible to lock down Pierce alone.
Then regarding the offense, Mike Brown doesn't have much to say, because at the beginning of the game, the Cavaliers' offense must be James' breakthrough ball, supplemented by pick-and-roll offense from outside.
When encountering the Celtics' strong-side stacked defense, what the Cavaliers need to strengthen is to increase the number of large-scale ball transfers, strive to send the ball to the weak side, and rely on strong-weak transfers to gain space in the offense.
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In the afternoon, during the media opening time after training, Anderson Varejao walked to the sidelines complaining: "Why does the league arrange a media opening day before the game?"
Lin Yu smiled: "For the sake of talking about tomorrow's game."
Then, when he walked to the sidelines and was surrounded by three or two reporters, he naturally began to accept some salivating questions.
"Lin, tell me about tomorrow's game. You said that you will not lose to the Celtics in your career. Will it be the same for tomorrow's game?"
The reporter who raised this question is from Yahoo Sports. Judging from last year's Finals MVP voting, the entire North American media circle, except for ESPN, has some problems with Lin Yu.
This surprised Lin Yu. In the memory of his previous life, ESPN was the one causing the most trouble, but now it has become all the media except ESPN. Such a change can only be attributed to them: ESPN is causing too much trouble.
The size was so large that it gave Lin Yu the illusion.
Actually, there are many objective reporters in ESPN, at least compared to media like Yahoo Sports and Sports Illustrated.
As for the problem he is facing now, Lin Yu first made a clarification: "First of all, what I want to say is that I never said that I would not lose to the Celtics in my career. I just said that in the playoffs,
I won't lose to the Celtics."
"Secondly, regarding tomorrow's game, I can only say that our goal is victory, and it will only be victory."