Chapter 166: Not only must the game be won, Curry must also die

On the second day, Curry occupied the front page headlines of all American sports media without any suspense. The scene of him making the lore was spread across the United States overnight and across the Pacific Ocean.

The game day between the Warriors and the Lakers is on Saturday. On this day, the Cavaliers played against the Mavericks. James and Monta Ellis scored 59 points to defeat Novak Novak who scored 30+ points. Magic also played against the Bucks. Howard dominated the game Deer inside, scored 25 points, 21 rebounds and 6 blocks in a super double-double, but everyone's eyes were still on Curry.

57 points + 13 three-pointers + buzzer lore, let Curry take the light of the superstar and become the most dazzling existence:

"ESPN":

"The defending champion lost not to Curry, but to God!"

"USA TODAY":

"Career No. 15 games, breaking many records, Curry booked the best rookie!"

"Fox Sports":

"One of the fastest rookies in NBA history to complete the buzzer lore, the Wizards of Heaven come to Golden State!"

Not only the major media praised Curry to the sky, but many celebrities and players also expressed their views on this game.

Pacers player Granger was asked about this in a pre-game interview. He smiled wryly:

"What can I say? I hope Curry doesn't feel so good, otherwise it will be difficult for us to get out of the Oracle Center. His performance is too crazy!"

Warriors legend, "God's Left Hand" Chris Mullin said:

"If I have a God-given left hand, then Curry has a God-given right hand! His shooting will change the league!"

Celtics player Ray Allen was also asked by reporters about his opinion on Curry breaking the NBA single-game three-point record. Gentleman Ray said:

"I watched Curry's highlights. His shooting is definitely the top level in the league. No one shoots three-pointers as crazy as him. I am looking forward to the next matchup with him."

On Sunday night's TNT show, Kenny Smith teased Barkley:

"Charles, you should know what today's theme is? Do you have any thoughts on Stephen Curry's performance against the Lakers?"

Barkley said bluntly:

"He played a perfect game! To be honest, I was amazed by his shooting, especially his performance in the second half of the fourth quarter...I never thought that he could score so many points under the strict protection of Kobe !"

Reggie Miller laughed:

"Charles, you made a bet with Coach Z that Curry couldn't get the best rookie, and the Warriors couldn't make the playoffs. Looking at it now, as long as there are no accidents, Curry will definitely get the best rookie. Are you ready? Do you have the jersey in your pocket? Or are you really waiting for Coach Z to send it to you?"

Barkley touched his bald head depressedly, and said firmly:

"It's only played 15 games, and there are more than 60 games left. I still don't think the Warriors can make the playoffs, and Curry's best rookie is not stable!"

After he finished speaking, both Reggie Miller and Kenny Smith burst out laughing, and Buckley blushed, with blue veins on his forehead, arguing: "The king's Evans also performed very well... at last He is also a good rookie!" A series of incomprehensible words, such as "Griffin may come back", and "Curry can't keep going, he will definitely become iron" and so on, caused both of them to laugh When I got up, the TNT studio was filled with joyful air.

On the Internet, many fans commented on Barkley's Twitter, teasing him that he was mistaken. Many people posted Curry's jersey on his photo P, and the number of likes soared to the first position.

At the same time, on the land of China on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, fans also fell into madness because of Curry's performance, and many new fans flooded into the Warriors Post Bar.

The highlights of Curry's game against the Lakers were spread wildly on major basketball forums. Everyone knows that this babyface scored 57 points against the Lakers and hit 13 three-pointers, including a buzzer lore.

After this battle, Curry's previous outstanding performance accumulated a lot of popularity, and his popularity in a short period of time even reached a level comparable to that of Kobe and James.

But Curry's god-like performance also made him successfully enter the field of vision of the league's coaches. No one will regard a player who scored 50+ in a single game and killed the defending champion as a rookie. Curry is bound to be a superstar. defensive treatment.

...

Illinois Weeks, Chicago.

Less than two blocks away from the United Center, Jonathan walked out of a hotel. As soon as he opened the door, he was hit by the oncoming wind. He took a small step back and hurriedly zipped up the down jacket , before stepping down the steps of the hotel.

He looked at his watch, and at 8:27, the sun had fully risen, casting golden rays of sunshine.

The windy city was sunny in December, but the cold wind blowing from Lake Michigan destroyed the illusion of sunshine, so passers-by had to wrap their cotton coats tightly, lower their hats, protect their red ears and cheeks, and struggle against the wind Forward.

Jonathan looked around, saw a newsstand on the corner of the street, and walked over quickly.

He just passed two rounds of interviews a week ago, and finally successfully joined the Warriors and became Zhang Yu's assistant.

During this process, he also had an interview with Zhang Yu. Jonathan still remembers his nervousness at that time, but the famous Coach Z just asked a few questions such as "Can you accept overtime work", "How long have you been watching the NBA?" "This very simple question gave him the position.

This made Jonathan overjoyed, and immediately made up his mind that he must work hard and never let Coach Z trust him!

This is not only because the salary of this job is very good for Jonathan who just graduated from university, but more importantly, it is an assistant for Coach Z!

Jonathan is a fan. He grew up watching Kobe and Iverson's games, and dreamed that he could step on the court and dominate the court like them.

But it is a pity that he is a white man with a thin body, only 1 meters, and his physical talent is very average. It is his limit to barely enter the high school team, and no university will give him a scholarship.

He could only give up the path of becoming a basketball player. He once thought that his basketball dream was over.

But when he was in college, Zhang Yu turned out to lead the Bulldogs to win two consecutive NCAA championships, and his reputation spread far and wide, attracting the attention of fans all over the United States.

Jonathan was naturally one of them. After learning about Zhang Yu's story, hope was rekindled in his heart.

If he can't play, he can still be the head coach!

Zhang Yu was able to become the head coach of the NCAA at the age of 23. Although he is definitely not comparable, it is always possible to coach a high school team in his 30s, right?

Jonathan took action immediately, signed up for coach training classes, studied basketball tactics books hard, absorbed relevant knowledge eagerly, joined the school team as a basketball volunteer, and observed closely how the head coach of the team coached a team.

After graduating from university, Jonathan stayed in the school team as a matter of course, worked as a video editor, and was appreciated by the head coach.

At this time, he has studied hard by himself and has a solid foundation. He has also watched a lot of games on the sidelines and has his own understanding of basketball. As long as he works for a few years and accumulates experience, he will definitely be able to become the assistant coach of the school team.

But half a month ago, Jonathan saw that the Warriors had posted a job advertisement for a head coach assistant on their official website. He immediately changed his mind, resigned from his job on the school team, and submitted his resume to the to the Warriors to compete for the job.

This is an opportunity to get in touch with Coach Z up close, and an opportunity to learn how to coach from the youngest head coach over there!

But the hard work paid off, and under Jonathan's careful preparation, he stood out from hundreds of applicants and got the job.

After joining the job, he immediately put into work, this time he followed the team to the away game to challenge the Bulls.

And when he came out early in the morning, he followed Zhang Yu's instructions to buy today's newspaper.

Jonathan privately learned from the assistant coach Silas that this is the boss's habit. He reads the newspaper every day. He is ready to go out in the cold wind every morning of the away game...

After buying a stack of newspapers from the newsstand against the cold wind, Jonathan returned to the hotel, went to the meeting room, and handed the newspapers to the boss who was discussing tactics with the coaching staff.

Zhang Yu took the newspaper and nodded to him, and Jonathan came to the corner and sat down consciously.

As Zhang Yu's assistant, he needs to record the content of the coaching staff's meeting, but he is not qualified to intervene.

Zhang Yu also suspended the discussion with Silas, picked up the newspaper and read it.

The first one was "USA Today". After he browsed the front page of sports, he turned to the second page. The headline was astonishingly titled "The Young Army's record is poor, and the Warriors fell to sixth in the Western Conference."

Zhang Yu paused slightly, then continued to read:

"...the Golden State Warriors are 6-2 in the next 4 games after narrowly beating the Lakers. They won the Pacers, but then suffered a 4-game losing streak to the Nuggets, Rockets, Magic and Thunder. , The last game was only a 4-point victory over the Nets at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. They barely maintained their sixth record in the Western Conference. "

"The reason why the Warriors can't win is because their core player Curry is in trouble. After Curry hit 13 three-pointers and beat the Los Angeles Lakers with a game-winner, he caused all teams With the sudden increase in defensive intensity, although Curry can still score 6 points, 22.3 assists and 6.3 rebounds in the past 4.6 games, his efficiency has dropped greatly, and his three-point shooting rate has dropped to 37.6%, which cannot help the team win... "

"Warriors player Butler scored 20 points in the game against the Lakers, and averaged 6 points per game in the next 14.2 games. In fact, he played the role of the Warriors' second ball-holding point, but he gave the team The help of the Warriors is limited, and how the Warriors will adjust next depends on whether Coach Z can come up with a countermeasure to break the restrictions imposed on Curry by other teams, or whether Curry can recover from his own state... This is a very bad thing. Easy job, but if the Warriors really want to make the playoffs, they have to do it."

Zhang Yu read the entire report, put "USA Today" aside with a blank face, picked up another newspaper and continued to read.

But not only "USA Today", other newspapers also used more or less pages to mention the bad situation of the Warriors during this period, and many columnists expressed concern about the prospects of the Warriors.

In fact, if you think about it, you know that "USA Today", which has always praised Zhang Yu, is not optimistic about the Warriors, let alone other media.

After Zhang Yu quickly browsed through all the newspapers, he picked up the coffee in front of him and drank it in one gulp.

With a soft "bang", he put the coffee cup back on the table, looked around, and said in a slightly low voice:

"Let's talk about your own ideas, and talk about what we need to make changes..."

There are only two assistant coaches, Ron Adams and Silas, in the meeting room. Of course, the Warriors coaching staff is not only the two of them, but the others are player development coach who are responsible for the training of players and do not participate in tactical discussions.

The two looked at each other, and Silas spoke first:

"The team's defense doesn't have too many problems, but the offensive end still needs to be improved, or it can be said to return to the previous state..."

Zhang Yu sighed softly:

"Of course I know that the offense has to be improved, but the question is how?"

USA Today's report is more objective, but it did not elaborate on the "suddenly increased defensive intensity" facing Curry. Let Curry shoot a three-pointer!

Facts have proved that 57 points + 13 three-pointers in a single game shocked the league beyond Zhang Yu's imagination.

He thought it would be good for other teams to send defensive champions to defend Curry, but he didn't expect that they, like Popovich and Phil Jackson, flanked Curry when he called for a screen, and didn't give him a shot. The slightest shot space.

In these six games, the opponent's defensive attention was all on Curry. He could only shoot three-pointers against people in the most difficult environment, and his efficiency and production dropped sharply, which is also reasonable.

Zhang Yu couldn't figure it out at first. In his previous life, Curry hadn't been double-teamed by other teams in the past few years. Why was he targeted like this just after playing a high-scoring game?

It wasn't until he saw repeated discussions about that game on the Internet that he gradually understood.

In 2009, it was still in the afterglow of traditional basketball. The era of small ball has not really come, and the league does not pursue the ultimate strategy of encouraging offense as it did later, and the statistics of stars are not as inflated as they were ten years later.

In this era, a player scoring 30+ can make headlines, 40+ is breaking news, 50+ is shocking the league, and 60+ can be recorded in history.

And Curry's 57 points + 13 three-pointers + buzzer lore, the degree of shock brought to people is far more than 60+, which greatly enhanced his status in the hearts of other team coaches.

In their view, no matter what they say, Curry can break another record on his own head. Not only must the game be won, Curry must also die!

A little late, sorry...