This Forward is Not Serious

Before the advent of the small ball era and the reform of the second offense to 14 seconds, there were not many players who could score 20+ points in a single quarter, and there were even fewer active players.

And if you add a prerequisite to this condition, 20+ in a single quarter in the finals, then only three people have achieved this record in history.

Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, and Michael Jordan.

In active duty, Deron will be the only one!

32 to 18.

The Nets established a 14-point lead in the first quarter.

The subsequent games became a replica of G1.

The Lakers have been trying hard to narrow the point difference, but the Nets' stable performance means they always fall short.

After the final four quarters, the Nets defeated the Lakers 112-100 and won G3!

The night in G1 belongs to Iverson, the night in G2 belongs to Paul, and the night in G3 belongs to Deron!

Deron made 14 of 21 shots in the game and scored 41 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, playing the greatest game of his career.

Moreover, his 20 points in a single quarter and 40+ points in a single game have left him a mark in NBA history!

There was a detail at the end of the game.

When Deron came off the field, he walked towards Sloan, and Sloan took the initiative to reach out and hug his disciple.

Deron burst into tears in Sloan's arms, and Sloan's eyes were red and he was holding back tears.

Yes, he would never say the words to forgive him.

But at this moment, whether you say it or not, what a difference it makes!

The past is irreversible, but the future can be changed!

After tonight's game, this scene will bring tears to many people's faces.

At the press conference after the game, Sloan took Lin Ying with him.

Deron did not go with him. He went to the medical room to treat his knee.

Last season, he scored 57 points in a single game against the Jazz. After the game, he went to treatment immediately.

Including this season, he has also missed games due to knee problems.

As a point guard, he is relatively overweight, and coupled with his style of play where breakthroughs rely entirely on dragging steps to change direction, this knee really cannot afford to be injured.

If Lin Ying's arrival hadn't "reduced his burden" and Sloan's control in Brooklyn, he would have fallen as fast as in history this season.

But even so, after a night of crazy intensity in the finals, his knee still responded.

Although compared with the description of "breaking through is like stepping on shards of glass, and going up the stairs is like committing suicide" during the same period in history, his situation is already much better.

At the press conference, Sloan went out of his way to publicly praise Deron.

"Maybe I'm wrong, Deron could have been the best point guard in the league."

There are always a lot of firsts when you have decided to leave the field.

But it's very happy to feel Sloan's mood tonight.

2 to 1.

The Nets took the initiative in the series and won an away game, which means that the Finals will at least return to Brooklyn.

Even in an unreasonable format, they have regained their home court advantage.

Now, as long as they can win another away game, the Nets will have a match point.

The game seemed to be back to the scene in the Eastern Conference Finals.

G4 will be a decisive battle with no retreat for both sides.

In the first half of the game, both sides showed courage to win.

Moreover, the Lakers have also unified their thinking and put more physical energy into the offensive end to compete with the Nets.

This idea soon proved to be effective, and the scores of the two teams kept taking the lead alternately.

By the end of halftime, the score on the court was 65 to 64, with the Nets leading by 1 point.

The point difference is negligible, but both teams scored 60+ at halftime!

It was a half bursting with talent.

The fans were dazzled by the various brilliant attacks and couldn't take their eyes off them.

The turning point of the game came in the second half.

Deron was pushed over by Paul when he broke through Paul, and then he hugged his knees and looked in pain.

After persisting on the sidelines for a while, he finally left the field with the help of the team doctor and never played again in the next game.

This was an offensive battle, and Deron's departure caused the Nets' firepower to drop sharply.

Sloan quickly adjusted his game strategy and switched from offense to defense.

But again, defense is always relatively passive in the face of offense, especially when facing a team like the Lakers that is full of talent and understanding.

Not to mention that the Lakers' offense was already in full swing before half the game was over.

After a fierce battle in the final four quarters, the Nets still lost 106-118.

The big score between the two sides came to 2 to 2.

However, whether it is the Nets players or outside fans, what they are most concerned about now is Deron's injury situation rather than the big score.

With Deron's mentality in the finals, as long as he can beat him, he will definitely come back in the second half.

Now that he has not come back, it shows that the situation is not optimistic.

And once Deron can't play, the Nets' journey to the Finals is likely to end early.

Maybe Lin Ying can break out and help the Nets win another game, but it will be difficult for him to break out continuously.

This is the stage for the intensity of the finals, even that man...

Well, that man can do it.

But Lin Ying is still far behind that man.

So Deron's injury caught everyone's attention.

After the press conference after the game, Lin Ying went to the hospital to see Delong.

Delong has already done the examination and is sitting on the edge of the bed to rest.

The good news is that it’s not a major problem, no surgery is required, and it only takes a month or two to recover with conservative treatment.

The bad news is, the season is over.

So Deron's expression looked even more depressed than when he arrived at his house that night.

"I'm sorry, I hurt everyone again."

Seeing Lin Ying come in, Delong's face was full of apologies.

In the semifinals, he was impulsively suspended, and in the finals, he was reimbursed for the season.

"It's okay. We won when you were suspended before."

Lin Ying squeezed out a smile to comfort Delong.

But after he finished speaking, he realized that it seemed inappropriate to say so.

As expected, Delong had changed from apologetic to dejected.

Lin Ying was about to change his words, but what Delong said immediately stopped him.

"Do you think I'm an unlucky person?"

Soul torture.

And it’s hard to answer.

After all, Deron's current experience is indeed a bit unlucky.

Especially since this championship was so important to him, if he thought about it from his perspective, even Lin Ying would find it difficult to get out of it all at once.

"How is it possible? Isn't that guy Joe more unlucky than you? He doesn't even have a chance to play in the finals!"

Lin Ying could only force out a smile and said.

Delong thought for a while.

Indeed, whether you are unlucky or not depends on who you compare with, and Joe Johnson is indeed a little worse than him.

"Don't worry, we will win. Coach Sloan and I promised that we will win this championship."

Lin Ying finally spoke seriously.

Delong glanced at Lin Ying, then nodded.

…

After coming out of the hospital, Lin Ying winced unconsciously.

The wind outside was cool and whooshing, just like it was when Ridlon arrived at his house that night.

No, it might be colder.

He winced, then opened the door and got in the car.

He didn't start the car immediately, but took out a cigar from the car's storage box and bit it in his mouth.

Lower the window, take out the matchbox, light it, and then light it.

He flicked the match and put it back in the ashtray in the car, took a puff and held it in his mouth, then leaned on the chair and blew out the smoke ring.

The white smoke rings are like worries, one inside another.

Although his heart is already very strong, the situation in front of him is really difficult!

Originally, the Nets' lineup was really not bad. Although it was not as luxurious as the Knicks', it had a reasonable mix, a deep bench, and full tacit understanding.

But now Johnson and Deron have both been reimbursed for the season, leaving him alone to fight alone.

And what they faced was the Lakers, who were no less powerful than them.

This question is really difficult.

After finishing half of the cigar, Lin Ying stubbed it out, then leaned back on his seat and closed his eyes for a while to relax.

He unconsciously recalled G6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Although what I said to Deron before was inappropriate, the situation between the two is indeed very similar now.

We can't place all our hopes on the white-hot space, but he has been in the sub-white-hot space for a long time since the last game.

Opportunities are not absent.

The loss in tonight's game was largely due to the lack of support for the Lakers.

If the defense starts from the beginning, the Nets have no chance of winning.

When he opened his eyes again, his gaze became firm again.

"Difficulties and opportunities coexist."

This is what Rick Barnes said to him when he was in the NCAA.

He always kept this sentence in mind.

Whether in Denver or Phoenix, this sentence has helped him a lot.

Now, maybe this is the time.

"You picked me up at midnight and turned off your headlights

The long journey, maybe in the firelight of heaven..."

Just then, his cell phone rang.

The ringtone was Swift's "Style", the song she sang when she confessed to him.

He looked and saw that it was Delong calling.

"Have you gone back yet?"

After picking up, Deron asked.

"No, I just went to buy some food and ate in the car."

Lin Ying casually made up a reason and replied.

"I thought about it and I think I'm worth it."

"Um?"

"When Coach Sloan hugged me that night, I felt like he had forgiven me. Not everything has to be forced."

"The best thing you can think of is that you've done your best and all of us can see it."

"Um."

There was silence for a while.

"You should rest early and wait until I bring you the championship trophy to the hospital."

Lin Ying said in a brisk tone.

"Okay, then I'll wait patiently."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Ying took a long breath.

Delong's mentality seemed completely different from before.

Lin Ying didn't know that Deron had a mood disorder. Compared with the female fans who went back to see him that time, he was much better this time.

But it's a good thing if you can figure it out.

Compared with physical injuries that can be recovered in a month or two, psychological problems are a bigger problem.

Rolling up the window, Lin Ying started the car.

The last away game, no matter what the result is, the next game will be back in Brooklyn!

…

2 to 2 tie, the battle of Tianwang Mountain in the finals!

Paper can't stop the fire, and the news of Deron's season reimbursement has been spread by the media.

Now, the Lakers have great hopes of winning the championship.

As long as they capture Tianwang Mountain, they can resolve the battle within 6 games at the earliest.

But when reporters asked Kobe this question before the game, he was immediately criticized.

Just like when the Magic led the Magic 2-0 in the Finals and reporters asked him why he was still frowning.

Kobe's attitude is the Lakers' attitude.

It is impossible to expect them to be complacent.

But this also makes the outside world more convinced that the Lakers can quickly win their 16th championship.

As for the Nets, Sloan is an old background player.

Staples Center was still packed on game day.

In the Nets locker room, Lin Ying mobilized the players.

"We did it in Madison Square Garden, and we can still do it here, come on, Nets!"

The team members are very motivated.

The Nets' victory in G6 of the Eastern Conference Finals was a great psychological encouragement to them.

Because I’ve done it before, I believe I can do it again!

This is more exciting than Reeves or Tyronn Lue's chicken soup.

Amidst the shouting, the Nets players trotted out of the locker room.

"The Nets' mentality looks good."

In the commentary box, "Magic" Johnson said with a smile.

His mood cannot be said to be good, it is completely beautiful.

With the current situation of both sides, the Lakers are almost inseparable from winning the championship.

"Um."

Buckley on the side responded slightly depressed.

As a superficial Hu honey, he should be one of the few people who cannot be happy with the current situation.

Especially when I saw Deron actually appearing on the sidelines in a suit and tie, not even participating in the warm-up.

"After all, they have been through this situation before the Eastern Conference Finals, and they succeeded."

Kenny Smith is an honest man and responded to Johnson's words.

Buckley was overjoyed when he heard this, and then immediately spoke:

"Mike, what you said is not accurate. The Lakers are stronger than the Knicks. I think the Lakers have basically locked in the championship in advance."

Johnson choked on his own saliva and coughed.

If the Nets win in the end, Prokhorov should give Barkley a championship ring.

Although, that's unlikely to happen.

While they were chatting, there was a commotion.

It turned out that the photographer found an unexpected figure in the auditorium.

Jordan!

Jordan actually came to Los Angeles to watch the Finals!

This is really quite rare!

But seeing that he had a strange young model with him, he must have come to the City of Angels to have fun and watch football.

After the warm-up, the scene entered into the opening ceremony.

The starting lineups on both sides came on stage one after another.

Nets: Billups, Butler, Lin Ying, Yi Jianlian, Chandler.

Before the game, some fans speculated that Deron could not play and Sloan would use Iverson as the starter.

After all, Iverson had an outstanding performance in G1, and Iverson is a scoring player who can share the defensive pressure on the Linying court.

But Sloan's considerations are obviously different from those of the fans. He thinks the same as Lin Ying, and he still values ​​defense.

The Lakers' starting lineup is still the same as before: Paul, Kobe, Ariza, Gasol, and Gortat.

Speaking of this year's playoffs, many teams suffered injuries, and the Nets were the worst.

In contrast, the Lakers have good luck and have always maintained a complete lineup.

Luck is sometimes part of strength.

The camera showed Paul, and there was uncontrollable excitement in his eyes.

Without Deron, he can finally show off his talents!