Soul of the Golden State

Chapter 637 Christmas Battle
The victory over the Trail Blazers is more like a shot in the arm, allowing the Warriors in crisis to find the direction of victory again.

Of course, there are still many problems in the Warriors team at this time.

For example: Although Ma Long returned, he only scored 18 points and 8 rebounds in 6 minutes of playing this game. He could not even reach the level of the "Eight Sage Kings", and his strength dropped beyond everyone's expectations.

Of course, people prefer to believe that he just hasn't adapted to the rhythm of the game.

Secondly, the decline of the team's bench strength is also greater than expected, especially the running-in problem on the bench, which has been unable to be integrated into a whole for a long time, which seriously restricts everyone's performance.

Finally, there is the ideological problem of the whole team. Compared with the Warriors who were united as one in the past few years, this year's Warriors obviously have a lot more personal thoughts. This cannot be solved by trading one Lewis.

Including the mental exhaustion after two consecutive championships, the conflicts between players in the team, and the difficulty of getting along with various personalities, it can be said that the biggest problem facing the Warriors today is the locker room problem.

Unfortunately, there is no solution to this problem. The team lacks a player who is both qualified and able to solve the locker room problem.

The regular season passed quickly, and there was no time for the Warriors to solve these problems. Just one day after defeating the Trail Blazers, the Warriors will face the Huskies, the underdogs in the West, at home.

Speaking of the disappointing Timberwolves, his underdog temperament has been deeply engraved in his bones since the beginning of the team.

It is not terrible to say that the record is bad. As long as you have a clear idea of ​​​​building a team and operate it, you are not afraid of hopelessness. Not to mention winning the championship, at least making it to the playoffs is not difficult.

But the Timberwolves chose Poole Richardson as a point guard last year. By virtue of his statistics on a bad team, he won a best rookie first team. Felton Spencer's center, this dude averages points per game this season, and has never been in double figures in his career. In this young draft year, he is definitely considered a proper high-ranked parallel importer.

Coupled with the Timberwolves' poor ability to cultivate people, it is worrying about the future of the Timberwolves.

Therefore, there is almost no suspense in this game. The Warriors are better than the Timberwolves in every position, whether they start or come off the bench. In addition, there is Li Weisi, a master of rhythm, it is difficult for the Warriors to lose.

Shortly after the opening, a double-digit lead was established. After three quarters, the Warriors beat the Timberwolves 125:102 and won two consecutive victories.

And then, it's Christmas time again.

This year's Christmas game, Stern seems to have finally understood how to operate. When setting up the game, he removed a large number of games, leaving only the two most eye-catching games for publicity.

One is the focus of the battle in the East, the Pistons vs. the Bulls, and the other is the two-strong competition in the West, the Lakers vs. the Warriors.

It has to be said that these two games are indeed very exciting. They are almost the follow-up battles of the East and West finals last season, which can be described as full of highlights.

The only thing that was somewhat beyond Stern's expectations was that the Warriors and the Lakers were not the first and second in the Western Conference, and the Bulls and Pistons were not the first and second in the Eastern Conference.

No way, no one thought that after the start of this season, the Blazers and Celtics would be so aggressive.

Needless to say, the Blazers have played very well since the start of the game, and they still occupy the first place in the league with a record of 24 wins and 3 losses.

The Celtics also did not give up much. After trading to Lewis in December, they actually only lost one game in the whole month. Lewis and the Celtics integrated quite harmoniously, without the slightest problem.

Of course, although the No. [-] in the East and West is missing, the attraction of the Christmas game is still there. The appearance of the league's three superstars is enough to make fans excited.

Soon, the time came to December 12th, and the Christmas war started.

The first thing to start is the game between the Pistons and the Bulls.

Before this game, the records of the two teams were quite close. The Bulls ranked second in the East with 17 wins and 9 losses, beating the Pistons with 16 wins and 8 losses.

At the beginning of this season, the Bulls had a three-game losing streak, which once made people doubt Jordan's ability. However, the Bulls quickly adjusted, their state was amazing, their winning percentage was quite high, and they finally surpassed the Pistons not long ago.

So this game is not only about the old grudges between the two teams, but also the new grudge that decides who is the second in the Eastern Conference.

Therefore, after the start of the game, the confrontation between the two teams continued to escalate, almost reaching the standard of the playoffs.

Although many of the means used by the Pistons against Jordan in the past two years were unable to be used because of the rules of malicious fouls, the collision of muscles has never been rare.

The scores of the two teams were also quite anxious. At halftime, the Pistons led the Bulls by 50 points 45:5.

However, in the second half, due to the Bulls' defense, the Pistons fell into a scoring shortage. The Bulls seized the opportunity to overtake the score in one fell swoop, scoring 28:14 in a single quarter.

And this finally established the outcome of the game. The Pistons chased points in the fourth quarter to no avail. In this way, the Bulls defeated the Pistons 98:86 at home and won this difficult Christmas game. Become the second in the East.

Shortly after the end of the Christmas game in the east, the game in the west also kicked off.

Although the game was played at the home court of the Warriors, the Lakers turned their backs. After the opening, all five starters scored, and the Warriors were caught off guard. In this way, the Lakers scored 32 points in a single quarter, leading 32:25.

However, the Warriors will not just admit defeat. In this game, Malone returned to the starting lineup. Although he was not used to Sam Perkins' style of play in the first quarter, he quickly adjusted and played in the second quarter. The efficiency of the defensive Perkins dropped sharply, and he kept hitting the iron.

Not only that, on the offensive end, Malone finally showed a bit of the former superstar demeanor, scoring 6 points in a row in the second quarter, helping the Warriors complete the lead in the score at the most critical moment, with 59:56, Leading by 3 points ended the first half.

After entering the second half, the Warriors' defense became better and better. At the same time, their offense became smoother and smoother. In the third quarter, they once again beat the Lakers by 7 points in a single quarter, opening the point difference to 10 points in one fell swoop.

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers tried a final counterattack, but the effect was extremely poor. The Warriors seized the opportunity to counterattack after consecutive non-goals and once expanded the point difference to more than 20 points.

In the end, with 2 minutes left in the clock, the Lakers announced their surrender and replaced the starters, and the Warriors also replaced all the substitutes.

The Warriors were also able to beat the Lakers 115:95 at home and won the Christmas game.

Although the Warriors did not play well off the bench tonight, their starting performance was extremely good. Li Weisi, Richmond and Mullin scored 29, 27 and 22 points respectively.

However, what surprised everyone the most was Ma Long, who scored 28 points and 16 rebounds in 8 minutes of playing. Although the scoring can no longer be compared with the past, this performance has already satisfied many fans.

(End of this chapter)