Capítulo 1350: Chapter 539: The Birth of a New God! (Part 4)

In the past 3 seasons, the Toronto Raptors were defeated in the first round by the Brooklyn Nets, a sunset team, in 2014, swept by the Wizards in the first round in 2015, and smashed by the Cavaliers in the second round last year… DeRozan and Lowry earned the nickname “Trash Brothers,” and the highest praise DeRozan received in past years was just as a fringe All-Star player.

But things are different now, Zhang Yang, Harden, and DeRozan are all superstars.

During the warm-up, Zhang Yang responded to this when interviewed: “You all found out this secret, that’s truly the case. I’ve always been lucky, I’ve partnered with the best players in point guard, shooting guard, power forward, and center positions, it’s an honor for me.

Moreover, my luck continues, you can’t find better teammates than James and DeMar; James is our MVP, he’s been the Scoring King, and DeMar is the best shooting guard in the world. To help me win the championship, they even are willing to earn millions less every year, no one is luckier than I am.”

Originally, the Lakers fans were arguing about some issues, like James having teammates like Wade, Bosh, and Irving, Love, or that Zhang Yang was just a substitute at the Suns, not really partnering with those two, concerning Kobe, Nash, and Gasol’s ages and other issues.

As soon as Zhang Yang said this, they immediately realized, why argue over this?

Their tone suddenly changed— you’re right, our point guard, shooting guard, and small forward are the strongest in the active players, no, in history!

As long as they grow thick skin, opposing fans are helpless against them!

Zhang Yang’s fans stopped arguing, but at this time, the fans of popular stars Wade and Irving were unhappy, they started to argue— Are Zhang San’s teammates the only good ones? Is a 28-year-old Wade not as good as a 38-year-old Kobe? Is a 25-year-old Irving not as good as a 40-year-old Nash?

In the fans’ arguments, at 8 PM, at the Staples Center, the 16-17 season NBA finals started as scheduled.

The Cavaliers had a tough time in the first game, James made 9 out of 20 shots, including 2 out of 7 three-pointers, plus 8 out of 12 free throws, scoring 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists; Irving made 11 out of 24 shots, scoring 26 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists— both performed well.

But Love 3 out of 13 shots, including 0 out of 8 three-pointers, plus 4 out of 4 free throws only got 10 points, along with 9 rebounds and 1 assist.

In 2015, Tristan Thompson signed a top-level 5-year $82 million contract at the time, played a giant flop, made 0 out of 3 shots, got 4 rebounds, 1 block, didn’t even perform as well as Derek Williams, who signed a $400,000 contract with the Cavaliers until the season’s end after the All-Star weekend, scoring 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist.

Derek Williams is also an unlucky guy, from the prestigious University of Arizona Wildcats, joined the ‘Kobe Pupil Plan’ in the summer of 2010 after his freshman season, under careful guidance, made rapid progress, won the Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year in his sophomore season.

After his sophomore season, he participated in the draft, ranked second in 2011, with outstanding physical fitness, fairly comprehensive ability, mainly played the 3-4 positions, could be a shooter at the 2 positions, kept up with guards speed on defense, as a rookie, he substituted for Love, averaged 8 points and 4 rebounds, showed potential, in his sophomore season, averaged 12+5 starting to pay off his talent… and then his promising basketball career came to an abrupt halt, traded to the Kings in the 13-14 season, and was directly gone.

In a blink, this second-overall pick is already 26 years old, in the Cavaliers’ 25 games this season, averages 6 points and 3 rebounds, not as good as his rookie season.

Same as the super weak team, rookie graves, at least the Timberwolves had a knack for developing wing players’ abilities, the Kings are nothing, they ruin a high-draft talent every year, relentlessly for ten years.

Apart from James, Irving, Love, and Derek Williams, no one on the Cavaliers scored in double-digits, to be precise, the rest of the Cavaliers scored just 16 points…

On the Lakers’ side, Zhang Yang played 31 minutes, made 9 out of 15 shots, including 4 out of 5 three-pointers, plus 6 out of 6 free throws, scoring 28 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, 1 block; Harden got 18 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists; DeRozan 19 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists; Zubac 12 points, 10 rebounds; Louis Williams 16 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists; Blake and Nance Jr. both scored 8 points; Nick Young made 4 out of 4 shots, got 9 points…

123 to 91, after just having a super high-level offensive battle with the Warriors, the Lakers thrashed the Cavaliers by 32 points, leading the series 1-0!

In the three NBA Finals from 14-16, although the skill gap was also huge, at least the Cavaliers weren’t unable to even fight back, they were all top teams, just the Lakers were at the top edge, and the Cavaliers just reached the top team’s edge.

But this year, it looks like an NBA team broke into the Development League!

Especially in the third quarter, the Lakers’ Three Giants burst out, scoring 43 to 19 in a single quarter, directly widening the gap to 30+.

By G2, the Cavaliers pulled themselves together, in the first half, fought back and forth with the Lakers, the first quarter score was 24 to 25, the second quarter score was 30 to 30, at halftime they were only behind by 1 point at 54 to 55, then… the third quarter was 24 to 40, and the gap suddenly came to 17 points.

After G1 finished, some media said the Cavaliers just met the Lakers’ Three Giants’ new tactics for the first time, they weren’t prepared, they just lost in the third quarter.

Many Cavaliers’ players actually believed it, and prepared, then got taken by the Lakers’ single quarter of 40 points again, this time their mindset truly collapsed!

In the last quarter, the Lakers were just playing, only scoring 24 points, but the Warriors only scored 18 points.