Butler, who was born in 1989, is actually 3 years older than Wang Feng.
But due to personality reasons, Wang Feng is the one who comforts the other party.
Listening to Wang Feng's words, Butler didn't say anything and just nodded.
From his firm eyes, Wang Feng knew that there was no problem.
…
"Welcome everyone to watch the live broadcast of the NBA 2021-22 season finals brought to you by CCTV Sports. I am Director Yu who is responsible for commentating this game."
"We can see that before the game started, Wang Feng greeted all the Lakers players enthusiastically. It seems that he did not feel too much pressure for today's game."
"Hey, Jimmy, Brandon, I didn't expect that we could meet on the stage of the finals." Wang Feng smiled. Although he took the initiative to say hello, he didn't show mercy at all. "In advance, please go ahead.
I apologize to you, but don’t blame me for being merciless, after all, I really want this championship.”
Butler: "..."
Ingram: "..."
Wang Feng's words are somewhat arousing hatred.
But it is precisely because Wang Feng has a good relationship with the Lakers players that he can make such a joke.
Butler and Ingram did not take it seriously. Instead, they laughed together, "Then it's each other. We here also hope to use this championship to prove that even without you, our Lakers still have what it takes."
With the strength to win the championship!”
Indeed, this season's Lakers lineup is quite outstanding and can definitely be ranked among the top five in the league.
Although Butler is the only top star, and Ingram is not quite qualified yet, his outstanding overall strength can completely make up for the lack of top stars.
But even so, in Wang Feng's view, compared with the opponents in the finals of previous seasons, this Lakers team is already relatively weak.
The situation this season is special. Several strong teams in the league have more or less various problems, which has greatly reduced their strength.
John Wall, one of the Bucks' Big Three, was reimbursed for the season. George sprained his ankle in the Nets' final game against the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Although no one on the Clippers was injured, Westbrook, one of the Big Three, was injured.
It's completely negative equity. As for the Warriors, without players such as Poole, Wiggins and Otto Porter Jr., their strength is more affected than the previous teams.
This is one of the reasons why the Lakers were able to advance all the way from the Western Conference to the Finals.
Of course, Wang Feng's Cavaliers are not really a strong team. Although Love, Poole, Bain and others performed well in the regular season and playoffs, they can go all the way in the playoffs.
The key now is Wang Feng.
If Wang Feng is replaced by any All-Star player in the league, it's hard to say whether the Cavaliers' lineup can successfully enter the playoffs.
Therefore, although the finals showdown between the Cavaliers and Lakers is the most dramatic finals showdown, it is not the strongest finals showdown in recent years.
Soon, the game started with warm cheers from the fans in the audience.
The Cavaliers' starting lineup has not changed. It is still the starting combination of Poole, Bane, Otto Porter Jr., Wang Feng and Love.
On the Lakers side, there are Sexton, Garland, Butler, Ingram and Dwight Howard.
In the jump ball stage, the aging Warcraft "easily" defeated Love, and the Lakers attacked.
Garland held the ball and used the pick-and-roll of his teammates to break into the basket for a layup. Wang Feng, who was being defended, interfered in time and missed the ball.
After Wang Feng completed his defense, he protected the defensive rebound and rushed towards the frontcourt without stopping.
Butler caught up almost immediately, staying close to Wang Feng and not giving him a chance to continue to accelerate.
Butler has partnered with Wang Feng for three seasons, during which he participated in a large number of games and countless training matches. He knows Wang Feng's offense well. He knows very well how terrifying Wang Feng is once he speeds up. His powerful
When the speed is fully increased, the lethality is no less than that of James and Giannis Antetokounmpo at their peak.
As a forward player, Butler is a defensive champion who has been selected to the best defensive team many times.
When Wang Feng was still with the Lakers, the perimeter defense he and Butler formed was an iron-clad perimeter defense, enough to make any team in the league fearful on the outside.
But now, with Butler guarding Wang Feng, the powerful pressure from the league's number one player is truly and intuitively displayed in front of him!
Wang Feng's strength was far stronger than Butler's. The result of the physical contact between the two was that Butler was squeezed by Wang Feng and staggered. Wang Feng took advantage of the gap in Butler's disorderly steps to suddenly accelerate, throwing away half of the opponent's body in one step and heading towards him.
He rushed straight towards the basket.
"Boom!!" Wang Feng, who had passed...or squeezed away from Butler, took advantage of the other Lakers players' unsteady footing to take off in two steps and hit the basketball hard with a powerful tomahawk dunk in the air.
Get into the basket!
Only ten seconds into the game, Wang Feng ignited the atmosphere with this dunk.
The Cavaliers fans excitedly stood up from their seats and cheered loudly.
With just one goal, they seemed to see the championship trophy waving towards them.
"hateful……"
Butler was a little helpless.
Wang Feng's speed and strength are far superior to him, and he can play both inside and outside. Such a player is a disaster for any defensive player on the court.
It is not that the Lakers have not formulated a defensive strategy against Wang Feng.
However, the team's head coach Walton has deduced several defensive tactics, but he is not satisfied with them all.
In fact, the best way to deal with Wang Feng is to double-team. If you are defending alone, no one in the entire league can restrict Wang Feng, not Leonard, and neither can Antetokounmpo.
But the problem is, if a double-team tactic is used against Wang Feng, Wang Feng can choose to pass the ball.
So far, Wang Feng's assists per game in the playoffs have remained stable at 10.8, and he is the league's assist leader in the regular season.
Whenever a teammate is vacated on the court, Wang Feng can always pass the ball out in various ways. Just pass it out. The biggest problem is that the five starting players of the Cavaliers all have three-point shooting ability, and
The hit rate is not low!
Countless teams in the league have personally proven with one disastrous defeat what will happen if the Cavaliers' outside shooters are given a chance.
This is somewhat disappointing.
Is it more reliable to bet that Wang Feng cannot score 70+ points in every game, or is it better to rely on the Cavaliers' group of outside shooters to collectively feel inaccurate? At least it is difficult for the Lakers to make a choice.
In the first game of G1 of the finals, they plan to test Wang Feng's offensive ability. If Butler, who is familiar with Wang Feng's playing style, defends Wang Feng, can he curb Wang Feng's scoring momentum slightly and gain a chance to win?
…
Facts have proved that such attempts failed.
In the first quarter of the game, the Cavaliers followed Butler's strategy of guarding Wang Feng alone, while other players focused on the Cavaliers' perimeter.
Then Wang Feng made 7 of 10 shots, 3 of 5 three-pointers, 4 of 4 free throws, and a super high efficiency performance of 21 points in a single quarter.
Relying on Wang Feng's 21 points in a single quarter, the Cavaliers led by 8 points at 34:26 in the first quarter!
The terrifying offensive efficiency frightened the Lakers, so they decisively used a double-team tactic against Wang Feng in the second quarter. Even though this would force Wang Feng to pass the ball to the outside, it was better for the headquarters to let Wang Feng continue to score by himself.
Unfortunately, it rained all night. Wang Feng's superb performance in the first quarter seemed to have inspired other Cavaliers players, making them not only decisive in shooting from the outside, but also have a very good shooting rate.
The result of both defensive strategies failing was that at the end of halftime, the score between the two teams became 64:47.
The point difference was directly expanded from 8 points to 17 points.
The huge score difference turned the second half of the game into garbage time.
Even though the Lakers, led by Butler and Ingram, tried to launch a counterattack, the momentum they finally gained was quickly suppressed by Wang Feng.
The huge point difference forced the Lakers to replace all their substitutes and surrender in advance.
In this way, the Cavaliers easily won the G1 game at home with a score of 128:109, taking the lead 1:0.
Throughout the game, the matchup between Wang Feng and Butler was completely one-sided.
Wang Feng scored 44 points, 8 rebounds and 14 assists. Although he did not record a triple-double every day, the exaggerated statistics were still breathtaking.
On the other hand, Butler defended Wang Feng throughout the game and was scored 44 points by the opponent with a shooting rate of nearly 60%. His performance was very poor.
In the entire game, Leonard played 43 minutes and scored 14 points on 5 of 14 shots, shooting only 35.7% from the field.
It's not an exaggeration to say that Butler was completely suppressed and even beaten by Wang Feng, but for this result, not many people blamed him.
There is a huge gap between Wang Feng and Butler, and no one thinks that Butler can match Wang Feng, even though he is no longer the one who is always looked down upon, and even trying to get a maximum-salary contract extension has had twists and turns.
Jimmy Butler.
"The Lakers lost the first game of the away finals. Obviously, if they want to defeat the Cavaliers, the Lakers must find a way to contain Wang Feng. Otherwise, in seven games or even seven games, the championship will be won by Cleveland.
Walk!"
After the first game, some Los Angeles media commented this way.
However, the entire league understands this truth.
The core of the Cavaliers is Wang Feng. Once Wang Feng fails to perform well, the Cavaliers will not be able to win anyway.
But what the entire league knows is why the Cavaliers were able to reach the finals in the end?
Because Wang Feng is not so easy to restrain!
On June 2, the second game of the finals begins.
Just like in G1, the Lakers still tried every means to guard Wang Feng. This time they did not let Butler guard Wang Feng, but replaced him with the taller Ingram.
Although Ingram's man-to-man defensive ability is not as good as Butler's, his height and wingspan advantage gives him a great advantage when defending outside shots.
As for Wang Feng's super probing step breakthrough, it is left to Howard on the inside to deal with it.
When necessary, Howard will abandon Love to help defend Wang Feng. If Wang Feng chooses to pass the ball to Love, other players will take turns to cover the defense as much as possible. If there is no time, it is not unacceptable to leave Love open to shoot a three-pointer.
Although Love averaged close to 40% of his three-point shooting in the regular season, he is currently the only player on the Lakers who can try to take chances.
Unfortunately, this defensive arrangement still has little effect.
It's not that Love would be able to shoot with help in today's game. The main problem lies with Dwight Howard, the interior defensive backbone the Lakers are trying to rely on.
If the opponent was Howard ten years ago, then even Wang Feng, who is as strong as he is now, must weigh the pros and cons and choose an offensive method as far away from Howard as possible.
After all, at his peak, Howard was said to be able to replace James alone. With his super strength, jumping, and speed and burst comparable to that of a defender, Howard had an almost terrifying dominance on the defensive end.
But things are different now. After experiencing several serious injuries, Howard no longer has the explosive power of the past. Moreover, Howard is already quite old. The main reason why he can become the starting center of the Lakers this season is
With Brook Lopez leaving the team, the Lakers just lack a quality center.
When Wang Feng rushed to the basket with the ball, Howard put little defensive pressure on him. Wang Feng could even take the initiative to make physical contact with Howard, and then relied on his advantages in jumping and staying in the air to successfully score the ball with the help of time difference.
.
Moreover, in the current small ball era league, the intensity of whistle blowing and penalty decisions is also constantly increasing.
After a few rounds, Howard was whistled for two defensive fouls and had to be timid.
In this case, Wang Feng's efficiency in breaking through and scoring with the ball was not affected at all.
The defensive tactical adjustments made by the Lakers did not have any effect.
Unable to solve Wang Feng's offense, the Lakers lost again in G2.
114:110.
The total score came to 2:0.
With another two successful home wins, the Cavaliers are only one step away from the championship trophy.
June 5, Game 3 of the series.
The venue for the game came to the home of the Lakers, the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
After trying so hard to lock down Wang Feng in the first two games and failing, the Lakers finally realized that trying to prevent Wang Feng was unrealistic. Instead of wasting most of their energy on useless things, it would be better not to
Tangle with this problem and instead think of ways to make your offense better.
Therefore, in G3 of the Finals, the Lakers completely gave up locking down Wang Feng at their home court, and instead focused all their energy on offense, staging an offensive battle with the Cavaliers.
Unexpectedly, this move had an immediate effect.
The Lakers blossomed more, with 7 players on the team scoring in double figures, including Butler scoring 24 points, Ingram 27 points, Sexton, Garland and Kuzma also all scored high.
The Lakers also used this to regain a victory at 119:117, bringing the score to 2:1.