Defeating the Lakers, the Nets started a new round of winning streak.

They did not deliberately pursue 74 or 75 wins. This can be seen from the coaching staff resting players from time to time.

But they are indeed making progress towards this goal.

There is a sharp contrast between the Warriors last season and the Nets this season, and it also illustrates a sentence well: There are times in your life that you must have, but there are times in your life that you must not force.

Or to sum it up in a simpler sentence: The strength has arrived.

There were no injuries, Rose was introduced, and even the bench, which was originally thought to be weaker, performed much better than expected.

In the words of fans, I am afraid that only the destruction of the earth can stop this team.

Moreover, the opponent who is most likely to defeat them is still struggling!

Yes, Green still failed to find his touch!

This also makes the relationship between him and James very delicate.

Because in basketball, it doesn't matter how good your relationship is off the court. In the end, you have to rely on your strength on the court to speak for itself.

And James has a very large fan base. Although it is not as good as "6 billion fans", it still accounts for three-thirds of the world's fans.

That size is more than one level larger than Durant in history.

So this time in the All-Star voting, it is obvious that Green's votes have dropped a lot compared to last year.

You have a conflict with my emperor, do you still want votes?

As for the remaining 67-point fans, few like Green, a player with a big mouth.

And even Warriors fans blame Green for the Warriors' poor record this season, and many are unwilling to vote for him.

So, don't count on it.

The current frontcourt competition in the Western Conference is basically James, Leonard, Anthony Davis, and Wiggins.

As for the substitute lineup, his performance so far this season has hardly impressed the coaches of each team.

If nothing else goes wrong, there is a high probability that Green will not be selected as an All-Star this year.

Everything is developing in a direction beneficial to the Nets.

…

After the game against the Lakers, the Nets will fly directly to Chateau, where they will start an away game with the Hornets.

The Hornets have performed very well so far this season, and this game is also crucial for them.

Simply put, the Nets are now the league's ceiling team and the hardest litmus test.

If you want to see if your team has the strength to compete for the championship, just try it against the Nets and you will know.

Take the Lakers as an example. Although they lost, the outside world's evaluation of them has improved to a higher level.

They are considered to be at least on the same level as the Spurs, and are one of the two teams outside of the Brave Nets with the best chance of competing for the title.

Therefore, it can be predicted that the Hornets will also show 120% desire to compete in tonight's game.

On game day, both Jordan and Bird came to the Spectrum Center.

Since Bird arrived in Charlotte, the two have often appeared in the arena together, following each other like shadows and being intimate.

And I don’t know if it was because of giving all the rights to Bird that Jordan’s poisonous milk attribute also disappeared.

He watched several games at home, and the Hornets eventually won several difficult games.

So tonight, Jordan seemed very calm when he was sitting on the sidelines, talking and laughing with Bird.

He really should be happy.

Last year's Hornets were powerless against the Nets. At that time, all Jordan wanted was for the team to lose a little better, or at least win.

But with the team's rapid momentum this year, his expectations have naturally changed.

In the warm-up training before the game, the live footage not only showed the Gemini, but also Walker from the Hornets.

Walker's condition continues to improve. He averaged 38.5 points per game in the last three games and shot 51% from three-point range.

God put on the No. 8 jersey, and by the way, he also became ten centimeters shorter.

The pre-match warm-up was over and both teams took the stage one after another.

For the Nets, Ariza is still absent.

This time it's not that Lu wants to rest him, but that he is really injured.

But it's not serious. Ariza's attendance rate has always been very high in his career, and the team just doesn't let him play for insurance reasons.

Rose, Bradley, Durant, Lin Ying, Jokic.

Except for Ariza, the Nets also played all their main players, and it was clear that Lu was also very serious about this game.

All the Hornets' main players are healthy.

Walker, JR, Butler, Horford, Zeller.

At the beginning of the game, the atmosphere on the court was quite calm.

After all, the Hornets have two former Nets players, and they are both Lin Ying's former younger brothers.

However, as the game continued, the smell of gunpowder on the court began to get stronger.

The Hornets can achieve such a good record this season because of only two points.

First, Walker is at the peak of his career.

This was also reflected in this game.

Walker can't enter the "Zone", but his state this season is very close to the zone state of his body.

In addition to his still sharp double changes, he has improved his finishing ability, and most importantly, raised his three-pointers to a very stable level.

This kind of short guard is fast and accurate, and defenders will be caught in the dilemma of defending against penetration or defending against shots.

So Bradley has been a bit miserable these days. First he was blown away by Kobe, and then he couldn't guard Walker.

The second is the improved defense of the Hornets.

If the team itself lacks talent, it must rely on defensive enthusiasm and aggressiveness to make up for it.

The Hornets have exactly this capital.

Although Walker is short, his defense is in the middle of the league without injury. Then the forward combination of Butler and Horford supports the entire defense. In addition, JR and Zeller are also online defensively, and the overall defensive strength is not bad.

However, when the enthusiasm for defense increases, there will be confrontation, and the smell of gunpowder on the court begins to become stronger.

During a Nets offense, Butler made a bit of a move when defending Durant, and the two directly clashed.

Lin Ying saw this and went up to try to persuade the two of them to leave.

Durant was pulled away by him, but Butler got a little carried away and continued to talk trash at Durant.

"Jimmy, stop!"

It wasn't until Lin Ying shouted at Butler that Butler shut up.

The brief conflict was calmed down by Lin Ying, but the atmosphere of the competition did not subside.

There were also frequent whistles on the court, and the game was a bit fragmented.

But in this kind of game, the Hornets and the Nets have been in a stalemate.

It was only later that Lin Ying realized what this Hornets team looked like.

An absolute firepower output point from the outside; the forwards are all defensive leaders, plus Horford is the axis of offense and defense; and this kind of aggressive defense.

This is basically a replica of the Celtics team from Thomas's era!

Bird was the boss of the Celtics when he was a player. This model is so reasonable!

And even from Lin Ying's perspective, Walker and Thomas play very similar, plus Horford is also there.

I checked my eyes and saw that it was the Charlotte Celtics.

Unknowingly, the game came to the last quarter in this atmosphere, and the scores of the two teams were still rising alternately.

Walker has already scored 40 points, and his performance during this period is truly amazing.

Lin Ying performed normally for the Nets, but Durant's mentality was a bit blown up by Butler, and Jokic was suppressed by Horford, an old man.

Thirty seconds before the end of the game, the two teams were tied at 105.

The Hornets fans at the scene became more and more excited as they watched.

Over in the audience, Jordan couldn't sit still, moving back and forth, with a smile on his face that he couldn't hide at all.

Although he had expectations before the game, he really didn't expect the Hornets to be as good as this.

"If we win, I will send a box of cigars to everyone on the team."

Jordan couldn't hide his excitement and turned around to talk to Bird.

Don't think there are too few cigars. For Jordan, this is already plucking feathers from the iron cock.

"Michael, the game is not over yet."

Hearing Jordan say this, Bird felt his heart go cold.

Jordan couldn't help it after all.

But at this moment, a "surprising scene" occurred on the field.

The ball on the court belonged to the Nets. Durant was angered by Butler's trash talk and took the ball directly to break through Butler, but Butler intercepted it!

The Hornets played a fast break, and Walker made a layup in the fast break, avoiding Bradley's layup and scoring with a difficult reverse layup!

Walker's quasi-kill!

The Spectrum Center instantly burst into explosive cheers.

The fans all raised their hands and stood up. This was a golden goal!

Even Jordan finally couldn't sit still and stood up to cheer and applaud Walker's performance.

This is at the scene. If he were watching the game at home, he would definitely have to light a cigar to cheer up!

But at this moment, the whistle suddenly sounded on the field.

It turned out that Durant and Butler had another conflict.

Fortunately, the referee responded quickly, otherwise this would have started immediately!

"The referee is taking care of you, otherwise you wouldn't be able to guard against me!"

Durant shouted at Butler through the referee, and his mentality was really a bit broken.

In fact, due to his physical talent, Butler is often teased by fans about "what is his strength?" from time to time.

Tonight's game gave the most vivid answer. The mad dog-style defense broke the opponent's mentality, the tough mental attributes, and the offensive level of a qualified second-level boss.

So once Walker exploded, the Hornets' strength and record improved accordingly.

"But I'm guarding you, your choice just now was terrible!"

Butler didn't show any weakness and retorted.

"Who do you think you are? What qualifications do you have to judge me?"

Durant said as he was about to go up again, but Lin Ying grabbed him as he rushed over.

"Come on man! Before you win the championship with Lin, I already won two with Lin!"

Butler raised his hands and shouted at Durant.

Lin Ying heard this and quickly pulled Durant to the bench.

"How could he say that? How could he say that!"

Back on the bench, Durant roared.

Lin Ying's expression was a little helpless at this time.

The two sides really got into a fight tonight.

Moreover, what Butler said just now can be regarded as creating a gap between the two teams.

After finishing his roar, Durant sat on the bench like a deflated ball.

Although Butler's trash talk just now is not as lethal as "Green's Formula", it is still very hurtful.

No matter what the reason is, it is a fact that Durant was unable to lead the Thunder to win the championship before, and it is also a fact that he was willing to be Pippen when he came to the Nets.

"Kevin, calm down, he just wants to anger you, right from the beginning."

At this time, Lin Ying walked to Durant and lowered his head and said.

Lu was not in a hurry to plan his tactics, but consciously made way for Lin Ying to pass.

"Without you, we wouldn't have been able to play like this in the past two seasons. You have to understand this, we are the twin stars."

Lin Ying continued.

Durant's mood calmed down a little at this time.

"Cheer up, wait for you to shoot the winning shot, and I will create opportunities for you."

Lin Ying patted Durant on the shoulder.

The outcome of a game is not important, what is important is that Durant's mentality cannot go wrong.

After hearing this, Lu on the side erased the tactics he originally drew and prepared to change to another one.

"No, Shadow, we need this victory, I will make space for you."

Durant said and stood up.

The look in Lin Ying's eyes had changed a lot from just now.

Although Durant is easily angered, in the final analysis he is a veteran who has been in the league for eight years like Lin Ying.

He wouldn't listen to what others said, but he would listen to Lin Ying's words.

Moreover, Lin Ying's trust made him feel guilty from the bottom of his heart.

If he hadn't been provoked by Butler, the game would not have ended in this situation.

Tonight's game was a good wake-up call.

But, they need this kind of victory.

Lin Ying nodded.

The buzzer-beating ball is not suitable for pushing back and forth, and now there is a lot of pressure to shoot when trailing by 2 points. No one can guarantee that it will go in.

Lin Ying and Durant finished their exchange, but the pen Lu was holding was frozen in place.

He seemed to be a little anxious about wiping.

Fortunately, the Nets' tactics were simple, and he quickly drew them up again.

Tactic A, core tactic, ace tactic, first tactic, this tactic has many names, but in a nutshell, it is still familiar to fans, give the ball to Lin Ying.

After the timeout, the Nets play the ball in the frontcourt.

At this time, Butler switched defense to Lin Ying.

There was no need to guess Lu's tactics. Clifford could guess with his toes that Lu would let Lin Ying end the game.

And Butler also blocks the shots wherever he needs to.

Before the ball was served, Lin Ying glanced at Butler, who had already lowered his weight and leaned on him.

What Butler just said was indeed a bit excessive. Even as an opponent, you should know that there are some things that you cannot say.

Just like when he was still with the Nuggets, Garnett said "your wife tastes like a donut" to Anthony.

Although Butler is not good enough to make Durant stop a bus, he still decided to teach his former younger brother a lesson.

At this moment, the live camera panned to Jordan and Bird in the audience.

The two big guys from the Hornets stood there, looking expectant.

If the Hornets can win tonight, it will be enough for them to be happy for a while.

Lin Ying also raised his head and glanced at the large LED screen.

Then when he lowered his head and looked at Butler again, he pointed to the three-point line on the right, and then said:
Chapter completed!