Capítulo 1348: Chapter 539: The Birth of a New God!

Let me tell you, Kevin might as well go to the Cavaliers, they’d definitely be willing to trade Love for him.”

Zhang Yang: “Hey! That’s interesting, James + Durant… though it’s probably hard to top your combination with Durant, right?

Keeping Love and swapping Irving for Durant might be better. No, Love is still too slow; you need an inside player like Aldridge.”

Harden starts musing: “The Spurs might not want Love, Davis should be the best fit; he can pick and roll, shoot, and go one-on-one. But Irving + Love together might not even land Davis. What about Irving + Love for Kevin + George?”

Zhang Yang: “Last summer, Pacers would have agreed to trade George for Irving + Love, and Cavaliers could even make room to sign Durant…”

Nearby, Big Luo: Hey, hey, hey, what are you pitying over? Still trying to plot a way out for the backpack? That’s the opponent! The one that almost beat us to a 1-3 deficit!

Other teammates: Our three big brothers are incredible to actually feel sorry that the opponent might collapse.

As for the big brother saying nothing? If he says nothing, isn’t it just agreeing with the second and third brothers?

Though DeRozan silently protested, Zhang Yang and Harden’s attitude of feeling sorry for the opponent and longing for playing against stronger opponents really let him feel what pure basketball is.

It’s exactly like the feeling back in high school, and this is also the reason he took a pay cut to return home…

…

It’s June 6th, and at 8 PM, the Western Conference Finals Game 5 between the Lakers and Warriors kicks off at the Staples Center.

G1, the Lakers and Warriors battled evenly in the first half, but in the third quarter, the ‘Three Giants proper opening method’ was suddenly deployed to crush the Warriors for victory.

G2, with a highlight performance from Curry, Warriors forced the game into overtime, where Lakers narrowly turned the table relying on Zhang Yang’s 25 points in 17 minutes.

G3, at home, the Warriors narrowly defeated the Lakers.

G4, Warriors pulled one off, but the elementary kid doesn’t last long, and that’s no secret.

Back in the 2015 Western Conference Finals, Curry had slumped after successive eruptions. Similar situations occurred in last season’s second round and Western Conference Finals, with consecutive explosions in G2 and G3, scoring 46 in G2 and 31 under Harden’s relentless defense in G3. Slumping a bit in G4 was routine.

Before the ‘Green formula’ was revealed, when the game just ended, the TV commentators reviewing G4 felt that despite the seemingly overwhelming 3-1 score, the gap in strength wasn’t as large as the score indicated.

Most commentators and experts thought Warriors still had a chance to turn things around; they had previously come back from a 1-3 deficit to beat the Spurs.

But now, the Warriors’ prospects in at least this series have become bleak.

After the game started, Warriors players seemed keen to counter claims that they had internally collapsed, playing cooperatively with high energy.

This eagerness appeared overly deliberate, as oftentimes in the game, such cooperation wasn’t necessary but rather required stars to play more dominantly, like how in G2, Curry nearly led Warriors to snatch homecourt advantage.

The Compton Three Giants were willing to sacrifice for each other, willing to play supporting roles for good brothers, but Zhang Yang also sometimes took the ball to solve problems head-on.

Relying on and believing in one’s ability to solve problems personally is what stars should do.

The exaggerated display by Warriors in the first quarter of ‘we have no issues, we’re happy to cooperate’ led to the ugliest first quarter in this Western Conference Finals yet, with as many as 6 turnovers and 4 fouls on defense!

They shot 18 for 7, including 3 of 9 from three-point range, and 5 of 5 free throws, taking only 22 points in the first quarter.

On the Lakers side, back to explosive form after 3 games, hitting 21 of 14 including 3 of 5 from three-point range, plus 4 of 5 free throws, soaring to 35 points like G1!

The Lakers in the first quarter were really steady, not blindly attacking just because the opponents were playing chaotically. They took the chance when available, otherwise, even if the opponents made mistakes, they calmly fell back into set plays, controlling the pace in their hands, avoiding a race to prevent the opponents from gaining momentum.

After a disastrous 22 to 35 start, Curry and Durant suddenly woke up, no longer obsessed with ‘proving we have no issues’, taking the ball to go head-on, Warriors’ offense somewhat warmed up, but only delivering 28 to 27 and 27 to 27 scores in the second and third quarters.

Those two as stars, when the ball is in their hands, can immediately rise, but others cannot. Even Thompson can’t, the role players and shooters heavily rely on the rhythm set by the core players.

From the second and third quarters’ performance, the Lakers seemed average tonight; their explosive first quarter was really grounded in a careful attitude, seizing scoring opportunities.

Warriors actually had a chance tonight to turn the situation back, playing G6 at home wasn’t impossible to push it to a Game Seven.

But the birth of the ‘New Formula’ inevitably whipped up a storm, the Tsunami Combination wave had yet to rise before it was engulfed by the rain.

In the final quarter, the relentless Durant took the ball to dance wildly, shooting 10 times in single quarter, refreshing his single quarter shooting record in this Western Conference Finals, hitting 6 of 10 including 1 of 1 from three-point range, plus making 3 of 3 free throws scoring 16 points. This crazy performance even suppressed Zhang Yang and Harden.

With Curry’s support and Thompson’s coordination, Warriors under Durant’s lead began significantly narrowing the point gap.