LeBron James, your house got robbed.

Chapter 138 Only the Flag Endures

Parsons walked over from the bench.

Chen Shuo carefully took off a championship ring, handed it to Chandler Parsons, and patted Parsons on the shoulder: "Buddy, you're very important to us. We couldn't have done this without you."

Parsons paused for a moment, then his smile returned to normal.

"I will always give it my all."

He then put the ring on his pinky finger and raised his right hand to signal to the fans.

Another wave of shouts erupted from the Quicken Loans Center, threatening to overturn the stadium.

KG's entrance was as passionate as ever, with his fists, as big as sandbags, pounding his chest repeatedly.

Chen Shuo noticed that Garnett was wearing another championship ring, which should be the 08 Celtics ring.

KG took the ring, hugged Chen Shuo, put it next to another ring, gave it a big kiss, and raised his right hand.

"Hey newbies, look here."

"Little ones with only one ring, you must always be hungry."

Garnett punched each of his teammates, completely excited, and couldn't stop talking, creating quite a commotion.

Chen Shuo turned around and looked at the Cavaliers' bench.

"The last player to step in is the team's playmaker. I often joke with Tyronn Lue that as long as Paul is on the court, we don't need to do anything, we can just wait to win the game."

"Let's welcome Finals MVP 'Chris the Shooter'!"

Compared to Garnett's antics.

Paul's emotions were more complicated. He stared at the ring on his finger for a long time, as if it possessed some special magic.

Chen Shuo glanced at the players present.

All the players except Jeremy Lin were present.

Veteran Thomas and rookie Samuels were also invited back to Quicken Loans Arena.

Today is also a game day for the Houston Rockets, so Jeremy Lin's ring will have to be mailed to him later.

Chen Shuo sighed silently.

Without Jeremy Lin's performance in the final game, they might have really been upset by the Thunder's Big Three.

Next up were the coaching staff: Tyronn Lue, Steve Kerr, Nick Nurse, and Mike Longabadi.

Only a few new players remained on the bench: Lowry, Green, Beverley, and Anderson.

Even through the thick darkness, one could still feel the burning gaze.

The camera work on site also captured this point; on the big screen, Beverley's eyes were practically spitting fire with desire.

A round of applause broke out.

It came suddenly.

Chen Shuo looked up at the big screen. Brazilian Varejão's eyes were red, and Davis, whose eyebrows were joined together, kept patting Varejão's back.

"I love it here, I love this city, I love the Cleveland fans, and I love the games at Quicken Loans Arena."

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"But if my departure will make things better, then I'll still like that decision."

Those words still echo in my ears.

Sometimes reality is just that cruel.

As Chen Shuo picked up the last ring.

The spotlights that had been sweeping across the venue disappeared, leaving only the light shining on the burgundy flag.

Beneath the Iogo pierced by the knight's sword, three lines of golden cursive script are engraved:

Cleveland Cavaliers

World Champions

【2011—2012】

Chen Shuo stared at the flag as it rose all the way up to the sky above the stadium.

From this day forward, this banner will forever be etched in the history of the Cleveland Knights.

People come and go, but the flag remains forever.

Everyone looked up at the flags above until Quicken Loans Arena lit up again, waking the players on the field and the fans off the field from their reverie.

Chen Shuo handed the microphone to Paul.

Paul looked at the 20,000 fans in the arena: "The moment I put the ring on, we knew it was time to start over."

"The past is over."

"The defending champions cannot offer any benefits or advantages in the new season."

"We must wake up; everything that follows is entirely new."

"We must remain hungry and win the game one at a time."

"Start working hard now."

Paul's remarks were extremely concise, not following the usual practice of reviewing the past, but instead looking directly at the new season.

Although he was saying this to the fans, every word was meant for his teammates.

Clearly, after winning his first championship, Paul's ambitions have swelled to unprecedented levels.

For the Cavaliers, the awards ceremony was undoubtedly the most wonderful experience.

Even sitting on the bench, the players were still chattering away, discussing the design of the rings, the flags overhead, and those unforgettable matches.

But for the away team, the awards ceremony was not so pleasant.

Jealousy is human nature.

Almost all the Hornets players had the same thought in their minds:

Take them down.

Irving, in particular, went all out in the first round.

Davis, facing one of his role models, Chandler, easily leaped into the air, defying gravity, and won possession for the Hornets.

Irving grabbed the ball and immediately started moving forward, his movements sparkling and lightning-fast. He dribbled past Thompson with a behind-the-back dribble, then dodged Garnett's block with a layup and easily scored two points.

A series of smooth and dazzling maneuvers left the Cavaliers fans in the arena drooling.

Despite winning the championship they had dreamed of, Cleveland fans were still very disappointed to lose Kyrie Irving.

There's no way around it; wanting both and having it all is a memory etched into the genes and blood of humankind.

Chen Shuo then took a look at the Hornets' starting lineup.

Vasquez, Irving, Walton, Davis, Okafor.

After drafting Anthony Davis, the Hornets did not rush to strengthen their roster or strive for success.

The theme of this season should still be to allow the two number one draft picks to fully develop.

Looking back.

For the Cavaliers, Paul is sidelined with a finger contusion, Lowry has moved into the starting lineup, and the other positions remain largely unchanged from last season.

In his first possession with the Cavaliers, Lowry did not choose to attack himself, but instead passed the ball to Thompson on the other side.

The latter wanted to use Garnett's screen to shoot a three-pointer, but found that Davis had already come up and blocked the space.

Thompson instinctively tried to pass the ball to the unmarked Garnett, but Vasquez intercepted it from the side.

Davis leaped out like an arrow, leaving Garnett behind him completely unable to catch up.

Vasquez tossed the ball far toward the basket.

If he were to pass the ball to someone else, he would need to consider the angle and height; but if he were to pass it to Davis, he would simply need to throw the ball over.

Davis jumped vertically, seemed to pause for a moment while receiving the ball in mid-air, and then crisply slammed the ball into the basket.

Chen Shuo rubbed the ring on the pinky finger of his left hand, constantly turning it to adjust its position.

The Cavaliers players are clearly out of form.

The Hornets' fast break wasn't the problem; the issue was that only Garnett managed to bring the Cavaliers back to win half the game, while the rest of the team seemed to be still dreaming.

Meeting Tyronn Lue's gaze, Chen Shuo gently shook his head.

Both the opening game and the award ceremony game were just ordinary regular season games.

The Cavaliers can afford to lose.

There are advantages to losing a game.

Unlike last season's dark horse, this season's Cavaliers became the undisputed champions almost from the very beginning.

Almost every team is analyzing the Cavaliers' game footage frame by frame.

Either find a way to target it, or learn from it.

It can be said that every aspect of the Knights has been studied countless times under a magnifying glass.

Even the regular season could be elevated to the intensity and level of the playoffs.

Any team would want to test their strength against the Cavaliers.

Strong teams want to test whether strategies targeting the Cavaliers are effective.

Teams that don't plan to achieve good results will also test their mettle against the Cavaliers to see how much talent they've accumulated.

Take this wasp, for example.

At this point, the Cavaliers players' mentality becomes crucial.

This is the age of the Internet, where all information can spread across the globe in seconds.

Players are human too; they also read the news and see the media's praise for the Cavaliers, so they can become arrogant and underestimate their opponents.

For example, Thompson dribbled the ball and hit his foot, resulting in two turnovers in less than a minute.

Fortunately, the ball bounced out of bounds this time, denying the Hornets a chance to counterattack.

Tyronn Lue received Chen Shuo's instructions and stood calmly on the sidelines, chewing bubble gum.

In the CCTV-5 studio thousands of miles away, the Cavaliers' opening match was broadcast live, with Yu Jia as host and Yang Yi as commentator.

Yang Yi, looking knowledgeable, said, "Coach Lu is still too young."

"If it were an experienced coach, he would have called a timeout long ago."

A flood of posts quickly appeared on the Hupu forum: "Seriously, all this guy does is chew bubble gum???"

"That expression is so irritating."

"He's a champion coach."

"Forget it, with the Cavaliers' roster, they could win the championship with a dog on a leash."

"Agreed. Didn't Chen Shuo personally coach the team during the finals? I remember the American media even did a special analysis, believing that Chen Shuo would be a top-notch coach."

After one quarter of the game, the Cavaliers' cheerleaders came on stage and gave a very energetic performance. Every move they made was beautiful, but it still couldn't change the deathly silence of Quicken Loans Arena.

The score of 10-25 displayed above the arena left Cleveland fans momentarily disoriented.

If it weren't for that burgundy flag hanging in the sky above the arena, the fans would have thought they were still dreaming.

The Hornets, a bottom-ranked team in the league, completely dominated the Cavaliers on the court.

Despite Paul's absence due to injury, this still failed to satisfy the fans.

In their minds, the Cavaliers should be able to win the game even with a full bench lineup.

At the start of the second quarter, Tyronn Lue actually fielded a lineup entirely composed of substitutes.

Beverley, Green, Ariza, Battier, and Anderson were the Cavaliers' transitional period last year, led by Paul and Garnett respectively.

Typically, around the 6-minute mark, Garnett and Thompson would leave the court first, while Paul would lead the team alone until the remaining two or three minutes were left before leaving the court, at which point Garnett and Thompson would come back in to continue leading the team.

This season, Chen Shuo and the coaching staff discussed and decided to significantly reduce Garnett's playing time, allowing KG to focus all his energy on the playoffs, and only play around 25 minutes in the regular season.

The second unit was originally planned to be led by Lowry and Leonard.

Unfortunately, Paul's preseason injury disrupted the rotation.

With Lowry absent from the second unit during the transition period, playing Leonard wouldn't make much sense.

This version of Leonard relies more on guards to put the ball on him than Anthony does.

Therefore, Tyronn Lue placed all his bets on defense and counter-attacks.

As soon as Beverley entered the game, he stalked Irving, who was leading the team, like a mad dog.

Irving only rested for two minutes in the first quarter before returning to the court in the second quarter, his desire to win the game practically written all over his face.

Beverley's defense is extremely aggressive.

He kept grabbing at Irving's dribbling hand, while also physically confronting him, pressing his entire body against him and giving Irving almost no room to maneuver.

Throughout his career, Kyrie Irving was never a master at drawing fouls, and he was at a great disadvantage against a defense like Beverley's.

In the end, he could only manage a weak three-pointer.

"Duang!!!"

Anderson grabbed the rebound and secured possession of the ball.

By the time the ball reached Beverley, the Hornets players, who were fully focused, had already retreated to their own half.

Unable to mount a counter-attack, the players on the field also lacked effective offensive development.

In the end, Ariza was the only one left to manage a turnaround mid-range jumper.

Chen Shuo's face darkened.

Ariza has probably almost forgotten that he knows this trick.

Since his failed attempt to develop him as a core player for Rockets, Ariza has been working towards becoming a highly functional piece of the puzzle.

Asking him to launch an attack at this point would be asking too much of him.

Two or three rounds passed, and the score on the big screen remained unchanged.

With the home-court advantage, Beverley's relentless defense temporarily shut down second-year Kyrie Irving. However, the Cavaliers, unable to mount a counter-attack, found their offense even more ineffective.

For a moment, the sound of metal clashing filled the air.

For a moment, Chen Shuo felt as if he were at Staples Center.

Unable to stand it any longer, Chen Shuo waved his hand, calling Parsons and Green up from the bench, replacing Battier and Anderson.

In the TNT studio, O'Neal clutched his head and yelled, "What is Chen Shuo doing?"

"He put a guy who was less than two meters tall against Varejao."

"This guy is an All-Star center with the most solid low-post skills."

Seeing this, Irving activated his organizational skills, signaling his teammates to spread out and lobbing the ball directly to Varejao in the low post.

Because of Draymond Green's long arms, Varejao was forced to jump to safely catch the ball.

Just as Varejao jumped, Dream ruthlessly took over the space beneath him.

After Varejao received the ball, he was surprised to find that he was already far from the three-second zone.

He puts down the ball with force, continuously exerting force, and Green behind him can't be said to be completely still.

At this speed, Varejao won't even be able to get to the offensive zone after the five-second back-to-the-basket violation.

The Hornets players were momentarily stunned, completely unable to understand why the 2.08 Varejao couldn't push Draymond Green, who was a head shorter than him.

Seeing this, Varejao had no choice but to harden his heart, lower his center of gravity, and concentrate his strength on his hips as he rammed into Green.

Using the space created by the collision, he turned forward and shot, his long arms following closely behind, almost making the block.

Although it didn't touch the ball, the ball was forced to rise in arc and went directly off the side of the rim, landing on the boundary line.

Perhaps unable to understand the play, the Hornets, who had initially retreated quickly on defense, slowed down their footwork this time.

Draymond Green reached the baseline and kept asking the referee for the ball. Seizing the opportunity, he passed it directly to Ariza in the attacking third.

Frustrated, Ariza surged ahead, and without hesitation, used his physical advantage to overtake Irving, the only one who had come back to defend him.

"AndOne!!!"

Accompanied by Ariza's venting roar, the quick loan center finally finished its work, and cheers and encouragement rang out.

Chen Shuo's face lit up with joy.

Pursuing your dreams is more efficient than you imagine.

Chen Shuo originally thought that pursuing his dream would require one or two more seasons of training.

After all, it wasn't until the 14-15 season when Kerr coached the Warriors that Draymond Green started and gradually made a name for himself.

In retrospect, the defensive organization, as a dream team of older players ready to contribute, was excellent from the start, but lacked a stage to showcase its abilities.

Of course, Chen Shuo knew that in this era before the rise of small-ball, Draymond Green would struggle against many inside players.

Varejao was clearly out of practice due to injury, which is why Draymond Green was able to defend him so easily.

Actually, it would be more appropriate to put Draymond Green at the power forward position, but his offensive skills are too limited. He hasn't even mastered the three-pointer yet, so he would be too much of a drag on the offense as a power forward.

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