As the ga entered the opening ceremony, when Irving appeared, there were not only boos but also quite a few claps and cheers.
Irving’s imdiate diss of his forr team after the trade was quite outrageous, but that doesn’t an people won’t rember what he contributed to the Cavaliers.
Two years ago, he played against the Heat until his season ended and his outstanding performance against the Heat last season, many fans haven’t forgotten.
Irving’s gaze wavered slightly, but it quickly turned determined.
After the opening ceremony, the starting lineups for both teams were announced one after another.
Bulls: Irving, Butler, Doug McDermott, Gibson, Big Gasol
Cavaliers: Wade, Hansen, Tucker, TT, Jokic
Jokic jumped for the Cavaliers’ possession, and the ga officially started.
Hansen received the ball in the frontcourt forming the strong side, called TT for a pick-and-roll, and after attracting the Bulls’ defense quickly switched from strong side to weak side, giving Wade a chance for isolation.
Although Wade is practicing three-pointers, his stability is definitely worse than Irving’s.
Moreover, if he’s only stretching the space at the three-point line, it would be better to start JR.
Therefore, if Wade is to be effective, it’s best to have the ball in his hands.
But now he can’t just blast past the defense like in his peak days, so creating one-on-one opportunities for him is most appropriate.
Especially since the previous trade made the Bulls send Covington away, leaving Butler as their only defensive focus, and this "only" can only watch Hansen.
Facing Wade is Irving.
The two main characters of the trade et face-to-face right at the start.
Amongst the cheers from the fans, Wade quickly initiated a breakthrough while Irving moved swiftly to follow Wade.
One is the Flash who can’t move like a flash anymore, while the other is Uncle Drew with improved defense, with trade-offs, Wade wasn’t able to bypass Irving imdiately.
However, at the mont of close contact, Wade used his signature Mysterious Steps.
Or perhaps, it’s now more like the European Step.
The forr relies more on explosiveness, while the latter relies more on skill.
After lifting the ball over Irving, Wade seamlessly countered to prevent Irving from putting force, and then quickly made a floater before Gibson could help defend.
"Swish!"
The basketball drew a small parabolic arc before directly diving into the net, and the cheers on-site transford into applause.
The first goal of Wade’s Cavaliers career ca much faster than anticipated.
The Bulls’ ball was in Irving’s hands, while Butler ran to the weak-side corner.
In the initial negotiations between the Cavaliers and Bulls, there was a plan of swapping Butler for Irving.
However, Hansen thought that was inappropriate.
Not because of Butler’s ability, but what deviated from Hansen’s impression was Butler was capable of three-pointers at this ti, averaging 3.3 attempts per ga this season, with a shooting percentage of 36.7%, not excellent but much better than Wade.
After all, he made his na as a 3D player during Thibodeau’s ti.
Hansen didn’t agree more because of personality issues.
Butler looks like Jordan and behaves similarly to Jordan.
If he joined the Cavaliers, in his eyes "worker" Jokic and Towns, Embiid, and such wouldn’t be much different.
If you see soone everyday that annoys you, conflict is inevitable.
However, frankly speaking, Butler is a very team-oriented player.
Otherwise, at this mont, he wouldn’t have handed over the possession to Irving.
Facing Irving naturally is Wade.
Wade had scored one on Irving, and Irving didn’t intend to score back directly.
He called for Big Gasol’s pick-and-roll, then quickly broke through Jokic.
Jokic couldn’t keep up with Irving and could only watch as he dashed into the paint.
TT quickly helped defend, but Irving jumped first, an aerial pull made TT hesitate to step forward, followed by a quick layup and score.
Irving didn’t bother looking at TT after landing, instead, he turned with fierce eyes towards Jokic.
Perhaps at this mont, outsiders got a glimpse of Irving’s real reason for leaving.
Just like he said to Hansen earlier, what he cared about wasn’t Malone, but Malone’s approach showing Jokic as better than him.
Of course, also when he asked Hansen if he was inferior to Jokic, Hansen’s non-direct answer stance.
If that’s the case, he would prove both Malone and Hansen wrong: He is far superior to Jokic!
Jokic’s reaction at this ti was interesting too, he didn’t know why Irving looked at him with such an expression, he showed a surprised look and turned to the baseline to throw in the ball.
The approach of "just work, why be so dramatic" made Irving very unhappy.
And at this mont, Irving seed to understand more why he couldn’t accept Jokic being more prioritized than him.
Clearly, Jokic is just a clock-in, clock-out worker, while he put in a lot of effort and sweat to reach his current achievents, why should Jokic receive more?
That’s unfair!
Cavaliers’ offense, sa tactic, only this ti, when Wade held the ball for a breakthrough, Jokic stepped up to the high post to screen for him.
Jokic’s screen quality improved, Irving took so ti navigating around the screen.
This ti was already enough for Wade, who found himself mismatched against Big Gasol, swiftly broke through to the three-second area, and a floater fake successfully tricked Big Gasol to turn around and score with a board.
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