One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-Nine. We Can Beat Them

52 wins! They are a 52-win team, but they made the playoffs only by the head-to-head wins.

Eighth in the West... What a hopeless ranking.

But what can Irving do? Even if it is a disastrous defeat, he still wants to make the playoffs. If he doesn't make the playoffs, it will be even worse.

Just when Irving felt sorry for himself, there was a knock on the door.

Irving immediately got up, adjusted his mood, and returned to the state of being a leader.

He likes this state and likes to show his strong side in front of others.

When he opened the door, it was the team's staff who served him.

"Kyrie, are you ready? The press conference is about to begin."

"I know, Dandy, wait for me, I'll change clothes."

Irving took out the formal clothes that had been prepared long ago from the suitcase, went to the bathroom to change clothes, and went to the largest conference room of the hotel with the team staff, where they will hold a press conference before the playoffs.

On the 16th, they luckily made it to the playoffs by relying on the advantage of the head-to-head win against the Trail Blazers. The press conference was originally planned to be held after arriving in Memphis yesterday, but it was postponed to today due to the airport.

Arriving at the conference room, Irving saw that the large conference room that could accommodate more than 200 people was already packed with reporters, and he felt it was really exaggerated!

Originally, he and Anthony Davis were very popular. Now, they are playing against the Grizzlies, a super popular team that has been popular since the beginning of the regular season and has been popular from the beginning to now. Such a scene is also within Irving's expectations... Bullshit! He still felt it was too exaggerated. His staff just said that this was a group of media that had been screened. At least the media with a regional population of tens of millions were qualified to come in. The camera was still unified, and each media could only have one reporter.

This is just the first round! Although Irving has only played in the first round, the difference in attention between last year's first round and this year's first round is too big!

When he came to his seat, the team's head coach Kidd and the core inside player Anthony Davis had already arrived first. The reporters also asked some questions. Irving came, and the reporters' attention was all focused on Irving.

The Pelicans press officer began to select the media to ask questions, and the interview began.

"The series with the Grizzlies will start tomorrow.

What are your expectations for this series?"

Irving was unhappy with this question. What does it mean to have expectations?

"No expectations, it just happens that the opponent is the Grizzlies."

"How much hope do you think you have to beat the Grizzlies?"

"We probably need 6 games to defeat the Grizzlies."

"Can you win?"

"Of course, if we can't win, why should I participate in the playoffs."

Irving's answer made the media at the scene think they had heard it wrong. When asked if he had any hope of beating the Grizzlies, he directly answered that he would beat the Grizzlies in 6 games. With this attitude, is he not beaten enough by the Grizzlies?

But Irving's answer won the appreciation of many people.

It's just that Irving's confidence scared everyone else, even his own team!

...

After the interview, the reporters didn't get any breaking news from Kidd and Anthony Davis, but they got it easily from Irving.

On the way to lunch with Kidd and Irving, Anthony Davis hesitated for a long time and finally couldn't help asking: "Can we win? That's the lord."

"..."

Irving felt that Anthony Davis was not on the same channel as him.

But this made Irving even more unable to say what he was thinking, otherwise it would be too embarrassing.

"We can definitely win, right, Jason." Irving said to Kidd.

Kidd also found that Anthony Davis was very naive and nodded helplessly.

Kidd was very helpless. Of course, he understood why Irving said that, just like when they met the Lakers in the finals in the 01-02 season, he also said the same thing.

But the players now are very different from the players at that time.

Facing the Grizzlies, Kidd felt more pressure than when he faced the Lakers as a player. After all, his Nets team was still much stronger than the current Pelicans.

Another thing is that the Grizzlies have been playing like the Grizzlies for the past two or three years, which is because Irving has a strong mentality. If it were someone else, Kidd would really worry that he would lose confidence, but with Irving, Kidd would not worry.

It's just that Kidd didn't expect that he would have such a point guard under his command. He is obviously a new generation player who has just entered the fourth season of the NBA, but in such an era, there are still old-school players like Irving, which is really rare!

All the point guards in the entire West are bleak under the rule of Sun Ce. Even Paul doesn't want to play in the West. Only Curry and James can compete with Sun Ce in the point guard position.

However, in such a situation, Irving still showed the difference between himself and others. Different from Curry's crazy self-confidence, different from James's stability and strength, different from Sun Ce's ambition that can no longer conceal its sharp edge...

Irving is low-key and calm most of the time, but he has the pride he should have.

When the Western Conference point guard position was shrouded in the terror of Sun Ce, James, and Curry, top point guards such as Parker and Lillard were almost forgotten, but Irving was not. People still often mentioned him because he was such a competitor who could still shine brilliantly in such a bad environment!

What Kidd admired most about Irving was the "sense of ritual" that Irving had, which most of the young players now had lost.

Irving wanted good teammates, and what he did was not to please anyone, but to train himself madly and hard to make himself stronger, and then try to attract those strong players with strength.

This reminded Kidd of himself at the beginning of the century, when he did the same thing.

However, this time, although Kidd still appreciated the pride revealed in Irving's bones, Kidd could only mourn for his top pick combination when he said that the Grizzlies would be eliminated in 6 games.

Their Pelicans are not without the power to fight, but if they face the Grizzlies in anger... Kidd's current emotions are not despair, but only helplessness.

…

“Pfft.”

Klay Thompson rarely showed a vulgar expression when watching the video of Irving’s interview.

As the son of former No. 1 draft pick Michael Thompson, Klay Thompson has lived a rich life since childhood. Although he has also mixed with black people who have lived at the bottom of society since childhood, there are some differences in essence. He has always shown a well-educated side.

But when Irving answered that he wanted to beat the Grizzlies in 6 games, Klay Thompson was very unhappy. Sun Ce and Paul George didn’t think there was anything wrong, but Klay Thompson was really unhappy!

The reason is simple, they are players of the same class.

This is the simplest and most unreasonable, but everyone agrees on a natural hostile relationship.

In the afternoon training, Klay Thompson was very serious and worked hard to strengthen his defense for change of direction breakthroughs under the guidance of old Hardaway.

Coach Hollins looked at Klay Thompson now and thought about his impression of his old teammate’s son... This change is too big! It seems that as long as they are related to Sun Ce, there will be huge changes. It is hard to say whether it is good or bad, but this tradition of developing in a cowardly way when they are weak and bullying the weak after they become strong...

As for the Pelicans wanting to beat the Grizzlies, all playoff teams want to win, otherwise there would be no such thing as the underdog overcoming the strong or even the black eighth.

So, when the opponent said they wanted to beat them, except for Klay Thompson who had extra hostility towards the players of the same class, the others on the Grizzlies thought it was normal.

The Grizzlies no longer have a higher goal for the first round, they only have the idea of ​​sweeping the opponent!

Moreover, they can't do much preparation. They won all the regular season matches against the Pelicans. Although they almost lost to the Pelicans, they won all the matches, and they didn't beat the opponent by hard power or on-the-spot performance without much preparation time.

So, in the 7-game 4-win game now, it's really hard to say what will happen.

The first place in the division may not be so easy to eliminate the eighth place in the division.

Originally, the Grizzlies players underestimated the Pelicans, but it was Paul George's sweeping declaration that made the players take it seriously.

But if they lose one or two games, will the players doubt their own strength... It's hard to say. Coach Hollins thinks it is unlikely that their confidence will be affected by losing one or two games in the playoffs, but! Coach Hollins also wants to avoid things with a low probability.

You have to be careful and careful. His cautious attitude makes the Grizzlies as a whole very alert from top to bottom.

And Coach Hollins' team coordination, overall planning, control of player status and rotation of the lineup... and other abilities, although people have complained countless times about relying on Sun Ce to respond to situations on the spot, and he has been jokingly called "ask the lord when you are in doubt", but the aspects he is good at are enough for him to be called a famous coach.

It is said that a talented player will have the opportunity to show his talent when he meets a suitable coach, and may even surpass his talent, and vice versa!

Coach Hollins met Sun Ce and focused on strengthening his strengths. He left his weaknesses to the assistants and players. Although he did not make much progress in on-the-spot tactical response, his strengths were already among the best in the league!

…

At 4 p.m., the Grizzlies had finished preparing for the Pelicans. Tomorrow, there would only be simple individual training to find the state and team training to review the running positions, a total of 80 minutes. The next step was to have a good rest and conserve energy for the first round.

Starting the playoffs with a record of 75 wins was unfamiliar to Sun Ce and others. Perhaps, only Jordan's 72-win season and James' 70-win season in NBA history had a similar mentality to them, but in essence, they were under more pressure!