As the game entered the opening ceremony, when Irving appeared, there were not only boos but also quite a few claps and cheers.
Irving’s immediate diss of his former team after the trade was quite outrageous, but that doesn’t mean people won’t remember 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 game 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 meet 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 immediately.
However, at the moment of close contact, Wade used his signature Mysterious Steps.
Or perhaps, it’s now more like the European Step.
The former 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.
The basketball drew a small parabolic arc before directly diving into the net, and the cheers on-site transformed into applause.
The first goal of Wade’s Cavaliers career came 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 time, averaging 3.3 attempts per game this season, with a shooting percentage of 36.7%, not excellent but much better than Wade.
After all, he made his name as a 3D player during Thibodeau’s time.
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 someone everyday that annoys you, conflict is inevitable.
However, frankly speaking, Butler is a very team-oriented player.
Otherwise, at this moment, he wouldn’t have handed over the possession to Irving. Chapters fırst released on 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹~𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮~𝚗𝚎𝚝
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 moment, 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 time 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 moment, Irving seemed 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 achievements, why should Jokic receive more?
Cavaliers’ offense, same tactic, only this time, 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 some time navigating around the screen.
This time 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.