NBA's King of Talking

December 24th is Christmas Eve...

Westbrook's family held a party that day. His family, friends, and teammates attended. Jia Fei was naturally among the attendees.

Durant also came. His hometown is not in Oklahoma City; he lives alone in Oklahoma City, while his mother lives in Washington, D.C.

Westbrook is indeed a social butterfly. His social style is different from that of the Akron Emperor, who makes friends everywhere. He is very sincere, loves excitement, enjoys having fun, and is very straightforward.

Everyone decorated the giant Christmas tree together, offered prayers, exchanged small gifts, and enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Westbrook's family chef.

The party ended in a peaceful and joyful atmosphere. Holding such a party before the Christmas battle made everyone feel less stressed and able to go into the game with a lighter heart.

On his way back, Jia Fei saw an unread message on his phone. It was from Sharapova, wishing him a peaceful and happy Christmas Eve.

Jia Fei felt the warmth of her care during this cold winter, and he replied that he wished her peace and safety.

The next morning, Jia Fei boarded the team's chartered plane to Miami. The reason for choosing to travel to the away game on the same day instead of going earlier was mainly so that he could spend Christmas Eve at home.

The Christmas Day game attracts a lot of attention and seems very important, but in essence, it is just one of the 82 regular season games.

The chartered plane landed at Miami Airport, and the Thunder players boarded a bus to their hotel.

Looking out the car window at the bustling streets, Jia Fei's thoughts drifted back to the off-season. He remembered the moments he and Sharapova spent filming commercials together in this city.

Almost half a year has passed in the blink of an eye; time really flies!

That night, at the American Airlines Center, the Christmas Day game was about to begin!

The American Airlines Arena was filled with a strong Christmas atmosphere tonight, with decorations everywhere. Staff were dressed as Santa Claus, and the arena shop was playing "Golden Hook Version, Golden Hook Version..." on repeat.

After entering the arena, on his way to the visiting team's locker room, Jia Fei saw James.

Today, James wore a black suit, a pair of LeBron (I don't know which brand) basketball shoes, a gold chain around his neck, a bag in his hand, and a pair of large headphones on his ears, looking like a nouveau riche.

In terms of fashion sense, his taste is just so-so. I don't know if he styled it himself or if his wife did it for him. But one thing you can't doubt is the price of the clothes and accessories he's wearing. The price is enough to make a loser feel the real sense of "it's good to be rich".

Winning the championship last season has made him even more confident. After all, he has all the major honors he could possibly have, and he has great commercial value, making him a true money man.

Kevin Durant, another top star in the league and the Thunder's star player, falls short. Putting aside his bizarre fashion choices, his sheer presence is far inferior. While the nouveau riche construction worker's aura isn't exactly sophisticated, it's still far superior to the sleazy, loser's. This is why Durant is often called the "perennial runner-up." Some people are like that: they can lose the game, but they absolutely cannot lose their spirit. In this respect, even Nick Young, with his "No matter how strong he is, I'm Nick Young" attitude, is better than Durant.

However, from another perspective, in the long history of the NBA, most top superstars have been characterized by their domineering and flamboyant personalities. Superstars like Durant, with their down-to-earth and unassuming qualities, are like a breath of fresh air, making them all the more precious...

Pre-game practice. Two championship banners hang in the rafters of the Heat's home arena, American Airlines Center. Jia Fei knows one is from the 2005-06 season, and the other is from last season.

For the Thunder players, the championship banner with "2012" written on it was particularly eye-catching and glaring, because it was the banner they had snatched from their hands! They had led the series 1-0, but who knew they would lose four straight games and hand over Oklahoma City's first NBA championship.

Therefore, there is no need for any special motivation in this game. Players who experienced last season's finals will all want revenge.

After Lamb made a three-pointer, he said to Jia Fei and Reggie, "You two have been to the Finals, how was it? Exciting, right?"

Jia Fei and Reggie exchanged a glance, then smiled wryly.

“Jeremy, buddy, are you kidding me?” Reggie said with a wry smile.

"What do you mean?" Lamb asked, puzzled.

Jia Fei explained, "We didn't even play in the finals. We were just there for show, waving towels on the bench the whole time!"

Lamb suddenly realized, "Oh right, even if they're at the stadium, if they don't play, they're not much different from the audience. They're just closer to the game and they get to warm up before the match."

"Jia, you'd better do your best later!" Lamb said.

Jia Fei smiled wryly: "Looks like I can't get any more gas!"

"Why?" Lamb asked, even more puzzled.

"The coach just told me I might not be in the regular rotation for this game!" Jia Fei said, feeling his heart sink. He'd performed so well, and now he was suddenly out of the rotation. Sometimes he thought it was probably because his contract was so small! With small contracts, even if a player performs well, the coaching staff doesn't feel much pressure to bench them. Unlike players with big contracts, who are easily benched and could become unproductive, and it would also be a slap in the face to management.

Reggie patted Jia Fei on the shoulder to comfort him: "It should only be a few isolated incidents, don't take it to heart!"

How could Jia Fei not take it to heart? Sometimes it's just talk, like how they kept comforting Lamb and telling him not to feel disappointed, but the inevitable still happened.

As expected, Jia Fei was disqualified from the competition...

The Thunder unusually used only an eight-man rotation in this game. In addition to the starting five, their second unit consisted of Kevin Martin, Mayno, and Collison. Jia Fei's senior, Thabeet, did not play.

In the NBA, short rotations are typically used in the playoffs, assuming no major injuries to the team. Since there are no back-to-back games in the playoffs, the teams need to play aggressively and closely, so many coaches will shorten the rotation and increase the playing time of their key players, essentially pushing them to the limit.

Clearly, the Thunder coaching staff is treating this game like a playoff game, or at least they want to go all out. Unlike last season's playoffs, without JaVale James, this Thunder roster is essentially just replacing Harden with Kevin Martin.

In this game, only Durant scored over 20 points for the Thunder, while the rest of the players performed only moderately. Meanwhile, the opposing Big Three easily scored 66 points, and the Thunder ultimately lost on the road, ending their winning streak at 12 games.