The Warriors' first away trip to the East in the new season ended with four wins and one loss.

The restructured Miami Heat became the stumbling block for the Warriors on this Eastern journey.

A younger lineup gave them the capital to speed up the game with the Warriors.

Jermaine O'Neal and Flash Wade teamed up at the American Airlines Arena to score 70 points, making Qin Yue's 39 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 blocks for the Warriors that night seem wasted.

Last year's Finals saw Wade swept tragically by the Warriors, but this time he finally held his ground.

And sitting at home, Shaquille O'Neal, even got hit, becoming the most awkward person.

Winning isn't scary, it's the missing player who's embarrassed. Shaq, on the night the Warriors lost, was jointly put on the "hot search" by Los Angeles and Miami media.

No longer having that champion who scored 5 points in a single Finals game, without a protective cover, O'Neal in this large-scale reckoning by Los Angeles and Miami... What he needs to face now is no longer the issue of preserving dignity and face, but his historical status and past glories are also being reckoned.

In the 1990s.

The Great Dream - Olajuwon, once reigning as the top of the four major centers, indeed encountered "misfortune" in his career's late years.

But unlike O'Neal, Olajuwon had "roots." Thus, in this large-scale activity reckoning O'Neal's historical status, the Houston media quickly brought up the finals when the Rockets swept the Magic 4-0, wondering: "Why can a player whose career has been swept six times, and twice in the Finals, boast about his dominance being able to compare with Michael Jordan?"

In his career peak, O'Neal never put anyone in his eyes.

Even if that someone was Michael Jordan.

In O'Neal's view, since Jordan's successor Kobe was only fit to carry his shoes, then... Jordan that old chap merely took advantage of him being young.

In Qin Yue's past life, relying on hugging Wade's thigh to secure his fourth championship, and establishing his twilight hero persona in later years, O'Neal could still use his resourcefulness to earn a graceful farewell.

But now, O'Neal's situation has the trend of a wall collapsing with everyone pushing.

In competitive sports, this is also what people love to see.

However, compared to deriving pleasure from seeing news reports about O'Neal's reckoning...

Through the first seven games of the 06/07 season, Qin Yue already deeply felt the differences between this new season and last season.

If the 05/06 season was the strictest execution of the cancelation of the Hand-Check rule in the NBA, then the 06/07 season is a season that coexists offense with defense.

Before the regular season started, the league especially held a referee meeting concerning what kind of penalty criteria should be adopted for the new season.

This routine referee meeting initially didn't attract people's attention, but with Qin Yue's already deceased memory gradually awakened by the penalty criteria of the referees...

If Qin Yue remembers correctly...

In the 06/07 season, the NBA would tolerate higher intensity, more fierce confrontations, and more frequent physical contact defense in some games.

These games include the focal battles of each team and the playoffs.

The current NBA Commissioner David Stern experienced that crazy '80s.

He knew better than anyone how unsightly the offense-for-offense NBA was at that time.

In Stern's view, although offense could win more fans, losing the confrontation enhancement brought by defense... the NBA will lose its competition sooner or later.

So how should this adjustment to penalty criteria before the regular season be described?

The most direct response is that, historically, of the 11 teams that consecutively made the playoffs in the 05/06 and 06/07 seasons, 7 teams saw a noticeable decline in their average free throws compared to the 05/06 season.

As for the other 4 teams.

Aside from Phoenix Suns' rather special situation①, 2 teams saw a decline in their star players' average free throws compared to the 05/06 season.

(①: Historically, Stoudemire only played 3 regular season games in the 05/06 season, causing the Suns to lack an inside attack point.)

In Qin Yue's memory, only the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James managed in the 06/07 season playoffs to not only maintain but slightly increase the team's and the star's average free throws.

In sum, in some games of the 06/07 season, with the tacit approval of the NBA's director, more iron-blooded confrontation and tougher defense will inevitably have some impact on a shooting team like the Warriors.

Additionally, the reduction of star calls will also accelerate the consumption of key players in each team's offense.

Although Qin Yue is very clear that even without him, the league would still adjust in this manner.

But in the community, as people start noticing the NBA's drastically different penalty criteria from last season...

There are still many who believe that the league's move is entirely targeting Qin Yue, the legendary rookie.

On a certain forum, a post titled "I Forced the League to Change Rules with Just One Season" prompted domestic fans to hotly debate NBA's penalty criteria.

This post, through multiple angles, conducted a comprehensive analysis of the seven games the Warriors have played and pointed out that in the new season alone, Qin Yue has been denied an "and-one" by referees...

No less than 11 times.

"NBA is clearly targeting me, Brother Qin!"

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