Tempting as it might've been for him to obey his thirst Monday night, LeBron James resisted. He's not really a beer guy.
周二的比赛中，当詹姆斯感觉很渴的时候，那瓶啤酒或许充满诱惑，但他还是抵制住了。他不是一个爱喝啤酒的人。
So, after avoiding a collision by poaching a beer, it wasn't a problem for James to return the bottle to the pony-tailed arena employee who happened to be walking along the sideline when the man who refuses to surrender the Eastern Conference came prancing along.所以，当詹姆斯通过“偷”啤酒来避免一场冲突之后，他将酒还给了卖啤酒的妹子，她只是刚好经过场边，而詹姆斯没有错过这个让球场陷入一片欢腾的机会。"If she had some red wine I would have probably taken a sip," James said.“如果她有一些红酒，我可能会来一小口。”詹姆斯说。An inebriated James might be the best hope for his reign to end because, mentally, the four-time MVP has entered an invincible phase, and, physically, he continues to defy gravity and senectitude.让詹姆斯喝醉可能是终结他统治力的唯一希望，因为，从精神上讲，这个四届MVP获得者已经进入到了一个不可战胜的阶段，而从身体上讲，他仍在挑战着地心引力和时光老去。He's still able to request Kyrie Irving to throw the ball off the backboard so that he can flaunt his ability to throw down a lefty alley-oop dunk.他仍能让凯里-欧文将球丢到篮板上，这样他就可以展示他的能力，来一个左手暴扣的空中接力。And while he has often found unusual ways to have fun – such as the time he snuck a French fry off a fan in Oklahoma City – his flirtation with the beer, while out of frustration for blowing an and-one opportunity, hinted at something else: James isn't worried about the Toronto Raptors until they give him a reason to be concerned.他经常通过一些不寻常的方式来找乐子，比如，有一次在俄克拉荷马，他偷了一个粉丝的薯条，还有这次他拿啤酒开的玩笑，这在表现了他丢了一次打成2+1的机会后感到很沮丧的同时，也可以看出一些其他的东西：詹姆斯并不担心同多伦多猛龙的比赛，除非他们给他一个值得被关注的理由。The temptation to go with the Eastern Conference field over James and the Cavaliers this postseason was perhaps stronger than previous years, based on how poorly Cleveland looked after the All-Star break and how awful the defense had been since October.猛龙这个季后赛想要击败詹姆斯和骑士，在东部的比赛中走下去的欲望比前几年更加强烈，尤其考虑到克利夫兰从全明星赛后就很差的表现以及他们从10月之后就糟糕的防守。But just as James showed restraint with the beer in his hand, betting against a one-man championship contender who has already overcome the most extreme basketball adversity – down 3-1 to a 73-win team last June – should be approached with similar pause.但是当詹姆斯表现了他对手中的啤酒的控制力时，那些小看这支球队的言论该停止了。这支球队是具有冠军竞争实力的球队，它曾在去年六月，在1-3的最不利的局面下逆转了73胜的球队。James has repeatedly made fools of the second-guessers, and his last three postseason failures have only come in the NBA Finals.詹姆斯已经多次“打脸”那些事后诸葛亮的人，他最近三次季后赛失利都是在总决赛里。"I don't think about the past or the future. I worry about the present," James said after scoring 35 points with 10 rebounds in the Cavaliers' 116-105 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.东部半决赛第一场，骑士以116-105获得首胜，詹姆斯拿到35分和10个篮板，赛后，詹姆斯说：“我不会考虑过去或者未来的事情，我只关注当下。"That's how I'm able to stay fresh. I don't think about the past. And the future is a mystery, so I've got to live in the present."这是我为什么能保持活力的原因。我不考虑过去，未来仍然是个谜，所以我只活在当下。”The Raptors have lost 10 straight Game 1's but perhaps needed to come with a different, non-deferential approach to dethroning James. A series-opening win in Cleveland would've meant more for Toronto's confidence – and possibly given an inkling of doubt to the Cavaliers – that this won't be a repeat of what occurred last season.猛龙已经连续10场在系列赛第一场输球，但是他们或许需要一些不一样的、不同惯常的方式来将詹姆斯拉下“皇位”。如果系列赛第一场在克利夫兰取得了胜利，对于猛龙的信心意义将会不一样，并且可能给骑士制造一些质疑声音，让人们觉得今年的骑士不会重复上赛季的历程。The Raptors spoke glowingly of James in advance of the series, praising his greatness and the honor of sharing the court with him and refusing to offer any motivational sound bites. And after Monday's loss, they either refused to admit that they saw James handling the beer bottle or denied that it reflected any hint of disrespect.在系列赛开始前，猛龙队高调的谈论詹姆斯，赞扬他的伟大，并且表示很荣幸与他同场竞技，同时拒绝发出任何带有动机性的言论。星期二的失利后，他们也不承认看到了詹姆斯假装喝啤酒的事情，并且否认这个事情暗示了对他们的不尊重。Beating James will require some well-channeled anger, which San Antonio used when it became the only team, in either conference, to exact series revenge over the Cavs in the past seven years. But Toronto doesn't appear to have yet reached that point.想要打败詹姆斯需要一些合理发泄的愤怒，这是圣安东尼奥马刺采用的方法，他们成为过去七年里，整个联盟中唯一一支实现对詹姆斯复仇的球队。但是，从猛龙的表现看出他们还没有达到那种境界。James was amused by what the Raptors did to improve their roster, inspired by a team that didn't appear interested in ceding victory. That also stirred him with a desire to crush their spirits with expediency.猛龙对阵容的补强激发了詹姆斯的兴致，他被这支球队没有放弃胜利的精神激励。这也使他想要去摧毁他们的意志。After poking a Lowry pass out ahead to his All-Star teammate Kyrie Irving in the game's first three minutes, James immediately directed Irving to throw the ball off the glass. ("Or you could say, 'Throw it to the sky.' I like that better," James said.) Irving obliged and could only shake his head in amazement afterward.
在比赛开始后大概三分钟，詹姆斯拨到洛瑞一个传球，并将球拨到更靠前的全明星队友凯里-欧文的手上，然后他让欧文把球丢向篮板（“或者你可以说，把球扔到天上，我更喜欢这种说法。”詹姆斯说）。欧文照做了并被詹姆斯的精彩表演惊叹地连连摇头。"It's just another play in the books for me and 'Bron," Irving said.“这对我和勒布朗来说只是又一个可以被记录的表演”，欧文说。This season, these playoffs, James has almost been in open defiance of those who expected him to take it easy in his first truly unburdened season. He shouldn't lead the league in minutes at age 32; shouldn't average more regular-season minutes than 20-somethings Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Davis when he's already amassed more career minutes than Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Bill Russell and Scottie Pippen.整个赛季以及季后赛里，那些认为詹姆斯在第一个真正没有压力的赛季里应该过得很轻松的人，一直在公开的挑衅詹姆斯。他不应该在32岁的年纪还在出场时间上领跑联盟，当他职业生涯的出场时间已经比名人堂成员迈克尔-乔丹，比尔-拉塞尔和斯科特-皮蓬还多时，他不应该常规赛场均出场时间比20多岁的安德鲁-维金斯，卡尔-安东尼-唐斯以及安东尼-戴维斯还多。And he shouldn't be averaging more postseason minutes, either. But he keeps testing the bounds of his endurance, keeps single-handedly making the Cavaliers' second unit dangerous merely by his presence on the floor, and he gets a little more agitated each time someone asks him if he should let up a bit.同样，他也不应该在季后赛场均出场更多时间。但是他仍旧在挑战他的忍耐力的极限，他仍旧依靠个人能力使骑士的第二阵容充满威胁，每次当别人问到他是否应该放松一点，他都会变得有点激动，"I train my body every single day to be in tip-top shape. I feel real good about where I'm at today. And hopefully, that will continue," James said.他说：“我每天都进行训练来保持最好的身体状态，我对于我现在所处的位置感觉很好，我也希望现在的状态可以延续下去。”And that's the thing with James as he's reached a stage in his career when he has no peers. When his primary opponents either are already in the history books or looking at him in the mirror.对于詹姆斯来说，他的职业生涯已经到了找不到同伴的阶段。他的主要对手们不是已经退役就是只能在镜头里看着他。The Cavaliers haven't necessarily found that switch, but they are winning. (The Dahntay Jones Effect, perhaps?) And an eight-day layoff gave them plenty of time to practice and uncork their best, sustained performance of the playoffs.骑士还没有发现这个变化，他们正在赢得胜利（或许是邓台-琼斯效应？）。八天的休整给了他们足够的时间去训练并开启他们最好的、一贯的季后赛表现。Rallying from a 26-point deficit to defeat Indiana in Game 3 of the first round is still the moment when James reminded all challengers of the difficulty of defeating him.在第一轮对阵印第安纳的第三场比赛中，骑士从落后26分转败为胜，通过那场比赛，詹姆斯提醒了所有的挑战者，想要击败他有多困难。But a wire-to-wire victory over the Raptors sent another message about what the Cavaliers can look like when they remain focused from the opening tip.而在对阵猛龙时，骑士从头到尾都没有给猛龙机会，这传达了另一信息，那就是骑士从争球开始就完全专注的时候，他们真正的样子。"I'm OK with where we're headed," James said. "I'm pleased. But I'm not satisfied. At the end of the day, I feel like we're making progress in being the team we want to become."“我对于我们前进的方向感觉很好”，詹姆斯说。“我很高兴，但是并不满足。每一天结束时，我都觉得我们向我们想要成为的球队更靠近了一步。”James had a momentary lapse in the third period, when he snatched that beer and contemplated relaxing for the rest of the evening.詹姆斯在比赛的第三节制造了一个短暂的小插曲，就是他突然拿过啤酒，这使后面整晚都处在轻松的氛围中。The crowd applauded. Teammate J.R. Smith, who was standing nearby, had a good laugh but jokingly wondered how people would've reacted had he done the same.观众席爆发出掌声。他的队友JR-史密斯当时站得离他最近，看到他的行为笑得很开心，并且开玩笑的说不知道如果他做相同的事情，人们会做如何的反应。Doesn't matter. James is thirsty, no doubt. But while he prefers red wine – and that carbonated beverage that he won't tell anyone to drink in his commercials这不重要。毫无疑问，詹姆斯当时很渴。但是因为他更喜欢红酒，并且他在自己的宣传片中不会让任何人去喝碳酸饮料。His play this postseason suggests that he'd rather wait for the champagne.同时，他在这个季后赛的表现也暗示他更愿意等到夺冠香槟。更多精彩内容请关注微信公众号、新浪微博：篮球英文堂