The Legend of the Hungry Wolf in Basketball

Chapter 139 [Fifty shots? ! 】

On January 2009, 1, the Clippers played against the 1ers back-to-back at home, trying to get off to a good start to the new year.

The 76ers are now also suffering from injuries.Power forward Elton Brand will miss up to a month with a shoulder injury.Brand often thinks about what it would be like to return to the Clippers' home court. Maybe the audience applauded, maybe booed everywhere, but the only thing he didn't think about was the possibility of being absent. Meaningful game.In fact, Clippers fans will not be disappointed. Not many people take Brand seriously anymore. Now people only recognize Ye Feng, and Love's popularity tends to surpass Brand.

The 76ers coach put Thaddeus Young at power forward, Iguodala at small forward, Willie Green at shooting guard, Andre Miller at point guard, and Camby at center.

Seeing this arrangement, the commentator Basil laughed and said that the 76ers had given up the game, and the team that wanted to win would not use the three-back tactic against the Clippers.

Thibodeau put Barea into the starting lineup for the first time, and the other four were Ye Feng, Barnes, Gortat and Love.

The 76ers took special care of Ye Feng in the opening game, but the Clippers did not allow Ye Feng to attack. Barea dribbled the ball and Love put on a pick and roll.

He performed well in several consecutive games, and today Barea showed his own characteristics to the fullest.After throwing off the defense, if Thaddeus Young switches defenses, he will return the ball to Love. Love will face Miller's defensive high jumper. If he does not switch defenses, he will hit it himself.

This season's rookie single shot, Love can rank in the top five, his mid-range shot is very stable, has a soft touch, Miller can't block him, and he guarantees a high shooting percentage.

The height of the 76ers players was at a disadvantage, Ye Feng did not focus on attacking, and the Clippers also took the lead. The 76ers coach replaced Reggie Evans in the second half and replaced Green.Increased the height of the field, and finally prevented the impact of Barea and Love.

Ye Feng, who had been playing soy sauce all the time, began to show off his power. Love changed to the low post and Gortat covered.

Evans can't shoot, can't dribble, he can only catch rebounds, let him go out to defend Ye Feng, then he can't even catch rebounds.To make matters worse, he was only 203 cm, his body was strong and his speed was very slow, and he couldn't block Ye Feng's jump shot even if he defended against it.

The audience was 99 to 85, and the Clippers won 3 consecutive victories.

Without Brand, no one in the 76ers can stand up and take on the heavy responsibility of scoring.The two scoring points of Iguodala and Thaddeus Young were entangled by Ye Feng and Barnes. Iguodala never had the upper hand in the match against Ye Feng, and only scored 14 points in this game.Thaddeus Young scored 16 points.

Ye Feng scored 26 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, and Love maintained a super state with 16 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists.Barea scored 14 points and 4 assists, performing well.Lowry came off the bench for the first time this season and scored 6 points and 7 assists.Both Lowry and Barea have height flaws, but Barea is much stronger than Lowry and could add a shooting spot to the starting lineup.In order to improve the offense of the starting lineup, Thibodeau finally decided to let Barea play.

Lowry is in good shape, but Tim Hardaway no longer thinks he can become the next "Beetle".Lowry's offense is too bad. This season, he can only score 8.2 points and 4.4 assists. If he doesn't shoot well, he can't involve defense, and his assists can't reach the star level.On the defensive end, Lowry can't fully integrate into Thibodeau's system.He is very good at defending against breakthroughs, but as long as the pick-and-roll is misplaced, the opponent's forwards and centers can shoot in front of him as much as they want.

Thibodeau hopes to strengthen through trades, otherwise the No. [-] position will become the Clippers' weakness, and it will be difficult to go far even if they enter the playoffs.With Ye Feng and Love playing better and better, Thibodeau's ambitions have also grown. He not only wants to enter the playoffs, but also wants to break through the first round.Now the uniform group has begun to plan a deal, and once there is a suitable candidate, Lowry may be replaced before the All-Star Game.

Of course, Lowry is still the best point guard for the Clippers. Next game against the Suns led by Steve Nash, he needs to prevent breakthroughs. Thibodeau has to let Lowry return to the starting lineup.

The Clippers are confident of winning the game, even though the Suns are ahead of them in ninth place in the Western Conference.

Something has gone wrong with the Suns recently, and their manager, Steve Kerr, seems to have gone crazy.After head coach Mike D'Antoni joined the New York Knicks with a sky-high contract, the Suns also began to clean up D'Antoni's favorite players.

On December 12, the Suns and the Bobcats completed a big deal. The Suns got former slam dunk king Jason Richardson and second-year rookie Jared Dudley, as well as a 11 second-round pick.The Bobcats got Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and rookie guard Singlet.
Diaw and Bell are both important players in D'Antoni's era. In the past four seasons, they have made great contributions to the Suns winning 58 games per game.However, with the arrival of Porter this season, the performance of Diaw and Bell has been declining.The Bobcats sent Richardson away in order to strengthen the defense, and the former dunk king's defense has always been problematic.
After the trade, the Suns fans were happy for a while, thinking that sending away two players who were in decline in exchange for Richardson, who averaged 17 points per game, made a profit. After playing a few games, they found that it was not the case at all. Their lineup Messed up.

Nash, Stoudemire, and Richardson are fast, O'Neal, and Grant Hill are slow. The starting five are very uncoordinated.O'Neal's positional battle dragged the whole team down, the Suns couldn't run and bomb the whole game, Nash's assists per game dropped to 9.6, and Stoudemire's data dropped to 21 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists, but his playing time was lower than the previous one. 3 minutes more in the season.The only person in the Clippers whose data has improved is O'Neal, who averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.

Nash is getting old, and O'Neal's second spring is coming to an end. Stoudemire is dissatisfied with the team's tactics and wants to go to New York next season to follow his mentor D'Antoni.Moreover, because of the bad contracts of O'Neal and Richardson, the Suns have no financial space to recruit big-name players. It can be said that they have withdrawn from the championship competition this year, and reaching the playoffs is the limit.

The current starting lineup of the Suns is the oldest in the league, while the Clippers are just the opposite. The starting lineup is the youngest in the league. Except for Barnes, they are all rookies.The competition between them is a veritable "old and young duel".In addition, the Clippers are only half a game behind the Suns. As long as they win this game, they will surpass the Suns and become ninth in the league, taking another step towards the playoffs.

The Clippers are playing very well, but they haven't yet attracted the attention of American fans. It is rarely their turn to broadcast nationally. For this TN*T, ESPN chose to broadcast the Celtics and Cavaliers games respectively.

There are many Clippers fans in China.But most of the time the radio broadcasts the Rockets live. The Rockets didn’t have a game today. The radio still didn’t satisfy the fans’ wishes. They chose to broadcast live to let people watch the sleepy Nets because Yi Jianlian was there.Supporting domestic products is everyone's responsibility.

There is no live broadcast, no attention, only the enthusiasm of the Suns fans, hoping that the home team will win the game and get rid of the Clippers in terms of record.

Thibodeau arranged tactics, the defense is 32 zone defense, Love is responsible for resisting O'Neal, Gortat defends Stoudemire, Stoudemire's mid-range shot is very accurate, Gortat must follow out at any time.Lowry started against Nash and tried his best to cause trouble for him. Barnes was responsible for marking Richardson, and Ye Feng faced veteran Hill.Ye Feng's defensive task is relatively easy, he needs to use more strength on the offensive end.

Thibodeau said: "Ye, you have to keep attacking in this game. The Suns don't have good defenders now. Bell, Marion, and Diaw are gone. They can't stop you. Double pick-and-rolls are used in the frontcourt, and Kevin is on the first block. , Ma Xin second gear, O'Neal is very slow, can't defend, we must create singles opportunities for Ye."

Thibodeau is not a person who can only defend. He will attack the opponent's weakness. O'Neal is the weakness of the Suns.In his view, the Suns self-destructed the Great Wall in the trade, and O'Neal affected the Suns' overall offensive and defensive conversion speed.Dior and Bell's data decline is also due to playing positional warfare, and their characteristics cannot be brought out.The Sharks were invincible back then, but now, even though his average data per game has rebounded, he is still a weakness on the defensive end, and it is difficult to keep up with the young people.Nash and Stoudemire are also well-known defensive black holes. The Suns defense is full of holes. It is impossible to get good results by relying on offense alone. The off-court substitutes are old and weak. Let Thibodeau be the coach , He didn't even have the confidence to solve the Suns' defensive problems.

Everyone else was warming up. Thibodeau stopped Ye Feng and said softly, "Ye, I want you to keep attacking in this game. It's best to take 50 shots. Don't stop."

"What?" Ye Feng was stunned for a moment, stretched out his hand to touch Thibodeau's forehead, and said with a smile, "Tom, do you have a fever? It's okay to have 50 first loves, but everyone else has to watch me play after 50 shots. If I lose, I will be a cancer."

Thibodeau said lightly: "I want you to give full play to your offensive ability. The Suns are poor defensively. This is the best opportunity. We will win. It will not only increase your popularity, but also attract someone."

"Attract who?"

Thibodeau said sternly: "Nash, he is likely to choose to jump out of the contract after the end of this season. If he can be dug to the Clippers, I can combine my defense with running and bombing offense, and we can hit the NBA next season. champion."

Ye Feng was taken aback, and said softly: "Even if he jumps out of the contract, the Suns can keep him. We can't change after signing first. Besides, Nash's defense is not very good. Are you sure he is suitable?"

Thibodeau said lightly: "If he doesn't renew his contract and play for another season, he will be a free agent in 2010. We have enough salary space to recruit him. Although he is not good at defense, he ranks first in the league in organizational ability. The defensive system can also try to make up for his defensive deficiencies, as long as he handles the ball, the statistics of all players may improve, don't you want to join forces with him? He is a two-time regular season MVP."

Ye Feng said with a smile: "I don't think it's that easy for him to come. It would be great if he could come. Then I'll just keep shooting for this game?"

Thibodeau pressed his shoulder and said rightly: "Shoot! Let him see your full energy. If the hand feels really bad, pass the ball again!"

(End of this chapter)