the rest, only noise

Chapter 697 I'm Proud of Ralph

Even though there are as many holidays, all teams have a good rest during the All-Star break, but the Knicks seem to be the team with the best recuperation effect.

They welcomed back several fierce generals.

Sam Bowie looks good, and Reggie Williams has incredible energy and versatility on the wing.

He is like Bowie on the wing, who obviously has the strength to start, but is forced to compete with others on the Knicks' bench full of strong players.

Wilson is the unshakable starting No. [-], Miller is also the unshakable starting No. [-], and Williams can play two guard positions and small forward in college. Therefore, Louie does not fix him at the No. [-] position.As long as the team needs him, he can play the second position, the first position, and the third position.

The health of Bowie and Williams is why the Knicks look invincible.

In the eight games since the All-Star break, the Knicks have averaged 126 points per game and held their opponents down to 91 points.

By 35 points per game.

Among the eight corpses, there are many strong teams.

The Pistons were defended to only 101 points, and the Heat were even worse, with 80 points in the game and 42 points in the berserk.

So much so that Lewis Shafier called Louis to complain that the Knicks were too ruthless.

Louis is also helpless. Sometimes, killing the opposing team is not his subjective idea.

He just wants to win, and he wants to win beautifully.

But the Knicks' bench is too thick.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Knicks' bench can pull out a set of starters for a playoff team.

This led to the game reaching garbage time, and both sides replaced the main players, but the quality of the opponent's substitute was not comparable to that of Knicks, so they were severely beaten.

It is impossible to reduce the score, and the substitutes will only beat the dog in the water.

Can Louie stop them?Of course not, they are just playing well.

The team trying to stop the Knicks' winning streak appeared in early March.

They are the second-ranked Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.

Under the current situation, the Celtics can no longer come to the Knicks as an absolute king like two years ago.

On the one hand, they are gradually aging, and on the other hand, the Knicks are becoming stronger and stronger.

The positions of superior and challenger have been changed for two years.

But in Byrd, nothing seems to have changed.

It took him a year to raise his back, and at the age of 34, he played the second spring of his career, just like Kobe in the 2012-13 season.

Tonight, the Celtics' style of play was clear.

With Bird's main attack and Isiah Thomas' variation, Sampson didn't have many opportunities to dominate the ball.

But this is due to the Celtics' own tactical position arrangement. Jimmy Rogers is working hard. He doesn't know what the psychology is. He thinks that Ewing's position in the Knicks is very suitable for Sampson.

Because when Sampson played under Louis, he was also in that position.

However, what is the biggest difference between Sampson and Ewing?
For one, Sampson joined the league early, giving Louie time to correct his small but far-reaching flaws.

So when he soared into the sky in 1984, and used it as a springboard, he made a big step forward every year, gradually growing into the most perfect insider ever.

This growth path is what Ewing lacked innately.

Second, no matter how you look at it, Sampson has the basic skills as a defender, the spirituality of playing, and the threat of holding the ball, all of which Ewing does not possess.

Third, all the progress made by Ewing since his debut has been within Louie's expectations.

The evolution of Sampson after 1984 was unexpected by Louis.

If Louis still stays in the Celtics, Sampson's positioning will also change.

Rogers saw the grass and saw the forest, and foolishly positioned Sampson as a pie-eating machine + a Greek monster-style rotary machine.

The latter is understandable, after all, Sampson's rush is really hard to stop; he will use his stride advantage, coupled with the European step and turning skills, to cleverly bypass the defense and score.

For the former, using such a versatile Sampson as Capela is like James who coached the Heat but insisted on letting him play off the ball.

It can be used in this way, but you are too fucking wasteful, right?

Rogers' waste of Sampson makes one's scalp tingle, but Mr. Only is Mr. Only after all, and he is still the unique insider.Even as an insider with a heavy blue-collar attribute, his influence on the court is still the strongest in the audience.

When Louis called the first timeout, the Celtics scored 14 points, and Sampson scored 8 points by eating cakes and counterattacks. Among them, three conversions were scored, and all three rotation goals were dunks.

Most importantly, none of these scores related to him was caused by him facing Ewing directly.

"You said, Jimmy Rogers arranged this way to deliberately let Ralph avoid confrontation with Patrick to reduce his consumption, or did he really think it would be better for them to take the ball away from Ralph?"

Louis suspiciously asked the teaching assistants for their opinions.

If it's the former, then he really has to give Rogers a thumbs up, high, this wave is in the atmosphere.

"It's not impossible." Tomjanovich's answer was a typical fart, saying the same thing as not saying it.

Zhao Yuanzheng didn't have as many scruples as Tomjanovich, and said bluntly: "He should not be so far-sighted."

"Yes, it's not just about our games. According to my observation, when the Celtics face other teams, Ralph is only used as the end point to complete the offense, and rarely leads the offense to drive his teammates." Billy Donovan said, "Also, Ralph has averaged more than 26 points per game in the past few years, and this year has dropped to 22 points, which is very in line with his current tactical status⑴. If it is to confuse us, there is no need to do this step."

The Celtics started like this, which the Knicks coaching staff did not expect.

Sampson is undoubtedly the hard power No.1 in today's league. His influence on both offense and defense is endless. Even if he has no possession of the ball, just relying on defense + rotation counterattack + offense to eat cakes is an incredible threat.

Once he is charged, it is suicide, just like those teams in the small ball era let the Greek monsters charge at will.

Sampson has the destructive power of a Greek monster. If he is allowed to charge, the Knicks will not be able to withstand it.

This is the scary part of this person. Even if this role can only bring out about 20%-30% of his offensive potential, the threat he can bring still makes Louis call two timeouts for him to adjust his deployment.

Louie's first timeout asked for the space in the penalty area to be compressed at the cost of emptying the Celtics' outside line, and did not give Sampson a chance to toss.

As a result, in the first quarter, the Celtics shot 40% from the outside.

Moreover, Sampson's rotation is still unstoppable.

So in the middle of the second quarter, Louis specifically called a timeout, asking the players to retreat more quickly to prevent the Green Army from counterattacking.

For Sampson and the Celtics, the defensive counterattack is like the steel blade on the handle. Once it is charged, it will be invincible, but as long as the steel blade is removed, this style of play will be in trouble.

The positional battle has shrunk, no matter what the Celtics' outside shots are, they will squeeze Sampson's room for movement;
Speed ​​up the defensive speed after shooting, and ensure that there are 3-4 people in the backcourt to slow down Sampson to prevent being penetrated by the Celtics' counterattack.

After such a set of systematic defenses, even Sampson will have nothing to do.

This is the dilemma of not having the ball. Sampson could have done more, and Rodgers only wanted him to play a part.

Because letting the Knicks give up the perimeter defense is exactly what he wants to see.

In order to limit Sampson's speed of retreating and giving up the fight for offensive rebounds, it is also what Rogers hopes to see.

Coach Lu can now be regarded as "Zifeiyu, An Zhiyu's joy".

Rogers believed that he had used Sampson's pawn to achieve his strategic intentions, while Louis believed that these strategic intentions he achieved were not as influential as abolishing Sampson's tactical status.

But what is strange is that the Celtics at the beginning of the season still centered on Sampson and Bird, and the marginalized person was Thomas. How come Thomas and Bird have returned to the core and marginalized Sampson, who theoretically shouldn't be marginalized?
"It seems to be the result of their internal struggle," Tomjanovich said.

"Internal struggle?"

Louis' eyes lit up, and he looked at Tomjanovich gossipingly.

"I just heard." Tomjanovich explained uncertainly, "Isiah has made a lot of 'efforts', from private complaints to public complaints, to applying for a deal, pressure from the management team, and pressure from fans."

"Press from the fans?"

Louie said in surprise: "I don't have any fans in Boston, but he has fans?"

"It's the 90s now, Louie." Tomjanovich laughed. "The 'bus generation' has grown up. They don't pay attention to skin color as much as the previous generation. Isiah's contribution to Boston in the late 80s won the support of many fans."

Being outside the domain, it is difficult to face up to the changes in the domain.

Boston still has a notorious reputation for racism, but the fan base is different.

Maybe Isiah Thomas still got what he wanted in the end.

"After Isiah made an attack, Boston held several internal meetings. In the end, Jimmy Rogers decided to change the tactical system, and Ralph sacrificed his possession of the ball in exchange for the current situation." Tomjanovich said amazingly, "It is said that Ralph has no regrets about this, because Isiah has sacrificed enough."

After a long time, Louis said, "What a touching story."

"Is it touching?"

"Well," Louis looked at the court with complicated eyes, "I'm proud of Ralph."

⑴ The lower limit of insider eating cakes is high (fast and stable scoring), and the upper limit is low (there are only so many cakes, it is impossible to feed them all into the mouth).

(End of this chapter)