the rest, only noise

Chapter 947 Aftermath and Echo

It was a tough night for Pat Riley, who was determined to double down on the Knicks.

Because his self-proclaimed nemesis, the bastard Louie, popped their bubbles with a needle.

The Blazers are stronger than the surface, but there are many problems inside.

If the four-core starter cannot maximize the offensive threat, it is not unsolvable from the perspective of offense and defense alone.

The Knicks found a hole in the Blazers tonight.

The most unexpected thing is that the Verdun defense line of the Blazers did not play its due effect.

In the Christmas game, the Trail Blazers and the Knicks met on narrow roads. They established an advantage with their core talents, passed the Verdun defense line, and made the Knicks unable to keep up with their strength, and they won.

In their second meeting a few months later, the Knicks completely changed their style of play.

Louis not only found the lifeline of the Blazers, but also gave an open class on "how to beat the Blazers".

The defense looks for weaknesses, and the offense plays the pick-and-roll.

This is his answer to other teams.

Although this kind of answer does not seem so easy to copy, it is better than being killed by the pioneers at will.

There are also some things that can be encountered but not sought after, such as the Blazers getting more and more frustrated as they play.

For example, the state of the Knicks gradually improved as the game deepened.

While following Louie's instructions, they used the N.UCLA system while making full use of the singles abilities of Wilson and Ewing.

In the fourth quarter, Jordan said No to the defeat.

He took over the game and every possession went past him.

In order to defend him, Rodman and Ewing need to leave their original defensive positions when necessary.

It's a pity.

Because Jordan's offensive threat is too great, the Knicks can't let it go.

The Knicks' defensive deployment is basically that Ewing covers the middle as the core of the basket, and the three-point line does not shrink as much as possible, because Jordan and Thomas both have three-pointers.

But this also matches the configuration characteristics of the Knicks.Besides Ewing, Rodman, the Knicks' best defender, has to guard the opponent's ball handler from time to time.

If Rodman is held back and Ewing leaves the paint, the Knicks will lack a striker who can help protect the rim.

Wilson's shot-blocking ability is good, but more of his blocks come from one-on-one defense and high-post sweeps.

For a while, the Blazers' defensive positioning was telling—Jordan was a smart cutter who could suddenly drive to the rim on a pick-and-roll, and the gap left by the Blazers' screen was a good fit for Jordan to play to his strengths.

As long as Jordan was in his offensive range, he basically didn't have to look at his teammates.

The harder Jordan exploded, the more ashamed Barkley felt.

They said they wanted to teach the Knicks a lesson, but now, they are the ones being taught a lesson.

The Knicks used a hearty victory to rewrite their regular season record with the Trail Blazers to 1-1.

According to what the Portlanders prefer, this game, as a continuation of the finals, is Game9, then the Knicks will lead by a big score of 5 to 4 because of this victory.

Either way, the Knicks win.

They opened up the scars of the Blazers and made other teams realize how to play this team.

There is still some time before the end of the regular season.

The Trail Blazers' schedule in the closing stage is not easy, with more strong teams and fewer weak teams.

So, if those teams are smart enough to learn from the Knicks, there's a good chance they'll turn the Blazers over.

After the game, Pat Riley criticized some of the players.

"If we can't play better, we won't be able to beat New York and build a new dynasty." Riley said, "I really hate the hype that the outside world has given us. The regular season is not over yet, and anything can happen in the playoffs. The Knicks are a very strong team. It is absurd to think they are not competitive, and it is even more absurd to take the praise of the public opinion seriously."

"We can see that New York has prepared a lot for this game, but our players did not bring the corresponding intensity."

"Except for MJ, everyone else's performance was substandard."

The Knicks kept their sanity.

The players didn't hit back at the media who were belittling them for their impressive road win against the Blazers.

Louis said modestly: "This is an ordinary game, we won, that's all."

Victory over the top competitor should have been a good thing, but a reporter from California raised a problem that made Ewing difficult.

"Patrick, we noticed that Mohammad Rauf tried to avoid the opening ceremony in the latest game, do you know the reason?"

If Louie were Ewing, he'd have plenty of excuses to cover for Rauf.

But he's not Ewing.

Ewing's high and low double quotient made people worry about his answer.

"You can't ask everyone to be as patriotic as me, can you?"

Ewing laughed ugly.

He deliberately showed this smile, for fear that others would not know that he was joking.

Fortunately, this is an acceptable approach.

Although saying that teammates are not patriotic will cause some other problems during the interview, being unpatriotic is always more acceptable than the truth-this truth is that Rauf is not only unpatriotic, but also has a clear tendency to hate the country.

Ewing gave an ugly but reasonable answer that would not cause an uproar.

Because he said that Rauf was not patriotic, and that sentence was a joke.

Those who are willing to take it seriously, take it seriously, and those who don't want to take it seriously, just take it as a cold joke by Ewing, and the reporter will not ask the end.

After all, Ewing said that he is not patriotic anymore. If you want to know more, why don't you just ask yourself?

However, due to religious beliefs, Rauf has a very distant relationship with the media.

He would rather be fined than interviewed.

To this end, Nixter deliberately applied for a special case for him to the league.

Because Rauf suffers from Tourette's syndrome, if the pressure is too high, he will uncontrollably twitch and swear, once he has an attack in front of the media, it is bound to lead to a media disaster.

Even if it is not for his own consideration, for the image of the league, it is reasonable to prohibit this kind of person from attending the press conference.

The Knicks successfully applied for an exception for Rauf to refuse interviews.

This game affected the internal stability of the Blazers.

Barkley was publicly criticized by Thomas in an internal meeting because of his poor performance.

Alvin Robertson was also criticized by Jordan because he did not cooperate with others in the Verdun defense line. Although he has a strong single-defense ability, if he does not cooperate well with his teammates, the full-court press cannot achieve the effect of 1+1+1+1+1>5.

Moreover, their next opponent, the Los Angeles Lakers, quickly copied the Knicks' homework.

In the game against the Trail Blazers, the Lakers' fake pick-and-rolls played well.

Relying on the internal pass of the twin towers of Robinson and Divac to fully suppress Sabonis.

Plus outside shots from Hornacek and Sam Perkins.

The Lakers have a luxurious lineup configuration. Although there is no tragedy division, they are also a team capable of reaching the Western Conference Finals.

112 is better than 107
The Blazers suffered a losing streak.

Then, in the rematch against the Pacers, Danny Manning played the best battle of the season.

They also copied the Knicks' homework. Manning played all kinds of fake pick-and-roll rolls and rolls outside, eating cakes inside and shooting outside. He scored 54 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks in the final round.

The Trail Blazers, who suffered a three-game losing streak, finally defeated the Hornets who tried to make them swallow their four-game losing streak with the brave performance of Jordan and Thomas, thus ending the losing streak.

However, the consecutive defeats also made their first place in the league no longer stable.

Since the end of the All-Star weekend, the Knicks have been in a better state of play.

Internal problems seemed to be suppressed by external pressures.

At the end of March, the Knicks played against the Sacramento Kings.

Currently, the Kings are ranked tenth from the bottom in the league.

In terms of ranking, they belong to the middle and lower teams.

However, looking at the lineup, this team is not bad.

Louie was happy to see them ranked so low.

Because the Kings' first-round pick this year and the first-round pick in 1996 are both in the hands of the Knicks.

In this campaign, Benjamin Wilson played bravely and scored 1 points, 49 rebounds and 8 assists with only 4 free throw in the game.

This victory allowed the Knicks to tie the Trail Blazers' record. Both teams are now 58 wins and 10 losses.

Although the head-to-head record between the two teams is 1-1, the Knicks are ahead of the Trail Blazers because they have won more points.

But soon, this stalemate was broken.

It was also the final game of this month, the Blazers played the Clippers for the third time this season.

The Blazers, who were suspected of having major internal problems, lost to the Clippers when the whole team was sluggish.

58 wins and 11 losses. In this way, the Knicks have a one-game lead, ranking second in the league, and the league's first is the Miami Heat.

It is a pity that although this team has risen, it has not risen completely.

Because their primary goal is to kill Danny Manning's Indiana Pacers.
(End of this chapter)