NBA: Duncan feels uneasy coaching Warriors

Chapter 114 George doesn't want to be the background board
The outside world now thinks that McCollum has officially announced the rotation, and basically thinks that the Timberwolves should be released.

After all, McCollum has averaged about 25 points per game in the past few games, which is an extremely important firepower for the Timberwolves.

Although McCollum's efficiency is a bit low at times, Gobert's ability to provide effective pick-and-roll off McCollum is a very suitable system for the Timberwolves.

After Middleton was inexplicably dnp in these few games, McCollum and Curry basically took on the three-point firepower task of the Timberwolves.

Although McCollum's efficiency is not high, but the output is not bad, it can solve the problem of the Timberwolves' lack of shooting on the offensive end.

Now that Iguodala is injured and McCollum is rested again, it seems that the Timberwolves do not intend to hit the record of the first consecutive win in history.

Some people thought it was a wise move for Su Chen to do so.

After all, the high-intensity and low-rotation game made the players too tense, and Iguodala was directly injured.

Some people feel sorry.

Among them, it is the Timberwolves fans who feel the most pity.

For a small ball market like Minnesota, things like the team winning the championship are very underestimated.

Compared with the illusory championship, it is a more practical thing to witness the team create a historical record.

Because in a small place like the Timberwolves, a championship is indeed elusive.

The natural disadvantage of a small ball market is that it is impossible to attract big-name stars from the free market, let alone big-name players, it is difficult to attract big-name managers and coaches.

The Timberwolves are like a licking dog in a relationship. A coach like Su Chen with the title of champion coach already needs to be licked for the Timberwolves.

Even if she is not a goddess, but a girl with a slightly higher appearance, it is difficult to pursue a dog like Timberwolves.

Like Connelly, the manager who later led the ten-for-one trade of Gobert, the manager who made the Nuggets fans dubbed the Kang thief was hired by the Timberwolves at a great price.

It's not just a question of high salary, but even a little team share was given to Connery, which was how Connery was recruited.

In addition to being unable to attract big-name players, managers and coaches, the Timberwolves themselves are not liked by the league.

Regardless of whether it was before Xiao Hua took office or after he took office, he asked the Timberwolves to relocate from Minnesota to a big city, but the Timberwolves refused to move.

This makes the Timberwolves one of the teams with the worst whistle treatment in the league.

For these various reasons, Minnesota fans' expectations for the team are not so high, and they feel that it is worthwhile to invite Su Chen to break a winning streak.

Even if they can't make the playoffs, they recognize the coach.

Small ball market fans are so simple.

2013 11 Month 25 Day.

Minnesota.

Target Center Arena.

Before the game started tonight, a large number of fans gathered near the Target Center arena.

Fans with tickets went in first, and fans without tickets also waited watching the big screen in the square outside the arena.

Although from before the game, the Timberwolves reported that McCollum took a break and Iguodala was absent for a week.

Perhaps, in order to keep hitting the playoffs, the team will strategically give up this game.

But there are still a lot of Minnesota fans coming.

Minnesota is very vast, there are large tracts of forests, and many Minnesotans are engaged in agricultural production.

Some farms started to shut down early today. The farmer gave the workers a holiday, and the farmer drove his family to the arena to watch the game.

The fact that the Timberwolves hit the [-]-game winning streak at the beginning of the season is already known in Minnesota.

Minnesota people have a special love for the Timberwolves team, many of which are fanatical fans accumulated during the Garnett era.

Later, Garnett left, but Minnesota people still deeply like this team.

The team owner doesn't want to abandon these fans who like the Timberwolves. Even if the league asks for it many times and uses whistles many times to threaten them, they still stick to the city.

Today may be the night of records, these fans are almost unanimous, chose to gather here tonight.

Inside the arena.

The live DJ roared loudly, adding to the atmosphere.

The wolf cub, the mascot, was also busy running around, working hard to drive the atmosphere.

Even the boss, Taylor, personally came to the sidelines to watch the game.

After signing the gambling agreement with Su Chen, Taylor followed the agreement and didn't ask about Su Chen's actions.

Even when trading Love, Taylor froze for a moment after hearing the news, but still didn't stop the deal.

But tonight, Taylor still couldn't help asking Su Chen if he wanted to fight for tonight's game.

Taylor also felt that this night was too important to Minnesota, and it was worthwhile for Su Chen to do this by setting this record.

After getting an affirmative answer from Su Chen, Taylor also turned down all the work and came to the arena to watch the game.

He is looking forward to this game very much.

It's just that the opponent is not the one Su Chen wants to win. Taylor is also a little nervous. The opponent is the Pacers, the top team in the East.

With the cooperation of lighting and DJ, Timberwolves completed the entrance ceremony.

Judging from the admission ceremony, Butler has returned to the starting lineup.

After the entrance ceremony, Su Chen stood on the sidelines with his arms crossed, watching the players' training.

It is not difficult to see from the expression that Su Chen is very serious in this game, and has been observing the players' shooting touch since the beginning of training.

The Pacers on the other side also entered the field.

The Pacers obviously didn't relax too much in this game, and everyone's expression was quite serious.

It stands to reason that the Pacers, a powerful team in the East, are still in the regular season against an ordinary team like the Timberwolves.

Taking vacations is a normal thing.

But tonight's Pacers played with all members, and no one took turns at all.

It's simple, these guys don't want to be a stepping stone, historical backdrop for the Timberwolves tonight.

If they lose tonight, then when talking about the longest winning streak at the beginning of the game, people will say that those Pacers players lost to the Timberwolves.

Pacers leader Paul George, tonight's eyes are more serious, he does not want to be the background board.

Well. Although George is always on the background board.

Shake hands before the game.

Su Chen and Frank Vogel shook hands lightly in front of the technical stage, and then returned to their respective positions.

The two didn't have any conversation, just like this game, both sides had the idea of ​​not wanting to lose.

The Timberwolves want to create a record of [-] consecutive victories at the beginning, and the Pacers don't want to be the background board of this record. The intensity of this game will definitely not be the same as the ordinary playoffs.

Just like the Eagles led by Wilkins in history, they were unwilling to be the background board of the Rockets.

Even though Olajuwon was guarding the inside line, Wilkins still fought hard, constantly attacking the inside line.

The Eagles' team was united, scaring off the Rockets, so that the Rockets did not dare to surpass the record of 15 consecutive victories.

The Pacers tonight obviously have the determination of the Eagles.

The starters from both sides play.

Timberwolves starting lineup: Rudy Gobert (C), Giannis Antetokounmpo (PF), Luol Deng (SF), Robert Covington (SG), Jimmy Butler (PG).

Pacers starting lineup: Roy Hibbert (C), David West (PF), Paul George (SF), Lance Stephenson (SG), George Hill (PG).

Resting McCollum in rotation, Su Chen is going to play the ultimate defense.

Whether it is inside or outside, the height and size can be easily matched.

Although the offense will be more difficult, after all, with Gobert squatting inside, there is no room for breakthrough from the outside.

But whether it's Giannis Antetokounmpo or Jimmy Butler, they all have more than a dozen abilities, such as float shots or fadeaway shots after confrontation near the basket.

Gobert was stuck in the paint, just waiting for the cake to be eaten, and when there was no cake to eat, he would grab rebounds and play a second offense.

Although such an attack will seem more difficult to carry out, it is still the same sentence.

Limit the opponent to less than [-] points, and then get more than [-] points, this game can also be won.

The key is to see if the defense is right.

In terms of insiders, Su Chen actually didn't have much to worry about.

Although in the playoffs last season, the Pacers were able to tie the tie with the Heat, Hibbert played a major role.

But Hibbert's regression is so fast. Last season's playoffs were basically Hibbert's peak.

In the original timeline, Hibbert's offensive rebounding and defense have dropped significantly.

The most obvious thing is that Hibbert's performance was very unsatisfactory after the playoff intensity increased.

Last season, Hibbert averaged 17 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game, as well as a very good defensive efficiency value and good advanced statistics.

But in this season of the original timeline, Hibbert fell directly in the playoffs.

He can only average 9.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

Hibbert's light-speed decline this season was beyond the expectation of the Pacers management. They originally thought that Hibbert's performance last season was the beginning of the Pacers' peak.

But in fact, for this Pacers team, being able to play a tiebreaker with the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals is already the pinnacle of this team.

David West also declined, but not as much as Hibbert.

After playing two more seasons in the Pacers, it's time to go to the Spurs with a basic salary, and then West has almost faded out of the league. This is no longer the era of players like West.

What I really need to worry about is the outside line.

George has just entered the beginning of his career peak this season. For George's defense, he still needs to use more resources to defend.

As for Stephenson and Hill, these two have also fallen a lot.

This Pacers can still reach the Eastern Conference Finals, George is the key point.

In the playoffs, George scored 37 points, West scored more than 10 points, and others' scattered scores became the epitome of this Pacers' season.

jump ball.

Gobert jumped to possession for the Timberwolves.

The ball was in Butler's hands.

McCollum didn't play in this game, and the Pacers designed a defensive tactic against Giannis Antetokounmpo, and they also saw who is the core of this team.

Su Chen also probably guessed that Giannis Antetokounmpo will be under a lot of defensive pressure this time, so this game directly gave Butler the right to shoot.

Butler's ability has matured now. He was originally the dual-core of this team, but he was temporarily delegated to him because McCollum wanted to brush up data.

Butler's strength is erratic, sometimes he is very bad, but when he gets up, even the Bucks led by Giannis Antetokounmpo can black eight.

So it's no problem to play the ball to Butler.

For the Butler Pacers, it was obviously a miscalculation. Stephenson, the team's better defensive backcourt, is ready to help defend Giannis Antetokounmpo at any time.

So the defender who directly faces Butler is Hill.

Hill's defense is not bad, even among the guards, it is relatively good, and it is not too much to be called a defensive vanguard.

But that's against the defender after all.

Hill is 1 meters tall and has a wingspan of 91 meters, which is quite good among defenders.

But facing a striker like Butler, there is a gap in size.

Hill's strength is good among defenders, but facing Butler's strength, it is obviously still a lot worse.

Hill is very good at defending guards, but the Timberwolves' starting lineup has no guards.

Butler was also blunt, went directly to his body, and rolled Hill all the way in with his back.

After arriving at the shot position that Butler is good at, Butler turned around directly, found a confrontation with Hill and threw the ball to the basket against Hill.

beep!
This ball Butler is aimed at making fouls.

Hill, who is undersized, must foul to block his ball.

But Butler felt good tonight, and the ball actually slipped in.

2+1!

Butler's opening 2+1 made all the Timberwolves fans cheer.

Butler walked to the free throw line amidst the cheers of the fans.

penalty.

Timberwolves 3:0 Pacers.

After scoring the goal, Vogel yelled a few times on the sidelines to get the team to focus.

Of course, the Pacers players can't do anything about this ball. The layout before the game is not like this.

Vogel didn't have much to blame the players, and he didn't expect that Su Chen would let Butler play singles.

Although it was true that Butler and Giannis Antetokounmpo took turns to break through before, after McCollum was replaced, the Timberwolves' offensive system changed.

His concern for the Timberwolves, that is, when he knew before the game that he would hit the Timberwolves with the first record in opening history, he began to study some Timberwolves videos.

But it is definitely not based on the level of the playoffs, just a simple look.

The Timberwolves are a team in the Western Conference. If they want to meet in the playoffs, they will only meet in the Finals. The Pacers have a chance to break out of the Eastern Conference.

Can the Timberwolves have a chance to break out of the West?
However, this ball did not disrupt the Pacers' position.

For the Pacers, they have the strength to crush the Timberwolves, as long as they play well.

(End of this chapter)