start with scouting

Chapter 460 Narrow-minded O'Neill

At the end of the extra training day, the Kings IV faced the Bobcats.

Su Yang got the list of Bobcats at 201:[-] p.m. and found that Bobcats small forward McGee was out due to injury. Chris Douglas Robert, who was [-] cm tall, replaced him in the starting lineup. He decisively adjusted the Kings lineup and let Covington serve as the starting shooting guard.

It's not a major innovation, but I just want to take advantage of the weaker opponents to give Covington more opportunities to practice in advance.

After all, Covington can go from 2.3 points to 13.5 points in a season, which shows that he has enough strength in his first year as a rookie.

The game started at 32 o'clock. The Bobcats still had no double-teaming, no foul, and no fast-break strategy. The Kings launched an offense around Cousins, and the defense mainly restricted the inside line. They led 25-33 in the first quarter and 25-24 in the second quarter. Leading from 21 to [-] in the quarter.

After three quarters, the game almost entered garbage time. The Bobcats did not give up. Kemba Walker made continuous breakthroughs and retreated shots to forcefully bite the score. Su Yang specially arranged for Covington to defend and exercise Covington's mentality at critical moments, but to no avail. deviation.

也就8分钟时间，沃克个人9投6中，其中三分球6投4中，零罚球狂砍16分。

Fortunately, other Bobcats played poorly, the King still beat the Bobcats 115 to 103, Cousins ​​33 points and 11 rebounds.

At the press conference after the game, when talking about Cousins’ two consecutive 30+10 games, Su Yang pretended to be calm: “There is nothing to praise and brag about, that is his basic operation, and we have similar data before, and we recently attacked around him, There will be more and more!"

"What, you said that O'Neal thinks that Cousins ​​is not a real center, with high support and too many shots? That's okay, he is the number one center in NBA history, and he has the qualifications to evaluate Cousins, but Cousins ​​is different. O'Neal is too versatile."

"Cousins ​​certainly deserves to be selected for this year's All-Star. Is there a better center in the West than him? What, you said Kevin Love, let's see what will happen next time the Kings and Timberwolves face off. field, will come soon.”

After the press conference, Su Yang went back to the locker room to find Covington, encouraging him not to worry about poor performance, as it is difficult to prevent and control guards.

Among the main king lineups, only Covington is suitable for defense, but Kemba Walker's explosion is really unstoppable.

By the end of the encouragement conversation, the interview had sparked heated discussions. The topics mainly revolved around whether Cousins ​​is more versatile than O'Neal, and whether Cousins ​​is more worthy of being selected as an All-Star than Love. Why O'Neal wanted the king's shares but Su Yang refused to give , causing O'Neill to criticize Cousins, and the fans' dislike of Cousins, who has a bad record, and other old past events, all dug out for discussion.

Anyway, Cousins ​​became popular, and the number of related videos soared, which incidentally brought a wave of attention to the king.

The Kings got three days free, one day off, and one more day of practice. On the [-]th, they ushered in the game day as usual, against the Trail Blazers.

After playing 34 games this season, the Blazers are 26 wins and 8 losses. They did not start to decline in the middle of the season like in previous seasons. The Kings were originally ranked ahead of the Blazers. However, a wave of four-game losing streak in the highly competitive West is too hurt. It quickly became 23 wins and 10 losses, and can only be temporarily ranked behind the pioneers. Considering the previous two matches with one win and one loss, the third matchup is very important.

In the locker room, Su Yang convened the whole team to speak: "Considering the special circumstances of the Western Region and the Pacific Division, we are very likely to compete with the Trail Blazers for the third, fourth, and fifth places in the Western Conference. win!"

The Kings will start the game with the will to win, but the Trail Blazers starting is too reasonable. As an inside attack point, Adelaide uses his height advantage to bully Millsap. Batum uses his range and support advantages to weaken Antetokounmpo's defense. It's hard to beat.

The hateful thing is that Adelaide and Batum still played the entire first quarter, and the Kings responded with all their strength, and fell behind 24 to 35 in the first quarter.

Fortunately, the game entered the second quarter. Gay and Thomas Jr. showed their strength. The Kings counterattacked 31 to 25, losing only 5 points at halftime.

Back in the locker room during the halftime break, Su Yang re-analyzed and found that the Blazers Lopez and forward Batum also fouled twice. After thinking about it, he adjusted his strategy and instructed the defensive team to double-team Lillard and cut off the passing route. The offensive end focuses on the inside and draws fouls.

The Kings will return to the court, and the third quarter will be the same. Covington temporarily defends Lillard and leads the team to double-team.

After a few rounds, Lillard's offense was greatly affected. In addition, Lillard's level of scoring was deviated, resulting in two live ball errors. The King took the opportunity to launch two fast breaks. Foul, the Blazers team is restricted.

Following Cousins' four consecutive hits, the King's aura rose to a new height, a wave of bombardment, winning 12 points in a single quarter, and then in the fourth quarter, the King and the Trail Blazers soared and scored, and the King was steady. Grasp the lead and win 123 to 112.

In the whole game, Cousins ​​scored 35 points and 13 rebounds, including 6 offensive rebounds, continuing his dominant data.

O'Neal tweeted sourly: "Someone has 30+10 in three consecutive games. It seems to be very good, but his opponent is too weak. In my peak period, I can play that kind of data every night, and the opponent is Duncan. Yao Ming, Ben Wallace..."

Some fans retweeted in favor of O'Neal's point of view. Although O'Neal did not play against top centers every night, Cousins' center opponents in the past three games, Hawes of the 76ers, Al Jefferson of the Bobcats, and Lopez of the Trail Blazers, did. Weak.

Su Yang participated in the press conference, talked about O'Neill's remarks, and said with a smile: "I can't fully represent Cousins, but I can be sure that Cousins ​​will be very calm when he sees that statement, because he has matured. He just responds with actions."

The Kings got another three days of free time. They still had a day off and practiced one more day. On the [-]th, the game day was ushered in against the Magic.

The Magic's starting center Vucevic was injured and missed the game. The Kings had too much lead in hard power, leading by 22 points after three quarters.Considering that the brutal 9-day 6-game road trip is about to start, Su Yang decisively let the main players leave the game early to rest in the fourth quarter.

The Kings finally won by 20 points.

Cousins' personal data was 24 points and 14 rebounds in three quarters, with 30+10 interruptions in a row, but he won more praise.

Some fans commented that Cousins ​​has really matured, knowing that the overall situation of the team is the most important thing, and he does not hesitate to sacrifice personal data.

At noon the next day, the NBA officially announced the results of the third round of voting for the 14 All-Star Weekend. Cousins’ personal vote ranking suddenly jumped to fifth in the frontcourt of the Western Conference, only behind Durant, Griffin, Love, and Anthony, the son of the United States. davis.

In terms of the specific number of votes, Cousins ​​is far behind Love and Davis, so he bullied Chinese fans to not be counted.

Su Yang retweeted, calling on fans to vote for Cousins ​​more, promising to help Cousins ​​play better statistics.

NO.12, King vs. Cavaliers.

After the appearance ceremony, Su Yang took the initiative to walk to the Cavaliers' bench, chatted with Mike Brown, and congratulated him on being the head coach again.

Mike Brown laughed out loud, and even laughed at himself that he would be an assistant to Su Yang again when he had the opportunity, but he didn't know what was going to happen to him.

The game kicked off at 30 o'clock, the Kings were already overwhelmed by hard power, and the Cavaliers still played blindly, leading by [-] points at the end of the three quarters.

In the pure garbage time of the fourth quarter, the champion Bennett finally got the chance to play, scoring 5 points on 1 of 3 shots.

In comparison, Antetokounmpo had 12 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in three quarters, and he was the No. [-] pick, and everyone was surprised.

The king's third lineup didn't release water, Gobert slammed the rebounds, and the lonely god seemed to return to the NCAA period, all kinds of hurricanes.

At the end of the game, the Kings defeated the Cavaliers 124 to 80 and won a wave of six consecutive victories. Cousins ​​scored 26 points and 11 rebounds.

Without any celebration, the whole team set off overnight, ready to start a 9-day 6-game crazy schedule, in addition to going to the Southwest Devils Division, to resolve the debate between Cousins ​​and Love who is the league's number one center, and the opponent in the first game It is the Timberwolves.

ESPN temporarily announced the adjustment of the live broadcast plan, abandoning the live broadcast of the Rockets and Grizzlies, and instead live broadcasting of the Kings and Timberwolves.

(End of this chapter)