Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 182 182. Perfecting Wang Zhizhi and perfecting himself!
After the two-game losing streak, the Timberwolves won eleven consecutive seasons in the following period of time.

Although the Timberwolves did not win the opponents in these eleven games, they all won relatively easily, especially the offensive and defensive cooperation between Iverson and other players, which made the Timberwolves team basically flawless.

With Iverson joining, the Timberwolves have not lost even a game.

The Timberwolves still looked unstoppable throughout December. After defeating the Memphis Grizzlies, the Timberwolves have won 12 consecutive victories this season, raising the team's record to 15 wins and 25 losses.

It wasn't until the Timberwolves lost to the Rockets on December 12 that Iverson ushered in his first loss after joining the team.

In this game against the Rockets, Luke will rest "Glove" Payton, but the real reason for the team's loss is that Yao Ming blasted the former best defensive player Ben Wallace inside.

Big Ben is definitely the center with the best penalty area defense in the active league, and there is no need to add one after that.

Even Howard, who is in full swing, can hardly compete with Ben Wallace in this time period.

But as a technical center with extremely rich offensive skills, Yao Ming, who is nearly [-] meters tall, dominated the penalty area in this game, and ravaged Ben Wallace crazily under his body.

整场比赛姚明在登场37分钟的情况下狂砍36分13篮板6助攻以及3次封盖，且投篮命中率高达64.2%。

It only took a little more than three quarters to beat Ben Wallace to six fouls and leave the field, and he had to sit on the bench with a blank face.

The main reason why Daben has a strong defense in the penalty area is that besides his strength advantage, he is also very active on the defensive end and willing to do some dirty work that others are unwilling to do.

However, unlike "Shark" O'Neal, Yao Ming can not only complete kills in the restricted area, but also increase his shooting range to the middle distance on both sides.

Facing Ben Wallace's defense, Yao Ming showed a wealth of offensive methods in this game.

Whether it's a low-post singles, a turnaround jumper, or a mid-range shot after catching the ball, Ben Wallace has no temper at all.

In addition, it is hard to imagine that Yao Ming, who is close to [-] meters tall, also has flexible "dream footsteps", playing with Ben Wallace in the low post many times, and using his footsteps to score.

The height gap between Daben and Yao Ming is about 25 centimeters. If Garnett and others don't double-team Yao Ming with this gap, no matter how strong Daben's defense is, he will be disappointed.

It's a pity that when the Timberwolves double-teamed Yao Ming in the second half, the Rockets' perimeter suddenly opened up.

Especially Luther Head, who scored seven three-pointers and scored 23 points and 4 rebounds, became an important contributor to the Rockets' victory.

Luther Head's defensive ability is extremely bad, but this season, with the former Warriors coach Montgomery taking office as the Rockets' new coach, the perimeter shooters headed by Luther Head finally ushered in spring.

As of now, this season Hyde can be regarded as one of the best outside shooters in the active league. His 45.3% three-point shooting rate allows Luther Hyde to average a career-high 12.7 points per game.

Taking advantage of Yao Ming and McGrady's personal ability to attract double teams, Hyde can get a lot of shots by ambushing outside.

In particular, Yao Ming is often double-teamed by the opponent. When Yao Ming's excellent ability to attract double-teams meets Montgomery, a basketball coach who is good at playing outside, the shooters like Hyde will benefit the most.

In addition to Luther Hyde, Battier, Alstom and others also provided a lot of firepower output from beyond the three-point line in this game.

It is precisely because the Rockets' shooters hit a large number of three-pointers from the outside, and the Timberwolves' defense line began to collapse for a while, and Yao Ming's upheaval in the paint made the Timberwolves lose the game regrettably.

After a month, I felt the taste of losing again.

After the game, Luke stood on the sidelines and had a good chat with Montgomery.

From the smile on Luke's face, it can be seen that this conversation is not a joke like everyone else, but that Luke really appreciates Montgomery.

Luke originally planned to recruit Montgomery to his assistant coaching team during the offseason, but the Rockets took the lead.

But this is also good, for Yao Ming, Montgomery's appointment can reduce the frequency of Yao Ming's use of low singles, so as to reduce the chance of Yao Ming's injury in another way.

It is worth mentioning that Wang Zhizhi hit two three-point shots in this game. Although the stats of 6 points and 3 rebounds in the game cannot be compared with Yao Ming, they also added a touch of color to this Chinese derby.

This season, the strong strength of the Timberwolves has clocked out of get off work many times in three quarters, so Wang Zhizhi got a good playing time.

Roughly, the data of 5.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game is not eye-catching, and the three-point shooting rate is close to 42%, which makes him roughly one of the big players with the best shooting ability in the league today.

And during the offseason, Wang Zhizhi did a lot of muscle training under Luke's key care. Although the general body line of the new season is still not comparable to that of the top insiders, it is obviously much stronger than last season.

If Millsap hadn't had a lot of training opportunities in the new season, Wang Zhizhi's role on the court would only be better.

At least Montgomery half-jokingly tested Luke after the game, asking if Luke had any plans to trade Wang Zhizhi, and expressed his willingness to offer high-quality chips as a big deal.

After all, everyone knows the Timberwolves' vision in terms of trading. The one who will lose out in the trade with the Timberwolves will be himself. Montgomery knows that he will never be able to beat Luke in this regard.

It seems that Montgomery has a deep affection for Wang Zhizhi, and even if he makes a loss-making deal, he still wants to get the player Wang Zhizhi.

Montgomery is a typical outside shooting coach. Compared with most antiques of this era, Montgomery prefers to hit the ball farther and farther than try to hit the basket as much as possible.

Montgomery liked Murphy very much while coaching the Warriors. Murphy is a well-known soft-ball player in the NBA.

Even though Murphy averaged double figures in rebounds per game for two consecutive seasons, Murphy's outside style of play was still dubbed "soft" by fans.

In today's era, inside players are unwilling to fight physically, and those who only like to float outside and shoot are soft guys.

No matter how high the offensive efficiency of this player is, he will not be praised by the fans, even Nowitzki is no exception. When it comes to the league's first power forward, the names of Duncan and Garnett will always be in Novi over Ski.

Therefore, when Murphy first entered the league, he was not reused by the coaches, but with the appointment of Montgomery, Murphy ushered in a turning point in his career, averaging 15+10 per game for two consecutive seasons.

And the three-point shooting rate has remained at about 35% all year round, which is deeply loved by Montgomery.

Now the Rockets have a center killer like Yao Ming, but there is no high-position fortress in the team for Montgomery to use.

The only big shooter, Novak, is only a rookie, and his poor defensive ability even Montgomery, who never pays attention to defense, can't bear to look directly.

Wang Zhizhi's playing style is very suitable for Montgomery's tactical system, and Wang Zhizhi is not an indispensable main player in the Timberwolves, so Montgomery turned his idea on Wang Zhizhi.

The entire league knows that although McHale is the nominal general manager of the Timberwolves, in fact, Luke is the real speaker of the Timberwolves in terms of personnel changes.

As long as Luke nodded and agreed to a deal, McHale would never refuse.

"Well, if you want the king, I can even give it to you for free." Luke said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)