Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 56. 56. Alliance Structure
In the next period of time, the Timberwolves encountered some troubles. "Madman", Griffin, Hassel and others were unable to play due to suspensions and injuries.

Karl Malone, who was not suspended after the game, was also forced to miss the game because of an eye injury.

Among them, Madman, Karl Malone and Griffin are the main rotation players of the Timberwolves, which also leads to the invisible weakening of the Timberwolves' lineup depth.

Especially the lack of Karl Malone and Eddie Griffin's insiders, so Luke had to allocate more playing time to Divac and "Sugar Man" Olowokandi.

But the role of these two on the court is far inferior to Karl Malone and Eddie Griffin.

Malone and Griffin have been the main rotation Luke has been using this season, and suddenly they can't play at the same time, which makes Luke a little uncomfortable.

As for the absence of "Madman", it is a loss on the offensive end of the Timberwolves. Madman is the second scorer of the Timberwolves this season, averaging 20.8 points per game, second only to Garnett, and is a major guarantee for the Timberwolves' outside offensive firepower.

At present, the madman is expected to miss the game for one to two months due to injury, which is definitely a challenge for the Timberwolves.

If the Timberwolves do not want to be overtaken by the Suns and other teams behind them later in the season, then other players must stand up and take responsibility during the madman's absence.

Otherwise, without an All-Star player for no reason, even a team like the Timberwolves will be seriously injured.

That is to say, the end of the Pistons was even more tragic than that of the Timberwolves. After this battle, the team slipped directly from the favorites to the edge of the playoffs.

As long as the Pistons' fate is not so tragic, Timberwolves fans will definitely kill the Pistons on the Internet.

After all, this season is the most promising season for the Timberwolves to win the championship. Anything that is not good for the Timberwolves will make the fans feel worried!

…………

On February 2, the Timberwolves lost to the Bulls in the first game after defeating the Pistons.

In this game, the "little shark" Curry, the core insider of the Bulls, completely killed the Quartet under the basket. Whether facing Divac or facing the "Sugar Man", Curry played a dominant performance.

Curry scored 70 points, 36 rebounds and 7 blocks at the basket with nearly 2% shooting.

Among them, 36 points set a new career high for Eddie Curry, breaking the previous personal highest score of 31 points in a single game.

The 23-year-old Eddie Curry averaged 16.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game this season.

So in this game, Eddie Curry scored 36 points inside the Timberwolves, which is enough to show how poor the Timberwolves' defense in the penalty area is.

Garnett has been pulled and held back by the Bulls' space-based insider Nocioni on the court, and when Garnett was unable to help defend the basket at the first time, the Timberwolves' penalty area was completely blown up by Curry, allowing "Little Shark "Became a "big shark".

Eddie Curry is 134 meters tall and weighs [-] kilograms. He is the heaviest player in the league today except "Shark" O'Neal and Diop.

Because of Curry's terrifying dominance in college, and his strong body shape is very similar to O'Neal, Curry's nickname was called "Little Shark".

And after entering the league, the team has very high expectations for Eddie Curry, hoping that Eddie Curry can become another dominant insider after O'Neal.

It's just a pity that the little shark is just a little shark after all, and the gap between Eddie Curry and O'Neal can be described as a world of difference.

What's more, apart from his fat body, Eddie Curry's playing style on the court is also quite different from O'Neal.

O'Neal has a frightening dominance on both ends of the offense and defense, and on the offensive end, he will often stage unreasonable dunks.

But Eddie Curry's defense is simply indescribable, and his rebound protection is also terrible.

As a big center with a height of 5.4 meters, Eddie Curry averaged only [-] rebounds per game this season. From here, it is not difficult to see how poor Curry's rebounding level is.

As for the offensive end, Curry has a body weight, but he can't play the performance of "Shark" O'Neal. All kinds of inexplicable turns and throws make Eddie Curry completely overestimated by the outside world.

But it was such a player who scored 36 points in the Timberwolves penalty area in this game, leading the Chicago Bulls to overthrow the wolf cubs in one fell swoop, giving the Timberwolves their ninth defeat of the season!

After this game, the Timberwolves' record reached 40 wins and 9 losses, and the gap with the Suns and other teams behind them is gradually narrowing, even though they are still sitting first in the league.

But the large-scale absence of players will definitely make the Timberwolves' next schedule difficult, and whether head coach Luke can lead the players to withstand the pressure through this difficult period depends on Luke's next on-the-spot arrangements.

At least before the All-Star Weekend, Luke has to find a way to keep his No. [-] position in the Western Conference. Only the No. [-] in the Western Conference can become an All-Star coach.

And for Luke, who is coaching an NBA team for the first time in his career, if he can be elected as the Western All-Star coach in the first year, it will definitely be a very dazzling honor!

…………

In the next two games, the Timberwolves defeated the Bobcats and lost to the Jazz respectively, with one win and one loss.

The loss to the Jazz was entirely due to the Jazz's strong inside configuration, Kirilenko, Boozer and Okur, which made the Timberwolves, who were seriously short of insiders, suffer a lot.

The good news is that Eddie Griffin, who was suspended by the league for three games, will return in the next game, and Karl Malone will also return to play in the near future.

I believe that after Karl Malone and Eddie Griffin both come back, the Timberwolves will gradually get back on track.

At least the Timberwolves with a complete inside line are not afraid of any team in the league, even if the absence of the madman at this point has a huge impact on the Timberwolves' offense.

But Nehbar, Salmons and "Penny" Hardaway, who were just traded not long ago, can make up for it as much as possible.

At most, the overall rotation of the Timberwolves has been severely weakened, but Luke can use this time to train new players and assign more offensive tasks to Salmons and Nehbar.

Allowing the two to grow rapidly in a real competition can be regarded as a warm-up for the upcoming playoffs in advance!

So far, with the Timberwolves losing to the Jazz in the last game, the only team in the league that lost less than ten games officially disappeared.

目前森林狼以41胜10负的战绩暂时领跑联盟，紧跟其后的分别是太阳的39胜11负、热火的38胜12负、以及马刺的38胜13负。

As for the Detroit Pistons, which could have been ranked second in the Eastern Conference and top five in the league, they fell off a cliff.

At the same time, the lack of double Wallace in the penalty area on the inside directly caused the Pistons' defensive system to collapse.

And when the Pistons are not even scary on defense, no one thinks the Pistons can use offense to turn things around.

After all, the Pistons' offensive efficiency has always been at the bottom of the league, which is an indisputable fact.

In addition, the head coach Larry Brown is lying in the hospital recovering from his injuries. The current acting coach of the Pistons is Livens, the assistant next to Larry Brown.

But with the current lineup of the Pistons, even if Larry Brown is not injured, the Pistons basically miss the championship.

Not to mention the assistant coach Livings, whose bucket of water is full and half of the bucket is dangling.

After the game against the Timberwolves, the Pistons have completely left the ranks of the championship, and the Pistons' ability to keep making the playoffs is already the team's limit.

Of course, if the Pistons can't even make the playoffs in the end, the Pistons will become the second defending champion in NBA history who can't even make the playoffs.

Even if this possibility is not great in the Eastern Conference with low overall strength, the Pistons this season will definitely become the laughing stock of the league.

For Larry Brown's behavior of ruining the championship by himself, people will silently praise Luke!

(End of this chapter)