i have a coaching book

Chapter 349 Defeating Timberwolves
On April 4nd, at the American West Arena, the Phoenix Suns will play back-to-back games against the Minnesota Timberwolves at home without a break.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have recently won a wave of 4 consecutive victories. It seems that they are in good condition. In fact, they are just struggling in the quagmire.

Last season, the Timberwolves gambled together the "three-headed monster" and were lucky enough to reach the Western Conference Finals.

However, success is also Garnett, and defeat is also Garnett!
To put it bluntly, the Timberwolves recruited Cassell and Sprewell, but they wanted to keep Garnett and use two veteran stars to assist Garnett in winning the NBA championship.

Unexpectedly, he unexpectedly achieved good results.

Garnett renewed his contract with the Timberwolves at a sky-high price, but locked the team's salary, leaving no room for manipulation.

So what if Cassell and Sprewell played well?The Timberwolves are willing to renew the contract of the two of them, but it is almost impossible to want a contract with an annual salary of tens of millions.

Under such circumstances, how could Cassell and Sprewell work so hard? Besides, they are one year older, and the Timberwolves have no idea what their strength will be after the contract extension.

Now that Garnett has renewed his contract and the stars who are assisting the championship have also come, everything that should be done has been done. As for the results, I can't care so much.

This is the tragedy of small city teams. The legend of one superstar in one city is beautiful, but they cannot win the championship.

If the gamble fails, you have to pay it back slowly.

At present, the Timberwolves, who have won consecutive victories, only rank ninth in the West with a record of 34 wins and 38 losses.

With the impact of the Nuggets, the Timberwolves, the champions of the Western Conference regular season last year, were squeezed out of the playoffs.

In order to change this situation and return to the playoffs, head coach Philip Saunders decided to change the team's starting lineup.

Point guard Sam Cassell came off the bench, and his state was a little shaky, played by convulsive guard Troy Hudson.

Shooting guard is still Latrell Sprewell.However, Wally Szczerbiak at the small forward switched to the bench lineup, so that the Timberwolves, whether it is the starting lineup or the bench lineup, are not much different in strength.

Trenton Hassell sits at small forward. Although he doesn't have an offense, he is a defensive champion.

Power forward Kevin Garnett remains unchanged.

Mark Madsen at the center was changed to Michael Olowokandi, the parallel import champion.

The Suns' starting five remain unchanged, lined up, followed by point guard Steve Nash, shooting guard Joe Johnson, small forward Quentin Richardson, power forward Sean Marion, center A Marley Stoudemire.

In the jump ball, Olowokandi showed his physical talent as the No. [-] pick, overpowering Stoudemire, and transferred the basketball to Hudson.

With long legs, Hudson dribbled the ball to the frontcourt without any hesitation, and directly hoisted the basketball into the interior.

In the low position on the left, Garnett caught the ball and squeezed two backs, and immediately stepped on flexible steps, and directly turned over, jumped and leaned back for a two-point shot from mid-range.

Garnett's shot point was too high, and he added a fallback. Marion had defensive skills, but he couldn't help Garnett's offense.

Swish!
Garnett's iron-blooded big mid-range shot can match his stunt, and he didn't miss it. He hit the bull's-eye steadily and scored two points.

2 to 0! !
Offensive and defensive transition, the Timberwolves play twin towers, the Suns will naturally speed up and run and bomb, Nash quickly dribbled the ball across half court, and immediately came a long pass to the inside.

Stoudemire rushed over, caught the ball and dribbled a step, and his eyes were flat.

Taking off from the basket, the body is very stretched, and the basketball is smashed into the basket heavily in the air.

Tomahawk split buckle, two points scored.

2 to 2! !
Stoudemire did not fight for skills, but for speed. Olowokandi is not an opponent at all, but he has the soul of a defender.

The Timberwolves attacked, Hudson dribbled the ball in the frontcourt, and lobbed the ball to Garnett.

Richardson let go of Hassel's defense, and Marion double-teamed Garnett.

Garnett jumped up and gave the ball to Hassel, who had almost no offensive ability, bit the bullet, dribbled a step, and made a two-point mid-range shot.

Bang! !

Hassell missed the mid-range shot and the basketball bounced off the rim.

Olowokandi can't grow into a star insider, and it is also very useful as a blue-collar. With his height advantage, he grabs rebounds.

Without a strong attack, the ball was given to Hudson to regroup, and the ball was immediately distributed to the right side after receiving the ball.

Outside the 65-degree three-point line on the right, Sprewell received the ball without any pause. He lifted the ball, feinted a shot, and immediately pulled the ball up. Against Joe Johnson's defense, he made a three-point jumper.

If it was last season, he would choose to break through and layup more. However, that kind of play is very harmful to the body, and now is not the time to go all out.

He decided to use a simple jump shot, however, his three-pointers can not be underestimated, the hit rate is still good.

Bang! !

Sprewell's three-pointer also missed and bounced out of the frame.

Stoudemire took off the rebound and split the ball to Nash to fight back.

Richardson and Joe Johnson, like two unsheathed sharp knives, took a step forward and sprinted towards the Timberwolves' ribs.

Nash dribbled one step, without stopping for half a point, and passed a long pass on the run, finding Richardson accurately.

After catching the ball, he adjusted a bit, glanced at the three-point line under his feet, did not step on the boundary, immediately lifted the ball over the top, bent his knees, jumped up, and opened his hands to shoot a three-point jumper.

Swish!
Richardson went up and down with a knife and hit a counterattack three-pointer accurately.

2 to 5! !
Looking back, Hudson dribbled to the frontcourt, one step away from the three-point line, immediately pulled the ball up, drew his bow and arrow, and shot an unreasonable three-pointer.

Bang! !

Hudson's offense relies too much on touch, the characteristics of the nerve knife, and the offense is very unstable.

Basketball missed, but Garnett's rebounding ability is good, and the Timberwolves have a height advantage inside.

Garnett took off the rebound over Marion's head, bounced it off the ground quickly, dunked with both hands, and scored the basketball in the second attack.

4 to 5! !
Next, the Suns speeded up and ran and bombed, shrinking the inside line, grabbing rebounds and playing a quick counterattack. In the positional battle, they played diamond tactics, and their offensive firepower from the outside line was also quite good.

The Suns used violent offensive firepower. In the first quarter, they beat the Timberwolves with a score of 30 to 23, leading their opponents by 7 points and entering the second quarter.

Although the Timberwolves adjusted their starting lineup to make their starting offense mediocre, the offense was very weak.

However, when the second quarter started, with the two star players Kassel and Szczerbiak coming off the bench, they immediately used sharp offense and solid defense to give the Suns a 26-16 shock wave.

After the first half of the game, the Minnesota Timberwolves used Tian Ji's horse racing method, with a score of 49 to 46, mainly against the guest, overtaking the Phoenix Suns by 3 points, and entered the locker room to rest.

The game started in the third quarter, the Suns began to work hard, the state recovered, and they played a multi-point offensive offensive, scoring 28 points in a single quarter.

The Timberwolves' offense is still half-dead. Except for Garnett's offense is still stable, Sprewell, Cassel and Szczerbiak's offensive status is not on the line, and only scored 20 points in the third quarter.

After the first three quarters, the Suns once again overtook the score, leading the Timberwolves by 5 points and entering the final decisive battle of the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Suns' offensive firepower continued well. They did not give the Timberwolves any chance to press the opponent's offense and blast out a 33-point single quarter.

The Timberwolves finally opened their posture, wanting to play against the Suns, so as to solve the problem of their poor offense.

Although the Timberwolves' offense was much better and they scored 29 points, they couldn't stop the Suns' more powerful offensive firepower and could only swallow the bitter fruit of defeat.

At the end of the game, the Phoenix Suns defeated the visiting Timberwolves with a score of 107 to 98 and won a wave of four consecutive victories.

(End of this chapter)