King of the Point Guard Era

Chapter 67 Stoudemire vs Cousins

"How about it, big director, are you satisfied with the performance of becoming your favorite football star?" Su Ruoxuan smiled and looked at Spike Lee who was already dumbfounded, making things worse.

However, as a fan who has a fixed seat in Madison Square Garden, I have never seen what kind of adversity. If I encounter such a situation, I will lose my confidence. How can there be a black eight in 99? Thinking of this, Spike Lee also recovered Confidence: "Don't worry, the game has just ended the first quarter, and you only lead by 9 points. If he played such a level in the last quarter, I might be very scared, but now, it is still early from the end. "

In the home locker room, D'Antoni looked at Fields in a daze, knowing that as a rookie of the same level but being educated hard, his self-confidence must have collapsed now, but there is no way, and then he has to go, no way Not to mention that the Knicks have the best defense in this lineup, that is this rookie. The strong forward line concealed the weakness of the guard line in the first few games. A hot defender who feels hot late, this weakness is also exposed infinitely.

"Change the zone defense, put other people's long shots, and pinch his three-pointers." D'Antoni is an offensive coach who advocates quick offensive and defensive transitions, and is also the pioneer of the Suns' 7-second tactic.Under his coaching, the Suns became the top team in the West.Stoudemire's coming to the Knicks this year has a lot to do with D'Antoni's influence, but he is not good at defense.It's not uncommon for his teams to average more than 100 points per game.He turned his head and looked at Stoudemire, the star player who followed him to the Knicks: "You have to be serious, the rookie center on the opposite side is about to be blown up by ESPN! He will be in the best team in a year or two. .”

"Don't worry! It's just a rookie." Stoudemire nodded. He didn't pay much attention to Cousins. There are not many insiders in the entire league who can make him serious, and that rookie is not one of them.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Knicks made lineup adjustments. Wilson Chandler played small forward, Gallinari topped power forward, and Stoudemire also returned to his familiar center position. It was faster before, and the double-teaming of the zone defense was also faster.This trick really limited He Yixiang's personal offense, and Casspi may not be able to adapt to it because of his first start this season. He missed two open three-pointers in succession after receiving a pass from He Yixiang.

As for the Knicks, Stoudemire began to wake up. As the strongest face-up offensive player in the inside line today, Stoudemire faced Cousins ​​with the ball and forced a breakthrough from the left. Cousins ​​quickly blocked the past, but Stoudemire unexpectedly Stopped suddenly like a guard and pulled the ball to the right. Cousins' center of gravity and agility were completely unresponsive, and he was wiped clean. Stoudemire took advantage of the opportunity to dunk.Madison Square Garden, where He Yixiang fell silent, revived again. Stoudemire looked at Cousins ​​behind him: "Rookie, you are still very early if you want to enter the best team!"

Cousins ​​was so angry that he wanted to hit the ball back. At this time, He Yixiang was resting off the court because he started the single-quarter invincible mode in the first quarter. At this time, the team's point guard was Udry. The experienced veteran, seeing Cousins ​​wanting to play singles, also mobilized other people's defense through his teammates, and then created a perfect singles opportunity for Cousins.Under D'Antoni's training in the original Suns, except for the two defensive giants Marion and Raja Bell, most of them can only be said to be defensive colanders, but Stoudemire is definitely not one of them.Although as a center, his height is only 208cm, so the one-on-one defense is really average, but the assist defense is good, and most of his lost positions are to make up for the positions he lost due to Nash's poor defense.

Cousins ​​leaned on Stoudemire with his back to receive the ball, squeezed two steps but did not squeeze, so he turned around and wanted to end this attack with a small throw from the right, but Stoudemire was waiting on the right side Cousins, with his powerful explosive power and bullet speed, made him jump up, slapped the ball down, and Chandler quickly pushed forward after receiving the ball. At this time, the Kings were all weak substitutes on the court. Dara was also replaced, and no one could keep up with Chandler's footsteps. After a quick push, he dunked directly.

After He Yixiang came off the court, he was hit twice in a row, but Westphal did not directly replace He Yixiang on the court. On the one hand, He Yixiang played a whole quarter and consumed a lot of energy. On the other hand, he also wanted Cousins Confront Stoudemire, last year's second-team center, find the gap, and at the same time cultivate Cousins' ability to drive the team when He Yixiang is not on the court.

But in the following performance, it is obvious that Cousins ​​is not the opponent of the star center who has been in the NBA for 8 years. Stoudemire scored 8 points in a row on [-] of [-] shots, while Cousins ​​only made [-] of [-] shots. , and also ate a big hot pot from Stoudemire.The score has almost been tied. When Cousins ​​was contracted a few days ago, he was still looking forward to getting the best team, and then the signature shoes came out, but today he finally saw the gap between himself and the best team center.Westphal also replaced He Yixiang. Trials are fine, but for the Kings who are aiming for the playoffs this season, they can't be at the cost of losing.

Stoudemire's performance was far from over. Here, Fields missed a long three-pointer, and the basketball bounced high on the neck of the basket.Cousins ​​was about to take off the rebound, but a black shadow rose rapidly behind him.It turned out that Stoudemire saw that the shot was missed, and he had rushed from the outside to the inside.

As far as Cousins' physical fitness is concerned, most of them are top-notch, except that his jumping is really average.After Stoudemire rushed in from the outside, he took off directly and grabbed the basketball at a palm height higher than Cousins ​​and dunked it directly into the basket.Cousins ​​was so angry that he smashed the ball to the floor to vent his emotions. Seeing this, Westphal immediately replaced Whiteside to prevent Cousins ​​from losing his mental balance and suffering another technical foul.

After Cousins ​​was off the court, he was still sitting on the bench sulking. Although he was a little angry about Stoudemire dunking him, it was not the main reason. It was because he felt that he played too badly and let his partner He Yixiang's 20-point effort in the first quarter was in vain. He was angry that his strength was too weak.

Although Stoudemire was still unstoppable afterwards, He Yixiang's playing began to drive the King's offensive system. Although the Knicks' zone defense made He Yixiang's personal offense uncomfortable, they got opportunities from the outside. Casspi and Garcia received He Yixiang's call Succeeded successively after breaking points.The scores of the two sides were very tight, leading alternately.With Stoudemire's success in a small throw before the end of the second quarter, the Knicks won by 11 points in a single quarter and entered the second half with a two-point lead.

(End of this chapter)