NBA: This Center Is So Stable

The first person in the history of the team

Chapter 164 The first person in the history of the team

This move by D’Antoni and the Knicks coaching staff was unanimously recognized by the whole team.

The addition of Prince strengthened the thickness of the Knicks’ wing, which means that the Knicks are no longer the team that puts all its talents on offense. With Wang Song’s restricted area and Prince, a potential defensive gate, the Knicks’ defensive strength has increased.

When a team does well enough on the defensive end, even if their extreme offense is no longer so good, it does not affect their being a strong team.

Arriving in Cleveland away is the Knicks’ first attempt.

Before the game, the media warmed up.

The matchup between the top pick and the third pick is still one of the gimmicks of this game.

Although the Cavaliers are now ranked ninth in the Eastern Conference and are no longer as calm as when the two teams met at the beginning of the season, James, who averages 25+7+7 per game, is still a strong contender for the best rookie.

Cavaliers coach Paul Silas firmly believes this.

As for the poor team record, it can never be a problem of the strongest high school student No. 1 pick in history. It can only be that the Cleveland Cavaliers do not have enough stars and James does not have a decent right-hand man.

Especially after trading away Ricky Davis, the guy who competed with James for the position of the team leader and did not know how high the sky is and how deep the earth is, the Cavaliers’ record plummeted.

This once made Ricky Davis publicly say in a post-match interview that Cleveland is his team, but the Cavaliers management made a mistake.

Of course, the Cavaliers management will certainly not admit this fact. From James’s data, it can be seen that they are betting everything on the bad performance, and it is worth it to sign the son of Akron with the No. 1 pick.

Looking at the entire 2003 rookie class, except for the Knicks No. 3 pick, no rookie can suppress James.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Cavaliers, there are only two possibilities for the team’s poor performance. One is that the coaching team is not good enough, and the other is that the teammates assigned to James are not good enough.

Especially the Cavaliers’ inside partners, Boozer and Big Z, two heavy traditional centers, cannot match James’s style of play on the court without sufficient shooting range. Because of the existence of the two of them, James can only change his style of play and increase his shots on the outside.

Anyone who has watched James’ high school games knows that the son of Akron has only one shortcoming, that is, shooting.

And the act of increasing shooting also directly led to the all-around warrior in high school, and the hit rate plummeted.

This is also one of the key reasons for the Cavaliers’ decline in performance in the middle of the season!

As for James’s current luxurious data, it is just the result of the Cavaliers needing him to shoot, which actually means that his physical condition is over-consumed.

···

Domestic.

CCTV commentary.

Still two familiar old faces, familiar commentary, familiar Knicks, different opponents.

Coach Zhang had high expectations for this battle between the top pick and the third pick. After half a season, the two hot rookies who have grown up are facing off again.

“Looking back to the beginning of the season, the match between the two teams was really popular all over the United States, and the scene was full of people, but today the attendance of fans at the Cavaliers’ home court looks much emptier.”

“Yes! It seems that the playoffs are the basis of fan support! Taxpayers don’t want to spend that money to watch a game with a huge gap in strength.”

Coach Zhang still remembers the footage of the last game.

The Knicks were finally forced to use Wang Song to defend James alone, and finally won the game.

However, today’s game made him a little disappointed, because the top pick and third pick matchup that he had imagined did not appear.

The Knicks launched a massacre at the Quicken Loans Center in the first half. At the end of the half, they had a 20-point lead. The Cavaliers didn’t even last until the last minute, and the game completely lost suspense.

“Well, let’s congratulate the Knicks and Wang Song for winning again in this match between the top pick and the third pick.”

“Although Steve Nash, the soul guard of the Knicks, was unable to play in today’s game due to a sprained ankle in training, the Cavaliers did not seize this opportunity to complete the counterattack. The Cleveland Cavaliers now give me the feeling of a newborn calf, with unlimited strength but not knowing where to use it!”

“On the other hand, the Knicks, in the absence of Nash, turned to Wang Song as the axis, and turned the dunk king of the All-Star Game into the ‘assist king’!”

Accompanied by the final ridicule of the CCTV commentator and the Cleveland fans at the scene, the game ended

.

The Knicks defeated the Cavaliers with an absolute advantage of 110:89!

Wang Song played for 35 minutes in the whole game and got a super triple-double of 30 points, 13 rebounds, 14 assists and 5 blocks. Nash’s absence made him take on more team-linking tasks.

And this data directly made Wang Song the youngest player to score 30 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. The mini quadruple-double of 30+10+10+5 also directly helped Wang Song set a record in the history of the Knicks and became the first person in the history of the team.

D’Antoni originally wanted Wang Song to clock out after three quarters, but in the absence of Nash, he found that the Knicks’ offense could not do without Wang Song.

Big Z is a nightmare for most Knicks players. His mountain-like body stands in the Cavaliers’ penalty area like a wall. Just standing there is full of deterrence, so when he is on the court, the Knicks’ offense, which lacks absolute accuracy, becomes stagnant.

But when Wang Song was on the court, Big Z was like a well-behaved little bear cub. He needed to keep up with the opponent’s sudden mid-range shots and cuts by constantly moving sideways, and he had to prevent the opponent from bypassing him to fight for offensive rebounds.

These alone were enough to make him, a 221-cm player, exhausted, not to mention the troubles caused by this defensive gate on the offensive end of the Cavaliers.

Knicks.

In addition to Wang Song’s record-breaking performance, Prince performed exceptionally well in this game, scoring 20 points and 5 rebounds when James was tired of defending Houston; while Houston, who was closely watched by James, also found his touch, scoring 18 points with 7 of 10 shots, and even Kurt Thomas got an alternative mini triple-double of 15 points, 10 rebounds and 5 fouls.

Among the 5 fouls, 4 of them were against James. James, who wanted to turn into a ruthless bulldozer in this game, was completely exhausted by Kurt’s continuous pulling.

In 40 minutes, he took 28 shots, hit 8 balls and scored 20 points, in addition to 10 rebounds and 4 assists.

At first glance, the data is okay, but behind the high number of shots, no one can share the burden.

Boozer and Big Z scored 18 points together, and the rebounds added up to only 15, barely 2 more than Wang Song.

Ricky Davis’s departure certainly made James the team leader, and the No. 1 pick returned to the first echelon of rookie competition, but under the fatigue and high frequency of shots, inefficiency has become the synonym of the son of Akron.

But Paul Silas doesn’t think so. The Cavaliers, who are on the edge of the playoffs, need such a player to stand up, even if he needs to give up some of his own data.

But in front of the playoffs, all things must be prioritized.

(End of this chapter)