The rest is just noise

The next day, the Knicks practiced as usual.

The awkwardness yesterday seemed to have never happened, and no one mentioned it again.

Jamaica Stars and Big Shoulder Wind will conduct intra-team competitions as usual.

"Is there something going on that I don't know about?" Doug Moe asked.

Louis yawned and avoided talking about his search for people to do work last night. He asked the assistants to look at the players and went back to the office as usual.

During the Finals, what the Knicks need most is stability.

The human heart is like an ocean, and it is impossible to see through it at a glance or solve the biggest problems.

Just like Isiah Thomas during the Celtics era, constant victory can curb the growth of problems. When the days of sharing blessings pass, the Green Army's dominance is gone and they need to share adversity, and the Smiling Assassin is not willing.

This is not selfish. For him, the only reason to stay with the Celtics is to continue to win.

If this need cannot be met, there is no reason for him to stay.

What's more, it took him three years to confirm that the Celtics really couldn't go back to the past before he chose to leave.

The Knicks' problem is much simpler than the Celtics', but just as troublesome.

It's about competition for leadership and confirmation of dominance.

On the surface, Ewing is the leader, and Wilson recognizes this. However, during the season, things often happened that made people think Wilson was the leader, which made Ewing feel uneasy.

This potential contradiction is originally hidden.

When Wilson signed a big contract and surpassed Ewing in annual salary for the first time, the contradiction began to intensify.

In last season's Finals FMVP selection, the Ewing camp has been talking about the story of losing the FMVP due to low media favorability for a whole year.

Now, it's just another outbreak of this problem after it took root.

This is an unanswerable question. Wilson said he has no intention of competing for the leadership position, but what he has done makes people feel that he is the leader of the Knicks.

The media recognizes him as a leader and the fans also like him.

Ewing didn't want to be just a recognized leader internally, but he found it nearly impossible to gain recognition from the outside, a fact that was partly Wilson's fault.

The conflict was about to break out last night, and Louis suppressed the spark immediately.

How long he could hold it down, he didn't know.

June 10, 1992

Game 4 between the Knicks and Trail Blazers is still being held at Memorial Stadium.

Pat Riley has an advantage, that is, he is good at learning.

He not only learned from Louis to build the team, but also believed that he could strengthen the muscles of the players on the basis of the Knicks to increase confrontation. He did what Louis could not imagine, making muscle lines appear on Barkley's body and making Jordan give up the scoring championship.

He can both learn and innovate, and if these are not enough, continue learning.

That's right, this time, he decided to go one step further and learn and sell now.

In the last game, Louis used a murder press to break the Blazers' low-horse tactics at the beginning, which impressed Riley. He believed that if the Knicks can use this routine, so can the Blazers, and they should be able to use it better than the Knicks.

better.

This arrogant idea seems to be unfounded, because the Knicks' murderous press can be used as a regular tactic and a trump card, and the Trail Blazers' full-court press is obviously worse.

But Riley can learn and sell now.

In the past two days, he asked his assistant coach to make a video summary of the details of the Knicks' murderous press, and temporarily formed a lineup within the Trail Blazers specifically for full-court press.

If you can study to this level, even Louis would be convinced.

The Trail Blazers have just established a full-court press team for two days to strangle the Knicks in Game 4 of the Finals.

When Louis saw the Trail Blazers' lineup consisting of Jordan, Cosey, McDaniel, Robinson, and Blue Edwards, he had a bad feeling in his heart.

"A lineup of four small forwards?"

nb analyst Doug Collins laughed.

"This lineup looks familiar!"

"No way?" Tomjanovich said in surprise, "Isn't Portland trying to imitate us?"

Louie can already tell what the Blazers want to do.

"Aren't they always imitating us?" Louis asked.

Riley not only imitated Louis in forming a lineup dedicated to full-court press, but also put core players in it like Louis did, and the core players led the team.

The Knicks are Wilson, the Trail Blazers are Jordan.

If Jordan plays defense later, will these people dare to be lazy?

Presumably before the game started, Riley had already beaten Jordan a lot, so Jordan would defend at all costs.

After two days of training, the Blazers' full-court press is definitely still a long way from being mature, but they can definitely practice the basic routines. Plus the game has just begun, this group of people are sharpening their knives and are ready to kill.

concentrated.

It's normal for the Knicks to face them.

Because Louis believed that Riley would not continue to use a lineup that had been cracked by the Knicks, but he did not expect that Riley was the master of the two bastard methods of improvising and treating dead horses as doctors. Learn from him to the end.

, completely using Louis as a guiding light.

"Lao Lu, do we want to change our lineup?" Zhao Yuanzheng asked.

Louis currently has too little information, and none of them know the effect of the Trail Blazers version of Murder Press.

"Let's take a look first."

Louis doesn't like tonight's referee very much.

Dick Bavetta, Joe Clifford and Darrell Garretson, except for Clifford, the other two all had more or less rivalries with Louis.

However, they also know Louis' temperament and have suffered from Louis. Therefore, unless they are given a task by their superiors, they will not blow the whistle openly.

They have all experienced how bad Louis' temper is and how low the threshold for turning his face is.

Even though Louis had a way to put pressure on the referee, he was still worried.

The referee can dominate a game, this is not just talk.

They can decide how much to blow based on the situation.

Although they can't blow biased whistles or black whistles, they can enforce the law according to any scale that is unfavorable to the Knicks. As long as the standards are consistent, Louis has no choice, because they are indeed "enforcement impartially."

After the game started, the Knicks won the ball as usual.

"eon!!!"

Jordan roared angrily, and the five Blazers turned into mad dogs and bit him.

Stockton, who bore the brunt, was unprepared to deal with it.

What does this feel like? It's like some Japanese action movies that start to get to the point in four seconds. Although the actors know what is going to happen, the excellent acting skills will make you believe that they don't know.

But Stockton on the court really didn't know what the Blazers were going to do.

Louis warned to be careful as they pressed the whole court at the beginning, but Stockton did not expect the intensity to be so high.

This is not the defensive intensity that the opening game should have.

The Knicks made mistakes, made mistakes again, and made three mistakes in a row.

The three referees, headed by Bavetta, already knew what standards to use to call this game.

Loose, indulgent, allowing both sides to fight rough, this was originally the Knicks' advantage, but now, there is a team that looks more hardcore.

They were beaten 0-8 at the beginning, and Wilson couldn't even touch the ball. Xavier McDaniel remembered the one-punch attack in the previous game, and he fought hard with him at the beginning. Neither of them received the ball, but they were fighting for the ball.

It rolled on the ground four or five times.

The Knicks were stunned by the Blazers' astonishing full-court press and couldn't find any rhythm at all.

Louis waited for two minutes, but did not wait for the players on the court to break the game on their own. Instead, he waited for an 8-point deficit and had no choice but to request a timeout.

"This is the real finals!"

"Portland is the toughest opponent the Knicks have faced since 1988!"

When Bob Costas came to a conclusion, a slight fluctuation appeared on the tragedy master's face.

He had to admit that even though his Lakers tied with the Knicks 2-2 in the 1991 Finals, this Trail Blazers was the team that really forced the Knicks into a tough fight.

By this standard, it is absolutely correct to say that the Trail Blazers are the strongest opponent the Knicks have faced in the past five seasons.

The finals against the Trail Blazers tested the Knicks' lineup's weaknesses and ability to withstand pressure.

Like Stockton and Miller, the progress they have made since winning the championship is not obvious because the Lakers have not given them enough challenges on the defensive end in the past three years.

The Lakers proved that offense alone can't defeat the Knicks' defense.

Now, the Trail Blazers, who completely copied them, are here, and they are using a stronger defense than the Knicks. Neither Stockton nor Miller performed well.

The start of tonight was even more completely lost.

Stockton's calm mind seemed to be down, and Miller Louis never saw him online.

He was overwhelmed by Jordan's off-ball defense. Even if there was a screen, the Blazers' athletic ability could make defensive rotations in an instant.

Louis is going to take Ewing off to rest, just like the Blazers let Barkley sit out and rest.

However, Ewing seemed to read his mind: "Let Benj rest, I will carry it!"

"You're going to carry it?" Louis asked with a smile as if he heard a joke, "What are you going to carry?"

Ewing said confidently: "Take advantage of my advantage in the paint, take advantage of the fact that no one can guard me, take advantage of the fact that I averaged 26 points per game in the Finals and shot 58% from the field."

Louis asked again: "They press the whole court like this, and our ball can't be brought to the front court. What can you do even if your shooting rate is 100%?"

Unexpectedly, Ewing responded quickly: "If I can solve all the problems, what else do I need as a coach?"

Louis almost couldn't hold his nerve.

What a bastard!

He can hardly stand this kind of virtue. No wonder the media hates him.

"Benj, what's your opinion?" Louis took a deep breath to calm down, and asked Wilson what he thought by the way.

Wilson said simply: "I believe Patrick."

The real owners have expressed their opinions, so of course Louis is fine.

"J, you replace the general." Louis continued, "Alex, you replace the benj."

Finally, he looked at Danny Ainge: "Danny, you replace Reggie."