Of course, Wang Xiao will not let a future league superstar like Harden simply play as a substitute.

In any team, there can only be one core player.

is as strong as Wade, and after James came to the Heat, he also had to sacrifice his ball possession.

Similarly, after Durant joined the Warriors, the number of times Curry attacked with the ball was greatly reduced, and even if Curry was very efficient in attacking with the ball, he had to make way for the more efficient Durant.

Curry and Harden, Wang Xiao is more inclined to have Curry as the core of the team.

Although Harden has made certain sacrifices, in the bench position, in order to compensate Harden, Wang Xiao can give him a lot of playing time and ball possession.

When Harden first arrived at the Thunder, he played the same bench, and he played for three whole years.

Although the current Harden is one place ahead of the rank because of Wang Xiao, it is not much different from another time and space in the Thunder in other aspects.

"Okay, coach, I'm happy to play on the bench."

Faced with Wang Xiao's conditions, Harden was thrilled.

Although he is a substitute, it is not a bad thing to be able to play more than 30 minutes per game and have the ball in hand.

"Good." Wang Xiao nodded with satisfaction, and then remembered something. "But don't forget our rules in training, you have to shoot more than half of your shots to three-pointers, and you have to make sure you hit the field."

"No problem, Coach!"

Harden nodded fiercely.

Curry played the starter, and Harden was the backup, and in this way, the tone of the team was set.

When Curry is on the court, the team's tactics will revolve around Curry, and when Harden is on the court, the ball is transferred to Harden, on the one hand, to share the pressure for Curry, and on the other hand, to allow the strong Harden to play.

Wang Xiao didn't know how effective this arrangement was, no matter what tactics could only be verified in actual combat.

On October 25, 2009, in the final round of preseason, the Wizards played at home against the Phoenix Suns.

It's a head-to-head game.

The Suns have been in turmoil in the past two years, with consecutive losses in the playoffs causing D'Antoni to leave his class, and the departure of Marion and others has weakened the team's firepower again and again.

Even so, the Suns are still one of the strongest teams in the West, and as long as Nash is around, this team will be the most flashy offensive team in the league, not to mention an All-Star power forward Stoudemire.

Steve. Nash is recognized as a master of passing, with a sharp offense, wide vision, and gorgeous passing, even if he is rated as the best point guard in NBA history, Nash can definitely be on the list, although he does not have championship honors, he has two regular season MVP trophies.

It is extremely difficult for a point guard to win the MVP trophy in the NBA, and only Magic Johnson has done it before Nash to win the MVP for two consecutive years, and only Curry has started Curry's state after Nash.

As strong as Kidd, he has never won the regular season MVP trophy in his life.

Of course, Kidd's failure to win the MVP trophy has a lot to do with luck to a certain extent, and in his strongest years, the opponents competing for MVP were O'Neal and Allen at the peak. Iverson, Tim. Duncan and Kevin. Garnett, although Kidd's performance is no weaker than these superstars, the team's record is relatively worse than in the end, and he can only be helpless.

Nash of the MVP duo is strong, but compared to Kidd, he has a fatal flaw - weak defense.

Nash's defensive weakness isn't the same as Curry's.

Although it is always said that Curry has a poor defense and is the weakest of the Warriors' starters, if you take Curry out of the Warriors and compare it with all the starting point guards of the 30 teams in the league, you will find that his defensive ability can be in the middle and upper reaches of the 30 starting point guards.

The reason why Curry gives people a feeling of weak defense is only because his teammates are so strong defensively that many team stars will selectively hit Curry through blocking and dislocation once they face the Warriors.

Nash is different, his defense is really weak, even if it is placed at the bottom of all the point guards of the 30 teams in the league.

So from the very beginning of this game, the two sides entered into a confrontation.

The rhythm of both sides is very fast, Nash can't guard Curry, and Curry can't keep an eye on Nash.

But while fighting, Nash felt that something was wrong.

Although both sides are playing run-and-gun tactics, most of their side uses breakthrough points to hand over the ball to Aldridge and others to attack the basket, while on the Wizards' side, it is Curry who frequently uses the interior center to block and pull out space to shoot three points.

After a few rounds, the Suns, who had a good shooting percentage, were actually behind in the score, and before the first quarter of the game was over, the Wizards had already made 12 three-point shots!

Curry made 5 of 6 three-pointers, Jamison made 1 of 3, Green made 1 of 2 and Butler made 1 of 1!

With just three points, the Wizards scored 24 points in the first quarter!

At the end of the first quarter, the Wizards scored 34 points in a single quarter, comprehensively suppressing the Suns, who scored 29 points.

Immediately following the second quarter, the lineups of the two sides rotated significantly, and Harden Beverley and others on the Wizards' side came on the court.

The Suns, who thought that the Wizards' offensive rhythm would slow down, were shocked to find that the offensive rhythm of these guys was even more exaggerated than in the first quarter.

Harden, who has a lot of balls, constantly uses the breakthrough to impact the basket and then divide the ball, and the Wizards' three-point rain has no idea of stopping.

By the end of the half, the Wizards had made 23 three-pointers, and although their three-point shooting percentage in the second quarter had decreased, they still scored 28 points, and the gap between the two teams widened by five points instead of narrowing, and the margin widened to double digits.

In the face of Nash's weak oppressive defense, Curry felt quite good, how to shoot, and several times to break through with the ball and force Nash alone.

Curry's highlight-reel performance surprised the Suns and even began to make Jason, who was better defensive, a better defender. Richardson came to switch to Curry.

But Curry, who was already feeling hot, couldn't stop it at all.

In the third quarter of the game, Curry shot 4 of 7 and 2 of 5 three-pointers, scoring 10 points in a single quarter, and a total of 39 points in the third quarter!

In the fourth quarter, Curry did not play again because the scores of the two teams were no longer in suspense.

In the third quarter of the game, the difference between the two teams has widened to more than 20 points, and because it is a preseason, the Suns have no intention of catching up, and directly replaced all the main players to let the substitutes go on the court for exercise.

Wang Xiao also replaced the substitute players, and the two sides ended the fourth quarter tepidly.

Curry's performance in this game amazed many people, scoring 39 points in the third quarter, shooting 9 of 15 three-pointers in the whole game, and the shooting rate was as high as 60%.

After the game, Nash described Curry in an interview, "He's like he has a scope attached, and he's outrageously accurate." ”

Curry's performance of 39 points in the third quarter occupied the headlines of major sports newspapers that day, and many people were surprised, they didn't expect this skinny kid to have such a strong scoring ability.

But surprise to surprise, many Wizards fans are still on the sidelines.

After all, this is only a preseason game, winning or losing is meaningless, and the regular season is the real battleground for NBA players.

And with the final round of preseason games over, the NBA regular season is finally here!