The Knicks once again defeated their arch-rival Heat in the seventh game of life and death and went to Indiana with a big victory. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThis is another old rival for many years, and to tell the truth, in recent years, the situation in the East has almost been these teams competing against each other, except for the occasional dark horse team, like Magic, at other times, there are very few teams that can really threaten the Eastern championship position.

At this moment, dragging a tired body, the New York Knicks and his party descended on Indiana. It's just that unlike the New York media's portrayal of the Knicks' morale is high and the situation is very good, the Knicks' coaching staff is frowning.

After playing Game 7 with the Heat, the Knicks rushed to Indiana non-stop, at this moment, all the players were sleeping on the back of their chairs, and even the usually noisy and happy Sprewell and Ward were silent at the moment, but Camby and Thomas were snoring louder.

In the position before the Knicks rested, the entire Knicks coaching staff, including the team doctor, was talking in a low and rapid voice.

"Jeff, Pat's knee can't keep him in this playoff tournament, otherwise it's going to be like last season." The team medic frowned and admonished Van Gundy.

In the routine physical examination of the players after last night's game, the people of the medical team found that Ewing's knee injury began to show signs of recurrence, and even the ankle that was injured last season now has some minor problems.

Van Gundy almost collapsed after learning the news, it is true that now in the Knicks team, Ewing is no longer the team's scoring champion, the first is now Sprewell, not even the second, the second is Houston, Ewing and Johnson and Mo Xi are tied for third with 12 points, but the meaning and energy brought by Ewing on the mental level of the Knicks is still irreplaceable at this stage, and, in terms of technical and tactical level, without Ewing's low-post defensive support, the Knicks will not go far, not to mention, After getting past the Pacers, if the Knicks can really beat the Pacers, who can withstand the onslaught of O'Neal and A.C. Green or Sabonis partnering Rasheed Wallace in the Finals? Just with the rest of Larry Johnson? Marcus Camby? Kurt Thomas? Or is it a pity that the defense is still not good?

At this time, the assistant coaching staff also came to a very bad conclusion for the Knicks, according to the Knicks' current physical state and competitive state, if Ewing can't play, at least the first game can be characterized as a waiver, and maybe the second game can barely slow down.

The assistant coaches' summary embarrassed the medical team, and in their opinion, at least in the first game, the Knicks could have tried to put Ewing in the injury rotation, and it would be better to cut some playing time for Camby and Johnson, the two Knicks' main rotation lineups who also have injury concerns.

Van Gundy was very annoyed at this time, the plan can never catch up with the change, originally the Knicks came to Indiana with a seven-life victory, mentally speaking, the Knicks at this time were in an invincible state as at this time last season, but he never expected that the same as the possible injury of the main general.

"Is there no other way? According to the current state, in fact, we are not without a chance to win the first game, and the odds are very high! Van Gundy's voice is a little hoarse, New Yorkers have always been nitpicky, always want to go further, but Van Gundy himself knows that wanting to go further, whether it is himself or the Knicks at this stage, is almost a fantasy.

Everyone was silent, what a déjà vu this situation was! Last year was almost the same time, and the Knicks were also the way they are now, facing the Pacers when they were at the peak of their spirits, but the power of will failed to overcome the fragility of the body, and the Knicks lost generals one after another, and no one can remember how the Knicks survived at that time, it was really a dark time.

"Perhaps," a slightly hesitant voice rang out, "we can try to extract Ewing's knee fluid." It was a young Knicks team doctor who spoke, and everyone was looking at him in silence, as if waiting for the next step, but it seemed to be something else. (Actually, it really hurts your knee, and the doctor will always tell you it's okay, but in fact, from the moment you pull out the first tube, you really completely destroy your knee)

The young doctor seemed to have agreed with his idea, so he was going to say happily: "We don't need more, after all, Ewing is only in danger of injury now, not a serious injury, and I think three to four tubes will be enough for him to get back on the field." ”

Before he could finish speaking, a pair of red eyes had forced back his next words, and Van Gundy said hysterically and loudly: "Who gave you this right to ruin the future of my players!" (In the early 2000s, the technology in this area was very underdeveloped, and even now, the treatment on this kind of mat is much better, otherwise there would not be so many tragedies of Roy, Rose, and Oden, look at Embiid, he can still play with such an injury in a row, the first three were scrapped at one time, and even Wade didn't resist.) ）

The young doctor who was yelled at had a somewhat muttering voice, and he seemed to be a little afraid to face Van Gundy's anger, and whispered in defense: "He is thirty-eight years old, he is not young anymore, and we don't even know when he will retire......"

As a coach, he is extremely young at the age of thirty-eight, but as a basketball player, at the age of thirty-eight, this is almost an age that can be recuperated, even in the position of center.

For a moment, there was an eerie silence in the cabin.

"I think he has a point," a deep voice sounded behind the hatch, and everyone was startled, and they hurriedly looked back, and found that Ewing had woken up and was leaning against the door to look at them. Ewing took a few steps forward, came to the front of the coaching staff, and said with his 10,000-year-old orangutan face: "I don't have a few years left to play, at most two years, I'm going to retire, and before that, I only have one last thing left in my heart, Jeff, you know what this is!" ”

Ewing didn't use an honorific title, but talked to Van Gundy like a friend, in terms of the time when the two entered the league, Ewing was still before Van Gundy, and Van Gundy entered the league for a while, followed Pat Riley to New York and became an assistant coach of the Knicks, which is how he and Ewing met.

Van Gundy was also a little excited, and he said: "It's because I know that I don't want to do this, and once you start to draw fluid, it means that you're going to do it until the playoffs are over, have you forgotten last year?" Don't you want to be on the last stage again? ”

Ewing frowned and said, "I know all of this" Ewing's tone was inexplicably a little lower, and he said: "In fact, I have thought more than once, if I hadn't been injured at the beginning, would the result be different, to be honest, I really don't know this answer, Simmons put forward a point of view for me, although it has not been completely sorted out and published in the newspaper, but I almost know, as a leading star, it is generally overrated by the media, but it has not brought imaginary changes to the team, But when I was hampered by injuries and foul troubles, the team had an amazing performance, and every word was right and to the point. With a wry smile on his face, Ewing continued, "Maybe that's true, but even so, I'm past that grumpy age, and all I want is victory. ”

Van Gundy hesitated a little and said, "By doing this, your burden will actually be greater, you know?" ”

Ewing nodded slowly.

Van Gundy added: "Then you might really not be able to play in the last few games because of a knee injury, and in fact I'm ready to put you on the injury list first. Van Gundy's decision was actually very decisive, and after hearing about Ewing's injury concerns, he had already planned not to let Ewing play, and the impromptu meeting on the plane was just to see if there was anything else that could be done.

Ewing heard that there was some silence here, and hesitated for a moment, but it was still slow, trembling, with a little unwillingness, he nodded gently, and he said softly: "I have blocked all of my own, and it is not bad for these, I still have a chance." The voice of this sentence was very small, very small, light as a withered yellow willow leaf swept by the wind, but, amazingly, everyone in this cabin could hear it clearly.

Van Gundy didn't know what to say, or he knew that no matter what he said, at the moment, he probably couldn't change the big man's determination.

"Two tubes" Van Gundy stretched out two fingers and said to Ewing: "You can only draw up to two tubes, and your playing time must be strictly suppressed to thirty minutes, not even one second." ”

Ewing grinned, revealing a smile that he thought was festive.

"Alright, put away your annoying smile, now, let's go to the plane and go back to bed, we're two hours before we get to Indiana, and I don't want you to end up falling out of lack of sleep."

But none of them noticed that there was a man near the door who had not fallen asleep with his eyes open.

Van Gundy's idea is not wrong, the Knicks' momentum is too strong, amazingly strong, burning people's eyes, but what he never expected was that there would be such a big gap between himself and Larry Bird, the Knicks still lost in the first game, 98:102 This can be said to be one of the few games in the Eastern Conference playoffs where the two sides combined for a total score of more than 200, in this game, Ewing, who had removed fluid from his knees, continued his heroic performance in the previous game and cut 20+9, Sprewell scored a game-high 22 points, and even Mo Xi didn't know why, as if he was desperate, crazy to get 18 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and two blocks of amazing performances, the Knicks scored five double-doubles, which is completely a continuation of their previous performance in Miami.

It's a pity that their brilliant performances are completely overshadowed by one person.

Even if he can become a coach from a player, Larry Bird is also accustomed to turning himself into the most eye-catching guy, this game Pacers played the most pleasing game of this era, the highest score was Kristen Orlenhill's 22 points, the team of six scored double-doubles, and the murderous three-point shot even reached 10 of 15, although the opposite Knicks also had a "miracle" of 11 shots and 6 shots, but in this performance can only be regarded as a mortal work, What made the Indiana people feel the most enthusiastic was that the Pacers were completely pressing the Knicks from beginning to end in the whole game, and the whole team had 32 assists, while the Knicks only had 16, which was exactly twice as many as the Knicks.

In this game, the Knicks lost in disgrace, and the proud defense was actually solved by the Pacers with a few passes so lightly, Van Gundy gritted his teeth, he was not hating Larry Bird, but hating himself, his players had done everything to win, but he was still taking it for granted, and it was precisely because of his problems at the tactical level that the Knicks lost a good game, which made him calm down.

However, he soon had to calm down.

Ewing had an issue of extracting fluid from his knee at a speed that no one expected, and before the second game, Ewing suddenly collapsed in the tunnel of the players, and after a brief treatment by the team doctor, it was already fully confirmed that Ewing had an old injury and missed all the remaining playoffs.

For a moment, the sky over New York was gloomy.

In this game, Van Gundy continued to experiment with new offensive and defensive tactics, and sent all twelve people on the court to try it out, and he was slightly relieved that this time the Pacers only had fourteen assists, three less than the Knicks, and the Pacers' score dropped to less than 90 points, although the Knicks still lost the game in the end, but at least the Knicks retained a glimmer of hope for a comeback.

After the Knicks returned to their home court, the Knicks double-shot Sprewell and Alan Houston teamed up with Mo Xi to score 84 points, 98-94, and forcibly helped the Knicks turn one game back at home, bringing the overall score to 1-2. It's just that the good news wasn't encouraging, as Camby was also injured in this game, and the Knicks were almost in a state of collapse.

All this seems to really respond to that sentence, life and death, reincarnation is not endless. The Knicks are back to last year, and it's the same situation again, and this time, will the Knicks be able to get through it?