Chapter 17: The Knicks' Classic Car

If there was one team that was the most annoying in the 90s, apart from the Pistons' bad boy legion, I'm sure many would vote for the New York Knicks and the Miami Heat. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 infoThese two teams are in the same vein, they are all teams brought out by Pat Riley, and they are the same in their bones, the reason why they are annoying is not only because of the tough defense and slightly fierce style of play, but also because under the guidance of Pat Riley, the offensive rhythm of these two teams is outrageously slow, and the number of offensive rounds is the best in the league, it is like a classic car running on the F1 track, and this feeling is especially obvious when some talented young teams meet them, The pace of young people is always getting faster and faster, and when you encounter a Knick who is quite unreasonably slow, he can almost force the other party to commit suicide, so as to win easily.

Undoubtedly, the current Pistons are a team full of young talent, and despite the bad boys, they are much worse than the old Knicks in small and easy movements, and not long after the start of the second quarter, the Pistons found themselves in the mire of the Knicks.

The Knicks' offense played too smoothly in the first quarter, but Van Gundy didn't choose to play like this, after all, it's not his style, and it's not the Knicks' style. As a result, Van Gundy waved his hand, and the team's offensive rhythm instantly dropped by half, like a Cadillac that was about to be scrapped.

Both sides came off the bench, but each had a starter with them, with Jerry Stackhouse on the Pistons' side and Larry Johnson on the Knicks' side. Although Johnson, who is now older, still has the strength of a starter, in terms of function, he is now more inclined to be a "3D" player more than ten years later, coupled with a good passing organization, Van Gundy is now more used to lead the second team.

It stands to reason that the Pistons have a top offensive player like Jerry Stackhouse, and the Knicks' Johnson is dying, and the Pistons' offense should be to press the Knicks, but it is a different scene on the court.

Jerry Stackhouse leans on the Knicks' defenders, he always keeps an eye on Johnson's movements, after all, Johnson's weight can be said to be the biggest nemesis of his back ability, if Johnson comes to change the defense, then he has to give up his best offensive means and switch to a face frame offense. Seeing that Johnson did not change the defense, Stackhouse relieved himself and began to hit the Knicks players with his back hard.

Starkerhouse's back-to-back shots aren't dashing, but they're elegant. Stackhouse leaned on the opponent, hit the opponent twice with a hard "poof", and then directly turned over and jumped in an almost drifting way, and the whole person floated directly backwards, while adjusting his posture and shooting as if he was sleeping on the air.

With a bang, Stackhouse scored two points with his swift turnaround jumper.

The Knicks turned back to attack, and they quickly educated Stackhouse and taught him how the court boss played.

Johnson took a pass from Charles, shielded the ball at the free-throw line, and glanced around. The Knicks players began to keep running, involved, but Johnson just didn't pass the ball for a long time, and gradually, after 20 seconds, Johnson's eyes suddenly lit up, looked at Dudley under the basket, lifted the ball, and then, in full view, shot.

Although Johnson's shot seemed a little hasty and weird, the arc of the ball was very good, and the Pistons players were a little dumbfounded, I ran so desperately for a long time, you just held the ball there and didn't move, and in the end you shot directly, have you considered my feelings? Ever considered your teammates' feelings?

Johnson has clearly taken into account the feelings of his teammates, but it is also clear that he has not considered the feelings of his opponents.

The Pistons attacked again, and the ball was still handed to Stackhouse. Stackhouse may have been annoyed by Johnson's performance in the last goal, but this time he actually learned Johnson, controlled the ball, and kept wandering around the flank.

However, there is one thing he didn't think clearly, the defense of the Pistons and the Knicks is not on the same level, if it was the Pistons and the Knicks back then, they might really have a defensive battle, but now there will never be such a situation, how can the Pistons, who lack defensive passion, be the opponent of the Knicks.

Just when Stackhouse kept dribbling to consume time, the Knicks players began to shrink gradually, after a look of contact, the lightning flashed, the Knicks' defense moved, Kurt Thomas opened his hands to block Stackhouse's passing route and quickly stepped forward, Charles left the defender and rushed up from behind, the three surrounded Stackhouse in the middle, Charles moved his position slightly, blocking the referee's sight, Thomas directly put down his black hand, one elbow against Stackhouse's chest, and at the same time cut off both hands, Snatched the ball directly, Charles launched a fast attack, when the Knicks entered the mode of slow-paced offense and high-pressure defense, the fast break became the Knicks' most effective scoring method, Charles did not pause, a dragon layup.

Starkhouse, who was bullied by the three of them, was a little angry, constantly complaining to the referee, and at the same time he walked towards the Knicks players, his eyes were red, as if he was going to make some moves, that is, at this time, he suddenly felt that someone behind him bumped him, and when he looked back, it was Johnson, Starkerhouse immediately lost his voice, and Larry Johnson's prestige was really played.

The Knicks' offense like grinding soy milk made the Pistons go berserk, and the Pistons had to change the main force in advance, trying to rely on Hill and Starhouse's two-gun firepower to restrain the opponent, but the Pistons forgot that there was also a pair of two-gun combinations on the opposite side.

With four minutes left in the first half, the Knicks returned to the court with two guns, along with the inside twin towers of Mo Xi and Camby, but the Knicks' offensive rhythm was still very stable, so stable that people thought it was ten old men on the court.

There was good news for the Pistons, who seemed to find their shooting touch after a flurry of shots in the first quarter, missing just one shot in the second quarter and incurring several fouls. However, relatively speaking, Houston also has a good hand, shooting two from three-point range, and has only conceded two shots so far. But the gap between the two sides began to show in the others, as in the first quarter, the rest of the Pistons struggled to score, and the Knicks' firepower spread all over the court, even a center like Camby, who had a very single offensive approach.

In the third quarter, the Pistons were completely beaten, and they were once led by 20 points.

Mo Xi didn't get too many opportunities to shoot in the future, although in such an offensive system, Mo Xi's interior offensive ability is very important, but in this game, the whole Knicks team seems to be obsessed with assists, and everyone began to brush up their own assists. However, Rao is like this, Mo Xi still gave another wonderful goal.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, it was almost garbage time, and the Pistons' spirit was beaten without a trace, and Mo Xi actually began to practice with the opponent.

Mo Xi received the ball in the low position on the right side, and the opponent seemed to want to scramble, his body pressed forward slightly, leaned on Mo Xi's body, and stretched out his hand to try to steal.

Mo Xi felt the pressure behind him, pushed back hard, and hit the opponent's backward half of the body, the other party who was already pressing forward with the center of gravity was hit by Mo Xi's solid force, and actually fell directly to the ground, Mo Xi turned around, avoided the person who came forward to assist in the bottom corner, and waved lightly, and threw a hook hand with a small arc, hit.

The center of the piston looked at Mo Xi on his head in vain, and his outstretched hands seemed to be grasping the non-existent iron chain on Mo Xi's body, trying to lock the other party on the ground, but Mo Xi broke free.

Rarely, Mo Xi knocked his opponent to the ground. After two high-intensity matches, Mo Xi began to adjust to the new physical confrontation feeling, and although he was still very young, Mo Xi's power in the low post gradually exploded.

The goal seemed to bring some signals, the Pistons called a timeout, replaced the bench players, and so did the Knicks, and the game went into garbage time.

Yes, the Pistons double-shot Stackhouse scored 30 points, 11-of-16 shooting, 8-of-9 free throws, Grant Hill also scored 23 points, but the shooting percentage was low, only 44%, and the rest of the Pistons, only Lynch Hunter and Jerome Williams scored double-doubles, and other than that, no one scored more than six points.

On the Knicks' side, Houston, who bet before the game, still lost in the end, and after scoring 29 points, everyone resolutely did not pass the ball to Houston under Johnson's reminder, but Houston's score stayed at 29 points, and the shooting rate was a suffocating 10 of 13 shots, and the Knicks also scored five other double-doubles, which revealed the gap between the two sides at once.

The Knicks won a big victory in Detroit and flew to Cleveland that night, intending to take the Cavaliers.