Chapter 20: Instant Collapse
People are not iron after all, the first quarter of the mighty Mo Xi had to sit off the court to rest after playing a full quarter of the game, with the increase in weight, Mo Xi's physical consumption gradually increased, not to mention that in the first quarter Mo Xi did not rest at all, probably the entire second quarter he will not play, after all, the Knicks are still not short of centers, although Van Gundy often manipulates the players, but also clearly, after all, Mo Xi is not yet 23 years old, and he is still not strong enough to play the whole court like Barkley, It is estimated that in two years it will be about the same. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
In the second quarter, the Knicks came off the bench with a semi-bench lineup of Camby, Kurt Thomas, Johnson, Houston and Charles. In the second lineup of the two sides, the Knicks' interior line is not dominant, after all, in the Knicks, the only people who really have trustworthy interior offensive ability are Mo Xi and Ewing, Johnson can be counted as half, and the others are far more defensive than offensive.
On the Bucks' side, all three musketeers were off, and it was Danny Manning who came on. As the champion of '88, Manning was expected by countless people at the beginning, and his performance did not live up to people's expectations. The star player of Kansas, he is a more orthodox forward, with quite skilled mid-range shooting skills, and more flexible offensive range in the face of the basket.
As the champion, Danny Manning is under a lot of pressure, he can be regarded as the peak of his debut, he can get 16+6 data in his rookie season, but after several years, his data is so stable, according to the trajectory of history, when he was traded to the Clippers in the future, it was the peak of his career, and the average of 22+10 data per game also allowed him to be selected as an All-Star. Many people feel that he is very similar to Mo Xi in a sense, with strong firepower, defense above the horizontal line, and weak rebounding. Therefore, there is one thing that the Knicks must pay attention to, Manning's offensive ability, and everyone who can become the champion has his uniqueness.
Manning got a chance to play a high singles by transferring the ball, with his back to Thomas, he directly made a sigma turn, the face frame attacked, the whole person made a three-threat posture, held the ball and shook it a little, and changed directly at the speed that Thomas couldn't react to, first moved sideways, opened up a little space and then broke through the line, Thomas followed on the side, but he couldn't do effective interference, so he had to hope for Camby's supplemental defense.
But Manning is so experienced, especially the little ghosts who only entered the league after 95 can be thoughtful, Manning doesn't look tall, very flexible at his feet, suddenly made a sharp stop, shook Thomas, and hit a half-volley with a steady shot.
In the first half of the second quarter, Manning single-handedly suppressed the rhythm of the Knicks' interior line, fortunately, Johnson and Sprewell's firepower was also strong, and the score gap was maintained, but halfway through the second quarter, the Bucks three-gunner returned to the court, and Van Gundy hurriedly replaced the double guns to resist, but without the containment of the interior line, coupled with Manning's existence, it can be said that the situation was reversed.
The Bucks warmed up in the first quarter and were on fire in the second quarter, with Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson hitting three-pointers one after another, and the two kept crossing each other's positions. In this regard, the strength of the Bucks and the Knicks can be said to be equal, but the Bucks have another Casal, and in point guard, Casal has suppressed Ward and Charles.
Although Casal relies on his championship status and often fires recklessly, he is indeed very strong, and now he has switched back to Ward against Casal, who used Manning's cover to break through to the waist position, and passed directly to Glenn Robinson on the outside.
Robinson has a big height advantage against Houston, he dribbles a step inside, and then shoots directly at Houston's head, Houston can't interfere, and Camby can't step forward to make up for it because he is watching Casal's movement on the other side, Robinson easily hits a mid-range shot.
Under Casal's threading of the needle, the Bucks gradually caught up with the score, and at halftime, the Bucks trailed by only one point at 49:50.
Van Gundy breathed a sigh of relief, playing at home was the most torturous for a young coach like him who had little results, and could even be booed by the fans. But what he didn't expect was that the Knicks' nightmare was not over, or rather, the Bucks had already opened.
At the beginning of the second half of the game, the Bucks did not make personnel adjustments, after all, even if Manning was on the court, it would only be a situation where he and Mo Xi exploded, and they would lose the advantage of offensive rebounds, but the Knicks put Johnson on the bench in order to make up for this shortcoming, and replaced it with a comparable to protect the backcourt rebounds.
Soon, however, Van Gundy realized that his substitutions didn't seem to have had much effect. It seems that the Bucks have adapted to the Knicks' defensive rhythm, or rather, in the point guard position, the Knicks are brutally suppressed.
The rhythm of the game was completely out of Ward's control, Casal forcibly accelerated the pace of the game, not only when the Bucks attacked, but also on the Knicks' side, Casal switched to the half-court pressing method to force the Knicks to play the ball quickly, whether it was passing, shooting, the Knicks were twice as fast as the Bucks.
George Karl's fast-break tactical system was also able to be fully played in such a rhythm, the Bucks players were non-stop all over the court, and the shot was missed, and the inside Red did not take off the rebound, but directly pointed out the rebound, Casal grabbed the ball and handed the long pass directly to Ray Allen, Ray Allen showed a strong explosiveness at this time, instantly threw off Sprewell, an acceleration, and went straight to the Knicks inside, and the Knicks chased back with all the members, but everyone could only eat Ray Allen's exhaust in the back.
Ray Allen soared into the air and clasped his hands violently. Many people don't know now that the reason why Ray Allen is considered one of the most typical shooters of that era is because the best shooters at that time didn't just shoot threes, such as Ray Allen, who had "deer-like calves" when he was young and participated in the slam dunk contest. In fact, many famous shooters, or people who are good at shooting three-point shots, their dunks are also a must, such as "Lei Gong", and now the demigod who is in the middle of the day, UFO, Vincent Carter.
The Knicks are very uncomfortable in such a rhythm, because of the teamwork and discipline required by Van Gundy, the Knicks try to reduce the tempo as much as possible, although for the current situation, the Knicks can have the power to fight with the other party even if they speed up the pace, but Ward still faithfully chose to implement the coach's arrangement, indifferently, which is also because Ward is really a little powerless in the face of Casal.
In desperation, the Knicks had to hope for Moxi's inside singles. George Karl has laid out a tight defensive strategy for him, the core is not to let him receive the ball in the low post, thinking that in the position away from the basket, the Bucks' three-forward combination can keep up with Mo Xi, but it is difficult to defend because of the height difference.
After receiving the ball, Mo Xi also turned directly into a face frame attack, without unnecessary shaking, Mo Xi used his explosive power to directly pass the opponent in one step and kill to the middle line.
Unexpectedly, this was a defensive trap for the Bucks, Manning, who came on the bench, and Robinson stepped forward directly to clamp Mo Xi, this time it didn't give Mo Xi the slightest chance to react, Mo Xi desperately wanted to pass the ball, but it was intercepted by Robinson, and the Bucks were a fast attack.
Robinson passes Ray Allen, Ray Allen passes Casal, Casal hits a three-pointer from a fast break, every hit. But Manning, who was following him, jumped straight ahead of Spreville and made a dunk.
The Bucks are too fast, and the scramble is too fierce, which is also the reason why the Rockets, who are sitting on the inside, are losing, the Rockets are too old, or rather, the current centers are too old.
The third quarter ended with a lot of viewers looking at them with an unfinished eye, and even as an opponent, you have to admit that the Bucks played basketball well, and such a dazzling basketball has not been seen in the East for many years. At the end of the third quarter, the Knicks lost their lead and trailed the Bucks by a wide margin.
Van Gundy had a faint sweat on his head, and he knew that, in a sense, the game was lost, definitely because his coach lost to George Karl on the technical side, whether it was the reaction or layout of the game, he was a mess, and he only hoped that the Knicks' resilience could come back in the fourth quarter.