As the Knicks' second team began to reap the endgame, the Pistons couldn't help but chuckle in their hearts, they really have a feeling that I haven't worked hard yet, and then I'm going down.

From a certain point of view, this is also the reason why the Knicks can break through at the end of the season and not taste defeat, the playoff teams are busy with the card game, even if there are really tactics against the Knicks, no one intends to use it on such an occasion, the team that can enter the playoffs, even if it sounds good, but in the end, which team is really distracted about the championship and does not want to fight, then the invincible New York Knicks in front of him is everyone's imaginary enemy. And the rest of the teams really can't beat the Knicks, and the Knicks' pure bench lineup really has the ability to wrestle with their starters.

The Knicks' second team quickly stretched the margin to 15 points, and the Pistons had to call a timeout and switch the starting lineup to the court early. The Pistons are already third in the East, the Nets are seven wins less than them, and the second-place Pacers have eight more wins than them.

The Knicks' bench is strong, but not strong enough to match the Pistons' starting five, unless these attackers are bursting. Coupled with the fact that the defense of these people was too scummy, the Pistons quickly pulled the score back to within 10 points.

Faced with such a scene, George Karl is also very troubled, happy troubles, he knows that in such a situation, the Knicks don't even need to replace all the starters, he just needs to put Mo Xi back on the court, and replace one or two defenders, and the situation on the court of the Knicks will be well changed. However, George Karl hesitated for a long time and gave up on this option, it is important to ensure the victory of this game, but the playoffs are about to begin, and it is more important to ensure the condition and health of the star of the house.

As the founder of the Flying Group, George Carr's response was simple and brutal, one that was to bomb indiscriminately.

Replaced by two power-type blue-collar interior lines, Nazr Mohammed and Reggie Evans, plus Sprewell, the Knicks instantly changed from the original light cavalry to the heavy tank mode.

Defense, rebounding, fast break counterattack.

George Karl's unique defensive counter-attacking fast-break tactics benefited from the Knicks' foundation, and now they are beginning to take shape, and the Knicks and Pistons maintained an eight-point gap until the final game of the first half.

At halftime, the Knicks led the Pistons by nine points at 50:41.

On the way back to the away locker room, George Carter called Moxi to the end of the team and said to him solemnly: "Hey, big man, you know, the playoffs are about to start, it's important to keep you fit, but I need you to stay healthy, and I don't really want you to play in the final quarter." “

Mo Xi looked down at George Carr, because of the light, George Carr couldn't see the expression on Mo Xi's face, he could only hear the voice coming from overhead. It was a slightly helpless, but somewhat interesting voice

"Okay, you're the boss, you have the final say."

At the beginning of the second half of the game, as soon as he came up, Daben felt a burst of malice coming to his face, and this feeling seemed familiar. Every year when he plays against the big fat man in the West, and against the Knicks in April and May, he feels this familiar malice countless times.

Big Ben frantically greeted the father's spouse and his family who had made the playoffs come early.

It's the regular season!

Just as Big Ben roared in his heart, Mo Xi took a light cross step and turned around to pass Big Ben.

Although Big Ben kept complaining in his heart, he was not slow on his feet at all, but what he didn't expect was that there was Ratliff pulling up early behind him to cover, which is an ability that Rashid Wallace does not have.

The Pistons quickly changed defenses, but just as Rashid Wallace was familiar with Rashid, Rashid was also very familiar with Rashid Wallace, and Rashid had already started, and after Rashid's already dominant figure broke through two steps, he turned around again, this time completely blocking Rashid Wallace behind him, and a one-handed split dunk, and pressed the two points firmly.

Fortunately, Big Ben has long been accustomed to being wreaked havoc by these super centers with various skills. No matter how strong a defender is, there will always be an inherent disadvantage when facing offensive players. Defenders need to be fully focused on every ball, even every second, but even so, it is sometimes difficult to stop the will of God and the flash of genius.

The Pistons wanted to continue to tear the hole from the No. 1 position, and Ben, who was not good at words, tried to stop it, but it was too late. As a direct opponent, he is the first person to feel the state of Mo Xi, and in the current state, Mo Xi has entered a state of invincible blessing not only on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end.

Billups easily got past Jason Williams, and at the same time used Prince's cover to get rid of Sprewell, who came over to make up the defense, and then, and then felt that his hand was light, and the basketball was gone. Mo Xi didn't know why it appeared on his side, and cut the ball directly.

Billups's brain was blank at this time, you know, he also expected that Mo Xi would come out to make up for this ball, so he chose a stop-and-go jump shot early to avoid being blocked by the Knicks' two big inside lines under the basket, but who expected that Mo Xi did not wait for him to come in under the basket, but chose to come to him. After all, he was able to dodge the first year of junior high school, but he couldn't dodge fifteen, Billups's ball was cut off, and the Knicks made a quick attack.

Mo Xi gradually began to enter the rhythm of singles, under the arrangement of George Carr, everyone in the Knicks has a clear tactical thinking, Mo Xi's singles are not only singles, but also a tactical single, no matter what the situation, what the rest of the Knicks have to do is to create a single space for Mo Xi, so as not to let Mo Xi fall into the situation of being surrounded by multiple people when trying to play alone.

Just as George Karl expected, the game was completely over with two minutes left in the third quarter, and the Pistons looked confused, and it can even be said that they were inexplicably beaten by Mo Xi to score a single quarter of 20 points, this is a center, or the kind of pure two-point and two-point chiseled center.

At the end of the third quarter, the Knicks led the Pistons by 21 points at 81:60.

At this point, Larry Brown gritted his teeth and chose to swallow this loss, he was not stubborn enough to win the last game of the regular season, although this loss is a bit ugly, but the Pistons are a team that aims to win the championship.

Larry Brown kept comforting himself with this sentence, and he also kept comforting the rest of the Pistons with this sentence, while silently replacing the bench players, and this kind of meaningless game was given to the Knicks, we just need to win the game in June.

With the Pistons constantly self-consoling, the final game of the 2003-2004 regular season was over.

Although the major awards have not yet come out, the Knicks, or Mo Xi, are obviously the most dazzling one. Averaged 39.7 minutes per game, scored 30.1 points, a full 2.1 points higher than the second-place Maddy, and 14 rebounds, just 0.1 more, but others such as blocks and assists, because of the help of Ratliff and Jason Williams, are not conspicuous, only averaging 1.9 blocks and 2.1 assists per game, and on these two lists, as the Knicks' two most successful signings in the offseason, Latlif is crazy and ranks first on the block list with 3.6 blocks, while Jason Williams is thanks to the Knicks' offensive system, squeezing Nash in the assist list and ranking among the top three.

Although the Knicks are in the most critical period of opening up a dynasty this season, they have to fall into the situation of alternating between the old and the new, especially in the No. 3 position, in order to cultivate Anthony, Houston took the initiative to reduce his playing time, and Sprewell shared his own not much playing time, giving more time to young people, his average time per game this season is just in his early twenties, and his scoring is only in single digits.

The same is true for Arenas, who was given a lot of playing time by Jason Williams, and he can only steal some playing time from the second position, although he is still the favorite for the best sixth man, but it is obviously much worse than last season, but fortunately, Arenas is really a training maniac, and now he is very close to his peak, and he can still average more than 15 points per game with nearly ten minutes less than last season.

As for the main figure who triggered this series of changes, Carmelo Anthony, although he is called a substitute, can average more than 25 minutes per game, but it is still inferior to James, who averages 20 points per game, and he only has 17 points.

For Knicks players, except for Mo Xi, everyone else may have more or less shrunk in statistics, but once people look at the team, they will find that the Knicks are a headache.

New York Knicks, in the 2003-2004 season, scored 68 wins, and won all at home, averaging 112.1 points per game, the second-ranked Mavericks scored only 105 points, not the Mavericks' low score, in fact, this season counting the Knicks, there are only three teams with an average of more than 100 points per game, Knicks, Mavericks and Kings, but these three teams are by no means offensive without defense, their average net difference per game is also more than five points, and even the Knicks reached 8.9 points.

In addition, another place circled by coaches with a red pen is the three-point shot, with an average shooting rate of 36.6% per game, tied for third with the Rockets, this data is far less than the 40% of the Kings who are ranked first, but they can't stand the fact that there are always some frustrated coaches in the world who keenly find the core problem in it, the Knicks do not have top-notch, even first-class three-point shooters, they can have such a high three-point shooting rate, it is entirely because there are many opportunities to shoot in the open space, and rebounds in the front court.

Coupled with the league's third-highest rebounding average of 45 per game and the league's first-ranked assists average of 27 per game, the Knicks' players have shrunk in stats, but they have ushered in a terrible metamorphosis for the entire team.

And these are just simple visible data analysis, on the night of the end of the league's regular season, far away in a small private house in Salt Lake City, Sloan was working hard to write, and the paper was densely filled with all kinds of data, arrows and words.

Many of the Knicks' offensive ends this season have been born out of pick-and-roll tactics, and it is clear that the old man is the most vocal and the most transparent one in this regard.

As a blocker, Moxi's comprehensive offensive ability is undoubtedly stronger than Karl Malone, but the Knicks' No. 1 position is too weak, and the Knicks can only get the ball to block attackers even if Moxi is counted, there are only four, Moxi, Anthony, Arenas and Sprewell. Jason Williams' passing is good, but the offensive ability with the ball is much weaker, and the remaining three people, the technical style is too obvious, from their various technical moves, you can clearly know whether they want to pass or shoot next, except for Anthony, Arenas and Sprewell's tactical literacy is much lower, and they can't play more derivative tactics at all.

Every time I think about it, Sloan feels very fortunate that the Knicks don't have a Stockton-style player, and as for Kidd and Moxi teaming up, sorry, this is something that no coach has considered, because the two of them are not just one person named Moxi, one person is called Kidd, and one person is called New York, and the other is called New Jersey.

Sloan sorted out all the holes in the Knicks' tactics, as well as the possible spin-offs he had deduced, put them in a folder, and then began a long sit-in.

About two hours later, Sloan turned off the lights in his study.

At the same time, Larry Brown, who had just finished his last game, did not choose to rest, he went straight back to his office in the arena, and he also worked hard to sort out all his thoughts about the Knicks this season.

Larry Brown hits the nail on the head to point out the most crucial point for the Knicks. It seems that the Knicks' defense is far inferior to the past, but this is shown under George Karl's almost crazy speed, and the opponent's slightly efficient shooting percentage is also based on the third in the league under steals and blocks, and there are also a lot of free throw scores, in the playoffs, this part of the score will be wiped out because of the increase in intensity, the Knicks' outside defense is indeed a mess of scum, but their interior group, the ability to protect the frame is too strong, which also makes the Knicks' fast-break scoring league first, That's 6 points higher than the second-place Mavericks. In other words, it's an inside tower defensive powerhouse in the guise of an attacking team, and anyone who ignores this will die.

After thinking for nearly a quarter of an hour, Larry Brown wrote the last sentence with some hesitation and doubt.

At present, the Knicks' strongest is the offensive firepower of the bench, and at the same time, his weakest point seems to be looming, the Knicks' starting lineup is older, and both offensive firepower and defensive intensity are more dependent on the assistance of the inside, Houston and Sprewell are no longer suitable as starters at the No. 23 position of the championship team.

And just like that, on the night when the Knicks were celebrating their all-out win in the final stage and entering the playoffs, two faxes received in the office of the head coach of the Boston Celtics, who ranked eighth in the East, at four o'clock in the morning.