When Nash hit a difficult step-back jumper from LeBron James in a misplaced situation, the Suns reached a small peak, and although they only held an eight-point lead, the game was in their hands.

The Cavaliers are still struggling to catch up, and their offense is a little constipated, but they have James, who is actually only 24 years old this year, but this is his fifth year in the league, and his performance has been amazing.

James saw the weakness of the Suns' interior line, and he no longer played mismatch with Damon Jones, but kept feeding the ball to the inside, allowing Big Z and Gooden to turn over the river and create opportunities to score near the basket.

Leon watched Big Z and Gooden continue to score points on the inside, but he had no intention of replacing Turiaf to strengthen the inside, because he knew that even if he was replaced by Turiaf, with his weight and defensive ability, he would not be able to stop the Cavaliers from scoring on the inside, and the two of them had already played a feeling.

On the other hand, if Turyaf is allowed to play, it may be worse to disrupt the team's offense and make them play five in attack, which is even worse.

Sure enough, the Suns maintained enough efficiency on the offensive end, and after Jasco Vysius came on the court, their positional tactics became diverse, Nash's off-ball, Xiaosi's low post, and Dior's arc top playmaking made the Cavaliers' defense that they have always been proud of unable to focus.

Dual control does have a lot of holes on the defensive end, but the benefits on the offensive end are huge, and Jascovy Hughes' organization and three-point ability have greatly expanded the range of firepower on the outside of the Suns.

At halftime, the Suns led by nine points at 55-46, and the two sides went back to the locker room to rest.

Before returning to the locker room, the sideline reporter grabbed Leon and wanted to conduct an interview, Leon thought about it and stayed to say a few words, in fact, he has never liked sideline interviews.

"The Suns played aggressively on the offensive end today, is this a set-up that you did before the game, my awareness is dual point guards."

"Of course."

"Uh... Will you stick with that in the second half? Or will you be in the competition, or are you still experimenting? ”

"I don't know, who can predict the future?"

Leon's answer is simply too much for the beautiful reporters of the TV station to answer, in fact, these reporters all know Leon's urine, but sometimes you have to interview him.

Seeing that there was no problem with him blocking the reporter's mouth, Leon went back to the locker room, but when he returned to the locker room, he found that the future was indeed unpredictable.

He saw Xiao Si sitting on the bench with an ice pack on his knee, and now that the game was not over, he started to apply ice?

"What's going on?" Leon asked.

A team doctor stood beside Xiao Si, and he replied: "Amare's knee doesn't feel very comfortable, he feels a little sore. ”

Leon said: "I'm asking Amare, answering me. ”

Stoudemire looked a little frustrated, and when he heard Leon's question, he responded, "It's just that my knee is a little uncomfortable, maybe... Maybe the old wound is a little recurrent. ”

Stoudemire missed the entire 2006 season with a knee injury, and while they made Boris Dio that season, they also missed a good chance to reach the Finals, and if they were there, they wouldn't have been a match for the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. And now, it seems like Stodemar's heartbreaking knee is in trouble again.

Leon stepped forward, patted Stoudemire on the shoulder, and said, "Don't worry, it's definitely going to get better, you have to trust the doctor of the sun, and the weather in Phoenix." ”

The climate in Arizona is quite suitable for the recovery of patients, Xiao Si has had minimally invasive surgery before, and the recovery is quite good, and the rare one still maintains his strong explosive power.

"OK, in the second half, I think we need someone to replace Amare and score at least 20 points on the inside, Ronnie, if you can do that, I'll let Amare give you a little bit of his salary."

After knowing that Stoudemire could not play, Leon joked with the players, and although it was only a regular season game, at the beginning of the season, the general's physical problems were undoubtedly a blow to the players and others, including Leon himself. He can only pray now, Stoudemire is just feeling a little unwell, not the recurrence of old injuries or some new injuries, without Xiaosi, Leon will not be able to lead the Suns to a breakthrough even if he is at a high level.

Leon's joke put everyone at ease, but joke aside, the game still has to be played, and the lead of nine points in the first half is not at all solid. The Suns offense is good enough, but the defense really can't contain the Cavaliers' interior line, and now with less Xiaosi, the interior line is even more unwatchable, and if Turyaf is on it, the offense can't be opened.

At this time, Kerr received the news that Stoudemire was feeling knee discomfort and went to the locker room, and after asking the team doctor about the situation, Kerr pulled Leon aside and asked him what he thought about it.

"Let's wait for the results of tomorrow's tests, I'm not a doctor, but from the first half, it's not too much of a problem, maybe out for a couple of weeks," Leon said. ”

Kerr asked: "What is the team's record?" ”

"Do you care about that? This is just the first week of the regular season, so there is no need to be in such a hurry. ”

"Of course I'm in a hurry, it's my first year in charge and your first week in charge."

Cole's words Leon can understand, no one wants to be out of the basket as soon as he takes office, regardless of whether the basket is poked out by himself or not. Therefore, Kerr wants to trade so much, especially for the inside line, and now if Xiao Si is absent for a long time, the Suns' already big hole in the interior line will become bigger, which is not good news for the Suns who aim to be Spurs.

Leon thought about it again and said, "Hurry up and take Grant Hill down, as for the inside, I don't think there will be much of a problem with Turiaf." ”

Cole looked incredulous and said, "Are you serious?" ”

Leon nodded, at present, there is indeed only one Turiaf available on the Sun's interior line, and the single defense is acceptable, the supplementary defense is average, and the offense is basically none, and the Suns are really a bit dangerous just relying on him. However, he still insisted that the team should sign Hill, and after the last visit, the two sides were only one step away from signing.

Leon added, "I think it would be nice if Hill was on our plane to Charlotte. After this game against the Cavaliers, the Suns are going on an road trip, and if Smalls can't go, then Leon will be hoping to have a useful veteran on the roster to ease their immediate needs.

Cole said: "No problem, then I'll talk to the boss tonight about it and get the signing done as soon as possible." ”

After discussing all this, the halftime time had almost passed, and Leon did not have time to summarize the tactics with the players, and everyone was a little worried about Xiao Si's sudden discomfort. Leon reshuffled his starting lineup for the second half, sending Turyaf on the pitch and briefly resetting his tactics, asking his team to speed up the pace of the game and play more fast.

In this way, the Suns are back to 2006, and they have a great record in the days without Smalls.

At the start of the second half, Smalls did not appear on the sidelines, which made the fans a little worried, and Barkley saw the situation and said: "Stoudemire did not play, according to the midfield reporter, he will miss the rest of the second half because of knee discomfort. I don't know if this will affect his other games this season, this kid has a big knee injury. ”

Kenny Smith also expressed his concerns, but the game still had to go on, after Turyaf came on the court, as Leon expected, he limited Gooden on the defensive end quite well, but there was nothing he could do about the tall and long arm Big Z, at the beginning of the second half, Big Z cooperated with James, using his long arm to hit two consecutive outside mid-range jumpers to narrow the gap to 5 points.

On the Suns' side, Nash took the lead in stepping up, and he used Dio's blocking and pick-and-roll in the counterattack to hit a direct three-point shot at 45 degrees on the right side to stabilize the Suns' offensive end. Then, Nash began to help the Suns start to accelerate, and they began to play a skillful seven-second offense, quickly counterattacked, and shot when they had a chance in the half. Marion became the vanguard, taking full advantage of the opportunity of the big Z to defend slowly and play more and less in the frontcourt, and forced the inside to score points.

Then, the Suns carried out a perfect offensive and defensive suppression at the end of the second lineup, and after Jasco Vitius came on the court, the Suns' fast offense did not break at all, and the three-point acceleration attack played a beautiful attack wave. Throughout the third quarter, they relied on that approach and launched a 20-8 attack wave.

In fact, Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown didn't expect midfielder Xiaosi to leave the game with an injury, and the routine arranged by the midfield was useless at all, but was caught off guard by the Suns' old routine, and instantly lost his advantage and was pulled away.

James's performance is very steady, but in the face of the Suns, he obviously does not rely on stability, he has been trying to use the pass to help the team open up the situation on the outside, but neither Hughes nor Damon Jones can give him firepower support outside the three-point line, only relying on Big Z and Gooden to eat cakes in the three-second zone, obviously unable to kill the Suns, not to mention that Big Z was choked enough by the Suns' fast break.

In the end, the game lost its suspense in the fourth quarter, and the Suns used their old methods to crush the Cavaliers in the second half, which was a bit of a surprise. However, this victory did not excite Leon, after all, they lost a main player, and he needed to know what happened to Xiao Si before going to Charlotte, otherwise he would not be able to go to the east with peace of mind.

Moreover, the offensive tactical routines that he had finally built up and were being tested looked like they were going to be readjusted again, which was really a headache for him.