The Atlanta Hawks can indeed be said to be old rivals of Roy and the Knicks.

Just halfway through the season, this is the third meeting between the Knicks and the Hawks. In the first two games, the Knicks and Hawks played one home and one away respectively, and each won one game, which can be said to be evenly matched.

It's just that the Knicks, who have been in a slump recently and lost 7 of the last 8 games, have fallen from the original third place in the East to the eighth place in the East, and the playoff seats are in jeopardy, while the Hawks, who had a bad start, have chased hard and risen all the way, and now they have achieved a record of 23 wins and 17 losses, temporarily ranking fourth in the East, and are expected to hit the top three.

The Eagles were able to bounce back, and their biggest contributor was of course head coach Mike Budenholzer, the master tactician who has overcome the difficulties of the team's early restructuring to lead the team to victory step by step, and they have just won the longest seven-game winning streak of the season, and they are now in full swing.

Of course, just because the Hawks' record is back doesn't mean all the Eagles players are doing well, and there is one Hawks star who is now being questioned by the media and fans just as much as Roy.

He is the Hawks' central forward, Dwight Howard, a former top star in the league. When the Hawks won consecutive games, Howard was particularly lonely, because when everyone was enjoying the praise of the media and fans, and enjoying the joy of victory, he was only criticized by everyone.

In fact, Howard was blamed by the media and fans for the team's poor early record, and the problem was, of course, his poor offense. Due to Howard's poor offensive ability, the Hawks' sophisticated offense last season always stuck in his hands, and the Hawks' offensive efficiency was also at the bottom of the league (ranked 25th in offensive efficiency, 29th in three-point shooting percentage, and 2nd in turnover rate).

Therefore, the Hawks, a strong team in the East who had excellent offense and defense last season, have now been reduced to a mid-stream team that can only win on defense and walk on one foot. Therefore, Howard, who averaged 13.9 points, 13.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game, became the target of criticism from the media and fans. So, Atlanta fans are now starting to miss Al Horford infinitely.

Roy and Howard, two frustrated men, meet again in this context.

When Roy and Howard met on the court for the third time, they had long since lost the tension they had when they first met, a tacit understanding between two NBA stars who have not been doing well lately.

Howard hugged Roy and said, "Dude, you're not easy." ”

Roy replied, "It's not easy for you."

It's true that Roy is not easy, and neither is Howard.

One of them is worried that he doesn't have the physical strength to attack, and the other scratches his head because he won't attack.

Roy is well aware of the fans' recent evaluation and hopes for him, and he also knows that when playing against a team of the Eagles' level, he must step up first to open the situation, and he must first step up to open the door to victory for the team, so in the cheers of the home fans, Roy launched the attack first.

As was the case in the previous two meetings, the Eagles didn't have a player who could defend Roy one-on-one, and today they sent Saab Sefrosa as the defensive sharpener. The Swiss is a physical and conscious wing defender who was once named to the league's All-Defensive Second Team.

In the battle between the two teams more than half a month ago, Sephorosa had a beautiful freeze against Roy, and Roy only scored 10 points in that game, which is a classic.

So when they met again, Sephorosa was full of confidence.

"Roy, I'm going to keep your score under 10 today, you wait and see."

Sephorosa's villainous attitude made Roy very unhappy, and he immediately shot back: "Hey, Sabo (Sephorosa), do you think you can stop me?" Don't you think you were lucky in your last fight? You're not going to be complacent just because you succeeded last time, are you? ”

Roy actually went back to his old business of spewing trash talk, which means that Roy is going to turn back into that super scorer.

Since the fans want Roy to fire, it is absolutely incumbent on Roy.

In fact, Roy himself has been very aggrieved recently, although playing organization and doing coolies is also a contribution to the team, but it is a torment for Roy, who is born to love offense, he has long wanted to let go recklessly, and the Eagles and Sephorosa are just the right opponents.

Roy launched an onslaught at the beginning, and his stamina was limited, so he had to use good steel on the blade.

Sefrosa's extremely successful close defense last time was completely ineffective this time, Roy used his actions on the court to tell Sephorosa what it means to rely on the body to eat, one changed direction and two accelerated, Roy easily broke through Sefrosa, and on the first ball he hit the basket and bypassed Howardra for a layup.

This familiar action made Howard also stunned for a moment, isn't this Kobe? Isn't this Kobe's signature move?

Then, Roy scored another 2 points with a "Jordan-style step-back jumper" to win a full house, followed by Roy's best fixed-point three-point jumper.

After the opening, Roy played almost all the offensive methods he was good at, how he missed this feeling of chopping melons and vegetables, why didn't he want to keep scoring, keep shooting, it was better to shoot him for 48 minutes and make 100 shots.

But unfortunately, halfway through the first quarter, his physical bottleneck came, and the exhaustion came rushing in, and his feet moved slowly as if they were filled with lead.

Do you want to continue with the liver? Roy hesitated for a moment and compromised with his body, but that was enough, and with Roy's 10 points in the first quarter, the Knicks temporarily led by one point at 27:26.

Roy's play in the first quarter seemed to let the fans see signs of his strong recovery, and the audience did not hesitate to cheer Roy on, and the warm scene that had not appeared for a long time finally returned.

"Roy, keep chopping, don't stop, Roy."

"Roy, I knew you were going to be back, our MVP is back!"

"Roy, drive your full horsepower and lead the Knicks to victory!"

With the success of the first quarter and the encouragement of the fans, Roy's long-hidden competitive heart is ready to move again.

I have to attack, I have to score, that's my job, that's what I love to do, I can't stop, I can't stop.

With a strong obsession, Roy did not stop his pace at all after playing in the second quarter, although fatigue was wrapped in the whole body, although the shooting rate has been declining, but this could not affect Roy's idea of scoring at all, Roy was already a little obsessed, he rushed into the basket again and again, and shot hard again and again in the confrontation.

Those reliable and unreliable shots, although they couldn't hit directly, also won Roy a lot of free throw opportunities.

Roy's score is climbing, and his self-confidence is skyrocketing.

This will work, even if my hand feels down, even if my physical strength is exhausted, but as long as I can cause damage, I can still score points and win the game.

At halftime, the Knicks still led by one point at 54:53.

It's okay to fight like this, and we can win by playing like this.

At halftime, Roy reflected on his first half performance, scoring 20 points on 5-of-11 shooting, 2-of-5 three-pointers and 8-of-9 free throws.

This half of the game was more scoring than his previous eight games, and Roy was suddenly inflated, and he was determined to stick to this style of play to the end.

Roy's performance continued in the third quarter, and he continued to choose to use the breakthrough to inflict damage, and he now played like Westbrook, rushing to the enemy position with the explosives bag on his back.

The constant scoring made Roy slowly forget to be cautious, and his movements became bigger and bigger.

If you want to take, give first.

The old adage makes perfect sense, and tragedy struck when Roy, who was physically exhausted, was still stubbornly attacking the Eagles' interior line, hoping to make free throws with killing.

A tough frontal attack, Roy and Howard collided head-on with the basket, he only felt that it was dark in front of him, and then he fell heavily to the ground.

After landing on the ground, Roy suddenly hugged his knee, and a sore pain immediately spread from his knee to his brain, it hurt, it really hurts, Roy can only hold his knee in pain, grinning his teeth.

The referee, Hornacek and his teammates immediately surrounded him.

A sense of foreboding arose.

Is Roy hurt? Seeing this scene, the Knicks and the New York fans in the stadium were stunned, right? Is Roy hurt? ……