Before someone stepped up, the New York Knicks had won the game with three fingers — nine out of ten.

In the third quarter, the Knicks' "Blind Chicken X Play" tactics shone brightly, and they were able to easily crush opponents with talent in almost every position.

Roy played against the short C.J. McCollum, and Rose seemed to be back to the MVP form of six years ago, with Crowder's mid-range shot and Porzingis' long-range shot coming and going, and even Noah could steal one after another.

Is the game stable? When the Knicks widened the gap to 14 points in the third quarter, Hornacek began to rotate the lineup contentedly, no problem, no problem. If the team's main team can win the opponent by 10 points, the hungry substitutes can win at least another 10 points, and it will be a matter of time before the game is killed.

Not only did Hornacek feel that the game was stable, but the media and fans present also felt that the game was a safe one. Even the usually steady Brin and Fraser have this in mind, and they have already begun to discuss the situation of the Knicks' next opponent, the Charlotte Hornets.

But at this time, someone stepped forward, and someone got nervous.

That man is the ruthless Trail Blazers No. 0 player Damion Lillard.

What kind of player is Lillard? This is the most debated issue among Chinese and American fans in the past two years.

Is Lillard strong? That's right, he's strong.

So how strong is Lillard? I'm sorry, I can't tell.

When it comes to Damion Lillard, people's first reaction is coldness. You can barely see a smile on Lillard's face, he always likes to keep a straight face, as if the fans around the world owe him a lot of debt. Lillard doesn't smile, even when the team is winning, he doesn't smile easily, and the best expression he can give is probably pride.

Lillard has his reasons for apathy, though.

As another example of the league's offensive point guard in recent years, it is natural for Lillard to be selected as an All-Star and even become a superstar of a generation with his scoring ability and beautiful play.

But the tragedy is that before his debut, the league suddenly exploded into a group of excellent point guards, including Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook in the class of 2008, Stephen Curry and Ricky Rubio in 2009, John Wall and Eric Bledsoe in 2010, and Kyrie Irving and Isiah Thomas in 2011.

Lillard was really good, averaging 19.0 points and 6.5 assists per game in his rookie season, easily winning the Rookie of the Year and winning the All-Star Skills Challenge. Over the next two years, the Trail Blazers made the playoffs twice under the leadership of the team's leading big brother, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Lillard was named to the All-Star team for the first time.

But you would be wrong to think that Lillard's life would be smooth sailing, and if it weren't for Kobe Bryant's withdrawal from the All-Star Game due to injury, Lillard would have been undrafted from the All-Star team in 2015. Last season, his real crisis arose, when the team's big brother Aldridge left San Antonio to join the Spurs, then he was again unqualified as an All-Star after hitting a career-high high, and finally, due to tensions with the United States Basketball Association, he quit the Dream Team and missed the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Experts, the media, and fans always seem to look down on Lillard, and they always seem to like to find fault with him, such as shooting percentage problems, such as defensive problems, such as ball style problems. And in the face of everyone's doubts, Lillard's way of fighting back is an indifferent attitude and a wonderful performance.

Last season, it was the cold-blooded killer Lillard who led a group of bench-level players to the playoffs, and also magically defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 4:2 (the Trail Blazers ranked 5th in the West, and the Clippers ranked 4th in the West) and reached the Western Conference Final Four; In the face of the blow of losing the All-Star Game, Lillard's way of fighting back was to lead the Trail Blazers to a 32-point victory over the invincible Warriors with 51 points, 7 assists, and 6 steals after the All-Star break, and directly slapped the All-Star guard duo Curry and Thompson in the face.

That's Lillard, a big boy who loves to complain, a super scorer with great skills, and a ruthless court killer.

Now, when everyone thinks the Knicks are winning, Lillard's show is about to begin.

Quiet as a virgin and moving as a rabbit, Lillard's offensive rhythm has always been elusive.

The aging Vujacic is not Lillard's opponent at all, only two rounds, he was blown up by Lillard's combination of sudden shots, Lillard came up and scored 5 points in a row, and Vujacic only had to surrender except for shaking his head.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Hornacek immediately adjusted on the spot, bringing the super-athletic Jaylen Brown against Lillard, but Brown quickly lost the game.

Brown is indeed very talented defensively and physical, but he also can't stop Lillard's offensive rhythm, just as he was toyed with by Roy in applause, facing Lillard of the same genre, Brown was teased again.

Moreover, Lillard also used another unique skill of his own this time - three-point shooting.

It is the three-point shot, the unreasonable three-point shot, Brown can't prevent Lillard's unpredictable three-point shooting, that strange shooting location, that strange shooting rhythm, that strange shooting action, all make Jaylen Brown, a traditional player from a regular professional class, scratch his head.

Lillard's three-point shot is like Duan Yu's "six-vein divine sword", which is punctual and inaccurate, but when he is angry, it must be accurate and unreasonable.

In just 3 minutes, Lillard scored 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting, almost single-handedly filling the 14-point hole, and the New York fans who were still elated just now suddenly quieted down, and Hornacek frowned helplessly and asked for a timeout.

It's not scientific, why did Lillard suddenly explode? Didn't he play normally in the first half? Hornacek was at a loss, he could only touch his face, but Roy could see it clearly, he had just witnessed Lillard's nerve knife performance off the court: unexpected breakaways, random throws, and long shots one step away from the three-point line, if you don't look at the jersey and number, people will have the illusion that this is Stephen Curry playing.

In fact, Lillard is indeed almost the same as Curry's style of play, if you want to talk about the gap, it should be a little worse in speed and crosshair, but in the case of an explosion of hand, this gap is minimal, just like the game where Lillard exploded Curry, Lillard shot 9 of 12 three-pointers in the whole game, and the shooting rate exceeded 60%.

Therefore, if you want to defeat the Trail Blazers, you must first destroy Lillard, and if you want to kill Lillard, you must first extinguish his hot "hot hand" state.

Defeat Lillard? Who's going to do this? Roy, of course.

"Let me do it." After Hornacek laid out his regular tactics, Roy took the initiative to come on the court to defend Lillard.

"Are you okay? Roy, you didn't rest for a few minutes. ”

"Don't worry, Jeff (Hornacek), I'll be able to rest when Damion (Lillard) is down, I can guard him, let me be a blue-collar for the team today."

What a blue-collar worker, a good dedication.

Hearing Roy's statement, I believe that all the coaches and teammates present have a warm current surging in their hearts, this young man is too selfless, if there is a big red flower in hand, Hornacek Iron Protection will pin it to Roy's chest now.

As the team's top scorer and assister, when the team is facing difficulties, he can actually take the initiative to put down his body to do some dirty work and solve problems for the big brothers, this is really a good rookie, the future is immeasurable, the future is immeasurable.

Nice rookie? Is that. Theoretically speaking, except for a few guys who take pleasure in defense, I'm afraid not many people in the NBA are willing to spend their precious physical strength on defense, which is a thankless job that can't see statistics, can't hear praise, can't touch honor. Roy isn't much of a defensive, much less a keen defender.

However, in a profitable situation, he can transform into a good defender.

Just now, Roy received an instant task from the "Ball King System":

Freeze Lillard: No longer let Lillard score for the remainder of the third quarter, mission difficulty: ★★★★ , mission success reward: increase 400 attribute points or primary reward wheel once, mission failure penalty, reduce defensive awareness by 4 points.

This task seems to be a pit, when Roy first saw the description of this mission, he unconsciously jumped out of his mind such a picture: Lillard took the ball and hit a jump shot directly, and then game over, 4 points of defensive awareness fed the fish in vain.

Yes, it's a difficult task, Roy knows it with his toes, it's hard to keep the opponent's top scorer from scoring, what is the concept? You know, a slip of foot, a little defensive distraction, or even an accidental foul can make the task go to waste.

Even in NBA2K, preventing opponents from scoring is one of the most troublesome tasks, and Roy is right to have this hunch.

But on the other hand, if you make Roy admit defeat and make Roy admit that he can't defend against Lillard, it will really make him a little embarrassed and feel a little uncomfortable. If even a guy of Lillard's level is afraid and avoided, then how will he deal with the challenge of top guards such as Curry, Harden, and Irving in the future?

Anyway, there are only more than 4 minutes left in the third quarter, so I won't do anything else and play with Lillard with all my might.

Well, that's a happy decision.

As soon as the eyes were closed and the teeth were gritted, the task was taken.

Lillard, you wait, I'm coming......