Chapter 435: How Ruthless!
The day after the pre-game meeting, the city of Denver suddenly rained, and the Kings had to leave early, on the way to the Pepsi Center, traffic jams all the way, and finally arrived at 4 p.m.
There was too little warm-up time, and Brandon, the deputy general manager of the Kings team, let the other players enter the court, leaving Zhang Feng alone to give a pre-game interview to reporters.
"Nuggets head coach Malone said they've been preparing for a long time and are going to give you a head start tonight, what do you think about that?"
Coaches usually talk about other teams with compliments such as 'the basketball moves very quickly', 'the ball is energetic on the court', 'the shooting percentage is good', and so on.
But Malone was so ruthless and bluntly told reporters that they were going to 'hit the king head-on', and unless he was crazy, they must be prepared to have a special strategy.
But Zhang Feng didn't have any comments on Ma Long's statement, so he thought about it and replied: "Then I wish them good luck!" βγ
"Uh...... Then what do you think about Coach Malone saying that Jokic should be selected for the MVP" The reporter was slightly speechless and reluctantly continued to ask.
"Very good, this shows that he has a heart to compete for honor, the team brought out by such a coach will definitely not be too bad, I like to compete with such a group of guys" Zhang Feng said casually.
The reporter wanted to ask again, but Brownon hurriedly waved his hand and refused, and Zhang Feng turned around and walked into the stadium.
As soon as he walked out of the players' tunnel, Zhang Feng felt a little shocked.
As far as the eye can see, the entire Pepsi Center, with nearly 20,000 seats, has not a single vacant seat.
He entered the arena, no more than 4:30 p.m., the game had not yet started, and it was still raining outside, and there was a traffic jam on one street after another, and the Nuggets fans were able to arrive at all.
What's even more exaggerated is that all the Nuggets fans on the scene were uniformly dressed, and the entire Pepsi Center turned into a sea of yellow.
There were also fans holding signs that read something like '24 NO! βγβ8 V 1 YESοΌ Slogans like that.
"What these fans mean, it's not enough to say that we can't achieve 24 wins, and they still think about Black Eight, it's not ordinary ruthless" Seeing Zhang Feng walking to the basket to warm up, Mason hurriedly complained to him.
"Don't underestimate this thing, most of them will give a strong psychological hint to the Nuggets players, they are uniformly dressed to play in the season play-offs, and this game will probably be more difficult than we imagined" Zhang Feng said in a solemn tone.
The two chatted for not too long, and the pre-game ceremony began, and every time the host shouted the name of a Nuggets player, the cheers of the Pepsi Center rose one after another, and every time the name of a Kings player was shouted, the boos of the Pepsi Center burst out at the same time.
The game officially began, with Randolph and Millsap jumping the ball in the middle circle, and the rest of the players from both teams taking their places.
"Smack!" With a bang, Randolph successfully dialed the ball to Zhang Feng, and Millsap's speed was noticeably slower.
Taking advantage of your illness and wanting your life, Millsap, who has just returned from injury, has obviously not recovered his form, how can that fat and candle-high bounce be Lefou's opponent?
Immediately, Zhang Feng made a gesture, the old tactic 1 inside and 4 outside, and Lefu stayed in the low position on the left side.
With a feint to break to the right, Zhang Feng managed to trick Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray and took the opportunity to hit the ball to the ground and pass it to Love. γ
Lefous bent over with the ball in both hands, and in the face of Millsa's defence, he took a step to the right to dribble.
Normally, Millsap should have been blocking the horizontal movement at this time, but he couldn't keep up with Lefou's footsteps, and Lefu could only throw a small throw with a blank face.
2 points were scored, which was easier than imagined, Lefu smiled at Zhang Feng, and the two high-fived and defended.
The Nuggets attacked, and Murray took the ball across half court and immediately handed it to Harris. After a couple of crotch dribble attempts, Harris managed to get past Bogdan and head straight to the basket.
According to the pre-game defense strategy, Love gave up on Millsap, stepped forward to block Harris, and formed a front and back attack with Bogdan, who was chasing the defense.
Harris was neither stupid nor hard-headed, and immediately bent sideways to pass the ball to Millsap, who was unguarded on the left side of the basket.
Millsap received the ball with both hands clenched, kicked the ground with both feet and turned around, needless to say, wanted to play a violent dunk.
βBANGοΌβ , Randolph hit a head-on hat at Millsap, the basketball flew upside down, and Bogdan quickly grabbed the basketball and threw it to Zhang Feng.
After receiving the basketball, Zhang Feng directly changed hands behind his back to shake off Mori and rushed to the front court at full speed.
When he arrived at the three-point line, in order to determine whether to make a layup or shoot a three-point shot, Zhang Feng habitually glanced at it.
This glance was unbelievable, in addition to Murray behind him, other Nuggets players also caught up, and even Millsap, who had encountered the big hat before, dragged his extremely heavy body to move his steps.
Obviously, they can't catch up, and the Nuggets players are still so persistent, and they don't seem to want to give up even a little hope, which can be said to be very tenacious.
To be on the safe side, Zhang Feng gave up 3 points, continued to accelerate to the basket, and scored 2 points on a layup.
The Nuggets attacked again, and their head coach Malone paced back and forth with his hands folded on the sidelines, looking very dissatisfied.
This time, Murray slowly took the ball across the half court, stopped at the top of the arc to control the ball and wait, Jokic hurriedly mentioned the high post to block and dismantle, but Zhang Feng was already prepared, and in the blink of an eye, he bypassed Jokic to block and catch up with Mori.
There was no hope of breaking through, Murray passed the ball to Jokic, slipped under the basket himself, and Zhang Feng continued to chase the defense.
Jokic held the ball high in both hands, and Millsap moved from left to right, apparently trying to provide off-ball cover for Murray under the basket.
The intention was too obvious or Millsap was too slow, and Lefous immediately took a step to block the way.
Millsap couldn't move, Murray didn't cover the risk of receiving the ball, and it was not easy to play, but there was little time left for the offense, and Jokic blocked a Randolph in front of him and couldn't force a shot.
There was no choice but to pass the ball to Mori and wait for him to reorganize the offense, but Randolph did not just stand and watch the play, the moment Jokic passed, he tried to reach out and steal, although he didn't grab it, but his hand successfully touched the basketball.
When he touched it, the flight trajectory of the basketball immediately changed, and he flew off the court in a daze, Zhang Feng estimated that it was easy to make mistakes when he touched and rescued, so it was better to let the Nuggets reorganize the offense with a throw-in, which was acceptable.
Unexpectedly, Murray and Millsap flew to save the ball at the same time, Murray wanted to save Millsap, Millsap wanted to save Murray, the two collided together, but the basketball fell into Zhang Feng's hands.
Inexplicably, there was an extra basketball in his hand, Zhang Feng was stunned for half a second before he reacted, and then he made a long pass with his arm, and the basketball flew to the front court like a bullet, where there was a fast King player - Bogdan.
Another 2 points were scored, and the Kings started the game 6-0.
"Beep!" When the referee's whistle sounded, Nuggets coach Malone called a timeout, and the players on both sides were at a loss. Isn't it just a 6-point gap?
When he walked off the court, Zhang Feng saw Nuggets coach Malone spraying Millsap wildly. When he came back after the timeout, Millsap was gone, and the new Nuggets player was Will Barton.
"It's so ruthless, it's going to be replaced" Randolph also found out about this situation and couldn't help but complain.
"They want to win, Millsap can't defend it, it can't help defense, it's really useless to stay on the field, but they just chased and saved the ball, it's really ruthless, maybe our trouble has just begun"