Chapter 433: The Biggest Obstacle to 73 Victories
As Doug predicted, in the last two quarters of the game, the Kings played the Thunder in a circle, and Donovan just pondered a tactic, but in less than two rounds, David and Zhang Feng could easily crack it.
Halfway through the fourth quarter, Donovan switched to the third lineup and announced that he would give up the game, and finally the Kings scored 7 doubles, and Zhang Feng won 3 doubles, and happily avenged the original beating.
In fact, from another point of view, the Kings also have to thank the Thunder, if it wasn't for the fact that they used the advantage of 'superstar basketball' to completely stun the Kings, then the Kings would not have learned from the pain and made changes, and there would be no Love and Rose to join.
After the win over the Thunder, the Kings continued to host the Lakers.
In terms of strength, the five positions on the court, except for the small forward, the king crushed the Lakers in every position, plus the Lakers have just completed the transaction, there are still some problems in the run-in, and the probability of the king winning is too great, so David decided to let the second team play more time.
Unexpectedly, the Lakers saw the second team of the Kings become starters, just like playing chicken blood, from the first quarter, Ball, Kuzma, Randle, and Ingram took turns to attack the basket with all their might, and the shortcomings of the weak frame of the second team of the Kings were infinitely magnified and lost points one after another.
Fortunately, the second team, under the leadership of Rose, executed the King's new offensive tactics well, although it couldn't be prevented, but it always bit the score and played until the third quarter, David felt that the training was almost done, so he let the starting lineup play.
As soon as Zhang Feng came on the court, in less than 2 minutes, he hit 3 points in a row with Lefu and other starters, and his speed was so fast that by the time Lakers head coach Walton reacted to a timeout, he had already played a wave of 12-0 small climax.
In such a situation, the Lakers' starting lineup also deeply realized what it was like to be 'unguardable', and they had no choice but to completely give up defense and want to fight fast offense.
But when it comes to fast offense, Zhang Feng is better than any Lakers player, and after a few rounds, the score gap has only increased, and he can only surrender and admit defeat.
With the win over the Lakers, the Kings won 16 in a row and once again launched an attack on the winning streak.
Like many teams with a winning streak in NBA history, the Kings are in good luck when their next opponent, the Timberwolves, lacks a core mainstay, Butler.
There are often fans jokingly that the Timberwolves without Butler can only be counted as Huskies, and this is really the case, the Kings directly beat the Timberwolves without Butler, suppressed the whole game, and finally won by a big score.
After winning the Timberwolves, the Kings traveled to Portland overnight to challenge the Trail Blazers.
Strange to say, since Zhang Feng joined the Kings, he has lost a total of 6 games in the regular season, one of which was to the Trail Blazers, and the reason for the loss was because he failed to prevent the rampaging Lillard in the back-to-back situation.
The game was a weakened version of back-to-back games, and Kings fans were worried about ending their 17-game winning streak and, crucially, losing to the Trail Blazers, they wouldn't be able to win all of their games in February.
FORTUNATELY, ZHANG FENG DID NOT DISAPPOINT THE KING FANS, ALTHOUGH HE STILL FOUGHT HARD, BUT IN THE END, ZHANG FENG GOT A SUPER DOUBLE-DOUBLE OF 42 POINTS AND 15 ASSISTS, AND CARRY WON THE TRAIL BLAZERS.
So far, the Kings have won 18 consecutive victories, and won all of them in February, and Kings fans feel that Zhang Feng is expected to win the Western Conference Player of the Month for four consecutive months.
But in the selection of the best player of the month, Zhang Feng met two strong opponents: Harden and Davis.
Harden led the Rockets to a 10-1 record in February, although the loss was to Zhang Feng's Kings, but Harden averaged 33 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists per game in February, which looked much better than Zhang Feng's 29 points, 5 rebounds and 12 assists.
And the thick-eyed Davis, when Cousins was seriously injured and the season was reimbursed and the outside world was in decline, led the Pelicans from 6th in the West to 4th in the West, averaging 35 points, 13 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.2 blocks per game, and he was the first player in history to score 45 points, 17 rebounds, 5 steals and 5 blocks.
The trio performed evenly and well, and there was nothing wrong with giving the Western Conference Player of the Month in February to anyone.
Fortunately, it took a while for the Player of the Month to be selected, and the Kings entered March and won the Nets, Jazz, and Knicks in a row, successfully extending their winning streak to 21 games.
At this point, there is no suspense about the best attribution of the month, although the evaluation is last month's performance, but the performance of each game will affect the attitude of the voters, NBA history, there has never been a team, can get two 21 consecutive wins in a single season, Zhang Feng became the best player in the West in February deservedly.
After winning the Western Conference Player of the Month for four consecutive months, Zhang Feng's MVP odds have changed to an astonishing 1:999, which is more telling than the first place in the MVP rankings, and no one believes that the regular season MVP will be awarded to anyone else.
Hitting the key hurdle of 22 consecutive wins again, the Kings faced off against the Pelicans, who were in the limelight.
At the beginning of the game, the Pelicans team made every effort to create scoring opportunities for Brother Thick Eyebrows, whether it was against the fast-paced Lefou, or against the heavy Randolph, Thick Eyebrows took what he wanted, and he scored 18 points and 4 rebounds after the first quarter.
After the second start, the Kings changed their tactics, completely let go of the thick eyebrows, sent him to score, and turned to lock up other Pelican players with all their might, although this arrangement directly made the thick eyebrows powerful, scoring 22 points in a single quarter, but the other Pelicans players only scored a total of 4 points.
Halfway through the third quarter, the King changed his tactics again and went all out to pinch the thick eyebrows, who were forced to pass the ball, but his opponent had no feelings, and the king took the opportunity to open up the difference.
After entering the fourth quarter of the game, Zhang Feng stood up to take over the game, he continued to force thick eyebrows, causing thick eyebrows to foul continuously, and the thick eyebrows Willy, who was plagued by foul pressure, was greatly reduced, and the king boiled frog slowly expanded the score, and finally won the game without danger.
The Kings then won the Magic without a beating, becoming the first team to win 60 in the 17-18 season, while also winning 23 in a row.
After winning 60 wins, the regular season is coming to an end, and the performance of the Kings has made fans and the media start to talk about the same topic---- Can the Kings get 73 wins? Or can it surpass 73 wins?
To this end, TNT specially convened five retired superstars, O'Neal, Kenny Smith, Barkley, Reggie Miller, and Chris Webb, to discuss this topic.
"I think it's okay, with the current strength of the Kings, it's hard to lose a game, as long as you have watched the Kings' games recently, you will find that their adaptability and tenacity are very terrible, anyway, since I watched the game, I haven't seen a team that can play tactics better than them" O'Neal is very optimistic.
"Your logic is a bit messy, your tactical ability doesn't mean that you have a strong scoring ability and defensive ability, and it's really hard to say if there are uncertainties such as injuries," Kenny said, waving his hand.
"What you say is tantamount to saying in vain, who can control the uncertainty factor, but I don't know if you have noticed, since Zhang Feng joined the king, I haven't heard of that king player being injured, even Rose's illness has stabilized, and Lefu has made an early comeback, is it possible that his health kung fu is really so powerful?" The more Webb spoke, the more surprised he became.
"It's all about metaphysics, and I'll tell you what the king's real problem is," Barkley said confidently.
"Where?" The other four looked at Barkley at the same time.
Barkley smiled and sat up straight, "The biggest problem for the Kings is the interior, whether it's their starters or their second lineup, they will have a hard time playing against teams that can hit the hoop strongly, such as their game against the Lakers last month, and this game against the Pelicans."
After Barkley finished speaking, the other four nodded silently.
Indeed, the King's interior defense problem has not been completely solved, Randolph can prevent ordinary stars, and even Zhang Feng can help him lock up the breakthrough of most guards, but when encountering a star like Durant who definitely needs him to make up for the defense, the pressure on the King will be very great.
Will interior defense be the biggest obstacle to the Kings' 73-win run?