Chapter 265: Back-to-Back Continuously
The Knicks have five back-to-back games in November, which is their most difficult month of the entire season, but the good thing is that the opponents are not strong, otherwise the schedule would be too scary. In the next few months, when they began to face strong teams one after another, the whole schedule eased again, which was actually the league's compensation for them.
On November 19th, the Knicks played the Warriors again, which was their last game with the Warriors this season, Wu Huang continued the good feel and state of the last game, played 44 minutes, scored 44 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists, and led the Knicks to a 124-118 narrow victory over the Warriors with a quasi-triple-double, winning 9 in a row.
On November 20th, the Knicks ushered in the third back-to-back of the month, and it was another player's most uncomfortable away back-to-back, all the Knicks players are complaining, even if today's opponent Clippers are not strong, but back-to-back after back-to-back, it is still a bit of a deadly rhythm.
How weak are the Clippers? They have only a 1-12 record since the start of the season, and have now surpassed the Timberwolves to become the bottom of the West.
Wu Huang's last game against the Warriors was too strong, and his form today was average. However, Xiao Si only played 30 minutes in the last game due to foul problems, and there was no problem with physical strength today. Soon, Wu Huang found the benefits of a teammate's strong strength, he doesn't need to use all his strength in every game, no matter how good the player's body is, there are hidden dangers if he fights too much, if he can keep some leeway, it is the best, but this requires teammates to help share it.
The Knicks' winning streak has made the team tacit understanding improve every game, winning is the best medicine to improve the team's chemistry and player relationship, Wu Huang and Xiao Si have been communicating more and more during this time, he has twice received an invitation to a banquet from Xiao Si's fiancée Alexis during the winning streak, and the relationship between the two has also begun to move from "teammates" to "friends".
In fact, on the other hand, consecutive losses are the most affecting factor in the unity of the team, any team to the last 10 consecutive defeats, the relationship between the main players of the team will be a lot unfamiliar because of the successive defeats, and it is easy to have infighting.
Wu Huang has been experimenting with different styles of play and rhythm in recent games, this year is the first time he has teamed up with teammates of Xiao Si's level, Gallinari has also improved in the new season, and there is a rookie like Monroe in the team, he needs to find a better rhythm and style of play, so he has been adjusting his style of play.
In this game, Wu Huang played the role of an assassin again in the first half, and he had already determined a way of playing - when his teammates were in good shape, he could hide himself, play the success rate, and play sneak attacks, which was the most efficient method, and he didn't need too many shots to get good statistics.
The Clippers are weak from the outside, and only one Eric Gordon can take the table from the No. 1 to No. 3 positions, but he is also a short player who is weak in offense and defense. The Clippers' outside defense is consistently in the bottom three in the league. At the same time, their interior defense also belongs to the grade of the bottom number, don't look at Griffin's rookie season, he can average 22+11 data per game, but he does not have too bright performance on the defensive end, and Carman has degenerated into an ordinary starter-level center. If it weren't for back-to-back games, with the Knicks' current state, it would have been easy to take out this Clippers team.
In the first half, Wu Huang only made 6 shots, but these 6 shots hit 5 goals. This season, his shooting percentage has risen to 52%, which is not at all like the shooting percentage that a guard can have, and Wu Huang is likely to enter the 180+ club in his second season.
Xiao Si and Griffin performed a good show of mutual explosion in the first half, the former scored 18 points and 6 rebounds, and the latter scored 24 points and 8 rebounds.
Griffin's explosive style of play in his first season has left fans hooked in both lethality and spectacle! So although the Clippers' record is extremely different, the home attendance rate is not bad, and seeing Griffin perform a few shocking dunks on the court every game, the ticket price of Clippers fans is worth it, anyway, the ticket price of the Clippers is much cheaper than that of the Lakers.
Monroe was severely hit by Griffin in the first half, and O'Neal was announced to be injured and out of the game from the 16th against the Nuggets. This was something the Clippers had anticipated early on, and they thought it would be good for O'Neal to play 40 regular-season games this season.
In these games, Monroe became the starter, and his performance has been relatively stable under the cover of Wu Huang and Xiao Si and others, averaging about 28 minutes per game, almost contributing ten points and eight points, and grabbing five or six rebounds, which is a good result among rookies.
But today, when he met Griffin, Monroe's luck was not so good. Midway through the second quarter, Gordon missed a mid-range shot, and Griffin rose from behind Monroe to push the bouncing Monroe into the basket. From the camera, Griffin's whole person looks like he is riding on Monroe.
The humiliation of the dunk left the Knicks' rookie mentality unbalanced, and Monroe turned around and shoved Griffin, thus receiving the first technical foul of his career.
"This bastard has to ride a dunk every game, isn't he really afraid of being black-footed?" Wu Huang secretly slandered in his heart, when he played against the Clippers in the preseason, Griffin staged a violent dunk between people, and today he came again to ride a dunk, such an offensive way of offending people is easy to retaliate, in other words, he will not fly around all day long, and he can't understand that these guys who take off at the first opportunity are not afraid of falling to death?
Wu Huang originally wanted to step up in the second half and continue the team's firepower on the offensive end, but he also had a bad pitching feeling, don't look at the first half of 6 shots 5, but those were all close-range shots after the break. In the second half, his three consecutive long-range shots did not reap, but Gallinari was hot in the second half, hitting four three-pointers in the third quarter.
Clippers fans saw that Wu Huang had a bad hand, and thought that their team had a chance, but they didn't expect that the Knicks had too many firepower points, Xiao Si and Gallinari were all in unison today, one scored 39 points and 11 rebounds, the other scored 31 points, and shot 6 of 8 three-pointers.
Wu Huang played a mediocre offensive end in this game, scoring only 16 points, but he grabbed 21 assists and 5 steals, almost tying his career-high 22 assists in a single game, which was the third time in his career that he had 20+ assists in a single game.
Griffin of the Clippers scored a game-high 44 points and 15 rebounds, this white monster made people see his potential, many Clippers said after the game, if their Tanhualang was not injured by accident last season, Wu Huang may not be able to get the title of best rookie, this is not completely unreasonable, if Griffin can really get an average of 22 points + 11 rebounds + 4 assists per game last year, then he really has a chance to challenge Wu Huang's best rookie, after all, he is wearing a layer of white skin, Even if the inside is black, it is easier to get the favor of media reporters than Wu Huang.
The game ended up 117:110, and the Knicks won a bit thrilling in the end, but unlike the game at the beginning of the season, the Knicks failed to beat the Clippers by a large score because of the physical problems caused by consecutive back-to-backs, even if Smalls and Gallinari were in good shape today, but the Knicks' mistakes and poor defense still gave the Clippers a lot of opportunities.
The Knicks finally got two days off with a win over the Clippers, and the players used those two precious days to catch their breath as they host last season's Predators, the Charlotte Bobcats, at home.
Before the home game, the league announced last week's "Player of the Week" award, and Wu Huang won the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award again for his 50 points against the Nets. This week, he helped the team win 4 games, and he averaged 34.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 11.5 assists, 3.3 steals and 1 block per game, shooting an astonishing 60% from the field and 40% from three-point range.
New York media have predicted that Wu Huang has almost booked this month's Eastern "Player of the Month" award with his personal data and team record this month, as long as the remaining five games are not too bad, which will be the first time in his career to win this honor.
Recently, Wu Huang has gone hand in hand with the team's record and personal data, and people have unconsciously floated up again, especially after surpassing Durant in the scoring list and temporarily taking the first place, he actually made a photo of the MVP trophy on his Twitter and Facebook page as a background, and almost told people directly - he is going to compete for this year's MVP.
There are naturally a lot of people who are unhappy with him, but Wu Huang's data is indeed a leap forward from last season, many people thought that Xiao Si would thin his data after he came, but in the end, Wu Huang, Xiao Si, and Gallinari's personal data have improved more or less, only Iguodala's scoring data has decreased slightly, and the remaining Danny Green, Tony Allen and others are all functional players, and no one cares about how much they score, the Knicks are a bit like the Heat Big Three, and the data of the main players not only did not decline, Instead, there is improvement, and it's the role players who make the sacrifices.
Wu Huang has played 13 games this season, averaging 31.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 10.8 assists, 3.4 steals, 1.2 blocks and 3.9 turnovers per game. He shot 52.6 percent from the field, 43.6 percent from three-point range and 90.4 percent from the free throw line.
At the moment, in the scoring list, Wu Huang ranks first with 31.9 points. In second place is Durant, but Xiao Xuebao's average points per game have dropped to 29.1 points, opening up a lot of gaps with Wu Huang. That's because the growth of Westbrook and Harden has reduced Durant's number of shots, and his scoring numbers have dropped from last season.
Wu Huang's current lead in the scoring charts is very solid, and a lead close to three points is not so easy to chase, especially this year, many superstars are busy huddles, which has caused the average points per game of the stars of the entire league to drop, and only two people are currently averaging more than 28 points per game. For the time being, unless Durant can explode next, or Wu Huang's scoring continues to decline, Wu Huang is the most likely to win the scoring title this season.
The regular season continues, and the Knicks have another back-to-back game at No. 23 and No. 24, as well as No. 27 and No. 28, which is about to kill the Knicks players, and if the New Yorkers can continue to remain undefeated in such a difficult schedule, then Wu Huang's award of the month is appropriate, and I believe that many people will have a lot of confidence in whether the Knicks have any hope of winning the championship.
On Nov. 23, the Knicks played at home against the Charlotte Bobcats.
Last season, the Bobcats finished with a franchise-high 44-38 record and made the playoffs for the first time. It stands to reason that this new army of the alliance should be on the rise, and rushing into the top eight will make them feel like they have seen the sky through the clouds, but this is not the case. ESPN put together a five-part list called the Future Power List, which aims to provide a five-part comprehensive evaluation of a team's future, and the Bobcats finished bottom of the 30 teams.
According to John Hollinger, the author of the list, the Bobcats are within the bottom five of the league in terms of player qualifications, trading intelligence, salary control and team market. Their only promising draft prospect is that they have an extra bonus because their record in the coming years may not be decent. One sentence on the list sums up this huge contrast: "If you look at the formula conversion alone, the future of the Bobcats is even half as bright as the Timberwolves." ”
Larry Brown has his own set of requirements and standards for players, and as long as the players meet these standards, Brown has the ability to maximize the strength of these people, which is also the capital of his ranking among famous coaches. On the contrary, when he felt that some disciples were not to his liking, he was not willing to spend too much energy and time to solve the problem properly. Brown prefers to dodge the problem in a more direct way – looking for ways to send the player away.
The Bobcats have improved dramatically in discipline and defense after Brown's transformation, but there have been gains and losses, and the Bobcats showed a lack of creativity on the offensive end in last season's playoffs, and fans can't help but raise similar concerns that Brown's team has a ceiling on talent, and the case of a blue-collar team winning a championship like in 2004 is very extreme.
The Knicks continued to play at home, and their weak defense allowed the Bobcats, who are not good at offense, to score 104 points. However, the Bobcats did not play last season's iron-blooded defense, and in the face of the Knicks, whose chemistry was getting better and better, the Charlottes only lasted half a game before collapsing across the board, and Wu Huang and Xiaosi teamed up to play a 16-3 attack wave in the third quarter, taking away the Bobcats who lacked interior defense in one fell swoop, and they scored 114 points today.
This season's Bobcats have lost their interior defensive pillar Tyson Chandler, and counting on the likes of Kwame Brown, Dampier and Dio to hold off the offense of Smalls is impossible as long as you are not crazy. By the second half of the game, the Bobcats' defense was already full of gaps, which was also in line with their 5-8 record, and there was obviously nothing to sing about this year's Bobcats.
Wu Huang faced short point guard DJ Augustin, and played very aggressively today, playing 41 minutes, scoring a game-high 38 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, helping the Knicks to 11 consecutive wins.
A 10-game winning streak is a watershed, and winning three or five games in a row may have a lot of luck, but winning ten games in a row means that the team's strength is indeed outstanding, especially in such a schedule, the Knicks can still win 11 in a row, and their odds to win the championship have unconsciously risen to 1 to 6.
Fans are now starting to be optimistic about the Knicks, except for the Lakers and the Heat, and now the Knicks have the lowest odds to win the championship.
On November 24, the Knicks came to the road to play the Bobcats again, and the latter had a chance to pull one back at home, but even luck helped the Knicks. Stephen Jackson missed the game with a leg injury before the game, which made the Bobcats, who were already short of major generals, even more stretched in terms of lineup.
It wasn't Wu Huang or Stoudemire who played today, Iguodala and Gallinari scored 25 and 20 points respectively, the Knicks used their front line to break down Gerard Wallace's one-man wing, and Jackson's absence made the Bobcats not only disadvantageous on the inside, but now they can't even defend on the outside.
Wu Huang went all out to deliver shells for Stoudemire, Iguodala and Gallinari in the game, and brushed up another 18 assists in a single game, while using sneak attacks to score 16 points and 10 rebounds, and he used his third triple-double of the season to help the team extend the winning streak, and the Knicks also used 12 straight wins to survive the fourth back-to-back of the month.
"The schedule is too difficult," Wu Huang said after the race, although he won the best of the match, but he admitted: "I looked at the schedule before the start of the season, and I thought that we were probably not more than half of the winning rate in the first month, especially in the second half of November, after a game, we often only have less than one day of rest, and we don't even have much time to sleep." But that's the schedule, so I can only try to rest as much as possible and get ready for the game. ”
The Knicks will return home after their third back-to-back, but there is still not much rest in between, as they will soon face the Atlanta Hawks, a powerhouse in the East, and then go through another back-to-back to Detroit against the Pistons, which will be their fourth back-to-back of the month and the last back-to-back of the month.
The New Yorkers' schedule did change in the second half of November, but by December, the Knicks' schedule would be much easier. They only have 13 games next month, and now the Knicks are just asking not to suffer injuries in the final three games of the month, and many players are already starting to feel the physical problems and are most vulnerable to injuries at this time.
D'Antoni didn't think about it for long, and soon decided to use a rotation strategy against the Hawks, reducing the playing time of Wu Huang and Xiaosi.
Even if they lose this game, it's nothing, the Knicks have already topped the league in this wave of 12 consecutive wins, and now there is no need to overdraw the players' physical strength in order to continue their winning streak, and if this leads to injuries to the main players, then no amount of consecutive wins can afford to lose. At the moment, even if they lose one or two games, they still have the best record, and sometimes they can go further when they take a step back. (To be continued.) )