Chapter 207: The New King
In the NBA, the game between the two teams is like two armies against each other, momentum is the key factor that determines the direction of the game, the side with high momentum is more likely to win the game, and the side with low momentum is easy to collapse.
Of course, momentum is relative, and it can be cultivated or suppressed.
What Zhang Feng has done from the beginning to the present is to constantly suppress the momentum of the Pelicans, he first kept hitting the interior line, inducing Cousins to foul one after another, and now he has begun to target Anthony Davis, the block is only the first step plan, and he has prepared many other ways to make Anthony Davis uncomfortable.
The Pelicans re-attacked, Anthony Davis stood on the baseline to serve, and the rest of the Pelicans players were concentrated on the right side of the court, from the baseline to the three-point line, in a 2x2 formation, and at first glance, the ball could be sent to any position.
Zhang Feng has made up his mind to block this pass, but who exactly will Davis pass to? He began to think in his mind: the first thing to exclude is Tony Allen, who has a poor shooting percentage and poor dribbling skills, and will definitely not be the Pelicans' first choice for catching the ball; Secondly, Nielsen is excluded, why? Those who defend themselves, the Pelicans should not dare to serve; Darius Miller is also a defensive forward, and the dribble is definitely not good, so it seems that the most likely person to receive the ball is Diallo, but he can only receive the ball, and the shot should still be Davis.
Thinking about these clearly, Zhang Feng put all his attention on Diallo.
Sure enough, after a chaotic run by the Pelicans, Diallo stepped up to the baseline, while at the same time, Davis passed the ball to him, and Davis himself slipped under the basket and waited for the basketball to return with expectant eyes.
Zhang Feng, who noticed the whole process, grinned, directly gave up intercepting Nelson, and turned his head to run towards Diallo.
Zhang Feng thought that he was going to get a beautiful steal again, but he didn't know that Davis had found him. An anxious Davies frantically crossed his hands to signal not to pass the ball, and Diallo, although slow to react, finally understood, so Diallo turned his head and passed the ball to Nelson on the outside.
Diallo understood what was going on, but Nelson didn't, he didn't figure out why the basketball was suddenly flying towards him, and in his mind, shouldn't Davis be shooting at this time?
This brief moment of confusion seemed to cause Nelson to ignore the pass, and in a wave of surprise, the basketball flew off the court.
I didn't expect that I couldn't make a steal, but the Pelicans gave away the ball for nothing, I really had the intention to plant flowers and flowers, and I didn't intend to plant willows and willows, although I picked up a bargain, but Zhang Feng still didn't forget to leave Davis a cheap smile.
Turning the head of the Kings to attack, Zhang Feng was entangled with Tony Allen again, but fortunately, he relied on Willy's blocking and killing to score on the inside shot.
No matter how strong a person's defense is, as long as he is blocked, it will fall apart in an instant, and the reason why Tony Allen doesn't look as good defensively now is because his Pelicans teammates are not as active as the Grizzlies' teammates defensively, and he also doesn't have the Grizzlies' defensive system, because Gentry is not a defensive-focused coach.
After Zhang Feng blocked Davis, the two teams fell into a short period of 'peace', you attack and defend, back and forth, but the Pelicans who lack Cousins, whether it is defending or attacking, are weakened in the eyes, and the Kings widen the point difference.
Gentry was in a hurry, but he had no choice, and the chronic death was the most painful, rather than being eaten away by the king point by point, it was better to be beaten out of a wave of 20:0.
Unable to stand it, Gentry called a timeout, and after some careful arrangement, the Pelicans returned to the court, but Zhang Feng still broke through the interior line as he wanted.
Davis took on the heavy responsibility of the Pelicans' offense and defense, and his physical strength was quickly exhausted, resulting in more and more mistakes, not only did he miss the empty shots one after another, but he could only stretch out his hand in the face of Zhang Feng's breakthrough.
At the end of the third quarter, the Pelicans trailed by 26 points, Davis was agitated and fouled, and Gentry shook his head and sighed, and he gave up the game in his heart.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter of the game, the Pelicans replaced the main lineup and sent some players who had never played.
At this time, Cousins was watching live TV in the away team's locker room, and he was already very unhappy, and what was even more unhappy was that O'Neal of TNT Live was still crazy about his rhythm.
"From this game, the king has officially entered the era of Zhang Feng, as he said, the king of the old era is gone, and Zhang Feng will lead the new king to stride forward", the two teams just changed to the third lineup, O'Neal directly came to a conclusion.
"Why this game?" Kenny doesn't understand, and he's going to ask O'Neill to say something.
"Alright, I'll tell you! At the beginning of the game, the Kings fans still missed Cousins a little, probably because the Kings' three away victories did not have much impact on the local fans, but this big home win was enough to let them know how powerful Zhang Feng is, and they will warmly welcome the new owner of the Sacramento Kings," Barkley said with a little boredom.
"That's exactly what I wanted to say! Honestly, I didn't know you knew me so well", O'Neal was surprised by the pretense that he was cheap and continued to sell well, causing Barkley to roll his eyes.
"I'm glad the Kings chose Zhang Feng at the No. 5 spot, and compared to the previous No. 5 spot, the Kings finally have a real player in charge, and I wish them a speedy playoff season," O'Neal said with a relieved smile on his face.
"Didn't the previous kings have a player?" Barkley questioned.
"Of course not, the most people talk about the Kings is the flashy basketball of '01-02, but neither Webb, Peja, nor Divac are leaders, let alone Tyrek Evans, Cousins, Ci Shiping, Martin, etc.," O'Neal said slowly.
"What's the difference between that Zhang Feng and them, and what's so special about Zhang Feng?" Barkley couldn't help but ask.
"The difference is that they just be a star, do some community interaction under the arrangement of the league and agents, win a good image, earn a little more dollars, win the game if they can, forget it if they can't win, only Zhang Feng wants to take the Kings to a higher height, including the NBA championship"
"It's a bit too much for you to say that, do you want to win the championship? Why do you speculate that Cousins didn't think about making the Kings better," Barkley seemed unhappy with O'Neal's words.
O'Neill glanced at Barkley in a bit of surprise, and then said, "Charles, are you serious?" If he's ever thought about bringing the team to a better result, he's going to be angry tonight? Will you get yourself ejected and the team will get into endless trouble? Have you ever seen a mature leader like this? ”
In fact, Barkley's words just wanted O'Neill not to say too harshly, which would offend too many people, but he still said bluntly, and Barkley suddenly had nothing to say, so he could only silently change the topic: "Huh? Is it all over for today's game? ”
"Bang!" Cousins couldn't take it anymore in the locker room, and he punched the TV screen.
At the same time, the referee on the court blew the whistle for the end of the game, and Zhang Feng stood up with a smile.