Howard scored a game-high 19 points in the half, along with 12 rebounds, three assists and six blocks, including five in the second quarter, and would have scored even more if it weren't for the poor free throws.

This statistic itself has done a huge amount of damage to the Knicks, and what is even more hurtful is that the data is followed by additional effects, Howard made the Knicks two centers and one power forward carry 3 fouls, and the offensive end is ridiculously lethal.

At the end of the first half, the Knicks' four interior players had 11 fouls, plus Iguodala was also killed, and Howard was indeed the biggest killer in the active paint area.

The Knicks had two full dozen fouls and didn't know what to do in the second half.

Wu Huang handed over 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in the first half, in addition to scoring well, he was completely unable to help his teammates score, and the shooting rate was not very high, only 5 of 12 shots, 2 of 5 three-point shots, and only two free throws in the entire first half, obviously it was difficult for him to enter the paint area to make kills.

"Be sure to stick to him, don't let him have room to start, as long as the card owner is his lower plate, no matter how developed his upper body muscles are, it's useless!" D'Antoni was still teaching how to defend Howard at halftime, in fact, the big guys know how to defend it, but whether they can prevent it is another question. In addition to defensive ability, the influence of a player's condition, the referee's penalty scale, the bonus of the home atmosphere, the speed of teammates, and even luck can affect the success or failure of every defense.

David Lee has been defending Howard's next game, but as long as the two have a physical confrontation, it ends with him fouling. This kind of penalty has too much impact on the players. It was already at a disadvantage. If the referee's whistle doesn't help him. Then there's really no way to prevent it.

"If I can guard Howard, it will be more than 8 million annual salary." David Lee was not very happy, and secretly slandered in his heart.

Wu Huang patted him on the shoulder, he knew that defending Howard was not an easy task, although the upper body muscles did not dominate the inside confrontation, but they could make the opponent more painful in the confrontation, and at the same time strengthen his defense in the collision.

David Lee is also gritting his teeth to resist the impact of Howard's terrifying muscles, you can imagine the scene of being constantly bumped by King Billy. You know how David Lee has been devastated today.

T-N-T broadcast the game live to the nation, and after the playoffs entered the second round, even the TV commentary lineup was upgraded to four. Magic Johnson, Reggie Miller, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, a total of four presenters, commented on the scene in the studio.

Kenny Smith praised Howard's performance in conjunction with the game footage, saying: "His Majesty Superman is forcing himself to do everything, he chooses to be in charge of everything, and this super performance has helped his teammates, and when he is pinched, the Magic shooters on the perimeter have a chance to play." “

Reggie Miller went on to say: "With 19 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists and 6 blocks, Dwight almost single-handedly supported the game. ”

Barkley thinks the Knicks still have a fighting spirit. It's just that Howard's performance today was too fierce, "The Knicks are also doing well. They're tough in every way, which is a bit unlike the style of the D'Antoni team, and the Knicks, like any other playoff team, want to try to win every game and be content if they don't score second. ”

Magic Johnson laughed: "If the Knicks lose this series, it's not anyone's fault, Hugo has a star-like performance, Iguodala and David Lee are also good, but the rest of their team lacks talent. The Magic have too much of an advantage on the inside, and like Charles said, they want to try to win every game, but they have a hard time winning any of the games in this series. ”

None of the four Hall of Fame superstars fancy the Knicks, and less than three minutes after the start of the second half, Nelson dished out two assists in a row, and the Magic hit two three-pointers from the outside to play a 9-2 scoring surge to further widen the deficit at 66-39.

The Knicks added insult to injury, as Howard made another Frye defensive foul on the offensive end, and the Knicks' starting power forward got four fouls first.

With 27 points trailing on the road, D'Antoni had to break the can and didn't replace Frye, who was left to luck how long he could hold out.

Wu Huang knew that the only hope now was to get Howard down, and on the offensive end, he broke through to the inside again, a quick cross in disguise, forced past Nelson near the left three-point line, and went to the inside to meet Howard with a big pull-up layup.

Howard, who had been in that situation three years ago, might have stopped it regardless of his desperate efforts. But after so many years of playing, he is no longer the reckless and reckless hairy boy, since this ball has lost the opportunity, as soon as Wu Huang's lever action is made, the chance of forcibly blocking must be a greater foul, and he has also committed three fouls, this ball can't be beaten.

Wu Huang didn't expect Howard to let him go to the basket, although this goal was wonderful, it was only a mere two points, and it didn't play a big role at all, and it could only help the Knicks break the scoring drought.

"Okay, don't you dare to guard against it, I'll come back next time." Emperor Wu didn't take much advantage of it, so he hurriedly found it back.

Howard held back his anger, he was indeed much more mature than before, and when it was time to move his mouth, he would challenge Emperor Wu's trash talk. When it's time to endure it, he can also do it without speaking, his personality is indeed mature, and his body is at its peak, these two years are the strongest period of Howard's career, and it is also the time when the Magic should produce results.

Wu Huang put out the big words here, but he didn't play inside at all in the next round, just now he deliberately let Nelson hear his voice, this time one step away from the three-point line, suddenly a cold shot three points, the basketball drew a fast and sharp arc, straight to the net!

The ball finally restored the Knicks' morale, and Wu Huang scored five points in a row to narrow the gap to 22 points, and the next round had a chance to narrow the gap to less than 20 points.

Big Van Gundy reached out from the sidelines to call a timeout, and although he didn't see much threat yet, the experienced Van Gundy already sensed the danger ahead. At this point, a timeout must be requested to calm down on both sides.

The Magic's timeout was met with unanimous praise from the media after the game. Wu Huang's hand has risen. The Knicks' morale is also showing signs of recovery, and at this time, using a timeout to interrupt the opponent's hard-won breath will likely make New Yorkers completely choke.

The fact is similar, after the timeout came back, the Magic players began to wrap up Wu Huang with all their might, preventing him from having another chance to shoot, sealing the Knicks' breakthrough to win from defeat.

Big Van Gundy knows that the only player on the Knicks team who can launch a counterattack when they are down by a big margin is Wu Huang, and Iguodala can be the key man in the stalemate. But when this kind of big score is behind, he can't score consecutive points, so as long as he watches Wu Huang's long-range projection, the Knicks can't score inside, and can only hit the big luck outside the three-point line, which will accelerate their demise.

Iguodala and Green's three-pointers missed, and Howard grabbed a frontcourt rebound on the inside, and the Magic returned a 6-0 to the Knicks in the next two minutes, and the margin was stretched to 28 points this time.

This time, even Wu Huang wanted to give up, otherwise how would he chase the 28-point gap? Again, this is not a movie or a novel. In reality, such a score is enough to make people desperate, let alone the home of the opponent here. They also fell into a foul crisis, and they didn't even have the slightest chance to turn defeat into victory.

Soon, Channing Frye picked up a fifth foul on Carter, and this time D'Antoni finally replaced him. But less than a minute later, Nelson's breakthrough caused David Lee to make up for the foul, and the Knicks' interior completely collapsed!

At the end of the third quarter, the score was 90-62, and the Knicks trailed their opponents by a full 28 points, and they could not turn the tables again.

D'Antoni reluctantly replaced all the starters, announcing that he had given up the first game of the second round of the playoffs and replaced him with an all-bench lineup in the final quarter.

The mustache didn't want to give up so early, but they really didn't have any hole cards to fight again.

This is only the third quarter, but David Lee, Frye and Green have all already got five fouls, the fake wolf king left the game with full fouls in the third quarter, and even Iguodala and Wu Huang have four fouls, what else do they have to fight?

The Knicks have no inside line available now, and even the outside players have turned on the red light, and if they continue to play, they will really be wiped out, and when the time comes, four or five players will be sent off and swallow a big defeat, so there will really be no face at all.

Wu Huang sat on the bench in the fourth quarter and was silent like other teammates, today he got 21 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, it stands to reason that it is very good to get such data in the playoffs, but if compared with his performance of 32.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 9.5 assists, 4 steals and 1.2 blocks per game in the first round, this data has dropped more than one notch today, and he has not won yet.

Howard didn't play again in the fourth quarter, the monster sitting on the bench kept grinning and joking with his teammates, and once the bench players on the court did a good job, Howard would make exaggerated funny moves to attract the attention of the sideline camera.

He has reason to be so happy, today he scored a game-high 25 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists and 7 blocks, and what kind of praise such a performance will receive after the game, I believe many fans can guess without thinking about it.

The American media has been waiting for someone to stand up and teach this Chinese American a lesson, and after the game, they will definitely compare Howard's data with Wu Huang directly, and then fight the arrogance of this Chinese American from all aspects, so as to save those damn Asian media from always comparing Wu Huang's performance with a number of Hall of Fame players in the NBA.

In the eyes of the American media, these yellow-skinned monkeys who don't understand basketball at all will render Wu Huang as the strongest in history every time, although they admit that Wu Huang is a genius, but he is still just a guy with some strength and good luck at the same time, he may be able to enter the Hall of Fame in the future, but he will definitely not be able to surpass other Hall of Fame players.

With a final score of 115-90, the Knicks returned to the division semifinals after ten years, but the result of the first game was not pleasant for them, and the Knicks suffered a heavy defeat to the Orlando Magic.

Wu Huang said in the post-match press conference: "We tried our best, we fought, I feel that we played better than in the last round, but we still showed a lot of shortcomings. "His so-called shortcomings naturally come from many aspects, even including the referee's penalty scale." All I can say is look at the fouls we have, sometimes we can count as fouls on both sides, but it's the playoffs. There will definitely be a lot of physical contact. But who always fouls in the end? “

D'Antoni also expressed his displeasure with the decision in this game. "If the scale of the penalty has been so tight, it's almost impossible for us to fight him [Howard] because we're playing against a monster and my players get savagely pushed away after every confrontation and then get fouled. ”

There are actually a lot of complaints like this mustache, and Wu Huang often touches porcelain in the game, isn't it a foul if the opponent touches him lightly? Why don't you see others protesting against this?

That's the rule. No matter who squeezes who out of the game is, no matter who is wronged in the end, as long as you violate the rules first, then you are a foul, even if it seems that the person who committed the foul is more like a victim, then you can only blame yourself for not taking advantage of the rules, and your skills are not as good as others.

Iguodala was much more personable than the two before him, saying, "We did everything, we had physical confrontations with them, we tried to control the rebounds. We did all the hard work required for the game. But the opponent is working the same. When you get a chance, you have to take it and we failed because the opponent took the chance. "His words fell to the point, and he didn't take the opportunity, and the Knicks may only blame themselves, any winner must be better than you, otherwise it won't be him, but you.

On the Magic front, head coach Stan Van Gundy said: "He's shown a different demeanor, Dwight has always been a joker, he's been a no-brainer, he's been wandering around a lot, and it's not a bad thing this year. But there were also a lot of times this season where we were going to get him serious. I didn't say anything to him, though, from the beginning of this series. ”

Howard's performance says it all, and he does like to laugh, but that doesn't mean they don't want to win, and that doesn't mean he doesn't care about the outcome of the game. When the Magic's consistent three-point shooting is at a low point, his power on the interior can shock opponents.

"He's a good player, he's one of the best centers in the league." David Lee said helplessly after the game that he was responsible for guarding Howard during the game, but the whole process was very unpleasant. "I think he's probably one of the toughest players in the league, and he knows how to use his body to his advantage. I'm not surprised by his performance, we've seen so much this season. In the regular season, we knew we had to score every time we met the Magic, but we just couldn't, we didn't have enough shots. ”

The Knicks rank third in the league in three-point shooting percentage this season, and they rank first in the league in "three-point shooting," another category that is the most effective three-point shooting percentage. But today, the Knicks shot just 10-of-31 from beyond the three-point line.

Don't think that this data has nothing to do with Howard on the inside, it is precisely because of his absolute dominance on the inside that the Magic's outside players can confidently and boldly expand the defensive range and guard against the Knicks' long-range shooting, which ultimately caused the embarrassing situation that the Knicks shot more outside the three-point line today, but scored less.

Howard grinned happily after the game: "I feel great, I just want to tell some people to never attack me again, only my upper body is strong, my lower body is also very strong." However, this sentence drew him a penalty of $20,000 the next day, and the league considered him incoherent and nonsense.

But no matter how unhappy and happy all parties were after the game, the opening game of the second round of the playoffs did not surprise everyone, and the Magic had a relatively large chance of winning, but the process was somewhat beyond what was expected before the game.

Originally, most people thought that the final point difference between the two teams should not be too big, and it is a fact that the Knicks restrained the magic in some aspects, but Howard's role in the game made it impossible for the Knicks to play their real strength, and the process of this round of the series is likely to be shorter than previously speculated if it is viewed from this game

The next day, ESPN reported -

On May 4, the New York Knicks played the Orlando Magic away, and this group of games was the first game of the league's second round of playoffs.

The biggest attraction of this game is the point guard matchup that fans are very concerned about before the game, and everyone wants to know if Wu Huang can play the amazing performance against the Hawks in the last round when he faces a first-class point guard?

However, the game didn't show the point guard battle expected before the game, and Dwight Howard, a 25-year-old All-Star and the team's favorite joker, became serious. He had 25 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists and 7 blocks in the third quarter. Help the Magic easily beat the Knicks at home.

The Magic swept the Heat in four straight games in the first round. Nielsen is indebted. But in the eyes of the outside world, such a performance can only be said to be a mixed blessing. The good news is that Nielsen has finally regained his All-Star skills from last season, and the league's top teams need to be sideways; The worry is that Nielsen has repeatedly become the hero of the Magic's winnings, which is not the Magic's regular winning model after all.

It's like a good goalkeeper in football is always respected, but if a team always relies on the goalkeeper to win, their prospects are also worrying.

It is because of this that Dwight Howard's performance today was crucial for the Magic, and only the team's interior core showed dominance. This team is reassuring to win, and it deserves to win. And when Howard was frantically tugging at the Knicks' defense on the inside, Nelson and the rest of the perimeter players were naturally the biggest beneficiaries.

In fact, in the pre-game predictions, not many people think that Nielsen can handle Hugo, and the major media have listed the point guard matchup as the second or third biggest winner in this series in the pre-game predictions. The key is how much strength Howard and Carter can play, which is the key to determining how far the Magic can go.

Objectively speaking, both teams were a little more extreme today. When the Knicks are at home, the referee's blowing penalty is a little looser, and the home team adjusts its shooting status. The balance between the two teams could not have been so exaggerated.

But what does it matter? The Magic also have Nelson and Carter, who are top-notch players in the playoffs, with the former remaining the team's most consistent player so far in the playoffs. The latter's wealth of experience could also step up and take over the game at any time. With only one Howard today, the Knicks can't parry, and when the three stars of the Magic team break out together, the Knicks may have only one way to go home.

The New York Times gave the next day an example of what the team should do after losing in the first round to encourage its players.

It's been too long for the Knicks to go through the playoffs, so every step forward, we have to relearn and adapt.

There are a lot of differences between the regular season and the first round of the playoffs, and the second round of the playoffs is very different from the first round, so we need to revisit this kind of game and pay some tuition for our youth in the first round, which is an essential process.

But there is no need to be discouraged, our lads have extraordinary talents, and we have experienced more painful failures, as long as we can find the problem from the failure, learn the lessons, and then we can double the blow we have suffered to the opponent.

Don't forget, this is a series where whoever wins the fourth game first, we can come back from a 0-2 deficit to win once, and then we can finish a second and third time...... After each setback, the Knicks will come out stronger than before.

The New York Times is the media of its own city, and most of the media in the United States are falling into the ground at the moment, so after the defeat of the Knicks in the first game, they once again became ostriches, quietly licking their wounds, summing up the losses and preparing for the next game.

At this time, the experience of the previous round came into play, in the first round against the Hawks, they even experienced a 34-point defeat, this time they lost by 29 points, and the team's morale did not lose too much because of this fiasco.

That's the importance of playoff experience, where people who have gone through storms can be calm when they encounter a crisis, but the hairy boy can become panicked and lose confidence.

The first two away games of the second round have only one day of rest in between.

The Knicks used this day to find a way to restrain their opponents, and they could only find ways to play what they were good at in the game.

Before the second game, Wu Huang cheered up his teammates at every opportunity. Since even the media thought before the game that they and the Magic were not a matchup with a huge disparity, it means that they have the strength to resist. The first defeat was because they didn't play to their abilities, while the opponent showed their strengths, so the reason for the loss was as simple as that. As long as they play at their true level in the future, they can have a good fight even away from home.

He also repeatedly instilled the two key words "away" and "home whistle" to his teammates, making everyone feel that this is the biggest reason for the loss, rather than the inferior skills as the media said. They just suffered by playing away and enjoying the home whistle against each other, just like they did against the Eagles in the first round, but just back at home. They can stage a big comeback again.

April 6. The second battle between the Knicks and the Magic is here in the blink of an eye. Wu Huang's remarks were completely slapped in the face in this game.

In this game, the Knicks were not made countless fouls by Howard, but the process of the game broke the hearts of New York fans even more, not only did the Knicks not play their true strength, but the Magic team was in better shape, and they won more openly.

In the second game of Knicks vs Magic, although the Knicks players did not fall into the foul crisis in the last game, they still did not reduce the time Howard stayed on the court.

In this game, both offensively and defensively, the home team completely dominated the stadium. A large part of this is due to Howard's flawless play. The Monster did almost whatever he wanted on the inside, scoring, rebounding and blocks were all handy, and he had 22 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, and his interior advantage was unshakable.

The Magic's strategy today is also more complete than the previous game, starting with the team's efforts to force opponents to shoot from the outside and reduce the risk of Howard fouling under the basket, and the Knicks' lack of aggressive long-range shooting style has also fulfilled Howard's on the one hand.

The second is that Howard has reduced unnecessary fouls, such as a few dunks and layups from Wu Huang and Iguodala today, which are bound to score, and even if the Monsters have a chance to complete the block, they also let the opponent score. Losing two points in exchange for more playing time shows his maturity

In the end, Howard also used offense to destroy the opponent's interior defense. After two minutes in the first quarter, he drew a foul on David Lee, and then put the Knicks' forward Andre Iguodala into foul trouble. Although the two insisted on playing the first quarter of the game, they did not dare to make moves on the court for fear of another foul, which not only weakened the Knicks' defensive strength, but also completely unleashed the offensive power of this monster.

What are the consequences when Howard is not plagued by fouls and stays on the court for a long time to attack with impunity?

It's like a beast trapped in a cage that is suddenly released and attacks its opponent without stopping.

That's the case with Howard today, especially when the first half of the game hasn't even gone into garbage time, when the Monster is wreaking havoc on the Knicks' restricted area, but the latter has no way to fight back, because Howard even made free throws today.

In the opening stage, the Magic used the outside line to stalemate with the opponent, but then Howard took over the game, hooking hands on the offensive end, grabbing rebounds in the front court, and sending blocks in a row on the defensive end, the most exciting block occurred in the second quarter, when Harrington broke through to the basket, but only to see Howard jump high and grab the ball directly like a rebound, and the amazing blocking ability is amazing.

It wasn't until there were two minutes left in the first half that Howard was substituted, and Howard, who was not troubled by fouls, played 22 minutes in a row, during which he wantonly invaded the Knicks' airspace. Howard was not so much playing as he was venting his anger, and in 22 minutes, Howard actually delivered an amazing performance of 16 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks to help the team take a 20-point lead.

In the third quarter of this game, the suspense was not much, but Howard continued to create a threat on the offensive end, hooking hands, making layups and hitting three-pointers, and after scoring six points in a row, he once extended the advantage to as many as 30 points.

At this time, look at the Knicks' No. 1 man, Hugo, who has the reputation of "New York Emperor" and "Holy Master", the best rookie is lost in front of the Magic's tough interior muscles and pocket lineup, and his 12 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists are far from showing his embarrassment against the defense of veterans such as Nelson, Carter, Petrus and Barnes.

And in addition to Iguodala, who scored 17 points, David Lee, who barely scored 10 points, and Wu Huang, who scored 12 points, no one in the team scored a double-double, and in the second half, they could only send substitutes to take turns to disrupt the game, but there was still nothing they could do on the offensive end.

The continued slump in the Knicks' hand directly led to being far away from the Magic in the first half, and the score gap was fixed at more than 20 points from then on, and the trail was more than 30 points at one point.

The final score was 98:72, and the Knicks only lasted three quarters to let the game go into garbage time, and they only scored 72 points in the whole game, almost limited by the Magic to less than 70 points, which was unimaginable before the game.

Wu Huang doesn't know where the team went wrong, but he never believes that a center who is not very good at offense can make the Knicks like this, although Howard's two games are like a matchless, but there must be other more important reasons for their loss, Howard alone cannot play such a big role.

Therefore, Wu Huang thought about it and felt that it must be the coach's problem. Although he couldn't find a solution to the problem, it was because no matter how much he had basketball IQ, he was just a player, a 20-year-old rookie. What they have now is a tactical problem with the team, and it shouldn't be his problem, it should be the coach's problem.

Wu Huang was naturally dissatisfied with the mustache, and he felt that his coach did not come up with a solution to the problem when the team was in adversity. As the head coach of the team, D'Antoni shouldn't be helpless, does he have to give him a small Si so that he can find a way to deal with the Magic?

"He's supposed to tell us what we have to do to beat the Magic, even if we still lose in the end, but at least let me see that these tactics have some effect, and that we only lost because we weren't good enough to execute the tactics effectively, not that we didn't even know how we lost." Wu Huang had returned to New York with the team at this time, and with a stomach full of depression, he ran to Christine's apartment for an afternoon, and at the moment he was lying on the bed to recover his essence, while complaining about the head coach's not.

Such complaints are more like a way for him to vent his frustration, but in addition to complaining about his own head coach, Wu Huang is more likely to shirk responsibility, as if he only got 12 points and 5 assists in the game and is not responsible for the loss.

Christine looked like she had just run ten kilometers on the treadmill, and she was drenched in sweat, similar to running out of the bathroom after taking a shower without wiping. At this moment, her beautiful eyes were also a little blurry, as if she was still a little unconscious, lazily teasing the cat rolling on the carpet under the bed, and when she heard Wu Huang's complaints, she just nodded in agreement, but in fact, she didn't like basketball so much.

Wu Huang has been depressed after the loss, and continues to put the blame on poor D'Antoni: "I don't feel like I'm doing the right thing, I don't even know how to beat the Magic, because he didn't tell me this, he should have told us." ”

Christine finally took the sentence: "I know, it's like meeting a bad gaffer, he will shine you like a ghost." (To be continued.) )