Chapter Eighty-Seven: Harden's Career High

As soon as the second quarter began, both sides naturally made adjustments, and the Timberwolves' Mayo re-entered the game, partnering Barria, but in order to balance the offense and defense, Adelman put the better defensive Cunningham in the small forward position, and Glen Davis returned to the court after a three-minute break at the end of the first quarter, and the center was still Greg Stisma.

This lineup is like a sieve everywhere in Chen An's eyes, but he is still in the regular rotation, after all, Harden played the whole first quarter, and Lillard must have led the team in the second quarter, and Turner partnered with him, and Harris and Anderson on the front line went back, and the center was still rotated to JJ Hickson.

Originally, Chen An felt that although the rotation lineup was poor in defense, it could at least be opened on the offensive end, but he didn't expect that Lillard was really bad today, playing iron frequently, and even on the defensive end, he seemed weak, and was almost suddenly turned into a sieve by Barria.

Fortunately, Turner played today, using his height and strength to eat a few Mayo, and Anderson opened up the space and seized the opportunity to hit a three-pointer to not let the difference open, but nearly halfway through the second quarter, the Timberwolves still turned over the score and led 43:39.

Chen An couldn't help it, and directly replaced Lillard, who was in very poor condition, with Harden, but in order to deal with Barria's breakthrough, he promoted Turner to the No. 3 position, and replaced Harris who was also sleepwalking with Beverley, Anderson continued to stay, although he couldn't limit the big baby, but Glenn Davis only rested for three minutes in the first quarter, and Chen An believed that he would go down to rest before too long.

As for the position of the center forward, Chen An asked Vucevic to replace Hickson, the super white bear Pekovic on the opposite side is coming back, Hickson can't defend, and Chen An doesn't want to be blown up inside.

After Harden re-appeared, the effect was immediate, the offensive end was suddenly sorted out in an orderly manner, and his personal offense is still very sharp, whether it is Barria, Mayo or Cunningham, they can't limit him at all, and Adelman is an old stubborn, no meaning at all, his idea is very simple, since he can't limit Harden, try his best to limit others on the defensive end, if you Harden can kill me directly, I will admit it.

However, in his heart, Adelman does not think that Harden is a player like Kobe Bryant and does not have the ability to overturn the game on his own.

Adelman's idea is considered to have fulfilled Harden, in the face of the Timberwolves' paper-like outside defense, Harden is completely open, singles, blocking, and passing and cutting everything, and soon helped the Magic team recover the score, Adelman saw that the situation was not good, called a timeout, made adjustments, replaced Pekovic to increase the protection of the interior, and let Cunningham defend Harden, but it was still useless.

Today's Harden is not something that a Cunningham can prevent, and Pekovic's slow pace is also frequently used by Harden, especially when Hickson is on the court, and Harden's several blocking and pick-and-roll cooperation into an empty catch, and soon the score between the two sides is opened, and by the end of the half, the Magic team has a 14-point lead of 63:49.

Adelman was very unhappy, and at the end of halftime, he severely reprimanded the players under him, but it was useless, the Timberwolves' defense had no system, and the talent of individual defense was not enough, coupled with the situation of Harden's rampage today, it couldn't be stopped at all.

Adelman's stubbornness fulfilled Harden and gave up the victory, and by the end of the third quarter, the difference between the two teams had reached 25 points, and Harden, who played the third quarter, had a quasi-triple-double of 41 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, and three steals.

This kind of score is already a career high for Harden, his previous highest score was 40 points when he was with the Thunder, originally Harden had the opportunity to further improve his career high in this game, but Chen An's step-by-step rotation in the fourth quarter still let Lillard lead the team in the first half of the fourth quarter.

Lillard's form finally picked up, although it was not outstanding, but he still scored a few goals, coupled with the loss of morale on the King's side, and by the halfway point of the fourth quarter, the difference between the two sides remained around 20 points, and Chen An did not let Harden play again.

Soon, Adelman chose to give up the game, emptied the end of his bench, and changed to a garbage time lineup, Chen An was also happy to see Adelman Mingjin collect the troops, and replaced the lineup like Roy, Youdri, Green, Crowder, and Zhu Fangyu, and played the last three minutes in general.

At the end of the game, the Magic team won another game, and the record has become 4-0, but Adelman is not very convinced like Thibodeau, after all, Rubio and Love failed to play, and Adelman feels that his team's strength is completely inferior to its heyday.

Chen An knows that these coaches are competitive, after all, what kind of sports do they do without a competitive heart? He didn't taunt Adelman, just shook hands politely, and then returned to the locker room with the players, and Harden naturally became the target of media pursuit.

This guy is really stinky at the moment, and after taking a shower and changing his clothes to open the interview, this guy is talking nonsense to a group of reporters, what is he not yet in the strongest state, 4 consecutive wins are just the beginning, Magic is looking forward to the playoffs, looking forward to a showdown with a strong team, etc.

Stinky farts are stinky farts, but they still show a strong sense of initiative, and Chen An is also happy, because after the game with the Timberwolves, the difficult schedule of the Magic team is not over, and after a day of rest, it will be 5 days and 3 strong opponents, and the strong matchup that Harden is looking forward to is coming.

Like playing the Chicago Bulls on the court, wait until the end of the game, and then go through a series of cutscenes, Chen An took the team back to the hotel to pack up his things and flew back to Orlando overnight, and when the plane landed, it was almost early in the morning, and the players did not get a good rest after consecutive away games and back-to-back, through the health system, Chen An could see that the team's fatigue level had reached a limit, so although there was a game tomorrow, Chen An still announced a day off, so that everyone could go back to rest and replenish sleep and physical strength, So I'm in the best shape for tomorrow's game against the Nets.

Of course, there are also Chen An's own reasons, although he is a coach and has not played, but he is really unbearable to toss back and forth with the team, and the whole person looks very haggard due to lack of sleep, Chen An does not want to die suddenly in office.

"Looks like I'm going to have to work out more, should I get a fitness trainer or get up every morning and go for a run?"

Chen An began to plan his health, after all, his body is not yet 40 years old, and he doesn't want to be famous one day, but his body has already deteriorated. Just when he returned home and opened the door and saw the lovely child lying on the bed, Chen An knew that his health plan had to be postponed.