Chapter 118: Five Consecutive Guests
After beating the Timberwolves at home, the Trail Blazers have a five-game road streak of away games against the Magic, Heat, Hornets, Timberwolves and Warriors on the road, and will not be able to face the Bulls on their home court until November 19. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info Five consecutive away games is a difficult journey for any team, Ye Feng is also the first time to encounter this kind of cheating, but he must get used to it as soon as possible, there are not a few N consecutive visitors in the NBA 30 team's annual schedule, and there are even occasional back-to-back backs that are more calm, which is also a real test of the head coach's rotation and player perseverance.
Fortunately, the Trail Blazers' five consecutive away games don't require them to run around in the United States all day, the Magic and the Heat both belong to the Southeast Division, and they are not far apart geographically, and the actual distance between Orlando and Miami is only 376 kilometers, which is said to be two away games, and actually leaves plenty of rest. However, New Orleans, where the Hornets are located, is not very "friendly", and the team needs to fly halfway through the United States to get to this port city in Louisiana, but fortunately, the next two games are in Minnesota and Oakland, and they are both Western teams, only the 14th and 15th have been more difficult to fight the Pelicans and Timberwolves for two consecutive days.
Ye Feng then deeply realized why the league began to sign a contract with the world's largest commercial aircraft leasing company "GE Capital" in 1998, which provided special planes for various NBA teams, and even some owners who didn't care about burning money simply bought private jets for the team, such as Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. In the midst of a long schedule of away games, there is a great need for a plane dedicated to the NBA players, at least a little more spacious than a regular flight, so that the players can have more space to rest and avoid exhausting their energy during the long journey.
GE Capital is a commercial aircraft leasing company with a good reputation, and they are also very hard to provide the best service to their customers. The planes that transport NBA players have been extensively modified to accommodate a 160-passenger cabin, leaving only about 40 seats. The entire cabin is divided into three parts. The frontmost cabin has only 15 seats and is reserved for players. The cabin in the middle has about 12 seats, divided into 6 rows, and there is a square table in the middle for the coach to hold a meeting. The rearmost cabin generally has 7 rows of seats and belongs to the staff. In addition, the cabin entrances and exits, toilets, etc. have also been modified.
The best thing about this is that the players finally have a place to fit their long legs, which is not possible even in business class. In addition, there is also a benefit of avoiding being watched by fans, as an NBA player, it is of course a very happy thing to have fans who like you, but when you are busy rushing to the next city to play the game, you are constantly asked by fans to take photos or autographs or something, even players with a good temper will feel very unhappy, maybe this is no different from the feeling of being screamed from sleep.
The first away game was at the Amway Center in Orlando to take on the Magic team led by "Warcraft" Howard. I have to say that the big Van Gundy's system of one center + four shooters with Howard as the core is very successful, under Howard's strong containment, the Turkish Turk Turkoglu scored 35 points in the whole game, and Howard himself also received 19 rebounds, but unfortunately, in the end, the Trail Blazers, who were more overall and more balanced, won this victory, which undoubtedly gave a good start to the five consecutive visitors. Roy was the hero of the team's victory, and his 27 points and 6 assists were also a team-high.
However, strictly speaking, it is Ye Feng who has benefited the most from the whole team, and he has seen another form of small forward from Turkoglu, of course, this is an old and trendy style of play, that is, the organization forward. It is said to be ancient because this position was born as early as the Bull Dynasty, and it also brought out Pippen, who may be the strongest two masters in history; It is said to be trendy because at the beginning of this century there were endless top point guards, from Kidd and Nash to Paul and Delon, it can be said that there is almost no soil for the survival of the organizational forward, and at this time the big Van Gundy dug this position out of the dust of history, which is undoubtedly a challenge to the trend.
Ye Feng was deeply attracted by Rietkoglou's comprehensiveness in this game, which could both organize attacks and attack cities, and he felt that he was fully capable of doing this, even better than Tekoglu. In fact, he didn't see the Turks as his opponent, and the Knight's No. 23 was his target. LeBron James, the undoubted pride of heaven, has only been in the NBA for five seasons, and has been considered by many people to be a strong candidate for the first small forward in history, also known as the most comprehensive small forward after Pippen, he is the real target that Ye Feng has been secret.
If Ye Feng didn't know how to catch up with James, then Turkoglou's performance undoubtedly opened a new door for him, and being an all-round forward who can score and assist is the direction he needs to work hard in the future. Of course, this is difficult, under normal circumstances, a player who scores desperately is naturally reluctant to give up the right to shoot, but there is no shortage of such superstars in the history of the NBA, the most famous is probably the nickname "Elf" Archibald, who won both the NBA scoring title and the assist king in the 1972-73 season, which fully proves that scoring and organization can be taken into account.
However, the urgency of the schedule could not be adjusted by Ye Feng slowly, let alone re-formulate the direction of his future development. The Trail Blazers won again in Miami, even if Wade scored a game-high 36 points, it couldn't prevent the team from losing, Roy, who is also a shooting guard, completed the exchange with him, scoring 32 points in the game, and Ye Feng also contributed his first career 20+: 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. It is worth noting that Beasley, the Heat's selected star pick, also started the game and got 33 minutes of playing time, scoring 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting, but as a big man, 3 rebounds are definitely not up to par.
The Trail Blazers had a four-game winning streak after beating the Heat, but just as they were ready to continue winning in one go, the Hornets gave them a slap in the face. It was a defensive battle, with Roy, who scored 21 points, but the Hornets relied on Paul and David West to bring the Trail Blazers' four-game winning streak to an abrupt end. seems to have been infected by his teammates, Ye Feng's shooting rate is not high, even if he is standing opposite Peja, who is strong in attack and weak in defense, he only scored 13 points. In this game, the two sides played crazy iron, the Trail Blazers shot 43.5% and 33.3% three-pointers, and the Hornets only 42.3% and 31.8%, so when Ye Feng saw the statistics, he was confused, and he didn't see where the team did worse than the opponent, and then lost.
But he can't afford to be sad at this time, because it's a back-to-back, and after they take on the Hornets on Nov. 14, they will continue to challenge the Timberwolves at the target center in Minnesota on the 15th. Originally, Loew thought that as the host, he could invite Ye Feng to a meal, but Ye Feng was so tired that he had to squeeze out time to recover his strength to cope with the evening game. Fortunately, Loew is not an outsider, and after listening to his explanation, he understands his approach very well, so he pushes the boat to continue to postpone the meal. It's a pity that Ye Feng was still languishing until the pre-game warm-up began, and he was indeed tired.
McMillan has no choice, and he can't force Ye Feng to play, if this is the case, Ye Feng's performance is not good, and he may be in danger of injury. So he sent Batum, who is also a rookie this year, to replace Ye Feng, and Ye Feng obediently stayed on the bench, waiting to lead the second team with Outlaw. Ye Feng was still a little depressed about the coach's arrangement, but he knew that this situation could not tolerate child's play, and he also knew that he had not recovered to the best state physically, and forcing himself to start was undoubtedly making trouble for himself, so he accepted this arrangement half-pushed and half-on-place.
I don't know what the reason is, Loew played badly again, maybe the Trail Blazers are his sufferers, right? The data of 8 points and 4 rebounds in the game can only be said to be subpar, and the Timberwolves' interior line is completely dependent on Jefferson's 26 points and 6 rebounds to support it. So in the end, it is not surprising that the Timberwolves lost to the Trail Blazers again, but the Trail Blazers did not play well except for Roy, and Ye Feng could only barely let himself score a double. The score of this game was also not so good, 88-83, and it was not surprising to experts that the Trail Blazers played like this, after all, it was one of their strings of away games, but the Timberwolves played like this is a little puzzling.
Oakland is the last stop of this wave of five consecutive road trips, and the Trail Blazers players seem to be tortured enough, no way, after all, they are all young people, and five away games in eight days are really difficult for them. However, as soon as the team relaxed, there was a problem, although the team had five players scoring double-doubles, but the Warriors had six double-doubles and three scored 20+, not to mention that the Trail Blazers' free throws in this game were very poor, with a 69% shooting rate 25 percentage points lower than the Warriors, and fortunately, the Warriors did not get many free throws, otherwise they would not have lost by 5 points, and they were likely to suffer a crushing defeat on the last road.
Even so, the Trail Blazers still have a 3-2 record in five straight away games, and they still maintain a win rate of more than 50%, which is quite good for a young team. But Ye Feng still secretly scolded the NBA official who compiled the schedule in his heart, for no other reason, after returning from Oakland, he didn't have any time to rest, and he was going to face the Bulls at home again.