Chapter 81: Adversity

The first round of the playoffs came to an end on Labor Day, with all eight teams advancing to the semifinals, the Warriors, Spurs, Thunder and Trail Blazers in the West, and the Cavaliers, Raptors, Hawks and Knicks in the East. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Among them, only the Trail Blazers and the Knicks are on the two teams, the Trail Blazers' advance to the Western Conference semifinals is more of the mercy of Lady Luck, and the Knicks almost blacked out the Heat by an overwhelming margin, the shock brought by the two is earth-shattering, of course, the Trail Blazers and Coach Stotts are still respectable.

Before the Knicks rushed to Toronto on May 2, the second round of the playoffs had already played the first game, the Cavaliers and Warriors slaughtered the Hawks and Trail Blazers at home respectively, the Spurs and Thunder ended the first-round series early, and the second round game has been played to the second game.

The Raptors finally made it to the division semifinals for the second time after the 2001 season, which made Toronto fans wait for 15 years, and the 4-3 score made the victory seem even more hard-won, but it also made the Raptors' players continue to play hot.

On the contrary, the Heat went out early, and the Knicks players rested for nearly 5 days, reserving enough physical strength, but the state was much colder.

After the start of the game, Lowry and DeRozan were in lackluster form, but the role players were full of firepower, and Valanciunas and Carroll played strong performances to make up for the malaise of the backcourt two-gun pair.

Wang Zhuo knows the tactical characteristics of the Raptors, the outside line is the main firepower point, the flank defense ability is outstanding, and the strength of the inside line should not be underestimated, so Wang Zhuo's pre-game defense deliberately targeted Lowry and DeRozan and achieved good results, but the overall performance of the Knicks was too poor, and the offense could not be opened at all, so that he caught sesame, lost watermelon, and fell into a situation of passive beating.

The starting lineup played miserably, the bench was also not strong, the shortcomings of Grant and O'Quinn were exposed, Grant's playoff experience was seriously inexperienced, the offensive end made frequent mistakes, the defensive end fell into foul trouble, O'Quinn had rough technical means, and he was repeatedly blown up in the face of Biyombo.

Wang Zhuo has noticed that the Raptors' backup center Bismarck Biyombo, a black player from the Congo in Africa, has similar technical characteristics to O'Quin, is tall and has long arms, excellent athleticism, and is full of passion, especially on the defensive end, with excellent blocking and rebounding ability, and is very intimidating on the inside.

In the first round against the Hornets, Biyombo repeatedly grabbed offensive rebounds when the backcourt was playing with two guns, and used crazy performances to help the Raptors win the series.

The defensive intensity of the playoffs is greater, and some situations are unpredictable, and there may be players who play the role of surprise soldiers and catch the opponent off guard, Wang Zhuo believes that Biyombo has such an ability, which is worth taking seriously.

No matter how Wang Zhuo arranged his tactics and roared, the Knicks players looked like they were sleepwalking and couldn't play the desired effect at all, and in the end, 96-107, the Knicks lost the first game of the semifinals.

However, the Knicks were not satisfactory in restricting the backcourt double shots, Lowry and DeRozan jointly handed over the answer sheet of 12 of 35 shots, which can be regarded as a glimmer of comfort in the defeat, of course, comfort is comfort, but it does not affect the final result of the game in the slightest.

After the game, Wang Zhuo didn't say anything, gathered all the Knicks players, and played the edited video of the first game three times, allowing the players to summarize their own shortcomings and reasons for failure, Anthony took the lead in taking the responsibility on his shoulders, and the shooting rate of 8 of 20 on the offensive end couldn't bear to look directly, and the defensive end did not limit Carroll's outburst.

The rest of the players also expressed their opinions and opinions, but none of them questioned Wang Zhuo's tactics, because in most cases, the players' execution was not in place, which eventually led to the loss of the game.

Of course, as the head coach, Wang Zhuo does not have the slightest idea of shirking responsibility, he just makes the players understand that if they want to win, it is not possible to rely on the head coach or a single player alone, just like the Raptors, the backcourt is crazy with two guns, and still wins the final victory.

The second game was two days later, still on the home court of the Raptors, learning from the lessons of the last loss, the Knicks played very resolutely on the offensive end, and did their best on the defensive end, but the backcourt two shots broke out at the same time, scoring 65 points in the whole game, and Lowry also handed out 10 assists.

What worries Wang Zhuo also happened, Biyombo came off the bench, played 30 minutes, scored 17 points, and grabbed 16 rebounds, almost single-handedly dominating both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and bursting the Knicks' interior line.

116-102, the Raptors won another game at home, with a big score of 2-0, and Raptors fans seemed to see the dawn of the division finals.

"I believe the Raptors can cause a lot of trouble for the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals!"

In an interview with the media, DeRozan did not hesitate to say that his big mouth and arrogantly spoke, revealing between the lines that he was pointing directly to the Eastern Conference Finals, and in his eyes, the Knicks were dead, and he was not even qualified for a stumbling block.

After losing two games in a row away from home, Knicks fans felt fear and despair, but they did not comment badly on Wang Zhuo, because the Knicks' promotion to the semifinals this season was a victory in itself, and they just prayed silently, hoping that Wang Zhuo could once again exert the power of "God's gift" to save the Knicks in adversity.

"Feng Shui takes turns, today in New York, the people who eat melons sit and watch the proud and ignorant megalomaniac suffer retribution!"

Miami fans are full of hatred for Wang Zhuo, and when they saw the news of the Knicks' two consecutive away defeats, they unceremoniously ridiculed in front of the media, and did not hesitate to fall into the ground.

Wang Zhuo did not respond, or even give an interview to the media, he was under pressure, but he did not think that the Knicks had completely lost their chances, and the two consecutive defeats on the road were not the end of the world.

The reason why the star of the house becomes the star of the house is to be able to turn the tide at the moment of the game, make a final decision at the critical moment, and lead the team to the final victory, they have strong individual ability, extraordinary leadership temperament, the star explodes, and the team's probability of winning will become greater, so the super strong teams in the league often gather big-name stars, such as Gemini, Big Three, F4, etc., even if one of the stars is sluggish, there will always be someone who stands up to control the game, which is the so-called east is not bright and the west is bright.

In this game, the Raptors' backcourt exploded together, driving role players and benches to blossom in an all-round way, and the Knicks, who were already weak, had no hope of winning at all, and the Knicks also played with perseverance and determination, but this game is destined to be a game dominated by stars, and it is not terrible to lose.

0 to 2, Wang Zhuo will naturally not give up and sit still, adversity is not a desperate situation, even if it is a desperate situation, Wang Zhuo has to taste the taste of desperate life.