Chapter 116: All-Star Strength
Lewis was completely suppressed by Lehi and made supersound very passive. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info
In the crucial fourth quarter, Ray Allen stepped up, and Ray Allen clearly had more means to score than Lewis, and neither Crawford nor Marbury could limit him very easily.
By this time, the SuperSonics had completely lost track of the Knicks' scoring, and they picked up the tempo even further, with Luke Ridno making quick shots and Ray Allen and Radmanovic throwing them away.
With this decisiveness, they closed the score to 3 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Larry Brown immediately called a timeout, "Young people, don't follow their rhythm, we're going to play out the things in training, the size of each slide, the angle of the run every time we turn back, the timing of each rotation, it's that simple." ”
Larry Brown usually coaches in practice in detail, and the Knicks haven't been able to do exactly what he asks him to do.
But after the timeout, the core players like Lehi knew what to do.
Larry Brown put Eddie Curry, who had fouled too much because of his lack of understanding of defense, to the bench, and put Channing Fry at center, and Lehi to play a small lineup at the No. 4 position, which made the Knicks' offense more flexible.
Lee Hai completed a steal on the court, and the SuperSonics were still immersed in their tactics of pulling out at the No. 4 position to shoot, and they didn't expect the Knicks to be faster at the No. 4 position than anyone before.
After scoring a steal and fast break, Lehi defended the opponent again, and in turn, he caused the opponent's foul on the inside.
After gaining an advantage in the low post, Lehi gave the ball to Marbury and Crawford on the outside several times, and the score advantage suddenly returned to about 10 points.
The SuperSonics can't defend against the Knicks' offense, and Ray Allen has no way to do it.
At 105:96, the Knicks won the opening game in the first game of a three-game road trip.
The next day, they came to Los Angeles to play back-to-back against the Clippers.
The Clippers have had a great start to the season, and it was a surprise that they had a better record than the Knicks when Corey Margeti was injured and couldn't play.
The reason is the change in the backcourt of the Clippers, the arrival of Sam Cassel is a very important reason, under his scheduling, the captain Elton Brand has become stronger, and the interior partner Chris Carman has also made a big improvement.
The Clippers can now be regarded as having both inside and outside, and they can wrestle with the strong teams.
Facing an opponent like Elton Brand, Eddie Curry finally has the feeling of returning with full blood.
Both sides are playing with a tight rhythm, and the forward players pull in to hang the inside, and when they encounter such an opponent, Marbury and Crawford are obviously a little uncomfortable, but Lehi has a set of ways to deal with it no matter what type of opponent he is.
In this slow pace, both sides scored with a concentrated score, with the Knicks with Lehi and Eddie Curry and the Clippers with Elton Brand, Sam Cassel and Catino Mobley.
The two sides spewed trash talk to each other, but there were not many fouls, because the rhythm was lowered and the breakthrough became less, basically it was an empty cut, a slip of the bottom line, and a mid-shot solution when an opportunity was found.
Thanks to Eddie Curry's play, the Knicks suppressed the opponent from the beginning, and the opponent scored 39 points in the half, which made Larry Brown very satisfied.
In the second half, Mobley stepped up his attack, and his pull-up shot caused the Knicks quite a problem, which was somewhat similar to Crawford, but Crawford was playing iron all the time.
The Knicks saw the unfavorable scoring and immediately called a timeout.
However, Larry Brown did not make any changes on offense, but emphasized the defense again, because the Clippers are now not much different in height between the three outside players, and Lehi took the initiative to defend Mobley, who is hot.
Mobley's speed is no longer at its peak, and after the defender in front of him becomes Lehi, his speed and height are completely undominant.
After Lehi knocked out Mobley once, the Clippers' offense was once again on Brand.
In the slow-paced confrontation, the shooting percentage of both sides was not high, and by the end of the third quarter, the Knicks only led by 8 points at 63:55.
In the last quarter of the game, when Lehi was still sitting on the bench to rest, the Clippers suddenly attacked and hit two three-pointers in a row, and the score was suddenly only 2 points apart.
The Knicks' players continued to play iron, and the head coach had to call a timeout early.
After the timeout, the lack of attack was still resolved, and Larry Brown saw that the time was up and quickly replaced Lehi.
One is that he is about to limit Mobley, and the other is that he can help the team stabilize the offense.
It was not Mobley who defended him in Lehi's offense, but James Singleton, a role player with height, who was very close to Singleton, but Lehi turned around unhurriedly, and suddenly started quickly, and reached Singleton's side in one step, and pulled up to hit the mid-range shot.
This is strength, and with such strength, it makes sense that Lehi and James lead the Eastern Conference forward in the All-Star voting.
The Knicks' other outside players in this game were not allowed, and the Clippers saw that Singleton couldn't defend Lehi, so they chose to pinch inside, and their head coach Dunleavy Sr. was also quick to react.
After Lehi was pinched, he used his long arm to pass the ball over the head of the defender to his teammate who was ambushed on the weak side, and Nate Robinson also made a decisive shot after receiving the ball, but still hit the iron.
In addition to the rhythm of the two sides, the back-to-back away games are also a very important reason, after all, there was only an offensive battle with the SuperSonics yesterday, and the consumption was relatively large.
Two consecutive times his teammates missed open shots, and Lehi also felt that he had to change his approach.
It's right to trust his teammates, but when it comes to the final moments of the game, Lehi has to prove his worth.
If you catch the ball outside the three-point line, you will be pinched before you can fully increase your speed, and Lehi simply came to the three-point line.
He beckoned Channing Frye to come over and cover, which is also a common tactic used by the Knicks, and Channing Frye took cover and pulled it out, and his mid-range shot was also very threatening.
Lehi accelerated past the Clippers' defenders, Elton Brand immediately made preparations to assist in defense, the captain has capped the Knicks six in this game, and Carman has also capped three, this is the advantage of having an inside line, otherwise Marbury and others can turn the inside line upside down if they are not allowed to go inside.
Lehi did not flinch in the face of Brand, changed direction and took the initiative to lean on the other party, Brand felt the power of Lehi rushing over, and wanted to jump up and block but couldn't use the force.