Who Buries This Victory? 》

On the front page of the sports section of the Sacramento Bee, the story took over the front page.

"It was a regrettable loss, and the Kings still had a double-digit advantage going into the middle of the fourth quarter, but it was a collapse in the second half of the quarter that narrowed the victory, and this loss was one of the best games the Kings have played in half a season, and they controlled the situation in the first three quarters, especially in the second half of the third quarter.

If it weren't for the blockage of the offense in the final half of the quarter, the Kings would have been able to win two straight games with the momentum of the last game. So, who buried this victory?

Tyrek? DeMarcus? Isaiah? No, it's head coach Keith Smart!

In the final half of the quarter, the Dallas tightened their defense, which left Tyrek and DeMarcus heavily defended, and the Kings were without outside firepower, leaving the team's offense at a stalemate.

But what happened in the second half of the third quarter, when the Mavericks defended in the same way, and the Kings extended their four-point lead to 11 points?

The young player, Li Tian, was a key figure in the previous game's comeback against the Thunder, scoring 12 points in five minutes in the third quarter. But in the fourth quarter, the Kings, who had the best outside shooting in the last two games, didn't get a second of playing time, even though the Kings' outside shot nearly knocked the basket down.

There was another player, our No. 5 pick, Thomas Robinson, who in the first half gave the Mavericks enough damage with Tyrek's pick-and-roll combination, however, in the second half, we didn't see a similar combination, and they didn't have a chance to work together on the court.

Keith Smart certainly knows what the team needs, and he has Isiah Thomas and Marcus Thornton outside the three-point line, and he has Tyrek and DeMarcus on the pick-and-roll, but why not consider putting two rookies on the court when it doesn't work?

There is no need to find reasons why young players can't withstand the pressure at crucial moments, and it was these young players who helped turn the tide when they were 18 points down in the previous game.

Obviously, as a young head coach, Keith Smart is too conservative, except for the use of Isiah Thomas last season, his use and training of young players is not satisfactory, if this continues, we can hardly believe that he can continue to sit in the position of head coach of the Kings, this point, maybe you can ask a random Kings fan about it......

The report doesn't stop there, and later on, the reporter also questioned some of the King's previous game substitutions and tactical arrangements.

At the same time as the local Sacramento media reported this, the Kings fans were also making such doubts.

"I can't believe young Keith Smart could be so stubborn, and his foolish insistence in the fourth quarter buried the victory."

"It's disappointing to have such a coaching staff! No, the whole management is disappointing, we have so many talented young players, but we don't seem to have anything else to do but look at the lottery draft. ”

"Why didn't Lee Tian and Thomas Robinson play in the fourth quarter? Does Keith Smart really know the role that every player on the team is suitable for? ”

Amid the media and fans, Kings key player Tyrek Evans also gave his opinion on the loss of this game.

'It was a disappointing win, we were hopeful of a final win, but a poor performance in the last half of the quarter slipped away the win. We kept doing what the coach was doing but we didn't win the game and I think we need to make some adjustments. ”

Although there is no direct criticism of Smart's tactical arrangement, the meaning of Evans's words has revealed a lot of things, what kind of adjustments to make? Personnel and tactics, of course!

In the midst of the criticism, both Li Tian and Robinson remained quiet, and local Sacramento reporters had asked such questions, but Li Tian did not express his opinion, although they also found Smart's tactical arrangement and personnel strategy in the fourth quarter to be confusing.

In fact, Pete Smith has already communicated with Li Tian and Li Tian as soon as such a report appears, and it is obvious that such public opinion is now very beneficial to Li Tian and the two, and Li Tian has finally begun to enter the field of vision of fans and media with his performance in these two games.

While it's uncertain whether such voices from the outside world will affect Keith Smart's hiring right now, it's certain that neither the team's management nor Keith Smart will be able to completely ignore them if there are more such voices.

At this time, Li Tian does not need and does not need to talk about this topic, what he has to do is to seize every opportunity to play, and then perform as well as possible, so that fans, media, coaches, and management can realize his ability.

After the game with the Mavericks, the whole team of the Kings returned to Sacramento, and Li Tian of course also checked the iron book, but the iron book did not have a new unseal, obviously, scoring 10 points on the court again is no longer enough to unseal the next page of the iron book, but Li Tian needs to have a better performance on the court.

Keith Smart did not respond to these questions from the media and fans, and during the two days of rest that followed, there was nothing unusual in the team's training, as if nothing had happened.

As for the Kings' players, the same is true, the big comeback victory in the previous game and the loss in this game seem to have no effect on them at all, at least Li Tian can't see any impact, maybe the chaos of the team in recent years has indeed made the players' minds not completely on the court.

Seeing this appearance, Li Tian will not talk about the situation of the game in the locker room and the training ground, but concentrate on training, with the performance of these two games, Li Tian believes that even if Smart does not particularly like him, he should be able to get some opportunities to play in the subsequent games.

As for the stable playing time, it is not a problem for Li Tian to consider, compared with the previous 30 games that are almost equal to the situation of no play, Li Tian has been satisfied with the playing time of about half a quarter in two consecutive games, and Li Tian himself is of course very satisfied with his performance in seizing the opportunity in these two games.

However, Li Tian will not forget that in addition to the improvement of his off-ball running brought by Tieshu, such a performance is also related to his hard training, otherwise, in these two games, it is impossible to maintain such a good shooting feeling.

Li Tian also knows that once he continues to perform like this for a few games, the opponent will also be targeted at his defense, so it is clear that now is not the time to slack off.