Chapter 117: Western Schedule
ps: I've seen someone comment again in the past two days, I'm really happy to be honest, I haven't been like this for a long time, although it's not a good thing, but I'm still very happy, I've been recommended again, and there are more people reading it, and I'm motivated. But to be honest, the book itself is written and played by me, and I can write how I want to write it, otherwise I wouldn't have stopped updating it at the beginning, and now I'm recovering and updating it, just to complete the unfinished dream in my heart. So I don't care anymore what people say. I also remind you again that you must watch the day after tomorrow, that is, the Heat vs. 76ers game on October 31, especially at halftime, you can not watch the games in front and behind. In the end, I'm going to speed up the process, it's too slow. ββββββββββββ haven't been there for a long timeββββββββββββ
To be honest, Luke was a little frightened this time, seeing Larry so aura to kick a reporter out of the press conference, Luke finally knew that Larry was not as kind as he imagined, but a strong-blooded coach, and the super coach was just his assistant coach at the beginning. He directly made a talented man with great hopes of becoming a super player, Dacomi Mirisic, a super-parallel commodity known to everyone, with the title of "human victory cigar". He's not something to mess with. He always adheres to his philosophy of the game, no matter who the owner is, who the superstar is, the only thing that makes him change is Aaron, if it weren't for Allen, maybe Luke is still on the bench waiting for the opportunity to play.
This scared Luke.
But time dilutes everything, including fear. The 76ers had to go on an road trip again.
First, they had to head west to challenge the Denver Nuggets. The team played in the ABA League from 967-1976 and joined the NBA in 1976. Historically, he reached the ABA Finals in 1975-76 and the NBA Western Conference Finals twice in 1977-78 and 1984-85. But never won the championship. However, in the 93-94 season, the Nuggets completed a "black eight" feat. But now they are very sluggish. In the 95-96 season, the team's two core players, Mutombo and Abdul Rauf, left. Now they've moved the team's arena to the Pepsi Center arena, and then their superpower forward Antonio McDyce is back, and the power forward that's starting to mature gives the Nuggets an edge. But other positions are not so good, starting center Reeve Lafrenz although the statistics are good, but a serious knee injury has prevented his talent from being fully exploited. Keane Clarke missed quite a few games due to a lung problem. Although the 76ers are not in a good position at power forward, it is only relative, although they are not as strong as the other side, but at least they are not left behind, so victory is a must.
Next up is supersonic again.
The 76ers are no strangers to this team that they have met in the preseason.
The team, which moved to Oklahoma City in later generations, is still doing well.
At the start of the season, the SuperSonics decided to replace former head coach Paul Westphal as interim head coach on Nov. 27 by former star Nate McMillan, who led the team to a victory over the Trail Blazers in his first game on duty. McMillan signed a four-year contract with the club in March and became the club's head coach.
Last season, the SuperSonics had another rising star, and he was Rashard Lewis. Lewis and Payton are the only two members of the SuperSonics team who have played all of the team's games. Lewis averaged 8.2 points per game in 19.2 minutes per game as a bench player in his second NBA season. Vinn Baker, who signed a seven-year contract extension with the team before the start of the season, became the team's rebounding leader with an average of 7.6 rebounds per game and the team's second-leading scorer with an average of 16.6 points per game.
And now there is another dunk general, Desmond Mason, who has injected vitality into the supersounds, and this is the all-star dunk king in later generations.
But speaking of which, it's time to talk about the All-Star Game, and now the voting for the All-Star Game has begun. This is not a very good all-star game (of course, it is different for AI fans), especially the slam dunk contest, which is not as good as the previous one. Compared with the 2000 slam dunk contest starring Carter, Francis, McGrady, Rich Davis, Stackhouse and other slam dunk contests, the 2001 slam dunk contest was significantly darker. The only good thing, though, is that Luke has also been invited by the NBA committee to participate in the slam dunk contest. However, in Luke's concept, he would prefer to participate in the NBA All-Star Skills Challenge, which he does best, but not yet, and he will have to wait until 2003 to participate. However, the slam dunk contest is also good, but the players in the last edition are too superb, and Luke feels that innovation is a bit difficult. As for the rest, the rookie game is ironclad, and the starters will definitely be guaranteed. But for the All-Star Game, well, it's a bit difficult, but there is still hope, after all, he is the team's No. 2 scorer, and there is still a good chance, but it is estimated that it is the last train.
But let's get back to the game.
The SuperSonics are still very good, now in the fifth place in the West (they are also in this position at the end of the season), this position is not good or bad, but for the Seattlemen, this will not satisfy them, although they can't rush to the first place in the league (there are Lakers, the Kings are here, the SuperSonics don't even think about it), but the fourth is still good, and it is still expected to get home court advantage, so the SuperSonics have to play all the remaining games, including facing those strong teams, at least to ensure that they will not lose too much.
For them, the 76ers are not a strong team, and even if they lose in the preseason, it is nothing. Especially now Lewis and Payton. Wenbeck and Desmond Mason have worked together well and it will be a challenge for the 76ers.
But for Luke, none of these problems are too big. Except that Gary Payton has previously introduced. We're talking about the other two.
Let's start with Desmond Mason, who is very physical. With super physical fitness, he often stages difficult breakthroughs. But as an outside player, his three-point shooting percentage of less than 30% is really staggering. A fatal flaw in his technique hindered his star path and made it difficult for him to remove his name as a general. And he relied too much on his body to play, which led to premature overdraft, continuous injuries, and a significant decline in his form, and his career lasted only 11 years before he announced his retirement. As a swingman at the front, Mason has conquered countless fans with his tough and spectatorial style. But poor shooting and a fiery temper were the bottlenecks to his progress. In particular, Yao Ming's back fall caused controversy (the sworn enemy of Chinese fans).
Wen Baker, who joined the NBA in 1993, was also a powerful figure, with strong interior attack and effective control of rebounding, which made Wen Baker famous and wealthy that year, and was selected as an All-Star 4 times, and was also the 2000 Olympic champion American men's basketball team's positive power forward. If it was before 2000, the 76ers would probably have a hard time with him, but alcohol, injuries, and sweets completely ruined Wenbeck, his state declined rapidly, and now his main position has been snatched away by Lewis, do you think the 76ers are still afraid of him?
As for Salad Lewis, does this person still need to be said? One of the "twin stars" of the Seattle SuperSonics (this is a later thing), "Mr. 100 million contracts", and one of the biggest garbage contracts, although this person said that he is not soft, he is indeed not too soft, but he lacks the ability to play key balls, and he is worthless compared to Ray Allen, who is also a twin star. And he is too thin to be a pillar on the inside, he can only float on the outside, although he is very accurate, but the defense is too bad. It's an absolute dead end.
In this game, Larry only gave Luke one task, which was to block Lewis, for this kind of interior player who has been floating on the outside, Luke dislikes it very much, including the later KD, who is taller than Ibaka, has a long arm span but is floating on the outside, but they have one thing in common, that is, they are all selected by a team.
Although he is 5 centimeters taller than Luke, Lewis has nothing to do with Luke, although he often runs to the outside to shoot, but it is not a problem for a person like Luke who has a lot of experience in outside defense, and even small movements are easy to defend. Coupled with Larry's putting Tony Kukoc down to defend Desmond Mason, the result was that despite Gary Payton's repeated efforts, and even he scored 23 points in a single quarter, he still couldn't save the team's decline and lost the game.
In this way, before Christmas, the 76ers have only one opponent left, the Los Angeles Lakers.
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