Chapter 11: The City of Empty Connections, the Hot Pot Brigade
The Suns' bench lineup is still dominated by first- and second-year rookies, and only Brad Miller has more experience in the game.
Facing the Mavericks, who are all players who have played in the NBA for several years, the performance of the boys at the beginning can only be described as hairy.
The more nervous you are, the more afraid you are of making mistakes, and the more you are afraid of making mistakes, the easier it is to make mistakes.
For two consecutive offensive rounds, the Suns were tackled while passing the ball.
Carlisle chose to replace Wade with Wade, wanting to see what this also fledgling rookie could do with this group of rookies.
"Hey, don't be nervous, it's just a preseason, it's like a summer league, didn't we play very well at that time!"
As soon as Wade came on the field, he brought a different kind of confidence to this group of young men.
First, the logo flew close to the ground and scored an easy layup.
In the blocking and dismantling with Miller, he accurately grasped the timing of the pass and sent an empty dunk to Miller.
"Beautiful passing, pleasing dunks, Dwyan's play, completely activating this Suns bench."
The commentators outside the arena also began to notice the rookie.
Others saw Wade and Miller take the lead and were not to be outdone.
Defensively, Wade and Ragabel's outside defense put a lot of pressure on the Mavericks.
West, an older rookie on the offensive end, is also beginning to burst out of his dominance in the NCAA.
At the end of the first quarter, both sides received good feedback on their attempts to match the team's lineup.
There are advantages and problems, and then it is up to the managers of both sides to make adjustments.
At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, both sides changed to the main lineup, the Suns changed the main team, Malone replaced Miller, and changed to play double center.
"Carl didn't play in the second quarter, and it seems that against Dirk, Carlisle is more comfortable with Brad's performance."
"Yes, after all, Karl is too old, facing Dirk who is in peak form, the defensive end is a little weak, maybe it's just the beginning of the season, and the form hasn't come back yet, wait until ......"
"Beautiful two-handed dunks, dunks from Sean at the beginning of the second quarter, set the West Arena on fire."
The wonderful dunk directly interrupted the commentary, so that the commentator didn't expect that the second quarter of a preseason game would be so exciting.
The Suns took the lead in attacking, Wade still blocked and dismantled with O'Neal, while Wade borrowed the block to find an opportunity, Marion from outside the side three-point line, around Miller's blocking, slipped to the bottom line and hit the basket, and caught the dunk with both hands.
The Mavericks were a little struggling on the offensive end, with two more than two meters and 10 meters on the inside, and Nuo Tianwang could only try to shoot at medium and long distances, but unfortunately he didn't feel good and was picked up by O'Neal for a rebound.
Advancing to the frontcourt, this time it was Payton holding the ball, and it was also O'Neal's pick-and-roll, and O'Neal's pick-and-roll quality was the only one in the league.
Miller has already taken the Nortian King out of the paint area, Payton took advantage of the emptiness of the interior line, and directly gave O'Neal a ground-hitting pass, O'Neal received the ball and jumped lightly to complete the dunk.
Don't look at O'Neal's just a slight jump, which brought the shock to the audience, and it was not at all inferior to Marion's dunk just now.
Waiting for the Mavericks to attack, it was not easy to play on the side of the Nuo Tianwang, the ball was divided to Finley, and the shooting action was completed, and I didn't notice Payton, who suddenly came from the side and back, and directly blocked the ball to get the ball is a fast break.
Wade had already started on the other side, received a pass from Payton, and took three steps against Nash to complete the dunk.
The audience with three hands reached a climax in an instant, and many fans were red with excitement.
A 6-0 wave called the Mavericks to a timeout.
The high-morale dunk on the offensive end and the accurate blocking block on the defensive end show all teams the Suns' offensive and defensive strength in the new season.
"Dwyane is very good, you're fully integrated into the NBA, and you're letting yourself out."
Payton, who walked off the court together, saw that the team had such a talented rookie, and fantasized that he might really win the championship this year.
After this time, the three veterans basically closed their troops, and the warm-up activities for the preseason were successfully completed, and the next game was handed over to the young players of the team.
The Mavericks still want to run in the team, and the offense has revealed problems in this game, so they need to keep trying, and the starting lineup is still on the field.
Carlisle replaced Payton with Ragabel, West replaced O'Neal and Miller played center.
It seems that in the new season, the old Malone will most likely become a substitute for the team, but perhaps it is the reason for facing the Nuo Tianwang, if it is a team with a less strong power forward, he will still have a chance to start.
At the end of the game, all players got playing time, of which Wade played 30 minutes and got 20 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block.
In the post-game media interview, Carlisle brought O'Neal and Wade to attend.
"This game is an easy win over the Mavericks, nothing, just a preseason game, the team's young lads are very good, there are bright spots, and we also found the team's problems at this stage in the game, I believe that the next game of the preseason can make our team run higher."
Carlisle finished his speech and it was the media's turn to ask questions.
"After Gary Payton and Karl Malone joined the team, the outside world predicted that the Suns would be the biggest favorites to win the championship this year, what do the Suns think about this, and what are the goals for the season."
"Matches need to be played one game at a time, and predictions can't be taken seriously. It's just pre-season now, anything is possible. We still have to try to get a better position because the players have changed a lot this season and a lot of things have to be taken step by step. ”
"The Lakers also won the game today, you and Kobe Bryant both led the team to win, and O'Neal felt that playing on both teams was different."
"That's really congratulations, I found my first joy of playing here. And I didn't score many points in this game, it was this kid who led the team to win. ”
As he spoke, O'Neill stroked Wade's head.
"Before I came, the Suns were Sean's, and in the future the Suns will probably be Dwyan's, and I'm just here to help them win championships."
"We saw that as the No. 4 pick in this year's draft, Dwyane did really well in this game, what did he say about himself, how did he feel about playing in the NBA for the first time."
"I want to say I'm no worse than any rookie and I'm going to try to prove myself. It felt very good in this game, the Suns played a good atmosphere, the players got along very well, and Shaq, as the most famous player on the team, often joked with us and asked us to help wash the smelly socks......"
"Hey, I'm not done yet."
O'Neal's two thick arms tightly wrapped around Wade, who was talking, and picked him up to leave.
"Today's interview is over, hee-hee."
One arm hugged Wade, one big hand covered his mouth, turned his head to leave a word, and O'Neal took Wade away.
O'Neal heard Wade laughing and joking with himself, and knew that this little guy had relaxed through this game.
Carried all the way into the dressing room, the other players wondered what they were playing.
Imagine how hilarious Wade is in O'Neal's arms.
"You dare to tease me, in order to fulfill your wishes, my socks will be washed for you in the next month."