Chapter 69 [Counter-Killer]

The individual prizes for the regular season have been decided. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Jordan won the 10th scoring title of his career; Rodman won the seventh rebounding title of his career; The Wizards' Strickland got the assist title for the first time; The Hawks' Mucci Blaylock is back-to-back steal leader.

The block king broke out a big upset, and it was actually Marcus Camby of the Raptors. The plan of Raptors management is to have Camby brush up on pretty numbers, add value to the trade, and send them away.

The Knicks' 13-man playoff roster was confirmed, and Mickey Moore was ruled out, and it will be difficult for him to get a contract extension after this season, and he still needs to work hard to become a qualified NBA player.

Knicks vs Nets, tickets sold out quickly, and although there was no suspense in this series, fans loved to watch the derby on their doorstep!

The Nets are just two kilometers away from the Knicks across the Hudson River. The two places are connected by the Washington Bridge, and the downtown area is connected by tunnels, one called the Holland Tunnel and the other called the Lincoln Tunnel. If New York fans want to go to New Jersey to watch the game, it is very convenient, and it is only possible to get there by car.

This has created an embarrassing situation, the Nets can be said to have no home court in the playoffs, and the fans will definitely support the Knicks by then.

In the first round of the NBA in 1998, it was a best-of-five system, and the home-court advantage was more obvious, and experts predicted the outcome of the game, and no one was optimistic about the Nets' counterattack to advance.

The New York media predicted the game, focusing on whether the Knicks could continue to play a beautiful offense in the playoffs, and also praised Yang Rui's role in the team.

For Nets coach John Calippari and manager Ed Stefansky, it's a bit more embarrassing.

The two had a tacit understanding and did not tell anyone else in the management that Yang Rui had come to the tennis team for an interview, but they couldn't escape the inner torment. The owners of the Nets have always wanted to strengthen the team's offense, attract fans, and compete with the Knicks.

The Knicks only appeared on the 24th, with four days of recuperation, and no high-intensity training was arranged, but before training on the 23rd, they held a meeting to explain tactics to the players.

Van Gundy talked about defense first, Childes started with special attention to Nets point guard Sam Cassel, Johnson followed Van Horn, Bowen guarded Kittels, etc......

Van Gundy's defensive strategy is almost leakless, analyzing the characteristics of the Nets, except for Ewing to defend the basket, everyone else is defending, focusing on mid-to-long-range shooting.

The Nets' weakness is the lack of low-post offense, and Van Horn is a big man who pulls out and shoots, and can play in the low post, all by skill.

Chris Gatlin, nicknamed "Doping", was selected for the All-Star Game 1 time and couldn't stand the obvious decline in form.

In the '96-97 season, Gatlin played 44 games for the Mavericks, averaging 19.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game to climb to a career high.

Later, the Mavericks and the New Jersey Nets announced a large deal involving nine players, in which well-known players such as Kassel, Robert Pike and "Big Bamboo Pole" Bradley all completed the collective migration, and Gatlin also relocated to New Jersey, but due to injuries, Gatlin only played 3 games in the second half of the 96-97 season.

This season, Gatlin averaged only 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game, was 208cm tall, weighed 100 kilograms, was too thin to make the basket, and his jump shot was not as accurate as it used to be.

Jason Williams was named an NBA All-Star this season, averaging 12.6 points and 13.6 rebounds per game. But he's a defensive blue-collar player, and his offense is all about picking up leaks under the basket.

Among the Nets players, the person who uses his back to score the most points is point guard Sam Cassel, which is a bit ironic, this guy's big ass is too stocky, and he is a bunker with the ball and turns to shoot the basketball. But because he played too ugly, he was even uglier, with 19.6 points, 3 rebounds and 8 assists, and he was not selected for the All-Star Game.

After talking about defense, Van Gundy walked directly down the podium and said to Yang Rui: "Come on." ”

In the past, Van Gundy first organized the coaching staff to discuss tactics, and he conveyed them to the players, and after playing for a period of time in the regular season, he directly asked Yang Rui to come forward to arrange offensive tactics, anyway, the players all know that as long as there are new tricks, it must be Yang Rui's idea.

Yang Rui first drew a picture on the tactical board, and then said: "It's not difficult to win the Nets, as long as we stabilize the defense, grind with them, and rely on the depth of the lineup, we can win, but I think it can be won more beautifully, the key is to win by surprise, so the offensive core of the first game is Larry and Patrick, and my idea is to try to shoot close to the basket." ”

Yang Rui explained the tactics in detail, which was very simple, but it was the opposite of the regular season routine. In the regular season, Johnson was mainly pulling out to shoot and playing without the ball most of the time. Now it's changed to attacking with the ball, or cutting to the basket to play with the ball back.

Ewing responded to the offense or jump shot from outside the mid-range cover in the regular season, and also changed to cut to the basket after covering and shooting from close range. There is always one of the two who goes to the basket, which attracts the Nets to shrink the formation and then divide out, and shoot from the perimeter.

After talking about tactics, he asked with a smile: "You went to the basket less often in the regular season, so suddenly there is no pressure to play like this, right?" ”

Johnson laughed: "What's the pressure? I've wanted to play like this for a long time, and if Van Horn had started, he would never have been able to stop me one-on-one. ”

"I'm even finer." The MVP is super high, which makes Ewing's confidence stronger.

He does have the quality, even against the league's star center. Except for the slightly lighter weight of 110 kilograms, Ewing has no obvious weaknesses, and he has better stats than O'Neal in the two regular season against the Lakers.

What does it mean to be surprisingly successful? It's to attack in unexpected ways, and now all teams play the Knicks, and the first idea is definitely to defend the perimeter three-pointer. In this way, the Knicks' two interior lines may become big killers.

At this time, Yang Rui no longer considered letting Ewing have reservations, as long as he could be inside and out, he could pose a greater threat.

Van Gundy fully agreed with Yang Rui's tactics, and there was no room for loss in the first game, and a big win was very morale-boosting and had a good impact on the entire playoffs.

After the meeting ended, Van Gundy and Yang Rui finally left and asked, "Jerry, aren't you nervous at all?" This is your first playoff game. ”

"I'm not a player, what's there to be nervous about?" Yang Rui shrugged.

"When you give interviews, you always implicitly express your desire to become a manager, and this time our results will directly determine your position in the hearts of other team management, I thought you would care." Van Gundy analyzed.

He always pays attention to Yang Rui's news and knows that Yang Rui is very ambitious. He admits that he is a good teaching assistant, but he can't stand the fact that the assistant is always pointing fingers. He can tolerate it for the sake of victory this season, and if he comes back for another season, he will be driven crazy by the assistant coach like this.

Therefore, Van Gundy actually hopes that Yang Rui will leave the Knicks after the season.

"I'm very concerned, so the Knicks will only have one result this season, and that is to win the championship." Yang Rui paused for a moment, and did not hypocritically say that he wanted to stay in the Knicks, and smiled: "Let's finish this season happily together!" ”

PS