After Josh and Wallace came on the court, the Magic had a serious problem, and that was every real big man.
The tallest one now is Josh, who is only 205cm (1cm longer than the initial rookie physical test), followed by Diaw and Hill at 203cm, and then Marion and Kevin Martin at 201cm. They are all big when playing small ball.
Bring four small ones, now the magic is that no matter how hard you try, you can’t find one big one, it’s just five small ones.
That’s why this chapter is also called “Five Rats Make Trouble in Phoenix City”. No, it seems unlucky for a bird to eat a rat.
Fortunately, in the third quarter, both sides still used substitutes, and the Magic simply took the run and gun to the extreme, with a bunch of players chasing the Suns' butt shots.
By the end of the third quarter, the two sides were tied at 79-87, and the Magic still led by 8 points.
But Edison knew very well that this eight-point advantage was meaningless at all. The last quarter was the real test.
Because there are no other big men, Josh has to step into the center position. The Suns usually let Stoudemire play the center until the end of the game. Now that Hunter is gone, the other substitute centers are even more important.
It’s unreliable. So both sides have a lineup with one big team and four small ones (Josh is considered the big one for now), and Josh and Stoudemire are now completely matched up.
The Magic's current lineup is Josh, Marion, Hill, Iguodala and Nash.
The Suns are Stoudemire, Tracy McGrady, Richardson, Barbosa, and Joe Smith.
"We can't fight them head-on. We can't compete with them in terms of height, so I have to play fast and run aggressively. We need to make some changes in our V-shape. Marion, don't stand high, your position is
Be more flexible and help Grant and Steve to screen so that they can get more open spaces. Also, because Marion has to go outside to screen, Andre, you and Josh need to be more diligent in rushing for rebounds.
Be positive, got it?”
The other Magic players nodded and made it clear. Josh, on the other hand, clutched the drink bottle tightly, picking something on it with his nails, without nodding or speaking.
Seeing his birdlike appearance, Edison felt a little angry in his heart, but he couldn't let it out as he was still competing, so he moved in front of Josh, held his head, and whispered in his ear.
"Boy, do you still remember what I expected of you?"
Josh nodded this time, but still didn't speak.
"Boy, you have to remember what I said before the game. If you are timid in this arena, people will bully you more seriously. If you don't put up the flag, people will really come to the island. So you must toughen up yourself. Don't
No matter what happened before, don’t care how famous he is in the league. You have to remember that no one is stronger than you, and you have to believe in yourself. As for whether others believe it or not, as long as you believe it, it must be true.
." After speaking, he patted Josh on the shoulder again.
The electronic bell rang, and the Magic players walked onto the field again, with Josh walking at the back, feeling a little confused.
Edison bit his upper lip and shook his head. It seemed that what he just said was in vain.
D'Antoni of the Suns also saw the Magic's current disadvantage in height, so he focused his offense on the inside - focusing on Stoudemire.
As soon as Stoudemire received the ball from McGrady, he shot a jump shot directly from the free throw line. He jumped very high and shot very quickly. He didn't give Josh a chance to react. Of course, Josh couldn't react now either.
Easily scored 2 points.
For the Suns to play inside, Edison, Thibodeau and others had already been mentally prepared and it was acceptable. But the next scene was really beyond the Magic's expectations.
After Stoudemire succeeded in shooting, the Suns' players immediately retreated to half court, giving the Magic no chance for a fast break.
When Edison saw this situation, his heart thumped, and he thought, "It's broken..."
But everyone is prone to fluke, so he quickly found an explanation for himself, "This is what they just emphasized during the timeout. They can't retreat so fast in every round. Their players and coaches are not so active."
Seeing that there was almost no chance of the next move, Nash had no choice but to dribble forward and prepare to fall into position.
The five people first got into position in a V shape, then Marion moved to the wing, and Hill ran over. Marion blocked Richardson who was guarding him. Hill was empty, and Nash didn't stop at all.
The ball was passed over, and after Hill used Marion as a pillar to block the defender, he took a mid-range shot and made a solid hit.
Turning around, the Suns still hit Stoudemire. D'Antoni was right. Stoudemire was able to beat Josh to death.
McGrady stepped outside and accelerated, getting rid of Marion. Josh turned his body and tried to block McGrady. McGrady immediately passed the ball to Stoudemire, who had been waiting in the high post for a long time.
Stoudemire took off with a step, and Stoudemire was extremely explosive before he was injured. It was like stepping on a landmine under his feet. His calf muscles stretched and contracted, and he leaped high into the air, performing a one-handed split dunk.
Josh had nothing to do about Stoudemire's dunk. By the time he reacted, Stoudemire had already taken off, and he could only pay attention to him under the basket.
The Magic had dunked several times against the Suns before, but now they finally dunked against the Magic. The enthusiasm of the home fans was instantly ignited.
They all stood up, waved their hands rhythmically, and shouted, "IC!"
After Stoudemire finished dunking, he looked at Josh provocatively, turned around and left.
Josh still didn't react at all, he lowered his head to pick up the basketball and served the ball from behind.
When Nash noticed something was wrong with Josh's expression, he said to him, "It's okay. You always cheat on others, right? It's not a big deal. We'll fight back."
The reason why Nash said this to Josh was not only because he saw that Josh felt wrong, but the more important reason was that the Suns retreated quickly again and did not get a chance to fast break. And this time it was different from last time.
Yes, D'Antoni stood on the sidelines and kept shouting to the players, asking them to get back quickly.
When Edison saw this scene, he gave up completely. He knew that it would be impossible to rely on fast breaks to reach the sun in the end.
Nash and Hill circled around the wing, and then looked for opportunities to shoot.
But there is a saying in basketball, "You can't kill someone by shooting." Because no matter how good a person is, they can't guarantee their shooting percentage from the outside. The key moments still depend on their ability to score under the basket. So we look at the history of these years.
, since I started watching football in 1997, there has never been a team that really relied on shooting to win the championship.
The only representative of the shooting school that everyone remembers is the Dallas Mavericks in 2011. However, the Mavericks also scored a lot of inside points in the Finals that year, and more importantly, relatively speaking, the Heat really did not score inside. James
By the third game, he had completely shrunk. Not to mention rushing to the basket, he didn't even dare to take shots from the outside.
So this is why centers are declining now, and there is no center after O'Neal who can really dominate both ends. However, everyone is still happy to give priority to selecting centers in the draft. Centers are naturally close to the basket when attacking.
His shooting percentage is high, and your defender can't explain it.
The same goes for this game. Although both Nash and Hill's shooting percentages were quite impressive, it still didn't work. The Suns got closer to the score little by little.
Edison was as anxious as a monkey in the audience. He grinned and jumped up and down. He didn't have a moment to spare, but it was useless to be anxious. Edison wanted to change his tactics, but he had no choice. He had no cards in his hand. Now people just bully you because you don't have height, so you just
No way.
Finally, after an attack, the Suns tied the score...
This time, Joe Johnson had passed halftime, and Stoudemire started asking for the ball in the low post. Joe Johnson didn't dare to delay, and quickly lobbed the ball in.
After Stoudemire caught the ball, he dribbled the ball, leaned back, and after dribbling twice, he turned around and jumped, and dunked successfully. This is a standard set of center back-up moves, not that Stoudemire has many post-up moves.
Fierce, no matter how proficient his technique is, the key is that Josh can't resist him, or in other words, Josh subconsciously moves back, not daring to resist him desperately.
After Stoudemire finished dunking, he was unreasonable and talked trash to Josh, "You weakling, go home and cry to your mother. Your mother may comfort you, 'It doesn't matter because your father is also a weakling.
'."
Josh respects his father very much. Although he is just an ordinary truck driver, in Josh's mind, he is his role model and the person he admires most. In Josh's mind, you can insult yourself and mock yourself, but
Never involve your own parents.
This is also a very strange difference between the East and the West. If you ask a primary and secondary school student here, who do they admire the most? There must be many answers. From Brother Chun to Brother Zeng, Xiao Shenyang has also "piapia".
But in the West, the answer for children of this age is often their parents.
Hearing Xiao Si's insult to his father, Josh changed from his slumped shoulders and dejected dead dog look. He suddenly raised his head, gritted his teeth, stared at Xiao Si, and then clenched his fists.
But Stoudemire has seen too many similar scenes. Almost everyone who has been dunked by him has made similar expressions to him. Everyone wants to kill him, but what is the result? He is still in every game.
They all performed the same action, but the object may have been changed, so Xiaosi smiled contemptuously at Josh.
96-96, the Suns caught up with the score and the two teams were tied.
