Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety: The First Game at Home—Philadelphia 76ers
"Brilliant first game, new Penny can't stop" Brian Smits, a well-known reporter from the Orlando Sentinel, directly called Adrian the new 'Penny' in his column, praising the Magic general manager Mr. Otis for his decision.
A 'perfect' deal.
"Big triple-double, Magic plays with Raptors" The Orlando Post used Adrian's nickname when he was with the Lakers, the new 'Magic', and believed that Otis Smith traded Howard, who wanted to leave, for Adrian.
His behavior can be compared with the importance of the Los Angeles Lakers selecting Magic Johnson with the No. 1 pick.
"New Magic sets sail, triple-double begins" The Orlando Star carefully analyzed every pass, every shot and every defense of Adrian on the court, praising Adrian as the "perfect player" who can compete with
Jordan rivals 'wait a minute...
There is no doubt that the Orlando Star broke the lower limit of Orlando media in one fell swoop.
However, this series of reports has indeed had a very good effect.
Magic fans saw the team continue to make large-money transactions and send away the core of the team and still win on the road. They felt reassured about the team's strength and performance in the rest of the season.
A general sigh of relief.
And Adrian's wonderful performance also made Magic fans want to watch Adrian's game at home for the first time. The media praised him continuously. In just two days, the Magic team
The ticket price for home games has almost doubled, but even so, it is still hard to get a ticket.
Although Orlando is a small city, thanks to Howard's stronger performance year after year in the past few years, the local basketball atmosphere in Orlando is pretty good. In addition, Adrian was very strong in his first game on behalf of the Magic.
He scored a luxurious triple-double of 28 points, 19 assists and 15 rebounds. This further stimulated the hot local football market in Orlando.
The Magic's Adrian No. 1 jersey, which has just been put on sale, has already been snapped up by fans who flocked to it as soon as it was put on the shelves. Although Adrian's No. 1 jersey sells for more than Dwight Howard's No. 12 jersey.
Expensive, but this still cannot stop fans from buying jerseys.
The Magic, who returned to Orlando, chose to take a day off to let the players take a break. There was nothing they could do about it. The Magic currently had too few players available to play, even if Millsap could play against the Philadelphia 76ers.
It's far from enough. The players played a lot of time in the game against the Raptors. If they don't have a holiday to give them a good rest, the increasingly severe schedule will cause the players' physical strength to collapse.
All Stan Van Gundy can hope for now is that the management will be more powerful and be able to quickly sign a few relatively capable substitute players in the next short period of time to relieve the pressure on the team. Otis has been in recent times.
I am also busy with this matter, but it is not easy.
Mainly because the season has reached this point, each team has basically completed the final reinforcements, and the free market is calm. It is really not easy to pick useful role players in the free market with scarce resources.
things.
After a day's rest, the Magic held a team training on the morning of February 21 to check the players' status. After careful consideration, Stan Van Gundy released the readjusted starting lineup.
"Center: Marcin Gortat, power forward: Kwame Brown. Small forward: Sharad Lewis, shooting guard: Turkoglu. Point guard: Adrian." After the team training,
Stan Van Gundy announced his starting lineup for tonight's game against the 76ers.
Putting Sharad Lewis back into the small forward position is an idea that Stan Van Gundy had after the game against the Raptors. There is no problem with Turkoglu moving to the shooting guard position. Sharad
De Lewis originally played the small forward position. In the power forward position, his body and strength are really disadvantaged. On the contrary, in the small forward position, as long as the opponent is not particularly strong, both offensively and defensively.
He has a height advantage, and in terms of footwork, Sharad is now fast enough so he won't suffer too much.
As for Hedo Turkoglu, like Sharad Lewis, he is used to playing small forward, but he has also played the shooting guard position, and he played pretty well. Since the team has requirements, he has nothing to refute.
As for Keith Bogans, he was removed after playing the main game. Keith Bogans had no idea. He was already a veteran and a wanderer in the league.
Han has long been accustomed to playing as a substitute.
After making all preparations, the Orlando Magic ushered in their opponent in this round of competition.
Philadelphia 76ers!
Even though Allen Iverson has left Denver, and his life in Denver is not very good. But when this team is mentioned, the first thing people think of is still Allen Iverson.
, the eternal son of Philadelphia.
However, the current Philadelphia 76ers have begun to rebuild around the defensive small forward, 'ai' Andre Iguodala Jr., and the effect of the reconstruction is not bad. The Magic benefited from the excellent state of Warcraft Howard in the early part of the season.
After defeating the Raptors, they achieved a record of 34 wins and 21 losses and are currently ranked third in the Eastern Conference, behind the 47-8 Boston Celtics and the 40-16 Detroit Pistons.
The Philadelphia 76ers ranked eighth in the Eastern Conference with a record of 22 wins and 33 losses, barely ahead of the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers, and remaining in the playoff lineup.
The huge disparity in strength in the Eastern Conference can also be seen from the record. The Celtics, ranked first, have a record of 47 wins and 8 losses, while the Philadelphia 76ers, ranked eighth, only have a record of 22 wins and 33 losses.
The win gap between the two is as high as 25 games.
In the Western Conference, the Lakers, ranked first, only have a record of 44 wins and 11 losses, while the Dallas Mavericks, ranked eighth, have a record of 36 wins and 19 losses. The gap between first and eighth is only 8 games.
In the Eastern Conference, a 50% winning rate can basically guarantee a spot in the playoffs, while in the West, if you can't win more than 50 games, a playoff roster will often be a delusion.
Overall, the Philadelphia 76ers are neither very strong nor very weak. Even though the current Magic lineup is not complete, they are at the bottom of the game with the Raptors. Defeating the 76ers at home should not be a big problem.
Because of this, Stan Van Gundy dared to boldly change the lineup during the game.
Before the game started, the Amway Center, home of the Orlando Magic, was already packed with people. When the Magic players came out, fierce cheers echoed from all directions, and when Adrian came out for the last time, the scene was filled with people.
The cheers were so loud that they almost toppled the ceiling of the Amway Center!
Adrian raised his head and looked towards the auditorium, and saw that in the dense blue sea, most of them were his No. 1 jersey. And when Adrian raised his head and looked towards the auditorium, it was already as high as
The extreme decibel level magically increased by two knots again.
"How is it? It doesn't feel bad." Looking at Adrian who seemed to be shocked, Stan Van Gundy came up and gently patted Adrian on the shoulder and said: "Orlando fans are very enthusiastic and sincere. You
We’ll know more soon.”
"It's really good." Adrian nodded. Although his face was calm, the excitement in his heart was definitely unclear. In Los Angeles, such cheers could only belong to Kobe Bryant. He originally hoped to wait until Kobe Bryant
Retired, but now... now is also good!
The Philadelphia 76ers continued their usual starting lineup, starting center: Samuel Dalembert. Starting: Power forward: Thaddeus Young, small forward: Andre Iguodala, shooting guard:
Willie Green, the point guard is veteran Andre Miller.
When the Magic's starting lineup appeared, there was even a buzz of discussion in the arena.
"This is definitely the highest backcourt lineup in the league." The Magic team's on-site commentator couldn't help but complain after reading the Magic team's starting lineup.
Indeed, Adrian's height of six feet eight inches even exceeds the league average for a small forward. Looking at the roster, Hedo Turkoglu and Sharad Lewis, who serve as shooting guards and small forwards, are both six feet tall.
The standard power forward height is 10 feet.
In terms of height alone, the combined height of the Magic's three backcourt players is 44 centimeters taller than that of the Philadelphia 76ers, which means that no one on average is 5.7 inches taller than the Philadelphia 76ers.
How can such a huge height difference make people not surprised and talk about it?
Of course Stan Van Gundy heard the buzzing discussion at the scene. But he didn't care. As long as the game can be won, there will be no problem. When this lineup was formed, Stan Van Gundy also carefully considered it and let Sharad
-Lewis will not suffer too much on both offense and defense when he returns to the small forward position. And Sheda Turkoglu will serve as the starting shooting guard. Although he will inevitably suffer some losses in terms of footwork and athletic ability, Adrian
His athletic ability can very well make up for Turkoglu's disadvantages in preventing breakthroughs and pick-and-rolls. In addition, his height advantage can also interfere with the opponent's outside attack.
The most important thing is that in order to prevent the opponent from tightly guarding and double-teaming Adrian, it is necessary to put Hida Turkoglu on the court. When Adrian is guarded by double-teaming, Turkoglu's
His organizational ability can then be utilized, briefly taking over the right to organize the team's offense from Adrian.
As for the small problems and flaws on defense?
Stan Van Gundy doesn't have a good solution either. The most important thing now is to completely shape the team's offensive tactics!
Kwame Brown is responsible for the jump ball in the opening game. Although Marcin Gortat is the center, Kwame Brown has better jumping and explosive power, and has an advantage in jumping balls.
When the whistle sounded, Kwame Brown jumped up high and moved the basketball to the Magic half court! (To be continued...)
