On the 17th, the Trail Blazers faced the Phoenix Suns at home.
"A phoenix is not as good as a chicken" refers to the current Suns team.
As of today, the Suns' record is only 9 wins and 15 losses. In the Eastern Conference, they may have a shot at the playoffs, but in the Western Conference, they are completely out of reach.
At present, the Western Conference is still in a wild state, and sometimes even a 50% season winning rate fails to make the playoffs.
The Trail Blazers have just won three consecutive games and now have a record of 18 wins and 5 losses. They are two games behind the Spurs, who are first in the Western Conference, and one win behind the second-place Thunder.
"No matter what, you have to win this game!"
When lining up the troops on the afternoon of the 17th, coach Terry said.
Half an hour before the game, the two teams submitted their lineups.
The Suns have Gortat and Scola on the inside, and Dudley, Shannon Brown and Dragic on the outside.
For the Trail Blazers, Aldridge was replaced at power forward by new team player Mike Roberts.
Yesterday during the team's training game, Aldridge accidentally sprained his ankle and had to miss two games.
At that time, Wang Zelin and other rookies were shocked. Later, through feedback from teammates and Aldridge's past practices.
Newcomers realize that this is just routine operation.
Since Aldridge entered the NBA, he has always been troubled by sporadic minor injuries, and until now has not truly played a full regular season.
Initially, the consensus was that Aldridge must be cursed by the torn city of Portland.
This made Trail Blazers fans panic for a while.
But then everyone made a miraculous discovery: every time Aldridge was injured, it was just a minor injury that took a few days of rest. He almost never suffered any major injuries. He was able to maintain more than 60% of the playing time in every regular season.
So now everyone is slowly getting used to it.?
…
Partnering with Mike Roberts, most of the ball inside will be concentrated in the hands of Wang Zelin, and now it will be tested whether his firepower is durable enough.
Fortunately, the opponents on No. 17 and No. 21 are just average. The coach here believes that Wang Zelin can hold on.
At the start of the game, Wang Zelin and Gortat jumped the ball.
"Rookie, I've been waiting for this day for a long time. This time I'm going to beat you up hard." Gortat said coldly.
Wang Zelin glanced at the Polish Hammer casually, not bothering to hit him~~~I don’t know where this big brother got his confidence. Didn’t he teach him a hard enough lesson in Poland last time?
Seeing that Wang Zelin did not reply, the Polish Hammer quickly positioned himself and waited for the referee to throw the ball. He decided to defeat Wang Zelin in the jump ball first.
The referee throws the ball.
"Snapped!"
Wang Zelin took the basketball away, which was a slap in the face at the beginning.
Batum received the ball and controlled the top arc for a few seconds. After his teammates were in position, Lillard came over to respond.
Not passed.
Batum deceived Suns small forward Dudley, forced his opponent into the high post, turned around, broke through the defense, and entered the three-second zone.
Wang Zelin struggled with the Polish Hammer in the short corner area on the right wing. The Hammer brother noticed that Batum broke into the inside and immediately moved sideways, preparing to cover the defense.
Wang Zelin pointed his left hand towards the sky, and Batum understood it. He made a sharp change of direction to attract the attention of the Polish Hammer and threw it high.
"Maxin, be careful!"
Back in the paint, he accused the Polish Hammers of yelling loudly.
Polish Iron Hammer's heart suddenly trembled. Before he could turn around, he felt that the sky above his head instantly turned black.
"bring it on!"
The Polish Hammers were stunned, but Wang Zelin was not. After taking off from the reasonable collision area, he arbitrarily knocked the defender away and caught the ball with one hand.
"Beep!"
The whistle sounded.
"boom!"
Violence enters the bottle.
As soon as the game started, the Suns center was knocked to the ground by a dunk from Trail Blazers No. 36.
“Oooohhh!!!”
The Sunshine Arena was suddenly bombed, and the Rose Garden Arena instantly went into a boil.
"So what if LaMarcus has a truce? We still have King, and he will lead us to 4 consecutive victories!"
The exciting voice of the Trail Blazers commentator resounded throughout the arena.
"The team's tacit understanding is really getting better and better. I originally thought that LaMarcus was injured and the players would not be able to adapt to this game. It seems that I was overly worried."
On the sidelines, on the Suns bench, David Vanderpool, who had just been promoted to chief assistant coach, said to Coach Terry.
"You're wrong, David. This game is far from a test. What I'm more concerned about is the next game against the Philadelphia Chaos. The opponent is a playoff-level team."
Coach Terry chuckled and continued to focus on the game.
"Weren't you being very arrogant just now? Keep going."
After saying that, Wang Zelin turned and left.
The Polish Hammer got up from the ground with the help of his teammates, looked at the owner of the No. 36 jersey on the free throw line, gritted his teeth, and slammed his right fist on the basket frame.
It attracted the referee's attention.
"Whoosh!"
Today's Chinese players have very solid basic basketball skills, and standing on the free throw line is their most stable means of scoring.
Sun attack.
Dragic took control near the three-point line, observing the Blazers' defensive position.
Two and three zone defense!
Before the game, the Trail Blazers coaching staff carefully studied the Suns' current playing style.
As of tonight's game, the Suns have three players who have scored in double figures, including Gortat's 11 points, Scola's 12 points and Dragic's 14 points.
The Suns' current lineup on the court is the classic twin towers and three small players. Positional warfare is their most stable scoring defense. The team's average score per game has reached 95 points, the lowest in the past decade.
It’s hard to believe that this was the proud phoenix that once mainly bombarded the Zongheng Alliance.
Therefore, the Blazers' defensive strategy in this game is a two- and three-zone defense.
As for the Suns' outside players, except for small forward Dudley, who was slightly more accurate, his three-point shooting percentage reached 39.1%.
Others, such as Dragic, Shannon Brown, etc., have a three-point shooting rate of around 30%, which is almost equivalent to no threat.
There was a crowd inside, and Dragic frowned, looking for Dudley.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! At this time, Dudley had a Batum next to him.
With 11 seconds left in the offensive round, Dragic was still dribbling the ball, making head coach Gentry shake his head.
Dragic is good at everything, but he's a little too sticky to the ball.
According to various bizarre lists in the bleachers, Goran Dragic of the Suns averages 33.2 minutes per game and requires 6.4 seconds of possession time per pass, ranking No. 1 on the list of ball-stickers this season.
ten.
As for first place, Westbrook of the Thunder averaged one pass every 7.8 seconds and successfully occupied the top spot.
In the last 7 seconds, Dragic suddenly shook his shoulders, causing Lillard to mistakenly think that he was about to break through and quickly took a step back.
Dragic stepped on the accelerator, shot a three-pointer, and finally struck the iron.
The three-point shooting percentage of 31.9% per game is still not stable. The Blazers made the right choice.
Wang Zelin picked off the rebound, and Lillard stood outside the right three-point line and passed the ball to Wang Zelin, who was in the low post.
After observing the positioning of the Polish Hammers and another insider from the Suns, Wang Zelin instantly understood: The opponent wanted to double-team!
But so what, when had O'Neal ever been afraid of double-teaming?
After leaning on the Polish hammer, Wang Zelin flexibly turned and went straight to the basket. Diamond quickly came up and formed a double-team with his teammates.
Wang Zelin took a small jump and came to the basket. "Pop!" The hand of the Polish Hammer slapped Wang Zelin hard on his right arm. This move made Wang Zelin even more excited. He poured the ball in despite the intentional fouls of the two.
basket.
"Beep!"
The whistle sounded again, and the Suns' No. 4 hitter committed a foul.
"Why don't you foul? If you do, then do it harshly. Don't act like a wimp."
Wang Zelin took off his braces and raised his red right arm.
Immediately, Wang Zelin continued to hit extra free throws.
"Beep beep beep!"
Suns coach Gentry called the first timeout of the game.
As soon as the center comes up, he is guilty of two offenses. Who can withstand this!
Time was limited. Gentry told Gortat to pay more attention to fouls. After Dragic passed the ball, the timeout ended.
This time, Dragic dribbled outside the three-point line and hit a jumper from the left elbow with the help of a pick-and-roll.
Finally broke the scoring drought for the team.
6:2.
The Trail Blazers attacked, and the ball came into Wang Zelin's hands again. He got away from Gortat and then turned over and made a jump shot.
Wang Zelin dominated the team's first eight points. His condition in this game was frightening.
"Oh, my God, King has already scored 8 points. There are still 9 minutes left before the end of the first quarter. Let's take a bold guess, how many points can he get at the end of the first quarter?"
The commentator on the sidelines has gone crazy. Based on his many years of commentating career, he has a premonition that after this night is over, a new miracle will be born in the NBA.
"king!"
"king!"
"king!"
"..."
The fans at the scene fell into a carnival, and the overwhelming cheers made the Suns players feel even more pressured.
Dragic, who was taught by Nash, withstood the pressure and steadily dribbled the ball across the half court. He was preparing to launch an attack at the top of the arc, but suddenly found that No. 0 on the opposite side was at least two meters away from him.
Stop looking down on others!
Dragic made a decisive three-point shot and successfully hit it.
8:5.
Wang Zelin picked up the ball with black lines on his head: "Man, what are you doing? Are you still thinking about the girl you slept with last night?"
"No, no," Lillard shook his head and replied awkwardly, "Didn't the coach say to shoot to prevent breakthroughs?"
"Then you can't regard him as the Celtics' No. 9. After all, Dragic has a three-point shooting rate of about 30%."
"knew."
Lillard took the ball, quickly shifted gears and left this awkward place.
After Wang Zelin received the ball in the high post, he directly made a jump shot. This offensive choice was beyond the expectations of the Suns players. Gortat was slow to react, and Wang Zelin made the shot smoothly.
"Whoosh!"
10 points.
Turning around, the Suns rarely found an open space. Dragic passed the ball to the ground and assisted the super jumping man Shannon Brown for an alley-oop dunk.
10:7.
The Suns held on to the score.
The Trail Blazers attacked and Wang Zelin received the ball again. Even Lillard is very curious now, how many points can Wang Zelin score?
How far can he go?
After receiving the ball at the same position, Gortat quickly followed up, but Wang Zelin still chose to take a jump shot.
What's even worse is that the ball hit again.
12:7.
Is he crazy?
Suns coach Gentry held his head and looked at this scene in disbelief.
"Although LaMarcus is gone, his spirit is still there, and he even left his shooting bag to King!"
While returning to defense, Wang Zelin passed by the Suns bench and suddenly blew a kiss.
When the camera turned, Wang Zelin's girlfriend Izarena cheered up in that direction, and Reina quickly recalled blowing a kiss.
"It seems that I not only got LaMarcus' shooting bag, but also the power of love in it."
love?
I love Nima Mahuaqing!
The Polish Hammers took their positions in the frontcourt with a sullen expression.
"Hey man, why are you like this? Weren't you very brave at the beginning?"
"This won't work, you have to be frightened!"
The Polish Hammers received the ball in the low post and prepared to hit Wang Zelin in singles. Wang Zelin kept falling behind him, which made him upset and turned around to miss the jump hook.
The rebound was grabbed by Mike Roberts and quickly passed to Lillard.
Lillard was not in a hurry after receiving the ball and walked side by side to the frontcourt with Wang Zelin.
Mike Roberts stepped forward to do a double pick-and-roll with Wang Zelin. Lillard successfully passed down and suddenly passed back to Wang Zelin in the right corner.
That's the three-point line, right?
"Quick defense!"
Gentry was so frightened by Wang Zelin's actions that he stood up and quickly yelled at the Suns players.
In the preseason, Wang Zelin did shoot a few three-pointers, but in the regular season, which has lasted more than 20 games, no one has seen him shoot a three-pointer in an official game.
If Wang Zelin, a big center, really scores a three-pointer, it would be heartbreaking for the Suns.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! This moment felt extremely long for everyone. Whether it was the fans at the scene or the audience in front of the TV, they couldn't help but hold their breath, waiting for Wang Zelin's choice.
Is it a three-point shot or...
Fake oil!
Shet!
Damn it!
Damn it!
Classic voices from various countries suddenly took turns, witnessing Wang Zelin's first three-pointer in the regular season.
The three-point shot drew a low arc and hit the ball steadily under the gaze of everyone.
15:7.
"OMG!"
"What is there that the king can't do?"
The fans at the scene were thoroughly excited.
Gentry looked blankly at the back of player No. 36 and wanted to call a timeout, but felt it didn't make much sense.
He can even make three-pointers, which shows that Wang Zelin's touch is really explosive in this game.
What a fart!
There are now five minutes left before the end of the first quarter, and Wang Zelin still has enough time to create his new single-quarter scoring record.
…
Throughout the first quarter, Wang Zelin showed his power, and the Suns' inside line was like paper, breaking with just one poke, and they were defeated.
With a 100% shooting rate of 9 of 9, plus 5 of 5 free throws, Wang Zelin scored 24 points in a single quarter.
Looking at the long history of the NBA, although 24 points in a single quarter does not rank among the top 10, it is still enough to break into the top 20.
The last center player to score 20 points in a single quarter was Wang Zelin's compatriot Yao Ming.
In the game against the Washington Wizards at the beginning of the 2006-07 season, Yao Ming made 6 of 6 shots in the final quarter, 11 of 12 free throws, and scored 23 points.
Now, Chairman Yao's record has been broken by Wang Zelin.
Over the hill, there is another hill behind...
After Yao Ming, the record that stands in front of Wang Zelin is the 27 points in a single quarter set by the great center Shaquille O'Neal.
Wang Zelin, who is only 19 years old, has plenty of time to challenge O'Neal's amazing record.