There are three games left in February for the Celtics.
They will challenge the Magic away from home on February 24th, US time, which is the first of three games.
The Celtics have already played against the Magic twice this season. In one game, Howard single-handedly defeated the Magic inside and outside, and the Celtics lost as a result.
There was also a duel during Pierce's injury, which was won with the outbursts of Lin Yu and Wally Szczerbiak.
In the first two meetings, the Celtics and Magic tied with one win and one loss.
In the third meeting, both the Celtics and Magic want to win, because they are both rushing for the playoffs, and are even direct competitors on the road to the playoffs.
The Magic's current record is 23 wins and 30 losses. The Celtics, who have 24 wins and 29 losses, are one game ahead of the Magic. The direct confrontation between the two teams is directly equivalent to the gain of one victory.
The Magic erase the winning gap between the two teams, or the Celtics open the winning gap between the two teams to two games.
For the Celtics, victory in this game is very important, even more important than the victory against the Cavaliers.
Everyone knew this game was important, but they played it very hard.
Dwight Howard blocked the penalty area, the Magic shrunk their defense, and the Celtics were having a hard time. They couldn't get inside, and the mid-range was like a millstone. Even if the Celtics could score goals, every goal was worthless.
Paid the price of "blood".
It wasn't until Lin Yu, who didn't feel very good at the start, made the first three-pointer of the game that the Celtics suddenly had sufficient offensive space.
The offense still failed to open up, and Lin Yu's shooting percentage was never high.
In the end, the Celtics, whose entire staff was inefficient, lost to the Magic in an away game and lost this extremely important game.
Lin Yu made 6 of 13 shots, 3 of 8 three-pointers, and scored 17 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. His performance was naturally not bad, but it was not as impressive as the previous game.
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But at the end of the game, Charles Barkley still spoke highly of Lin Yu: "Chinese Lin has done everything he can. On the defensive end, he restricted Hedo Turkoglu, and on the offensive end, he hit three
scored and made some very important passes.”
"We can no longer ask for more from a role player who only earns a basic salary. If the Celtics want to make the playoffs, they also need Paul Pierce and Wally Szczerbiak to step up..."
Pierce was in terrible shape in this game, scoring only 19 points on 5-of-18 shooting.
Wally Szczerbiak didn't get many opportunities. He only took 14 shots and scored 16 points on 7 of 14 shots.
After losing to the Magic, the Celtics' push for the playoffs was put on hold. Their 24-30 record was the same as the Magic's. And because they had 1 win and 2 losses in direct games, their ranking even fell behind the Magic.
After playing the Magic, it's the Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers are so bad this season. The biggest star on the team is Zach Randolph, who averages 18+8 per game.
At this time, Randolph is not the future King of the Black Bears. This guy is now the "trouble" in everyone's mouth, a data black hole on the court, and a troublemaker off the court.
Although the data is impressive, it cannot drive the team to win.
Under the leadership of Randolph, the Blazers rushed directly towards the No. 1 pick.
Although it was an away game, the Celtics still won an unquestionable victory. Paul Pierce recovered and scored 37 points and 7 rebounds.
Lin Yu also made 9 of 16 shots and scored 23 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block.
In the last game of February, the Celtics challenged the Wizards away from home.
The Wizards, who have 28 wins and 27 losses so far this season, are also the Celtics' direct competitors on their way to the playoffs. The Wizards are currently ranked sixth in the Eastern Conference, only three games behind the Celtics.
As long as the Celtics win this game, the winning difference between the two teams will be only 2 games.
In this highly competitive game, Pierce broke out at the beginning, hitting consecutive mid-range singles, and quickly attracted most of the Wizards' defensive attention.
Relying on Pierce to attract the defense, Lin Yu played very comfortably. In the first quarter alone, there were three or four open opportunities in the bottom corner.
Pierce, who made 10 of 18 shots, ended up with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists. Lin Yu also had an efficient personal performance, making 8 of 15 shots and scoring 21 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 steal.
The Celtics won an away game, with a record of 26 wins and 30 losses, and have gradually threatened their position among the top eight in the Eastern Conference.
Throughout February, the Celtics had a record of 5 wins and 6 losses, and after Pierce returned, they were 3 wins and 1 loss.
Before Pierce came back, Lin Yu averaged 19.9 points and 5.1 assists per game. After Pierce came back, Lin Yu's scoring increased to 21.8 points, and he averaged 5.5 assists per game, and his shooting percentage also barely exceeded 4.0 points per game.
, and now it has steadily exceeded 50%.
Various statistics increased instead of decreasing. After Pierce returned, Lin Yu played more efficiently, which surprised many people.
In ESPN's special program, Mark Stein, the expert reporter who first noticed Lin Yu, mentioned Lin Yu and expressed his surprise at Lin Yu's recent performance.
"Paul Pierce returned after more than half a month of injury. Football critics are speculating that he may take away the ball from Lin Crazy, and Lin Crazy without the ball may experience a decline in statistics, but
What no one expected was that Pierce's comeback actually helped Lin Kuangsheng achieve a more efficient personal performance."
"Truth and Linsanity seemed to have formed a brand new combination. Pierce's strong-side isolation and Linsanity's weak-side running and passing support. The two formed an extremely close connection. After the All-Star weekend, the Celtics
Defeating the Cavaliers, Wizards and Trail Blazers in succession, the state of complete recovery also allowed people to see the potential of the forward-defense combination of Linsanity and Truth."
"It is said that Crazy Lin's contract is about to expire. Danny Ainge should act as soon as possible to keep the young and potential Lin Yu, making Lin Crazy and Pierce one of the most successful forward and defensive duos in the East..."
Come March, Lin Yu won another Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month trophy by averaging 20.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.3 steals in 11 games in February.
Throughout the season, Lin Yu has played in 45 games, averaging 15.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.4 blocks per game.
Danny Ainge saw Mark Stein's evaluation of Lin Yu. What he found very strange was that the well-known and authoritative expert reporters in the league all spoke highly of Lin Yu.
It seemed that all of them were very optimistic about Lin Yu.
At the same time, he also received a notice from the league that Lin Yu was elected Rookie of the Month for the second time.
Seeing Lin Yu like this, Danny Ainge began to hesitate again.
Is a wing defender who averages 15 points per game, a scorer who has averaged 20+ points per game in the past two months, a three-year contract worth $24 million with a final year of $14 million expensive?
Anji suddenly felt that this contract was not expensive.
But Anji always had a unique idea. He wanted to form a superstar combination. If Lin Yu was left behind, this superstar combination would not exist.
Because the NBA's limited salary cap limits the maximum annual salary of tens of millions a team can give.
In the 2005/06 season, the NBA's salary cap is US$49.5 million. Next season's salary cap may increase slightly, but it will not exceed US$55 million.
This means that the Celtics can only offer three to four contracts with a salary of US$14 million in a single year at most.
If you include the salaries required to retain contracted role players, the Celtics can only offer three such salaries at most.
Moreover, in 2006, the salaries of NBA superstars have begun to rise significantly. Super giants such as Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett have begun to receive super maximum salaries with a starting salary of US$20 million.
When Pierce's current contract expires, he may also seek a supermax salary.
Anji shook his head. He felt that he could not give Lin Yu a salary of US$14 million in the last year. He aimed at the championship, not the playoffs.