NBA Absolute Flood Dam

Chapter 215 Fourth in the West

"Quick, faster!"

Carter kicked the ground with all his strength while dribbling the ball.

One step, two steps, three steps, it's ok, let's fly!

Carter grabbed the ball with his right arm and raised it high. He wanted to give Li Ba a gliding one-arm fly dunk!

"Vince, fly!"

The nearly [-] fans in the audience opened their mouths wide at this time, staring at Carter who was about to spread his wings and fly high.

One step, two steps, all right.

At this moment, when Carter took off, Li Ba also jumped up, stretched his left arm as much as possible, and stretched his left hand towards the basket.

Protecting the basket and attacking the basket unfolded at this moment.

"Snapped!"

There was a clatter of ball palms.

"Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!"

There was a loud groan at the Air Canada Center as the basketball leaped high and over the backboard to the baseline.

"..."

The basket was covered again on the eve of the explosion, and after landing, Carter glanced at Li Ba in a daze. Was the basket protected by the Chinese really covered?

Li Ba was a little lucky, fortunately he was one step closer to the basket.

Of course, Bosh passed the ball a little faster. If he passed the ball to Carter when he jumped in front of him, then he would have no chance to come back to protect the basket.

Damn Bosh, it's too far out, do you want to let him in a little bit?

He regretted making Bosh too hard, and he should be gentle next time.

These two consecutive blocks completely drove the Raptors' offense out of the paint area, and since then began to shoot outside.

At the end of the third quarter, 75:61, the Suns led by 14 points.

In the fourth quarter, neither Li Ba nor Marbury played, and Kabakapa and Barbosa played for training.

三节时间，他上场了21分钟，拿下了6分12篮板2助攻2抢断5封盖，数据一般。

Seeing Li Ba not playing in the fourth quarter, the Raptors launched a counterattack. Bosh exerted strength in the last quarter and controlled the rebounds, but the Suns' half-main and half-substitute lineup withstood this wave of counterattack.

波什本场9投1中，6罚4中，拿下了6分10篮板1助攻2抢断1封盖5失误2犯规的数据，表现一般。（真实数据）

At the end of the game, 93:86, the Suns won 7 points away and completed a wave of five consecutive victories, with a record of 21 wins and 13 losses, and the ranking remained unchanged, fifth in the West.

The next game, back to back, will challenge the Bulls in Chicago tomorrow.

The Bulls have basically withdrawn from the ranks of the playoffs, with a current record of 10 wins and 23 losses, almost locked in next year's lottery pick.

However, Marbury said after the game that there was something wrong with his wrist. Frank decided to put him on the injured list. He returned to Phoenix for inspection first, and the team continued to fly to Chicago.

Because the Bulls' opponents are weak and Marbury is not around, Frank simply plans to train and let the main players rest in rotation, and Li Ba enters the substitute lineup.

Howard Ellis, Barbosa combined back line, Joe Johnson returned to the third position, backup center Jack Voskull, plus Marion, formed the starting lineup.

On the plane, Frank drew up the list and came to Li Ba to chat.

"Iron Hammer, Zako Kabakapa and Jack Voskull have mediocre potential. I think you need to pick a stronger substitute for your position. What do you think?" Frank whispered.

"Frank, you and the management can decide. I don't pick my teammates. As I said, if I'm the boss, I won't be counted as mine. If I'm good, it's everyone's. All of them will have good stats." Li Ba laughed.

Frank gave a thumbs up, the words were comfortable to hear, but he felt that he should strengthen it.

"I'll talk to the management. The No. [-] position actually needs a better substitute. Steve's playing time is too long. I don't want him to have problems in the playoffs." Frank said.

He now attaches great importance to Li Ba's opinion, because with Li Ba's leadership, the team's record is stable, his coaching position is stable, and his future coaching path will be smooth.

If the team has a good performance in the playoffs this season and reaches the second round, then his coaching career in the NBA will have a good start.

The next day, January 1th, the goal of Frank and Li Ba's military training was achieved.

巴博萨在二号位打出了他目前为止最好的表现，上场39分钟，18投11中，三分球6投2中，4罚3中，拿下了27分3篮板4助攻2抢断1失误4犯规的数据，是本场比赛太阳队的第一得分点。（真实数据）

In the case of a mistake, playing this data is indeed a very good performance.

另外乔·约翰逊16投6中，6罚6中，拿下了18分8篮板5助攻的数据，也不差。

But he is a little worried that the starting position will be snatched by the Brazilian.

Substitute center Jack Voskull scored 36 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists in 3 minutes, and his performance was acceptable.

Although the performance was good, the game was almost killed by the Bulls.

After trailing by 7 points in the first three quarters, Frank replaced Li Ba in the fourth quarter. After controlling the rebounds and the paint, the score gradually caught up. In the end, the Suns won by 85 points at 82:3.

In the next last away game, No. 7 played the Bucks.

The Bucks have a record of 18 wins and 16 losses this season, and their strength is still good. Frank decided to continue training and let Barbosa enter the starting lineup.

On the afternoon of the 6th, Li Ba received a call from Chen Hong at the hotel and received the news that the coach was cut by the Magic.

"The deal was made on the 3rd, and it was laid off on the 6th. Damn, it was decided a long time ago." After hanging up the phone, he muttered, and then called the bus.

"Tie Hammer, have you received the message?" The depressed voice of the bus came from the phone.

"Well, a reporter told me just now. What are you going to do?" Li Ba asked.

"I still want to wait and see. The agent is contacting to see if there is any important person from the team." Bus said.

"Well, come to Phoenix if you have time. I have a place to live here, and I have a basketball court and gym at home." Li Ba said.

The two chatted for a few words and hung up the phone.

He thought about what he talked with Bill Duffy last time. The biggest function of smartphones is to be able to surf the Internet, and the Internet is the direction of social development in the future, so he believes that there is a certain market for this thing.

You can buy it, but you can only buy half of it for long-term investment.

Gao Yuanyuan has been back to China for a few days, and he asked her to exchange 5000 million yuan for him, remit it to Duffy, and let him buy Apple stocks.

That night, the Suns played against the Bucks, just like they played against the Bulls in the previous game. Li Ba did not start, the rebounds were out of control, anyone was allowed to enter the paint, and the outside line had no touch. The score has been falling behind.

李坝第二节打了4分钟，第四节打满，打了16分钟，拿下11分9个篮板2助攻1抢断3封盖。

The team was behind and Marbury was not there. In the fourth quarter, he made great efforts on the offensive end. The Bucks were unstoppable inside, but after two hits, the Bucks immediately implemented a slashing tactic against him, which is to a certain extent He limited his performance on the offensive end, and finally made 10 of 6 free throws.

But in the end, relying on his efforts on both offense and defense, he helped the team win the game.

After this game, the team won 7 consecutive victories, which is also the longest winning streak of the Suns this season.

At the same time, the record has reached 23 wins and 13 losses, fourth in the West, ahead of the Kings, Timberwolves and Spurs, behind the Lakers who have just been kicked to fifth, and behind them are the Mavericks, Grizzlies and Nuggets.

The Mosaic team was overtaken by the Nuggets and is currently ninth in the Western Conference, but only half a game away, and may return to the eighth position at any time.

According to the current playoff rules, there are six divisions in the east and west leagues, and the six division champions will automatically get the top three in the east and west leagues, but the home court advantage is determined by the winning percentage.

According to this rule, in the West, the top three happens to be the champions of each division, which is the same as the winning percentage ranking, but it does not affect the final playoff ranking.

The Suns belong to the Pacific Division. There are the Kings in the front and the Lakers in the back. If you want to enter the top three, you must step on the Kings.As long as you step on the king, you can directly climb to the top of the Western Conference. If you don't step on it, even if the winning percentage exceeds the Timberwolves and Spurs, you can only rank fourth.

However, the Kings currently have a record of 27 wins and 9 losses, one of the best teams, and the Suns also lost to the Kings, which is difficult to step on. Therefore, if the current trend is followed, the Suns are No. 4 in the playoffs this season.

But No.4, Frank doesn't really want it. He doesn't want to meet the Lakers in the first round, which will be troublesome, unless the Lakers fall out of the top five, or the Suns fall out of the top five.

In addition, I heard that Karl Malone is about to make a comeback, the Lakers will increase in strength, their record will be better, and the Suns may be squeezed out of the top four.

"Trouble! After falling to sixth and seventh, we have to play against Timberwolves and Spurs. It is also difficult to play. Is the Lakers in the first round?"

On the plane, Frank rubbed his head and muttered.

However, there is still halfway to the playoffs, so he thought about it for a while before throwing it away.

Back to Phoenix, rested for a day, on January 1th, the Suns played against the Kings at home.

Marbury is still unable to play this time, and he will rest for two games.

Losing the team's first scoring point, the Suns were shot by the Kings with 9 three-pointers, 113:93, and lost by 20 points.

Li Ba played 24 minutes, rested in the second quarter, and didn't play in garbage time in the fourth quarter.

Insufficient scoring points, he exerted strength on the offensive end, took the ball 16 times, only 8 times had a chance to shoot, and the other 8 times were cut before the shot, which also caused him two turnovers.

In the end, he made 8 of 5 shots, 10 of 6 free throws, scored 16 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, and still couldn't save the Suns.

After the game, he complained at the press conference that if the centers all pull outside to shoot in the future, then the NBA can cancel this position.

After the game, he summed up that free throws are still not enough. If he had Dayao's shooting percentage, he would not lose so badly today. He will definitely attack to the end.

After this game, he knows that in future games, if it is an important game, if he continues to take the ball on the offensive end, he will probably continue to face the same situation.

Next, Marbury came back, and the Suns played four more games, including the Nuggets, Trail Blazers, Warriors and Trail Blazers (the fourth game), and once again played a wave of four consecutive victories.

27 wins and 14 losses, still No. 4 in the West.

In addition, the Mosaic team squeezed out the Nuggets and boarded No.8 in the West.

On the night of January 1, after defeating the Trail Blazers, the Suns flew to Los Angeles overnight. Tomorrow they will play back-to-back against the Lakers.

On the morning of the 19th, the Lakers officially announced that Karl Malone is back.

(End of this chapter)