Anthony the Reborn

Chapter 116 Bell's Personality Problems
During the timeout, after D'Antoni finished arranging the team's tactics, he called Anthony alone and said, "Melo, I know you really want to win, but you have to pay attention to controlling your physical strength, the game has just begun."

Anthony was still satisfied with his hit rate. After hearing what D'Antoni said, he realized that he was a little too anxious.

Anthony nodded, and at this moment, the whistle sounded from the sidelines, and he also walked onto the field quickly.

Back from the timeout, D'Antoni adjusted the team's lineup, replacing Bell and Nene with old Barry Wang Zhizhi.

"The Nuggets made personnel adjustments so quickly?" Jones said and looked at the scoreboard, which showed that the game had only started at 2 minutes and 24 seconds.

"It seems that Mike is not satisfied with the performance of the players, but now the score between the two sides is anxious, and it feels a bit too early to change." Ewing analyzed, and he also felt that D'Antoni's current approach was a bit too rash.

While the two of them were discussing, the match on the court had already started.

The Nuggets went first, and Anthony did not choose to go to the free throw line for pick-and-rolls or pick positions like in previous games, nor did he choose to play singles. Or Camby's pick-and-roll looked for opportunities to shoot, went around a few times, and successfully got rid of the defender when the pick-and-roll came out.

"Shh!"

Anthony made a steady hit from a nearly open mid-range.

The Nuggets scored a goal by Anthony, and they didn't care much. After all, these rounds were all offensive, but when they attacked, they suddenly realized that something was wrong.

Old Barry, the 34-year-old veteran, used his experience to bypass the pick-and-roll man when facing the Knicks pick-and-roll, and followed Houston like a jellyfish, preventing him from easily getting a shot.

Not only Houston, but even Van Horn was stuck at this time. After Cooper's targeted training for a period of time, Wang Zhizhi's defense has improved a lot, and his style of play is similar to that of Van Horn. En is also somewhat similar, and the latter can't find an easy shot at once.

Just so inexplicably, the Knicks' offense seemed to stagnate.

The ball came and went and finally reached the hands of the insider Kurt Thomas. The defensive insider's hasty shot naturally ended in a strike.

And this is just the beginning. The appearance of Barry and Wang Zhizhi made the Knicks' offensive core inside and outside very uncomfortable. The offense became like squeezing cotton, which was very ugly. It took half a day to score a goal.

The Knicks' offense was sluggish, but the Nuggets were on their minds, attacking wave after wave, and soon the point difference between the two sides widened to double digits.

At 25:15, after Anthony scored 15 points in the first quarter, he was also substituted.

D'Antoni's substitutions have achieved results, and the two commentators didn't comment anymore. Not many of them have more affirmation of D'Antoni's coaching ability in their hearts.

At the end of the first quarter, the two sides sent off the bench. On the Nuggets side, Mutombo, Wallace, Korver, and White all appeared on the field. On the Knicks side, the former Nuggets player Chris Anderson also appeared on the stage. .

Seeing Anderson on the court, the Nuggets bench waved to him, because they didn't see anyone during the warm-up before. These players who get along well with Anderson, including Anthony, have a good relationship. Right now It is natural to say hello.

The strength of the bench lineups of the two sides is about the same. For the Nuggets, Korver and Wallace are inside and outside.

On the Knicks side, Antonio McDyess, who came off the bench, made a big splash in the interior. He was originally paid tens of millions of dollars a year, and his strength is not bad, and he may have a relationship with Dikembe Mutombo as a former teammate. Hold the latter to grab the rebound.

The substitutes on both sides were evenly matched.

Anthony watched the game on the field, and inadvertently caught a glimpse of Bell sitting in an empty seat with him, a little lonely, and then remembered that he was sitting on the bench in his first start. With his personality, he would definitely be very frustrated.

Thinking of this, Anthony moved to the left, sat next to Bell, patted his shoulder and said, "Hey, Raja, what's the matter? Didn't sleep well last night? See why you're so weak?"

Bell felt that someone was patting him, turned his head, saw that it was Anthony, and hurriedly said timidly: "May...Melo..."

"Why are you in such a state, today is your first start, how can you be in such a mental state!" Anthony said with some reproach.

"I..." Hearing what Anthony said, a hint of helplessness appeared on Bell's face, and he said with some self-pity, "The coach didn't let me play, it's better when I didn't start..."

Anthony looked at Bell, and suddenly had an indescribable feeling. In his previous life memory, Bell was a tough player, most famous for choking Kobe, but now he feels like a little boy. by?

However, Anthony is still patient, he knows the importance of Bell to this Nuggets team: "Raja, Coach Mike replaced you at the beginning because of Houston's offensive style, and now he does not let you play because he needs Kyle's help." Scoring ability, I believe the coach will let you play in a short time."

"Really...?" Bell asked suspiciously.

"Melo, Kyle, it's your turn to perform." Before Bell finished speaking, D'Antoni's voice came over.

A smile suddenly appeared on Bell's face, while Anthony smiled helplessly, which was quite a coincidence.

At this time, the second quarter has been played for nearly 5 minutes, and the Nuggets and Knicks are playing their main players.

When walking on the court, Anthony leaned into Bell's ear and said, "Cherish the opportunity, this game is very important to you."

Bell also nodded solemnly when he heard the words. He knew that he had lost an opportunity at the beginning of the game, and he must seize it the second time, otherwise the coach may have to consider letting Korver or Barry.

To say that Bell's defensive savvy is really high, with the previous lessons, and the demonstration of the old Barry, he can also bypass the pick-and-roll man. After all, Houston is also old and has a little injury, but he is restricted by Bell. However, the other gun of the Knicks is still full of power, and Van Horn still wants what he wants in the face of Nene.

At halftime, at 60:52, the Nuggets still held an 8-point lead, and Anthony also took it again, scoring 12 points at the end of the second quarter and scoring 27 points at halftime.

During the halftime break, the players were playing haha ​​in the lounge, but the field outside was bustling with excitement, and the DJs were singing and shouting, and they didn't know what they were doing.

Anthony and Nene were chatting every sentence. At this moment, a familiar figure suddenly appeared at the door of the dressing room and knocked on the eaves of the door.

Anthony looked up and found that it was Vandeweghe, his face was full of surprise.

"Melo, come out." Vandeweghe said directly to Anthony.

Hearing Vandeweghe's shout, Anthony hurriedly stood up and walked out, causing envious voices from other players.

"Qiqi, do you have anything to do with me?" Anthony asked suspiciously as soon as he left the door.

Vandeweghe didn't answer his question, but just said: "Follow me" and then walked away.

Anthony didn't know what Vandeweghe was doing, but followed him anyway.

The two arrived at a room marked the scouting studio, looked around for no one, and then went straight in.

"Melo, this is our office. I have already checked that there is no monitoring equipment. I have some urgent matters. I want to tell you first." Vandeweghe said impatiently as soon as he entered.

"Is this my own office?" Anthony asked suspiciously, but he knew that this was an away game.

"Well, you don't need to worry about this. This is a necessary means for the manager. Today, he sent me a very important message." Vandeweghe said a little excitedly.

"What important news?" Anthony asked suspiciously. It would definitely not be a trivial matter to get such information from Vandeweghe.

"It's like this. When he was in contact with other agents, he found that Brand was very dissatisfied with the current situation of the Clippers. He didn't want to stay with the Clippers last year. It was the team coach old Dunleavy who persuaded him to stay. Yes, now that the Clippers have a poor record, he suddenly became interested in leaving." Vandeweghe continued.

"Brand?!" Anthony was startled when he heard this name. He didn't expect such an amazing name to appear suddenly. He knew that the stability of "Captain" at his peak was second only to "Stone." "Fo" Duncan, but he still didn't understand why Vandeweghe called him here, he asked suspiciously, "But, Qiqi, how can I help?"

"I have definite news that Brand wants to play with Jason Williams of the Grizzlies." Vandeweghe paused here, then looked at Anthony with piercing eyes, and said word by word, " And Jason Williams, 'White Chocolate,' the man he looked up to the most was your high school coach, Steve Smith."

"The reason why I tell you it's urgent is because I'm not the only general manager who got the news. Now that the news has spread, there must be many agents contacting Coach Steve. This matter is urgent." Vandeweghe then explained that there was a hint of urgency in his tone, which showed that he did not want to miss the opportunity to get Brand.

(End of this chapter)