field coach

Chapter 145

The Knicks were surprised to find that even if O'Neal was not on the court, they were not weaker than the Knicks in the slightest.

"This No. [-] threat is so great." Pat Riley frowned, his brain was running fast, thinking of ways to limit Davis.

But Starks is already the best perimeter defender on the Knicks, and he even allocated part of his offensive energy to limit Davis.

Still useless.

Pat Riley knows that the current stalemate will be completely broken after O'Neal plays.

DeWeese and O'Neal, who have released their firepower, will cause a devastating blow to the Knicks.

"He pulled back in the first quarter and completely handed over the shot to O'Neal. If O'Neal still takes this kid as the core after he comes on the court, we really have nothing to do." Pat Riley said dejectedly.

But as a famous coach, how could he give up so easily?
Pat Riley sat in a chair and thought hard.

"Since the two of them are a whole, let them fight well." Pat Riley's eyes lit up, and he wanted to try this method.

D'Antoni called a timeout after a while. He was very satisfied with the effect of the small lineup on the court. Now he is going to replace O'Neal and get a big enough advantage before halftime to make it easier for the team to enter the second half of the game.

After O'Neal came on the court, he got a lot of shots very easily, and Davis was trying his best to play him the ball, but what surprised D'Antoni was that the score was not opened as he expected.

D'Antoni looked at the team's offense strangely, but found that Davis and O'Neal played normally.

In the end, Anna who was on the side saw the problem one step ahead.

"The Knicks disconnected Michael and Shaq from the rest of the team."

D'Antoni looked carefully and found that this was indeed the case.

Davis and O'Neal were handed over to Ewing and Starks for single-handed defense, and the others blocked the other players tightly through rotation and rotation, preventing them from making easy shots.

The Magic now have only two offensive options left, Davis and O'Neal, but the defensive players of both of them can effectively limit their performance, and the Knicks, who are relatively more overall, have more shooting options.

Knicks put on a very bachelor look: You two fight, I will admit it if you can kill me.

But D'Antoni couldn't think of an effective strategy, especially for the Knicks' offense. He has never been good at training defense, and the Magic have never had a complete defensive system.

Although DeWeese can beat Starks on the offensive end, he still has to feed O'Neal, and Starks' offense also makes DeWeese very uncomfortable.

During the intermission, D'Antoni didn't come up with a good strategy, so he could only let Davis and O'Neal continue to play like this.

Because Ewing is still on the field, it seems that he is not ready to go down.

It is impossible for D'Antoni to break his arms to replace Davis and O'Neal, but O'Neal has a bit of an advantage over Ewing in terms of physical fitness because of the longer rest time in the second quarter.

As for DeWeese, D'Antoni said: This physical monster, play as long as you want, until you are happy.

It's not that Pat Riley just found a way to win, it's just that he found the most suitable defensive strategy for the team. To put it bluntly, it's drinking poison to quench thirst, fuck Ewing and Starks to death, and then see if he can suppress the Magic through a more overall offense and defense.

But Pat Riley was only half right.

O'Neal and Ewing exploded each other on the court, and Davis and Starks also exploded on the court. Generally speaking, the Magic have more advantages.

The final score also illustrates this point. At the end of the fourth quarter, Ewing’s disadvantage of playing too long finally emerged. His shooting percentage began to drop sharply. The Knicks lacked the most important offensive and defensive core and then collapsed instantly. In 2 minutes, the Magic opened up a five-point advantage.

In the end, the Magic also won by three points, but looking at the Knicks players who had reached their limits, and looking at DeWeese and O'Neal who still had enough energy, this game was not as intense as the score looked.

After the game against the Knicks, the Magic ushered in a rare break, and they had two days to prepare for the next game.

But the team doctor's report made D'Antoni feel unhappy again.

Nick - Anderson thigh muscle discomfort, it is recommended to rest for a week.

Sprewell also suffered from excessive physical exertion, and the team doctor also advised him to rest.

After thinking about going to Philadelphia for the next game, D'Antoni waved his hand and put both of them on the injured list.

In the next game, Van Exel was promoted to the starting point guard position, Davis went to play the scoring position, and Scott came to the starting position again.

The Philadelphia team couldn't resist the Magic's hearty offense at all. Davis played the shooting guard very vigorously in this game.

In the end, he also scored the standard data of 30+5+5.

As February approached, the Magic's schedule became looser, and they could rest for another two days after the game.

But everyone knows that this schedule is specially arranged by the league.

From the 25th to the 31st, the Magic have only three games.

Other teams' schedules are not tight either.

Because on February 2st, the All-Star Game will start.

The players obviously felt that something was wrong with Davis' performance these days.

"Hey, Michael, what's going on with you for a few days? Feeling weird?" Sprewell asked wondering after DeWeese's flying dunk in the practice game.

"Yeah, you really like dunking these days."

"I see. It must be prepared for the All-Star Weekend. By the way, Michael, you have worked so hard and signed up for all the projects."

Davis did not deny the speculation of his teammates at all.

He signed up for the three-point contest and the dunk contest.

He is very confident in the three-point contest, but the slam dunk contest is entirely for the purpose of completing the task of "Slam Dunk King's Resentment".

In the past few days, Davis has been practicing dunks on and off the court.

"What actions have you prepared, show them and let us see."

"It won't work if it comes out early."

"In my opinion, if Davis can perform all the moves he prepared in the slam dunk contest, then there will be no suspense in this slam dunk contest." Anna on the side took up the conversation.

For a while, the team members became more curious.

Davis just laughed. If the movements are done in advance, there will be no suspense, but those few movements are really difficult to do. . .

(End of this chapter)