field coach

Chapter 170 The Birthday Party Before the Great War
DeWeese started his rain or shine morning workout.

Still ran for five kilometers on the path next to the villa, and then Davis came to the court in the backyard to do some simple shooting exercises.

Davis has always believed that although talent is very important, uninterrupted shooting training every day is the only way to maintain his touch.

When it was time for breakfast, he returned to the house. As usual, Anna had prepared breakfast and was waiting for him.

DeWeese kissed Anna's smooth forehead and sat down to eat.

"It's a day off today, Michael, what are your plans?"

The team took a day off to let the players who had been nervous for a season rest for a day, and then invested in the more intense playoffs.

On April 4, three days later, the Magic will begin their first playoff game this year and in franchise history.

The Miami Heat became the first series opponent in the history of the Magic playoffs.

"No, honey, let's continue training." Davis scratched his head.

"Okay then, where are you going to train, the arena?" Anna pouted, absently stirring the salad on the plate with a spoon.

Davis suddenly thought of something.

"Uh, I suddenly don't want to go to the arena for training today, why don't we go out for a walk?"

Anna looked at Davis in surprise.

"Is this piece of wood finally enlightened?"

After eating, DeWeese ran upstairs with the excuse of taking a shower, and then made a phone call.

Afterwards, Davis drove Anna out of the car.

In fact, Davis and Anna seldom go out and hang out like this. Not to mention that Davis, as a player, is not training, playing, or on the plane or bus going to the game every day, but Anna, as the tactical coach of the Magic, basically acts in sync with Davis.

So although the two can see each other every day, they rarely have time to be alone.

Just when Davis was thinking about how to make up for today's training after going back, the two of them came to the agreed destination.

In addition to having the Magic, an NBA team, Orlando is most famous for the world's largest Disney theme park.

This theme park covers an area of ​​111 square kilometers, and it will take several days to visit all of them.

The two had a great day playing in the park.

Anna is fast, happy fast.

Davis is pain, pain and joyful pain. . .

When the evening approached, the two returned home.

"Michael, why are the lights on at home? I remember they were all turned off when I left?" Anna looked at the lights in the house and asked Davis uneasily.

Given the world-class security situation in Great America, Anna has every reason to believe that something unexpected happened at home?
Like two gunmen breaking into a house or something. . .

Davis looked at Anna nervously looking for weapons in the car with a funny face, and finally said: "No, I arranged that."

At this time, a group of people in the house had already received the news from Davis in advance. They watched the cars coming in from the gate and nervously made the final preparations.

"Are you ready?"

"Everything is ready!"

"Where are you?"

"no problem."

Walking to the front of the house, Davis took two quick steps, and opened the door for Anna in a very gentlemanly manner.

Anna walked into the house with a puzzled expression.

The moment I stepped into the room, all the lights in the room were turned on, and music sounded at the same time.

"Happy birthday, honey."

Behind Anna came Davis' voice.

And a group of burly men also appeared in front of Anna at the same time.

"Happy birthday, Anna!"

Faced with this sudden surprise, Anna seemed a little overwhelmed.

"Shaq, Nasr, Baker, you..."

"I called them here to celebrate your birthday!" Davis walked into the room, looking into Anna's eyes affectionately.

Anna threw herself directly into Davis' arms.

"I thought you forgot."

"...how could it be..." Davis wouldn't admit that if Anna didn't remind him, he might have completely forgotten about it.

Anna obviously believed in Davis' nonsense, and she looked at the various decorations specially arranged for her in the living room with surprise.

"Hey, we've had a busy day! Mike, we're going to have a good meal for you today!"

"No problem! It should be here soon."

As soon as Davis finished speaking, the siren of a car came from outside the villa.

A man dressed as a chef got out of the car and asked DeWeese who walked out of the room: "Is this Mr. Michael DeWeese?"

"It's me, are you the chef team I invited?"

"Yes."

"Please come in!"

Then, two more people got out of the car, and the three of them walked into the villa with large and small bags.

This is a chef that DeWeese specially invited from a Michelin restaurant in the city. They are responsible for the food preparation for the birthday party tonight.

Six people began to enjoy the birthday dinner happily.

"Shaq, the playoffs are coming, are you nervous?" DeWeese poked the foie gras in front of him with a fork and said to O'Neal.

O'Neill directly stuffed the whole piece of foie gras into his mouth, and replied vaguely while chewing: "I can't wait to let them see Uncle O'Neill's dominance."

Davis smiled. The Heat's interior is indeed not at the same level as the Magic's. Their main center, John Sely, is just an ordinary blue-collar with an average of 7 points and 5 rebounds per game. Compared with O'Neal, it is simply a world of difference.

"In the first round, let's focus on you."

O'Neill nodded excitedly.

"Leave it to me."

To put it mildly, DeWeese really didn't set his sights on the first round. He had worked so hard to run the Magic team for two years. If he couldn't even beat the Heat, he would be too sorry for his status as a time traveler.

After briefly chatting with O'Neal about his opponents in the first round, Davis looked at his three brothers.

"Baker, Nasr, Max, how's your first season in the NBA?"

Baker swallowed the food in his mouth, and said to Davis in a very satisfied tone: "Michael, this year is like a dream. I watched Shaq and their game at the University of Florida last year. I didn't expect to be able to play against them this year. It's all thanks to you."

Nasr and Max also nodded.

Davis said to the three of them with apology: "I'm very sorry, you basically don't have much chance to play this year, and I will try to arrange more playing time for you in the future."

Baker quickly waved his hand: "The team's victory is the most important thing. We are already very satisfied with the current playing time."

Nasr and Max turned into nodding monsters and continued to nod.

"Don't worry, follow me. I will never let you simply be a marginal player. I know your potential. I believe that one day you will play at your true level."

This season, the three played only five or six minutes per game, because the Magic needed to play too many people, but their performance in the limited playing time was quite satisfactory.

After a few people had dinner, O'Neill suggested going out for a walk, but DeWeese, who had spent a whole day at Disneyland, refused.

The bored people ran to the backyard and started a bullfight.

It is said to be a bullfight, but it is actually O'Neill and Davis unilaterally beating the children.

After another step, Baker watched in disbelief as DeWeese scored the final point with a dashing windmill dunk.

"Michael, how do I feel that you are fast again."

DeWeese came down from the basket and looked at Baker with a serious face.

"Pay attention to your words, you should say why my speed is faster again!"

Anna chuckled beside her.

Then DeWeese had another bullfight with Nasr.

This time, Nasr pointed to another aspect of DeWeese's improvement.

"Michael, how do I feel that you are hard again."

Davis nodded in satisfaction, very satisfied with Nasr's wording.

"Pay attention to your wording. You should say why Michael's defense is tougher." Baker pointed out Nasr's poor language, and Davis rolled his eyes in exchange.

On the other side of the court, O'Neal was playing Max happily.

And Max, behind O'Neill, now has a look of lovelessness.

Anyone who is frequently ridden by a big man who weighs nearly 300 pounds will have this expression.

Ana next to him watched O'Neal shake Max with a subtle trick, and then turned to the other side to put the ball into the basket. Her pretty eyes were full of expectations for how far the Magic could go this season.

It was late at night, because there was still training tomorrow, O'Neal and the four of them played for a while and then left.

Then, with Anna's resentful expression on his face, DeWeese plunged into the gym. . . .

At ten o'clock in the morning of the next day, all Magic players arrived at the training ground on time, including Rodman, who was usually the most cynical.

D'Antoni looked at the players who had accompanied him throughout the season and nodded in satisfaction.

Today's training is mainly based on tactical targeted training, and the target is officially their first opponent in the playoffs-the Miami Heat.

The core of the Heat, Glen Rice, is in very good condition this year, averaging 21.1 points per game, making him the Heat's leading scorer, so the targeted training mainly focuses on Glen Rice.

D'Antoni made a lot of demands on Sprewell based on Glenrice's technical characteristics, especially to prevent Glenlace's state from breaking out.

The Heat have won many games this year by relying on Glen Rice's ridiculous shooting percentage, including their first game against the Magic.

Glen Rice made 22 of 17 shots in that game. .

For Glenn Rice's scoring explosiveness, D'Antoni asked Sprewell to foul immediately after discovering the signs, and he must not let Glenn Rice feel good.

Then he figured out how to target their second scoring point, Steve Smith.

The rambling D'Antoni obviously started preparing these things yesterday or even many days ago. It can be seen that he, like most Magic players, is a little nervous facing the first playoff series in his life.

Seeing D'Antoni's details, as if he wanted to cover all the points, Davis stood up and said to D'Antoni: "Mike, you are too nervous, you forgot one of the most important things."

D'Antoni froze, then motioned for Davis to continue.

"We can study how to limit the opponent's arrow characters, but the opponent has no way to target our core."

After speaking, DeWeese turned his attention to the drowsy O'Neill who was listening beside him.

"You say so? Shaq, I don't think anyone on the other side can restrain you."

O'Neill instantly regained his spirits.

"Of course, the great shark is invincible!" O'Neill grinned and said loudly.

The tense atmosphere just now relaxed a lot in an instant, and D'Antoni also felt that what he just said was too much.

"No matter what they say, they are all players in the highest-level professional league in the world. I really care about it and mess it up."

With a normal mentality, D'Antoni quickly dismissed the tactical meeting, allowing the players to do targeted training according to their positions.

Two days passed quickly. On April 4, the Magic welcomed their first opponent, the Miami Heat, at the Orlando Stadium.

The arena, which can seat more than 1 people, was full of fans as early as two hours before the start of the game. The Magic team, which is usually very hot, took the playoffs to a higher level. This game even had an attendance rate of 107%.

As the league champion, this game is also the first game of the playoffs for the entire season.

The Magic players are gearing up and waiting for the official start of the game.

On the other side, the Heat's players had a weird atmosphere.

"Glen, are you so confident to win the game?" John Sely asked Glen Rice with a smile on his face.

"Don't worry, among this group of rookies, only Rodman has experience in the playoffs. He also has no offensive ability. The others will definitely be nervous when they play the playoffs for the first time. As long as we play normally, the winning percentage is not as low as they imagined."

"Although I don't know why, I always feel that what you said makes sense." John Sely scratched his head, always feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure it out.

He looked at the big man who was tallest in the Magic's half, that was his opponent today.

O'Neal used a set of standard inside footsteps at the basket, turned around and put the ball into the basket, and shivered unconsciously.

In a trance, John Sely seemed to see a ferocious man-eating shark, which opened its bloody mouth towards him.

After the warm-up was over, the players came on the field, and the commentator began to introduce the rosters of both sides.

For the Magic, DeWeese played the leading role, and the finale was the big shark that suppressed his viciousness.

Shaquille O'Neal!
(End of this chapter)