against the front

Chapter 99 The Devil's Race
After the hustle and bustle of the All-Star Weekend, the regular season kicked off again, and the 30 games after the All-Star Weekend will determine the final stage of the playoffs. The No. [-] teams, those looking for home-court advantage, and those looking to make it to the bottom of the playoffs, will either sprint or adjust during this period in an attempt to catch up with the playoffs. feast, or being able to find a favorable position for oneself on this feast.

The Kings, who are currently ranked seventh in the West with a record of 31 wins and 20 losses, naturally want to go further. Leaving aside the home court advantage, at least they must find a way to avoid the two strongest teams in the West, the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs. , and in this case, they will have to squeeze out the Dallas Mavericks who are currently only one game ahead of themselves, and rush to the sixth position in the West. If they go forward, it will be a little difficult for the Kings, because they are currently ranked In front of the Mavericks are the Rockets with 34 wins and 18 losses, and the Nuggets with 35 wins and 17 losses.

However, for the Kings, their current opponent is not only the Mavericks. The King wants to surpass the Mavericks, and the Hornets behind the King also want to surpass the King. The king is only 1.5 games behind, and it is possible to catch up at any time. As for the Jazz and Suns in the future, the gap between them and the king is only 3 games, although the gap of 3 wins is already Not small, but considering that there are more than 30 games until the end of the season, the gap of 3 games is not an irreparable gap.

On the second day after the end of the All-Star Weekend, the Kings team set off for the East, preparing for their last road trip to the East, and this road trip is also a big test for the Kings, because They will play 7 consecutive away games in the next 5 days, away game against the Pacers on February 2th, away game against the Pistons on February 16th, away game against the Wizards on February 2th, and away game against the Nets on February 18st. An away game against the Knicks on March 2, 19 away games in 2 days, this is definitely an out-and-out devil's schedule.

Although the schedule is very tight, none of these five opponents is too strong. The Pacers, Pistons, Nets, and Knicks are all teams struggling on the edge of the playoffs, and the Wizards are even more It’s already completely broken in the competition for the No. [-] pick. This is a blessing in misfortune for the King. If the King performs well, maybe after five away games, the King can surpass the Mavericks and reach the sixth place in the Western Conference. location.

On February 2, the Kings played an away game against the Indiana Pacers. The Kings, who had just finished their vacation, obviously have not found their form, especially Yan Hua, who participated in the All-Star Weekend, is in a poor state. It seems that he has not recovered from the All-Star Weekend. He came out of the state, and against the Pacers' white center Troy Murphy, he made 16 of 9 shots and only scored 3 points and 7 rebounds.

Yan Hua, who is the backbone of the inside line, did not perform well, and Kevin Martin and John Salmons, who were the core of the team, performed very averagely. Kevin Martin made 16 of 5 shots and John Salmons It was even beaten by Pacers star Danny Granger on both offense and defense. The first game of the road trip ended in failure, which also cast a shadow over the King's next road trip.

After losing to the Pacers in the away game, the Kings set off for Detroit. However, in the away game against the Pistons, the Kings lost again, and they still had no temper at all.

If you want to choose the fastest regressing award among all the teams this season, it must be the Pistons. The Pistons, which ranked second in the league with a record of 59 wins and 23 losses last season, have already fallen this season. Struggling on the edge of the playoffs, the main reason for this situation is the exchange of Chauncey Billups and Allen Iverson.

After losing to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pistons' management began to realize that it was time for this iron-blooded team that had reached the Eastern Conference Finals for six consecutive seasons to make changes. After the Pistons returned to the finals head coach Philip Sandry, the Pistons used the head guard Chauncey Billups and two young players in exchange for Allen Iverson whose contract was about to expire. With Rasheed Wallace whose contract expires this season, the Pistons will be able to free up nearly $3500 million in salary space during the offseason for LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, who is about to enter the free market. , Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony and others are waiting for the 03 Platinum Generation. As long as one of them can be won, the Pistons will quickly complete the reconstruction, and Allen Iverson is the most popular among the fans. Even if the Pistons have a poor record in the short term, there will be no situation where tickets cannot be sold. It can be said that the management of the Pistons is really better than monkeys.

However, after Iverson came to Detroit, the Pistons fell into endless infighting. Old players like Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, and Prince were very fond of Iverson who squeezed Billups away. Dissatisfied, and Iverson complained about the new head coach Michael Curry's coaching strategy. In this way, the Pistons, who were still a strong player in the league last season, have now fallen to the brink of the playoffs.

Although the Pistons are currently mired in internal strife and discord, and Allen Iverson is absent due to injury, in this game against the Kings at home, the Pistons still defeated the Kings very easily, and the Pistons The more this is the case, the more people question the management's decision to send Chauncey Billups in exchange for Allen Iverson.

When playing against the Pistons, Yan Hua also met an old acquaintance, that is Kwame Brown. Although Kwame Brown and Yan Hua are not familiar at all, Yan Hua knows Kwame Brown quite well. Yan Hua is a little disappointed that there is a big gap between the Kwame Brown of the Pistons and the Kwame Brown of the system, both in terms of physical fitness and defensive awareness, but for this "teacher", Yan Hua is still there. Quite respectful, after the game, Yan Hua took the initiative to find Kwame Brown and asked Kwame Brown for his jersey, which made Kwame Brown feel baffled.

After the Pistons defeated the Kings, they overtook the Charlotte Bobcats in the rankings and climbed to the eighth position in the West. The current situation is a little tricky, because while the king has lost two games in a row, the Mavericks, who are ranked in front of the king, and the Hornets, who are ranked behind the king, have won both games. The chance to catch up with the Mavericks was also overtaken by the Hornets, falling from seventh in the West to eighth in the West, and there is only a gap of two wins from the Jazz behind them.

On February 2th, the Kings, who had lost two consecutive away games, finally stopped the losing streak and defeated the Wizards, the last in the league. After Si was reimbursed for the season, the Wizards, who were hopeless in the playoffs, simply chose to play badly and compete for the No. 19 pick. Therefore, the Kings' victory was basically given away by the Wizards.

After defeating the Wizards, Yan Hua ushered in another "Huaguo Derby". On February 2, the Kings visited New Jersey and played against the New Jersey Nets played by Yi Jianlian. The Nets are also in a very bad situation. After adding Jason Kidd, the record of the Nets is getting worse day by day. This season is very likely to miss the playoffs again. The situation of the Nets is not good, and the situation of Yi Jianlian in the Nets is not very good , Yi Jianlian, who was traded to the Nets by the Bucks before the start of the season, is still the starter most of the time, but compared with his rookie season, Yi Jianlian's playing time has not only not increased, but has also declined a lot, which is basically a fake. At the same time, Yi Jianlian's shooting percentages have also declined to varying degrees.

However, in the game against the Kings, the head coach of the Nets, Lawrence Frank, rarely increased Yi Jianlian's playing time, and Yi Jianlian's performance in this game was not bad. After playing 32 minutes, he made 13 shots. 6 of 5, 2 of 14 three-pointers, scored 9 points, 2 rebounds and [-] assists.

Brook Lopez, who is a rookie with Yan Hua and one of the core of the Nets' reconstruction, seems to want to prove to everyone that he is not weaker than Yan Hua, so when facing Yan Hua, Brook Lopez He also played very excitedly, and Brook Lopez made 19 of 11 shots, 6 of 4 free throws, 26 points and 11 rebounds in the game, which also overwhelmed Yan Hua in all aspects.

In addition to Brook Lopez's outstanding performance, as the boss of the Nets, Vince Carter also scored 33 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists in this game. Under the leadership of Carter and Brook Lopez, the Nets beat the Kings 106-92 at home, injecting a little hope into their playoff spot competition.

After losing three of the four away games, the Kings were once again brought closer by the Jazz behind them, and may be overtaken by the Jazz at any time, falling out of the top eight in the Western Conference. I am going to take the opportunity to play a wave of winning streak, take advantage of the trend to surpass the Mavericks in front of me, and look at the present, losing one after another, let alone surpassing the Mavericks, thank God if I can keep my place in the playoffs.

However, the King's bad days are about to come to an end. After the game against the New Jersey Nets, the King's 5-game road trip, only the last opponent is the New York Knicks, and after the game with the Knicks , the King's next schedule will be much more comfortable.

The New York Knicks, whose home court is at Madison Square Garden, is the famous foot-binding cloth in the NBA. The main reason why the Knicks are foot-binding cloth is that Madison Square Garden is known as the Holy Land of Basketball. Madison Square Garden serves as The most famous gymnasium in the entire United States is also a dedicated arena for the NBA draft. In the hearts of almost all NBA players, there are some special feelings, so most players explode as soon as they arrive in Madison, especially those super scorers. I always want to leave a record of my own in Madison Square Garden. Of course, this is also related to the city where Madison Square Garden is located. As the largest city in the United States, New York has gathered the most and most influential media in the United States. And weekly newspapers, so as long as they can beat the Knicks in Madison, it will inevitably attract countless spotlights.

Another point is the consistent style of the Knicks. The Knicks, who have been in the NBA for more than 60 seasons, have not had a glorious past, but the Knicks always regard themselves as a wealthy family. But the team that has the disease of the rich, especially the fans of the Knicks, have their eyes above the top, and no one can look down on them, so the Knicks are often beaten by the society of other teams in their home courts .

In this game against the Kings, the Knicks were beaten again, and the one who beat them was the Kings star Kevin Martin. In the away game against the Knicks, Kevin Martin made 28 of 16 shots. Among them, he made 11 of 5 three-pointers and 16 of 13 free throws. He scored a game-high and career-high 50 points. Under the leadership of Kevin Martin, the visiting Kings defeated the Knicks 117-104 Chris, while avoiding another losing streak, also sent the Knicks a four-game losing streak at home.

(End of this chapter)