unfinished glory

Chapter 21 The Preseason Begins

Time soon came to October 2004, 10. The Spurs' first preseason game of the season was a home game against the New York Knicks at the SBC Center Arena.

Since the Knicks joined the original BAA league (the predecessor of the NBA) in 1946, they have not moved to the city. They have won two championships in history, and they belong to the team with the richest ancestors.

But the Knicks' most recent championship dates back to the 1972-73 season.The Spurs are different. They won the championship twice in five years and belong to the upstarts.

The head coach of the Knicks this season is Lenny Wilkens, the NBA's first thousand-win coach, and was selected as one of the top ten NBA coaches selected in 1996.

During his player period, Wilkens was selected to the All-Star nine times, and he was also on the list of the top 1996 NBA superstars selected in [-].

This is much more brilliant than the careers of other famous coaches who are still active in the league, such as Jerry Sloan, Larry Brown, Don Nelson, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.

Not to mention Popovich, when he was playing, no NBA team liked him at all.

In the middle of last game, the Knicks traded for Marbury and sent away "Larry Bird II" Keith Van Horn.

Then after two seasons, broke into the playoffs again.The result was in the first round and was swept out by the Nets 4:0.

This season, under the premise of retaining the core lineup, he has added a player like Jamal Crawford, so he naturally hopes to make a difference.

At the beginning of the game, the Spurs' lineup on the court was Parker, Ginobili, Bowen, Duncan and Nesterovic.

The Knicks lineup is Marbury, Crawford, Tim Thomas, Kurt Thomas and Nazr Mohammed.

In the first round, the Spurs successfully jumped the ball. After passing the ball, Duncan succeeded in singleting Kurt Thomas in the interior.

This was Li Chongxiao's first NBA-level game, and he seemed very excited.When he saw Duncan score, he jumped up and cheered loudly.

The coaches and teammates on the side laughed, and Barry pushed him to the bench. Popovich smiled and said, "Be quiet, kid!"

Li Chongxiao sat down in embarrassment, watching the Knicks' Marbury handle the ball.

After switching to New York last season and leading the Knicks back to the playoffs, Marbury couldn't wait to declare himself "the number one point guard in the NBA."

Marbury has been criticized for his unique style of play, and he likes to play alone with the ball, which has something to do with his wandering around the streets of New York all the year round.

The way of playing street basketball is casual, and the choice of offense and passing is sometimes confusing.

Many people will be confused by his 8 or even 9 or more assists in multiple seasons, thinking that he must be a master of organization and a team player to be able to assist so many.

Even in later generations, the degree of globalization of the NBA is very high, and the appreciation of fans has increased significantly. Many people still cannot distinguish the relationship between assists and organization, let alone the present.

In fact, assists do not equate to organization.

Marbury's assists are more assists for assists, or can be defined as assists.

In some cases, you can see him rushing in and laying up, and then throwing the ball out.

But in the first round, he didn't have the desire to get assists, so he chose to attack by himself.He dribbles past Parker and drives inside for a layup.

"This ball control rhythm is really good. After a few disguises, Parker is like the road in the morning." Li Chongxiao observed the level of the top NBA players at close range, and at the same time he was thinking about how to defend: "Prevention is the main thing, defense Vote as a supplement?"

Just thinking about it, the Spurs succeeded in Duncan's singles in the paint again.This time Li Chongxiao was not so excited, he just waved the towel.

Unlike Larry Brown, who stubbornly believes that team basketball is king, Popovich's basketball philosophy is flexible.He knows that in this era, superstar basketball is the truth.

Before the Pistons, every championship team relied on superstars to dominate the game and win.Even for the Spurs, which is considered a team-style team, the two championships were all supported by Duncan's superior strength.

So until this season, Popovich still kept the repertoire of superstar singles, and the only superstar of the Spurs is Duncan.

Then Marbury broke through again and succeeded in a layup, and the Spurs, who had tested nuclear weapons, began to play conventional tactics. Through the pick-and-roll cooperation, Parker went to the basket and made a layup.

The two sides just went back and forth like this, and the score gradually increased.

Li Chongxiao can see clearly below that at this stage of the game, the Knicks' offensive methods mostly rely on personal ability or simple pick-and-roll cooperation, while the Spurs pay more attention to team cooperation.

As for defense, although the Knicks have a good interior defense, the two backcourts are big colanders. It cannot be said that the Spurs can get whatever they want, but it is better than nothing.

If it weren't for the two guards on the Spurs' side who were still shooting unstable, it is estimated that the score would have widened a lot.As for the defensive end, the Spurs' defense has nothing to say.

After the 9th minute of the game, the Knicks took the lead in replacing the addicted Marbury, and Crawford started to attack the field.

Crawford is a sharp guard who can run and jump, is good at shooting, and is fast.If he goes crazy, most people can't guard against him.

When he was still in the Bulls last season, he scored 50 points against the Raptors.But the good thing is that others can't guard him, and he can't guard others. An average star can explode with him.

"Besides, his body is thin, he has poor confrontation when breaking through, and the success rate is not high, so you might as well be tougher when defending." The defensive coach of the Spurs taught the players what kind of player to use while watching the game. Such a defensive strategy.

However, Crawford still hit a two-pointer and a three-pointer in the last minute, so that the Spurs only ended the first quarter with a 1:26 lead of six points.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Popovich came up and down.

The Spurs lineup is Benno Udrih, Brent Barry, Robert Horry, Malik Rose, Sean Marcos.

On the Knicks side, Crawford still leads the bench lineup, and the remaining four positions are Mucci Norris, Anfernee Hardaway, Jerome Williams and Michael Sweetney.

The Knicks' offense was still dominated by Crawford, who missed a shot after a flashy dribble away from Barry.

Sean Marcos received the rebound and handed it to Udrih to organize. After passing the ball, Barry hit a three-pointer.

The two sides played back and forth until about 4 minutes into the second quarter. Except for Crawford, all the other main players of the Knicks appeared on the court, but the Spurs still maintained their current lineup.

After Marbury came up, the Knicks' game rhythm gradually accelerated, Udrih was also taken away, and the Spurs' rhythm was shattered.

The score was quickly overtaken by the Knicks. After Popovich called two timeouts, he made a simple personnel adjustment and made a slight improvement.

But it was still not the main lineup of the Spurs on the field, so until the end of the first half, the score was gradually overtaken or even widened.

The Spurs scored 44 points and trailed the Knicks by eight.

(End of this chapter)