God's hand behind the scenes

Chapter 529
This year's preseason Jackson is mainly used to cultivate the tacit understanding of the players. He is more concerned about whether everyone can play the established fighters, rather than whether they can win the game.This also makes the Bobcats only 3 wins and 3 losses in the preseason, but Jackson doesn't care. In the last two games, the players have reached his requirements.

After the preseason ended, Jackson gave everyone two days off. In the opening game, they will face their old enemy Magic at home. At that time, they almost kicked the Magic out of the top eight in the Eastern Conference. wrong.Before playing against the Magic, Jackson had to worry about his inside players for a long time, but now he is full of confidence.

This summer, the Magic took in Lewis, who had trained with Chang Wei and won the championship with the team in Philadelphia, and let him serve as the starting power forward, further opening up space for Howarda to play one-on-one.But Chang Wei is very clear that in recent years, Lewis's strength can be said to be stagnant. Although his movement speed is better than that of Milicic who is about to match up, he is at a disadvantage regardless of height or against him. As long as Milicic Just get in front of him and interfere before he takes the shot.

In addition to introducing Lewis, the Magic also invited Van Gundy to take charge of the coach, obviously hoping to make a difference.Before the start of the game, Van Gundy said ambitiously: "This year's Magic is the strongest in recent seasons. We hope to go further than last season. The opening game is the beginning of everything. We will defeat our opponents and prove our Strength."

But Van Gundy suffered a blow at the beginning of the game. Howard, his number one general, had no advantage at all when facing Gasol Jr., and he couldn't get through in post-up singles. He didn't want to score by shooting or footwork Technology.Although it was difficult for Gasol to block Howard on the defensive end, it caused great interference to his shooting.

Howard's inability to take advantage of the interior directly affected the team's tactical system. They could only rely on the breakthroughs of Nelson and Turkoglu to create opportunities.But the Bobcats have twin towers on the inside, and Ariza, Roy and Jack's defense on the outside is also quite good. The Magic's outside players have a breakthrough skill but can't use it at all, let alone guide the offensive firepower.

The Magic only relied on free throws to get 4 points in the first 2 minutes of the first quarter, and was hit by the Bobcats with a perfect start of 15 to 2.The most watched player on the field is not Roy or Milicic, but Gasol Jr. who just entered the NBA this year.Although he only scored 2 points himself, he has grabbed 3 rebounds and sent 4 assists, completely liberating the firepower of Jack and Roy.Gasol's passing is a little rusty for the time being, but his wide court vision more than makes up for it.

In comparison, Howard is more like a rookie who has just entered the league. He hit all 5 shots, only grabbed 2 rebounds, and also made 2 turnovers. Obviously he has been stunned and does not know how to use other methods. Come help the team.In the subsequent time of this quarter, the Magic has been under pressure by the Bobcats, and the score between the two sides was 36 to 15 at the end of the first quarter.

Big Van Gundy's face was livid, but he could only seize the time to arrange the tactics for the players in the second quarter.Under his instructions, Howard completely became a blue-collar player, only using the second offense to score, and the team's main offensive power was handed over to Turkoglu and Lewis.They did have a small climax at the beginning, closing the point difference to 10 points at one point, but Lewis was quickly entangled by Milicic. The latter's movement speed was not slow. interfere.

In the second quarter, the Bobcats continued to suppress the Magic for most of the time. Van Gundy's instructions to the Magic players did not allow them to regain the initiative on the court.Although Milicic took on some of the offensive tasks last season, Roy is still the main ball-handler for the Bobcats. He has never played as easily as this game.Whenever the Bobcats attack, Milicic will always fall to the low post to ask for the ball, while Gasol will come to the high post as the axis, ready to pass the ball to his teammates at any time.

With Gasol Jr., Roy doesn't need to take on most of the tasks on the offensive end as before.Although he only sent 2 assists in the second quarter, he scored 7 points on 6 of 16 shots and scored 20+ points at halftime, which was also very rare last season.Of course, under his leadership, the Bobcats had already scored 70 points at the end of the half, and expanded their lead to more than 25 points. It is completely impossible to see that their regular season record rankings last season were only one place apart.

Van Gundy's continuous deployment of troops could not prevent the defeat of the Magic. Their morale was even lower in the second half. If the Bobcats hadn't deliberately controlled the rhythm of the game, the point difference between the two sides would have exceeded 30 points.Throughout the game, Howard had no choice but to face the Bobcats' inside twin towers. He couldn't play the league's top inside data at all, and only scored 12 points at the end of the third quarter.

Seeing that the last quarter turned into garbage time, Van Gundy simply replaced all the main players and sulked while sitting in his seat.In the end, the Bobcats beat their opponents 112 to 85 in the opener, opening the season with a 27-point victory.At the press conference after the game, Van Gundy left early after a few perfunctory words, while Jackson accepted the interview with a smile on his face.

"The strength of our team has been further improved this year, just look at the performance of the players in this game. I can't say whether we can go further than last season, but I believe they can do even better. "

The victory over the Magic was just the beginning, and then the Bobcats defeated the Nuggets, Suns, Eagles and Jazz successively. They won five consecutive victories and also ranked first in the Eastern Conference. Such a record undoubtedly blinded many people's eyes.Of course, no one believes that they can maintain this level until the end of the season, but for the Bobcats, it is also very good to be the first in the East for a while.

These opponents are not weak, and the team also has players who can be the core of the team, but they are still defeated by the Bobcats. Many experts and fans are also impressed by the Bobcats' record.However, for Chang Wei, Jackson and the Bobcats' management, what is better than the start of the winning streak is the state of the players themselves and the chemical reaction between them.Jackson is full of confidence in this season, and he is determined to take the Bobcats to a higher height, so that the status of the team can be improved rapidly, which was completely unimaginable when the team was built.

(End of this chapter)