I have a data panel in basketball

Chapter 193 The Suns Without Lin in the Future

Lin Ri just sprained his ankle. When the news was disclosed by the media, all the Suns fans breathed a sigh of relief.

After winning the Knicks, the Suns fans did not show happiness, but the expressions on their faces were always worried.

When they thought of the scene of Lin Ri being helped off the field by the team doctor, they really had no choice but to feel happy.

Fortunately, now that the news came out, it was a false alarm, it was just an ordinary ankle sprain, which made the Phoenix fans feel that all the panic disappeared.

Lin Ri is fine!

The future is still bright for Phoenix!
What else to worry about?
"Let's look forward to the return of the king of the sun in a week's time!"

Barkley, who is the "Lin Day fan group leader", is also very happy to "celebrate" on Twitter at this time. Just looking at the content he posted, it can be seen that he is really in a good mood at the moment.

At that time, Lin Ri's injury shocked all Phoenix fans, and it also shocked Barkley.

We must know that since Lin Ri entered the league and played a brilliant performance, Barkley, as a star of the Suns, has received more and more attention.

In the past, he had to desperately find topics to attract the attention of fans.

But now, as long as he says something related to Lin Ri, it will immediately become the news reposted by major media. Although it is not a particularly eye-catching position in the headlines, it can still be regarded as having a lot of views. His appearance rate is really much higher than before, and fans are also willing to talk to him about Lin Ri-related topics.

Some fans even praised his achievements in the Suns that year, which made him feel in a trance that his reputation was getting better.

It is no longer "Big Mouth", but the "former Dean" of the Suns!

He knew all these changes were related to Lin Ri.

So when he knew that Lin Ri was injured, he went crazy.

When he knew that Lin Ri was just sprained, he was overjoyed!

He felt that he had experienced the joys and sorrows of life...

……

Phoenix fans made a false alarm, but the Suns coaching staff currently has a problem to solve: that is, Lin Ri will be absent for the next week. How to solve the offensive and defensive ends of this week to make up for Lin Ri's vacancy, this is a problem that Gentry must solve.

The good news is that the next opponent is not strong. Originally, the Suns wanted to consolidate their No. 4 ranking in the Western Conference during this period of time. Now Gentry dare not have this idea... However, without the idea of ​​​​consolidating the ranking, the advantages of these [-] wins must be preserved as much as possible...

Gentry thought about it for days until he felt like he was going bald, and he couldn't come up with a solid solution.

In fact, he also knows that it is impossible to find a way to completely replace Lin Ri. After all, Lin Ri is now an indispensable part of the Suns.

It is no exaggeration to say that he is now more important than Steve Nash in many cases.

Gentry then resigned to his fate, and didn't think about it if he couldn't figure it out. Then he could only try his best to dispatch troops to make up for this big hole.

It's just that although he has thought of it, this problem is not so easy to solve.But when the game really started, he realized that losing Lin Ri was a huge loss to the Suns on both offense and defense.

The next game for the Suns is against the Rockets.

This is the toughest team that surprised many by fighting the Lakers for 7 games in the playoffs last season. Although Tracy McGrady was traded and Artest left this season, only Yao Ming was left to stick to it. At the beginning of the season, there was already a decline. Now, they can't even rank No. 11 in the West.

Yao Ming has also become the "Dean" who is the most distressed by fans this season.

It is also because the strength gap between the Suns and the Rockets is too large, so the league did not arrange a "national live broadcast" for this game. After Lin Ri was injured, the fans' attention to this game plummeted.

However, Stern has already used the "China Derby" to gain attention for a while, so he doesn't feel regretful.

But it was such an opponent.

The Suns still lost.

Where did I lose... I lost on the inside.

Yao Ming scored 34 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks tonight. His performance completely overwhelmed the insiders of the Suns.

Not only him, Scola also scored 21 points and 8 rebounds tonight.

His various singles at the basket also let Gentry see that Channing Frye's top starting fourth position is not effective at all.

His poor defensive ability, which would not have been noticed on the bench, has been infinitely magnified after entering the starting lineup. Tonight, he is completely indistinguishable from a puppet who has been beaten in various ways.

At one point Gentry covered his eyes with his hand.

It's the kind of "spicy eyes" that you can't really look at.

Speaking of which, Gentry also thought that Channing Frye might become a loophole on the substitute end, but at the time his idea was that even if Channing Frye's defense was not good, he could also provide space for the offensive end. Anyway, he is also a representative of the league's high-ranking fortress.

It's a pity that the firepower of this high-ranked fort is far less than that of the opposite one.

It was only then that Gentry realized that he had made a mistake. He directly regarded Channing Frye's efficiency on the bench as his efficiency after entering the starting lineup. Now it seems that this is somewhat unreliable...

However, his biggest mistake is that he overestimated the defensive ability of Chris Humphries and Robin Lopez! !
The reason why Gentry dared to let Channing Frye into the starting lineup was because Humphries and Lopez usually performed well on the defensive end when they partnered with Lin Ri, so he was relieved.

But he didn't expect it!

The reason why Lopez and Humphries performed so well is entirely because of Lin Ri.

This is another aspect of his miscalculation.

It was also so much unexpected that the Suns finally lost the game.

……

The first day of "I miss him without Lin Ri on the court" started with a loss, and the loss was from a team like the Rockets, which made Gentry even more uncertain.

To be honest, losing to the Rockets was something Gentry didn't expect.

But now, they dared to lose even the Rockets, what else would they dare not...

Gentry was really a little panicked. Although the strength of the remaining two teams is still not very strong, they can still compete with the Rockets and play neck to neck.

The Suns lost to the Rockets, so they may not be able to win the next two games.

Anyway, it should be impossible to win the game with the current set of tactics.

Gentry chose to continue the evolution.

He no longer lets Channing Frye start at the fourth position on the court. Although this guy can widen the point difference, he "doesn't get in as much as he gives out", so let's forget it.

Gentry's next evolution was to put Grant Hill at the four.

The purpose of doing this is very simple - don't defend, just play "Xiao Kuai Ling"!Respond to all situations with offense.

As long as the Suns score more points at the end of the game, it will be fine!

Gentry thought so.

Not to mention, the next game really won the Suns, they beat the Detroit Pistons 128 to 123! !
Don't care that this game is the Pistons' single-game scoring record in the season, and don't care that the Pistons' inside line has improved again in this game. Anyway, they won by 5 points in the end, that's fine!

That's what Gentry looked like when he faced reporters after the game.

Anyway, he won a game, and he was relieved.

There is one last game!
On the plane back to Phoenix, he glanced at Lin Ri from time to time. He had never missed anyone so much. In the three or four days without Lin Ri, he really realized what kind of team this team is without Lin Ri.

This newcomer is really indispensable!
The Suns are slowly realizing how bad Lin Day really is.

The entire league is also more aware of Lin Ri's influence on the game.

It can be seen from the voting results of the third stage of the All-Star starters announced after the game that the fans did not lose attention to Lin Ri because of his absence from the game, but because of his absence, more fans looked forward to his return and spontaneously voted for recommendation.

By the end of the third stage of voting, Lin Ri's total votes had exceeded 2 million, reaching about 2 million votes. With this momentum, Lin Ri might get around 28 million votes by the end of the fourth stage!
This number of votes is undoubtedly a bit scary!

You must know that among the previous "vote kings", the one with the highest total votes was last year, which was 315 million votes. It was Howard last year, but all fans know that this guy has been in the league for 5 years, which gave him time to accumulate popularity.

The speed at which he has accumulated popularity has to be said, it is really scary!

Well, yes, after the announcement of the voting results in the third stage, the fans have basically decided that Lin Ri is this year's "Voting King". Let alone other things, he is destined to become the "Voting King" because of his final estimated total votes. What's more, Howard, who is currently ranked second, is almost 45 behind him.

With Lin Ri's current momentum, the chances of overtaking him with 45 votes in the final round are really too small!

It is really only a matter of time before Lin Ri is able to achieve the achievement of "becoming the top voter in his rookie season".

……

Gentry's eagerness is not without reason.

The Suns lost again when they returned to the home court. After this lineup met the Bobcats, they were severely kicked.

The Pistons' insiders have "eat dumplings", and the Bobcats, which are stronger and have more rotations of insiders, can naturally make the Suns suffer more.

What's more, the Bobcats' defense is not something that the Pistons can touch...

In the end, the Suns lost the game, and everyone in the Bobcats walked out of the American West Arena with their heads held high. Tonight is undoubtedly a happy night for them. They finally let out a sigh of relief for their boss. Moreover, this game will be the last time the two teams meet this season.

Of course, this also made them have the last laugh in the match between the two teams this season. If the Suns want revenge, they have to wait for next season.

This is still something to be happy about.

I heard that Michael Jordan was also very happy. After all the members of the Bobcats returned to Charlotte, he invited all the players to the nightclub to have a good night.

"The next game, the sun will finally be back. For me, this news is really great!"

This was Gentry's first sentence to the media after the Suns lost to the Bobcats at home. He didn't mean to discuss the problems of the Suns in this game, but directly said "the sun is coming back", with some excitement and excitement in his tone.

Just like fans of stars.

That's why he doesn't discuss the problems with the Suns.

Because there is no need at all! !
When Lin Ri comes back, this Suns team will be another completely different team. Some of the problems that exist now will still be problems in the future!

So, what to talk about?What else is there to talk about?Lin Ri is so stubborn! !

Gentry tastes Popovich's joy...

"Finally coming back! The sun has been waiting for you for a long time!!"

"This week I feel slower than the past month. It turns out that the sun only missed three games!!"

"These three games are enough to show how much this team relies on the sun. Fortunately, we really have the sun!"

It's not just Gentry who is anxiously waiting for Lin Ri's return, there are countless Phoenix fans.

Similar to Gentry, Lin Ri was absent for three games. They didn't think it was a problem, and at most they thought they couldn't open up the advantage with the Lakers, but there must be no problem in consolidating the current advantage, and the opponent is still so weak.

But after these few games, they just realized that without Lin Ri they would be so weak!

Not to mention "nothing", but at most it is a "playoff-level" team.

This is how the Phoenix fans feel after these three games.

In terms of problems, it’s actually not bad. The Suns’ average scoring firepower is still as strong as ever. They averaged more than 115 points per game in three games. Steve Nash averaged 16 points and 15 assists per game in these three games, and Stephen Curry averaged 22 points per game. These data have not changed at all from the previous Suns.

Again, the Suns don't lack offensive firepower, what they lack is defense.

That's exactly why they lost.

Without Lin Ri, the Suns are no different from the past few seasons. They play gorgeously, can score goals, and can also be scored.

Only Lin Ri is in the lineup, and this Suns team is currently ranked No. [-] in the Western Conference!

(End of this chapter)