NBA Legends Manager

Chapter 72 The All-Star Game Arrives!

After the Thunder entered December, the players' excitement was no longer as high as it was at the beginning of the season. After nearly two months of training, the players' mentality became more mature, and the players no longer worry about gains and losses.

During the period, the Thunder won the Celtics of the Big Three and lost to the Detroit Pistons. They played hearty games, and they also had the embarrassment of shooting less than 40%.
And with the improvement of their skills, their confidence is getting stronger and stronger. At the beginning of the season, they still doubted the possibility of the rookie championship, but now everyone firmly believes that as the season progresses, they will be stronger. On the day of the playoffs, they will prove to the world that they have the strength to win the championship.

Presti said that she was a little tired recently, especially after the "Hangover" hit, and the continuous door-to-door visits every day made Presti realize for the first time that Laomei also played like this. Most of the people who came here asked for roles in the movie. Of course, there were very few people who came directly to buy the script, and all of them were rejected by Presti without exception.

On the 27th, the Thunder encountered Waterloo again. The Thunder lost to the Suns in back-to-back away games 100:115, and the winning streak was ended.

Both are small-ball leaders in their respective eras. The young Curry was a little bit powerless against Nash. There was a gap in both organizational ability and breakthrough ability. Strictly speaking, the Thunder and Suns players could only compete with each other in each position, and even had a slight advantage, but Nash of the Suns perfectly connected the team together.

The most important thing for the Thunder is to defend and counterattack, so the center position is very important. In this game, under the tandem of Nash, Stoudemire suppressed Jordan and Ibaka at the same time, and scored a terrifying 35 points!
And the Suns can also shoot three-pointers from four positions, and the space is also very wide, making Nash's breakthrough easy and freehand!
In the end, the small-ball Thunder lost to the small-ball Suns.

The next day, the Thunder lost to the Celtics again. In the last 40 seconds of the game, the Thunder still led by 2 points, but Rivers’ free throw tactics made the Thunder rookies a little overwhelmed. Westbrook made 2 of 1 free throws, Durant made [-] of [-] free throws, and even Curry, who was the most stable free throw, made [-] of [-] free throws. Finally, at the end of the game, Pierce made a fallback to end the game.

Presti was very depressed, but he didn't blame them too much. It can only be said that luck is no longer here, but punishment is also indispensable. The team practiced extra free throws that night.

With the rise of the Thunder, more and more teams began to study how to restrain the Thunder's fast break and defensive counterattack. Therefore, although the Thunder's record is still good, the Thunder's average points per game gradually decreased. By mid-January 2010, the average points per game had reached 1 points.

Presti himself knows that there is actually no problem with tactics at all. The biggest problem is that they are all rookies with very little experience.

Therefore, in the following training, Presti led the team to focus on training positional warfare. Only when the positional warfare is played smoothly, there will be more opportunities for counterattacks.

At this time, the Thunder is not suitable for the previous Warriors' formation style of play. They run without the ball to run out of opportunities. The reason is very simple. There are so many singles masters in the formation, so there is no need to be so complicated.

How to improve the efficiency of singles is the kingly way, so Presti only designed two tactics in this training!Curry and Durant's pick-and-roll, as well as Westbrook and Durant's pick-and-roll, Dewey's second young master used this simple pick-and-roll during the Thunder in the previous life to defeat teams that were grinding their positions time and time again, while Curry and Durant's pick-and-roll is even more powerful, as the Warriors have already demonstrated.

At the same time, when the lineup is rotated, Harden's pick-and-roll with the center is also a killer.Of course, sometimes Westbrook will be left on the court. At that time, Westbrook and the center pick-and-roll in the previous life will still become the team's killer again.

In the blink of an eye, it came to February. Thanks to Presti's practice of positional tactics, the Thunder's scoring average returned to the original level again, and the record has achieved a record of 2 wins and 1 losses since January.

In the morning, the league announced the roster for the 2010 NBA All-Name Game, which was no different from the roster in the previous life. However, the coach was replaced by Presti, which surprised Presti. He clearly remembered that he was George Karl of the Nuggets in his previous life. No matter how you think about it, that is normal. After all, the current record of the Thunder is second in the Western Conference, second only to the Lakers.
Presti brought a group of players who did not have a rookie contract to his current position, and he is a topical figure in himself. Appearing in the All-Name Game can not only increase the ratings, but also increase a lot of topics.

In the arena, the players learned that Presti was selected as the head coach of the NBA All-Star Game and congratulated them. Presti responded with a thank you and said: "There are 15 starters and substitutes in the Western Conference for the All-Star Game. I hope that one day I can see all of you appearing on the All-Star Game. And I was also your head coach at that time. I am very sure that this day will come."

After hearing Presti's words, the players' blood boiled immediately, and they couldn't help shouting in unison: "Yes!" Presti smiled and said, "Of course we still have to prepare well for the next game now, to put an end to the arrival of the All-Stars."

Presti looked at the schedule, and there are still 4 games before the All-Star Game, namely the Hawks, Hornets, Warriors, and Trail Blazers. Except for the Hawks, the opponents are not strong, so they can practice positional battles and strive for a complete victory.

On February 2, the Thunder played an away game against the Hawks. The game was very fierce. The Eagles King Joe Johnson scored 2 points.

On February 2th, the Thunder played away against the Hornets. This time, the Thunder relied on rebounds and breakthroughs to defeat the Hornets. Although the overall shooting rate was only 4%, they had 37 more rebounds and 18 more shots than the opponent.

In the game against the Warriors, there was no hydration in the audience. The Thunder crushed from the first quarter to the third quarter, and then clocked out.

The last game of the All-Star Game against the Trail Blazers seemed very difficult, perhaps because they were too excited. The players' shots were either short or hit the back edge of the basket. However, the Blazers rebounded very well all the time, so they did not have an advantage on the rebounds for a while.

In the first two quarters, the Thunder fell behind by 10 points. Fortunately, in the third quarter, Curry took the lead to find the target. After that, Westbrook used his tearing ability to continuously attack the Blazers inside, causing continuous damage. As the game approached, Durant gave the Blazers a fatal blow. In the end, the Thunder defeated the Blazers without any risk and won 4 consecutive victories.

After the game, Presti announced on the spot that the holiday has officially begun!
(End of this chapter)