Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 381 I Know Him

Despite the loss of Latrell Sprewell, Timberwolves general manager Kevin McHale started the season with confidence.

Sending a future first-round and second-round pick C.J. Miles and a lot of blue-collars like Mark Madsen will get Caron Butler, who is only 25 years old and is on the rise. , Perfectly filled the vacancy in the small forward position after the Madman left the team, Wally Szczerbiak can return to the shooting guard position with peace of mind, and play in the way he likes.

But many things did not develop in the direction McHale envisioned. Their starting center Rasu Nesterovic suffered a groin injury in the opening game against the Trail Blazers. After examination, he will be absent for at least 6 weeks.

Without the meat shield, Jermaine O'Neal had to be pushed to the center position, and at this time, McHale realized the importance of Mark Madsen.

Without Mark Madsen, the Timberwolves can only put Eddie Griffin on top of the starting lineup, and at the same time send a large, four small, or even five small lineups for a large amount of time, but their fifth small lacks defensive ability and is more on the inside. The offense was helpless.

So the Timberwolves were first blasted by the Supersonics' Reggie Evans and Danny Fortson's offensive rebounds, and then they were hammered by the Clippers' Elton Brand and Chris Kaman. .

After a two-game losing streak, they faced the highly motivated Lakers again.

Timberwolves' new head coach Dwayne Casey knows that playing positional battles with the Lakers is a dead end, so it is better to attack, hoping that the outside combination of Arenas, Szczerbiak and Butler will explode. There is still a chance of survival.

Facing his old club, Garnett showed no mercy. He scored 20 points and 29 rebounds, setting a career high in rebounds.

Gilbert Arenas showed fearless fighting spirit, fired all the firepower, and scored 46 points. At one point, the Timberwolves home audience had the illusion of "we can win!" Lamar Odom played exquisitely and led the team to a wave of 2 to 13 within 4 minutes, completely killing the suspense of the game.

119 to 104, the Lakers defeated the Timberwolves in an away game, starting with 5 consecutive victories, ranking first in the Western Conference.Bryant and Wade each scored 28 points, were in control of the first and second half.

Back at home, the Lakers ushered in a challenge from the Philadelphia 76ers.

In the playoffs last season, the two core players, Allen Iverson and Chris Webber, had a quarrel. The management of the 76ers attached great importance to this. The head coach Jim O'Brien, who took control, signed the team star Maurice Cheeks.

Under the leadership of Cheeks, the 76ers seem to be back on track. In the start of the devil's schedule, they first beat the Pacers, then the Mavericks, and fought against the Pistons in two overtimes before losing regrettably. "Journey to the Playoffs" handed in a perfect score. Iverson averaged a terrifying 37.3 points per game in the three games, and Webber can also steadily contribute close to 20 plus 10 data.

The 76ers' wings are composed of two swingmen with excellent physical fitness, Andre Iguodala and John Salmons, guarding the inside is the gradually mature Haitian center Samuel Dalembert, The team is very satisfied with Dalembert's ability to protect the basket, and completed a contract extension in the summer with a 6-year contract of 6400 million US dollars plus bonuses, preparing to keep him in the team for a long time.

With this lineup, the defense is strong, and the offensive end is handed over to Iverson and Webber. It is the way they like to play.

After a wave of winning streak, the state of the Lakers also seemed to decline. Under the defense of Iguodala, Kobe felt cold. He only made 22 of 6 shots and scored only 17 points. Dalembert's strong ability to protect the basket made Wade, who is used to attacking the inside, very uncomfortable. He only scored 76 points in the game.

Neither of the two major offensive knives scored more than 20 points. It will be very difficult for the Lakers to win.Garnett still scored 23 points and 12 rebounds steadily, but that wasn't enough to change the reality.

With Odom's two consecutive turnovers in the middle of the fourth quarter, Iverson scored 5 points in a row and scored 34 points to help the 76ers end the Lakers' winning streak 101-96.

The Lakers, who averaged more than 120 points per game, only scored 96 points in this game, which not only set a new low in scoring for the season, but the team's shooting rate of less than 35% was even more unreasonable.

"We played in our own way, but today many of the goals that would normally be scored did not go forward. Our players are very angry. We will play against the Philadelphia 76ers this season. They will give everyone an answer." In the post-match press conference, Don Nelson looked bad.

"Andre Iguodala? I know him. He's a good player. I'm looking forward to playing against him again." When asked about Iguodala's defense, Kobe resisted tearing the reporter apart With a crushing impulse, he squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth.

The team flew to Memphis to challenge the Grizzlies away.

Jim sat in the office, talking with Kupchak and others.

"Kyle Korver expressed his displeasure that he deserves more playing time as a three-point contest winner. If he can't meet that requirement, he wants to be traded to a team that can get consistent playing time. Kupchak looked serious.

"It's normal. As a player in a contract year, of course he needs to express himself. After all, there are not many opportunities to sign a big contract, and he has already got a championship ring. I can understand. Let me see, averaging 11.4 minutes per game Time, with a 45% three-point shooting rate, he made about one three-pointer, and he must not be taken away by the sun..." Jim looked down at the statistics.

"The Utah Jazz made an offer to us, and they are very interested in Anderson Varejao and Korver." Kupchak continued to report the news.

"Oh? Do they have any bargaining chips?"

"Gordon Girisek, Milt Palacio, Andre Owens..."

"Who are these people? We don't need these people... If they are willing to pay Andrei Kirilenko, maybe we can talk about it." Jim lost interest as soon as he heard the names of these people.

"The Jazz should not offer Andrei Kirilenko, so I will refuse their asking price." Kupchak turned and prepared to leave.

"Mitch, wait a minute, I have a new idea." Jim suddenly had an idea.

"Oh?"

"So so, so so..."

"You're so sure they'll help?"

"I'm not sure, but you have to try everything, don't you? You stick to the plan, I have to make a call."

(End of this chapter)