Basketball: Starting from the Rodman template

Chapter 167 LeBron is under greater pressure
After the whole game, here is the Pacers:

Artest made 19 of 7 shots and 5 of 3 free throws. His shooting percentage was much worse than usual, but it is understandable. Just look at Woody's shooting average. In this game, it was just It has reached 50%!

It’s about 6% lower than usual!

When two tanks clash, they always injure the enemy by one thousand and themselves suffer eight hundred losses. No one can gain an advantage.

Among these 7 shots, one was a three-pointer, so Artest scored 18 points in this game.

In addition, he had 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

The data on the defensive end are 2 steals and 1 block.

Overall, it's not much different from usual, except that the shooting percentage is not as good as before.

Besides him, the rest of the Pacers:
Stephen Jackson broke out in this game and scored 26 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. He gained more Indiana fans in this game than in all his previous games combined.

O'Neal Jr. scored 16 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal and 3 assists, and his scoring was slightly weak.Facing Woody and Shaquille O'Neal, he just couldn't do the "back play" he had just practiced. He relied more on running without the ball and cutting to the basket to score. This kind of scoring relies more on passes from teammates. , causing him to get a little less ball tonight. Of course, the most important thing is that Woody and Shaq's intimidation under the basket is here. He really can't perform the same as before on the offensive end, but he can still try his best.

Tinsley's final statistics were 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

Performance didn't change much from usual.

Reggie Miller, who came off the bench, scored 11 points, maintaining normal levels.

After a quick look around, we can see that the Pacers fully demonstrated their characteristics. The loss of this game was not unfair, nor was it ugly.

In fact, they did almost achieve a comeback, but the Heat's "trump cards" came one after another, and they really couldn't make a comeback.

For the Heat, Woody finally played for nearly 40 minutes, took 20 shots, hit 10 of them, made 5 of 4 free throws, and scored a total of 24 points, in addition to 11 rebounds and 6 assists, 2 defensively. 1 block and [-] steal.

Compared with usual data, there is not much that stands out.

Even less dazzling.

However, the tactical changes brought to the Heat by Woody's outside holding the ball in this game are the key to the Heat winning this game.

you could put it that way:
Although it is not brilliant, it is brilliant!
Kenny Smith summed up the game this way: "Woody used this game to further enhance his status on the Heat's offensive end, and also gave other teams more to do when restricting him! "

Usually averaging 20 points per game, why are some players called the core of the team, while others are called "brushes"?
There is a reason for this!
Although Woody only scored such a stat, but because of him, Shaquille O'Neal got the opportunity to make easy shots, especially at the last moment. The reason why he could make consecutive shots under the basket so easily was because Woody combined all the shots. The defensive attention is focused on him.

There are also some super giants who are said to be big cores holding the ball and can help teammates find openings.

But the problem is, when he doesn't want the ball, he just stops there. Others know that after receiving the ball, he has to dribble a few more times to find a rhythm, so there is no worry about leaving him temporarily open. This is the so-called " Ineffective containment”.

Shaquille O'Neal relied on his final consecutive scoring to easily score 26 points and 8 rebounds. Facing reporters after the game, he smiled: "To be honest, this should be the best game of my career." An easy game!”

This is actually a bit exaggerated, but Shaq, that’s how you praise people!
And as a cautious "shark", of course there is a subtext when he says this. It's easy to play with Woody. Doesn't he mean that it's not easy to play with Kobe?

I praised Woody, but also secretly belittled Kobe. It was even more exciting, double the pleasure!
Shaq is even happier tonight!

Another person who benefited was Wade.

Although he was uncomfortable playing most of the time, the rare moments when he felt comfortable were created by Woody by his side.

Wade finally made only 17 of 6 shots, including 2 layups after receiving passes from Woody.

In the end, with 4 free throws, Wade also scored 16 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

But Wade was not very happy tonight.

It wasn't obvious against Hughes in the last game, but it was obvious against the Pacers' wing defense in this game. Although the Heat won tonight, was he a pure negative?
As the first person in the "Heat's core three" to "fall off the bench", only crazy training can erase the frustration he feels at this moment.

He decided that when he returned to Miami later, his first stop would be to go to the American Airlines Arena and shoot him 2 times, no, 3 times...

Early the next morning, Woody's name was on the headlines of major American media.

To be honest, the result of winning against the Pacers caused some noise, but as a team ranked in the top three in the major media team strength rankings before the start of the new season, their result It's actually quite normal.

What really aroused heated discussion was his dunk against Artest.

Media across the United States called Woody's dunk the "dunk of death."

An ESPN reporter said directly: "I can confirm that Ron Artest felt the footsteps of death approaching at that moment!"

TNT called this dunk a "historic dunk," which was probably as shocking as Michael Jordan's dunk over "Gorilla" Ewing.

There's no way, even if you look at the video, it's quite shocking.

Woody's dunk really directly improved his status on the NBA dunk list.

It is worth mentioning that Artest was also fined for this incident.

Because when talking about this matter yesterday, he had a conflict with a reporter. According to league regulations, this will greatly affect the positive image of the NBA.Artest was very unconvinced by this. He felt that because the person involved in this incident was Ron Artest, the league fined him.

The result of these complaints was that Ron Artest once again asked for a fine.

In total, Artest was fined $5 because of this incident!

It was also this dunk that made more and more reporters look forward to Woody participating in this year's dunk contest.

More than 00 years have passed since the "Slam Dunk Festival" in 4. Next year will be the fifth year. In these 5 years, let alone the same level of slam dunk contest as in 00, even if it is slightly close. No.

They are looking forward to having someone who can recreate the glory of the slam dunk contest!

Woody gave them hope.

Not just Woody, but also... LeBron James!
This is also a guy with a very explosive dunking style.

It's just that LeBron James is not having a good time at the beginning of the new season.

虽然他的场均数据相比上赛季有了长足的进步，场均数据从原本的场均20加5加5，猛涨到了27加7加7!
As a sophomore and only 19 years old, this data is definitely phenomenal.

But the emergence of Woody has made the outside media have higher requirements for the 19-year-old newcomer.

Not only the data, but now the media also look at your performance in leading the team.

However, due to his strong performance, the Cavaliers encountered the embarrassment of last season:
His operations here are as fierce as a tiger, but the Cavaliers' record is 0-3!

Another "three-game losing streak" at the beginning, a familiar style...

Due to the competition for "Rookie of the Year" last season, the Miami media and the Cleveland media have already become enemies.

For this reason, Cleveland is bragging about LeBron James's personal performance, but the Miami media has already given LeBron James the title of "data brush".

What makes LeBron James feel even worse is that some media actually echo the Miami media's statement and believe that he has not yet found a way to truly lead the team to win games.

Seeing Woody take down a big mountain like the Pacers, LeBron James is really "under a lot of pressure" now. How can he have time to discuss the "Slam Dunk Contest" with others!

He actually wanted to say something to the media forcefully: "We will definitely win the next game!"

But take a look at the opponents they will face in the next game:

Phoenix Suns!
At that time he was speechless.

If the Heat are the Eastern Conference team that everyone in the NBA knows this year, they will definitely start strong.

So the rise of the Phoenix Suns is a bit beyond everyone's expectations!

No one expected that the Suns just snatched Steve Nash from the Mavericks in the summer, and this team quickly rose from being a weakling in the Western Conference last season to becoming a powerful player in the Western Conference.

So far, the Suns have played 4 games.

All four games had the last laugh.

They average 105 points per game. Under the leadership of Steve Nash, who averages 13.5 points and 12.5 assists per game, they are setting off a "fast-playing whirlwind" in the Western Conference. All the teams that play against them are lost in this. During their fierce attack.

On the one hand, we haven’t won a single game so far, and on the other hand, we haven’t lost a single game yet.

Even though the Suns' game against the Cavaliers was the second game of a "back-to-back", LeBron James still didn't dare to raise the flag.

In the current situation, Woody is so ferocious that he really can't afford to be slapped in the face anymore.

But in his heart, LeBron James hypnotized himself over and over again:

I can definitely win, I can definitely win, I can definitely win!

I don’t know if the hypnosis had an effect, but LeBron James was in extremely brave form tonight, scoring all kinds of goals that should and shouldn’t be scored.As for the Suns, it can be seen that due to the impact of the "back-to-back", they are all running very hard, and the entire offensive and defensive transition rhythm is obviously not as good as they usually are.

The game ended with the Cavaliers winning 107 to 101, with a score difference of 6 points.

LeBron James was very brave from the beginning. After finding out that he could win, he became more and more excited, and finally scored 43 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

As soon as the game ended, he excitedly rushed to the reporters on the sidelines: "Enjoy tonight, everyone!"

I have to say, this guy is good at finding shots.

The courtside host asked him if he thought he would win against the Suns tonight. At this moment, LeBron James was not polite at all: "As you can see, as long as we play well, we Can beat any opponent, the Suns are a team, but we defeated them, I feel very good tonight, I feel like I can do anything, I think this is a good start, let Let’s see what happens next!”

And early the next morning, ESPN and the LeBron James group, who had been holding back for a long time, worked together to make the name LeBron James flood the headlines of major media.

Of course, LeBron James' performance is definitely worthy of such effort.

Not to mention killing the hottest dark horse in the new season, his 43 points is also the highest score in a single game by a player in this league so far.

It can be said that in this game, LeBron James fought back all the negative public opinions he had previously had.

And this is the NBA. As long as you perform well, your public opinion will change drastically at any time.

But this is normal. Players naturally rely on their performance on the court!
If the performance on the court is good, there will naturally be various voices of praise, but if the performance on the court is not good, then there will naturally be all kinds of mocking voices.

LeBron James soon realized this. After the Cavaliers beat the Suns, the next game was to face the Milwaukee Bucks.

Judging from the performance of the Bucks and Suns so far in the new season, the Suns are obviously stronger than the Bucks. Since the Cavaliers can defeat the Suns, now that they are more confident, they should also be able to defeat the Bucks. .

But the result was that 5 players from the Bucks scored in double figures, 2 scored more than 20 points, and Michael Reed even scored 28 points, leading the Bucks to easily defeat 102 to 88 with a score difference of 14 points. Cavaliers.

LeBron James scored 31 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in this game, continuing his hot form from the previous game.

It's just that there were obviously a lot less media praising him in this game.

Barkley even said bluntly: "I think now that I know this guy averages 27 plus 7 plus 7 per game, why can he still only lead the team to a 1-3 start? Look at his teammates. They have been beaten for a long time. After taking a break, he still persisted on the court. I can see this as his desire to win, but to be honest, I can't see that he is any different from usual at this time. He has no desire to win the game. With that sense of urgency to win, he just continued to collect data on the court..."

The Miami media was even more direct: "If a player is given more than 40 minutes of playing time, no matter how bad he is, he can score 20 points!"

LeBron James' shooting percentage tonight was as low as 40%, but he used this shooting percentage to score 31 points...

In two games, in less than three days, LeBron James has encountered extreme criticism.

(End of this chapter)