Basketball: Starting from the Rodman template

Chapter 189 Fighting the Sun

Shaq's smiling face and Kobe's gloomy look were the screenshots that made the headlines the next day.

The war between the two people has officially begun!
The first game is undoubtedly Shaq's victory...

The only thing that upset Shaq was Dwyane Wade's fulsome praise of Kobe after the game.

To be honest, it's not too much to praise Wade who was beaten like this, but Shaq really can't hear anyone saying that Kobe is great now.

He is a powerful hammer!

"When you get to his age, you will be so powerful!"

These words are more of a rant.

Originally, Shaq wanted to complain more harshly, but when the words came to his lips, this was the only thing left.

It can only be said that the "OK" group treats each other's feelings, only they themselves know.

After hearing this, Wade nodded vigorously.

He took it seriously!
The frustration was gone.

As Christmas passes, the annual All-Star starting voting channel opens again.

Shaq, who has been facing the gloom for two years, can finally face this incident with a smile this time.

Traveling east to Miami, he finally no longer has to fight against the "Chinese Power" and may even become a beneficiary of the "Chinese Power".

He believes that he can return to the All-Star starting position today!
"This must be a very interesting thing..."

He was referring to the "Yao Shark Showdown" at the All-Star Weekend...

From rejecting "Yao Shark", to understanding "Yao Shark", to enjoying "Yao Shark", Shaquille O'Neal only walked this road for two years.

All I can say is that he is a smart guy who knows what this can bring him.

When many media interviewed Woody, they also mentioned the matter of All-Star starting voting and wanted Woody to say a few words.

They're not questioning Woody's inability to become an All-Star starter.

In fact, when the Heat continued to be first in the Eastern Conference, and Woody's average data per game was so exaggerated.He has actually booked an All-Star starting spot.

As for O'Neal, Rasheed Wallace, Artest, Paul Pierce...

These people are just on the same track, fiercely competing for another starting spot.

However, there is nothing we can do about it. Who makes Woody, a rising star, so dynamic?

After the "Christmas War", the Heat then faced a more difficult schedule.

Although it is only less than a week, the Heat need to play a "back-to-back", and then on December 12, the last day of 31, they will have to play the last game of the season against the Spurs.

In between the "back-to-back" games against the Spurs, they still need to go to Philadelphia to challenge the 76ers.

And these four games are all away games.

In almost 6 days, they need to play such a schedule.

Stan Van Gundy was very tolerant of the final result:

While staying healthy, try to get your winning rate to 50%!

This goal was not high, so when he won the first game of the "back-to-back" and everyone was in a downturn in the second game, he immediately chose to give up resistance and take the initiative to clock in for three quarters.

This look confused the opposing Mavericks team.

no……

We were only 8 points behind after the third quarter. Why did you suddenly put on a "full bench"?

Stan Van Gundy felt it was necessary.

It takes almost four or five hours to go from Dallas to Philadelphia. After experiencing "back-to-back", if we continue to fly for such a long time, and after landing at the airport, we still need a long bus ride to reach the hotel.

He must let the main players have a better rest.

So he gave up on this game.

The tactic was successful in its purpose.

Although Allen Iverson got his first 50-pointer of the season, the Heat succeeded in revenge, beating the Philadelphia 118ers 104-14, 76 points! ——This is another reason why Stan Van Gundy gave up playing with the Mavericks.

Having already lost to Philadelphia, he doesn't want to see the team lose to Philadelphia again.

On December 12, the exhausted Heat players had not yet enjoyed the joy of successful revenge, and rushed to San Antonio non-stop to challenge the Spurs, the No. 31 team in the Western Conference.

At this time, the Spurs had rested for three days and were waiting to work, so they took the initiative from the beginning of this game, starting 11-3.

In this league, there are so many teams whose games are difficult to overturn. Unless you can explode into a classic plot like "35 seconds and 13 minutes", otherwise, once they have a sufficient advantage, they can win to the end.

The Spurs are a prime example of this.

100 to 88.
The team that succeeded in revenge this time became the Spurs.

The last meeting between the two teams this season ended like this.

However, the Heat did not feel too disappointed after losing the game.

This game schedule does not intend for them to have a real battle with the Spurs.

Of course, this is the opinion of the Miami media. The atmosphere of the Heat team has not changed much, but they will not use the schedule to make excuses. Just like they never think that their data is very good and they have done well enough. I think "the team lost, but I didn't lose".

Their attitude towards losing is simple:
I didn't perform at my best, so I lost, but next time, we will definitely win it back!
In this way, the Heat ended their December journey with a defeat.

With the arrival of January in the new year, there is still a sweeter schedule. They will usher in "three consecutive home games" in the next week.

For the tired Heat players, this can greatly relieve their body and mind.

And on January 1, Woody received good news.

He won the "Eastern Conference Player of the Month" in December.

场均23.4分13.4篮板7.8助攻2.4盖帽1.6抢断的他带领着热火队在12月份11胜4负。

Just talking about record, the Heat are not the best in the Eastern Conference.

The Pistons recovered in December and only lost 12 games.

But who made them lose in the head-to-head contest with the Heat?

Moreover, this team is too average and cannot pick a player who can compete with Woody in terms of statistics.

Woody deservedly completed the first two consecutive "Best of the Month" in his career.

The taste of greatness is becoming more and more authentic!
The "Best of the Month" in the Western Conference still belongs to Steve Nash.

场均15.5分12.5助攻的数据带领太阳队在12月份依旧保持着强劲的势头，这股来自菲尼克斯的“快打旋风”越刮越猛烈了，整个12月份就输了2场比赛……

This also makes the Heat's first game of the new year full of highlights.

Some media even called this game:

Regular season MVP battle!The opponent is none other than Steve Nash and the Suns.

He and Woody are also the biggest contenders on the current regular season MVP list.

Ok……

It should be said that Woody still has some suspense about this award, but it is only theoretical suspense.

This is destined to be a season for Steve Nash!
As long as he keeps that momentum going for the rest of the season.

The Suns management probably didn't expect that Steve Nash, whom they insisted on choosing, could bring such earth-shaking changes to this team.

Of course, when it comes to the changes in the Suns, there is another person who has to appear on the list of discussions.

That's D'Antoni!
There is nothing special about this "moustache" at first glance.

Even his resume is much thinner than that of an average head coach.

For the NBA, he is a foreigner.

But it was the concept brought by this outsider that caused the Suns to create a fast-paced storm!
Stan Van Gundy attaches great importance to this game, which can be seen from his gloomy face and hoarse roar while standing on the sidelines during daily training.

This is the first game of the new year and the first game of the season against the Suns, a strong team in the Western Conference.

What's more, this is also related to Woody's regular season MVP battle.

He definitely hopes it can be won.

Judging from the spirit of the Suns before the game, they are obviously very confident.

Before the start of the season, no one was optimistic about them. After playing hard, they were eager to play better. By the end of December, they were still a strong wind in the Western Conference, and their self-confidence had reached an unprecedented height. .

When a team thinks it can win against anyone, the team's combat effectiveness is undoubtedly strong, if nothing else.

This will be a fierce battle.

The Miamians at the scene felt the state of the Suns and immediately booed wildly.

But the boos didn't sway them one bit.

During the warm-up session before the game, the two sides did not interact much.

Because neither party is very familiar with each other.

Not only are they not familiar with each other, Stoudemire also has a debt to settle with Woody.

Therefore, the zero-interaction pre-game made the game full of gunpowder.

The big screen at the scene gave the starting lineups of both sides:
The Heat's starting lineup remains unchanged.

For the Suns, No. [-] Steve Nash, No. [-] Quentin Richardson, No. [-] Joe Johnson, No. [-] Shawn Marion, and No. [-] Amar'es Tadmaier.

In his final season with the Clippers, Richardson was in the best shape of his career, averaging 17.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. He was the "Player of the Week" award in the first week of last year.

His more ball-oriented style of play successfully attracted the Suns, who offered him a six-year, 6 million contract.

Joe Johnson was the 01th overall pick by the Boston Celtics in the first round of 10. He was traded to the team by the Suns in 02. He slowly grew and this year's contract year ushered in a big explosion.

Averaged 16.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game. The data is very versatile.

Marion and Stoudemire are the two heroes left after the purges of the "Marbury" era. They have also proved themselves that as long as they have a better accelerator, they can fly higher and further!
Especially Stoudemire, who averaged 26 points per game in the new season!
He has become a new generation of "beast insider" in the NBA.

And from the exaggerated data of these people, we can actually see that the Suns' firepower in the new season is really fierce.

In fact, they are also the only team in the NBA averaging more than 110 points per game in the new season.

Other teams, including the Heat with "3c", also average much lower points per game than them.

But at the same time, they are also losing an average of 103.5 points per game.

This team seems to be taking its offense to the extreme...

If you want to win, limiting their offense becomes very critical!

Stan Van Gundy's initial idea was to get Steve Nash into more isolations.

But in the first round, Nash used his superb passing skills to assist Stoudemire to complete an inside dunk, telling Van Gundy:

You can't stop me from passing the ball!
Even if you give me space and let me play solo, it still depends on whether I am willing or not!

But this revealed something else:
Steve Nash enjoys passing the ball more than scoring.

So Stan Van Gundy did not change his strategy and still let Steve Nash fall into more 1v1.

Steve Nash responded by scoring 7 points in the first quarter.

Stan Van Gundy: ...

Alston was completely unable to guard against Nash's offense.

There is reason to suspect that Steve Nash did not attack at first because he did not realize that he could actually break through Alston well and complete the score.

In addition, in terms of rhythm, the Heat are also far behind the Suns.

There is really a huge difference between Alston and Steve Nash in terms of their ability to connect in the first position.

This problem allowed the Suns to continue scoring easily on counterattacks.

Almost as long as the Heat don't score and let the Suns protect the rebounds, they can quickly complete the counterattack.

This is another problem exposed by the Heat:
Shaquille O'Neal's speed cannot keep up with the Suns' offensive and defensive transitions, and they can easily form a "more offense and less" situation.

At the end of the first half, the Suns' lead had reached 11 points.

No one expected that the Heat met the Suns and were in a state of crushing throughout the first half.

"We have to change our tactics a bit!"

Stan Van Gundy began to consider a change of formation.

At this time, you can see that his attitude is completely different from when he played against the Mavericks.

When playing against the Mavericks, because of back-to-back games, poor condition, and a big battle ahead, he chose to give up directly.

It’s different now. They have a good rest and it’s still their home court, which is particularly important. Moreover, they still have a “strong dialogue” with the Suns. In such a game, people can play the first half and then the second half. , you told him that he could just give up?

It’s just a regular season game anyway?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!
This game must be overturned by him!

There were just too many problems in the first half, which need to be addressed one by one.

But after thinking about it during halftime, he found that the way to solve this problem was simple:
Put Shaquille O'Neal off the court, and with the mobility of this team, they can completely keep up with the Suns' offensive and defensive transitions!

Although there are other problems, once the speed can keep up, other problems will be solved slowly.

After discussing it with Shaq, "Shark" agreed without any hesitation.

In the first half, he just ran back and forth on the court. This meaningless consumption of physical energy made him really unhappy.He misses the "Magic Shark" a little bit, and understands that he has no effect on the court now, so he is naturally willing to sit off the court.

This is another psychological change for Shaq after coming to the Heat and entering the next stage!
(End of this chapter)