When pride still matters

Chapter 70 The most tender moment in the audience

With 1 minute left in the first quarter, the Wizards replaced Yu Fei with Kwame Brown.

This brought more fun to the game, because Yu Fei performed well after coming off the bench, scoring 6 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist, and showed a fiery personality consistent with the rumors.

What about Kwame Brown?Judging from the ranking, he should be better than Yu Fei, but is that really the case?
As a result, Brown was disappointed.

He looked out of place in the game. As a four position, he completely fell short of Collins' requirements. He couldn't pivot in the high post.

Where is the promised Weber II?Will Weber II not support it?
Are you kidding me?
The fact is that Brown's skills developed in low-level high school games gave people the illusion that he was the second Webber. The Wizards saw through this as early as during the training camp, and now they have just verified their judgment in actual combat. .

Brown cannot help the team in the fourth position. If he is placed in the fifth position, his current confrontation ability is somewhat insufficient. Moreover, Collins doubts whether he is a sufficient threat to protect the basket.

In addition, Brown's defensive habits are also very bad.

Within 1 minute, Brown committed two fouls.

The most terrible thing is that his butter hand attribute was exposed in this minute.

After Chris Whitney called Brown to pick and roll, he sent an imaginative cross-cut pass.

However, Brown failed to catch the ball firmly, which was equivalent to spitting out the 2 points he had fed into his mouth.

Yu Fei once narrowed the point difference to 6 points before, and Brown put the Wizards behind by 3 points in 14 minutes.

With 10 minutes left in the second quarter, Jordan stood up with a gloomy face and said, "I've seen enough."

As Brown received his third foul, he was replaced.

"Unlike Frye Yu, Kwame seems to be still familiar with the intensity of professional basketball."

"Although it's a bit premature to say this, I really didn't see any bright spots in him."

Brown walked off the field frustrated, not wanting to talk to anyone.

Collins generally "coaches" the players who are substituted.

When Laettner came off the court, Collins was "coached" with language that would be condemned by God. When Yu Fei came off the court, Collins introduced him to a player named Daryl Dawkins. He wanted Yu Fei to know that when a player When a person has great talent but cannot control his temper, his career may be derailed.

What about Kwame Brown?He had nothing to say.

It's obvious that Collins was frustrated with Brown, but it's puzzling that he was even more impatient with Brown than Jordan was.

Yu Fei saw that Brown was unhappy and said to him: "You signed a four-year contract. One bad night will not change anything."

For Brown, Yu Fei has indeed achieved "I can protect and warm his heart."Brown is grateful to Fei. Without the care of this classmate, he doesn't know how he would survive in this toxic environment.

"If I practiced three times a day like you, would I get better?" Brown wanted to change his situation.

Yu Fei doesn't think Brown can insist on practicing three times a day.

Moreover, the season has already begun. Do you think you are not soft enough on the court if you practice three times a day?

If you destroy yourself on the training ground, how can you still have the energy to play in the game?

Even Yu Fei's training intensity has been greatly reduced now. In addition to training with the team, he only practices 60 minutes of shooting and 30 minutes of strength training every day.

"I think it will be more helpful for you to memorize the tactics in the tactical manual." Yu Fei suggested cautiously.

Brown has too many problems. The most important thing now is not to be out of touch with the team's style of play. The main reason for this is that he is not familiar with the team's tactics because he was distracted by Jordan and Collins during training. Cleared.

In front of those two uncles, Brown can only say "Yes", but when he actually plays the game, he needs to integrate into the system. At this time, no one will remind him what to do all the time.

On the court, Goute, who scored 5 of 1 in the first quarter, finally found some feeling for the game.

On the defensive end, he faced Sprewell. Although he couldn't keep up with the speed, he was experienced and successfully predicted the opponent's timing. After completing the steal, he barely dunked on the fast break.

Then he responded with a mid-range shot after Sprewell broke through and scored.

The Knicks hit the ground running, and Jordan scored three goals in a row on the fast break.

In his prime, as long as he got into an offensive rhythm, he could score as many points as he wanted.

But now, once the running increases, he starts to pant. Once he pant, the rhythm changes, and the shot has to miss.

Jordan's fourth shot even had a crooked arc.

"When he was young, there was no way he would miss this shot!"

Tim Grover shook his head sadly.

Yu Fei glanced at him, and when Jordan dunked on a fast break, Grover jumped up, even happier than on a holiday.

He didn't want to comment because Grover was Jordan's most loyal fan and he only cared about when he could play again.

Jordan played for 6 minutes in a row, and when he retreated to the backcourt, he started to hold his knees and catch his breath.

Collins asked, "Michael, would you like to take a break."

Do you want to take a break?Yu Fei stared, "Are you kidding me?"You are the coach, you don’t have the power to be a shitty coach!
Collins proved with practical actions that he was nothing in front of Jordan.

Jordan shook his head, "We have a good momentum, and I'm okay and can persist."

Persistence, just persevere, old man, don’t belch out of exhaustion on the court.
Yu Fei slandered Goute in his heart, and did not wait for his second chance to play until the end of the first half.

49 is better than 45
The Knicks led by 4 points.

Back in the locker room, Grover looked at Jordan's knee as nervously as a doctor entering the operating room.

"Playing a whole quarter is too much for you now." Grover warned.

Regardless of the severe pain in his joints, Jordan gritted his teeth and said, "It doesn't matter to me."

Collins then began to criticize the team's substitute players, "I don't want Michael to play 12 minutes, but if you can't improve your performance, we have to let Michael and other main players play longer."

This statement sounds different to different people.

Yu Fei felt very angry when he heard this.

Is it because Jordan was allowed to play the entire second quarter because he couldn't be a substitute?Didn't Jordan disagree with being replaced?
Entering the second half, Yu Fei was still on the bench.

It was not until 4 minutes before the end of the third quarter that Jordan finally agreed to replace Collins after he missed consecutive shots after his physical condition was running low.

Only then did Yu Fei have the opportunity to appear as the third substitute.

After playing, Yu Fei was hungry, his thirst for data surpassed everything else, because he didn't know when he would be replaced, so he had to seize every opportunity.

Yu Fei wants both rebounds and ball rights.

Three dunks in the first quarter prepared the Knicks for Fei's breakthrough.This year is the first year of the NBA's zone defense. The NBA has an urgent need to end the dominance of big men on the court, because facts have proven that only players of Jordan's size can bring good ratings. Since Jordan's successors cannot replace Jordan, Then we can only use rules to eliminate traditional insiders.

Zone defense not only restrains the offense of traditional centers, but also seriously interferes with outside breakthroughs - the league certainly took this into consideration, so the world's unique defensive three-second rule was also introduced when the zone defense was lifted.

Together, these two rules add up to the only real damage being done to the traditional big man.

I wish the death of the center had been written on Stern's face.

Due to the existence of three seconds of defense, NBA zone defense and FIBA ​​zone defense are not the same thing at all. The gap is even larger than Pepsi and Keke.

However, despite the obvious flaws in the NBA's zone defense, Yu Fei decided to try his shooting.

When the opponent formed a zone defense in the paint, Yu Fei called Whitney's pick-and-roll from the outside, named the opponent's point guard, and took a shot under his defense.

"Shh!"

Whether it's the shooting rhythm or the feel of the shot, Yu Fei feels that he is in the best condition.

In this case, why not continue to vote?

That's when Yu Feixiu started. In the next seven rounds, Yu Fei called a pick-and-roll in four of the next seven rounds to name the opponent's defender.

These five rounds were almost like replays. They all happened at the free throw line. They all used the same offensive routine and rhythm, and they all made hits.

After Yu Fei scored 10 points in a single quarter, the Knicks' zone defense broke without any attack. Van Gundy asked people to double-team him in the high post, but in the end, he created a shooting opportunity for Richard Hamilton.

Before the end of the third quarter, Yu Fei assisted Hamilton and hit the line for two points. 77 to 76, the Wizards achieved a lead.

"How about we pretend that Frye Yu is the Wizards' No. [-] pick?"

NBC commentator Lewis Johnson joked.

However, Collins did not continue to use Yu Fei, who was in excellent form, in the fourth quarter, but switched back to the main lineup.

The two sides competed with each other with a 1-point difference, and alternated the lead many times.

Jordan, who had regained his physical fitness, supported the Wizards' offense in the first half of the quarter, while Hamilton ensured that the first five minutes of the second half were not opened up.

But entering the last minute, Alan Houston and Sprewell used mid-range shots and three-pointers respectively to widen the point difference to 1 points.

Chris Whitney's desperate three-pointer brought the point difference back to 1 point.

At the critical moment, Popeye Jones left the game with six fouls, and the Knicks bizarrely missed two free throws, giving the Wizards a chance to kill the game.

At this time, Collins suddenly thought of Yu Fei, who had been on the bench for a whole section.

20 seconds before the end of the game, Collins decided to replace Jones on the fly.

For no reason, Collins thought of Yu Fei's previous performance of calling the pick-and-roll to attack the Knicks' back line with perfect accuracy.

"Everybody spread out, make room for Michael!" Collins said first, "Michael, you get the ball here, and if there's no chance, Frye is here to pick you up. If Frye catches the ball, Rip, you gotta do it. Good pick-and-roll preparation!"

Because there are 20 seconds, the Wizards have enough time to protect the bottom.

Let Jordan try it first, and if it doesn't work, give it to Yu Fei.

This is the first time Yu Fei and Jordan have played at the same time tonight.

Yu Fei has a feeling that Jordan will not pass the ball, because the Knicks will most likely let Sprewell guard him alone.

This is not disrespectful to Jordan. For Jordan who is already 38 years old and has not really returned to game form, one Sprewell is more than enough.

After all, Jordan's shooting percentage tonight was only over [-]%.

Therefore, Yu Fei had planned to rush for rebounds from the beginning.

The basketball came out smoothly from the sideline.

Chris Whitney controlled for a few seconds, opened up as Collins arranged, and passed to Jordan on the weak side.

Jordan began to control the rhythm of dribbling. The first shake was crucial. The veteran who had lost his explosive power and absolute speed must use rhythm to disrupt his opponent if he wants to make a difference in a one-on-one.

Therefore, the rhythm of whether Sprewell takes the first swing or not will determine the success or failure of the entire offense.

Unfortunately, Jordan didn't have a good shooting touch tonight, and Sprewell calculated every move he made.

Once the offensive rhythm is figured out, even a god will be prevented from seeing the basket.

The entire offense lasted more than 10 seconds. Jordan suddenly stopped to the right at the last moment, collected the ball, took off with all his strength, and had to increase the arc of his shot when facing the block.

This is definitely one of the hardest shots in basketball.

It's too difficult and the probability of hitting is very slim.

The basketball hits the left side of the basket and spins outward at high speed. The person who controls the rebound will determine the direction of the game - however, the ball has no chance to leave the basket. At that moment, Yu Fei, who accurately predicted that Jordan would hit the iron, luckily hit the right spot. When the basketball bounced out, he had jumped into the air, stretched out his hand, touched the basketball softly, and then put it down.

唰

The basketball fell into the center of the basket. This may be the softest goal sound tonight.

"!#￥@#%@%"

Spike Lee broke the defense, pointed at Felton Spencer, who was not stuck in the position, and cursed: "You stupid idiot, how could you do this! How could you do this! Oh my God! Why! I miss Patrick ·Ewing!”

MSG collapsed. Fans were angered by the Knicks' last-minute laxity. The basketball Mecca suddenly turned into a basketball market. How much psychological pressure will the nearly 2 people's curses bring to the Knicks players?
In the end, the Knicks were overwhelmed by the pressure at home.

After the timeout, the Knicks missed the ball from the sideline. Chris Whitney stole the pass and scored on the fast break, completely killing the game.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"21-for-7, MJ's return is not as smooth as expected, but the result is sweet for DC." - "The New York Times"

"The bad news for the Wizards is that No. 100 pick Kwame Brown struggled extremely in his debut, but the good news is that No. 18 pick Frye Yu showed maturity beyond imagination and shot 9% from the field. He scored 4 points, [-] rebounds and [-] assists. As Lewis Johnson said, they can pretend that Frye is the No. [-] pick." - ESPN News Flash

"I shoot the ball with good aim, but it always comes up short. My shots tonight were either too close or too low, which is a big problem, but luckily it's just the beginning of a long season. That's it. My take on it." - Jordan on his shooting after the game
"You know, the unknown is always the most dangerous, and everyone thinks about it, but no one really knows. I think that's part of the challenge. It's a young team, though. They've never won anything, they haven't even appeared on the battlefield to win, maybe this is the fairy tale we're writing." - Jordan talked about the future of the team after the game
"We want to learn from Michael because he gave us a chance to win and make the playoffs. It's an honor to be teammates with the greatest player of all time. We're going to learn from him because I know it's going to help us, I know we are the future of this team." - Hamilton talked about Jordan's significance to the team after the game.

"You should take a closer look at Michael's performance. 6 assists, 4 steals, 5 rebounds. For a 38-year-old, this is a great game." - Collins talking about Jordan after the game
"Fry certainly deserves more playing time. This is just the first game of the regular season. We will adjust. I hope you will not only pay attention to his playing time, but also pay attention to the wonderful performance he played in his debut." ——Collins’ response to questions about Yu Fei’s lack of playing time
"I think Washington's No. 44 (Yu Fei) will be the Rookie of the Year this season. As a high school student, he is more mature than I thought. Also, you can see how unique his game is as a player. A 6-foot-9 small forward, he dribbles the ball very freely, shoots smoothly, and even anticipated MJ's shot at the last moment. I want to congratulate the Wizards for discovering a gem." - Van Gundy commented after the game. fly
"Fry, congratulations on winning the opening game. As a rookie, how would you rate your performance?"

"100 points."

"Thank you for your candor. I also want to know how you predicted the placement of the offensive rebound at the last moment. Judging from the live broadcast, it was really fast."

"It's more of a choice than a prediction. I just found an angle at random, and the rebound chose me. I want to solemnly thank it for making the right choice. Thank you, rebound."

——Yu Fei’s post-game interview
(End of this chapter)