r18novel Chapter 569 Danzi, this is for you!
Chapter 569 Danzi, this is for you!
At Lin Tian's command, the entire Knicks team once again charged forward like tigers descending a mountain, with everyone rushing ahead like madmen. Lin Tian himself held the ball in the middle and led the charge.
The Cavaliers, playing with a twin-tower lineup, are naturally no match for the Knicks in terms of speed. Their overall speed is much slower; for example, Big Z and Gooden simply cannot keep up with Stoudemire and Okur.
The only two Cavaliers players who could catch up immediately were Wade and Hughes. Only the two of them could hold off Lin Tian's attacks, but their defense was clearly insufficient to stop the Knicks' offense.
After rushing to the vicinity of the free throw line, Lin Tian suddenly made a behind-the-back pass without looking. The basketball came behind him, but neither Wade nor Hughes could tell who Lin Tian was going to pass to or which direction it was going to be passed to!
The basketball seemed to vanish, pausing behind Lin Tian for at least a second. Only after Wade and Hughes' defensive rhythm was completely disrupted did the basketball finally appear in Stoudemire's hands behind Lin Tian.
It wasn't Anthony on the left, nor Houston slightly behind on the right, but Stoudemire behind Lin Tianzheng!
Upon receiving the ball, Stoudemire didn't care whether there were people in front of him or not. He took three steps and displayed an aura that seemed to want to knock over Lin Tian in front of him. He raised the basketball high with one hand and then jumped up forcefully without any regard for anything else. How could Wade and Hughes, the two guards, stop this humanoid tyrannosaurus?
They could only dodge quickly, and then helplessly watch as Stoudemire slammed the ball directly into the basket!
"boom!"
The huge difference in their physique and height left them with no choice but to obediently stay away and try not to become background figures.
Although Stoudemire dunked the ball, Lin Tian deserves at least 90% of the credit! From stealing the ball and defending to attacking the frontcourt and then to that magical disappearing pass, Lin Tian used his superb skills to teach Wade another lesson!
A slight pause in the ball behind the back and the timing of whether or not a travel was violated left two excellent defenders, Wade and Hughes, disoriented.
"Devin, where did you go? Did you go to visit relatives with Larry? Do you need me to find you a GPS?" After assisting Stoudemire's dunk, the gap between the two sides began to widen. The scoring surge that Wade had just launched for the team was quickly extinguished by Lin Tian.
More importantly, after assisting Stoudemire to score, Lin Tian once again applied full-court press on Hughes!
Yes, Hughes!
Lin Tian switched positions again.
"You make over 1000 million a year, just to come to this dump like Cleveland and be the second youngest?"
"You're just a second-in-command, you know that, Larry?"
"And the kind that's both short and small."
"Devin wants to trade you, but he doesn't want trash like you as his helper."
"You're just a third-best player on a lousy team! The kind of trash team that only wins 8 games a year."
"Get out of the way! Go to the corner! Didn't you see Devin calling out the tactics? You piece of trash, why aren't you following the tactics? Corner, corner, corner! Go squat in the corner and smoke!"
When Lin Tian faced Hughes, his trash-talking skills skyrocketed again. He hadn't forgotten how this guy dared to kick Jordan when he was down back in the Wizards and sided with Pollin to drive Jordan away.
Lord Lin holds a grudge!
Danzi, this is for you!
No need to thank me, consider this a small reward from me, Lord Lin, for all the years I've been fleecing people.
Let's just consider it as applying some hair growth tonic to Danzi.
Give it some time to recover, give it a good rest.
Lin Tian's string of trash talk indeed made Hughes blush. Apart from not pointing his finger at Lin Tian and yelling at him to shut up or say another word, the guy's temper was clearly rising.
Of course, the reason he didn't point his finger at Lin Tian and yell at him wasn't because he didn't want to, but mainly because he didn't dare.
"Devin, ball!" Hughes suddenly shoved Lin Tian, then ran out to the three-point line and stretched out his hand to call for the ball.
He has to get a beating! Otherwise, he'll be holding this grudge for the rest of the week.
Wade paused for a moment. He had just wanted to take advantage of Lin Tian's lack of defense to go one-on-one with two opponents, but now that Hughes had arrived, Wade hesitated for a moment and could only pass the ball to Hughes at the top of the arc.
But Wade's decisiveness only made people regret it even faster!
The moment he passed the ball to Hughes, Hughes made a mistake!
Hughes is a smart guy; he knows that it's difficult for him to break through Lin Tian's defense with things like drives and pull-up jumpers, so he decided to do something unexpected!
He wanted to receive the ball at the top of the key and then immediately pull up for a shot!
But Lin Tian clearly saw what this guy was going to do, and quickly slapped out, hitting the basketball that Hughes had just raised with perfect accuracy, sending the basketball flying.
Then Lin Tian caught the basketball again and made a behind-the-back pass, sending the ball flying towards the frontcourt.
The incredibly cunning veteran Houston, though not fast, firmly blocked Wade's position, preventing Wade from getting close to him despite his best efforts. Houston, on the other hand, easily held the basketball, barely accelerating, and relied on his experience to lean against Wade and easily score a layup.
"Young man, what are you doing behind me? Don't tell me you're thinking something because my butt looks sexy." Houston, this old-timer, plays slowly now, and when he talks trash, he still has a big smile on his face, but the words he says are really dirty.
"Shut up, old man!" Wade said sternly, his face grim.
There was nothing he could do, and it was no wonder he was angry with him. Just now, Houston seemed to be running slowly and deliberately, but apart from Wade, no one knew how many dirty tricks this guy had. He was scratching and clawing, and at one point he was only a few millimeters away from Wade!
Anyway, Wade was terrified.
If it weren't for all these little tricks, Wade wouldn't have been left helpless, being leaned on by this old guy.
After Houston finished trash-talking, he winked at Lin Tian with a smile, and Lin Tian found the expression incredibly endearing!
The older generation really understands me!
Only the older, more cunning comrades can pull off such a coordinated attack!
That's how we'll mess with the mentality of those two younger guys, make them emotionally collapse, and prevent them from playing calmly.
Sure enough, in the next round, when Wade was preparing to take on the old Houston one-on-one, although the current Houston could no longer defend against Wade in terms of strength, physique, speed, and physicality, he was still cunning.
After getting close, he went straight for Wade's indescribable spot between his two buttocks and gave him a good whack!
Even though Wade is calm and mature, he couldn't control his subconscious reaction at this moment and raised his elbow to strike Houston hard!
"puff!"
With a muffled thud, Houston clutched his chest and collapsed to the ground, letting out a series of screams.
"Offensive foul!"
The referee immediately ruled that Wade should relinquish possession of the ball.
Wade spread his hand, protesting with a wronged expression, but the referee, of course, wouldn't change the call that had already been made.
As for Wade's other hand, it's currently covering his butt.
That hurt!
It felt like my soul was being ripped out.
But regardless of whether it's dirty or bad, these two people's methods are quite effective!
After the Knicks' duo of "Ball Guy" and "Old Silver Dollar" unleashed their power, using their experience, skills, and shameless underhanded tactics to continuously profit, the Cavaliers' core backcourt duo suddenly became like high school students, completely bewildered and clueless.
The team's core player couldn't keep up, wasn't ruthless enough, and had too high a bottom line, so the result was obvious.
The Cavaliers were completely crushed.
In the first quarter, although the Cavaliers had some highlight moments where Wade scored against Lin Tian, for the most part they couldn't put up any decent resistance, and the score difference between the two sides reached 15 points at the end of the first quarter.
Although the Cavaliers managed to close the gap slightly in the second quarter thanks to a more composed Wade, bringing the difference back to single digits, the gap widened to over 20 points in the third quarter when Lin Tian unleashed his full power once again!
Then, in the fourth quarter, both sides played for a few more minutes, and after realizing that they could not catch up, the Cavaliers decisively substituted their starting players, signaling their surrender.
In this game, Lin Tian played for 34 minutes and once again achieved an impressive stat line of 27 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, 3 steals and 1 block. This is his third consecutive game with a triple-double since the start of the season!
Both Lin Tian and the Knicks are in top form, on fire!
"I love Devin! I've loved him ever since we first met at Produce Camp and he lost to Gilbert! Otherwise, I wouldn't have selected him for the team after he was completely outmatched by Gilbert. He's the kind of guy who gets stronger when facing strong opponents and keeps improving himself."
"He's the kind of person who falls down 100 times and gets up 100 times to keep going. I think he'll become an MVP-level guy in the future."
In the post-game press conference, Lin Tian showered Wade with praise, extolling his virtues. Then, the reporters discovered a blind spot.
"So Lin, you think Wade is better than Anthony? Do you think you could have won the championship if you had replaced Anthony with Wade last year?"
"No, the loss to the Pistons was because I wasn't good enough, it had nothing to do with my teammates, and I can assure you that Messi and Ronaldo are definitely better than Devin right now! Especially after this year's hard work, I believe Messi and Ronaldo are the strongest players from the 03 draft class, and he is definitely one of the top 5 small forwards in the league."
"Even if I weren't here today, he could definitely lead the team to victory against the Cavaliers! But I also have to remind Melo that if he stagnates and becomes complacent, he will definitely be overtaken by those behind him."
"But Anthony's stats aren't the best among the 03 draft class. LeBron and Devin's stats are better than his, and Milicic has already become a top-tier center with 20+10. Yet Anthony's stats haven't changed much compared to his first year."
Faced with a barrage of tricky questions from reporters, Lin Tian handled them with remarkable ease: "When Michael's stats were at their best, the Bulls didn't win the championship. When I won my first MVP, we didn't win the championship either. Last year, when I became the first player in NBA history to score 25+14, we still didn't win the championship."
"As for the players you mentioned, LeBron has never made it past the first round. When Devin was defeated by us last year, did he perform better than Melo? As for Darko, he hasn't even made the playoffs yet!"
"But Messi and Ronaldo, they've already played in the Eastern Conference Finals, and they'll be part of the championship team this year!"
"Give me a choice: do you want to be a lone hero averaging 25+5+5 but unable to even reach the conference finals, or do you want to be a member of the league's best team, learning to give and sacrifice, even if you only average 22+6?"
After saying that, Lin Tian spread his hands and said, "I think this isn't even a problem."
"But Lin, you..."
"I can do it because I'm unique," Lin Tian interrupted the reporter's question with a smile. "Have you ever seen another player like me?"
If Lin Tian had said those words, even if anyone else in the league had their own unique and irreplaceable qualities, they would have been attacked and criticized by various groups.
But Lin Tian said?
No problem, you're right!
At this press conference, the reporters who wanted to stir up trouble left disappointed, as Lin Tian's meticulous approach prevented them from finding any opportunity to cause trouble.
Not only that, Anthony secretly clenched his fist while watching the press conference in the locker room.
"Want to surpass me? LeBron, Devin, or that damn Yugoslavian kid? Keep dreaming! I'm the best of the 03 draft class!"
"I won't let Lin down!"
After being given a big bowl of chicken soup by Lin Tian from afar, Anthony was full of fighting spirit.
As for the others...
"Carmelo is better than me? Hmph, laughable! I'll show you who the strongest member of the 03 draft class really is!"
James muttered under his breath, then looked at his younger teammate JR Smith beside him: "JR, can I borrow your phone for a second? Mine's out of data. I need to check the schedule to see when we play New York!"
In a corner of the Spurs' locker room, Bosh changed his clothes in silence, clearly in a bad mood.
"You called everyone but forgot about me? Very well! We'll see!"
……
"Playoffs? This year, it's time for us Denver guys to make the playoffs!" Milicic shouted at all his teammates from the middle of the locker room. But after shouting that, he was obviously a little nervous and glanced back at the team's head coach, George Karl.
After receiving an encouraging look from Karl, Milicic felt emboldened and mustered his courage again, shouting, "Let everyone know how powerful we are! Pepsi Center will be the hardest home court to conquer in this league! If the New Yorkers dare to come, they won't be able to leave!"
"Kill them! Make it to the playoffs!"
"Make it to the playoffs!"
……
"Whether Messi or Ronaldo tries hard or not, I will surpass him and become the best of the 03 generation! And then..." After the game, Wade did not leave the locker room, but instead had the physiotherapist relax his body while staring intently at the TV screen in front of him.
The video playing above is a highlight reel and analysis of today's match.
Or rather, this is a compilation and analysis of Lin Tian's matches.
"I will be stronger than you, Lin!"
Lin Tian's press conference boosted the morale of half of the 03 draft class, and everyone was looking forward to giving Lin Tian a good slap in the face when they faced the Knicks.
As for who will meet Lin Tian first?
The answer is: Josh Howard!
This relatively unremarkable player from the 2003 draft class has been performing better and better since he took over Artest's starting position at the Pacers' small forward position last season. So far this season, although the Pacers have only won 1 and lost 2 of their 3 games, Howard's performance is absolutely undeniable.
His average of 19.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3 assists per game is absolutely impressive. When people talk about the most promising small forwards in the league these days, Howard is definitely someone that will be mentioned!
除了霍华德之外，步行者队如今还有场均17分6助攻的帕克，15分4篮板4助攻的吉诺比利和场均14分10篮板3助攻2盖帽的米勒！
The team has a total of four players averaging double-digit points per game, which shows that it is a very well-rounded and united team.
But sometimes, that's where their problem lies.
This team is so well-rounded. They have a lot of promising talent, and many guys who could definitely make it on any team in the league and even become stars.
The problem is, none of these people are the kind of guys who have the ability to lead the team into the playoffs and take it further as the leader.
Parker, Ginobili, and Howard are still inexperienced; they need at least 2-3 more years of development before they can truly carry the team.
But the Pacers' problem is: even if they wait 2-3 years, these few players are clearly not the kind of guys who can lead the team to another championship and make a comeback.
Or to put it more bluntly: their team's puzzle pieces are almost perfect, but they lack a cornerstone!
It's all in 10 and 20 yuan notes, but I'm missing a whole bill!
As for when they will be able to find another banknote like Lin Tian's?
Lin Tian said: You should lower your expectations appropriately. Young people should not only think about getting to the top in one step. They should be down-to-earth, be honest and hardworking, and take it one step at a time.
Before the game, the Conseco Arena was still filled with cheers. Lin Tian was still able to receive overwhelming cheers and crazy support from fans. Although he had left, he was still the king here. A sincere tribute video was prepared for him, and the fans at the scene gave him an extremely long cheer.
Lin Tian’s former teammates lined up to hug and chat with him.
However, players like Artest and Webber, who won championships with Lin Tian, are no longer on the team for their own reasons.
The team has a rather interesting newcomer.
A tall, somewhat shy man walked towards Lin Tian, hugged him, and said, "Lin, my name is Danny Granger! Maybe I'll never be as good as you, but I'll make Indiana rise again!"
Good lad, you've got character! Arrogant yet humble, that's exactly the kind of guy Lin Tian likes!
Well... I still need to work harder. In the first three games of the new season, I averaged 9 minutes of playing time, totaling 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists.
The task ahead is arduous and the road is long! (End of Chapter)