NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

On January 1, the Knicks challenged another Texas team, the Mavericks, in a back-to-back away game. This season's Mavericks are still one of the strongest teams in the Western Conference. They still have Nowitzki as their absolute core, and they still use their crazy jump shots and one-on-one style of play. They are still one of the most offensive teams in the league.

The Mavericks are currently ranked third in the Western Conference, behind only the two top teams, the Suns and the Spurs.

Originally everyone thought that this would be a evenly matched game, at least the Mavericks would not be easily defeated by the Knicks in the second game of a back-to-back.

But when the game started, everyone's eyes widened in disbelief.

Lin Tian opened fire from the first second of the game and kept scoring!
Lin Tian, ​​who was making crazy attacks both inside and outside, completely messed up the Mavericks' defense, which was not very good to begin with.

No matter whether it is Terry, Daniels, Stackhouse or anyone else, they are no match for Lin Tian and cannot stop his attack at all.

In the first quarter, Lin Tian scored 25 points from inside and outside shots, giving the Knicks a 10-point advantage.

Although the Mavericks' offensive firepower was indeed impressive, they quickly caught up with the score in the second quarter, and took advantage of Lin Tian's poor touch in the first half of the second quarter to overtake the opponent.

But in the last 2 minutes of the second quarter, Lin Tian suddenly broke out again and made 3 consecutive shots from beyond the 4-point line!
Not only did he once again bring his score in the first half to 40, he also once again expanded his lead to 10 points!
In the second half of the game, the change of sides did not cool down Lin Tian's hot hand at all. He continued to score points through crazy shots, and his score continued to increase.

Faced with Lin Tian's crazy touch that seemed to never cool down, and faced with Lin Tian's state of killing gods and Buddhas, the Mavericks finally couldn't hold it anymore.

They are human beings, their touch will have ups and downs, and their state will have normal fluctuations and changes.

But Lin Tian didn't seem to have that.

So in the entire third quarter, the Mavericks only scored 18 points, while Lin Tian alone scored 19 points!
Lin Tian scored 3 points in just 59 quarters!
And led the Knicks to a 19-point lead!

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Lin Tian did not play, but sat on the sidelines to rest.

Judging from the looks of him and old Nelson, if the Mavericks can catch up to the score next time, Lin Tian will go up and close the game.

And if the Mavericks can catch up some points, find some feeling and fight back in the game, Lin Tian will come on the court at any time to fight back according to the situation.

Anyway, Lin Tian’s fans are cheering for the Mavericks at this moment.

Even if Lin Tian plays for another minute, even if he just increases his score to 1 and then comes down, so as not to drive those obsessive-compulsive patients to death?

But unfortunately, the Mavericks obviously had not found any feeling yet. They played hard for 5 minutes in the fourth quarter, but not only did they fail to narrow the 19-point disadvantage, but Hill and a group of substitutes widened the gap to 25 points!
Then?

Then even Hill, who had a great performance tonight and scored a season-high 21 points, went down to rest. As for Lin Tian, ​​he naturally would not play again.

119: 100!

In the end, the Knicks defeated the Mavericks by 19 points, which made up for the frustration and unhappiness of losing to the Spurs the day before.

Then, the Knicks started their winning streak again!

And Lin Tian once again started his madness!
他接下来在球队做客金州和萨克拉门托的两场比赛中又连续轰下54分和57分，率队拿到3连胜的同时，自己也连续3场比赛轰下50+！

Not only did he easily lead the team to a record of 2007 wins and 3 loss in the first week of 1, he also took home the Player of the Week award.

At the same time, everyone, including the fans and the media, discovered it at this time.

Lin Tian said that he would try to score an average of more than 52.4 points this month, and it doesn't seem to be nonsense.

This guy is really starting to work towards this direction!
After this wave of three consecutive wins, the Knicks lost again in the last game of this Western Conference expedition, this time they lost to the first place in the Pacific Division.

Suns!
The crazy Suns team had all their players running like crazy, scoring as many as 149 points that night.

As for the Knicks, except for Lin Tian who still had a good touch and scored 67 points, no other player on the team could score more than 15 points!
The impact of the lack of helpers, the lack of a stable second scoring point, and the absence of Stoudemire and Anthony were fully demonstrated in this offensive battle!

That night, even though Lin Tian scored 67 points, the Knicks still lost by as many as 17 points!
And everyone also knows that if there was not a 3-point gap between the two sides in the last 20 minutes, so Lin Tian chose to leave the court early and give up the game, there would be no problem for Lin Tian to get at least another 70 points that night!
But obviously, Lin Tian, ​​who had even scored 100 points once, was not interested in or cared about scores like 70 points. He could never do such a thing as asking his teammates to help him commit fouls to gain offensive opportunities and score 70 points when the team was behind and had no chance of winning.

The 67-point loss also became the game with the highest personal score among all the losses in Lin Tian’s career!
He had never before experienced such a high score but still failed to lead the team to victory.

After losing the game, Lin Tian didn't say anything harsh like "see you in New York".

No need.

There was no serious fight, so what was there to say? It wasn't like the team was tricked, targeted, or lost for other reasons. If he said something harsh every time he lost, there would be too many people going to New York to meet Lin Tian.

We only use this trick against those guys who try to win by cheating!
After returning to the home court, Lin Tian continued his crazy and terrifying performance. He led the Knicks to another 6-game winning streak in the Knicks' 6 consecutive home games!

In these six games, Lin Tian scored 60 points in one game and 4 points in four games. Only in the game against the Pistons did Lin Tian score less than 50 points again, scoring only 50 points.

The Pistons used their defense, which had not completely collapsed and still had some shadows of their peak period, to prevent Lin Tian from shooting 28 out of 13. But although Lin Tian's touch was just so-so, he saved the team in another way.

Because he alone attracted a lot of the Pistons' defensive attention and resources.

In addition, the other Knicks players all had pretty good touch that night, so Lin Tian kept passing the ball, constantly looking for teammates and passing the ball to them.

Under his selfless performance, many Knicks players played very well. Hill scored 18 points, Houston scored 15 points, and Okur scored 24 points!
Relying on the output of these three guys, the Knicks still scored 120 points and gave the Pistons an 18-point defeat!

Although Lin Tian only scored 33 points that night, he made 21 assists and grabbed 17 rebounds!
An oversized triple-double is no worse than a 50-point performance, and may even be more shocking!

After all, Lin Tian has scored countless 50 points this season, but tonight's data of almost 30+20+20 is really extremely rare.

Rare things are precious!
Then, after this wave of 6 consecutive home wins, the Knicks have completely stabilized the morale and team record. At the same time, their performance for the whole of January is temporarily fixed at 1 wins and 9 losses!

They are still firmly ranked second in the Eastern Conference, and the gap between them and the third-placed Cavaliers has reached 7 games!
At this point in the season, a seven-game lead is definitely enough to be called a huge lead.

In other words, the Celtics, who are ranked first this year, are really strong and stable after the big trade. The Knicks' 9 wins and 2 losses are already amazing enough, but the Celtics are also terribly strong during this period.

So far, they haven't lost a game in January! A 1-game winning streak has brought them closer and closer to maintaining their long-lost No. 10 position in the league!
This time, the Celtics are clearly going to truly rise!

The GDP trio is simply a match made in heaven. Although none of them are famous except Duncan, the degree of fit and tacit understanding between them is so amazing and stunning that it's as if they had played together for 10 years!

Coupled with the terrifying pressure and defensive ability brought by the increasingly mature Howard in the interior, the Celtics are now top-notch in the league in both offense and defense!
The Knicks and Celtics, the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference, met head-on at this time!

The Celtics, who had won 10 games in a row, faced the Knicks, who had won 6 games in a row!

Now, the difference in wins between the two teams is 3 games. Considering that the season is almost halfway through, this gap is definitely not small!
But the good news is: these two teams have not played against each other this season!

They still have to play 3 full games against each other!
Two of them will be held one after another within the next week!
In other words, if the Knicks can win both games, they will be able to catch up in the blink of an eye and narrow the gap between the two sides to 1 game!
Then the suspense about who is No. 1 in the Eastern Conference this season has suddenly become infinitely greater!

But on the other hand, if the Celtics can win these two games in a row, they can widen the gap between the two teams to 5 games!
This kind of game can be played as two games. The gap between the two teams caused by one inside and one outside is absolutely huge!

Even if the Spurs can win two consecutive games, the battle for the top spot in the Eastern Conference will basically end early.

And if the Knicks can get a winning streak, the battle between first and second place will most likely continue until April!

Therefore, this game, which is the first to be played in Madison Square Garden, is extremely important!

It is no exaggeration to say that it is the most important matchup in the Eastern Conference since the start of this season!
This game naturally became the game selected by TNT to be broadcast live across the United States that day. Countless fans were waiting in front of the TV early to see how this top battle would turn out!

What is even more unforgettable is that this game was also the reunion of Lin Tian and four former members of the Pacers dynasty: Parker, Ginobili, and Josh Howard!
The brothers who once created a dynasty together, when they meet this time, they have to put all their efforts into fighting for hegemony in the East!
Who will win tonight? The Celtics or the Knicks?
Answer: The Celtics!

This highly anticipated game, which had been prepared for a long time and was full of symbolic significance, was completely under the control of the Celtics from the very beginning.

Although Lin Tian was still unstoppable in this game, still invincible, and still able to make the Celtics team flee in panic, his teammates really did not put in any good performance tonight.

This situation is also related to the Celtics' strategy!
The instruction Rivers gave to his players during the game was to defend Lin Tian one-on-one, and all others should not assist in defense, but only keep a close eye on their own people, not giving others any chance to score or find their touch!
As for Lin Tian?

If you have the guts, just hit us again with 100 points and kill us!

Under Rivers' strategy, Lin Tian scored 20 points in the first quarter, 15 points in the second quarter, and 18 points in the third quarter. In three quarters, Lin Tian scored as many as 53 points!
But the Knicks were the team that was suppressed in the first three quarters.

They were still 11 points behind the Celtics after three quarters!
In the fourth quarter, Lin Tian did not rest, but came on and showed his crazy touch!
In the first 7 minutes of the fourth quarter, Lin Tian made 8 of 8 shots, including 3 of 3-pointers and 2 of 2 free throws. He kept shooting and hitting, and he took care of all the points for the team in these 5 minutes. He scored as many as 21 points in a row!
But after Lin Tian’s crazy performance, the team’s score behind the Celtics fell to 15 points!
In other words, after Lin Tian made 8 of 8 shots, the Knicks fell behind even more!

As for the reason?

Except for Lin Tian, ​​all other players of the Knicks made 5 of 7 shots in these 0 minutes!
Not even a single point!
All Knicks players except Lin Tian did not score a single point during this period!
As time went by, when Lin Tian's physical strength began to decline significantly, when Lin Tian's touch finally began to fade and he began to miss shots, the Celtics relied on their advantages of all their arrows and excellent team touch tonight to begin to quickly widen the score!

With only 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Celtics' lead had reached 21 points!
At this point, there was no need for the Knicks to continue, so old Nelson waved his hand and decided to make a substitution!

He replaced all the main players and announced his surrender! This game entered garbage time!
This game actually fully exposed the Knicks' predicament this month.

It all depends on Lin Tian to fight alone!
If his condition declines or he doesn't play well enough, the Knicks will immediately collapse or have a tendency to collapse!
The current situation of this team is completely inseparable from Lin Tian!

But sometimes, facing the league's top teams, even if Lin Tian gives his all, even if Lin Tian scores 74 points in a single game, he cannot bring a victory to the team!
This defeat is absolutely painful for the Knicks!

Even though they won two consecutive games, Lin Tian also scored 2 points and 2 points respectively in these two games. The Knicks team was able to recover from this crushing defeat.

Although Lin Tian's average points per game is still 51.1 points after these games, this average score has once again reduced his chances of catching up with Chamberlain's average of 52 points per game this month to an extremely low level, because the Knicks only have two games left this month, and their opponents in both games are top teams.

The Celtics in the East and the Spurs in the West!
It would be too difficult no matter how you look at it to score a lot of points in these two games and break Chamberlain's record in one fell swoop!
And it was not until this time that the fans finally discovered one thing——

That is, their requirements for Lin Tian seem to be too high!
This monster led the team to an 1-11 record in January when the team was missing two core players, ranking third in the league during the same period. He has also averaged more than 3 points per game so far this month.

But even so, the fans are still disappointed and still think it is a pity that they did not break Chamberlain's record. Perhaps, we should be more pragmatic and not put so much pressure on Lin?
After thinking about this, many of Lin Tian’s fans completely relaxed.

After all, Lin Tian has already surpassed Iverson and become the league's scoring leader this season, and the team has maintained its second place in the Eastern Conference and top three in the league as he said.

If the fans are still not satisfied with this, then they are a bit ignorant.

But just when the fans had given up and felt that these records were dispensable, the Knicks players were at their most confident and eager to win!
After all, for the Knicks, losing a peak showdown with the Celtics is not the end of the world.

They still have plenty of chances to fight back! For example, on January 1, the Knicks will come to Boston to challenge the Celtics away!
As long as they can win this game, they can quickly narrow the gap between the two teams and once again make the suspense of the top spot in the Eastern Conference burn!
As long as you get it, everything is still possible!
But this night, the Knicks, despite their united efforts, still failed to win the game! (End of this chapter)