NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

After the end of January, the Knicks once again faced an extremely strong opponent in their first game in February.

It's the Celtics again!

This two teams will face off in the regular season, which is also their last showdown of the season!

In fact, after losing the first two games to the Celtics, the probability of the Knicks surpassing the Celtics in terms of wins is very slim, and they have basically locked up the second place in the Eastern Conference.

But no team wants to be swept by its competitors in the regular season, as that will have a significant impact on their morale and their morale when they meet in the playoffs!
As for the Celtics, who just formed the team this year, they are also eager to sweep the defending champions, and then give themselves more confidence for a possible encounter in the playoffs!

Even if this Knicks team doesn't have Anthony and Stoudemire, the Celtics don't want to give them any chances!

It can be said that both sides are united in purpose and want to fight their opponents to the death!

I don’t know if it’s the aftereffect of the crazy January, or if this Knicks team has been working too hard in the past month and their physical strength has finally run out.

In short, when the game started, everyone noticed something was wrong.

That night, all the Knicks players, including Lin Tian, ​​were not in good shape. Although they were at home, they were unable to give the Celtics many effective counterattacks. Their performance was quite bad!

They were behind by 8 points in the first quarter, and then in the second quarter, the gap widened to 15 points!
The entire Knicks team from top to bottom was missing shots. Everyone played an undercover style of play in this game, and no one could put the ball into the basket.

Until the second half of the game starts!
In the third quarter, Lin Tian, ​​who had a terrible performance in the first half, making only 16 of 4 shots and scoring only 11 points, finally broke out!
He scored 14 points in the third quarter with 8 of 18 shots, leading the team to narrow the gap to only 4 points!
Lin Tian's outburst naturally made all Knicks fans excited! They had waited for the entire first half, and finally it happened! He finally broke out!
But just when all Lin Tian and Knicks fans thought that Lin Tian's outbreak was just the beginning, Lin Tian once again fell into the dilemma of missing shots in the fourth quarter.

In fact, Lin Tian's performance in the fourth quarter was even worse than in the first half!

He took 16 shots in a single quarter, but only made 3 of them, and did not score any 3 points or free throws. He only scored 6 points in this quarter.

Fortunately, the Celtics' performance in the fourth quarter was even worse. Their team's shooting percentage was only 28% in this quarter. Facing the Knicks, the Celtics' condition is self-evident!

Both sides were in terrible form, and it was a competition of who had the worst touch. The two sides were unable to decide the winner in the regular time, and neither side scored a single point in the last two minutes! They had to go into overtime!

In overtime, both sides still had terrible shooting. The Knicks only scored 9 points with 2 of 6 shots. Lin Tian made 5 of 2 shots and 2 of 6 free throws, scoring all points for the team.

Apart from him, the other Knicks players made 4 of 0 shots and scored no points in overtime.

The Celtics were only slightly better, scoring 10 points on 3 of 9 shots.

It was with these 9 points that the Celtics won the game hard and ugly on the road!

But no matter how ugly and difficult the process was, no matter how low the quality of the game was, a win is a win! The Celtics successfully expanded their lead over the Knicks!
They have an absolute advantage in the competition for the first place in the Eastern Conference!

This game was almost the most ironic game in Lin Tian's career. He took 51 shots but only made 17 of them, a total of 34 iron hits in a single game!
This record can surpass Kobe's 47 of 17 shots!
Ranked first among active players and fourth in history!
The only ones who missed more shots in a single game than Lin Tian were George Mikan with 35 and Chamberlain with 37. This is a record that Lin Tian will never be able to surpass in his lifetime. It is truly the hardest record to break in NBA history.

Joe Fulks' 42-iron single game!
Of course, it is worth mentioning that Joe Fulks also had a 37-iron, a 35-iron, a 34-iron, and two 33-iron shots in his career.

Of the top ten single-game iron king performances in history, this guy has 5 of them! Especially his first iron god performance in history, where he only scored 55 points with 13 of 35 shots, is even more shocking!
Anyway, Lin Tian has broken so many records and stepped on so many senior stars, but as for this record, Lin Tian feels that he has no hope in this life!
He has tried his best tonight, and his condition was already bad enough that he had to choose to make crazy shots.

But even so, Lin Tian only gave away 34 pieces of fine iron.

Compared with Fulks' 42 iron, it is really not worth mentioning!
Although Lin Tian still scored 41 points that night, and relied on his outburst in the third quarter to help the team keep the score close and enter overtime, and although his teammates' shooting percentage other than him was only 56 of 16, which was worse than Lin Tian's own shooting percentage.

But obviously, this is not an excuse for Lin Tian's poor performance.

Lin Tian was not going to make any excuses.

After the game, Lin Tian did not say anything harsh, nor did he blame his teammates for their poor condition, nor did he make any other excuses.

In response to reporters' follow-up questions and asking him why he was in such a bad state, Lin Tian simply said that he was in a bad state, played terribly, and it was not worth mentioning.

It's that simple.

Lin Tian would never pass the buck or refuse to admit that he played badly!
If you play well, it's good. If you play badly, it's bad!
There is nothing that cannot be admitted.

Wasn’t it just that they were swept by the Celtics in the regular season?

Just fight back in the playoffs!
For the Knicks, the best news for these three games is that Stoudemire and Anthony are not there!

Despite missing two core scorers, the team was able to play all three games very intensely, with one game going into overtime. This is enough to explain everything!
The Knicks are not worse than the Celtics, they just have an incomplete lineup!

Anyway, after the game was over, the morale of the entire Knicks team was completely fine.

They have absolute confidence in defeating the Celtics in the playoffs!
What makes the Knicks players even happier is that this game is the 20th game that Anthony and Stoudemire have been suspended!

After today, both of them will be back! Both of them will be back on the court!

This is something that all Knicks fans and players have been looking forward to and waiting for a long time!

Finally back! The complete Knicks are finally back!

Then why don’t we sweep the league and all opponents?
Spurs, Celtics, Suns, Mavericks, Lakers, come on! I am not afraid!
2 Month 3 Day!
After 20 full games and more than 40 days of rest, Anthony and Stoudemire returned to the starting lineup!

Tonight they will play against the top bottom team in the Eastern Conference for many years at Madison Square Garden: the Atlanta Hawks!

The Eagles' record has improved slightly this year. They have 22 wins so far!

In the current weak Eastern Conference, it is already ranked tenth!

This team may enter the playoffs at any time!

And their leader is the older rookie selected by the team last summer: Brandon Roy!

So far this season, there are two regular season awards that are almost certain to be awarded and can be presented in advance.

One is Lin Tian’s MVP, and the other is Roy’s Best Rookie!

These two people are far ahead of all their competitors!
Of course, a team ranked tenth in the Eastern Conference and a young player who has just made his debut are theoretically no match for the Knicks!
But after the game started, the Knicks obviously changed the rhythm of the entire rotation due to changes in the starting lineup, so many people in the team felt uncomfortable and played a little badly.

Anthony and Stoudemire, who returned to the team, did not play well at all in their first game back on the court, or rather, they played quite badly!

It will obviously take some time for both of them to find the feel of the game and their own shooting touch.

After all, they haven't played a formal game for a month. Even though they didn't slack off during training, and even practiced extra as Lin Tian said, the state of mind is not something that can be achieved through training.

The best way is to find the feeling in the game.

Fight to survive in the game, then quickly regain your form and get back on track! But that is a gradual process.

At least tonight, Stoudemire and Anthony's condition and energy are not enough to help the team defeat the Hawks!

Of course, in addition to the fact that these two people were not in good shape, the more important reason was that Lin Tian started to slack off!

This monster, who averaged 1 minutes per game and 45 points per game in January, has started to slack off.

Of course, it wasn’t that Lin Tian wanted to slack off, but old Nelson couldn’t stand it anymore.

In this game, old Nelson strictly controlled Lin Tian's playing time. He only played for 7 minutes in the first quarter and was substituted in when there were only 6 minutes left in the second quarter!
The following third and fourth quarters had basically the same rhythm!

So although Lin Tian scored 38 points tonight, he only played for 29 minutes! This playing time showed that Nelson was starting to let Lin Tian rest and reduce his playing time.

Lin Tian's playing time was drastically reduced, and Stoudemire and Anthony combined for a poor performance of 33 of 12 shots. With all three Knicks players not performing very well, the Hawks seized the opportunity and successfully won the game with Roy's 25 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists!
The Knicks suffered two consecutive losses at the start of February!

And old Nelson drastically reduced Lin Tian's playing time because he really felt sorry for him.

Old Nelson was really worried that if Lin Tian continued to play like this and his fatigue continued to accumulate, he would sooner or later get injured due to excessive fatigue!
As the playoffs are getting closer and closer, neither Nelson nor the Knicks can afford the risk of Lin Tian getting injured!
Of course, the more important reason why the Knicks dared to let Lin Tian rest on the court is that the Knicks now have almost no pressure on their record!
They now have 37 wins and 13 losses, 44 games behind the Celtics, who are first in the Eastern Conference with 7 wins and 6.5 losses. In addition, the Knicks have lost all three games, so they have given up on surpassing the Celtics.

The feud between them will be left until the playoffs.

The Cavaliers, now ranked third in the Eastern Conference, have only 30 wins and 20 losses, and the gap between them and the Knicks is as high as 7 games!
As things stand, there is almost no possibility for the Cavaliers to surpass the Knicks!
This is the situation in the East today!
There is a gap of 6-7 games between the top three teams, and it can be said that there is absolutely no possibility of changing positions between them in the regular season!
So old Nelson can really relax and let Lin Tian have a good rest!
Anyway, no matter how bad the situation is, even if the team continues to lose when Lin Tian is resting, the Knicks have enough tolerance and can increase Lin Tian's playing time at any time!

Moreover, so far this year, Lin Tian has been able to deliver a terrifying output of 43.2 points, 9.4 assists, and 11.5 rebounds per game!

Although Lin Tian can only rank fifth in the assists list, he is not as good as Nash with 11.6 assists, Paul with 10.6 assists, Deron with 9.6 assists and Kidd with 9.5 assists, and with Nelson's current tactical arrangements, it will be difficult for Lin Tian to surpass Nash and become the assist king again in the remaining two months.

But his average score of 43.2 points per game has already far surpassed all other players.

Iverson, who ranks second on the scoring list, now averages only 33.5 points per game.

It would be much more difficult to make up for the 10-point gap than for Iverson to lead the Magic team, which now has only 19 wins and 30 losses, to make a comeback and enter the playoffs!
After all, even if Lin Tian only averages 30 points per game in the next half of the season, Iverson would have to average at least 45 points per game if he wanted to catch up with him.

If Iverson had the ability to do this, the Magic would have been a powerhouse in the Eastern Conference long ago.

Therefore, with Lin Tian having little chance of becoming the assists king, the scoring king secured, and no pressure on the team's record, old Nelson had the mood and space to let Lin Tian rest.

Therefore, in the first two weeks of February, that is, in the eight games before the All-Star Game, although Lin Tian did not rest in any game, his average playing time dropped to 2 minutes, and his average statistics during the period dropped to 8 points, 30.5 assists and 27.5 rebounds.

Lin Tian's decreased playing time also led to the Knicks' not-so-good performance in the eight games in February.

Especially after the loss to the Celtics in the game before Stoudemire and Anthony returned, they both needed to find their form after their return, and the team needed to re-adapt and adapt, so the team lost two games in a row.

Fortunately, after three consecutive losses at the beginning of February, Anthony and Stoudemire finally got into the game and began to play like they did at the beginning of the season and when they won the championship last season. The team won 2 and lost 3 in the next 5 games and quickly stabilized the situation.

After all, Lin Tian was not injured, he was just resting. With him in the lead and his teammates able to find their rhythm, there would naturally be no problem.

Now that the season has come to this point, stars, fans and media have finally waited for the annual celebration.

All-Star Weekend!
The theme of this year's All-Star Weekend is the same as last year, when everyone prayed for New Orleans and carried out various aid activities.

This year the competition will be held directly in New Orleans, which has just completed reconstruction!
Although the Hornets still have a poor record, their second-year guard Deron Williams is averaging 2 points and 15 assists per game this season and has become a leader among the new generation of the league.

He, Paul of the Warriors and Felton of the Bobcats are also known as the three great point guards of the 05 generation!

These three people have also caught the spring breeze of the point guard heyday brought by Lin Tian, ​​Iverson, Nash and others. They have obtained a large number of opportunities and more space in their respective teams than Lin Tian remembered.

And in this year's All-Star Game, Deron successfully gained the upper hand in the comparison among the three great players of 05!

He became the first of the three to be selected to the All-Star Game, albeit as a substitute, although this was also an advantage that New Orleans needed an All-Star to represent the city.

But once you’re selected, you’re selected!

In addition to Deron, another new face in the Western Conference All-Star lineup is Chris Bosh. With his outstanding performance this year, he was selected to the All-Star Game for the first time in his career!
With him, the Spurs now have three active All-Stars!
The other two are James and O'Neal, who started!

James even surpassed Kobe and O'Neal to become the Western Conference All-Star voting leader for the first time in his career.

Although O'Neal has been plagued by injuries this season and has only played in 20 games so far, his popularity and strength are there. Even if he only plays 20 games, he can easily make it into the All-Star starter!
The other three starters in the West are Kobe and McGrady from the Lakers and Nash from the Suns.

Among these five people, four of them have been teammates of each other. Now they have changed partners and reunited in the All-Star Game, which can be regarded as another kind of fate.

Well, people with a positive attitude feel that this is a reunion of old friends, a continuation of past ties, and a tearful reunion.

But for a guy like Lin Tian who has a very sinister mentality, what comes out of his mind...

Minotaur, friends invading, teammates swapping, passionate night, reunion with old friends...

Shaq, you don't want LeBron to know that you have a better time working with me.

Tracy, I miss you so much.

LeBron, I haven't been happy lately.

……

Ahem, the style of painting is getting weird.

Let’s talk about the substitutes in the West.

Garnett, Nowitzki, Bosh, Deron, Marion, Billups and Ray Allen were selected together!
Among the players who were not selected from the Western Conference, O'Neal Jr. had a mediocre performance because of a serious injury that caused the Jazz to be in poor form this year and he himself had a mediocre performance.

After arriving in Portland and becoming the leader of that city, although Randolph still averaged 24 points and 10 rebounds per game, he was completely let go without anyone to supervise him and became the new generation of Portland Prison warden.

Then there is Milicic, who is known as the biggest missed gem of this All-Star Game.

He has averaged 22 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks per game this season, making him the Nuggets' leading scorer. He also led the team to fifth place in the Western Conference with Billups!

But unfortunately, there are too many top forwards and excellent players in the West. Even though Milicic scored 20+10, he failed to make it to the All-Star Game.

In addition to these three power forwards, the failure of players like Paul of the Warriors, Ray Allen and Lewis of the Supersonics to enter the All-Star Game also caused considerable controversy.

Compared to the West, where there are many missed candidates and who should be selected and who should not be selected, the situation in the East is much simpler and clearer! (End of this chapter)