Rekindling the dream of becoming a star

Chapter 251 Strong Intervention
Winning the Lakers at home did not cause any waves. Comparing strength, the Clippers are stronger than the Lakers on paper.

The dense schedule of the regular season, with an average of 13 games per month, does not leave much room for discussion about victory or defeat. On the 22nd, the Lakers came to Felix to face the Suns away.

On paper, the Suns' strength is worse than that of the Lakers. This young team is very unstable and is considered to be a lottery team.

But there is one thing about the Suns that is far better than the Lakers.

At small forward, the Suns are stacked with a group of players who have not fulfilled their talents or hammered out a single stunt.

TJ Warren, 2.03 meters tall, Jared Dudley, 2.01 meters tall, Elijah Millsap, 2.01 meters tall, Derrick Jones Jr., 2.01 meters tall, Alan Williams, 2.03 meters tall.

Their starting lineup and rotation lineups have a very obvious targeted flavor.

Eric Bledsoe, Devin Booker, T.J. Warren, Marquese Chriss, Tyson Chandler.

On the Clippers side, Rivers only made adjustments on the back line.

Chen Fang, Rivers Jr., Kuzma, Griffin, and Jordan Jr.

The reason for choosing to start two rookies is the strength of the Suns' front line. Bledsoe, Booker, and Warren all have the ability to solve problems independently. If the Europeans are allowed to play the No. 1 position again, they may be beaten in the first quarter.

Even with Chen Fang and Kuzma, the Clippers' outside line is very average in the league. After all, the two rookies are just starting out.

The team's offense and defense are always adjusted according to the actual lineup, with luxurious outside lines and weak inside lines. The Suns' tactics are also small ball tactics mixed with Princeton offense, which requires more high-post wing and off-ball running, and emphasizes passing and cutting.

On defense, they adopt a man-to-man and zone defense strategy, which is very flexible.

This was also the first time that Chen Fang encountered such a defensive strategy, and his performance was restricted. Warren, Dudley, and Jones came on the court under the arrangement of head coach Earl Watson and took turns to fight against Chen Fang.

Despite the poor performance, the Clippers still took the initiative with their huge advantage in the interior.

Seven minutes into the first quarter, Chen Fang was replaced after the official forced timeout.

2 points, 1 assists and 1 rebound.

"Play good defense!" Rivers said to Chen Fang.

"I'm fine, the opponent can't defend me!" Chen Fang replied.

"Then it's up to you."

Rivers did not argue with this, but instead praised that he originally wanted to arouse Chen Fang's competitive spirit.

Chen Fang didn't believe it. He didn't think that he would be sanctioned just because there were a group of people with similar height to him. He appeared on the court again in the second quarter and showed his own characteristics. Faced with the problem of being strong but slow in lateral movement, he made two consecutive shots by swinging sideways. Suns coach Earl Watson was forced to replace veteran Dudley.

But Dudley is not a person with outstanding athletic ability, otherwise he would not have become a wandering player. Facing Dudley who was slow to react, Chen Fang first made a pull-up shot from the wing, then flew to the bottom corner, broke into the inside, caused a foul and got two free throw opportunities.

When the Suns saw Chen Fang was gaining momentum, they decided to let Alan Williams, who had just renewed his contract, go up and give it a try.

Alan was an undrafted player in 15. He first went to Qingdao, a CBA team, to train, and then made his way into the NBA through his outstanding performance in the summer league. He is a defensive forward with good rim protection awareness and help defense.

With Alan, Warren had no worries when facing Chen Fang again.

Chen Fang's excellent reading ability is not innate, but is based on his familiarity with the opponent. The Suns' man-to-man defense + zone double-teaming strategy has reduced Chen Fang's chances to shoot, but Chen Fang still keeps looking for opportunities.

The team's operation was also affected and the score difference was narrowing.

After the first half, Chen Fang's statistics reached 10 points, 3 assists and 3 rebounds.

The Clippers led by 54 points, 47-7, entering the second half.

Chen Fang's data is not outstanding, but it is good enough.

In the locker room at halftime, Reeves reviewed the game for Chen Fang. He said, "You need to trust your players more and use more screens and pick-and-rolls to get shots instead of dribbling through. This is not very efficient and the entire offense and defense are out of sync."

After being pointed out by the head coach, Chen Fang stood up and admitted his mistake. He explained to his teammates, "I got a little carried away. I just didn't accept it, so a group of people came to mess with me. Guys, please help me."

"Hey, don't worry, I'll take care of this little thing!" Jordan Jr. took the initiative to take it over.

The small crisis was resolved, and Rivers successfully handled the small conflict caused by Chen Fang's unreasonable singles.

Before Chen Fang is confirmed as the core, at least before he is publicly recognized at the locker room level, Chen Fang is just a part of the tactics. Any extraordinary behavior will cause disharmony in the team.

Rivers seemed to be scolding Chen Fang, but he was actually helping him.

The Clippers' rhythm smoothed out in the second half. After watching for a while, Rivers said to Bryan, "I'm still troubled."

"Chen Fang's characteristics really confuse me. He can be a good link for the team and has strong scoring ability. Even if he works alone, his data will not be bad."

"If I suppress him and use various means to make Chen Fang a member of the team, the Clippers' strength will decline instead of increase."

"But I don't want to see his offensive talents obliterated."

"The management wants to make the playoffs, and Chen Fang needs a lot of ball possession to play with confidence. He doesn't have enough confidence now."

Brian listened quietly and replied, "It's wise to take care of yourself first."

Rivers remained silent after hearing this.

At the end of the game, the Clippers defeated their opponents 103 to 88. Although the Suns' young leader Booker scored 31 points, he still couldn't lead the team to victory.

The home fans also began to leave in large numbers in the last few minutes. Chen Fang briefly said a few words to his opponents and then came to Lonzo.

"It will be fine!" said Chen Fang.

If there was no Chen Fang, Lonzo would undoubtedly be the starter in the Lakers, but in the Suns, he can only start as a substitute. The strength of the Bryant team has not deteriorated, and as the second-in-command, Lonzo cannot compete for the time being.

He played for 21 minutes today, got 8 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds. The statistics were not good. He sat on the bench early and did not expect Chen Fang to come.

Old enemies, but also old friends.

Lonzo stood up and hugged Chen Fang. He pretended to be calm and said, "Thank you."

Following his teammates back to the locker room, Chen Fang was not in a good mood on the way. What he had just said to Lonzo was also said to himself.

He scored 17 points, 5 assists and 6 rebounds today. No one will say much about this, but he is very dissatisfied. In his mind, 20+ is the qualified self.

Just as Rivers said, he was struggling and hesitant when choosing between the team and himself.

This is also the situation faced by many high-draft rookies. They have amazing talents but do nothing.

As a rookie, the team can only develop some personal tactics for you. It is impossible to open up a new system and let the team revolve around you. Every rookie needs to go through this process and experience ups and downs for a period of time.

During this process, we must seize every opportunity to ensure that management is determined.

On the 25th, facing the Jazz away from home, Chen Fang's performance was still lukewarm, with 14 points, 4 assists and 5 rebounds. The Clippers also won the game, but the limelight was not on the Clippers.

Mitchell, the 13th pick, maintained his hot form, scoring 28 points, 3 assists and 6 rebounds in this game, defending his legendary status as the 13th pick.

One wins the game but loses the duel, the other wins the ranking but loses the game.

Chen Fang did not show any negative emotions such as frustration. He just did 27 push-ups on the carpet after returning to his room to vent. The Clippers continued their road trip on the 34th and faced the Trail Blazers in Portland. The two guns were in a slump. They had already lost two games in a row and still could not get back to their form. Griffin was in great form, leading the Clippers with 24 points and slaughtering the Trail Blazers by points.

Chen Fang performed stably, with 18 points, 4 assists and 6 rebounds. His four-game statistics also ranked him third on the rookie list, only below Simmons and Mitchell. Behind him were Fox and Tatum who performed well.

Haywood did not escape the bad luck and was injured in the first game, giving Tatum more playing time.

The Clippers returned to their home court and faced the underdog Pistons in the Eastern Conference and won easily. Chen Fang still failed to break the 20-point mark. With 19 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds, everyone was satisfied with it except himself.

After all, scoring in double digits for five consecutive games has proved that Chen Fang can survive in the NBA, which makes the Chinese media and fans very satisfied.

The Clippers, who have won five consecutive games, are also ranked second in the Western Conference. Ahead of them are the Golden State Warriors, who have won all six games and are the leaders of the pack.

Ranked third is the Thunder, with a record of 5 wins and 1 loss, which is enough to prove the power of the Big Three.

The media was surprised that the Clippers had remained undefeated. In California, no one was discussing the Lakers' 2-3 record, and all sports media and broadcasters were talking about the Clippers.

The focus is on Griffin's outstanding performance.

Averaging 25 points per game, he broke his own record, which was the main reason for the Clippers' strong victory. However, Chen Fang's stable performance is also widely regarded as one of the reasons why the Clippers can rank second in the Western Conference.

Griffin's development in mid-range shooting has greatly increased his deterrence in the interior, and the improvement in his independent ability has enabled him to enter the 25+ club in terms of shot attempts.

As for the runner-up Chen Fang, the evaluations were very consistent.

Good vision, soft touch, and offensive and defensive potential are exciting.

"The Chinese are already the Clippers' second-in-command!" commented the California Daily.

Although the Clippers' performance received rave reviews, as the last day of October arrived, everyone's focus shifted to the Clippers' next opponent.

Golden State Warriors.

The battle for the top spot.

The Clippers can only prove themselves as a strong team in the Western Conference if they beat the Warriors. ——ESPN.

On the last day of October, the Clippers faced the Warriors at home.

At nine o'clock in the morning, at the training center, the entire Clippers coaching staff was in a meeting.

This is a regular meeting. There are not many new ideas or suggestions about the tactics for today's match against the Warriors. The Clippers still have to rely on Griffin's performance and the outside line led by Chen Fang to play this game.

Just at the end, Rivers saw Wenger coming in.

After making sure everyone else had left, the two began their first communication in the past week.

"Tell me what you think about Chen Fang," Wenger said.

"He is now integrating into the team and is in the learning stage of offense and defense," Rivers replied.

Wenger, however, shook his head: "Chen Fang's playing time is now first 10, last 8, last 8, first 8."

"He played a total of 34 minutes, but his stats were 15+ per game and 8.7 shots per game."

Facing Wenger's data, Rivers knew what he was going to say, so he expressed it euphemistically: "The team's running-in is moving in the right direction. I don't think the change is right."

"Durant averaged 25 and 16.5 shots per game last year," Wenger said.

"Do you know what this means? Chen Fang has the potential to become the best No. 3 in the league."

"Chen Fang must increase his shots. His possession rate is as high as 27% now, but the efficiency is too low. Frank, you have to know why the Clippers traded Paul for Chen Fang."

"This was not my initiative to suppress it. It was Chen Fang's own choice." Rivers replied calmly.

"Then change it. It doesn't matter how good Griffin is. His offense and defense are inversely proportional. He won't go far in the playoffs. We are rebuilding, and this half-dead operation is simply shameful to me."

"Now we have won five games in a row," Rivers emphasized.

"Congratulations, but I think it's even more stupid to delay someone who has the talent to become the next Durant."

Wenger's dominance made Rivers frown. Originally, there was Lawrence between them, but Wenger skipped Lawrence and talked to him directly, which meant that Wenger no longer had much patience.

"The feedback Lawrence gave me was that the Chinese were very depressed and there was no happiness in their eyes," Wenger said.

Rivers countered: "I didn't find him to be very talkative in the locker room."

"That's an illusion, just a manifestation of high emotional intelligence." Wenger rudely interrupted Rivers. As the real person in charge of the Clippers, Wenger's attitude is that of the boss.

"It's a good opportunity today. It's hard for us to win, isn't it?" Wenger looked directly at Rivers.

Rivers lowered his eyelids, trying to gloss over the issue, but eventually admitted: "Yes, the Warriors are in terribly good shape, and we can't match them on paper."

"Since we can't win, let's lose miserably. We can use this opportunity to adjust our tactics and let Chen Fang get more shots. Let's put the organization and defense aside for now. This is not a job for a rookie."

Wenger stood up and expressed his opinion angrily: "High draft picks need to score points, the more the better, and the rest can be discussed later."

"You're crossing the line. You're interfering with my basic rights." Rivers didn't get angry, but spoke calmly.

"No, it was you as the head coach who failed to implement the Clippers' will. And I am here to correct the mistake." Wenger responded sharply.

Rivers was silent, and the air in the entire conference room froze.

The phone rang, breaking the deadlock.

Rivers answered the phone, his eyes still on Wenger, but the next second, his eyes changed, and a few seconds later, he said in a low voice: "I know."

After hanging up the phone, he looked helpless and relieved.

"You win," Rivers said.

"Just now at the training ground, Griffin injured his left ankle during training. The preliminary diagnosis is a grade 1 sprain."

Wenger changed color, but soon returned to normal.

"You should thank God that you don't have to be embarrassed."

"Change the tactics immediately. I want to see Chen Fang, who has unlimited firing rights. I want to know if he can compete with Durant on the same court!" Wenger was about to leave but was stopped by Rivers.

"What if everything is not what you expected?"

"There are no assumptions. The truth can only be known through practice. Frank, you are too cautious. If the Clippers are in a bad situation, I like you very much, but in a rebuilding situation, you are not the most suitable head coach." Wenger pushed the door open and walked out.

The boss fires the president, the president fires the head coach, and the head coach fires the assistant coach. Rivers is well aware of this rule of the big fish eating the small fish.

"Well, I'm not stupid enough to be a bad guy. Let's just accept our fate." He murmured.

(End of this chapter)