Chapter 266 The Knicks need instant combat power!
On November 27, the Knicks defeated the Atlanta Hawks for the fourth triple-double of Wu Huang's season. D'Antoni planned to rotate in this game, but he obviously underestimated the physical strength of Wu Huang and Xiao Si.
In this game, the Knicks' offensive firepower finally dropped below 100 points. They only scored 96 points in four quarters, which was a very low score for D'Antoni's team.
During the 12-game winning streak, the Knicks' defense continued to deteriorate. This was not only because D'Antoni always emphasized offense, but also players could not maintain "offensive" and "defense" in the perverted schedule. Therefore, even King Wu did not contribute too much in defense. The Knicks' winning streak was hit back with fierce offensive firepower.
But this does not mean that the Knicks players will not be able to defend. Today, everyone feels bad. Wu Huang led the team's outside line to block the Eagles' defender attack group with defense again. The two teams played a playoff game, but this time the side that dominated the inside line became the Knicks. Xiao Si's attacking ability in the inside line completely surpassed Josh Smith and Horford, and saved Wu Huang from being repeatedly assisted in defense and double-teamed by the Eagles' inside line.
Bibi felt the progress of Emperor Wu. Last season, he showed off his energy to play hard, and using almost foul defense could make Emperor Wu feel a little uncomfortable. However, this season, he could no longer achieve such a defensive effect. Emperor Wu's weight has only increased by 5 pounds, but his ability to confrontation has increased by one level. Bibi's physical confrontation can no longer shake Emperor Wu. Apart from fouls, he can no longer limit Emperor Wu.
How far has Wu Huang's current confrontational ability improved? If the physical confrontational ability of all point guards is divided by level, Wu Huang's power has reached b in number one position, while Ross and Westbrook are between b+ and a-, and the gap between them is not big. Considering that Wu Huang has been working hard to train the core muscle group, his ability to maintain balance after the confrontation is even stronger than these three. Now, who wants to bully him with his body? Although it cannot be said that it has no effect at all, Wu Huang already has many ways to crack this kind of defense.
There are many such scenes in this game. When Bibi squeezed against Wu Huang with his body, Wu Huang would not stop his breakthrough movement. He would use his explosive power and speed to force over Bibi, not giving his opponent time to exert full force. Last season, he had to take a step back and stabilize his body after being hit. At that time, he lacked confidence in physical confrontation, and his strength was indeed much worse. Forced breakthroughs are likely to lose physical balance in confrontation, so he had to take a step back and adjust his balance, but the opportunity to break through and score was also lost at the same time.
Wu Huang scored 21 points, 12 rebounds, 14 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks in this game, and scored a triple-double in two consecutive games. The Knicks also successfully completed 13 consecutive victories.
On November 28, after the Knicks won, they kept feeling Detroit, and their opponent was the Pistons.
The Pistons have a record of 6 wins and 10 losses this season, and espn ridiculed them as "a shooter team that doesn't know how to shoot at all." Today's Motor City is paying for the mistakes last summer. In the offseason in 2009, General Manager Dumas signed Ben Gordon and Villanueva at the first time with more than 20 million in cap space. These two deals not only made the lineup unbalanced, but also made the team lose their cap space completely in 2010.
This summer, the Pistons failed to successfully trade Prince or Hamilton, which is equivalent to extending the team's reconstruction period and testing the patience of fans. The most urgent task ahead of the Pistons is to get rid of at least one of Gordon, Hamilton and Villanueva's contracts in the next two years, otherwise they will have no salary space even if they wait until 2012.
The Knicks have been taking advantage of the situation to rob the Pistons. They hold several contracts that are about to expire, which are urgently needed by the Pistons. Prince and Hamilton are also the puzzles needed by the Knicks. Both sides have been bargaining since the summer and are still discussing the feasibility of the transaction. However, one side wants to take advantage, and the other side does not want to suffer losses, but as a result, there has been no big progress until now.
For the Pistons, Dumas wants to trade Hamilton or Prince with a young player + expiration contract. But of course the Knicks cannot suffer such a loss. The Pistons are interested in Gallinari and Monroe. The Knicks do not intend to maintain the level of this season or two for veterans who can only maintain a season or two but have a salary of tens of millions.
Donnie Walsh proposed two trading plans. The first one is: Garlinari + Reggie Evans/Radmanovich/Ronnie Turiaf, trading Prince Prince and the top five protected first-round draft picks. The second one is: Danny Green + Reggie Evans/Radmanovich/Ronnie Turiaf, trading any two masked Hamilton.
These two sets of plans are acceptable prices for the Knicks, but the Pistons feel that they can't take much advantage, especially the Knicks' request for a draft pick is difficult to accept, so the transaction has not been successful. However, as Garinari's performance has become more and more outstanding during this period, the Pistons have relaxed their first trading plan, but they have to change the draft pick to the second round. But D'Antoni jumped out again, and he has always opposed the deal to go to Garinari. So the mustache became the biggest obstacle in this deal, and general manager Donnie has always advocated using Garinari to exchange for a stable and experienced Prince.
Wu Huang has not made any statement yet. He is waiting for Donnie to come to find him. If the Pistons are really willing to trade, Wu Huang certainly agrees! He also believes that Prince is more suitable for the Knicks. At that time, the team's outside lineup will be himself + Igdala + Prince. Such an outside defense is enough to make any team in the league frightened.
No one noticed this game. Wu Huang consciously fed the ball for Gallinari in the game. In the end, the Knicks defeated the Pistons 108:99. Wu Huang scored 17 points, 3 rebounds and 13 assists, Gallinari 28 points and 9 rebounds, and Stoudemire 22 points and 10 rebounds.
The most stable general manager among the 30 NBA teams is Joe Dumas of the Pistons. He spoke with Donnie for nearly ten minutes after the game. The two carefully exchanged opinions on Gallinari's trading plan. Although there was still not much substantial progress, Donnie could already hear that the Pistons began to have an intention to accelerate the trading.
How valuable is Gallinari now? Most people will admit that he is very valuable, at least worth the No. 4 to 7 draft picks in an ordinary year. He has the potential to become a quasi-All-Star player, enough to be the third leader of a championship-level team and the second leader of an ordinary team.
This season, Garlinari averaged 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Considering that he only averaged 29 minutes of playing time, this performance is very comprehensive. If he played in a team like the Pistons, it would be fine to get a 18+6+3 data this season. Even if he used a No. 5 pick, he might not be able to choose such a player. Sometimes even the second place and Tanhua often couldn't play.
Therefore, the Knicks' chips are not too harsh. They want Prince not because he is better than Gallinari, but because of his immediate combat power and defense. Although Gallinari is good, he will need at least two or three seasons of training to be fully mature. If he is in the Knicks, this time will be longer because the Knicks does not give young players room to grow slowly. What they need is immediate combat power that can be used, just like Iguodala and Sir.
The Pistons are just the opposite. They need to get rid of Prince and Hamilton's contract as soon as possible. This season is the best trading time. The longer it drags on, the trading value of these veterans will shrink. Their competitive state can remain for at most two or three years, and their salary is high. The most painful thing is that the Pistons want to rebuild and play badly. Keeping them in the team will face an embarrassing situation, because although these people cannot help the team enter the playoffs, they can make the Pistons compete for the lottery championship every year. It is the most embarrassing to get the 9th and 10th rankings after the season. They can't play in the playoffs, and they can't get the top draft picks!
The Knicks are not in a hurry. Gallinari is getting better and better now. They have many other trading goals and don't have to trade with the Pistons.
In the last game in November, the Knicks faced the Kings in the Western Conference weak team, who currently has a record of 4 wins and 11 losses, which is another game without much suspense.
Cousins is not much better than Monroe, the Knicks's Monroe. The Kings, the best talented rookie in the inside this year, was squeezed out of the position by Dalem Porter in the first five games. He has played so far that he is only averaging 9.5 points and 7 rebounds per game, which is similar to Monroe's data.
Although Monroe can't learn defense in the Knicks, he can at least learn how to attack. Playing in the Knicks' mature offensive system, Monroe will definitely learn more than Cousins' Kings without any system.
Cousins still didn't play in this game, but in limited minutes of playing time, he scored 9 of 16 shots, scoring 20 points and 8 rebounds. This result is much better than Monroe's 27 minutes of appearance and only scored 10 points and 6 rebounds in 4 of 8 shots.
Wu Huang faced Tyrek Evans who changed to point guard today. In a head-on confrontation, he handed in a shooting report card of 14 of 21 shots. This season, Wu Huang and Evans, who still only break through and pass the ball, have a big gap. The Kings core only has a shooting percentage of 5 of 15 shots in this game. The Knicks' inside line pays a little attention to making up for defense. This superstar who is rare in history who handed in 20+5+5 data in the rookie season was restricted.
Evans' performance is no longer qualified to be compared with Wu Huang. Wu Huang has increased from 24 points per game in the first season to 30 points per game. The difficulty is far greater than the difficulty of increasing from 20 points to 25 points. So now no one compares Evans and Wu Huang. Compared with Wu Huang's rapid progress in the second season, Evans actually regressed bizarrely in the second season, which is really incredible!
When Wu Huang scored 40 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, the Kings easily ended the Kings and led the Knicks to a 15-game winning streak, the live footage gave Ajiali who was watching the game on the sidelines. India's Shi Shi came to Madison Garden to watch the ball today. Whenever Wu Huang performed well, he could see this Indian beauty applauding on the sidelines. If she specifically supported the Kings who were destined to lose the game, it seemed a bit unreasonable.
New York reporters are ready to follow Ajiali after the game, and they are preparing to see if this little Indian beauty will become another rumored object of the New York Emperor.
But after the game, these reporters were disappointed. Wu Huang did not meet Ajiali. His harem had already raised a yellow alarm. When the game ended, Wu Huang was almost dismembered by a call from the five horses! In the end, he didn't even know where to go, so he could only hide in his villa and wait until it was dark before deciding where to spend the night.
Speaking of which, Emperor Wu spends less than one-third of the number of nights in his villa every month, and his house is a bit leisurely and redundant.
In fact, Wu Huang has no time to flirt with girls now. He has paid more attention to the Best Player of the Month awards issued in a few days. Although he knows that no one in the Eastern Conference this month can compete with him, he still looks forward to winning the "Best Player of the Month" for the first time in his career.
As we all know, the selection of MVP is the top priority of the regular season, but the "unspoken rule" of this award is to select the strongest player among the strongest teams of the season, so the controversy about MVP has always been the biggest. The strongest player of the strongest team may not be the best performing in the entire league. But there is no way, the team's record cannot meet the minimum requirement of first place in the division, so it will be difficult to compete for this award. Even if you can get 30+10+10, there is not much hope.
Now there is a new view among the fan group, that is, the player who wins the most "best month" times in each season is the real MVP!
Wu Huang agrees with this statement, but he didn't get the best player of the month last season. Although his 60+ made him almost the youngest "player of the month" winner in history, the Knicks' record that month dragged him down. Fortunately, this month, he had no flaws in both his personal data and team record, and winning the award was a foregone conclusion. However, Wu Huang's ambition is certainly not just about winning the best player of the month. He now hopes that he can copy and even surpass James' record of winning the four best player of the month in a single season.
This month, Wu Huang's rival is Howard of the Magic. The Warcraft averaged 21.8 points per game this month and shot a shooting percentage of 59.4%. In addition, Howard ranked fourth in the league with 12.1 rebounds per game. He helped the Magic win 11 games in November. In the game against the Timberwolves, Howard played an amazing performance on the defensive end and scored 8 blocks.
Howard's performance is still very stable, but he is still inferior to Wu Huang. As for James, who has long dominated this honor, now competing with the Heat and Wade, it will inevitably affect the data. He has not even been nominated for November.
Wu Huang helped the team to score 15 wins this month, averaging 30.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, 10.9 assists, 3.4 steals and 1.3 blocks. His shooting percentage was 52.9%, his three-point shooting percentage was 44.2%, and his free throw shooting percentage was 90.5%.
The most worthy of boasting is Wu Huang's perverted three-point shooting skills. In 16 games, Wu Huang averaged 4.1 three-pointers per game. So far this season, he has made 70 three-pointers. After running at this speed, many people were secretly shocked: Could it be that Wu Huang plans to make 300 three-pointers in a single season? This will be an extremely terrifying data.
In the current scoring list, Wu Huang led the lead with 30.4 points per game, and he is still the only player in the entire league to average more than 30+ points per game. If the Western Conference showed a situation where Anthony and Durant were in line in November, then in the Eastern Conference, with personal performance and team record, Wu Huang has left all his competitors behind.
In addition, fans and media are also interested in how long the Knicks' winning streak can last.
For the time being, although the Knicks' 15-game winning streak is the third highest winning streak in the history of its team, it is not a great achievement to expand to the entire league. In recent seasons, more than one team has achieved more than 15 consecutive victories every year, and even more than 20 consecutive victories have been once.
If the Knicks want to make their winning streak a real news hotspot, they must increase the winning streak to 19 games, and that is when they begin to get closer to history.
In the history of the league, only 6 teams have won 19 games or longer consecutive victories, while in comparison, as many as 16 teams have lost at least 19 games in a row. It can be said that in this league, losing 19 games in a row is much easier than winning 19 games in a row.
In recent seasons, the league has had two teams that have won more than 19 consecutive victories, namely the Houston Rockets and the Boston Celtics.
In the 2007-08 season, the Rockets, with a disorganized lineup, created a magical 22 consecutive victories, and their feat shocked the league. The Celtics achieved an amazing 19 consecutive victories in the 2008-09 season. Previously, the Celtics also completed a six-game winning streak, but only one victory was made between the two consecutive victories, which means they passed by the great 26 consecutive victories.
The Knicks now have the opportunity to challenge these two teams. Their schedule is about to improve in December. At the beginning of the month, their opponents are the Hornets, Raptors, Timberwolves, Raptors, Wizards, Nuggets, Celtics, and Heat... This schedule is very beneficial to the Knicks. In their first six games in December, only the Hornets and the Nuggets in the sixth game are more difficult to deal with, but the Knicks are still stronger in strength than the Hornets led by Chris Paul and the Nuggets led by Anthony.
Under such a schedule, as long as the Knicks can defeat the Hornets first, they will face the bottom team in the remaining four games, and the schedule is relatively easy. The Knicks basically locked in the record of 20 consecutive victories, and they will become the only four teams in history with more than 20 consecutive victories.
After that, the Knicks still have the opportunity to continue to expand their winning streak record. It is easier to defeat the Nuggets, but the two subsequent opponents are top teams in the league, and they are not easy to play in each game. Moreover, even if the Knicks can defeat the Celtics and the Heat in a row, they will have to play against the Heat again at the end of the month, as well as top teams such as the Thunder, Bulls, and Magic. In short, the Knicks have a very small chance to break the Rockets' 22-game winning streak in December, but they have a high chance to complete the 20+ winning streak.
Chapter completed!