NBA Tyrant

In the second quarter, Howard played with four benches, Turkoglu was replaced by Garrity, small forward was replaced by Brandon Hunter, and Nelson and Stevenson remained unchanged.

Now that it's a veritable big four, the squad is extremely mobile, and head coach Johnny should want to test the offensive and defensive performance of the two on the bench in the game.

Howard didn't say anything, and let out a long exhale.

Now is the stage of chasing the score behind, and the normal should be to send a regular familiar and tacit lineup to chase the score back first, but the head coach does not seem to have this plan.

As a professional player, although I really want to win the game, since the coaching team has decided to use this lineup, I think I should have a bottom on the strength of this lineup.

It will not be just to practice lineup tactics, but deliberately give up the win or loss of this game.

Because he didn't get the specific thoughts of head coach Johnny before the game, Howard was puzzled, but he still didn't say anything, and got on the court to get in his position and prepare for the game.

Howard thought to himself that maybe this lineup would do wonders.

If the score is not recovered, talk to the head coach again, and now there is no need to question the manager's tactical arrangements in person, so as not to affect the mood of his teammates in the game.

On the Celtics' side, Gary Payton and Lafrentz opened the second quarter with three benches.

Gary Payton called Lafrenz to cover after half-time.

Howard didn't step forward to delay, but chose to shrink inside the three-point line to defend Gary Payton's breakaway.

Because in Gary Payton's career, his three-point shooting percentage has been very average, and even a few seasons can be said to be extremely low.

So Howard's defense against Payton is to shoot and defend.

Payton, who has been in the league for 16 years, looked at Howard calmly, although there was a lot of room to shoot, Payton had no impulse and passed the ball to Lafrentz.

At this time, Nelson was bypassing LaFrentz to chase Payton, and Howard's defensive focus was also on Payton.

That is, Lafrentz is in a long-range position and has an open shot.

However, after Lafrenz received the ball, he did not take advantage of the opportunity at the first time.

Howard's footwork was sideways, and his excellent burst and movement speed allowed Howard to quickly and timely make up for it.

Helpless, Lafrenz could only pass to Tony Allen, who ran over to pick him up.

Tony Allen received the ball, saw that there was not much time to attack, and in the face of Stevenson's defense, he directly chose to bukkake to shoot three points, wanting to try his touch.

As a result, the basketball hit the iron, and after the basket was bounced, Howard received the rebound.

In order to speed up the chasing of points, Howard handed the ball to Nelson as soon as possible, and he followed closely behind Nelson and ran quickly to the frontcourt.

But to Howard's surprise, Nelson was just after halftime when the basketball in his hand was taken away by Payton.

The Magic's counter-attacking fast break was directly stillborn.

Payton, known as the "glove", at the end of his 36-year-old career, his defensive ability is not weak at all, and he is becoming more and more experienced.

After the steal, Payton swept past Howard, who had just stopped, and his speed seemed to be at the peak of the year, and he rushed directly to the Magic basket.

Howard didn't have time to think about it, and after stopping his body, he immediately turned back to chase after him.

But the speed of a big center, no matter how fast it is, cannot be compared with a defender.

But Howard had no intention of giving up, gritted his teeth and chased all the way, but he did not shorten the distance between the two, and in the end he could only watch Payton score with a light layup in vain.

"Hehe! Very good defensive attitude!"

Peyton turned around and saw Howard behind him, knowing that Howard had been chasing him and had not given up defense, he couldn't help but have some good feelings for this rookie champion in his heart.

Howard glanced at Peyton indifferently and didn't respond.

"Boss, I'm sorry, my fault!"

Nelson, who ran back, looked at Howard, who was silent, with an apologetic look on his face.

Nelson was blaming herself, too.

It really shouldn't be steal when the team is playing a fast-break counterattack, maybe this fast-break goal can bring a good start to the team's second quarter, or even a momentum.

But now, because of his own mistakes, it seems that everyone's morale has been lowered.

"It's okay! Don't think about it! Hang the ball to me later! We'll respond with a ball!" Howard

gave the ball to Nelson and ran calmly forward.

Facing Lafrentz, Howard didn't have any pressure and went straight to the basket to score with a small hook hand.

Coming back and defending Ricky Davis' mid-range shot, the Magic fought back again.

Howard ignored the head coach's tactical arrangement, came to the basket and asked Nelson for the ball directly, and after receiving the ball, he jumped up and put the ball in the basket with Lafrentz.

After chasing four points in a row, Howard narrowed the score to single digits.

After the Magic 30:39 Celtics

, the two sides alternated scores back and forth, and Howard began to follow the head coach's tactical arrangement, covering other teammates, responding near the free throw line, distributing the ball, etc.

By the fourth minute, the Magic had narrowed the deficit to five points.

Howard is happy, it seems that the head coach's new tactical play is still working well.

The Celtics called a timeout and sent Jefferson out again, and it was clear that Howard had no limit on the court, whether it was an individual offense or a playmaker.

Coach Rivers wanted to have Jefferson overpower Howard with individual defense, as he did in the first quarter.

But Howard now sees that the head coach's tactics are working well, and he has no interest in his singles, and after returning from the pause, he is still willing to be a green leaf and constantly make balls for his teammates.

Moreover, without the excessive consumption on the offensive end, Howard showed great enthusiasm on the defensive end, assisting and supplementing the defense on the court many times to help the team suppress the Celtics' offense.

Coupled with a fast-paced style of play, Howard accidentally found a way to crack Jefferson.

Because of his large weight, Jefferson only played for less than 2 minutes in the quick offensive and defensive transitions, and his running speed slowed down visibly.

From being able to follow himself all the time when he first came on the court, to now he can only pant and barely follow behind him to defend, this rhythm seems to be very physical drain on Jefferson.

The corners of Howard's mouth curled, and he already had a plan in his heart.

At this pace

, Howard was confident that he could run Jefferson away! But in the 6th minute, Howard felt that when it was time to lead the Magic team to a momentum, head coach Johnny actually called

a timeout! This timeout not only gave Jefferson time to rest, but also replaced Howard with a slow-moving Cato.

Directly abandoned the pseudo-shelling method that had already worked.

In the second half of the quarter, it was replaced by Francis, who kept rotating different players, and let everyone play positional offense according to the new tactics.

However, the performance of the Magic crowd was very unsatisfactory, and no matter how Johnny adjusted, the already narrowed point difference was pulled away again until the last minute or so.

Howard returned to the court and continued to play according to the Kombat whirlwind, and through organizational response, he recovered some more points, narrowing the difference of more than 20 points to 18 points.

At halftime, the Magic 51:69 Celtics.

At halftime, Howard privately asked the head coach why he gave up when he played a fast-paced offensive effect, and it was even possible to overtake the score?

Johnny first bowed his head and was silent, and then looked at Howard sincerely.

"Dwight, I hope you can believe in me as much as I believe in you, and I did this because our record is too bright right now, and

we have become a thorn in the side of other teams, so after our coaching staff discussed it, we felt that as long as it didn't affect the playoff standings, it was acceptable to lose one or two games

On the other hand, when our existing tactical play is well known to everyone, if we don't have a new tactical play to deal with, then in the playoffs, we are very likely to not go far

, we need to learn to taoguang and keep quiet, can you understand?"

Howard looked at the young head coach in front of him stunned, what Johnny said, Howard could naturally understand, isn't this what Mu Xiu means by Lin Feng.

"I see!"

is one thing to understand, but it's true that Howard doesn't want to lose, and it will be a little unhappy to hear Johnny give up this game.

But Howard didn't say much, turned to leave, and walked into the locker room.