The Whip of the God of Basketball

When Nash hit a difficult fadeaway jumper against LeBron James in a mismatched situation, the Suns' momentum reached a small peak. Although they only held an eight-point lead, the situation of the game The control is in their hands.

The Cavaliers are still struggling to catch up, and their offense is a bit constipated, but they have James. He is actually only 24 years old this year, but this is already his fifth year in the league, and his performance is surprising.

James has spotted the Suns' weakness inside. He no longer plays mismatch with Damon Jones, but keeps feeding the ball inside, allowing Big Z and Gooden to overturn the inside and create opportunities to score near the basket. .

Leon watched Big Z and Gooden continue to score points in the interior, but he had no intention of replacing Turiaf to strengthen the interior, because he knew that even if Turiaf was replaced, with his weight and defensive ability, , can't stop the Cavaliers from scoring in the paint. These two people have already made sense.

On the contrary, if Turiaf is allowed to play, the worse thing may be to destroy the team's offense and make them four-on-five on the offensive end. This situation will be even worse.

Sure enough, the Suns maintained a high enough efficiency on the offensive end. After Jaskovicius came on the court, their positional warfare tactics became diversified, including Nash's off-ball, Stoudemire's low post, and Diaw's arc. The top organization makes the Cavaliers' defense, which they have always been proud of, unable to find the focus.

Dual control does have quite a few loopholes on the defensive end, but the benefits on the offensive end are huge. Jaskevicius's organization and three-point ability have greatly expanded the Suns' perimeter firepower.

At halftime, the Suns led 55:46 by nine points, and the two sides returned to the locker room to rest.

Before returning to the locker room, the sideline reporter grabbed Leon and wanted to conduct an interview. Leon thought about it and stayed to say a few words. In fact, he never really liked sideline interviews.

"The Suns were very aggressive on the offensive end today. Is this your arrangement before the game? My intention is to have two point guards."

"certainly."

"Uh... will you stick to this style of play in the second half? Or in future games, or are you still experimenting?"

"I don't know, who can predict the future?"

Leon's answer simply made the beautiful reporters on the TV station unable to answer it. In fact, these reporters all knew about Leon's urinary properties, but sometimes you have to interview him.

Leon saw that he had no problem blocking the reporter's mouth, so he returned to the locker room, but after returning to the locker room, he discovered that the future was indeed unpredictable.

He saw Stoudemire sitting on the bench, using an ice pack to apply to his knee. Now the game is not over yet, and he started to apply ice pack?

"What's going on?" Leon asked.

A team doctor stood next to Stoudemire and replied: "Amare's knee doesn't feel very comfortable. He feels a little sore."

Leon said: ''I'm asking Amare, answer me. "

Stoudemire looked a little frustrated. When he heard Leon's question, he responded: "It's just that the knee is a little uncomfortable. Maybe... maybe the old injury is recurring."

Stoudemire missed the entire 2006 season due to a knee injury. Although they achieved Boris Diaw that season, in fact they also lost a good opportunity to enter the Finals. If Stoudemire was there, they would be in the finals. The Dallas Mavericks may not be their opponents in the Western Conference Finals. And now, Stoudemare's heartbreaking knee seems to be having problems again.

Leon stepped forward, patted Stoudemire on the shoulder, and said: "Don't worry, it will definitely get better. You have to trust the doctors of the sun and the weather in Phoenix."

The climate in Arizona is quite suitable for patients to recover. After Stoudemire had minimally invasive surgery before, he recovered very well. It is rare that he still maintains his strong explosive power. You must know that minimally invasive knee surgery has turned many birds and beasts into human beings. The old man on the floor.

"OK, in the second half, I think we need someone to replace Amare and score at least 20 points in the paint. Ronnie, if you can do that, I will ask Amare to share some of his salary with you."

After knowing that Stoudemire could not play, Leon joked with the players. Although this was only a regular season game, the general's physical problems had just begun at the beginning of the season, which was undoubtedly a problem for the players and others. It was a blow, including to Leon himself. He can only pray now that Stoudemire is just feeling a little unwell, rather than a recurrence of an old injury or a new injury. Without Stoudemire, even if Leon is superb, he will not be able to lead the Suns to a breakthrough.

Leon's joke made everyone relax, but jokes aside, the game still had to be played. The nine-point lead in the first half was not reliable at all. The Suns' offense is good enough, but the defense really can't contain the Cavaliers' inside. Now without Stoudemire, the inside is even more difficult to watch. If Turiaf is played, the offense will not be able to open up.

At this time, Cole received the news that Stoudemire felt discomfort in his knee and came to the locker room. After asking the team doctor about the situation, Cole pulled Leon aside and asked him what he thought about it.

Leon said: "Let's wait for the test results tomorrow. Although I am not a doctor, but judging from the situation in the first half, the problem will not be too big. I may be absent for a few weeks."

Cole asked: "The team's record?"

"You still care about this? It's only the first week of the regular season, so there's no need to be in such a hurry."

"Of course I'm anxious. This is my first year in office and it's also your first week of coaching."

Leon can understand what Cole said. No one wants to make trouble just after taking office, regardless of whether the trouble was caused by himself or not. That's why Cole wants to trade so much, especially for insiders. Now if Stoudemire is absent for a long time, the hole in the Suns' already big inside will become even bigger. This is terrible for the Suns who are aiming for the Spurs. Not good news.

Leon thought for a while and said: "Hurry up and take down Grant Hill. As for the inside, with Turiaf here, I don't think there will be much of a problem."

Cole looked a little in disbelief and said, "Are you serious?"

Leon nodded. At present, there is indeed only one Turiaf available in the Suns. His single defense is acceptable, his supplementary defense is average, and his offense is basically non-existent. It is really dangerous for the Suns to rely solely on him. But he still insisted that the team wanted to sign Hill. After the last visit, the two sides were only one step away from signing.

Leon added: "I think it's best if Hill can appear on our plane to Charlotte." After this game with the Cavaliers, the Suns will start a road trip. If Stoudemire is unable to go, Then Leon hopes to have a useful veteran appear in the team's lineup to alleviate their urgent needs.

Cole said: "No problem, then I will discuss this matter with the boss tonight and complete the signing as soon as possible."

After discussing all this, the halftime break was almost over. Leon didn't have time to arrange tactics and summarize with the players. Everyone was also a little worried about Stoudemire's sudden discomfort. Leon re-adjusted the starting lineup for the second half. He sent Turiaf to play and briefly reset the tactics, asking the team to speed up the game and play more fast breaks.

In this way, the Suns have returned to 2006, and they still achieved an excellent record without Stoudemire.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, Stoudemire did not appear on the sidelines, which made the fans a little worried. Barkley saw this and said: "Amar'e Stoudemire did not play. According to the midfield reporter, he will miss the second half due to knee discomfort. The remaining games. I don’t know if this will have any impact on his other games this season. This kid has suffered a serious knee injury.”

Kenny Smith also expressed his concerns, but the game still had to continue. After Turiaf came on, as Leon expected, he restricted Gooden quite well on the defensive end, but against the tall and long arms. There was nothing Z could do. At the beginning of the second half, Big Z cooperated with James and used his long arms to hit two consecutive mid-range jumpers from the outside, narrowing the point difference to 5 points.

On the Suns' side, Nash took the lead. He used Diaw's pick-and-roll during the counterattack and hit a three-pointer from a 45-degree angle on the right side, stabilizing the Suns' offensive situation. Then, Nash began to help the Suns accelerate. They began to play a skilled 7-second offense, counterattack quickly, and shoot when they had the opportunity after halftime. Marion became the vanguard. They made full use of the big Z's slow return to defense and the opportunity to play more in the frontcourt and score points in the interior.

Then, the Suns carried out perfect offensive and defensive suppression at the connection end of the second lineup. After Jaskovicius came on the court, the Suns' fast offense did not stop at all, and they sped up the three-point attack to create a beautiful wave of attacks. Throughout the third quarter, they relied on this method and launched a 20:8 attack wave.

In fact, Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown never expected that midfielder Stoudemire would be injured and leave the field. The routines arranged in the midfield were of no use at all. Instead, he was caught off guard by the Suns' old routines and instantly lost his advantage. widened the gap.

James' performance is very stable, but facing the Suns obviously cannot rely on stability. He has been trying to use passes to help the team open up the situation from the outside, but neither Hughes nor Damon Jones can provide help from outside the three-point line. With his firepower support, he only relied on Big Z and Gooden to eat the cake in the three-second zone. It was obvious that he couldn't beat the Suns, not to mention that Big Z was beaten by the Suns' fast break.

In the end, the game lost suspense in the fourth quarter. The Suns used their old methods to defeat the Cavaliers in the second half, which really felt a bit surprising. However, this victory did not excite Leon. After all, they lost a key player. Before going to Charlotte, he needed to know what Stoudemire's situation was, otherwise he would not be able to go to the East with peace of mind.

Moreover, the offensive tactics he had finally set up and was currently testing seemed to have to be readjusted again, which really gave him a huge headache.