The Whip of the God of Basketball

On November 12, Leon said goodbye to his wife and Los Angeles, and flew back to Phoenix. This trip to Los Angeles was of great significance to him.

But once he returned to Phoenix, he immediately focused on the team's next two games. After two weeks of rest, Stoudemire will return in the game against the New York Knicks on the night of November 13th. For the Suns, who have played several games and have just adapted to the five-small lineup, how to make Stoudemire quickly It will be a slight challenge to blend in.

Stoudemire is not Turiaf, and it is impossible for him to accept being a pseudo starter. Of course, Leon will not let him be a pseudo starter. Now that he has two very capable lineups, it depends on how he uses them.

It was already afternoon when I arrived in Phoenix on the 12th, and the team's joint training had ended. Needless to say, D'Antoni was responsible for everything. On the morning of the 13th, Leon participated in team training, allowing Stoudemire to rejoin the confrontation training.

He did not give specific guidance on training. He just asked Stoudemire to return to the starting lineup, and then played training games between substitute starters. He watched carefully from the sidelines. The Suns' bench and main lineup are playing very fast, and the players' cooperation is becoming more and more smooth and tacit. But this is just practice and cannot be compared with a real game.

Leon observed Stoudemire's condition and initially concluded that his condition was recovering well, there was no problem with running and jumping, and his physical condition was quite good. So Leon decided to activate him and put him in the starting lineup for that night's game. Anyway, tonight's opponent is the New York Knicks.

It's not that Leon looks down on the New York Knicks, but based on the situation of the New York Knicks in the past two years, even if you want to think highly of him, he doesn't want to give you this opportunity. Ever since Ewing left the Big Apple and entered the 21st century, when Fox Leone first entered the NBA, the Knicks have been in a quagmire. They have not come out of it yet and show no signs of coming out.

In terms of the suffocation of team operations, the New York Knicks can compete with Cleveland, but Cleveland has LeBron James, while the Knicks only have Isaiah Thomas standing on the sidelines as coach.

Since he left the Pacers, he came to the Knicks as a manager, invited Larry Brown, and then fired Larry Brown. Now he has taken over the coaching job again and started to take charge of the team.

Before the trip to Phoenix, the Knicks were 2-3 in five games, not particularly bad, but definitely not much better. You must know that their lineup includes Stephon Marbury, Zach Randolph, Quentin Richardson, Eddie Curry, Jamal Crawford, Jerome James, etc. A group of players who have performed well in other teams.

Among them, Marbury and Richardson have both played for the Suns. Marbury was acquired by the Suns in exchange for Kidd, and now they already have Nash.

It was such a group of powerful players who performed in a mess under the training of Larry Brown in the first two seasons. In the end, Brown resigned and left. The scene was not unsightly.

Thomas's takeover did not allow these players to perform at their original level. Marbury still could not get rid of his "lone wolf" reputation. Big Q, Curry and Randolph's faces became bigger and bigger, and their bodies became bigger and bigger. Fat, and his defense on the court is basically non-existent. Off the court, they were even more lost in the feasting and entertainment of New York. However, when Thomas was the manager, he signed one stinky and long contract for them, leaving the entire team unable to see a way out of the quagmire through operations. hope.

Such a team is far from a match for the Phoenix Suns in terms of combat effectiveness and fighting spirit. In addition, the Suns are playing at home and the generals are back, so how can they give the Knicks a chance.

Of course, there was a verbal spat before the game started.

Back then in the East, Leon and Thomas had a bit of a grudge. Thinking back to the original battle between the Pacers and Celtics, Leon almost stunned the entire Pacers with a pair of fists. Thomas, who is also the coach of the Pacers, his flashy and flashy tactics were crushed by Leon's steel-like defense, so every time he met Leon, Thomas felt very humiliated.

This guy is also a very vindictive person, and since Leon is from the Celtic family, his relationship with Leon will naturally not be very good.

Thomas believes that the team's recent state is recovering. They have an advantage in the interior. Facing the Suns, who mainly play small lineups, they will find the feeling of winning in Phoenix.

Of course Leon thought Thomas' words were farts, but in the pre-game training interview he still politely said that the Knicks are a talented team and no one can underestimate them in the game. Once they underestimate them, they will definitely Will be taught a lesson.

Leon finally added: "This is a heavyweight team that has always been out-and-out. This will be a showdown between heavyweight boxers and light heavyweight boxers. We will be careful."

This statement was naturally passed down as a joke by reporters, because judging from the weight of the players, if the Knicks put up a "big" lineup of Curry, Randolph, and Richardson, even if they add a Crawford , there are not many teams in the league that can surpass them in terms of weight, let alone a light team like the Suns.

Needless to say, the three-fat lineup formed by the Knicks has holes as wide as the sea on the defensive end. In two of the three games they lost, their opponents scored more than 110 points. Tonight is likely to be the third game. .

At 9 p.m. Eastern time and 6 p.m. Pacific time, the game between the Suns and the Knicks begins at the American Airlines Center in Phoenix.

Amare Stoudemire returned to the game. The DJ gave him the loudest introduction, and the fans also gave him the loudest cheers.

At the same time, this game is also Grant Hill's first home appearance in Phoenix. It can be said that the Suns are full of morale and they do not want to give the Knicks any chance in this game.

The game entered the rhythm of the Suns from the first quarter. After two weeks of silence, Stoudemire started flying at the basket again. It seemed that the discomfort in his knees did not affect his passion on the court. Eddie Curry, who was facing him in the paint, couldn't keep up with Stoudemire's offensive pace at all. He didn't even need to make fake moves. He could speed up after facing the basket and leave the "Baby Shark" behind him and go straight to the basket.

When he got to the basket, of course Randolph would not cover up the defense. He watched Stoudemire dunk and scored. Stoudemire scored 11 points in the first quarter and was in hot form. The Suns even scored 35 points in a single quarter, leading the Knicks by 8 points 35:27.

In fact, the Knicks' offensive talent is not very bad. Whether it is Curry, Randolph, Richardson, or Crawford, they are all players with strong personal offensive abilities, otherwise the Knicks would not be stupid. To give them big contracts. But the problem is that when it comes to the Knicks, firstly, they have no defense, secondly, their offense lacks a system, and thirdly, and most importantly, this is a team with no cohesion, everyone works independently, and clocks in and out every day.

How can such a team succeed in such a cruel arena as the NBA?

Isaiah Thomas stood on the sidelines, holding his chin and looking at the performance of the players on the court with confused eyes, while Leon sat on the bench and entered a meditative state with a calm face.