After the start of the second quarter, the Knicks quickly gained the upper hand. John Starks was a super sixth man with excellent touch and scored two consecutive three-pointers from the outside.

No. 18 rookie John Wallace, who is 203cm tall and weighs 102kg, also scored 4 points. This short power forward played with confidence against Osella Harrington.

Substitute center Terry Davis defended the penalty area well, protected the backcourt rebounds, and also grabbed two offensive rebounds.

Terry Davis is a blue-collar inside man who entered the NBA in the 1989 non-draft process. He is 206cm tall, weighs 102kg, and has good athletic ability. In his peak season of 1992-93, he averaged 12.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game for the Mavericks.

Later, his son Ed Davis also entered the NBA. His height, weight, and appearance were almost the same as him. He was simply his clone.

Davis was lucky to be affected by the butterfly effect. In a parallel world, he only played 28 games with the Mavericks in the 1995-96 season before being seriously injured. In this world, he was not seriously injured and played 76 games for the Mavericks, which is close to

Perfect attendance.

And because other members of the Mavericks suffered injuries, he got a lot of playing time and played at a high level, averaging 6.7 points and 6.8 rebounds in 23 minutes per game. In the summer, he freely joined the Knicks and became an important rotation substitute.

On the SuperSonics side, the offense of the bench lineup was extremely unsmooth.

George Karl did not let rookie point guard Mookie Norris play, and Nate McMillan and Eric Snow were paired on the outside. As a result, the team fell into the positional battle rhythm that the opponent was accustomed to, and the fast break could not push forward.

McMillan has rich experience in the game, but his speed is too slow. The players in other positions are not fast either. Buck Williams and Osella Harrington are paired inside, and the position battle cannot open up space.

Both insiders are blue-collar, and can be released outside the penalty area after covering. George Karl will not try this configuration again in the future. In order to ensure the offense, he still has to use veteran Sam Perkins as a substitute, or send Terry.

-Cummings.

Cummings has an excellent offense and a solid mid-range shot. However, the coaching staff also wants to train newcomer Harrington, so they must share playing time.

The good news is that although the SuperSonics' interior defense does not have a big man as a shield, the five players have their own characteristics and can make a difference when they come on the court. The media is not optimistic about the Sonics' interior defense, but George Karl is very satisfied with the lineup configuration.

The Sonics' starting players returned to the court and immediately stabilized the situation, widening the point difference again.

Yang Jian's shooting touch was not good in this quarter, and all three of his shots from outside the three-point line missed the basket. He was always double-teamed and hindered from breaking through, and he only scored 4 points with his big jump shot.

However, because of his unique skills, he can still score points no matter how tight the double-teaming is.

Yang Jian plays a pick-and-roll with his inside teammates, and after a quick start, he makes a one-step pull-up jump shot inside the three-point line. Some basketball experts say that he has "the fastest first step in the league", which allows him to always create mobile opportunities.

.

This style of play is both simple and effective. As long as Yang Jian's inside players change defense slower when getting rid of the defender, he can hit a time difference jumper.

Guards with strong explosive power and fast shooting speed will easily get shooting opportunities when they play like this. The difference is that few can guarantee a two-point shooting percentage. If a player's shooting percentage is only 40% or even less than 40%, then it is not

The opportunity is the blacksmith's blacksmith's feast.

Payton and Kemp performed well in this quarter, and the SuperSonics led 71 to 57 at the end of the first half.

Yang Jian scored 18 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists, crushing Alan Houston who only scored 7 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.

Zhang Lili commented on the game and said: "The Knicks' defense was very tight. Yang Jian was double-teamed as soon as he got the ball. Their defense was also very fast when preventing counterattacks, but the Sonics still took the lead."

Sun Zhengping said: "Today's game was still played at the Supersonic pace, and the Knicks could only be forced to attack. After Yang Jian attracted double-teams, it was easy for his teammates to get shooting opportunities and flourish more."

Zhang Lili said: "His personal statistics are not bad either. He scored 18 points and 6 assists without making a fuss. He scored 3,010 points in the game without difficulty."

Sun Zhengping smiled and said: "He is the most difficult person to guard in the league this season. He is both the scoring leader and the assist leader. Now many fans in the United States are calling for him to be selected into the top 50 superstars. If he is not selected for his ability, many people will

Not even qualified."

Zhang Lijia smiled and said: "Jordan once said in an interview that Yang Jian's personal ability is fully qualified to be selected into the top 50, but he lacks qualifications. There must be many people on this list who were defeated by Jordan, and Yang Jian was the one who defeated Jordan

.”

At the beginning of the second half, both sides made substitution adjustments.

George Karl sent Buck Williams and Bo Otero to strengthen defense, and the tactics were to resolutely fight back. Although these two people have no shooting range, they are relatively mobile, good at defense and rebounding, and have certain blocking abilities.

.

By doing this, George Karl can not only limit the Knicks' offense, but also quickly switch offense and defense, which is very targeted. The Knicks' offense is mainly launched near the penalty area, from the inside out.

When Yang Jian attracts double-teams from the outside in the positional battle, the inside players should boldly catch the ball and attack the basket, try to draw fouls and rush for offensive rebounds. The Knicks are good at playing tough with their opponents, and neither is the Sonics.

You can't fight like this.

Kemp is the protagonist on the court in this quarter. When he cuts to catch the ball, the opponent can only use fouls to stop his face-to-face attack. If he doesn't catch him as soon as possible, he will charge into a dunk.

The most exciting scene occurred three and a half minutes after the start of this quarter. Kemp received a pass from Yang Jian and jumped up. He hit Ewing with a one-handed smash and scored, causing Ewing to foul 21.

This goal will definitely be the best goal of the day. Ewing tried hard to defend, but Kemp jumped too high and he couldn't knock the ball away.

Ewing was a famous backdrop in the 1990s. Countless stars dunked on him, and Kemp dunked on him more than once. Ewing didn't have any personal honors, and he was bullied by these stars. It was so painful.

.

The Knicks' starting power forward Oakley quickly committed four fouls and went off the court. He not only had to save and double-team Yang Jian at any time, but also helped Ewing defend the penalty area and protect backcourt rebounds, making mistakes while busy.

Van Gundy had no choice but to send John Wallace as the power forward, hoping to use his mobility to defend the pick-and-roll.

It's a pity that good physical fitness does not mean good defense. John Wallace is too easy to stumble, and he is always easily passed when the screen is misplaced to defend Yang Jian. He is not tough, and he is timid when facing stars and does not dare to foul hard. He is passed

Just watch Yang Jian make a pull-up jump shot or layup.

His performance on the offensive end was also very poor. He could not break through the defense of Buck Williams and was unable to attack in the low post. He was intercepted once by Williams and made two mistakes when passing to outside teammates, one of which was missed by Young.

Jane stole the ball and counterattacked for a fast break dunk.

John Wallace only played 5 minutes. He made 0 of 2 shots and made no points and made 3 turnovers. He was completely different from the second quarter. The 1996 rookies are called the golden generation, but not every high-ranking player can He can play well. Wallace is far behind Jermaine O'Neal in front of him and Ilgauskas behind him.

The Knicks also had problems on the perimeter and their offense was weak.

They exposed a serious flaw. They only had Chris Childs as a point guard today. Backup point guard Charlie Ward was absent due to injury and was not included in the 12-man roster. When Childs came off the court to rest, No one in the Knicks can organize the offense very well and can only play in isolation.

Houston and Starks are both shooting guards. If the two outside stars of the Sonics press, they will have trouble even carrying the ball through half court.

Yang Jian knew at a glance that this was not going to go on, and had to clock out for the third quarter again, so he started to work on the defensive end. Houston is known for its accurate shooting, and it did not disappoint him. He made two three-pointers in the second half to narrow the score. gap.

Yang Jian scored 14 points in this quarter, totaling 32 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 steals.

107 to 87, the SuperSonics led by 20 points entering the final quarter.

This was the Knicks' highest offensive efficiency since the start of the game, but they fell behind by a big score.
Chapter completed!