roccoschili Chapter 159 Another run-in period, the playoffs start (4000, please subscribe)
Chapter 159 Another run-in period, the playoffs start (4000, please subscribe)
Chapter 159 Another run-in period, the playoffs start (4000, please subscribe)
The All-Star Game is over, and Huo Song is back in the regular season.
With only two months left in the regular season, it can be said that the playoffs will come in the blink of an eye.
Last season, even without Huo Song, the Pistons were equipped with the Five Tigers, the championship configuration.
This season, as Billups and Rasheed Wallace were traded, head coach Larry Brown ran away early again.
Now that the team is led by Huo Song and Da Ben, it is still unknown what will happen in the playoffs.
They are all NBA teams. In the playoffs, let alone, they will not have a particularly obvious advantage.
Besides, games are played by humans, what if the core players in the team get injured?
Huo Song was worried that if he played too hard, he would encounter some relatively strong confrontation in the sprint stage of the second half of the regular season, which would lead to injury problems.
Therefore, Huo Song also paid attention to this aspect of protection when he entered the regular season.
Healthy to win the championship, is not a joke.
Closer to home, the second half of the regular season begins.
In addition to continuing to train Pistons players to play in the Princeton system, Pistons head coach Byron Scott also needs to select and adjust the playoff roster as soon as possible.
The playoffs are basically a rotation of seven or eight players, and only in the garbage time will two or three embarrassing players be added.
Byron Scott's selection of the playoff roster must be suitable for the Princeton system.
But now the tactical system is not running very smoothly, which requires more time and patience to observe.
In this way, the piston enters the trial and error stage of various permutations and combinations.
The record will inevitably decline, and the Pistons can be said to have really entered the running-in period.
However, there is not much pressure in the team, and everyone expressed that they can accept the temporary loss.
Before the game in February was over, the Pistons lost two more games to the Wizards and Celtics.
In March, the Pistons lost to the Grizzlies again.
This is a bit surprising, but it makes sense.
The Pistons' Princeton system has settled down over time, and the Pistons are playing more and more methodically, but this just shows that the Pistons' style of play has traces to follow.
As the league's number one seed to win the championship, the Pistons naturally attract much attention.
Recently, how Huo Song runs, how to defend, how to attack, not only the eastern team is very clear, but also some western playoff teams.
And it's just that the Grizzlies' lineup restrained Huo Song, just like the Seattle Supersonics restrained Houston Mosaic back then.
Who would have thought that the dream of the peak period would not be able to meet Jordan in the finals?Instead, he was blocked by Payton and Kemp from the gate of the finals.
When the Supersonics were killed by other Western Conference teams, the Dream finally ushered in a godsend opportunity to achieve its personal historical status in one fell swoop.
Now, in the course of the Pistons' second consecutive championship, it is an extremely important moment in Huo Song's career.
A center player like Huo Song, who is extremely dominant on the inside, was consumed and tortured by the Grizzlies' strikers, and he didn't play so well.
As for the Pistons relying on the overall defense to limit the Grizzlies, the problem is that the Grizzlies' defense is not bad.
It is worth mentioning that Marbury also fell into a trough in this game.
It can only be said that the Pistons have been tricked by fate.
Fortunately, the Grizzlies are a team in the West, but they are not the top team in the West.
Therefore, even if the season is double-killed, the Pistons don't need to value the Grizzlies so much.
However, other teams that compete with the Pistons have seen something through the two regular season games between the Grizzlies and the Pistons.
For a big center with excellent athletic ability like Huo Song, it is better to use a striker to double-team the center to consume it with a meat shield.
With a solution, Huo Song's threat and influence on the teams will not be so great.
It is precisely because of this that Huo Song was treated by the strikers with unlimited defense changes and double-teams in the following schedule.
Huo Song was forced to temporarily learn the skills of passing the ball in the low position to break the double-team, supporting the ball in the high position, and transferring the ball.
As an inside player, Huo Song's passing vision is definitely no problem.
And Huo Song also has a certain basis for ball control and passing, but the problem is that Wade has a dribble bag for ball control, but no pass bag for passing.
Huo Song can't make unpredictable passes, and can only pass some ordinary passes, or close-range handoffs, ground-hitting passes, and fast-break long passes with a slightly predictable nature.
Now when he is temporarily double-teamed, he can distribute the ball and find an open space outside in the shortest time. This is still a bit difficult for Huo Song.
And although Huo Song requires such ability, the Pistons outside players have to cooperate with the new Princeton system in training.
In this way, throughout March, the Pistons only achieved a record of 7 wins and 8 losses.
Compared with before, it is naturally a lot worse.
Fortunately, there are enough wins in the past.
The Pistons are still the No. 6 team in the East, and they are even [-] games away from the No. [-] team in the East.
In April, there are only 4 regular season games left. The Pistons will not lose all of them, and the Heat, which has already rushed to the second place in the Eastern Conference, cannot win all of them.
Therefore, the Pistons' No. [-] position in the Eastern Conference is still very stable.
As the playoffs approached, the Pistons finally passed the two running-in periods steadily.
The Pistons have a group of role players who have adapted to playing in the Princeton system.
And Huo Song also has a certain ability to encounter strikers double-teaming the ball.
Although today's Pistons need some outside shooters, the team originally had a mid-range shot king like Hamilton.
The playoffs are about to be played, and it is actually enough to have a shooting guard who can be equipped with a championship and can run without the ball.
Not to mention, Huo Song also picked up the corner three-pointer again like last season.
Byron Scott is not stupid. A staid old-school coach like Larry Brown is willing to let Huo Song shoot a three-pointer from the corner. Teams space the floor and are more of a threat in the playoffs.
On April 4, the regular season came to an end.
The Pistons topped the Eastern Conference standings with 61 wins and 21 losses.
In the west, the Suns, who are the main seven-second offense, turned out to be out of nowhere.
Perhaps trading Marbury does have a BUFF bonus. The Knicks, who were already useless, are also trading Marbury. After changing the head coach, they came back to life and rushed into the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Huo Song knew that this was Billups' ability to control the team.
An excellent core point guard can indeed help the team win in the regular season.
As the Knicks entered the playoffs, the Cavaliers, who had already made the playoffs last season, could not do it.
Both the Cavaliers and the Knicks are 41 wins and 41 losses, but the Knicks have the upper hand in the records of the two teams.
It was the Knicks who finally made the playoffs.
Of course, even if the Cavaliers are lucky enough to make it to the playoffs, they still cannot escape the fate of last season.
Now switch to the Knicks to deliver food to the Pistons, and the result is naturally the same.
Billups and Rasheed Wallace have strengthened the Knicks, but the Knicks themselves are in a situation where the mud cannot support the wall.
On April 4, the first round of the playoffs between the Pistons and the Knicks started. In the first quarter alone, Huo Song scored 14 points in a single quarter with the support of all Detroit fans, leading the team to defeat the Knicks.
Rasheed Wallace probably never dreamed that at the end of last summer, Huo Song called him to go to training, he didn't want to be abused, so he didn't go.
Then this summer just started, Rasheed Wallace was tortured to death by Huo Song in the finals.
There is no need to question Rasheed Wallace's defense, but Huo Song is too familiar with Rasheed Wallace.
Every offensive round is the same as usual singles training.
It's all muscle memory!
Is this not easy?
And Billups played pick-and-roll tactics with Rasheed Wallace, and Huo Song also knew how to defend.
Da Ben played very vigorously when he saw this familiar but different scene.
Billups transformed the Knicks and brought them to a new height in recent years.
But Billups himself has changed very little, which makes Huo Song and Da Ben very comfortable playing former teammates. Some veteran Pistons also know how to deal with it.
Therefore, only in the first quarter, the Knicks did not organize any effective resistance against the Pistons.
Just watched Huo Song slamming Rasheed Wallace in the paint.
In the second quarter of the game, Hamilton began to exert strength with the help of the Princeton system.
Although the relationship between Hamilton and Billups is good, but now they are their own masters, there is nothing to say.
Hamilton doesn't want to be sent out by the Pistons like Billups.
It is still very fragrant to be able to stay in the Pistons to fight for the second championship ring, or even the third and fourth.
Hamilton doesn't have much ambition. If he does, he will become Kobe next to Huo Song.
On the Knicks side, Billups saw Huo Song and Hamilton breaking out one after another. It was really a top two.
It is worth mentioning that, apart from Billups occasionally scoring one or two points, the Knicks only have Crawford's singles ability.
Crawford's back luck is very good, because of his long legs and arms, he has excellent athletic ability, but in terms of dribbling, he is not much worse than the No. [-] point guard with acne marks like Irving.
But why can Crawford only be a gram six, but not a master player?
That's because it's just a little bit worse, at most a league-average starter with a bunch of 80-point offensive skills.
Playing in the starting lineup, especially against the stars, you can't score, you can't defend, the effect is mediocre, at most it will explode.
Playing as a substitute player is quite explosive, leading the team to score as much as an All-Star player.
Now Crawford is the core style of play, but he doesn't have this ability.
Can digest the ball, but the efficiency is not high.
The Knicks suddenly fell into a weird situation where Billups, Crawford, and Rasheed Wallace scored in singles one after another, but the point difference was gradually opened up by the Pistons.
After the first half, 39 to 64, the Pistons led by 25 points. It seems that the point difference is not particularly big.
But judging from the Pistons scoring more than 60 points in the half, the Knicks' defense is basically nonexistent.
If things go on like this, the Pistons really shouldn't be too easy if they want to win this series.
The fact is exactly the same. The third quarter started very quickly, and there was no suspense in the game. Huo Song played for half a quarter and scored 32 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in two and a half quarters, so he left the game early for a rest.
Huo Song didn't score many points in the second and third quarters, but he won because of his high efficiency and stability.
The Pistons have opened the point difference to 30 points in the first three quarters, and then relying on the substitute players to stay focused and defend hard, they can consolidate the victory.
Because Isaiah Thomas is the current general manager of the Knicks, he has a bit of a relationship with the Pistons. It is understandable that the Pistons will not play hard.
The Knicks are also sensible. After the third quarter, the starters did not play again. They announced in advance that they would not resist. What a shame, the game is over!
However, the Pistons saved face for the Knicks, but the series should still be swept.
The outcome of a game in the playoffs is very important, unlike the regular season, some games can be given up.
When it comes to the playoffs, it is natural to be able to end the game earlier.
What if it is overturned by a 3 to 1 advantage?
This has never happened before in history.
Therefore, in the next three games, the Pistons still started with full firepower and did not hold back.
Wait until the game is almost played in the third quarter, and then look at the performance of the Knicks.
The Knicks knocked out teeth and swallowed blood, and seemed to be in peace on the surface, which is naturally the best.
If Nix still wants to resist, he will naturally slap him and let Nix know why the flowers are so red.
The Pistons won the series 4-0 to the cheers of Knicks fans at Madison Square Garden in New York.
If he didn't know the nature of Knicks fans, Huo Song would be a little obsessed with the playing atmosphere of this basketball holy place under his feet.
The fans are very enthusiastic, and the football market is also very popular.
The Big Apple is one of the best cities in the world. Huo Song definitely prefers New York to the dilapidated and declining Detroit.
However, it is basically impossible for Huo Song to go to New York, even if it is for the school district housing, or to play brother basketball.
Huo Song believes that there are more than two championships for him.
There are even more than two FMVPs.
But if you go to New York, you will never get the championship and FMVP you want.
Opportunities wait for no one. Even if you play brother basketball and take the easiest path, it is not easy to surpass Jordan in the hard honor of championship and FMVP.
And it is precisely because it is difficult to do that, on the contrary, it brings out Jordan's greatness.
If Huo Song has won six championships and six FMVP achievements by then.
That doesn't need fans' support, Huo Song is one of the best figures in the basketball world, a unique superstar in the NBA.
Closer to home, after defeating the Knicks, the Pistons took the lead in approaching the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The next opponent is the Wizards.
The Wizards are the new army that has just risen in the East in the past two years.
As the Wizards went from the Warriors to Arenas, they were traded for All-Star players like Antawn Jamison, and there were also No. [-] pick centers like Kwame Brown.
The Wizards have offense on the outside and defense on the inside, and they can touch most of the teams in the league.
Of course, against the Pistons, the Wizards' good inside configuration is not enough.
Although Huo Song was the No. [-] pick, he was the No. [-] pick in the draft year.
Besides, Huo Song in his rookie period did not play with Jordan.
Playing with Jordan and failing to win the championship, he can only gradually become O'Neal's grandma.
(End of this chapter)