Chapter 86 It’s time to compete with your physical strength

After landing, old Nelson arranged for the players to train in a nearby stadium for a while, and then returned to the hotel to rest for the night, asking everyone to be well behaved and not run around.

Everyone knows the importance of tomorrow's game, so everyone stayed in the hotel and rested today.

It was past twelve o'clock in the evening, just when Zheng Yang was about to rest, there was a sudden knock on the door. Zheng Yang opened it and saw that it was Danpier. He had a bitter face and seemed to be in a bad mood.

"Hey Eric, why are you still awake so late?"

"Zheng, I can't sleep, I want to come and talk to you."

Why don't you stay up late at night and chat about something?

Although he was complaining in his heart, Zheng Yang still opened the door to let Danville in.

There's nothing I can do. After all, I'm the boss. Normally, he calls me the boss all the time, but if he doesn't come to me at the critical moment, who else can I go to?
After the latter entered the room, he sat dejectedly on the edge of the bed, pouting his lips and not saying a word.

"Hey what's wrong with you? Nervous about the game tomorrow?"

Zheng Yang couldn't help but ask, Danpier looked up at him, then pouted and nodded.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to defend against Amare tomorrow. I...I don't want to admit it, but the fact is, in the previous regular season game, he completely blew me away."

The former "second center in the Western Conference" said helplessly.

After signing the big contract, he did drift for a while, but then both Stoudemire and Yao Ming taught him lessons.

He slowly came back to reality and admitted that what he said was just bragging. No one believed him, except the extremely generous Cuban!

He knew that the team's goal this year was to compete for the championship, and he also knew that the Suns were a particularly strong team, so he was very worried that the team would lose the game because of him.

If this is true, he really doesn't know how to face his teammates in the days to come, especially Zheng, his boss!

"Hey Eric, you have to have confidence in yourself and know that you are a very important part of our team.

Amare is indeed a very good player, but we don't ask you to limit him to the point where he can't score a single point. No player in the world can do that.

You just need to block his offensive route when he attacks, and then give him enough physical confrontation to disrupt his offensive rhythm...

You can do it, trust me.”

Zheng Yang said this with deep affection, and Danpier couldn't help but ask back.

"Can I really?"

“You really can.”

After receiving such a positive answer, Dampier finally gained confidence.

"I can do it, Zheng. I will definitely defend Amare. My penalty area won't allow them to challenge at will."

Seeing Danville's powerful response, Zheng Yang nodded with great satisfaction. Just as he was about to let him go back and rest, the sound of fireworks suddenly rang out outside.

Zheng Yang looked outside in disbelief, and had a bad guess in his mind.

The Phoenix Suns, are they going to try a sneak attack as well?

Seeing that the fireworks had not ended after five minutes, Zheng Yang sighed helplessly.

"Go back and rest, Eric, and remember to find something to plug your ears with, or you won't be able to sleep tonight.

Are the Suns crazy? It's only Game 1. This isn't the right time to start something, is it? "

In fact, Zheng Yang really misunderstood the other party this time, because the fireworks incident was not organized by the team itself, but was secretly done by some fans.

If it was really done by the Phoenix Suns, they definitely wouldn't have done it in Game 1, so as not to arouse the Mavericks' guard.

Old Nelson reacted quickly and came to each player's room to calm everyone down, asking them not to be too impatient so as to avoid further sleeplessness.

When he arrived at Zheng Yang's room, this guy had already found two balls of cotton from somewhere and stuffed them into his ears.

"The local team is really too unruly. They actually resorted to such conspiracy and trickery..."

Old Nelson cursed as he was leaving, and Zheng Yang nodded in agreement somewhat awkwardly.

Coach, it seems that our team has no right to criticize others. After all, it seems that we are the ones who started this atmosphere...

Since the harassment was organized spontaneously by the fans, it did not last too long and stopped around one or two o'clock in the morning.

But because everyone was distracted by the fireworks, many people didn't go to bed until after four o'clock.

Old Nelson is very experienced and anticipated that everyone must not have gotten enough rest last night, so he sent a message early in the morning to inform everyone that the morning training was over so that everyone could have a good sleep.

……

Tonight's game starts at seven o'clock. Thanks to the cancellation of morning training, everyone has finally adjusted their status. However, the eyes of the Suns team are full of anger at this moment.

Damn it, you dare to disturb my rest, today I’ll show you how I’m going to kill you!

The Suns players were also confused. They didn't know what was going on, so they all turned their eyes to the team's head coach D'Antoni.

The latter was also dumbfounded. He just heard about this matter from others when he woke up in the morning. What does it have to do with him?
If he really did it, the fireworks would have been set off until dawn. How could it be possible that they were only set off at one or two o'clock?

But seeing the way everyone was looking at him, he knew he should definitely take the blame.

During the pre-match interview, beautiful reporter Erin Angelus also mentioned what happened last night when interviewing Zheng Yang, and asked whether it would have an impact on them.

"I think it has an impact, but you know, it's part of the game, and when our plane lands in Phoenix, the game starts.

I don't want to express any dissatisfaction about this. I just want to say that we will try our best to play and win the game. No matter how difficult the situation is, we will try our best. "

Zheng Yang said righteously.

His answer this time further reinforced his perfect image of being unafraid of challenges and difficulties. Although he also wanted to criticize the Suns, for the sake of his image, he could only swallow his anger temporarily.

It doesn't matter, just wait until the game starts and see how he makes the Suns pay.

After hearing Zheng Yang's answer, Irene Angelus' reaction was the same as that of countless fans watching in front of the TV.

Zheng’s answer…so manly!
Regarding the opponent's off-field interference, he not only did not take the opportunity of the interview to criticize it, but also gave such a powerful answer.

Who is dating such an outstanding boy?
"Come on, Zheng. I hope you will have a very good performance today. I will also be watching your game from the sidelines."

Irene Angelus said with stars in her eyes, and she turned into a little fan girl of Zheng Yang. At this moment, when the fans in China saw this scene on TV, they got hard!
The fist is hard!

Where did this female demon come from? She actually wants to destroy my brother Zheng’s Taoist faith and ask me to capture her!
"At present, the starting players of both teams have already taken to the court and the game will start soon. Let us first introduce the starting players of both teams to you.

First are the home players, they are Amar'e Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, Quentin Richardson and Steve Nash.

The Mavericks have Eric Dampier, Dirk Nowitzki, Zheng Yang, Josh Howard and Jason Terry.

A total of five starting players on both sides are All-Stars this season, which is the first time this has happened in any series this year.

I believe they will be able to give us a wonderful game today.

OK, it's jump ball time, the referee tosses the ball up... Dampier successfully taps the ball, and the Mavericks have the first offensive possession."

In the CCTV studio, teacher Yu Jia was explaining the situation on the field to everyone. Coach Zhang, standing next to them, was smiling, waiting for Zheng Yang to score a goal and then start his BJ style.

In today's game, the Suns adopted a different defensive attitude as soon as they came on the court, defending very tightly, especially against Zheng Yang and Nowitzki.

But then again, although the Suns' positive attitude is worthy of recognition, four of your five starting players have defensive loopholes and the height of the inside line is not high enough. Even if you are very motivated, it is really difficult to limit the Mavericks' offense.

In the first round of the Mavericks' offense, Jason Terry passed the ball to Zheng Yang, and the player defending him was Joe Johnson.

This equally young child was a little at a loss when facing Zheng Yang. How could he defend himself?

Prevent him from breaking through?

Guard his shot?

Or defend his pass?

After studying Zheng Yang's video tape, the team's head coach told Joe Johnson to "adapt to circumstances."

He knows how to limit Zheng Yang as much as possible, but the point is that you, Joe Johnson, can't do it.

I ask you to keep up with Zheng Yang's breakthrough speed. Can you do it?
I tell you that Zheng Yang likes to pull up and shoot from mid-range positions. Can you interfere with him?

I tell you that Zheng Yang likes to break through to the right when attacking the inside and then score against the defense. Can you limit him?

You can't do it, you have already fallen to the ground while others are still rising!

In that case, what else can I do except ask you to improvise?
Did I ask you to step on someone else's feet?

Do you want to have one of your balls cut off?
Except for Shawn Marion, none of the starting players could defend Zheng Yang as he said!
But Shawn Marion's opponent was Dirk Nowitzki, so Joe Johnson had to adapt to the situation.

See if you can be lucky enough to block one or two of the opponent's shots!

Zheng Yang is quite familiar with this group of Suns players and knows that Joe Johnson's defense is average, so he decided to hold the ball and play one-on-one.

He made a change of direction at the free throw line and suddenly rushed to the inside. The Suns' inside players are really short, which helps them to counterattack quickly during the offensive rounds.

But this will be their biggest weakness in defensive rounds.

Don't compare them with the Warriors in the small ball era. Although the inside height of that Warriors team was not high, the average height was not short at all. At the same time, except for Curry, the defense of everyone else was very good.

Draymond Green's strong and powerful lower limbs can help him not lose out in physical confrontations with centers from other teams.

Their defense is completely different from that of this Suns team.

After passing Joe Johnson and entering the inside, Stoudemire was blocked by Dampier in advance and was unable to rush in in time to interfere with Zheng Yang, who made an easy layup.

Stoudemire is a player who combines strength and speed very well, but Dampier is purely a power center. His bench press record is second only to Big Ben and O'Neal. Therefore, as long as Zheng Yang can get into a good position in advance, it will be difficult for Stoudemire to squeeze him out and interfere with Zheng Yang.

"Hey, this is a really beautiful shot. Look at Joe Johnson. He was directly frozen in place by Zheng Yang. He didn't even have time to react."

Director Zhang’s BJ accent in the studio may be late, but it will never be absent.

While he was talking, the Suns' fast break counterattack had already been completed.

Although before the game, Nelson had repeatedly emphasized the need to return to defense quickly and not give the opponent a chance to launch a fast break.

But now the game has just started, both sides have plenty of energy, and the five players of the Suns are all good at fast breaks. When Dampier and Dirk were still returning to defense, the opponents had already reached the basket.

The reason why they are willing to sacrifice the height of the inside line and keep all five starting players on the court is, of course, because the gains are greater than the losses.

Otherwise, how did they get 62 wins in the regular season?

After receiving the pass from Nash, Shawn Marion ignored Jason Terry in front of him and made a dunk.

In the Suns' fast breaks, Shawn Marion is always the one rushing to the front.

The opponent's dunk also caused cheers from the fans at the scene, and D'Antoni on the sidelines felt much more at ease.

As long as the opponent can't defend against their bombardment tactics, they will have won half the battle today.

Old Nelson frowned, but he knew that this was only the opponent's first offensive round. As time went on and their physical strength declined, their fast break would definitely not be as fast as it was now.

That’s when the Mavericks’ chance came.

All he needs to do now is to wait patiently and make sure the Mavericks' offense does not lose power, so as to avoid being unable to catch up after the score gap is widened!

……

At the end of the first quarter, the score was 35:37, with the Mavericks trailing by 2 points. Players from both teams returned to the bench and wiped their sweat with towels.

This quarter was quite enjoyable for the audience. After all, both sides played very well on offense and it was very entertaining to watch.

But the players who played in the game were not so happy, because more offense meant that they consumed more physical energy than usual.

Normally they could take a few more breaths and recover when returning to defense, but today, facing the Suns' bombardment tactics, the Mavericks did not dare to slow down at all.

If the defense is not returned in time, the opponent's "seven-second attack" will be launched immediately.

Of course, physical exertion is not one-sided. The Suns also consumed a lot of physical energy, and they were also a little depressed.

Under normal circumstances, if their fast break was played so well, they would have opened up a 10-point gap long ago. But today, they only opened up a 2-point gap.

Today's game was more of a competition of physical strength than a competition of offense or defense.

Whoever loses physical strength first will lose the game!

(End of this chapter)