aircannonsinc Chapter 594 Lin Tian Discovers the Prodigy's Weakness! One Move of Assisted Defense and He'
Chapter 594 Lin Tian Discovers the Prodigy's Weakness! One Move of Assisted Defense and He'
Arenas wisely chose not to attack himself. He knew all too well the gap between himself and Lin Tian, and how terrifying Lin Tian was when he was on full defensive.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone without scoring a single point for such a long stretch in the first quarter!
Did you really think he didn't want to score? He almost never stopped running; he was constantly looking for opportunities and space to receive the ball and finish the game.
His original idea wasn't to completely disappear; he wanted to find scoring opportunities using off-the-ball movement.
But I can't find it at all! Not a single trace.
Lin Tian's defense made it so that he could hardly find a chance to receive the ball. Even if he managed to get the ball a few times, Lin Tian's perfect defense would immediately prevent him from completing the defense.
Of course, Arenas can still take hard shots and shoot recklessly, just like he always has.
But that's not what he wants! He also knows that kind of play is inefficient.
He hasn't forgotten his goal for tonight: to perform well and land a big contract!
Wasteful shots and poor shot selection will affect his money!
Arenas tonight was an absolute opportunist!
When matched up against Lin Tian, he neither gets the ball nor shoots!
Moreover, because Lin Tian was closely guarding him, he couldn't cover the rest of the Wizards, and the Knicks' defense was too poor. So Arenas was confident that even Daniels could score some points and solve the team's immediate problem.
What? What if Daniels can't hold on?
Then Arenas can only go on a wild shot, to challenge his shooting touch and whether God is on his side!
In the following games, the Wizards were clearly lucky.
Daniels scored on both of his one-on-one attempts against Anthony.
Although the Wizards couldn't withstand the Knicks' firepower on the defensive end, they managed to maintain their lead.
Three minutes into the second quarter, the Wizards still held a seven-point lead!
At this point, Eddie Jordan stopped playing it safe and sent Butler and Jamison onto the court.
Let's keep going!
Eddie Jordan's plan is for the team to maintain their lead until the end of the first half, and the longer the better!
Even if they are only leading by one point at the end of the first half?
That's still leading!
He hopes his team can hold on!
On the Knicks' side, Stoudemire and Houston, who had just been resting, returned to the court, and the starting lineups of both sides clashed again!
However, Eddie Jordan's idea was good. He believed that Jamison and Butler could handle the game and maintain the lead while Arenas completely distracted Lin Tian.
But he forgot that Lin Tian was once the best defensive player!
However, his two subordinates were not good passers with excellent vision.
Throughout his career, Butler has never averaged more than 2.5 assists per game, while Jamison is a pure finisher, with very few seasons in his career having more than 2 assists.
Neither of them are good at passing or playmaking!
In the previous game, Lin Tian overlooked this point. He was worried that if he let Arenas go, Arenas would receive the ball and easily make the shot.
But during the break, when Lin Tian recalled the first quarter, he remembered how Arenas kept running around looking for opportunities to receive the ball, but could never get a shot off.
The most important reason for this is, of course, that his defense is top-notch and he can anticipate many of Arenas's movements, but he is not so good that he can prevent Arenas from ever getting a single shot.
It's not that Arenas's positioning skills are bad. When he was with the Pacers, he systematically learned from Reggie how to position himself and then shoot. He's a standard professional!
Then the reason why he couldn't catch the ball is quite simple.
My teammates' passing skills and vision are terrible!
They either couldn't see Arenas, or when they did, it was too late; Lin Tian had already filled the gap.
With that in mind, Lin Tian had already decided how to play in the second quarter!
As Arenas stepped aside to let Jamison fight one-on-one, Lin Tian suddenly released Arenas and rushed towards Jamison!
"Antoine! Watch out!" Arenas immediately realized what was happening and shouted to warn Jamison to be careful, but Lin Tian's help defense was too fast, and in the blink of an eye, he had already double-teamed Jamison!
Although Stoudemire wasn't a particularly good defender, he still knew how to handle this situation!
He immediately spread his arms and waved them wildly, while stepping forward to press the ball. With Lin Tian interfering from the side, Jamison had no choice but to stop the ball. But before he could think about what to do next, the referee's whistle blew.
"Traveling violation! Change of possession!"
Lin Tian and Stoudemire's double-team came too quickly for Jamison to notice, and his footwork was also quite unclear. The referee immediately called a traveling violation on him.
"Keep playing the tortoise, Gil," Lin Tian said to Arenas after this successful defense. "Let's see if your guys can hold on!"
Amid boos from the crowd, Lin Tian dribbled the ball to the frontcourt and turned his back to Arenas' defense.
You're not going to get worked up, are you? You want to calm down today, right?
I'll beat you up in the most infuriating way possible! I bet you'll get a headache tonight!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Lin Tian turned around and rammed Arenas several times in a row!
Even though Arenas's strength was already at the level of a small tank in the same position, Lin Tian was unfortunately a big tank, the king of tanks.
No matter how exaggerated Arenas's upper body muscles are, I, Lin Da Guanren, can still get in!
After dominating the ball all the way, just as he was about to approach the three-second zone, Lin Tian suddenly turned towards the baseline. At the same time, his ball protector pushed Arenas, completely eliminating Arenas' chance to catch up.
Then Lin Tian accelerated again, and in the blink of an eye, he rushed to the basket. He then took a step to avoid Hayward's help defense, and when he jumped up again, no Wizards player could interfere with him.
"boom!"
Then came a loud bang as Lin Tian slammed home a one-handed dunk, bringing the team back to within 2 points!
"Come on, let me see how much my little brother Jill has improved, let me see if he's really grown up, and if he can grow up at all!"
Lin Tian's verbal attacks had no effect on Arenas. Tonight, the guy seemed to be possessed by Sima Yi, focusing on being patient and cowardly!
He passed the ball to Butler again, yelling, "Caron! Watch out for double teams, try not to back down! Be observant when you drive!"
Arenas's shouting was clearly useless.
When Butler attacked the paint again, Lin Tian once again seized the opportunity at the most crucial moment. He grabbed the basketball from Butler's hands and snatched it away from him in a manner that was less of a steal and more of a robbery.
Push forward again! Another showdown with Arenas.
Beyond the three-point line, Lin Tian dribbled between his legs for a series of times before suddenly pulling up for a three-pointer that went in perfectly once again!
Clean, efficient, simple and direct!
"Still not responding?" Lin Tian looked at Arenas and said, "Your coach's task for you is definitely to lead into the second half, right?"
"I've only left you 2 cents of credit!"
Lin Tian's provocation finally worked this time. Arenas stopped passing the ball to his teammates and instead dribbled against Lin Tian himself.
He knew that after the last two rounds, he had nowhere to retreat!
Either face the challenge head-on and go one-on-one with Lin Tian, or play the coward to the end and not fight back at all!
Choosing the former leaves us with a sliver of hope for tonight; choosing the latter...
No, Arenas, in the end, wasn't a real tortoise.
He can endure it all for the sake of making a living.
But it insults American Kung Fu...
Hmm... Lin Tian didn't insult me.
But it just won't work!
Seeing that Arenas was finally facing him head-on, Lin Tian didn't hold back and quickly closed in, starting a tight defense against Arenas!
This was the skill that earned him the Defensive Player of the Year award, and it was also a nightmare for point guards across the entire league.
In the entire league right now, who isn't afraid of this?
Including Arenas!
He carefully dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, and without thinking, immediately called for a screen to get his teammates to help.
After crossing with Haywood, Arenas was about to jump up when Lin Tian appeared in front of him. He had no space to block and then make a move!
Arenas thinking he can create shooting space with just a simple crossover or pick-and-roll like he did at the beginning of the first quarter? Impossible!
Fortunately, Arenas reacted very quickly, and Okur's defense was really bad.
As Haywood made his move, Okur was actually in a daze.
He hesitated, unsure of what to do.
At this opportunity, Arenas made a bounce pass to Haywood, who then drove into the paint and slammed home a dunk!
The Wizards finally scored!
"Beautiful! Beautiful pass!" Kenny roared. "Arenas has changed his style of play! From not handling the ball to sharing it, I can see his rapid improvement in this series. He's becoming more and more mature!"
"We all know that when facing Lin, neither running away nor constantly engaging in one-on-one fights is advisable! Arenas has now found his way! Now, let's see how Lin responds!"
"My fault!" Even though 99% of the problem was with Okur, whose poor defense allowed Haywood to easily finish with a dunk, Lin Tian still raised his hand to indicate that it was his fault after the Wizards broke through his defense.
It's not like we just realized the team's defense was bad; these basic defensive mistakes were the Knicks' biggest weakness.
Lin Tian wouldn't care about that. Following Don Nelson's philosophy: if you lose the ball, just come back!
For the Knicks: losing possession isn't the worst thing; missing shots is the real problem!
And now, they can score!
During the Knicks' offensive possession, Lin Tian found Okur during his drive and delivered a behind-the-back pass to Okur beyond the three-point line, assisting him in hitting a three-pointer!
"Whoosh!"
After a crisp sound, Okur paid the price for his defensive lapse and scored 3 points for his team!
Arenas then continued dribbling forward, and Lin Tian found a way to break through his defense by staying invisible without the ball. He felt that he had also found a way to break through Lin Tian's defense!
This time, he called in Haywood for a screen again.
But Lin Tian's evolution speed, or rather his reaction speed, was much faster than he had imagined!
This time, Lin Tian squeezed past the defense and spread his arms wide, not only denying Arenas any space to shoot, but also blocking all angles from which he could pass the ball to Haywood.
Arenas was thrown off balance by Lin Tian's sudden tight defense and had to stop the ball early.
Fortunately, Butler arrived just in time. He received a pass from Arenas while running, and seeing that there was little time left on the shot clock, he had no choice but to pull up and shoot from beyond the three-point line!
"Whoosh!"
This tough three-pointer over Anthony also went in!
Butler was also having a great time tonight!
He too went into a killing frenzy!
"With this kind of magical ball and that rubbish combination of flashes of inspiration, let's see how long you can last." Lin Tian wasn't worried about this magical ball at all.
You can score one or two, or even a whole quarter, but can you score for the whole game?
Even if you're accurate all game and score goals non-stop.
Even when it comes to winning a game, has Laozi (Lin Da Guanren) ever lost even once?
"Don't be afraid! They were just lucky. We'll get back at them!" As Lin Tian advanced again, he didn't go after Arenas with trash talk. Instead, he raised a hand and shouted, "Let them see how you score with skill!"
"Hold on! Hold on!" Arenas was completely fired up, slamming his hand on the floor and shouting, "Defend Washington!"
The Knicks were brimming with confidence, while the Wizards saw a glimmer of hope for victory. Both teams unconsciously increased their intensity on the court, entering a do-or-die mode ahead of time!
A full-on showdown!
In the second quarter, both sides increased their intensity, and this increased intensity led to somewhat hasty shot selections. As a result, despite the increased intensity and determination, both sides' efficiency began to decline.
However, this decline is relative. Compared to most teams in the league, the offensive levels of these two teams are still top-notch!
As time went on, the two teams traded blows, with the Wizards stubbornly clinging to their narrow lead and refusing to give the Knicks a chance to turn the tide.
The Knicks were not to be outdone. Although they did not take the lead, it was wishful thinking for the Wizards to pull away or shake them off!
With 20 seconds left in the second quarter, the Wizards still held a one-point lead.
Arenas controlled the basketball, pushed Lin Tian aside with his butt, and observed his teammates' movements while keeping an eye on the time.
When the attack timer reached the last 8 seconds, he suddenly shouted, and then Haywood and Jeffries stepped forward at the same time, one on each side, to completely block Lin Tian!
High double screen!
Arenas didn't waste the perfect screen his teammates provided. With a powerful acceleration, he not only shook off Lin Tian but also got past Stoudemire and Okur who came to help defend.
Arenas dashed to the three-point line in the blink of an eye, then stopped abruptly and launched a long-range jump shot!
There's still time. There's no one in front of him, especially with the Knicks' two big men behind him. He can easily drive in again, or even go straight to the basket and score two points.
But he wouldn't!
Arenas has absolute confidence!
He was going to force his way in!
"Whoosh!"
With a crisp thud, Arenas sank the three-pointer! Leaving the Knicks with only 3 seconds left!
"FUXX!" An excited Arenas raised his arms and shouted, letting out a huge celebration.
Goal! A 4-point lead!
wrong!
He watched helplessly as the referee raised two fingers and then swung them down hard.
2 point?
Arenas paused for a moment, just as the large screen in the arena showed a replay.
He did step on the three-point line when he shot.
That's definitely a 2-point score!
"Do you know what this means, Gilbert?" Lin Tian didn't rush to catch the ball. Instead, he waved for his teammates to start moving, while he calmly walked towards the basket. "It means even God isn't on your side!"
"We're going to win tonight!"
After saying that, Lin Tian suddenly accelerated and sprinted to the other side. Stoudemire, who had been waiting under the basket, passed the basketball to Lin Tian.
After receiving the ball, Lin Tian immediately launched a counterattack towards the frontcourt.
The last 4 seconds!
There's still plenty of time!
He sprinted forward, leaving Arenas behind in the blink of an eye, and then, just before the end of the first half, stopped two steps beyond the three-point line and launched a long-range three-pointer!
"Whoosh!"
"Buzz!"
With the two voices ringing out simultaneously again, the first half of the match ended!
68: 68!
The score is tied!
"This goal is a way of repaying you for the one in the first quarter." After scoring, Lin Tian didn't celebrate, but calmly looked at Arenas: "Now, it's your turn to owe me!" (End of Chapter)