basketball never sleeps

Chapter 271 Nothing Found

"Two games with 2 points, a letter of challenge from the most arrogant boss and the most arrogant player!" ... Los Angeles Times
"Big Liar Cuban is at it again, trying to make the Lucky Son feel the humiliation of being the Chosen Son!" ... New York Post

"Nowitzki's bloody fight, MVP suspense re-emerges, the little emperor is expected to hit the second consecutive game" ... Cleveland Honest Man
Mo Wen and Cuban's remote remarks attracted a lot of media attention.

Usually, after people make some unreasonable and outrageous remarks, they will use "it's just a joke", "just think of it as a dream", "I may have drunk too much" to cover it up.

What’s exciting is that after performing the “arrogant and domineering” scenes, neither of them took off their costumes, as if they had entered into the characters and really got into a fight.

After being threatened, Cuban did not behave himself. Instead, he intensified the hype on various media platforms. He was sure that Mo Wen was just bragging and was full of confidence in the Mavericks' strength.

Young General Johnson looked for Cuban twice. He hoped that Cuban could calm down. Last year, Mo Wen scored 60 points in the finals, and the first blame was indeed his decision-making idea.

In the final analysis, Mo Wen was able to score 60 points by shooting one ball at a time based on his strength under Josh Howard's defense.

Just play basketball. What's the excitement in irritating an MVP-level player who always keeps his word?
But Cuban refused to listen.

You know shit. I'm playing a big game. I've provoked Mo Wen. Doesn't Mo Wen feel the pressure?
And the Mavericks players can also feel this pressure. In order to avoid being dominated by Mo Wen, they must play harder.

Calculating people's hearts is a compulsory course for capitalists, so just learn it.

These two games are not only related to the competition for the best record and MVP, but may also be related to the competition for the Western Conference Finals.

If nothing unexpected happens, the first and second place in the Western Conference will only be the Supersonics and the Mavericks. According to the playoff schedule, the two teams will only meet in the Western Conference Finals.

If the Mavericks can win the next two games, not only will they have the psychological advantage of sweeping the regular season, but they will also have the advantage of trash talk against Mo Wen... He can't even count how many times he can win, it's like Qin Shihuang wearing Little Red Riding Hood - he's winning to the fullest!
Mo Wen doesn't like to talk nonsense before the game, so he didn't respond to Cuban's subsequent remarks.

He has recently been discussing team rotation with Hill.

We must not give up the best regular season record. The West is not the East, and now is not 20 years later. Home advantage is still very important.

There are many strong teams in the remaining games, which will test the team's rotation and rest arrangements.

Ray Allen's ankle is at risk of injury. Although he said he was fine, the team dared not over-consume him. Mo Wen wanted Gay to help him share the pressure, but Gay also hit the rookie wall and has frequently played games with a 30% hit rate. Substitute center Francisco sprained his ankle and will be out for half a month.
It's still comfortable in the Eastern Conference. There's no way to finish playing against bad teams. Not to mention rotation, even rest is random.

Fortunately, the remaining games of the Supersonics are not all against strong teams, and there are still six or seven games in the middle where they will give away the points.

At guard, Earl Watson's playing time will increase from 15 minutes to about 25 minutes. The Supersonics have always wanted to send him away, and he has always wanted to leave, but they couldn't trade him. Helping him improve his stats is also a trade requirement.

Eddie Jones, who came to hold the legs, signed a 100 million contract and was also scheduled to play for about 10 minutes.

On March 3, the SuperSonics faced the Trail Blazers in their first game of March.

Mo Wen, who thought there would be another pork elbow tasting competition, clocked out at halftime unusually smoothly today.

Due to legal issues, Artest was directly pressed on the bench - he beat his wife again, or to be more precise, he had a fair boxing match with his wife and he won.

"She is a lunatic. Who knows what she is thinking? I just wanted to quarrel with her, but she wanted to fight with me. You don't know how she looked when she knocked on my car window with a frying pan. She was really crazy. When she saw that I wanted to reverse and leave, her strength increased. What could I do? I could only get out of the car and teach that damn woman a lesson!" At the post-match gathering, Artest helplessly recounted what had happened before.

Before coming to the United States, Mo Wen always thought that Red Wolf using a frying pan as a weapon was just an exaggerated interpretation of the image of housewives using spoons or spatulas when angry. Who knew that this incident was actually based on reality - according to statistics, more people in the United States are injured by frying pans than those who are injured while playing with toys. This is too dangerous and will definitely corrupt children. It is recommended to hold this event.

In addition to complaining about his wife, A Tai also complained to Mo Wen about the police for a long time.

He also called the police to accuse his wife of domestic violence, but the police only came to his house to question him and there was no follow-up.

As a result, since he won the fight this time, he was directly taken away and could not go home before the trial. He would also most likely be forced to attend anti-violence training classes like Kidd.

Not fair at all.

Mo Wen felt that he should find a spouse in WWE, at least someone would believe him the next time he was abused.

On March 3, after a brief respite, the Supersonics welcomed a furious Kobe.

In the past week, Ronaldo scored 2 goals in the Premier League, while Kobe on the other side of the earth scored 200 points in the NBA.

Averaging 5 points in 40 games.

The reason for all this was not because of Mo Wen's 88 points, nor because of Mo Wen's declaration of 2 points in two games, but mainly because of Paul. After a confrontation on the court, Paul once again changed into a classic look -

Wear sunglasses and match the suit with crutches.

It must be said that if the Zen Master didn't have that gray beard and gray hair, he really wouldn't be able to suppress Paul's style and momentum on the sidelines.

Without Paul, a teammate who could transform CBA into NBA, Kobe was once again in the passive state of being isolated and helpless.

In the game against the Bulls the day before yesterday, Kobe took 38 shots and scored 63 points, but the Lakers almost lost the game because, apart from Kobe, the others only scored 35 points. It seems that there is really nothing wrong with the CBA.

The Lakers gave Kobe another fourth-level tactical lesson in the trading market:

In the first stage, our lineup was pretty good and we didn’t need to trade.
In the second phase, we may need to strengthen in some areas, but we should not make random trades;
In the third stage, we should make some transactions, but we can’t find any transaction partners.
In the fourth stage, it would have been nice if we could have traded for XXX, but now the trade deadline has passed.

After-class summary: nothing was gained.

Kobe has become numb to this. The Lakers' biggest contribution in the past two years is that they used the draft pick obtained from O'Neal to select Paul and used Los Angeles to attract the madman.

He has already realized that the Lakers management is just PUAing him. He is a result-oriented person. No matter how wonderful the process is, the final result is a mess. In Kobe's eyes, the Lakers management's work is just a mess.

He doesn't want to compete with Seattle. If he can become a free agent and choose the team he wants, he believes that his performance will not be worse than Mo Wen.

What he couldn't understand was when did Los Angeles become less attractive than Cleveland?
Even a remote place like Cleveland can put together the Big Five, so why can't the Lakers find a third reliable star in Los Angeles?

Kobe may have forgotten that there was a time when the media promoted the Lakers according to the standards of the Big Five.

But now, the 37-year-old madman can no longer be so crazy. Odom's organizational value has greatly decreased after the emergence of Paul and he has become a bargaining chip in the hands of the Lakers management. Kwame Brown is obviously lost after Paul no longer feeds him.

Fortunately, Paul is expected to return in the first round of the playoffs, provided that the Lakers do not fall out of the playoffs.

Judging from the current record, the Lakers will have no problem making the playoffs, because there are too many teams that are in a bad state. As long as the Lakers are not bad enough, they can still make the playoffs.

But if you don’t want to meet the top teams in the first round, you must make your record as close as possible.

So Kobe can only fight hard. Hollywood blockbusters always like to promote some universal "truths" to the audience, such as "all men are created equal", "private property is sacred and inviolable", "freedom of speech" and so on.

The NBA also has similar "truths", and the most famous one is "Basketball is a five-person sport."

Hollywood's "truth" can be easily falsified, and the same goes for NBA's "truth".

Compared to Mo Wen's previous 88 points, Kobe is undoubtedly much more "normal", but for those who watched the Lakers game last week, only one impression will be left in their minds throughout the whole process, and that is Kobe.

Before the game, the league once again made some moves. There were souvenirs for the player who broke the triple-double record of the third player in the long wave some time ago. Mo Wen's 88 points won so much attention for the league, how could there be no reward?
A small pure gold bronze man trophy in the shape of a Mo Wen three-pointer appeared so magnificently in front of Kobe.

Looking at Stern, this smiling bad guy, Mo Wen is too lazy to complain. The NBA really makes you understand how to make money by giving gifts.

However, Stern still misjudged Kobe's mentality this time. In order to get better results in the playoffs, Kobe is now in a state of mind without any distractions. Don't talk to him about scoring. Some time ago, he even publicly stated that he was not worthy of joining the MVP selection this season. In his opinion now, the team winning one more game is more real than anything else.

In the first 3 minutes, Kobe scored 10 points by combining breakthroughs with shots. Mo Wen decisively joined Ray Allen in pushing Kobe up a notch.

Even if his scoring efficiency dropped significantly, Kobe could only grit his teeth and be a lone wolf.

Sprewell has declined from a cost-effective player to a premium player. He can help Kobe handle some of the ball rights, but his shooting percentage is terrible.

Kobe's scoring momentum slowed down slightly, and the gap between the two teams widened at a visible rate.

Mo Wen and Ray Allen have almost reached a perfect understanding of each other, and with the Sonics' strong inside line involved, the Lakers simply can't take care of it. They can only watch Mo Wen easily lead the Sonics to tear apart the Lakers' defense.

Paul was extremely anxious on the sidelines. If the Lakers had not brought a wheelchair, he would have thought about riding in it.

Willpower cannot overcome the gap in reality. In the second half of the second quarter, Kobe made two consecutive three-pointers, which made the Lakers fans in front of the TV cry.

But looking back, Mo Wen was shaking like a madman outside the three-point line, waiting for him to pass the ball to his hand before pushing the ball and shooting. He directly made a four-pointer, which directly suppressed the Lakers' excited bench.

The Zen Master had no choice but to continue his deep and somewhat constipated look on the sidelines.

When Paul was there, the Lakers played a triangle offense with a pick-and-roll; now that Paul is gone, they rely on Kobe's raw offense.

His tactics are not to provide bonuses for the stars, but to serve the stars. The Supersonics have a star who can compete with Kobe and can also lead the whole team. How can they play like this?
Under Kobe's death gaze and with more Sonics players being pulled away by Kobe, Odom was in great form and grabbed 16 rebounds, but his total of 18 points was too few.

Or it was too little compared to the Supersonics' total score of 116 points.

The Lakers scored 101 points. Kobe scored 33 points with 11 shots and 43 free throws, continuing his crazy scoring performance and providing material for the media to brag about, but there was no smile on his face.

Two days later, the Supersonics' winning streak was ended by the Jazz on the Utah Plateau.

The Jazz, who had gotten rid of the injuries of the previous two years, enjoyed a "wonderful start" in the first half, and they were ranked only behind the Supersonics for a long time.

But as the competition progressed, the major teams in-depth research on several of their core players and physical problems, their record also slipped back to the level of normal strong teams.

Coach Jerry Sloan had been suppressing the team's stubbornness of not shooting three-pointers, and this bears fruit in this game. The Jazz used two-point shots with a 60% hit rate to kill the Supersonics who shot three-pointers with a 40% hit rate.

Mathematically, 60% of mid-range shots and 40% of three-point shots are indeed equivalent in terms of scoring, but the problem is that based on this hit rate, 100 two-point shots will only generate 40 rebounds, while three-point shots will generate 60 rebounds.

Rebounds mean opportunities for counterattacks, and in order to prevent the Jazz from scoring on fast breaks, the Supersonics had to commit more fouls.

Mo Wen and Hill both made several adjustments, but the results were mediocre.

Although the current Jazz's pick-and-roll is not as stable as the two old men 10 years ago, it is more difficult to defend because all five of them can shoot and there are too many starting points for the pick-and-roll.

If you switch defense a little bit slower, you will be caught.

The Pistons are also of this type, but they are obviously not as accurate as the Jazz.

After the Jazz, the Supersonics immediately took revenge on the Nuggets. After the 88-point battle, when standing in front of Mo Wen, the barrels of the double guns bent down like an elephant's trunk.

Ray Allen, who left the game due to injury last time, had an explosive performance today. He regained his sharpshooter account, made 9 of 8 shots from beyond the three-point line, scored 40 points, and successfully defended Mo Wen.

Nuggets fans: Praise Ray Allen!

After that, the Supersonics, Timberwolves and Rockets won two easy victories.

In the 62nd game of the regular season, the Supersonics suffered their 10th loss of the season.

In the game against the Pacers, O'Neal, who just returned from injury, crushed the whole court physically, scored both inside and outside, and blew up Milicic, scoring 32 points and 17 rebounds.

Crawford and Ariza, who were acquired in the trade for Artest, also performed well. Although they are not as good as Mo Wen, they also deserve to be said to have a promising future.

When healthy, O'Neal still has All-Star strength, and the Pacers' new generation of outside players are also growing fast. With the combination of inside and outside players, they can rise again.

Ironically, the Pacers are considering actively dismantling their lineup.

Last year, the Pacers were unwilling to keep O'Neal in order to gamble on Mo Wen's joining qualifications, but this year they have begun to consider selling O'Neal.

O'Neal's frequent injuries in the past two years have earned him the label of a glass man.

He is currently the third highest paid player in the league, and will most likely be the highest paid player in the league in the next three years. A small team like the Pacers really can't afford to hurt or keep him around.

After returning from Indiana, the Supersonics had just rested for a day when Cuban and the Mavericks arrived at Seattle Tacoma Airport on a luxury charter plane.

"The air is nice, can you smell it, guys? It's the smell of victory." As soon as he got off the plane, before he even stepped firmly on the ground, Cuban opened his arms and embraced the "sweet" air.

Avery Johnson, who was following behind him, took a deep breath, clenched and unclenched his fists. His life was ruined by his salary.

"Boss, you better keep your voice down. You might get beaten." Josh Howard sniffed and interrupted his boss's interest. "I watched the NCAA championship yesterday. Washington State University was eliminated after playing double overtime. I think the fans in Seattle should be sad, right?"

"Elimination in double overtime? That's really a good sign. Oh no, what a sad story."

Cuban could no longer suppress the smile.

(End of this chapter)