So I am the god of basketball?

Chapter 75 The dream of always coming out from the bench to save the team
  The impact of "back-to-back" was much greater than Meng Lang thought.

Even though he only played 10 minutes in the last game, even though he slept until noon after arriving at the hotel, even though Chuck Daly did not arrange any more training, and even he gave up additional training.

But after performing well in the first quarter, his status fluctuated in the second quarter.

He was not sure about some shots that he thought could be made.

This should be a normal phenomenon. No one can make all the sure shots, including Michael Jordan.

Including Meng Lang.

But there has to be a reason to explain it. Meng Lang’s reason is:
  "Back-to-back" impact.

The Cavaliers head coach believes that his defensive targeting of Meng Lang played a role.

However, this is what Chuck Daly wants to see.

When the Cavaliers' entire defensive focus shifts toward the three-point lines on the left and right sides of the Magic, the "big shark" inside can show off his extraordinary abilities.

So even though Meng Lang made 10 of the next 3 shots, with a shooting percentage of 30%, Chuck Daly still spoke highly of him after the game:
  "His performance in the first quarter laid the foundation for our victory!"

Shaquille O'Neal, who scored 25 points and 8 rebounds "back to back", also said: "My brother makes it impossible for the Cavaliers to ignore his shooting. If they ignore it, they will pay the price!"

Shaq never hesitates to praise his teammates, which is a reflection of his high emotional intelligence.

Whether it's the Magic, Lakers or Heat!
  It's hard to imagine that a petty person could praise his teammates so frequently.

This may be related to his optimistic attitude.

Shaq was a kid, even though he weighed 300 pounds at one point!
  With two consecutive victories, the Magic returned to Orlando.

Next they have two days of rest.

Meng Lang had never slept so peacefully.

In the fourth game of the season, the Magic's opponent was the Suns, who reached the Finals last season.

On the day of the game, Shaquille O'Neal received the first "Player of the Week Award" of the new season. The Magic won all three games. Shaquille O'Neal averaged 25.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 2.67 blocks and 2.67 assists per game.

The shooting percentage is 60%!

This is the data he played in "back-to-back" rounds.

Shaquille O'Neal, who "reached his peak when he debuted", has looked increasingly terrifying since his second season in his career.

Those who won the prize were delighted, while those who did not get the prize were a little unconvinced.

新赛季截止到目前，太阳队同样3胜0负，上赛季常规赛MVP查尔斯-巴克利场均23，3分11.3篮板4.6助攻1.6抢断，场均命中率高达50%。

Also shortlisted for the "Player of the Week Award".

It's just a limitation of the times. At this time, the "Best of the Week" and "Best of the Month" are not divided into the East and the West, but are compared uniformly. There is only one "Best of the Week" every week, and there is only one "Best of the Month" "Best of the Month".

So later on, some fans always liked to compare their Goat's 39 "Best of the Month" to Jordan's 16 "Best of the Month", not to mention David Stern who made Jordan retire for the first time. During his second comeback to win the "three consecutive championships", Jordan was only awarded "Best of the Month" 4 times in total, and more were given to other stars to increase their star flavor to compete with Jordan. Based on this selection criterion, it has become a fact that it is more difficult for Jordan to win the "Best of the Month".

Barkley does not feel that he is worse than Shaquille O'Neal: "It seems that I also need to ask the league to arrange a 'back-to-back' round for me before the start of the season."

Ok……

The difference is not the people, the difference is the schedule!
  If the Suns had played a back-to-back, Charles Barkley's name would have been engraved on the Player of the Week award trophy by now.

His words were enough to become a trigger.

Shaquille O'Neal showed a strong desire to attack at the beginning. He wanted to maintain his dignity as the first "Player of the Week Award" winner of the new season.

As we all know, after Shaq and Barkley retired, the two people have been secretly competing in the commentary box.

Now it seems that their rivalry has actually started since their playing career.

And extremely unfriendly.

Shaquille O'Neal does have the capital to challenge Barkley.

But Barkley has to say that it was another miracle in the 90s.

He is less than 2 meters tall, but in such a jungle of "muscle sticks", he can dominate the sky with his huge butt.

第一节打到5分24秒的时候，巴克利4投3中，沙克-奥尼尔3投3中，只是习惯性的罚球2罚0中让他看着有些尴尬。

The two do not give in to each other.

It was the Suns that had the advantage on the field.

Kevin Johnson pinned Anfernee Hardaway.

This surprised the people of Orlando. After the first three games of the new season, Hardaway showed his ability as a "hot prospect", averaging 16.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 2.3 steals per game.

His explosive physical fitness, versatile hands, and imaginative on-court performance make him look like an enhanced version of "Magic Johnson."

But it just so happens that Kevin Johnson gets excited when he hits "Magic".

Before Barkley came to the Suns, Johnson led two quasi-All-Star teammates to defeat the Lakers led by the peak "Magic" in the playoffs. His highest performance alone was to reach the Western Conference Finals.

This little man, who is only 1 meters tall, has more exaggerated speed and jumping than Allen Iverson.

If future history does not change, then he will dunk on "Big Dream" Olajuwon in this season's playoffs.

When Allen Iverson was later interviewed, he once said that he had only been beaten to tears by one person, and that was Kevin Johnson. Really crying.

"Small, fast, and smart" can be used to describe Johnson's style of play. Hardaway's height will be at a disadvantage when facing such an opponent from the outside. Even he couldn't keep up with Johnson's speed.

For several consecutive rounds, Johnson was always close to Hardaway, either lowering his center of gravity and directly breaking through, or he was near the free throw line, making a pull-up jump shot to complete the score, or assisting his teammates.

His only problem now is also a common problem in this era:

No three-point ability!

The Magic really don't have any good players who can deal with such "little quickies". Against such players, it is often better to deal with players who are also small and can bite and entangle.

A typical example is Tyronn Lue's entanglement with Allen Iverson in the 01 Finals.

Allen Iverson surpassed him and left a classic painting of the Finals.

But Tyronn Lue received an annual salary of tens of millions after this series!

Since you can't limit the opponent's scoring, you can only increase your own scorers.
  Meng Lang appears!

The Orlando Arena commentator shouted excitedly: "It's another moment like this, Dream comes on the stage, let's see if he can save the team again!"

He used the word "again."

This is due to recent media reports after Adidas has stepped up its efforts. In these reports, Meng Lang has become a bench killer who always comes on the bench when the Magic are behind.

In fact, in a total of 3 games played in the new season, this situation only happened twice, and one of them was only two or three points behind.

It's not like being down by 5 points tonight.

But this is the power of the media. Just like many fans later called Reggie Miller "Jordan's old enemy", but he only played in the playoffs with Jordan once in his entire career.

Yes, just once.

But it was because of the media coverage and the fact that there were so many famous scenes in that game that were worth recalling. Therefore, many fans subconsciously regard him as Jordan's old enemy.

This is the power of media news.

Some people have just witnessed this magical power and have just established their own media companies. It is worth mentioning that when other reporters asked him why he established a media company, he said, I think other people's reports are untrue, and I need to let other fans realize the real me!
  Ok……

So now, Meng Lang has become the person who can step up and save the team when the Magic fall behind.

The more Orlandoans read the newspaper, the more they think so. ——The more fans use Douyin and watch ESPN reports, the more convinced they are that LeBron has surpassed Jordan.

They had forgotten that about a week ago, they booed Meng Lang like crazy.

It is believed that he is not worthy of the two first-round picks and a second-round pick sent by the Magic.

The Suns have experienced the baptism of the Finals, and head coach Paul Westphal seems to have studied Meng Lang's style of play. Originally, at this time point, he would take down Cedric Ceballos and Dan Marley on the wings to rest, but this time he did not take any action, but kept these two people on the court, obviously to play the full game. It's the first quarter.

Both of these two people are 1 meters tall and can defend Meng Lang very well.

It's just that Meng Lang had already set his sights on today's goal on the bench.

As soon as he came up, he took the initiative to cross paths with Hardaway outside the three-point line.

The natural cover formed by Hardaway has benefited Meng Lang a lot. Now Meng Lang likes this tactical movement more and more.

More valuable than going around the bottom line.

Although O'Neal's size and tonnage can form a good cover, the space in the bottom corner is only so large, making him more suitable for "fixed-point squat shooting."

Meng Lang is not that kind of shooter. He can do very good things with the ball handler.

The most important thing is that his eyes are staring straight at Kevin Johnson!
  With a height of 1 meters, it is really suitable for a gun mount!

Come up and make meritorious deeds!
  Kevin Johnson wants to step on the "Sky Monkey", but without a run-up, his excellent jumping ability cannot be displayed to the greatest extent. He touched Meng Lang's knee, and then he could only watch Meng Lang raise his hand to shoot the ball.

"Shh!"

A perfect arc, the ball fell into the basket.

"threeeeeeeeee!"

The audience in the audience became restless with this shout.

Meng Lang has made great achievements since he came up, which makes his image of always standing up to save the team when the team falls behind even more fulfilling.

Chuck Daly smiled with satisfaction.

Coaching Meng Lang was a happy thing, even happier than he originally thought.

It's not that he's great, he's one of those rare players who can make you feel a sense of accomplishment as a head coach at that moment. ——My substitutions are so awesome! That's what it feels like.

Paul Westphal touched his chin, mouthed on the court, and signaled Dan Marley to substitute with Kevin Johnson.

In this way, Hardaway and Meng Lang's outside cross-posting movement will be useless.

Useless……

Then Hardaway and Meng Lang no longer play cross-posting moves from the outside.

Hardaway challenged Dan Marley, used the breakthrough to attract the Suns' help on the wing, and then swung the ball out. The Suns' defense system suddenly stalled. Kevin Johnson had not yet reacted, and he needed to defend in front of him. The person became the familiar Magic No. 23 again.

This is just a sheep of mine, right?

Kevin Johnson was really anxious and jumped up suddenly, but he saw Meng Lang, who was raising his hand to shoot, dribbling the ball, moving to the side, and then shot again. The whole movement was graceful, beautiful and smooth.

Wow ~
  2 meters and still playing fake moves!
  Kevin Johnson has a bit of a mental breakdown.

Depressed, he vented all his anger on Hardaway.

Output hard!
  Hardaway:? ? ?

Co-authored Meng Lang Zai Xiu, I'm going to get beaten, right?

The Suns and Magic entered a stage of mutual explosion, but Meng Lang's first three-pointer helped the team catch up with some points, so at the end of the first quarter, the Magic only trailed by 1 point.

Meng Lang scored 7 points in a single quarter, plus 5 points in the first 4 minutes of the second quarter. He scored 11 points in the first half.

It's just a pity that at the end of the first half, the Magic team was widened by 6 points.

When Meng Lang was not on the court, the Suns' firepower was much more fierce than that of the Magic.

O'Neal is the most handsome kid on the Magic team, with 15 points and 7 rebounds in the half, but he only tied with Barkley. Barkley didn't score as much as him, scoring only 11 points, but grabbed 10 rebounds.

It is worth mentioning that even Rodman admired Barkley's offensive rebounding ability. He once said that if he and Barkley were on the same team, they could steal all the rebounds on the court.

The two of them "succumbed", and Hardaway couldn't hold down Kevin Johnson.

This "hole" needs another person to step forward and fill it.

"Anderson worked very hard to do this, but he sacrificed again!"

Before Shaquille O'Neal came to this team, Anderson was the Magic's top player, averaging 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. At that time, his style of play was mainly focused on scoring in the low post and penalty area.

After Shaquille O'Neal arrived in 92, he made adjustments and added outside shooting.

The average number of three-pointers per game suddenly increased from 1.4 to 3.2.

After three games this year, he gave up the ball and averaged 3.9 three-point points per game!
  At the same time, there were struggles with form.

After he stood outside the three-point line more and more times, his opponents also knew how to defend him better, and his average three-point shooting percentage per game increased from 35.4% to 32.5%.

Down nearly 3%!

This resulted in him being unable to contribute immediately when the team needed him to step up.

His ability to adjust is amazing, but he really hasn't developed into a league-leading shooter yet.

The on-site commentator said in a dull voice:
  "we need meng!"

(End of this chapter)