Champion, please stay!

Chapter 285, Section 283: A Great Start!

With 6 minutes and 11 seconds left in the first quarter, Hollins called a timeout!

After Rose and Boozer each scored a goal at the start, the Grizzlies had 9 points in the four minutes leading up to the official timeout.

Scoring 13 points in half a quarter is not bad for the Grizzlies. Last season, they had an average net rating of 4.1 points, relying solely on suppressing their opponents to an average of only 91.8 points per game while they themselves only averaged 95.9 points per game, which was nearly 4 points lower than the league average.

But of the next 9 points, 5 were scored by Rose: once he grabbed a defensive rebound and scored on a fast break; once he drove to the basket, circled around, and floated a shot that bounced twice before falling into the hoop; and once he drove into the paint, was surrounded, and drew a foul from Gibson, making one of two free throws.

Of the remaining 4 points, one was a low-post one-on-one shot by Boozer against Gibson; the only other was the basket where Tony Allen drove in for a layup, which was a connection between Rose and Boozer, with Boozer passing the ball to the wide-open Tony Allen.

Huo Tu looked at the guy with the mustache on the other side. This guy's team actually made good use of Yi Shui and Chandler. Combining Gibson's switching defense under the basket and Ray Allen and Curry's wing help defense, they played a sweeping mid-range defense!
However, the Knicks had Cheeks, a defensive freak, and a good roster. Hollins knew the opponent had such potential, but he was surprised that D'Antoni had really accepted the defense completely.

Their twin-tower, twin-support offensive formation isn't too difficult to defend, because they don't have any pure pitchers.

During the offseason, they also competed for players like Korver, Mike Miller, and Ray Allen, but Ray Allen ignored them, Mike Miller was abandoned by them and refused to come back, they were willing to give Korver the starting position he wanted, and Tony Allen was willing to play off the bench. They were even willing to offer a salary higher than the mid-level exception, but Korver had had enough of small-town and looked down on Montreal, only wanting to go to big cities. They failed to acquire any of the three top shooters.

Joe Johnson was quite interested in them, considering them his second option outside of New York, but they were too expensive. Although they were benefiting from the rookie bonuses of Rose and Gasol, and Gay had not yet officially submitted his contract extension report, after signing Boozer, who had a mid-range shot and playmaking ability, to a near-maximum contract, they only had a little over $1100 million in cap space left. They failed to acquire Ray Allen, but instead lured Tony Allen back, leaving them with cap space that was at most enough to sign Korver.

Their best three-point shooter on the team right now is Gay, followed by Marion, then rookie Greg Vazquez... and then they have no three-point shooters left. It's foreseeable that they will become the team with the worst long-range shooting in the new season.

Even though both towers have mid-range shots and can create space under the basket, they lack a three-point shooter who can run and receive the ball. Their tactical execution points are all within the circle of the free-throw line, completely within the help defense coverage of Yi Shui and Chandler.

So Hollins can accept that the team's offense didn't go well, since Rose still had 7 points in half a quarter to carry the team. Superstars are meant to do this kind of job.

Hollins was genuinely shocked when their defense was completely overwhelmed!

In the first minute or so, Yi Shui and Curry scored 7 points, but that's not important. It's something we have to accept that the opposing star player scores through individual ability.

可后面4分多钟，尼克斯队团队进攻拿到了13分，6分11秒的时间里拿到了20分！
At this moment, Hollins finally understood why the Celtics' strongest defensive lineup was able to score 21 points in 5 and a half minutes by the Knicks' starters.

At that time, he felt that although the Knicks' new tactical system was very interesting, the reason they were able to score so many points was because Curry and Ray Allen had good long-range shooting touch, and Rivers made a mistake by choosing to collapse the rim to protect it.

Now we know that the Celtics had no choice but to tighten their belts!
In half a quarter, Gibson and Chandler combined for 9 points!
D'Antoni is actually having three All-Stars run around the perimeter to create opportunities for role players? Isn't he worried about the star players being unhappy? This will definitely affect their stats!

Watching Curry and Yi Shui joking and playing around with their teammates on the other side, Ray Allen, who seemed to be giving instructions to Webster who was about to come off the bench...

Hobbs: Damn mustache, how come he's so lucky!
Emperor: I think I'm the king of active scoring champions.

Elementary school student: My boss doesn't care about this, why should I care about it?
Gentleman Sword: Thank you to the Celtics for their guidance.

...

Hollins thinks D'Antoni is lucky, and he's not wrong about that.

A team's regular tactics are to create opportunities for their star player and main scorer, and then use the star player's gravity to create shooting opportunities for role players. This applies to the triangle offense, the Princeton offense, and D'Antoni's run-and-gun offense.

But the core concept of Mark Jackson's tactical approach is to capitalize on role players' opportunities during regular time and give the ball to star players in crucial moments.

This is the core of the ideological conflict between D'Antoni and Mark Jackson, and it's also the reason why Mark Jackson, despite having such a great ability to build systems, couldn't even find a job in the original timeline—because it would inevitably clash with what the stars and management wanted.

If Mark Jackson successfully persuaded D'Antoni to switch teams, he might offend a star player – in Big's mind, victory is above all else, and there are many scoring opportunities beyond tactics. He is a superstar and certainly has the ability to seize them.

It is precisely because Yi Shui actively embraced the new system that the Knicks were able to build their new system so quickly.

After the timeout, both teams made personnel adjustments.

The Knicks brought in a lineup of Curry, Webster, Yi Shui, Amir Johnson, and Frye.

The Grizzlies brought in a lineup consisting of Rose, Vazquez, Gay, Marion, and Gasol.

Hollins replaced all the players who can shoot threes with the three players at positions 2-4, all of whom can shoot and defend. This is also why the Grizzlies' offseason acquisition of shooters was very limited. The shooters they wanted had to have at least one of the following abilities: one-on-one defense and team defense. This resulted in them not getting a single three-point shooter and only managing to select Vasquez with the first-round pick they got from the Lakers.

On the offensive end, Hollins' adjustments were very targeted—the interior has one less playmaker, and the ability to pass the ball is weaker, but the spacing is wider, making it easier for Rose to drive and dish.

On the defensive end, Hollins didn't have a clear strategy for the time being. The opponent's tactics were too unconventional, so he made the same choice as Rivers—collapse the defense to protect the rim, at least to prevent the opponent's role players from scoring 9 points in the paint in another half-quarter. In the second half of the quarter, the Knicks' defense wasn't as good as it was in the preseason game against the Celtics. After all, Ray Allen and Chandler were both out, so their defense was only passable.

The Grizzlies scored 13 points in 5 minutes and 49 seconds, and unlike the first half of the quarter, when they relied solely on the individual scoring abilities of Rose and Boozer, they executed their usual offensive strategy of Rose driving and dishing, Gasol facilitating, and Gay taking long-range isolation plays.

The Knicks' offense didn't rain down three-pointers like they did against the Celtics; neither Curry nor Yi Shui made a single three-pointer.

However, Frye hit a three-pointer from the corner after receiving a pass from Yi Shui at the top of the arc during a half-court set. Webster then hit a three-pointer after receiving a pass from Curry on the sideline during a fast break from Yi Shui. The two combined for 2 of 4 three-pointers, creating a lot of space.

Although Yi Shui didn't have any scoring opportunities in the tactics, when his teammates were tired from running the tactics and needed to rest, he stepped up and attacked one-on-one, repeatedly penetrating into the paint and drawing fouls. He made all four free throws. Unfortunately, the fouls were always committed by the wing perimeter players who were helping on defense, not Gasol. He just wouldn't jump!

Curry also hit a long two-pointer from a distance, after driving to the right baseline using a screen.

With Amir Johnson's putback and Curry's successful free throw after drawing a foul on a drive and making both free throws, the Knicks scored 16 points in half a quarter!
After the first quarter, the Knicks led the Grizzlies 36-26 by 10 points!
It has to be said that Tony Allen is definitely the Grizzlies' third greatest asset since the team's inception, after Gasol and Rose. Tony Allen's addition has added tenacious resilience to the Grizzlies' endless drive.

If it were any other strong defensive team, even one led by Larry Brown, and they were to be outscored 36 points in the first quarter while playing all-out defense, they would collapse.

But the Grizzlies didn't! Although the players were stunned, they stepped back onto the court at Tony Allen's urging and regained their iron-blooded form, playing desperate defense, aggressively attacking the basket, and taking shots, even more hard-fought and fierce than in the first quarter.

However, the Knicks did not relax just because they were leading by 10 points in the first quarter.

Last year in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics taught them that winning the first game doesn't guarantee victory.

Facing a core lineup of Rose, Tony Allen, Gay, Marion, Boozer, and Gasol, they dared not be careless.

Rose scored 11 points in the first quarter, more than Yi Shui's 10 points and Curry's 9 points!
For Yi Shui, Rose's stunning drives to the basket were not surprising at all.

What he didn't expect was that Rose would actually make two turnaround floaters coming off the baseline in the first quarter!
Although he only made 2 out of 4 floaters from both sides of the basket, which is inefficient for an inside shot, this is a skill that Rose didn't even have in the Olympics, otherwise he wouldn't have been mocked by Chandler for "running sprints in the paint".

With Rose, Gay, and Boozer taking turns leading the charge, the Grizzlies scored one more point in the second quarter than in the first.

However, the Knicks' team offense was solid, scoring 13 points in the first half and 15 points in the second half. At halftime, they led the Grizzlies 64-53, maintaining their double-digit lead.

From another perspective... the Grizzlies withstood the Knicks' offensive onslaught in the second quarter, preventing the point difference from widening further!

In the third quarter, the two teams switched sides and continued their fierce battle. The point difference remained stubbornly high. If the defense wasn't careful, they would be caught off guard by Yi Shui's sprint, Curry's follow-up pass, and Webster's pursuit. But the Grizzlies players never considered giving up. They fought hard on defense and took shots on offense.

Persistence paid off. Towards the end of the third quarter, the Knicks went on a stretch of missed outside shots. Rose launched two fast breaks, and Gay followed up with successful scores. In addition, Gasol hit a mid-range jumper and Marion hit a three-pointer in the half-court set, resulting in a 9-0 run that narrowed the 13-point gap to 4 points, bringing the score to 78-82!

At the crucial moment, Yi Shui stepped up, one-on-one against Gay on the outside, broke into the mid-range, and pulled up for a mid-range jumper over Marion who came to help.

Then Yi Shui collapsed on the wing to block Boozer's cut-in, and Chandler delivered a big block, while Chalmers, who came in from the sideline, protected the defensive rebound.

Turning around, Yi Shui received the ball at the high post, turned and jumped to the free throw line, leaped up and made a mid-range shot... and it went in again!
Then, taking advantage of Chalmers stepping back to defend, Rose took a gamble and pulled up for a three-pointer... The rhythm of that three-pointer was even more awkward than Westbrook's pull-up mid-range shot, and it hit the rim directly.

With nine seconds left in the quarter, the Grizzlies knew that Yi Shui was going to shoot, and Gay and Marion blocked him, but they still couldn't stop Yi Shui from turning around and taking a step to the side to receive the ball.

Despite Guy's close-range attack from the side, Yi Shui pulled up and threw... another hit!
被打了一波9比0后，易水独自回敬了对面一波7比0，三节打完，尼克斯队以89比78重新取得两位数领先优势！
In the final quarter, the Grizzlies launched another counterattack, with Rose, Gay, and Boozer taking turns to score one-on-one, coupled with Gasol's mid-range shots, Marion's long-range shots, and cuts for assists. They relied purely on their star players and performed exceptionally well, scoring a game-high 30 points in the quarter.

But on the Knicks' side, Curry played 21 minutes in the first three quarters, Ray Allen played 17 minutes, Chandler played 19 minutes, and Yi Shui played 29 minutes, all playing the entire fourth quarter! Coupled with Frye, who had the best shooting performance tonight, although their defense couldn't stop the opposing team's three stars, their offense took off!

The scene that the fans in the arena had been waiting for finally appeared. At the start of the final quarter, the Knicks switched back to their familiar fast-paced style of play, focusing on receiving passes and passing from the sidelines. Yi Shui, Curry, and Ray Allen each hit a three-pointer from the right 45-degree angle, the right sideline, and the top arc, respectively, starting with a 9-2 run and scoring 35-30 in the quarter!
At 10:22 p.m., Rose let out a frustrated roar and threw the ball forward, and the final whistle blew.

首节11分、第二节7分、第三节6分、末节8分，罗斯新赛季首战25投12中、其中三分球2中0，加上11中8的罚球，拿到30分3板6助攻2抢断，率队打出了超出预期的进攻表现。

However, the Grizzlies' defense was completely overwhelmed!

The Knicks defeated the Grizzlies 124-108, a 16-point victory, marking a winning start to the new season!

Hollins stared at the data on the big screen, feeling numb. But compared to the opponent's 'new fast-paced attack' that he didn't know how to defend against, what he found even more incredible was Yi Shui's individual performance.

在不是第一战术终结点、而是中转策应点的情况下，易水19投10中，其中三分球5中3，加上13中12的罚球，拿到了全场最高的35分，外加8板7助攻1抢断3盖帽。

10 points in the first quarter, 6 points in the second quarter, 11 points in the third quarter, and 8 points in the final quarter!
If there's no opportunity in the strategy, I won't shoot; most of my shots are one-on-one when my teammates need to rest!
(End of this chapter)