Basketball Dragon

Chapter 160 Morale Decline
In the second half, the Heat also realized that there was a problem with their defense and made targeted changes.

The Knicks' defense is still in contraction mode, but some changes have been made in details.

Seeing that the Heat's defense on the outside was tighter, the Knicks gave the ball to Eddie Curry several times for singles. Eddie Curry hit a decent percentage, but O'Neal caused a foul.

Li Hai saw that O'Neill's foul count had reached three times, so he was also hesitant.

During a transitional attack, Li Hai took the initiative to rush over while O'Neill was not in a stable position. O'Neill showed no mercy to the opponent who dared to charge towards him, and pressed his big arm hard.

However, Li Hai was already prepared. He dodged in the air, and made a layup motion with his arm towards O'Neill's arm. The referee's whistle did not disappoint him, and it rang in time.

O'Neal fouled four times and had to go down early to rest.

Although Alonzo Mourning is also good, it is limited to defense, and because of his height, Eddie Curry is not afraid of him.

Don't care about the Heat's inside offensive power, the Knicks can wholeheartedly fight the opponent outside, and the Knicks' outside strength is not afraid of any team in the league.

After O'Neal left the court, the Heat's offensive burden completely fell on Wade. The other players did not have the support of the inside, and the threat was greatly reduced.

The Knicks maintained the lead and entered the last quarter. O'Neal, who was upset by the Knicks, also became a little angry. After playing again, he squeezed Eddie Curry directly to the basket with the first ball. A heavy buckle.

However, he hit a hook near the free throw line. A superstar is a superstar. Even if his strength is not at its peak, he is still different from ordinary players. When O'Neal broke out, no one could stop the Knicks.

Fortunately, even if O'Neal turns on the berserk mode now, it only takes one quarter at most, and more often, he can only play the performance of an ordinary excellent center.

The combination of the two is still a strength for a while, but he didn't show the performance of a general excellent center before this game, so it's a bit late to break out again at this time.

The Knicks are not a big team either. O'Neal's explosion will make him explode. At this time, they hold a double-digit lead. As long as they play a good offense, they will win.

Faced with O'Neal's outburst at the last moment, two insiders fouled five times, while Li Hai continued to attack, and when he found an opportunity, he tried to make O'Neal's foul.

Although his shooting percentage was not very high after he was heavily marked in the fourth quarter, and he failed to make too many fouls by O'Neal, but his attack successfully contained the Heat's pursuit of points.

At the last moment, both Wade and Jason Williams began to try three-pointers. Three-pointers are not a conventional weapon for the Heat. Wade chose three-pointers to show that the Heat have nothing to do.

In the last minute, the Heat let the substitute come on and give up the game.

The Knicks won their first victory in the second round 99:89. Li Hai scored 32 points, Marbury and Francis also scored 22 points and 20 points respectively. In addition, the three of them also contributed a total of 20 assists. The strong performance is the reason for their victory.

After winning the Heat in an away game, the media in New York cheered. The Knicks haven't entered the second round for several years, and their performance this time gave many people hope for further progress.

Inside the team, confidence has also increased greatly, and some people even think that the Heat are no longer terrible.

Li Hai didn't intend to pour cold water on him, but he tried his best to remind others to pay attention to their opponents.

Then in the second game, the scripts of the two sides seemed to be changed.

Wade showed his power in the first quarter and scored 17 points. Marbury, who was facing Wade, was limited to only 4 points. After being valued by the opponent, Li Hai only scored 8 points in a satisfactory manner. Si suddenly fell behind by double digits.

Relying on the performance of Crawford and Jaylen Rose in the second quarter, the Knicks brought the score gap back to single digits, but in the last third quarter, O'Neal showed off for the Heat, scoring 13 points and letting Eddie -Curry's four fouls were forced to rest early and extended the score advantage to double digits.

In the last quarter, Li Hai switched to defend Wade, which did not allow Wade to play a strong performance again, but at the same time consumed his energy. On the offensive end, his efficiency was mediocre, and he failed to help the team recover the score. The big score match between the two sides It became a 1:1 tie.

For this loss, the Knicks players are also aggrieved.

"Damn it, we were too careless in the first quarter."

"It's not that our strength is not as good as the opponent's, it's because Wade got too many free throws at home."

Li Hai was a little worried when he heard it, "Actually, we didn't handle the details of defense well enough. We need to be more cautious in the next game."

"Li, you're talking more and more like Coach Brown, don't worry too much, it's our home game next."

Marbury also said with a smile: "It's not bad to fight for an away game. As long as we win the home game, we can avenge last year."

Returning to the home game, the Knicks defended Wade more tightly. Even if Li Hai did not switch defenses, the Knicks did not need to change the team defense to defend Wade. Unlike Arenas, Wade is not a strong threat outside the three-point line , The Knicks can still shrink the defensive line and are ready to deal with O'Neal at any time.

Both sides made no mistakes at the beginning of this game, and the game was inextricably linked.

During the bench time, the Knicks' rotation led by Crawford also performed normally, but the Heat's rotation also performed well, and the Heat's rotation was better defensively.

After the Knicks' main lineup came on the field, they played 51 points, but at the end of the first half, the two sides could barely fight to a 51:[-] tie.

In the third quarter, O'Neal started to show off like setting a timer.

Eddie Curry's performance against O'Neal was also good, but it was still a little bit worse than O'Neal.

Even if he has worked hard in these few games, such things as strength are accumulated through hard training, and there will be no big changes on a whim.

The Heat relied on O'Neal's performance to enter the last quarter with an 8-point advantage, and then Wade showed off again. Wade's starting speed was faster than Lehi, so as long as he threw himself inside, the Knicks fouled inside. The odds are high, it's not that the referee is biased.

Li Hai tried his best to stop Wade, but in the end the Knicks still lost by 91:99 with 8 points.

Without any excuses at all, the Knicks felt the gap in key strengths, and their morale plummeted.

(End of this chapter)