NBA Legends Manager

Chapter 163 Design Competition
The Hornets who won this game are only one game away from fifth in the Western Conference. At this time, the Western Conference rankings are Thunder, Spurs, Lakers, Nuggets, Mavericks, Hornets, Trail Blazers, and Kings!

With the Hornets' current cards, they can only enter the second round if they face the Nuggets, Trail Blazers, and Kings. If they face the following teams, they will basically give up, so they must find a way to face the Nuggets!In other words, the Mavericks should be squeezed to sixth in the West!And make sure that the Nuggets are not overtaken by the Mavericks!
Presti looked at the schedules of the Mavericks, Nuggets and Hornets. What made Presti quite satisfied was that the next schedule of the Nuggets is relatively simple, and there are still 3 chances to play against the Hornets. In these three games, Presti will definitely hand over the victory to the opponent.

The Hornets and the Mavericks still have two more games. Needless to say, they have to work hard to win!
The Hornets players are extremely excited and excited now. They thought that without Paul, their record would plummet, but what they didn't expect was that they won two consecutive games, one of which was the Heat's "Big Three"!The players who were slightly dissatisfied with Presti before, now all admire Presti's five-body cast. Everyone currently has absolute confidence to enter the playoffs!

Time came to mid-March in a blink of an eye. After the Hornets defeated the Heat, they defeated the Bucks, Warriors and Knicks one after another. The Blazers won 3 consecutive victories!It has become the team with the longest winning streak in the league at present, and Gordon, who is on the bench, can average 21 points, 23.5 rebounds and 5 assists in a few games, which is like an All-Star player's data.
On the contrary, the Mavericks have not had a good time these days. After defeating the Lakers with difficulty, they met the Spurs back to back and were defeated directly!Then in the third game, they met the Grizzlies who had been desperately trying to enter the playoffs. With 3 seconds left in the game, Randolph made a mid-range shot and lost two of three games.

On March 3, the Hornets challenged the Nuggets in an away game. In the locker room, Presti sat on the bench and leaned on the cabinet in the locker room, and said to himself: "2 consecutive victories, it's really cheap for the mining team."

"Coach, what's wrong with the mine team?" Gordon leaned over and asked. These days, Gordon has enjoyed a spotlight that he has never had before, received praises that he has never had before, and even played a hearty game that he has never had before. All of these are brought by the person in front of him.

"Ah, nothing, you're starting today," Presti said.

"Well," Gordon nodded. Not only him, but the entire team has become accustomed to Presti's arrangement. No one will raise any objections, and they have absolute trust in Presti.

Although this game must be lost to the Nuggets, Presti will not tell the players to let them cooperate with him to deliberately lose the game, because this will reduce the players' desire to win. A team aiming to enter the playoffs should not be afraid of meeting any team in the playoffs. If you let go of certain games, it means that you are afraid of a certain team, which is undoubtedly a blow to the players' confidence.

The loss of this game can only be borne by improper tactics.

Therefore, Presti put Gordon in the starting lineup, which greatly reduces the firepower of the substitute, and at the same time allows Jeremy Lin to take control, which can also weaken Gordon's possession of the ball. Gordon can only exert his greatest power when he has the ball in his hands. Of course, the purpose of doing this is also to improve Gordon's off-the-ball ability.

At the same time, Presti intends to take Paul George down after the opening minutes and let Paul George lead the rotation lineup.

Even if later generations have become the league's top small forward, Paul George's ability to lead a rotation lineup is also worrying. In his previous life, when the Thunder led the bench, he could lose 12.1 points per lily, ranking first in the league.

Of course, Presti asked Paul George to lead the bench, also to allow him to have absolute shooting power, improve his offensive ability with the ball, and let him grow up quickly.

Nuggets' starters: Lawson, Aaron Afflalo, Chandler, Kenyon Martin, Nene.

Huang Feng starts: Jeremy Lin, Gordon, Paul George, David West, Whiteside.

At the beginning of the game, after Jeremy Lin used the screen to break through and missed a layup, Lawson took the ball past Jeremy Lin and made a mid-range shot. Then Afflalo hit a chasing three-pointer. The Nuggets led 7-2 at the start. Presti saw this and called a timeout.

Presti took Paul George down as planned and replaced Bradley with a three-guard lineup.

Assistant coach Monty Williams was surprised: "Three guards, is there any defense?"

Presti smiled and said: "It's okay." Although Presti is on the three-guard lineup, he knows that it is difficult to lose points in this starting lineup, because Gordon and Bradley are not tall, but they have fast lateral movement, good defense, plus shooting, and wide space.

After returning from the timeout, Gordon went inside with the ball and made a successful layup. Then Lawson sent Nene an empty layup, and then he broke through to open the situation.The offense of the two sides at the beginning was more concentrated on the outside line,

Gordon just hit a three-pointer on the Hornets side, but Chandler turned around and threw two consecutive three-pointers on Bradley's head. The Nuggets relied on outside firepower to play a 13-2 offensive and quickly took the initiative.The Hornets quickly stabilized their position at the last moment. Gordon counterattacked and scored 2+1. David West succeeded in a series of high-post jump shots. With Jeremy Lin sending a dunk for Whiteside, the Hornets trailed the Nuggets 26-28 and entered the second quarter.

In the second quarter, the disaster of George's rotation began. JR Smith received a pass from Felton and hit consecutive three-pointers at the top of the arc. Then Al Harrington made an emergency stop and made a mid-range shot. The Nuggets led the Hornets by 9 points!
Presti, who was below, praised the Nuggets in his heart: "It's not in vain," and then got up, pretending to call a timeout.

"Presti couldn't understand the lineup today, why didn't he let Gordon bring the substitute?" Steve Kerr said.

"Well, I think Gordon can't cope with the Nuggets' substitute," Nuggets commentator Jason Kosmicki said happily. He had no choice but to be unhappy. He thought that after Anthony left, the Nuggets would not even be able to make the playoffs. As a result, more than half a season has passed, and the Nuggets are actually ranked fourth, and now they have suppressed the Hornets, which has won 21 consecutive victories!
In fact, at this time in the previous life, the Mavericks ranked third, the Thunder ranked fourth, and the Nuggets ranked fifth, but Presti's draft made the Thunder the first. Anthony, who left in the middle of the season, actually went to the Knicks before the start of the season.

On the bench, the players surrounded Presti. Presti said to Paul George: "Remember that you are the first offensive option for the substitute and also the core of the playmaker. You are in control and use breakthroughs to create opportunities for teammates." Speaking of this, Presti looked at the rotation players next to him and said: "How you cooperated with Gordon before, now you cooperate with Paul George."

At this time, Presti was secretly proud: "Let Paul George organize the offense, not only exercise Paul George, but also lose points, make the game go according to his own design, kill two birds with one stone."

(End of this chapter)