basketball scientist

In the 58th game of the season, the Kings visited Plateau to face the Denver Nuggets, who had suffered a five-game losing streak after the All-Star break.

Last season, the Nuggets were a tough opponent for the Kings to deal with. This season, they have fallen to the edge of the Western Conference playoffs.The team's lineup on paper is pretty good. Thomas, Gay, and Cousins ​​are all players who can score 20+ points in any game, but when put together, the chemical reaction is quite average, and it feels like... three Don't use your personal energy in one place.

It can only be said that the loss of Ujiri, George Karl and Billups in one summer is not something the Nuggets can bear, and bringing in a parallel import like Brian Shaw to take charge of the team is a complete honey operation. .

Despite having the home advantage of the plateau, the Nuggets were firmly suppressed by the Kings from the beginning of the game!This aspect of Thomas would be a disaster against either Curry or Harden. In other words, Brian Shaw simply doesn't know how to use Thomas' strengths and avoid weaknesses, leaving it to the Kings to figure it out.

The Kings have a clear advantage on the outside, while the Nuggets are stronger on the inside. The Kings did give Cousins ​​enough room to play, allowing his cousin to efficiently score a large double-double of 34+12.

However, Cousins ​​​​has always given people the impression that he can obtain good data, but he cannot lead the team to win.As a center, he frequently moved close to the three-point line to initiate singles, which greatly disrupted his teammates' offensive rhythm. At the same time, his pick-and-rolls for Thomas were basically perfunctory. Such a style of play made his teammates completely unable to find him. With a comfortable rhythm, it is naturally difficult to lead the team to win.

In contrast is Gobert's performance.Although Gobert's 6 points and 11 rebounds can only be said to be average, he has the inherent tactical execution ability of European players. The quality of the pick-and-roll alone is far better than Cousins ​​​​who has a better body!

After Chandler was injured, Gobert was "forced" to take over early and performed surprisingly well.His rapid growth is the key to the Kings maintaining their first record in the Western Conference!Judging from the current situation, if Gobert can hold back in the playoffs, even if Chandler comes back next season, he may only be a substitute.If things develop like this, Ke Yan doesn't know whether to be proud of his vision or worried about how to deal with Chandler.

The Kings are leading the Nuggets by a large score, and the commentator is lamenting that with Ke Yan running the team, it is not surprising that the Kings have become a strong team, but the Nuggets have unknowingly become the "Denver Kings" after two seasons. In fact, It's puzzling.

Looking back, the return the Nuggets got from trading Anthony was not a loss. However, due to various reasons in the past two seasons, they let go of Nene and Billups. This is not a small loss. And the draft pick resources they obtained were not fully utilized. As time went by, failure was inevitable.

There was no wind and waves for most of the game. With a big lead, Ke Yan also controlled the playing time of the players.However, after all, Curry still has the task of bringing an MVP to the Sacramento fans, so in the fourth quarter of the game, Ke Yan still arranged for Curry to come on the court to collect statistics.

As a result, this move really "lost his wife and lost his troops." During a defense, Curry poked Afflalo's waist with his finger, then quickly walked to the sideline with his finger covered and asked the team doctor to break it off. return.

Curry almost couldn't stand due to the pain after this reset. Ke Yan immediately replaced Curry and asked the team doctor to examine him.

Although the team doctor's feedback was that the joint was dislocated, which was not serious, in line with the principle of "a small injury, a big recovery", Ke Yan still let Curry stay on the bench until the end and did not play. (47-11)

In the last game of February, the Kings continued to fight at a plateau, playing away against the Jazz, who had slowly recovered in the second half of the season. Ke Yan replaced Curry, who was "injured."

Two months before the start of the season, Irving's performance could be called an undercover performance, with random offenses and second-lowest defensive efficiency in the league, only higher than Thomas. During the offseason, he filmed commercials, put on shows, and participated in various activities that were considered training drawbacks. However, being suppressed by Curry and Kobe in the competition for the All-Star starting lineup was a huge blow to him, which meant that there was a high probability that his originally "certain" Rose clause would not be fulfilled, and he would lose 1000 million in vain!This also gave Owen a painful lesson, and his performance slowly recovered.

After the All-Star Game, Irving averaged 28+7 per game and led the Jazz to a record of 5 wins and 1 loss. Looking back from the bottom, the team currently has a record of 28 wins and 30 losses, ranking 12th in the Western Conference, one point away from the Western Conference. The eighth-ranked Clippers still have 5 wins. It will be difficult to get back into the playoffs, but it is not hopeless.

Ke Yan and Hornacek are old friends. They rotate Curry in this game, not only to protect Curry, but also to help a group of their "allies".

Ke Yan deliberately let off steam, and his command of the whole game was relatively lackluster; but in fact, when Harden led the team alone and assumed a lot of ball rights, the Kings' combat strength was not equal to the regular combat strength - Curry, and even because of the comparison of tactics Clearly, the role players performed better.

To a certain extent, this is also a drawback that is more likely to occur when building a team around Harden.The ball rights are too concentrated in Harden's hands, and the role players are too functional!This set may be able to support the team in the regular season, but in the playoffs where the level is higher, the standards are looser, the confrontation is stronger, and the targeting is stricter, when Harden is targeted and cannot draw a foul, The shortcomings will be exposed.

全场比赛，哈登砍下36分13助攻6篮板的夸张数据，并且在比赛还剩11.7秒的时候命中致胜三分，帮助球队110:107击败了爵士队，延续了近期的出色状态。（48-11）

The Kings' victory also silenced a large number of Lakers fans who said "The Kings are letting the Jazz off by resting Curry."After the game, Ke Yan also expressed regret to Hornacek.

"I feel like you guys are really in danger." Ke Yan said.

Even if the Western Conference is not as good as before in recent years, if it wants to enter the playoffs, it still needs at least 45 wins.Counting this game, the Jazz have lost 31 games. It will be difficult to control the number of losses to less than 23 games in the next 6 games.

"Just take it one step at a time. It's normal for a young team to have ups and downs." Hornacek was also a little helpless. Perhaps this was the first time in his coaching career that he missed the playoffs for a full season.

However, he started coaching the Jazz in 11 and helped the team rebuild from the ruins. Hornacek has a certain fault tolerance rate in the Jazz. If he really misses the playoffs, he will not be fired. . . . . .

Even if you are fired, you will not be unable to find a job!

. . . . . . .

In March, the Kings challenged the New York Knicks away from home. Ke Yan and Curry returned to Madison. The league's No. 3 team vs. the defending champions was the most watched game of the season.

Curry, who missed one game due to injury, returned to the team's starting lineup and scored a three-pointer at the beginning amid boos from the audience!

Long before Key Yan coached the Knicks, Curry had already reached a franchise agreement with Isiah Thomas. For this reason, Curry refused almost all trials from other teams and only participated in trials with the Knicks and Kings (online There are photos of Curry trying out for the Kings); after joining the Knicks as he wished and being dubbed the "NBA Messi" by Ke Yan, Curry led the Knicks back to the top four in the Eastern Conference for the first time in 11 years. At that time, Curry really I thought about dedicating my entire career to the Knicks and New York fans.

Unfortunately. . . . . .Now that we meet again, the two parties have become the most familiar strangers.As the Kings become stronger and stronger, and the Knicks still maintain their dominance in the Eastern Conference, the two sides are very likely to meet in the finals in a future season and form a long-term competitive relationship.

After the opening, the Kings' offense was full of momentum. Facing the top-defensive Holiday, Curry showed even more top-level offensive capabilities, dismantling the defense that left Paul, Lillard, and Wall helpless, and effectively It slaps many people in the face for saying that Curry is not good at one-on-one;

On the contrary, the Knicks' offense is not going well.Facing James, whether it was Middleton in one-on-one or Gobert in the pick-and-roll, they all resolutely chose the defensive principle of preventing breakthroughs and not shots. If James has the ability to hit long-range shots, the Kings will admit it, but he wants to take it easy He drove into the basket and scored without even thinking about it.

James's mid- and long-range shooting is also a bit tricky. When he is accurate, he keeps hitting like a speed shot. When he is accurate, he can't make any shot. The more difficult thing for the Knicks is that neither Holiday nor Horford are. Especially stable space points, their projection ability is relatively average!Even Anthony is more accustomed to holding the ball and finding rhythm before shooting, rather than catching and shooting.

This is also the reason why the Knicks have an average record this season after Nash was injured.Holiday and Horford each have their own advantages, but they also need to control the ball to a certain extent. When the Knicks' ball rights are more concentrated in the hands of James and Anthony, Holiday is only regarded as a defensive leader and only as a defensive leader. When Horford is used as a 3D center, he is both a small talent and a powerful player.

But as the Knicks are firmly in the top two teams in the NBA strength list, they are also very confident!The starting lineup couldn't beat the Kings, but their bench lineup still has an absolute advantage!During Ke Yan's two years as coach, he left the Knicks with too much wealth. In addition to the bargaining chip for Anthony's trade, it also included Holiday, Horford, and Mozgov. The Knicks' financial resources are enough to support the team to stay. Together with J.R. Smith recruited by Anthony, Kenyon Martin, Artest who was waived by the Lakers, etc., their bench is obviously stronger than the Kings bench led by the team's discarded player Stephenson.

After coming off the bench, J.R. Smith scored two 2-pointers in succession and completed an extra dunk, helping the Knicks even the point difference!

At the beginning of the second quarter, Ke Yan left Harden on the court and led the team to suppress the Knicks' bench.

J.R. Smith has played next to James, Anthony, and Nash in the past two years and has had few opportunities to hold the ball. Under the strict defense of the Kings, his efficiency has also declined somewhat; on the other hand, Harden's foul-drawing skills have made the Knicks players hate him. The defensive retreat also gives Harden more room for micro-management; and I have to say that Harden is really the best in the league when it comes to supporting his teammates.Blake and Mike Miller received Harden's pass and hit three-pointers respectively, helping the Kings expand their lead to double digits!

Mike Miller, the "liability" who was dumped by the Heat on the Kings like "sweeping garbage", as a human T, has been involved in the Kings' transactions this season many times to balance the transaction amount, but in this game showed good competitive status.

With a big score behind, Gentry replaced Anthony to strengthen the offense. It was Mike Miller who bravely faced Melo and held Anthony against him without letting Melo do whatever he wanted!

And Anthony's weakness of poor defensive habits was also magnified in front of a guy like Harden who "plays with his brain". Not only did the point difference not narrow, it actually widened to 17 points at one point.

37:54, this score is very dazzling in the eyes of Knicks fans. In desperation, Gentry can only call a timeout, and then switch back to the main lineup to stabilize the overall situation!

Compared to the double-edged sword of Anthony, James is the Knicks' anchor.As soon as he came on the field, he used the space created by the pick-and-roll to get to the basket resolutely, forcefully hit the inside guarded by Dedmon, slammed the ball into the basket, and caused Dedmon to foul!

After landing, James glared like a wild beast, staring at Dedmon, which almost triggered a dispute between the players on both sides.

In the strong collision, Ke Yan was not pretentious, and immediately brought the main players back to the court to compete head-on with the Knicks.

The foundation of this Knicks was built by Ke Yan, and then was taken over by James. If he couldn't beat them head-on, Ke Yan himself would feel aggrieved!

Curry also has this mentality. If James hadn't joined, maybe by today, he and Ke Yan would have led the Knicks to winareally ringing, right?

Curry, who "attacked with hatred", showed no mercy. At halftime, the Kings maintained a 15-point lead. (52:67)