Bishop of the Devil

Although in Richard's opinion, the Pistons lineup he built is actually no worse than the Trail Blazers, there is a gap in game experience between the two.

Especially Auburn, both are in their seventh season in the league, and they have entered their golden peak.

In this aspect, Yao Ming and Clark are still lacking, and they are likely to suffer in this aspect in the next game.

Clark and O'Neill walked to the midfield line to prepare for a jump ball.

The result did not go beyond Richard's expectation. Xiao'ao, the king of jump balls, successfully got the ball for the Blazers in the first offensive round.

The bearded Baron Davis is recommended when holding the ball. His strong body looks even stronger than the previous two years.

Although Nash's defensive skills have improved a lot now, he is completely unable to face Baron Davis's back-to-back crushing style that relies purely on strength.

At the beginning of the game, Baron Davis pressed Nash and hit a mid-range shot.

Big Beard's style of play made Richard on the sidelines helpless.

In the past, I didn't have any feelings for Big Beard's fighting style. Richard liked this violent fighting style more.

But now that the bearded man has become his opponent, Richard can no longer appreciate it...

This style of play is really a bit shameless, it is to use strong power to eat the opposing players alive.

"It seems that tonight's game is not as easy as I thought..." Richard thought silently.

It is basically impossible for the Yao-Ke combination inside to have a huge advantage over the Auburn combination.

Richard felt that if the fight could be evenly matched, he would totally accept it.

As for the outside lineup, Richard is still relatively confident, but Bearded's attack at the beginning reduced Richard's confidence a lot.

It’s difficult!

However, in the next few offensive rounds, the situation on the field made Richard smile with satisfaction.

Nash is indeed a top backcourt commander. Seeing that he could not restrain the strength monster bearded Davis, he simply switched defenses with the strong and powerful Gerrard.

Gerrard defended Big Beard on the defensive end and immediately limited Big Beard's offensive.

Richard felt at ease. There was no need to worry too much about the situation in the backcourt. The next step was to see if Yao Ming and Clark could withstand the Auburn combination.

Richard is not too worried about the offensive end of Auburn's combination.

Ben has no offensive ability, and O'Brien's offensive ability is not top-notch. It is probably not as good as Yao Ming at the moment, but it is better than Clark.

Speaking purely on the offensive end, the Auburn combination is definitely not as good as the Yao-Ke combination.

But looking at the defensive end, the Auburn combination is better than the Yao-Ke combination.

Ben has the best assist defense ability in the entire NBA history. As for his single defense ability, as he has now entered his golden peak period, he still cannot limit O'Neal alone...

But with his overwhelming strength, it was quite easy to squeeze Yao Ming out of the basket.

Even Xiao Ou has the ability to squeeze Yao Ming out of the basket!

Now it depends on how the Yao Ke combination handles this situation...

In the Pistons' third offensive round, in the first two offensive rounds, Nash used Clark's high pick-and-roll to hit a mid-range shot. As for the other shot, it was Laga Bell who made the three-point shot and missed.

It should be impossible for Laga Bell to produce any outstanding scoring data tonight.

Mainly because he is facing Artest's defense.

The Trail Blazers' starting lineup tonight is Ou, Ben, Artest, Reid and Davis.

Stackhouse is currently mainly playing as Reid's backup for the Trail Blazers.

It has to be said that even if Richard leaves, the legacy of the Trail Blazers remains.

Such a terrifying starting lineup can be assembled casually...

Seeing that there were no good shooting opportunities from the outside, Nash directly aimed at Yao Ming and passed the lob ball to Yao Ming's hands.

Ou's strength burst out, and the moment Yao Ming caught the ball, he started to push Yao Ming out, completely denying Yao Ming a chance to get close to the basket.

Clark also wanted to come to the rescue. In previous games, when encountering inside players who were stronger than Yao Ming, Clark always helped Yao Ming get stuck, allowing Yao Ming to strive to get closer to the basket.

But Clark's plan was obviously going to come to nothing tonight.

Because as soon as he started to move, Ben directly blocked him.

Obviously Zhang Weiping has also carefully studied the Pistons game video, and he also knows very well how devastating it will be to let Yao Ming enter the basket.

…

Seeing Clark being entangled, Yao Ming knew very well that he had to take action as soon as possible, otherwise, he would be squeezed further and further away from the basket by Ou, and his shooting percentage would also drop accordingly.

He turned over and jumped up, and Yao Ming made a mid-range shot.

But after the ball was released, Yao Ming was shocked and broke into a cold sweat...

There was only a slight difference, maybe just a centimeter away, that Xiao Ao was about to block his shot.

Yao Ming still underestimated Ou's athletic ability and defensive ability.

It can be said that Yao Ming's previous six games were a bit too smooth. The strongest insider he encountered was just Big Z with little athletic ability.

When faced with an old insider like Te'Lon Hill who is short and has little bounce, Yao Ming can take action safely without even using a jump.

But now he encountered the league's top insider O'Sullivan, currently the league's second-ranked center, and his shot was almost blocked.

Xiao Ou is definitely in his golden peak right now. He is in his prime years at the age of 24 or 5 and has a good height and wingspan. Coupled with his amazing jumping, it is not difficult even if Yao Ming is hit with a shocking shot. Things to understand.

…

"Duang..." Yao Ming struck.

Clark was getting stuck with Ben, but in terms of strength, Clark was definitely no match for Ben. In the end, he watched Ben take the rebound off his head.

In the first round of the showdown between the Auburn combination and the Yao Ke combination, it can be said that the Auburn combination won completely.

Not only did it destroy Yao Ming's offense, it also grabbed a rebound.

Richard stood on the sidelines and sighed. He had already imagined this situation. At present, Yao Ming and Clark have not yet reached their peak, and they may not be Auburn's opponents.

Judging from the situation in the first round, Richard's guess was correct. It was really the Auburn combination that had the advantage.

It's normal to think about it. O'Neill is the second center in the league, and Ben is the first blue-collar insider in the league. This is undisputed.

A second center and a first blue-collar inside man. If Yao Ming as a rookie with Clark could do anything as a combination of these two, then Yao Ming would be a little too incomprehensible.

It is no exaggeration to say that even O'Neal as a rookie would never be able to accomplish this feat.

…

At present, Richard has almost figured out the situation through the opening few offensive and defensive rounds.

I feel I have an idea of ​​the overall strength of the Pistons right now...

The Pistons are pretty good, at least they are extremely powerful in the Eastern Conference, but there seems to be a gap compared to the Trail Blazers.

Richard cares about this game, not about winning or losing at all, but because he wants to have a clearer understanding of the Pistons' situation.

Now that he generally knows the situation, Richard no longer cares about winning or losing this game. What he cares about most now is Yao Ming's statistics.

Can Yao Ming still hit 20+10 tonight?

This matter is quite important to Richard.

Having maintained the 20+10 data for ten consecutive days, Richard didn't want to fall short tonight.

He is now looking forward to quickly completing the 20+10 item limit for three consecutive months and letting Yao Ming absorb the essence of the sky hook.

…

"I have almost a clear idea of ​​the general situation. Next, let Yao Ming play inside as much as possible!" Richard called a timeout halfway through the first quarter.

The reason why Yao Ming continues to play in the paint when he does not have an advantage in the paint is definitely to continue his 20+10 data.

"Coach, there is no need for me to play alone tonight. I feel it is more appropriate to shoot from the outside..." Yao Ming lowered his head and said to Richard with some embarrassment.

Yao Ming's super high emotional intelligence quickly realized that Richard's practice of continuing to force himself to play inside might cause dissatisfaction with other players in the team.

Although Richard has full prestige in the team and absolutely no one dares to question Richard's tactical arrangements, Yao Ming does not want his teammates to be dissatisfied with Richard because of his own reasons.

Richard was startled, and after hearing Yao Ming's words, he realized something.

"Of course there is a purpose for doing this. Guys, the goal of our team is the championship. As for the Eastern Conference championship and the Central Division championship, they are all bullshit. I, Richard, don't like it. !”

"Now the Trail Blazers may be the biggest rival for our Pistons to win the championship. I need Yao Ming to learn from his experience tonight and find experience against the Auburn team!"

"This is necessary for our future!"

Richard finally explained it, and the reason why he explained it this way was actually for Yao Ming.

If it hadn't been for Yao Ming, Richard wouldn't have had to explain.

In this situation, it is undoubtedly a very unwise choice for me to continue to let Yao Ming play alone in the post.

There may be players who are dissatisfied, and it is even more likely that their teammates are dissatisfied with Yao Ming.

Of course, Richard couldn't allow this to happen, so he explained...

Of course, although this explanation sounds reasonable, it is pure nonsense from Richard.

The ability to bullshit is actually an essential skill for coaches.

If you don't know how to bullshit, how can you convince your players...

And Richard is quite talented at bullshitting. He basically talks at the level of talking without thinking at all.

The Pistons generals nodded, that's what happened.

Or maybe Coach Richard is great. He can think so long-term and have such lofty goals. How could he not be great?