On March 30, the SuperSonics defeated the underdog Clippers 124-84 at home, with a record of 69 wins and 6 losses.
Steve Francis is a contradiction. His style of play attracts fans and increases the attendance of the Clippers. He averages 21.6 points, 7 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He looks like a first-line star. But he can't win with the ball.
Ball, averaging 3.7 turnovers per game is also very conspicuous.
Yang Jian continues to win the Western Conference Player of the Month and is about to complete his monopoly in the regular season. The Eastern Conference Player of the Month is Vince Carter of the Raptors, and the team's record continues to lead the Eastern Conference.
Paul Pierce of the Celtics provided a point. In the parallel world, he was elected the best of the month for the first time in his career. He only had two best of the month in his entire career because the most valuable one was lost due to the butterfly effect.
After winning the award, Carter was not very happy. He believed that without Yang Jian's pressure, he would probably be elected as the regular season MVP this season.
In a parallel world, Carter played for 22 seasons before retiring, saying that he would not sell his soul for the championship, purely for the competition! Some people say this is the last arrogance of the stubborn flyer, while others say he is a Buddhist player with no ambitions and just wants to play.
In fact, how could Carter not have ambitions? If he really had no ambitions, he wouldn't be making a fuss about leaving the Raptors. Later, playing a few more seasons without retiring was his ambition. As for winning the championship, it's all about his ability
Can your brain choose the winning team?
Carter's current position in Toronto is very solid. As long as he doesn't seek death, he will always be the boss of the Raptors.
On April 3, the SuperSonics defeated the Spurs again 118-107 in an away game.
Duncan scored 30 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocks, shooting 64.7% from the field. Unfortunately, the Sonics had more success.
The SuperSonics' trio of 20, Yang Jian, Payton, and Lewis, all shot over 50% from the field. Yang Jian scored 26 points, 4 rebounds, 14 assists, and 3 steals.
Yang Jian's points in this game were almost all jump shots, and he also deliberately shot jump shots against Patterson. He led the opponent to step up and demonstrated in this unique way.
If you have the guts, just keep stepping in. And if you don't step in, no one will say anything good after the game.
This time, the defense of the Spurs players was particularly clean. Reuben Patterson played in a normal defensive manner for 30 minutes. He jumped up to interfere with the shot. Instead of not jumping after watching the opponent shoot, he ran over and stretched his legs to catch the shot.
By doing this, he became more convinced that he had deliberately stepped in and was specially trained by the Spurs.
As long as a player defends normally and his body will lean forward when jumping to block a shot or interfere with a jump shot, it will be difficult for him to step on others after playing basketball for a lifetime. It is not an intentional step and usually occurs when fighting for rebounds.
So the fans continued to denounce Patterson. "He stopped stepping in this time. It looked like he did it on purpose before and he had practiced it before. This kind of person should be permanently banned. Why should he play basketball?"
"It would be strange if Patterson was not instructed by Popovich. If the coach didn't arrange it this way, would he, an ordinary role player, be crazy and dare to step on Yang Jian? Does he not care about his future future?"
"The Spurs are so disgusting. What can Popovich say today? Patterson didn't know how to defend before, but now he can? And Patterson is just stepping on Yang Jian's feet. He won't do this when guarding others."
"The old man is scared, afraid that Yang Jianzhen will rush to the sidelines and punch him, causing him to become paralyzed. The explanation is just a cover-up. Anyone who knows the truth knows that I will never watch Spurs games in the future anyway."
Popovich's reputation is completely ruined, and his teaching of players' stepping stones is almost a real practice.
All coaches know that when the opponent jumps, it is absolutely inappropriate for the defensive player to dive out and take two steps to make up. This is very dangerous and unsportsmanlike. No one should do this to others.
If Popovich is really a good person, when his disciple does this kind of thing for the first time, he should stand up and teach the opponent, "Please be a human being." He should not say after the game that the disciple did not mean it.
The face of a villain who succeeds.
Duncan was very helpless after reading the news and regretted renewing his contract with the Spurs. With the team's current reputation, what can he do to lead the team to win the championship? This is already a hellish difficulty.
On April 13, the SuperSonics lost to the Suns 105-106.
The Suns blossomed more under the organization of Jason Kidd, with four players scoring 20 points. This offensive mode is the most difficult to defend, and opponents don't know who to guard.
Kidd, who was beaten by Payton when he was a student, is now as good as Payton or even slightly better than him in terms of personal ability. He has produced excellent statistics against Payton many times, and today he scored 24 points, 8 rebounds, 15 assists and 2 steals.
Under the leadership of Yang Jian, the SuperSonics' offense was also very smooth, and the two sides were in a stalemate until the last moment.
The SuperSonics completed an attack in the last 11 seconds. Yang Jian relied on the screen to run to the weak side to catch the ball. He changed direction on the right side before being flanked, faced Marion's defense and forced a mid-range shot. Under severe interference, he hit the ball accurately.
Killer.
It's a pity that Yang Jian left the Suns one time to attack. There was nothing he could do about it. Even if he was confident and wanted to press the clock, he couldn't stop the game from ending.
Suns players passed the ball several times, and power forward Clifford Robinson caught the ball on the left and turned to the baseline for a jump shot. Under Mason's interference, he hit the buzzer-beating buzzer-beater.
George Karl's decision to send Mason at the last moment cannot be said to be a wrong decision. Mason is much better defensively than Lewis. However, Mason's height of 201cm makes it difficult to block the opponent's jump shot, and his weakness is obvious.
Robinson, who is 208cm tall and weighs 102kg, plays center and has become the Suns' unique talent. Robinson played very well in this game. He made 7 of 12 shots, 3 of 4 three-pointers, 3 of 4 free throws, and scored 20 points and 7 rebounds.
1 assist.
Yang Jian was still the best performer among the two teams, scoring 37 points, 6 rebounds, 14 assists and 2 steals, including 15 points in the final quarter.
On the 15th, the SuperSonics were upset at home, losing to the Mavericks 105-110.
It rained suddenly that day, and the Sonics players were soaked in the rain as soon as they left the arena after morning training. No one was in the mood to play, and Payton also had a cold.
Only Yang Jian performed well in the team. He relied more on singles to solve problems and did not lead the team.
Dirk Nowitzki, the core of the Mavericks' interior, showed a rare toughness, scoring 25 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks.
The Mavericks' head coach is Don Nelson, nicknamed the "Mad Scientist."
He made a bold experiment and asked Nowitzki to play the starting center, which worked well. Juwan Howard, who was traded from the Wizards in the mid-term, played the power forward, and the two of them opened up the space together.
The inside players were pulled out, and Nash and Finley on the outside also got more room to break through.
The Mavericks' tactics are very targeted. Not only can they compete with the Sonics offensively, they also do well on the defensive end.
The Sonics lack inside players who are good at attacking in the low post, and their offense relies on outside players' breakthroughs and jump shots. Brad Miller cannot beat Nowitzki in the low post, and his defensive effect is also very poor.
Nowitzki is a center with height, weight, and a swingman style of play. He is very confident when taking on big players. Juwan Howard also did a good job defending Lewis. Both of them are tall and lanky forwards. Howard's experience
Richer.
The SuperSonics suffered a losing streak at the end of the regular season, and Yang Jian said after the game that it didn't matter.
"It's just the regular season. If the Sonics were ranked first, I would be depressed. How would the other teams feel? It's hard to live. We will adjust our state in the playoffs. A losing streak in the regular season is not terrible.
."
The reporter asked: "How do you evaluate your opponent's performance?"
"The Mavericks are an excellent team with a promising future. Especially Nash and Nowitzki, I am optimistic that they will become superstars. They both have excellent shooting touch and basketball skills."
Yang Jian never hesitates to praise his opponents when evaluating his opponents, especially the two Mavericks. It doesn't matter how much he praises them. Because it is impossible for them to cooperate with Yang Jian in the future, the two international players come together to form a dual-core, purely because they don't want to mix.
In a parallel world, it took many years for the Mavericks to figure this out. They gave up Nash and signed "the second center in the Western Conference" Dampier, which was a loss to grandma's family...
The Sonics players rested for two days and defeated the underdog Warriors at home on the 18th.
At this point, the SuperSonics ended their regular season journey with a record of 74 wins and 8 losses!