Anthony the Reborn

Chapter 13 Phoenix Suns

On October 10, after five days of training, the Nuggets flew to Phoenix to start the 10-2003 preseason campaign. Their first opponent was the Suns.

Anthony's deepest understanding of the Suns is naturally "Son of the Wind" Nash, but at this time Nash is still on the Mavericks, forming a troika with Nowitzki and Finley. At this time, the Suns can also be said to be just starting stage, the team's core is Marbury, Marion and last year's best rookie Amare Stoudemire.

The head coach of the Suns is Frank Johnson. This coach only took office in January last year, but he led the team to the playoffs last season. Although it stopped in the first round, the fast basketball style he advocated is very suitable for the Suns This is the reason for his success.

Although Anthony doesn't know Frank Johnson, he is very familiar with D'Antoni who is sitting on the sidelines. He can be said to be the originator of bombardment, but he is still an assistant coach at this time. style of play.

The home court of the Suns is in the American West Arena, which can accommodate more than 1 people. In 9, the NBA already had a certain influence. Although it was not the first player in the United States, the fan base was still solid. In an ordinary preseason game, nearly one-third of the people watching the game reached.

The two teams started warming up before the game. Boykins of the Nuggets did not go out with the team because of diarrhea, but because it was a preseason game, the players were not affected much.

Anthony made himself as active as possible while warming up. This was his first real game. Although it was only a preseason game, he still felt uncontrollable nervousness in the face of more than 6000 people watching the game.

"beep!"

After a while, the whistle sounded on the sidelines, and the warm-up time was up, and the game was about to start.

The Nuggets lined up the starting lineup of Miller, Leonard, Anthony, Nene, and Camby.

For the Suns, the starting five are Marbury, Casey Jacobson, Marion, Stoudemire and Jack Voskull.

After playing, Anthony glanced at the Suns bench inadvertently, and suddenly found that Joe Johnson and Leandro Barbosa were sitting there steadily. He was really surprised. Joe Johnson is known as the "contemporary Jordan ", the All-Star level, and the "Brazilian Lightning" Barbosse, plus Marbury, Marion and Stoudemire, this lineup can be called extremely luxurious.

But after thinking about it, he smiled at his backward thinking direction. Now Johnson is at most a qualified starter, and Barbosa is just a rookie, and Marion has only played for four or five years. , Stoudemire is even a second-year student, these people can only be regarded as some ordinary players before Nash.

The referee blew the whistle to start the game, and Camby and Stoudemire jumped the ball.

Camby took advantage of his height to slap the ball into Miller's hands, and Anthony's first NBA preseason game officially started!
Originally, there was no commentary in the NBA preseason, but I don’t know if it was because of Anthony, or some other unknown reason. EPSN sent two famous commentators for this game: Charles Barker, the "famous mouth" Leigh and his partner Kenny Smith.

Seeing that the Nuggets got the ball, Barkley couldn't help but chattered: "Hey, Kenny, you see Melo has started running. When do you think he will get the first point in the NBA?"

"Oh, Charles, here you go again, you still want to bet on kissing the ass of the donkey?" Smith joked.

Barkley made a bet with Smith on a talk show last year when Yao Ming first entered the league. If Yao Ming scored 19 points, he would kiss Smith's ass. As a result, Yao Ming scored 20 points in the "Yao Shark Battle" , Barkley fulfilled the bet, but because Smith was unwilling to expose his ass in public, Buckley finally kissed the ass of the donkey in public.

"Oh no..." Barkley pursed his lips, squinted at Smith, and gave Smith a nasty look. "If it's your ass, I can still think about it..."

The two people in the commentary were chatting with each other, and the game on the court had already started.

After Camby gave the ball to Miller, he controlled the ball and pushed forward. Coach Bzdelik had instructed before the game that facing the Suns should start from a positional battle, so after the team settled down, he would not Unhurried possession of the ball looking for opportunities on the outside.

After Anthony settled down, he wandered around the free throw line for a while, cast a glance at Miller, who was in possession of the ball from the outside, and suddenly accelerated to the baseline.

Marion was facing Anthony. This future star had heard of Anthony's name for a long time. Although the opponent was a rookie, he did not dare to take it lightly. Seeing Anthony running towards the bottom line, he hurried to keep up.

Anthony got to the baseline and seeing Nene getting ready, he sped past him.

This is a tactic used during training. Nei Nei turned his body to let Anthony pass, then he took a breath and sank, facing Marion behind him and bumped into him.

With a "bang", Marion seemed to hit a wall and could only watch Anthony run outside the three-point line.

Stoudemire was originally facing off against Nene. Seeing that Marion was blocked, he rushed out to defend Anthony.

As soon as Anthony reached the three-point line, Miller's pass arrived. He didn't hesitate for a second after receiving the ball. Stepping on the three-point line was a three-pointer.

Stoudemire's reaction was fast enough, but his moving speed was still much slower than Anthony's. When he flew up, Anthony had already finished shooting.

"Shh!"

With a crisp sound, Anthony opened his hand and hit the first goal in the NBA, and it was a three-pointer.

Stoudemire's teeth were itching with anger, Marion also looked frustrated, Anthony's speed was too fast!
Barkley and Smith were joking. Seeing that Anthony scored so quickly, he patted his chest hard, with a look of lingering fear on his face, and said with a sinister smile: "Smith, fortunately, I didn't bet, your ass is temporarily It's safe..."

Anthony made a three-pointer, and the Nuggets players were very excited, but at this moment, Jacobson served the ball out of bounds, Marbury controlled the ball from the backcourt to the frontcourt, and rushed directly towards the basket. go.

Miller's eyes were on Anthony, and when he came to his senses he was already a step behind, so he could only watch Marbury score a layup.

"Stephen! Stephen! . . . "

There was a burst of excited shouts from the stadium at home, obviously Marbury has a high popularity here.

"People! People! Look at people!" Bzdelik on the sidelines shouted anxiously, "Don't let them run! Follow people!"

Miller shook his head in frustration, and ran to the backcourt resentfully.

After all, Miller has also played in the league for many years. Although he conceded a goal, he quickly adjusted his mentality. He controlled the ball and advanced steadily across the half.

In the same tactic, Marion was still firmly blocked by Nene, but this time Stoudemire had followed Anthony closely, and when the ball reached Anthony's hands, he had no chance to shoot.

Anthony took the ball and took a step, observed the situation, and saw that Marion had been replaced by Nene under the basket. With a thought, he immediately hit the ground and passed the ball. The ball passed Stoudemire's armpit Through it, it was firmly in Nene's hands.

"Oh, my God, did I read it wrong just now, Melo was passing the ball? He was misplaced and didn't single Stoudemire?" Barkley showed an exaggerated expression on his face.

"It seems that Melo has done a lot of work this summer. His judgment is very accurate. Nene is 2 meters tall, and Sean is only 11 meters. There is a difference of 2 centimeters between the two." Smith said appreciatively.

After receiving the ball, Nene glanced back at Marion and saw Marion, who was half a head shorter, with a disdainful smile on his lips. He leaned back and was about to dunk.

Anthony looked at Nene's movements, screamed in his heart, shouted "be careful" and started to pounce on him, but Stoudemire squeezed him when he saw him move, his huge body, he couldn't get rid of it for a while. no.

Nene took a breath, and was about to pull out the dunk, when he got up, he suddenly felt a light hand, and then heard Anthony's reminder, turned his head, and Marion raised his hand, and he had already broken his hand. The ball was thrown to the fast break Marbury.

Seeing Marion steal the ball, Miller's heart tightened, but this time he followed Marbury closely, and the two almost ran to the backcourt side by side.

Seeing that Marbury was about to reach the basket, Miller did not jump up, but used his body to squeeze Marbury, preventing him from laying up comfortably.

Miller's body is very strong, Marbury was directly squeezed away from the basket by him, and the forced layup is likely to miss.

Marbury dribbled the ball out a step.

Miller was relieved to see Marbury give up the layup.

But at this moment, Marbury suddenly flicked the ball back, and Miller looked out, his face suddenly changed.

"boom!"

Marion, who was following closely, received a pass from Marbury, took a big stride and directly made a powerful dunk, and Miller near the basket immediately became the background.

Marion's slam dunk instantly ignited the enthusiasm of the fans in the American West Arena, and the fans gave out bursts of excited shouts.

3:4
The Nuggets were hit by two fastballs in a row by the Suns at the beginning of the game. Bzdelik on the sidelines hurriedly called a timeout. The team's defensive awareness is too poor. If the Suns play momentum, it will be difficult to pull back gone back.

"Oh! Poor Andre, he didn't even react!" Barkley said gloatingly with his mouth pouted.

"He has tried his best. The important thing is that Sean's fast-break awareness and fast-break speed are too fast. Nene, who is defending misplaced, can't run him at all." Smith also analyzed.

"It seems that the Nuggets are in trouble. If they fall into the offensive mode of the Suns, they will appear very passive." Barkley also said with a smile. As a former Suns player, he naturally has a partial mentality.

(End of this chapter)