Anthony the Reborn

Chapter 14 Small Lineup
During the timeout, coach Bzdelik kept instructing the players to pay attention to retreating, keep up with their own people, and not miss anyone, and they were so anxious that they almost had to put on their own clothes.

Anthony listened from the sidelines, but he was a little worried in his heart. Judging from the two rounds just now, the defense is not useful just by emphasizing it twice. Once the Nuggets fail to make a shot, they will be banned The Suns brothers play a fast break, and want to stop this fast break, unless they grab offensive rebounds or improve their shooting percentage, otherwise they will be brought into their rhythm by the Suns if they don't pay attention.

"beep!"

When the timeout expires, players from both sides continue to play.

For the Nuggets to attack, Miller still controlled the ball. Because of the lessons learned from the pick-and-roll last time, Marion obviously strengthened his defense against Anthony. Nene helped Anthony with two pick-and-rolls in a row but failed, and the time wasted to ten seconds. Inside, it was too late to block it again.

Miller dribbled for another two seconds, and it was too late. He was just about to go it alone, when a voice suddenly came from inside.

"Miller, give the ball!"

As soon as Miller heard the voice, he looked up and saw Anthony's status requesting to prepare for a singles. With a flick of his hand, the ball was in Anthony's hands.

There are still 6 seconds left.

Marion held Anthony firmly.

Anthony leaned back, felt his center of gravity, then jerked to the left suddenly. .

4 seconds left.

Marion's defense is at an upper-middle level in the NBA, and he didn't take Anthony's feint.

Anthony then turned right, turned and leaned back.

Marion predicted Anthony's movement, and flew towards him.

Anthony looked at the jumping Marion, and suddenly threw his hands forward in the air.

"Snapped!"

The crisp sound of beating hands.

"beep!"

The referee's whistle sounded immediately, thugs!
Anthony chuckled, it's not over yet, flicked his wrist during the fall, and the ball ran towards the basket before he landed.

"Shh!"

The ball obediently rolled into the basket.

"Grass!"

Marion didn't expect Anthony to be able to make a shot like this, and couldn't help but explode.

Anthony smiled slightly at Marion, and then hit a free throw steadily, making the future hacker itch.

"Beautiful! Melo scored a 2+1. All the first six points of the Nuggets came from him. His scoring ability is really strong, but the defense of the Nuggets is not good!"

Before Barkley could speak with emotion, Stoudemire attacked Nene, shook Nene away with his footsteps, turned around and scored a slam dunk, and Nene also paid for a foul.

Nene played fiercely and also had a bad temper. After being hit 2+1 by Stoudemire, he punched the basket angrily and almost got a technical foul.

Stoudemire made a steady free throw and the score came to 6:7.

In the Nuggets round, Anthony once again singled out Marion. This time he used his quick first step to break through Marion and score a layup. Marion did not dare to foul twice in the first quarter, so he could only watch Anthony. Angry with a feeling of helplessness.

Anthony dunked, shot, mid-range, and three-pointers. The first half of the opening period completely became his personal performance time, and Marion who was facing him was blown away.

However, the Suns' fast break was hard to defend against. At 15:20, the Nuggets were actually behind.
Anthony was tired after half a quarter, and Bzdelik quickly replaced him with White. At the same time, the Suns also replaced Casey Jacobson with Joe Johnson.

After Anthony went off the field, the Nuggets immediately became headless chickens. The pick-and-roll was very difficult, and several rounds were barely shot after the point.

In contrast to the Suns, once the Nuggets miss a shot, the Suns will launch a fast break. Marion and Marbury run all over the court, feeling everywhere.

Bzdelik stomped his feet angrily, and called another timeout, emphasizing playing more inside, but because it was a preseason game, he didn't let Anthony play again.

After the Nuggets changed their style of play, the two insiders continued to attack the frontcourt. The situation was slightly better than before, but after the rotation of the insiders and the two substitute insiders Elson and Anderson went up, the defense and offense were obviously down. grade.

With the Suns' smooth offense, the point difference was quickly brought to double digits.

At 22:35, there are 3 minutes left in the first quarter.

"Chris, step up your legs for me, where did your energy go during training! Follow Amare closely!"

"Wash, sit down firmly, hold Joe up for me, yes, that's it, hold on!"

……

Bzdelik continued to roar on the sidelines. Last year, he led the team to almost tie the worst record in team history. It can be seen that he is under a lot of psychological pressure.

Anthony was sitting off the court, and finally couldn't help finding Bzdelik, and put forward his own thoughts on this coach with poor adaptability: "Coach, let's try to play a small lineup."

When Bzdelik saw that it was Anthony, the anxious expression on his face eased a little. He shook his head when he heard Anthony's words and said, "Small lineups can't do it, rebounds can't be guaranteed, and the insiders are easily overwhelmed."

There are still a lot of good big men in the league now. If you play a small lineup, you will be exploded inside. Basically, no one in the coaching circle will use it. Anthony also knows this. He continued: "Nene is still too impatient. Camby is injured. Elson and Anderson are not athletic insiders either, playing fast-paced basketball with the Suns, our insiders are too disadvantaged, but if we use a smaller lineup, at least the retreat speed will be much faster."

Bzdelik looked up at the score on the field. It would be a matter of time before he continued to lose the game, but he still said worriedly: "But what about the rebounds?"

"Coach, I play power forward."

Anthony said that he knew that Carmelo Anthony often played power forward when he was in the Knicks. Although he was much heavier than now, if he instilled this thought in Bzdelik earlier, it might have unexpected effects. result. ,

But Bzdelik's answer drove him crazy.

"No, that's too risky, against Amare, what if you accidentally get injured?"

Depend on!I'm not even afraid of you being afraid of an egg!Anthony cursed secretly in his heart, but he definitely wouldn't show it on his face.

"boom!"

At this moment, Marion received an assist from Johnson and made another two-handed fast-break slam dunk. Counting this time, he had already contributed 11 points, tied for the highest on the field with Anthony.

At 22:37, the first quarter was not over yet, and the point difference went straight to 20 points.

"Coach, if you don't change this game, you don't need to play." Anthony said depressed.

Bzdelik looked at the situation on the court, squeezed his fists, and finally made up his mind, turned around and shouted to the bench: "Nene, you go on the court with Melo, replace Francisco and Chris."

Nene is depressed. He has not scored a point in this game so far. When he heard Bzdelik calling him, he was excited at first. He could hear that he would replace the two insiders. He had a puzzled expression on his face: " Coach? Replace both Francisco and Chris?"

"Stop rambling, hurry up!" Bzdelik urged.

As a second-year student, Nene was still in awe of the coach. Hearing Bzdelik's urging voice, he hurriedly took off his jacket and went to the technical table with Anthony.

"Oh, Sean's two-handed dunk just now was amazing! I can't remember how many times he has dunked. The Nuggets players have been stunned by the Suns' style of play. The first quarter, but the game seems to be divided." Smith explained leisurely.

"Oh, my God, Kenny, look at the sidelines, the Nuggets have made substitutions and adjustments, they actually replaced two insiders at the same time, and now they want to play a small basketball?" Barkley opened his mouth in surprise Said.

"Coach Bzdelik's idea is very good. Using a small lineup can speed up his team and prevent the Suns from playing fast breaks, but what about their rebounds?" Smith said with some doubts.

"Melo is against Amare. Although Melo is very strong, Amare is obviously a whole size bigger than him. I don't know if he can keep his ass. I can't help but want to see it!" Barkley Said slightly excitedly.

Marbury's breakthrough caused a foul by Elson of the Nuggets, and the Nuggets made a substitution.
After the substitutions, the Nuggets had Miller, Barry, White, Anthony, and Nene, and the Suns had Marbury, Johnson, Marion, Stoudemire, and Antonio McDay. s.

Seeing the Nuggets put up a small lineup, Suns assistant coach Mike D'Antoni immediately said to coach Johnson: "Frank, there is a small lineup on the opposite side, let Leandro play?"

Johnson glanced back at Barbosa at the end of the bench, where the Suns rookie sat with his head bowed, looking dejected.

Johnson looked away, shook his head and said, "Although Leandro performed well in the training camp, he is still too young."

D'Antoni wanted to say something more, but he choked back his words. He knew that Johnson didn't like to use rookies, especially those with low draft picks.

In the Nuggets' round, the ball was pounded a few times and handed over to Anthony.

Anthony did not stop after receiving the ball, and quickly dribbled the ball twice with his left and right hands. Seeing Stoudemire's center of gravity move, he made a sudden cross step and then turned right to pass him cleanly. go.

McDyess, who was guarding the basket, saw that Anthony had already reached the basket, so he rushed over with his hands raised.

Anthony chuckled lightly and shook his hands. The ball passed through McDyess's armpit and stuffed it directly into Nene's hand. He buckled the basket and shook it.

"Anthony! Wonderful assist, Nene directly scored a slam dunk! Amare suffered a bit when defending, and his footsteps obviously couldn't keep up with Melo." Smith said with emotion.

"Kenny, do you remember... there is an old saying in China called [-]?" Buckley frowned intently, as if he was trying to remember something.

"Kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred?" Smith seems to know China better than Barkley.

"That's right! The offense of the Suns will definitely allow Amare to single-handedly attack Anthony. Anthony will be very difficult to defend. Even if he can defend, Anthony will consume a lot of energy, which is not a good thing for the Nuggets..." Barkley is indeed worthy of being a former superstar. It just broke the weakness of the Nuggets' small lineup.

In the offensive round of the Suns, the ball was handed over to Stoudemire to single Anthony. Anthony hit twice but failed to withstand it. Stoudemire directly forced him to score a layup.

In the next round of the Nuggets, Anthony ran back and forth from the bottom line, got rid of Stoudemire and hit the ball from outside the three-point line, but when the Suns attacked, Stoudemire pressed Anthony with both hands to dunk, and Anthony couldn't prevent it at all. .

"Little Overlord! Little Overlord!..."

The enthusiasm of the fans in the American West Arena was ignited by Stoudemire's slam dunks again and again. After the Nuggets offered a small lineup, Stoudemire has scored 10 points in a row and contributed three powerful slam dunks. Has gone berserk.

"Oh, no, it's another dunk. Melo got fucked badly by Amare tonight. I can't remember how many times this is. His ass..." Barkley covered his face and sighed.

Anthony assisted Barry and made another three-pointer. There was an imperceptible smile on the corner of his mouth as he retreated. His plan was successful.

In fact, when defending Stoudemire, Anthony didn't use any strength at all. The Suns players saw that Stoudemire's offense was smooth, and they would keep feeding him the ball. The direct result of this is that, on the surface, It seems that Stoudemire is a god, but in fact, the score of 38:50 has explained everything, and the Nuggets are constantly chasing points.

(End of this chapter)