The era of point forwards in the NBA

Chapter 205 Resolute Redick and Unresolute Howard (seeking subscription, monthly ticket requested)

Back in the second half, the Magic made personnel adjustments, but instead of replacing Howard, they continued to keep him on the court.

However, the starting point guard in this section is "White Chocolate" Williams, and Van Gundy hopes that he can use his rich experience to help the team tide over the difficulties.

During the intermission, the team's psychiatrist came to help Howard with psychological counseling, hoping that he would not affect his emotions because of the free throw.

As a result, who knew that after leaving the court, this guy didn't take this matter to heart. In his words, "things on the court should stay on the court, and you won't think too much off the court."

That's surprisingly optimistic.

Then the psychiatrist ran to enlighten Redick. This man's condition was much more serious. He didn't play after being replaced in the second quarter. In addition to his poor performance before, his expression revealed his heart.

Terrible.

Van Gundy still sent Redick in the starting lineup in the third quarter, and he chose to trust the players.

The lineup for the Magic is Williams, Redick, Barnes, Bass and Howard.

To be honest, Lewis and Carter couldn't play this game. The Magic forced an eight-man rotation, and Barnes played the defensive end alone. He had to play almost every quarter, which was really tiring.

The Thunder are still three with Sefolosha and Collison.

The Thunder team has a lot of people that can be used, and the three centers are switching around to consume Howard, which is quite like the three British fighting against Lu Bu.

The Thunder belonged to the ball, and Curry gave Lin Yue the baseline serve, and finally got back to Redick. How can it be done if we don't take a good look at it?
Redick hadn't realized what was going on in someone's mind right now.

After halfway across the court, Lin made a false pass, then made a half-turn to deceive Redick's defensive attention, then turned around, and while recovering the ball, he made a coherent shot, all in one go.

"Shh."

As soon as the second half came up, Lin Yue ate Redick alone. The fans at the scene waited for the whole halftime time to see the home team score again, and their emotions burst out.

Facing the crippled Magic team, Lin Yue obviously didn't want to miss this chance to win.

Howard is very powerful. At his peak, he had absolute dominance in the interior, but he is not a center of O'Neal's level. He has his weaknesses.

O'Neal and Howard also missed free throws, but O'Neal is more focused than Howard in his attitude towards the game. He has a strong desire to win, and even if the free throws are not good, O'Neal has achieved the ultimate in other aspects.

Both of them are funny and optimistic types, but Howard is obviously a playful guy, and his playful style of play without correction will harm the team sooner or later.

To put it bluntly, Howard is not mature enough now.

This ball Collison was firmly against Howard. After the consumption of the first two quarters, Collison found that Howard's strength was not as strong as the opening.

"White Chocolate" formulated according to the tactics and passed the ball to Howard. The Thunder did not choose to defend alone. Sefolosha immediately defended when Howard received the ball.

In desperation, he had to pass to his teammates.

However, this is the essence of one-star shooting. Because the Thunder had been adopting a single-defense strategy before, Howard failed to attract the defense. In addition, he repeatedly stood on the free throw line, resulting in a decline in the team's offensive fluency.

The outside line is also marked and has never had a good chance to make a move. This time it is different.

Double-teaming means losing position, and under a series of transmissions, the ball came to the open Barnes.

That's right, the Thunder didn't even let Redick, who made 7 of 1 shots, choose to let Barnes shoot.

And Barnes also proved that the Thunder's choice was reasonable, and his open three-pointer successfully missed.

"This ball shouldn't be. If the Magic can't seize this kind of opportunity, then they will become very passive." Barkley said, this kind of open opportunities have been created, and if they still can't make the shot, it will really affect morale.

Howard failed to grab an offensive rebound under the double-teaming of the two. To be honest, he has faintly noticed a change in his current mentality.

The Thunder launched a counterattack, but under the defense of the Magic, Durant's layup missed.

As long as it can be defended, there is no need to worry about the score being drawn.

The Magic suppressed the rhythm, "White Chocolate" did not give Howard directly this time, but passed the ball to Barnes, and Barnes made a transition at the top of the arc.

At this time, Redick ran from the bottom corner to the top of the arc, and Lin Yue followed at the same time.

Bass set up a screen halfway, and even though Lin Yue quickly went around, Redick still had a good shot the moment he received the ball.

Howard is already stuck at the basket, ready to grab a rebound at any time.

Even if the goal is not scored, he will use dunks at the basket to help the team chase points.

But when Howard looked at the trajectory of the ball, he found that things didn't seem so simple. The arc was very similar to his free throw.

That's right, it was the three-point free throw, and this ball was also outrageous, and it was also three-point. Even if he occupied an excellent position inside, Howard still failed to get the rebound.

The audience suddenly fell silent, and the audience realized, is this another three-way thing?

This is really rare. There were two non-stick games in one game, and it was still the same team. Howard was completely discouraged. He didn't even interact with his teammates during the defense process, and the morale of the team was very low.

"Redick shot this shot too quickly. Lin Yue is still far away from him. He doesn't need to shoot such a difficult drifting three-pointer. On the contrary, it's normal for the ball to miss three shots." Barkley wasn't trying to enlighten Redick, this shot was really difficult.

"It feels like the Magic have already surrendered in terms of momentum. They didn't fight together at all. Redick's condition in this game was also poor. After missing the goal just now, his field goal percentage reached 8-of-1. It can be said that this is his worst game this season." Kenny Smith said.

Immediately, the Thunder team played a 12-2 spurt, opening the score in one fell swoop. Amidst the cheers of the audience, Van Gundy called a timeout. He tried to adjust the state of the players, because their strength was higher than that of the Thunder team, and they only needed to solve their own predicament.

Howard didn't play resolutely. He only took one shot in the third quarter and scored two points. Redick was much more resolute, but he made 3 of 0 shots. It's better not to shoot.

Obviously out of state.

After the timeout, Howard finally got his first block of the game at the basket and successfully destroyed Curry's layup, but no matter how loud he roared, anyone with a discerning eye could see that he was dying.

Because unknowingly, the point difference between the two teams came to 20 points.

In the end, at the end of the game, the Thunder defeated their opponents by a score of 102 to 74. In this game, Howard made 10 of 5 free throws, 17 of 7 free throws, and scored 17 points and 11 rebounds. However, this performance could not take away the victory.

雷迪克全场15中2，拿到4分2助攻3失误，创造了本赛季个人最大的惨案。

(End of this chapter)