Champion, please stay!

Chapter 140, Chapter 138: Another Battle Against the Celtics, Charge!
The next day, January 10th, the Knicks faced their final opponent in their four-game home run, the Celtics, the team that had caused them the most trouble so far this season.

Yesterday afternoon, during Yi Shui's training session, he found Walsh and prepared to pay for a private room for his family.

His parents are fine; they're in their forties and in their prime. Occasionally, there are events at school with over two thousand students, and they can enjoy the festivities. But his grandparents are too old to handle the stress. However, he wanted his family to watch the game live, so he chose a VIP box.

When Walsh learned that Yi Shui's family was coming to visit and wouldn't return until the end of the month, he immediately booked a good box for the last game of the month, so Yi Shui wouldn't have to pay anything.

In the current period, before the old broadcasting agreements expire and before the mobile internet era, or the era of data traffic, arrives, ticket revenue is the main source of income for most teams.

Unlike the mid-1920s when Yi Shui traveled to the NBA, where ticket revenue accounted for less than 30% of total revenue, nowadays, more than half of the teams have ticket revenue accounting for more than 50% of their total revenue.

After Kidd left, the Brooklyn Nets lost almost all of their sponsors. Apart from the meager local broadcasting fees, league broadcasting revenue sharing, and the money that non-luxury tax teams received, the only revenue left was ticket sales, which accounted for more than 80%. The worst part was that the Nets' attendance rate this season was just over half. Without any popular stars visiting, more than half of the seats were empty, and the ticket prices were still the cheapest in the league.

The Nets' owner truly loves basketball. He tried every possible way to acquire players around Kidd, and even took on the outrageous 4-year, $6500 million contract with the much older Mutombo... Now, with the financial crisis causing a cash flow crisis and the team having to pay tens of millions of dollars out of pocket every year, he has no choice but to sell the team.

Teams in big cities are different. Teams like the Heat, Bulls, Clippers, 76ers, Celtics, and those with good records, such as the Cavaliers, Spurs, Mavericks, and Nuggets, have ticket revenue accounting for 40-50% of their income. Except for teams with particularly high expenses, they are basically guaranteed to make a profit.

So after the Nets changed owners, they immediately moved to New York.

Last season, only three NBA teams had ticket revenue accounting for less than 40% of their total revenue. The Knicks were one of them, and also the lowest at 34%, just over one-third. The other two teams were the Lakers and the Rockets.

The Knicks haven't released their revenue figures for this season, but as CEO, Walsh naturally knows the details. This season, their ticket revenue as a percentage of total revenue has plummeted by 5 percentage points, to less than 30%! And that's despite the booming market and rising attendance and ticket prices!

There are many reasons, but they can all be summed up in one thing—they chose Yishui.

Not to mention that the VIP boxes were free for more than half a month, even for the rest of the season, the Yi Shui family wanted to come to every game and have courtside tickets for every game, and Walsh provided them all.

...

At 6:58 p.m., at Madison Square Garden, amidst cheers from the fans, Yi Shui arrived on the court with Curry, Da Q, Harrington, and David Lee.

Swift was benched tonight. Whether in the preseason or the previous two regular season matchups, the former second overall pick was always outmatched when Garnett and Perkins were on the court together.

Birdman's offense was in a similar situation. Although he was better on defense, the Knicks' offense couldn't get going, so having a good defensive center wasn't very useful.

Therefore, D'Antoni promoted Harrington to the starting lineup.

Yi Shui looked across at the other side and saw Rondo, Ray Allen, Pierce, Garnett, Perkins... It was a bit intimidating.

Especially after facing each other twice in the regular season, this opponent has become even more formidable.

With Rondo, in his third year, putting on an All-Star caliber performance, averaging 12 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, and 2 steals per game, the Celtics' "Big Three" has reached their peak, currently boasting a record of 29 wins and 6 losses, even better than at the same stage last season.

Before the match, Yi Shui was actually quite worried. He even considered letting his parents watch the live broadcast at home. It would be embarrassing for two generations of elders to watch his game together in person for the first time. But once he stepped onto the court, his emotions were completely different. Just like the last away game, he thought, "Whatever, let's go!"
After entering the court, Yi Shui, Harrington, and David Lee gathered together at the center circle.

Perkins, curious, went over and was surprised to see three people playing a drinking game!

He asked, "What are you doing?"

Yi Shui replied, "Without a center forward, the losing team will jump ball."

"Uh...oh..."

Perkins looked at Yi Shui, those long arms, then at his own 218-centimeter arms. He used to think his arms were pretty long, but then he became teammates with Garnett, and now he'd met Yi Shui...

'We were about the same height three months ago! Why is that? I stopped growing after I entered the NBA at 18, but this guy is already 21 and still growing!'

Perkins's face showed even more sorrow.

On Yi Shui's side, he and his two teammates went from a single game to a best-of-three series, then a best-of-five series... and then stood in the center circle at the referee's urging.

'I lost six rounds in a row playing rock-paper-scissors, did these two plan this? Wait, I only suggested the jump ball if I lost the rock-paper-scissors game when I went on the field… I guess I'm just not cut out for gambling, I really need to stay away from gambling and drugs!'

Yi Shui wasn't opposed to a jump ball; if they could win, the key was that he hadn't jumped the ball before, and that was something that needed practice. However, the fans at the stadium erupted in cheers upon seeing this. Many fans who had followed Yi Shui University's performance last season recalled Yi Shui playing 'center' in the finals. Although later media analysis suggested that it was Ya De who truly defended the opposing center, and that Yi Shui's performance in that game was at most that of a forward… the fans didn't care about that.

Just like in Game 6 of the Finals during Magic Johnson's rookie year, he didn't actually use a center on offense, and on defense he was only responsible for holding up the post and grabbing rebounds. The real rim protector was Jim Jones, but the fans didn't care about that.

At 7 p.m., the referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air.

Yi Shui bent his knees, stared at the ball, and jumped with all his might the moment the ball reached its highest point, 'pushing' the ball backward.

Perkins tiptoed and turned to run back to the backcourt.

However, he didn't need to rush back on defense. Curry, who was originally standing at the free throw line, immediately retreated when he saw Yi Shui jump up and 'slap' the ball, almost back to the baseline before receiving the ball.

Elementary school student: Hey boss, don't do jump balls next time! I mean, what's the rule for a jump ball going out of bounds? A mistake? Or a violation?
Curry advanced to the frontcourt and passed the ball to Harrington at the top of the arc.

In a half-court game, if the opponent is a weak team like the Timberwolves, Yi Shui can just dribble the ball around and play a drive-and-kick game.

But for the Celtics, they'll have to play team offense.

Yi Shui went up to help Harrington block Garnett. Taking advantage of the referee's blind spot, Garnett and Pierce pulled Harrington's shorts and Yi Shui's arm respectively. Through this combination of physical contact, Garnett managed to get a chance to step back and then used his super strong lateral movement and explosive acceleration to block back in front of Harrington. When Yi Shui moved to the left side of the free throw line, Pierce also closed in!

Harrington passed the ball to Yi Shui, who, despite the rough contact from behind, turned to face the basket, faked a drive, took a step back, and launched a long two-pointer from the left 45-degree angle... but missed.

Perkins boxed out, and Garnett secured the defensive rebound.

In the transition between offense and defense, Yi Shui immediately engaged Garnett in hand-to-hand combat after he came over!

Pierce, who prefers to physically confront others, was left to be defended by Harrington. Whether Harrington could stop him or not was irrelevant; Yi Shui was determined to torment Garnett!

With the experience from the previous game, Garnett was clearly more comfortable this time, quickly receiving and passing the ball to Ray Allen, who had made a run into an opportunity.

But Ray Allen missed a three-pointer after receiving the ball!

This is just the beginning. Tonight, when the Celtics were shooting from three-point range, it was as if the rim had a lid on it!

Seeing this, Yi Shui became even more ferocious in his physical fight with Garnett. And to be fair, Garnett's strength was actually quite average...

After the first quarter, the Knicks had only scored 21 points, a pitiful number, considering their season average of 29.6 points in the first quarter, the best in the league! The Celtics dragged down their average by nearly 30%!

However, the Celtics only scored 15 points in the first quarter!
Ray Allen missed all three of his three-point attempts and was substituted after playing half a quarter.

隆多打了9分钟，2投0中，拿到0分3板2助攻。

Garnett played the entire first quarter, making one putback layup, but missed all three of his mid-range and long-range shots due to the physical contact with Yi Shui.

4投1中加上2中2的罚球拿到4分2板1助攻。

The Celtics scored 15 points, 8 of which came from Pierce's relentless drives into the paint!
D'Antoni wasn't stupid. When the opposing team's two starters missed their long-range shots, he decisively instructed his players to collapse the defense and brought on Birdman to replace David Lee early to strengthen rim protection. The Celtics, who had 9 points in the first half of the quarter, only managed to score 6 points in the second half!
It's a pity they couldn't execute a counter-attacking strategy.

The Knicks players were initially driven by the animosity of two away losses and a run-and-gun mentality of "we'll take you down no matter what, we're going to beat you." They were ready to fight tooth and nail, and seeing a 6-point lead after the first quarter... Charge! Charge! Charge! Charge!

In the second quarter, D'Antoni substituted Duhon, Curry, Wilson Chandler, Yi Shui, and Birdman into a lineup.

On defense, don't worry about anything else, just collapse to protect the rim and the plate; on offense, just charge straight in!
In the first half of the quarter, while Garnett, who had played the entire first quarter, was resting on the bench, the Knicks really went all out!

The main problem was that the Celtics' long-range shooting was really cold; their cold shooting touch seemed contagious. Substitutes Eddie House and Glen Davis continued to miss shots, and the team only scored 9 points in half a quarter.

The Knicks scored 16 points in just half a quarter, extending their lead to 13 points!
After the official timeout, Garnett and Ray Allen returned to the court, but the Celtics' offense failed to improve much, remaining poor and scoring only 11 points in half a quarter.

For the Knicks, their fast breaks were greatly affected after Garnett came on, but they still held on, scoring 12 points in half a quarter and dominating the opponent!

作为冲锋箭头的易水单节10分3助攻，率队打出了28比20的单节比分，49比35，尼克斯队领先凯尔特人队14分进入中场休息！
(End of this chapter)