Champion, please stay!

Chapter 160, Chapter 158: Elementary school students can finally go into bars openly and legitimately!
This argument among fans has nothing to do with who is stronger, because in both games, he and James each recorded a 40+ point game and a triple-double, and each won one game, a rare win-win situation...

That evening, the Knicks arrived at the Palace of Auburn Hills for a back-to-back game against the Pistons.

Before entering the arena, Curry looked at the stands from the player tunnel and exclaimed in astonishment, "The Palace of Auburn Hills has so many empty seats!"

Jeffries, dressed in a suit, replied, "Dumas's actions this time have completely ruined the reputation he has built up over the years."

Jeffries has little ability but loves to pontificate, and the Knicks' rookies have gotten used to it.

Chalmers interjected, "Dumars seems to have realized his mistake. He put Hamilton and Wallace back into the starting lineup in the last game. The Pistons may get better soon. He just wants to start a new chapter for the Pistons. I remember he did a great job with trades and signings and even won the Executive of the Year award. It's just that he was too hasty this time."

Yi Shui shook his head: "Dumas doesn't know he's wrong, he knows he's about to be finished. He's probably still cursing the fans for not paying for tickets. In his mind, he might think that winning the championship in 04 was all his own achievement..."

Since the 1980s, the Pistons' home arena has experienced the Bad Boys era, the Good Guy Hill era, and the Fab Five era, and its attendance rate has consistently ranked among the highest in the league.

In particular, the Pistons set a record of 100% home attendance for five consecutive seasons over the past six seasons.

Since acquiring Rasheed Wallace in January 2004, their home games have been sold out for 259 consecutive years.

This season, the Knicks had two games sold out in the preseason: their first home preseason game and an away game against the Pistons.

It was his first time visiting the Pistons during the regular season, and the arena was packed.

Until February 23rd of this year, the Pistons' home attendance record ended in the second game after Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace were placed on the bench.

While browsing the news this afternoon, Yi Shui saw a report that Dumars had coach Michael Curry bench the Masked Man and the Heavenly King to tank. He thought that after a few days of criticism from fans, the matter would be over, just like when he didn't match the Bulls' offer, which led to Ben Wallace leaving for Chicago. He thought that once the heat died down, everything would be fine.

Unexpectedly, the public opinion has intensified, even directly affecting the attendance rate.

After struggling for three weeks, attendance continued to decline, and Dumas finally succumbed to the pressure and ended the farce.

But the lost hearts can never be regained. Detroit's economy was already in bad shape, and this wasn't the first time Dumars had pulled such a stunt. Fans were not going to give him another chance with their hard-earned money; they wanted him out of office, even though he had made indelible contributions during the Pistons' six-peat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The game between the Knicks and the Pistons started at 8 p.m.

Pistons starting lineup: Iverson, Hamilton, Prince, McDyess, Rasheed Wallace.

Knicks starting lineup: Curry, Q, Yi Shui, David Lee, Swift.

After the game started, Yi Shui immediately took possession of the ball and launched an attack in positional play by breaking through and passing the ball.

Prince's ability to tightly defend and limit outside shooting is ranked first in the league.

We've already seen Yi Shui's prowess in the preseason; he's truly impressive.

However, Prince, who is 206 cm tall, weighs only 98 kg. Yi Shui would receive the ball and fake a shot to lure Prince forward, then drive past him to break through, a tactic that worked every time.

Rasheed Wallace can no longer protect the rim alone like he did in previous years. When Yi Shui drives in, he can always draw Iverson or Hamilton on the wing to help defend and complete the pass.

Just as Yi Shui had predicted, his teammates were slow to get into the game tonight, and they kept missing shots.

He already has experience in this area, playing back-to-back games, including one that went into overtime last night. His teammates are mostly role players, while Curry, who has superstar potential, is still too inexperienced.

During the warm-up phase, he also noticed that his teammates were not in good form.

But when his teammates are open, he still passes the ball when he needs to, and when the opponent's double-teaming is not in place, he attacks when he needs to.

On the Pistons' side, Iverson was very excited to see the Knicks' two talented rookies at the point guard and small forward positions, and he drove right through Curry, Duhon who came off the bench, and the big Q who switched onto the defense!

The Knicks' interior defense was terrible. Iverson could drive in like he was in his own backyard, scoring at will. The Knicks could only collapse and protect the rim. Hamilton and McDyess took advantage of the situation to run and shoot. If they were blocked when they received the ball, they would pass it out. Rasheed Wallace and Prince also did a good job with spot-up shooting.

Having played together for half a season, these veteran stars have developed their own unique way of cooperating.

After the first quarter, the Pistons had scored 28 points! That's far higher than their season average of 22.5 points in the first quarter!
On the Knicks' side, scoring relied solely on Yi Shui's drives to the basket and low-post isolation plays, while David Lee's mid-range jumpers and rebounds carried the team. Yi Shui scored 6 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist, while David Lee scored 8 points and 4 rebounds. Together, the two took 11 shots and scored 14 points. Their teammates only made 1 of 9 shots, with only Chalmers, who came off the bench, making a three-pointer and Harrington drawing a foul on a drive to the basket and making both free throws.

The Knicks trailed the Pistons 19-28 at the end of the first quarter.

Yi Shui made desperate drives and passes, David Lee made desperate tackles, and even when his teammates kept missing shots, they still passed the ball whenever the opportunity arose... Their efforts paid off!

In the second quarter, the Knicks, having lost the jump ball, took the first possession. Curry, under Iverson's defense, used a step-back jumper and drained a three-pointer from the top of the arc!
The Knicks' long-range shooting began to improve, led by Curry. Their inside offense, however, suffered as David Lee, who played too aggressively in the first quarter, faltered in the second quarter of this back-to-back game. This created better opportunities for Yi Shui, as the help defense from the wings and center decreased, forcing Rasheed Wallace to extend his rim protection to close-range defense. This created scoring opportunities for players rotating in and out of the game, such as Birdman, Swift, and Mickey Moore!
The Knicks' score increased to 24 points in this quarter!
For the Pistons, the Knicks missed fewer long-range shots, which reduced the opportunities for Iverson and Hamilton to launch fast breaks. Despite playing a slightly better half-court offense than in the first quarter, they scored fewer fast break points, finishing the quarter with only 25 points.

At halftime, the score was 43-53, with the Knicks keeping the score close!
After halftime, the two teams switched halves and resumed play.

At almost 34 years old, Iverson is still the Pistons' best player in terms of stamina, averaging 37 minutes per game. Before being traded to the Pistons at the beginning of the season, he averaged 41 minutes per game with the Nuggets. In the third quarter, his opportunity came!
The Knicks' defense was even worse in the second half. Iverson made consecutive drives and passes, and while the Pistons' fast break scoring continued to decline, the Pistons' scoring, led by Iverson, actually increased, racking up 28 points in the quarter!
But! The Knicks' shooting touch has finally come on!
Curry, Q, and Harrington combined for 5 three-pointers in the quarter, while Yi Shui and David Lee only scored a combined 5 points in the quarter, their teammates scored a whopping 25 points!
With a 30-28 run in the first quarter, the Knicks narrowed the gap to 73-81 heading into the final quarter!

Most of the Pistons' players were indeed too old, and by the final quarter, only Iverson and Hamilton were still running.

The Knicks, who came out strong in the second quarter, continued their efficient shooting in the final quarter!

In the final moments of the game, Curry and David Lee executed a pick-and-roll, with Curry driving to the basket and passing back to his teammate.

Harrington facilitates from the top of the key, passing the ball to the left side of the basket.

Yi Shui received the ball and jumped over McDyess, who was cutting in from the middle, and scored a layup over him. The Knicks tied the game at 101-101 in the final moments, with the quarter ending 28-20!

With Iverson's buzzer-beating long two-pointer over Duhon's interference missing, the Knicks forced the game into overtime!

After entering overtime, the Pistons' offense completely collapsed. Iverson, Hamilton, and Rasheed Wallace all missed consecutive long-range shots, and the team only scored 3 points in 5 minutes.

The Knicks, playing back-to-back games, went into overtime again, and missed two consecutive three-pointers right from the start.

Fortunately for Yi Shui, after a strong offensive in the first quarter that got his teammates in the game, they started to "coast" on offense and make feints in the second half of the second quarter to draw the defense away. Although they played 38 minutes in regulation time, their performance was still good, at least better than the others!
In overtime, Yi Shui kept dropping to the low post and even when double-teamed, he still managed to shoot. He took 6 shots, and although he only made 1 of 4, he drew fouls twice on strong drives and made all 4 of his free throws!
加上鸟人在库里将10投4中的三分打铁打成11投4中时补篮得手……加时赛比分定格在8比3！

23投11中，其中三分球4中1，加上12中10的罚球，易水出战43分钟，拿到33分9板7助攻1抢断4盖帽，率领尼克斯队通过加时赛以109比104险胜活塞队，背靠背两连胜！

After the final whistle blew, Iverson, who had played 45 minutes that night, stood with his hands on his hips and looked at Yi Shui, who was surrounded by his teammates.

He hadn't played overtime in a long time and felt like he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

He made 8 of 17 shots in the first three quarters, scoring 22 points and 6 assists. His final stats were only 26 points and 8 assists. He played the entire fourth quarter and overtime, but combined for 1 of 7 shots, scoring only 4 points and 2 assists. He could penetrate, but he couldn't finish the game.

Youth is wonderful! But youth has already quietly slipped away from him...

...

After two tough back-to-back games, the Knicks headed south for the final game of their three-game road trip – Orlando.

We set off at noon and arrived at the hotel at 4 pm. Yi Shui didn't have time to practice her skills, so she went straight to the gym to do strength training first, followed by the training for day 7 of the recovery card.

During a training break, he used the basketball he brought to the gym to play one-on-one with the trainer, trying to imitate Allen Iverson's powerful drive and breakthrough... It was difficult.

First of all, whether it's one-handed or two-handed ball control, it's not good enough, and the ball can be easily intercepted by the trainer.

The strong drive after creating position is affected by the large ball-pulling motion at the start, resulting in insufficient explosive acceleration. It can pass the trainer without problems, but the actual effect is not as good as a direct acceleration shot.

However, pulling the ball back sharply to force the opponent to move their feet is indeed very effective... I'll write this down in my notebook and study it during the off-season.

After a night's rest, the Knicks' final game of their three-game road trip began on the 16th.

In the morning, he received good news—his third Player of the Week award this season!
上周6天4战，隔着两个休息日的两个背靠背，尼克斯队3胜1负，易水4场比赛两次三双、场均29分11.5板9助攻！

He guessed he was likely to win the prize this time, so it wasn't exactly a surprise.

Unfortunately, this time the award in the West went to the old blacksmith, not the gunner, so he couldn't steal the spotlight.

This guy has more popularity and attention than Yi Jianlian.

At 5 p.m., the Knicks arrived at Amway Arena to play the Magic.

首节23比29、第二节27比34、第三节23比27……三节打完，尼克斯队73比90落后魔术队17分。

In the final quarter, during garbage time, Yi Shui played aggressively and scored 15 points in the quarter... but his teammates only scored 13 points in total, while the opposing team only scored 20 points and still managed to hold on to the victory.

27投11中、其中三分球7中2、加上10中9的罚球，易水再砍33分，但可惜助攻只有3个。

The Knicks lost 101-110 on the road, bringing their record to 43 wins and 22 losses.

The Magic improved their record to 45 wins and 21 losses, extending their lead over the Knicks to 1.5 games!
12投7中，外加10中7的罚球，霍华德今晚高效拿到21分16板3盖帽，猛得一哔！
Yi Shui feels that Howard might be one of the best centers to fit into any lineup in history, maybe even the best.

As long as Howard is having fun, he won't be thinking about attacking in the low post like Yao Ming, O'Neal, or Duncan did in their younger days. He can just eat lobs, drive to the basket, and counter-attack normally, and no one can stop him from doing all of that.

The Rockets generously gifted Alston to the Magic, who was a better fit for Howard than Nelson, not because of his ability, but because of his playing style.

Alston is more willing to pass the ball, especially to strong centers. When driving to the basket, he prefers to pass to the inside players who are following up on the other side rather than driving in and taking his own shot like Nelson. He also prefers to shoot from the outside to create space... All of this makes Howard more happy playing.

On the 17th, Yi Shui returned to New York with the team. After receiving the Player of the Week certificate and the trophy purchased by the team, he went home and went straight to his study. He first hung the Magic team pendant on the wall and then casually placed the Player of the Week certificate and trophy on the bookshelf.

During the last away game against the Magic, he successfully threw the pendant out after the game, but ended up bringing one back with him.

In the afternoon, Yi Shui invited Chalmers, David Lee, Big Q, Swift, Birdman, and others, as well as the main characters of the gathering—the elementary school students who had finally become adults.

On the 14th, Curry turned 21, but since it was an away game, everyone only offered verbal congratulations. After discussing it, Yi Shui, Chalmers, and David Lee decided to have a small party today.

He didn't invite anyone else, just a few people who were close to Curry.

The elementary school students were not informed of this beforehand.

When Curry arrived at the bar with his girlfriend Ayesha, he was overjoyed to see the cake that Yi Shui had brought out.

Exactly! Looking at the gifts Yi Shui gave him—red wine, vodka, dark beer, cigars, cigarettes, nightclub VIP cards… he inexplicably wanted to smash his head into the boss's palm!

(End of this chapter)