Champion, please stay!

Chapter 236, Section 234: A Potentially Tougher Opponent Than the Celtics
Wade even felt that such a statement was a veiled insult to him, implying that he was the one who lost when he scored high.

Normally, even when they lose, Wade is very patient; he believes in Pat Riley's promises regarding player acquisitions.

But after losing to the Great One in the holy land of basketball, he started to overthink things again.

Both are trying to make room, but look at what others are doing!
Ben Wallace, worth 1400 million; Hughes, worth over 1300 million; Harrington, worth 1000 million; and Birdman, worth 500 million!

'If I had a Terry or a Smith (JR), I couldn't possibly lose tonight!'

This role is usually filled by Beasley. He works well as the second unit's primary offensive option against small forwards who aren't physically strong or power forwards who aren't particularly mobile. But tonight, he faced the same number one draft pick...

On the other side, Yi Shui finished his post-match interview, opened the system, and checked the mission progress.

“得分王之路……VS韦德，45比32，46比30，41比45，合计132比107……”

On the perimeter, Hughes, Barnes, and Webster took turns guarding him closely; inside, he, Ben Wallace, and Birdman double-teamed him. Wade still managed to score 45 points!
Yi Shui recalled Wade's scoring distribution tonight. To be precise, although Wade played 45 minutes and scored 45 points, his effective output time was probably only 35 minutes, or even less.

In the last two possessions of the first quarter, the 3-4 minutes after the official timeout in the second quarter, the 2-3 minutes before the official timeout in the third quarter, and the last 3 minutes of the fourth quarter, Wade must have taken eight or nine shots in those 10 minutes or so, but he didn't make a single basket or make a single free throw, clearly showing signs of exhaustion.

During his effective shooting time, Wade's shooting percentage is estimated to be around 60%!
However, this is indeed the real gap between Wade and those historical scorers. Taking 30 shots is fatal for Wade, while a certain unnamed number 8 player felt he hadn't taken enough shots even after missing 30 in a single game.

When Yi Shui scored his second 50+ point game of the season at the beginning of the season, I saw in the news that his number of 50+ point games had surpassed Wade's, who only had 3, all of which were last season.

Wade is not suited to taking a lot of shots and scoring wildly. He is better suited to two styles of play: having someone cover for him, scoring around 25 points per game and stepping up to solve problems in key moments; or having him score 30 points per game to cover for him, paired with a star player who can step up in key moments for a scoring duel.

On the team's side, Curry's performance tonight also left a deep impression on Yi Shui.

不是那12投5中的三分，他这赛季也有过几次单场5+三分，投进最多的两次是12中6和15中6。

Rather, it was Curry's command performance in positional warfare offense.

Around the middle of this month, Yi Shui also saw Curry directing his teammates to position themselves, but he didn't do it very well.

But its effect wasn't obvious at that time. Later, with four battles in six days and five battles in seven days, Yi Shui didn't have the mind to pay attention to those details.

Curry did a pretty good job in this aspect tonight!

During offensive and defensive transitions, dead balls, and timeouts, Yi Shui overheard Curry instructing some teammates who lacked positioning and movement awareness on how to move to find open shots during tactical plays, and reminding them which positions were best for taking the shot...

This greatly surprised Yi Shui!

Curry's talent in organizing the offense is actually quite average. Most of the time, he relies on his teamwork and his shooting ability to draw defenders and pass the ball to his teammates.

Last season, Yi Shui saw Curry actively learning how to orchestrate the offense like Nash, Paul, and Kidd, but the improvement was not significant, and he even got frustrated because he got stuck on minor details.

Curry has practiced those things much less this season. He thought Curry had given up, but unexpectedly he has embarked on a new path!
Could this be considered a way to organize an attack? After all, there's no hard and fast rule for it.

...

February 1st marks the start of a new month.

Around noon, Yi Shui woke up in his hotel room again. Looking at the familiar ceiling, he thought he could book a month's stay at this hotel. He stayed here whenever there was a competition... Spreading his pale thighs apart, Yi Shui got out of bed. He felt full of energy, but very hungry.

He took a shower, said goodbye to the two socialites who had just woken up, and had just returned home and ordered food from a nearby restaurant when the team called. He had won another award!

He went to his study, turned on his computer, and opened the NBA website... He won his second Player of the Month award this season!
He only managed 5 wins and 5 losses in the first 10 games last month, so he stopped paying attention to that.

Who would have thought that they would win all six matches in the final nine days! They ended up with a respectable monthly record of 11 wins and 5 losses!
16场比赛，他场均拿到33.3分9.7板5.5助攻2抢断2盖帽，场均投进2.5个三分球。

His average points per game were slightly lower than the 34.1 points per game average in the previous two months, and his blocks were also lower than the 2.7 blocks per game average in the previous two months, but his rebounds, assists, steals, and three-pointers were all better.

It's all about shooting percentage... In 16 games, it was only 44.9%+39%+86%. Last month, apart from beating weaker opponents, the shooting percentage in other games was never higher.

He probably won the award because of six 40+ point games in a single month and the final six-game winning streak.

As Yi Shui predicted, Durant won the award in the West.

The Thunder played 17 games in January and had a record of 11 wins and 6 losses. When the schedule was tight in the first half of the month, their record of 5 wins and 4 losses was also quite bad. However, when the schedule was a little easier in the second half of the month, they had a brilliant performance of 6 wins and 2 losses. Durant also won Player of the Week for two consecutive weeks in the second half of the month.

单月场均32分7.7板2.3助攻1.3抢断1.3盖帽的表现，45.1%+37.6%+86.3%的命中率，加上出色的带队表现，杜兰特这奖拿得当之无愧。

月最佳新秀方面，东部，詹宁斯以场均15.2分3.2板5.8助攻的表现，击败了场均13分4.2板4.4助攻的哈登拿奖；西部，埃文斯场均20.3分5.1板5.3助攻，3连霸。

In Yi Shui's memory, during the 09-10 season's Rookie of the Year competition, Evans was far ahead. The only one who could be considered a rival was Curry. Of course, there was a big difference in their performances. Curry did not pose a real threat, but at least Evans had a competitor.

Curry was already a lottery pick here, entering the NBA a year early, leaving Evans without any decent opponents.

Among the rookies in the East, Jennings only played for a month before showing signs of sluggishness; Harden played well for the first two months, but by January, he was clearly lacking in immediate impact, performing even worse than Jennings. Apart from these two, there weren't any other standout rookies from the 2009 draft class in the East.

In the Western Conference, the second-best rookie last month was the Clippers' Thabeet, who played 23 minutes in 16 games, averaging 7.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks.

Yi Shui found Thabeet's stats from last month quite interesting. He made 46 of 78 field goal attempts, a 58.9% success rate, which can be considered highly efficient. However, he made only 26 of 45 free throws, a 57.7% success rate, which was quite disappointing.

Coach of the Month: Eastern Conference, Larry Brown of the Bobcats; Western Conference, Scott Brooks of the Thunder.

These two are considered top contenders for the best coach.

Despite the Knicks' strong record, D'Antoni is not a frontrunner for Coach of the Year because he won the award last season. No one in NBA history has ever won Coach of the Year twice in a row; in the 96-97 season, the Bulls won 69 games, and Phil Jackson didn't even make the top three in the voting.

Yi Shui once saw a statement that the Bulls' performance in the 95-97 season was seen as a continuation of their great performance in the 96-96 season. The best coach award should be based on the positive improvement a coach brings to a team. Otherwise, the best coach award could just be given to the team with the best record each year, and there would be no need for an award.

After reviewing the details of the monthly awards on the official website, Yi Shui opened the portal and forums to see if there was any exciting news.

The hottest topic right now is that he and Durant both won Player of the Month, and they're being discussed together again.

Besides that, the hottest topic also involves him—he played against the Heat three times and scored 40+ points each time.

If he scores 40+ points again in the game against the Heat in March, he will set a new record!
Since there are clear statistics, there has never been a case where a player scored 40+ points in every game against a team in the same league!
He did score 40+ points against teams from different leagues, once in the 05-06 season against the Raptors, but that only happened twice.

Teams in the same league usually play each other 4 times, and the difficulty is completely different.

Even if we include the ancient history of basketball, people believe that only one person has ever accomplished this feat—Wilter Chamberlain.

To be honest, this topic really makes him want to go head-to-head with Wade again. He's still a little unwilling to accept losing by 4 points last night.

...

2号，易水随队来到费城，休息了一晚后，3号率队以110比98轻取76人队，打了31分钟，20投9中，其中三分球10中4，加上6中5的罚球，拿到27分7板3助攻1抢断2盖帽。

Iverson was absent from the court again. Yi Shui saw the news that Iverson had informed the league that he would not participate in this year's All-Star Game. The game was on the 5th, an away game against the Nets.

这场比赛尼克斯队打得很艰难，首节23分、第二节17分，而篮网队首节拿到33分、第二节27分，尼克斯队半场40比60落后篮网队20分。

Harris scored 22 points and 7 assists on 7-of-11 shooting in the first half, capitalizing on the Knicks' poor outside shooting to launch a flurry of fast breaks.

Yi Jianlian followed behind Harris and drank several mouthfuls of soup.

Actually, the Knicks' long-range shooting wasn't good when they played the 76ers, which is why Yi Shui was able to take 10 three-pointers in just 31 minutes. However, he also didn't shoot accurately tonight, and the whole team's long-range shooting went cold.

However, in the third quarter, the Knicks' long-range shooting accuracy improved slightly, and the Nets couldn't keep up.

易水9投5中、其中三分球2中1、加上2中2的罚球，拿到13分2助攻，率队轰出了32比14的单节比分，一节比分就将20分的巨大分差缩小到两分！
In the final quarter, the Knicks continued their momentum, outscoring the Nets 33-21 and giving them no chance to struggle.

31投13中，其中三分球11中3，加上9中7的罚球，易水拿到36分9板6助攻2抢断2盖帽，率领尼克斯队以105比95逆转篮网队，拿下8连胜！

The Knicks became the first team this season to reach 40 wins, with a record of 40 wins and 9 losses!
On the 7th, Yi Shui had returned to New York with the team. He had a training session in the morning, and at noon, the league announced the new Player of the Week awards.

易水上周3场比赛场均拿到34.6分，率队3战全胜……没拿到奖，因为魔术队上周4战全胜，而且是1号到5号5天4战，两次背靠背都赢了，霍华德4场比赛场均23.5分17.5板，有两场拿到了双20！

Peak Beast, you're really something!

It has to be said that LeBron James' seven Player of the Week awards in a single season are truly difficult to break!

西部那边拿奖的是罗斯，3胜1负，场均22.5分3.5板7助攻1.5抢断。

Yi Shui searched for Rose's performance this season: he played 50 games, averaging 20.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 7.8 assists, and 1 steal per game, leading the Grizzlies to a 32-18 record, ranking fifth in the Western Conference, and even surpassing Paul and Nash to be selected as an All-Star starter...

He's starting to look forward to the two games against the Grizzlies next month.

In the evening, the Knicks hosted their 50th game of the season against the Pacers.

2小时21分钟的比赛过后，尼克斯队失去了‘73胜超越公牛队’的希望，以103比109憾负步行者队，8连胜终结，战绩来到40胜10负！
Yi Shui feels that the Pacers not only counter the Cavaliers, but also them!
They played reasonably well tonight, with him scoring 28 points, Curry 19 points, Webster 15 points, Duhon 13 points... their long-range shooting performance has clearly improved.

However, they lost control of the paint on both offense and defense, which led to a collapse in their defense against Granger.

格兰杰21投10中、其中三分球9中3，加上5中5的罚球，拿到28分7板2助攻2抢断。

兰多夫20投12中，加上7中5的罚球，拿到29分14板3助攻1抢断。

This inside-outside combination completely overwhelmed their frontcourt!
Hibbert only managed 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks on 4-of-7 shooting and 1-of-2 free throws. His stats may not look good, but his rim protection was excellent. He was particularly good at controlling the details of his jump shots to contest shots, going straight up and down and using his strong body to put up a lot of pressure on the players attacking the rim without committing a foul!

...

Although he hadn't thought about breaking the all-time record for most wins, the arrival of his 10th loss still made Yi Shui feel a little bad.

The issue of the frontcourt roster, which I had deliberately avoided thinking about before, has now come to the fore.

How should we play against the Pacers in the playoffs? Just looking at their frontcourt, they have three big, strong players who are good on both offense and defense, making them even harder to deal with than the Celtics!
Let's make a trade. They don't have any quality assets; they're either bad contracts or expiring contracts. Besides, they're playing quite well together right now and are in a very balanced state. It seems like they don't have many outstanding players, but they're all a bit off without any of them...

The next morning, Yi Shui, with Mark Jackson's help, practiced high-post turnaround rhythm control and talked about this.

Mark Jackson responded, "That's a good thing, you should enjoy this feeling."

Yi Shui asked, puzzled, "Is it a good thing that the team has problems it can't solve?"

Mark Jackson: "Wouldn't it be even more painful to have a solution but not do it? This situation means that management has done its best. The fact that the problem cannot be solved is due to objective reasons, not a problem with management's ability."

Yi Shui: "Uh...it seems so."

Mark Jackson: "And you'll start to have a headache about this because we've achieved a great record, and you should be happy about that. If we were on the edge of the playoffs like the Thunder or the Trail Blazers, you'd be like Durant and Roy, only thinking about how to make the playoffs..."

Mark Jackson paused for a moment, then continued, "Donnie has tried his best, Brooke, you have to believe in him, the problem will be solved someday."

Yi Shui nodded and continued his training.

He was actually aware of the team's current situation; otherwise, when asked who he wanted to bring in, he wouldn't have given such outrageous answers as Horford and Garnett.

It's just that when the time for inner conflict comes, the inner conflict will still arise.

I chatted with the player who's second on the assist leaderboard just to ease my emotions.

After a day of rest, on the evening of the 9th, the Knicks hosted the Bucks and easily defeated them 114-103.

易水出战37分钟，25投13中、其中三分球5中2、加上6中6的罚球，拿到34分10板2助攻1抢断5盖帽。

Jennings contributed 3 out of 5 blocks; this guy is truly stubborn!

It seems that Jennings's high point at the beginning of the season has passed. Although he didn't play well last time they faced each other, he was still quite talented. This time... he's just an ordinary rookie with excellent immediate impact, and he's still the stubborn type.

...

With the two home games completed, the Knicks' home games leading up to the All-Star break have come to an end.

The morning after defeating the Bucks, Yi Shui packed two large suitcases, mostly clothes, as he was going to be away for quite some time.

Before this year's All-Star Weekend, each team will play 54 games, two more than last season, because the All-Star Weekend is a few days later than last season.

Their last three games before the All-Star break are all away games: tomorrow against the Spurs, on the 13th against the Rockets, and on the 15th, their last game of the season against the Mavericks – a three-game road trip in Texas!
For this three-game road trip, the American media is highlighting their game against the Mavericks, as it serves as a warm-up for the All-Star Weekend.

However, when Yi Shui talked to her parents on the phone in the morning to check the schedule, she learned that the 'Great Battle of the Empire' on the 13th had already started being promoted in China at the beginning of the month.

Because on the night of the 13th, it was New Year's Eve in the United States and the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year in China.

It can be inferred that when the league was scheduling their games for the next few days, they first decided on the game against the Rockets; then they assigned the task of warming up for the All-Star Weekend to the team that rose to prominence last season; since they already had the Rockets and the Mavericks, they simply added the Spurs as well, completing a three-game road trip in Texas.

Yi Shui packed his luggage and was about to drive his newly bought pickup truck to the airport to meet up with the team when his phone rang. It was Curry calling.

After the call connected, the elementary school student on the other end of the line excitedly exclaimed, "Big, I've been selected for the All-Star game too! Hahaha... Oh, and David was selected too! Answer withdrew, so Stern designated David to be selected!"

Upon hearing this, Yi Shui was naturally overjoyed!
But for some reason, something came to mind.

'Holy crap, I'm only a second-year student, and I've already formed a super team with three top players in the draft?'

(End of this chapter)