Champion, please stay!

Chapter 251, Page 249: One's temperament can be judged by their schoolbag.
The next day at noon, Yi Shui woke up and removed the local Mengcun girl, Xiaoxin, who was hanging on his body.

I sat up and felt pretty good. He played the full 48 minutes last night, and even in the last minute, he was still struggling against the defense with his not-so-good standing hook shot. He was so tired that he was lying down like a giant electric scooter all night.

However, the white women in Memphis are truly special; they can be very sweet-looking, yet also have voluptuous and fit figures.

Yi Shui got up, took a shower, and checked the tasks from last night on the system.

"Task: Budding."

Rose made 11 of 29 shots, a shooting percentage of 37.8%. His season average shooting percentage before this game was 48.1%, achieving goal 1.

You blocked Rose twice, objective 2 complete.

You led your team to victory, objective 3 is complete.

Congratulations on receiving the reward: Startup Speed ​​+1. Your startup speed has increased from 93 to 94 (out of 91).

Yi Shui estimates that his starting speed is about the same as James'. Compared with Westbrook, Rose, and Wade, the gap is still quite obvious, especially Wade, who may be at his maximum potential.

However, his straight-line sprint speed is still a bit slower than James', and also a bit slower than Westbrook', but about the same as Rose and Wade's.

In the afternoon, Yi Shui bid farewell to Mengcun Women's University, whom she had met at the nightclub the previous night, and traveled with the team to Oklahoma City.

After pushing ourselves to that level last night, some of my teammates are clearly not in good physical condition, and I don't know how they will be tomorrow.

The good news is that the Thunder will play the Timberwolves on the road tonight, and tomorrow is the second game of a back-to-back.

Seeing Yi Shui's energetic appearance, his teammates were once again filled with envy.

Last night, Yi Shui was the most tired one. He didn't even sing and dance with them at the nightclub. When he left, he even took a female fan from Memphis with him... Yet today he's in better form than rookie Gibson, who barely played last night! It's simply outrageous!

With Guigui absent and no one to guide them out, Yi Shui stayed in her room browsing the news instead of going out that night.

Even though a day has passed, the fact that he threw it 41 times last night is still a hot topic.

When he saw the list of active players who took 40 shots in a single game compiled by the media, he thought it was quite normal.

Before him, only three active players had ever attempted 40 shots in a single game, with Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson, the two current kings of shot-blocking, certainly among them.

The third one... Shaquille O'Neal once took 40 shots in a single game when he played against the Washington Bullets in 1996.

There was no one else.

McGrady's highest number of shot attempts was in the 03-04 season, during his peak performance, against the Wizards. He scored 52 points in the first three quarters with an incredibly high efficiency of 19 of 31 shots, but only made 1 of 6 shots in the final quarter, and even his free throws were inaccurate. His highest number of shot attempts was 37.

Wade came closest to taking 40 shots in a single game last season against the Jazz. However, he only took 28 shots in regulation time. In 35 minutes of playing time, he scored 42 points with an extremely high efficiency of 16 of 28 shots. That game went to double overtime. In overtime, he only made 2 of 11 shots and scored 8 points including free throws. The game was won by Conley, who scored a total of 11 points in both overtimes. His highest number of shot attempts was 39.

James has some unique characteristics. In the past two years, he has had more games with 30 to 34 shot attempts than Yi Jianlian, Kobe Bryant, and Carmelo Anthony, far ahead of Dwyane Wade. However, he has only had one game with more than 35 shot attempts. His scoring efficiency with high shot attempts is also the highest among these high-shot-attack players.

With 41 shots taken and 24 missed shots, both statistics set new career highs for Yi Shui.

He saw that most people had a positive view, believing that although he missed 9 shots in the final quarter, at least he dared to step up and pitch.

Of course, some people also said that he doesn't know how to share the ball, and he doesn't pass to teammates when they're open...

If they lose, Yi Shui might care about the derogatory comments, but if they win and become the first team to reach 50 wins this season, who cares?

However, he felt a little disheartened thinking that back in 2009 he was known as a 'highly efficient scorer,' and now it seemed he would soon be sitting at the same table as Kobe and Iverson.

...

At 8 PM on the 12th, the Knicks' away game against the Thunder tipped off at the Ford Center.

Yi Shui and David Lee will directly engage in a star-studded battle with Westbrook and Durant!
Before the morning training session, D'Antoni originally wanted to play normally, but after the last game of the six-game road trip and the intense effort the day before yesterday, most of the players were far from meeting expectations.

After some deliberation, D'Antoni decided to continue the same strategy as the previous game tonight. The opponent's offensive tactics were also simple, which would force them to go head-to-head.

D'Antoni was considering incorporating this style of play into the team's system.

This tactic is a good way to deal with situations where you can't break through the opponent's defense, your overall performance is poor, or your physical strength is low.

The main reason is that the team has a strong defense; without a defense, this style of play wouldn't work.

Just like the Lakers back then, in the 05-06 season, the Lakers had a defense that was above average in the league, allowing only 96 points per game. Relying on Kobe's relentless one-on-one play, they were able to achieve 45 wins and even led the Suns 3-1 in the first round.

In the 06-07 season, the Lakers gave up Chris Mihm and reduced Kwame Brown's playing time, focusing all their efforts on developing the second-year high school prodigy Bynum. Their rim protection performance plummeted, allowing an average of 103 points per game, ranking fifth from the bottom in the league in defense. They only managed 42 wins and almost got swept by the Suns in the playoffs.

Seeing Yi Shui dominating Durant and David Lee easily outplaying Jeff Green in the low post... D'Antoni can relax. In games like this, the outcome is up to the players. Just focus on roster rotation and playing time allocation.

As for Curry, his physical condition was one of the worst on the team tonight, and he was assigned to the wing as a shooter to draw attention away from the team.

On the court, Durant, who was defending Yi Shui, was mentally devastated—didn't this guy just take 41 shots the day before yesterday?

He remembered that a while ago, he scored a career-high 48 points on 34 shots against the Jazz, but the next day when he played against the Mavericks, he felt weak when shooting.

This guy played even more tiring games the day before yesterday than his game, but he didn't have the same symptoms at all!

Thinking about the game against the Jazz, Durant felt even more frustrated. He scored 48 points with an excellent 47% shooting percentage, but they still lost.

维斯布鲁克被德隆防得23投只拿到20分6助攻、还被德隆打出了夸张的75%的命中率，德隆16投12中、其中三分球3中2、加上7中7的罚球，拿到33分7板15助攻……

The match ended at 10:20 PM.

背靠背体力不佳的杜兰特，既要防守易水，又得面对巴恩斯、休斯、韦伯斯特的车轮战防守，25投仅10中，其中三分球9中3，加上10中7的糟糕罚球表现，拿到30分7板2助攻1抢断1盖帽4失误。    维斯布鲁克今晚遭老罪了，遇到了前天防罗斯防出了感觉的易水的防守，20投7中，加上6中4的罚球，拿到18分6板4助攻2抢断。

Jeff Green was the best performer among this version of the "Big Three," shooting 50% from the field, but he couldn't handle too many shot attempts, scoring only 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 3-of-4 free throws.

易水今晚32投15中，其中三分球4中1，加上7中6的罚球，拿到37分11板3助攻1抢断3盖帽。

加上大卫-李的22分9板、查尔莫斯的11分、库里的9分3助攻、钱德勒的10分8板……

The Knicks defeated the Thunder 109-101, ending their six-game road trip with a victory!

After the final whistle blew, Yi Shui received a mission notification.

"The Enemy of the Mirror":
In Game 1, you scored 45 points, and Durant scored 39 points; in Game 2, you scored 37 points, and Durant scored 30 points. Goal 1 is achieved.

Game 1...Game 2, Durant took 14 isolation shots and made 6, you took 22 isolation shots and made 10, goal 2 achieved.

Congratulations on winning the reward: A quick guide to the crossover dribble (Durant version)

Yi Shui felt that the tasks related to Durant were completed relatively easily.

In his personal opinion, Durant's leadership ability in the early part of his career was quite different from Rose's!
In terms of roster, the Thunder are actually better than the Grizzlies, but their current roster structure is somewhat lacking.

Moreover, the duo is well-suited to each other; Westbrook can share a large amount of ball possession and shot attempts, which is what Durant needs.

However, Westbrook was significantly weaker than Rose at the same time, with a clear gap in scoring, playmaking, and leadership.

After playing against the Grizzlies and Thunder in just one day, Yi Shui's actual experience was beyond his expectations. The combination of Rose and Gay felt stronger to him than the combination of Westbrook and Durant!
After the match, Yi Shui carefully reviewed the two games and discovered that these two pairs of partners with similar styles were completely different—

For the Thunder, Durant is actively cooperating with Westbrook, who plays a pure ball-handling, dominant style of play, and everyone has to follow his lead; for the Grizzlies, Rose and Gay are genuinely cooperating with each other.

Although he has a good relationship with Westbrook and they are business partners, Yi Shui still feels that Westbrook is more suited to leading a team with several pitchers and becoming a stat-driven player.

It's only because he met a superstar with a personality like Durant that Yi Shui can think of anyone who could be paired with Westbrook.

If it weren't for Rose's serious injury concerns, Yi Shui would definitely rank the Mengcun Grizzlies ahead of the Goose City Thunder on his list of future formidable rivals.

...

After a six-game road trip, the Knicks got two days of rest.

On the 13th, they returned to New York, and on the 14th, the coaching staff did not arrange any training. When they returned, D'Antoni felt that the players were in worse condition than they had been after playing the Grizzlies.

After resting for a night, Yi Shui arrived at the arena on the 14th and met up with Mark Jackson and Clark to practice the backpack version of the crossover dribble.

He hadn't seen Durant use a crossover dribble to break through yet. Durant's current breakthrough style is still imitating McGrady, either by dribbling past the ball or using a step to block the opponent's advance, using his long legs and guard-level speed to get past them.

He didn't quite remember the specific moves Durant made when he broke through, but he remembered that it was very impressive, though it required a lot of skill to execute.

You need to have a shooting threat, a size advantage, athleticism, lateral movement ability, and the ability to control the ball with your non-dominant hand.

Durant is the most peculiar player Yi Shui has ever seen. He used his non-dominant hand very well in his rookie year, and could control the ball with both hands and shoot inside. However, his ball-handling ability was very poor in his rookie year and was also poor in his second year. He has only improved this season, but he is still not at a 'high level'. He has been stripped of the ball by a one-on-one defender in almost every game, which is very rare among perimeter superstars.

Yi Shui is very interested in learning Durant's techniques and becoming Durant's role model.

But after watching a demonstration video of Durant's crossover step on the system the night before last, he really wanted to give up.

This move is indeed impressive; often, you only need to move three or four steps to get a shooting opportunity.

Of course, whether or not you can seize the opportunity depends on your ability to pull up for a jump shot, your ability to shoot from behind, and your ability to take tough shots when you're not in rhythm.

However, the movements were really a bit ugly!
Yi Shui has always agreed with a quote from Kobe Bryant: "Basketball is a sport that requires aesthetics. Making basketball skills ugly is a crime."

But the allure of being a "template" outweighed the rejection caused by the less-than-perfect technical movements...

When communicating with Mark Jackson and Clark, Yi Shui discovered that Durant's crossover breakthrough, in addition to requiring high physical fitness, pull-up jumper and stop-and-shoot skills, also had other requirements—he had to be good at starting with a triple threat.

Coincidentally, he started practicing the triple threat a long time ago, and he's already at a high level with it! His pull-up jumper and stop-and-shoot are also quite good, so he can start practicing them right away.

After completing a round of training based on Clark's initial plan, Yi Shui went to the rest room to watch the recorded training videos. As he watched, his expression became strange.

The low center of gravity triple threat stance looks pretty cool!
The first step after the ball bounces, with both feet moving simultaneously, isn't bad either. Especially after practicing a few more times and getting a little more familiar with the movement, it even has a kind of agile feel.

With such a large physique, he could pull the ball up and change direction dramatically, use a low center of gravity and crossover dribble to change direction, and still showcase the beauty of his long arms and legs...

He opened the system and 'watched' the 'original video' once; the difference was indeed significant.

Yi Shui was always very confident, but this time he still wondered if he was being too narcissistic.

In the afternoon, when Curry came to practice shooting, Yi Shui pulled Curry aside to watch a video of his latest training session after his lunch break.

Hearing the elementary school student say something like "It's good to have physical talent" in a sour tone, Yi Shui finally felt relieved. It wasn't that he was narcissistic.

The problem lies with the person in the 'original video'.

In terms of temperament, Shubao Du has it all figured out perfectly.

After two rest days, March 15th marked the Knicks' 64th regular season game.

During the morning training session, Yi Shui saw the schedule for the next two weeks starting today and felt immense pressure—10 matches in 17 days!
Strong teams like the Cavaliers, Magic, Pacers, Lakers, Jazz, and Celtics make up the majority!
At noon, Yi Shui received some good news—he won another award!
Last week, he won all three games, defeating the Hornets, Grizzlies, and Thunder. He averaged 37 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.6 blocks per game, earning his 7th Player of the Week award this season and tying the record set by LeBron James last season!

(End of this chapter)