Champion, please stay!

Chapter 252, Question 250: This is the attitude we should have.
After the people from the NBA headquarters next door delivered the trophy and certificate and took a group photo, Yi Shui went online to browse the news.

Sure enough, Cavaliers fans were furious.

On the 1st, he won Player of the Week for the last week of February, which made Cavaliers fans especially excited.

Because he had already won Player of the Week five times before that, winning it again would greatly increase his chances of catching up with or even surpassing LeBron James.

If he hadn't won Player of the Week that time, it didn't have to be James who won it; anyone could have won. As long as it wasn't him, it would have been very difficult for him to catch up with James's number of Player of the Week awards from last season.

Because the Knicks had an exceptionally difficult schedule in March. The first half of the month wasn't too packed, but all six games were away games. The latter part of the month consisted mostly of home games, but the schedule was tight and the opponents were strong.

April is the final sprint for each team and the peak period for star players to shine.

Now, he not only won Player of the Week at the end of February, but also won Player of the Week in mid-March, tying LeBron James!
He saw the New York Times predict that he had a 95% chance of breaking the record. Although he didn't know how it was calculated, the prediction of 'breaking the record' immediately sparked a lot of discussion.

Yi Shui saw Cavaliers fans saying that although he played well last week, he shouldn't have won the award; it should have been Rondo's.

Despite the Celtics' 3-1 record against the Knicks last week, Rondo recorded two triple-doubles.

The sight of Cavaliers fans praising Celtics players and deeming them worthy of awards prompted Yi Shui to curiously check the Cavaliers' performance last week... 2 wins and 2 losses, no wonder.

Yi Shui found the comments from New York fans about tying the record and about to break it quite interesting.

Some fans disagreed with the Cavaliers fans' claims and went to argue with them, but many more fans seemed to be posting in an organized and disciplined manner—that Embiid's 7 Player of the Week awards were only 'Eastern Player of the Week,' which is only equivalent to his previous 3.5 'League Player of the Week' awards.

拉里-伯德在85-86赛季的4次联盟周最佳，魔术师在86-87赛季的5次联盟周最佳、乔丹在88-89赛季的4次联盟周最佳……比这更加优秀。

The comment sections of these posts are hilarious, a battle between Cavaliers fans and Magic Johnson's fans!

Yi Shui felt that the New York fans had completely baffled the Cavaliers fans. What kind of fans would have nothing better to do than say that their star's awards weren't prestigious enough? The New Yorkers did just that!
If Yi Shui only had 6 Player of the Week awards, Cavaliers fans would jump out and fiercely refute it. But since he had 7, they can only say that the era of Magic and Bird didn't have many stars and wasn't competitive. They are criticizing that era and praising the current one.

But the fans of the "Demon Bird God" are just old, not dead...

In fact, Yi Shui was also quite surprised when he first saw the New York fans' statement.

But after browsing some related posts, Yi Shui realized that this might be the attitude fans should have towards these Player of the Week and Player of the Month awards!

Unlike other teams, the Knicks experienced a "gap" in their fanbase. For several years after parting ways with Ewing, there were practically no "Knicks" fans. Only in the last two years have older fans started to support the team again.

This has led to a unique aspect of Knicks fans – a high percentage of them are older fans from the 80s and 90s.

It's even higher than the Lakers, because the Lakers suddenly lost Magic Johnson in 91 and Shaq moved east in 04, so their fan base has changed at least twice.

Needless to say, for those tanking teams, replacing their core players with new talents and nurturing them is equivalent to a generational shift.

In the eyes of older generations of fans, awards like Player of the Week and Player of the Month are just embellishments, and few people take these awards based on weekly or monthly performances very seriously.

In the first year after the Players of the Week split between the East and West, Duncan won six Players of the Week awards, setting a record right from the start, especially in the West. Nobody really talked about it. What people remembered about Duncan that year was his performance as the regular season MVP, and how he was then outplayed 4-1 in the playoffs by Kobe, who averaged 26 points per game, and Shaq, who averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds per game.

In the Western Conference, Nash won his third Player of the Week award this season. At 36, the "Son of the Wind" is ready to step up his game and remains the top point guard.

...

At 7 p.m., the Knicks will host the Pacers.

D'Antoni analyzed the reasons for the previous two losses, learned from the lessons, and made targeted adjustments to the offensive end.

The execution was excellent. The passing and cutting coordination and the fast break formation were better. The team shot 38 of 77 from mid-range and inside, and the team's three-point shooting percentage inside the three-point line was as high as 49.3%!

但他们得分却比前两次交手低，因为三分球14中2……加上25中19的罚球，只拿到97分。

Because of the good execution of the tactics, the players who cut into the basket had good conditions and seized the opportunity; the mid-range shots, mainly from Yi Shui, Curry and David Lee, were also accurate; Yi Shui also played very well on the fast break.

But they just couldn't make a single three-pointer! Even Yi Shui only managed 1 out of 4.

In other words, Pacers head coach Frank Vogel was very cautious and didn't leave the Knicks wide open, otherwise the Knicks' tactical plays might not have been able to unfold.

易水31分8板7助攻2盖帽，在追平周最佳次数纪录的当晚，遭遇里程悲，97比106输给步行者队。

The following day, the Knicks hosted the Nets in a back-to-back game at home.

In the first quarter, the Knicks, who were in a slump, suffered a blow... The Nets outscored the Knicks 36-19, a 17-point difference, with Devin Harris scoring 14 points and dishing out 6 assists in the quarter!

易建联反击跟进饼都吃麻了，单节4投3中加上2中2的罚球拿到8分。

He hasn't been shooting well from three-point range in the last three games, and tonight wasn't either. D'Antoni's adjustment: keep shooting!

In the second quarter, Chandler immediately blocked Brook Lopez's shot as he cut in. On the other hand, Yi Jianlian used a screen to shake off his teammate Terrence Williams, who was sticking to him tightly, and then hit a three-pointer over Yi Jianlian's aggressive help defense!
With a poor record and weak strength, the Knicks had no psychological pressure. The Nets had poor defense and less physical contact, unlike the Pacers who engaged in a continuous physical battle to wear down the team. The Knicks made 2 of 10 three-pointers in the first quarter, and they were starting to find their rhythm. Yi Shui's three-pointer ignited a three-point frenzy in the whole team!

Yi Shui, Curry, Hughes, and Webster all fired away from beyond the arc, scoring 7 goals in a row!
With Hughes pushing the fast break and Chandler following up with a tomahawk dunk for two points, the Knicks started the second quarter with a 23-6 run!
Nets head coach Vandeweghe called a timeout before he could even react to what was happening, and the 17-point deficit was wiped out by the opponent!

After the timeout, the Nets began a frantic defense on the perimeter.

D'Antoni anticipated the Nets' extreme defensive changes as a tanking team, prepared accordingly, and began to focus on passing and cutting plays and fast breaks.

In the next seven minutes, the Knicks only made one of three three-point attempts, but scored 17 points through passing and cutting and fast breaks!
单节43比22，半场打完，尼克斯队以62比58反超篮网队4分！
The second half was pretty much a foregone conclusion, with the score at 30-24 in the third quarter and 28-24 in the final quarter.

易水26投12中，其中三分球11中5，加上13中12的罚球，狂轰41分。

尼克斯队全队首节三分10中2、第二节10中8、第三节8中4、末节7中3，全场三分球35投17中，以120比106逆转篮网队！
Losing is something Yi Jianlian can no longer get used to. He hasn't won much in all the time he's been in the NBA, but tonight's loss was just too painful!

In the first quarter, he thought he was going to score against Yi Jianlian, but their efforts in this game actually helped the Knicks regain their long-range shooting form!
If they collapse from the start, the Knicks might not be able to find their shooting touch tonight...

...

As much pain as Yi Jianlian was experiencing, Yi Shui was overjoyed!

If the Nets hadn't gone on a scoring spree in the first quarter and hadn't put pressure on the Knicks, they probably wouldn't have kept shooting so hard after going 0-for-4 from three-point range at the start of the quarter.

The Nets are weaker, so they can put pressure on them and create scoring opportunities with players like Harris, Yi Jianlian, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, and Terrence Williams, but they can't sustain those opportunities.

This gave them the opportunity to fight back, play better and better, become more and more excited, and successfully regain their form.

This is also why strong teams like to play against teams on the edge of the playoffs when they are not in good form. The Nets, who were in good form tonight, played a performance that was roughly at the level of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Besides this, there was another thing that made Yi Shui very happy.

Since the All-Star break, he has scored 40+ points in 5 out of 11 games, including against the Heat, Cavaliers, Magic, Grizzlies, and tonight against the Nets. This brings his season total to 19 games with 40+ points! After trading Harrington, Yi Shui knew that the team would need him to score even more, but the frequency was higher than he expected!
Their average points per game have also increased from 33.6 at the halfway point to 34!
To achieve his current scoring average in the second half of the season, he would need to have a 40+ point game to improve his average score by 0.1 points per game, and he would also need to maintain his previous scoring average in other games.

In the post-game interview, Yi Shui was pressed about his 40+ point games. Back home, while browsing the news before bed, he saw that the hottest topic of the night was still related to 40+ points... and the person being compared to was Kobe Bryant.

After defeating the Nets, the Knicks improved their record to 52 wins and 13 losses, and with only one day of rest after a back-to-back game.

On the 17th, a rest day, the coaching staff did not arrange any training, and Yi Shui continued to develop his backpack-style crossover dribble.

He didn't know why, even though he was constantly improving and becoming stronger, his urgency to become even stronger was growing stronger.

He didn't hold back his questions and confided his thoughts, which he considered somewhat abnormal, to Mark Jackson, a legend in the music industry.

Mark Jackson responded, "That's not surprising. Jordan won his first championship at 28, and I think he was already the greatest basketball player in history at that time. But at 29 and 30, he was still working hard to develop his skills and hone his fundamentals."

After winning a 72-win championship at the age of 33, he continued to work hard to improve his off-ball skills, which made him even stronger at the age of 35, making him the undisputed GOAT.

It's normal for you to become stronger and still want to become stronger. I hope you can maintain this ambition—the desire to climb one mountain and then another.

That evening, Yi Shui watched a live broadcast of the NCAA Major Madness opening game, a match between the California Golden Bears and the Louisville Cardinals.

None of the Cardinals players he knew during his junior year are left; they are all newcomers from that time, as well as players who joined in the last two years.

The Golden Bears, the dark horse of the PAC-10 conference, under the leadership of NCAA legend Mike Montgomery, who returned to college basketball, went from the bottom of the conference to the conference championship in just two years. The team didn't have any well-known players, making them a true dark horse.

Montgomery lost all face in the NBA, but immediately made up for it when he returned to college.

The game was not in any suspense. The Golden Bears were the champions of the top league, while the Cardinals were only the 6th place team in the Big East League this season. The Golden Bears won by 18 points in the first half. Yi Shui did not continue watching the second half, as he was going to check the scouting report on tomorrow's opponent that he had received at the end of the afternoon training session.

As for the opening day of the Third Madness tournament, why not watch the Husky team's game... With the departure of four superstars—Thabit, Yad, Thomas, and Price—Kemba Walker and Jerome Dyson stepped up and bravely achieved... a record of 7 wins and 11 losses, finishing 12th in the Big East Conference, and going to participate in the 'Losers' Championship'.

After the college entrance exams ended last year, Yi Shui told his junior, Walker, that he should just run for college, but Walker didn't listen and wanted to win his own college honors.

That's great, last year's top ten predictions are now completely gone, and this year's Lotto predictions are all gone.

The Husky's starting lineup was missing four players, which greatly impacted their recruitment efforts last year. They only managed to recruit two top-4 high school players in the nation, both of whom were talented players with limited immediate impact.

High school prodigies know the Huskies are great at developing players, but in today's basketball environment, high school prodigies are more interested in playing for one or two years and getting into the NBA, ideally achieving great results. The Huskies don't seem like they'll succeed this season.

However, the situation is expected to be better this year. Yi Shui heard from Clark a while ago that Cannavaro has received promises from three talented high school students.

Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier, and Jamal McDaniel were all high school prodigies that Yi Shui had seen in the news. He remembered that the first two later made it into the NBA.

Lamb, in particular, was once considered by the Thunder and Oklahoma City to have the potential to become the next Durant, seemingly genuinely believing that Durant was someone they had cultivated and could mass-produce.

These three prospective juniors were described in the news as geniuses who 'surpassed high school level', and Yi Shui estimated that Walker might have a chance to climb back up next season.

Yi Shui went to the study to read the scouting report. Tomorrow's opponent, one of the hypothetical playoff rivals—the Celtics!

He hadn't paid attention to the Celtics for a while. The last time he did was when Rondo had two triple-doubles in one week, and before that, the Celtics' record of producing three All-Stars was questioned.

The Celtics have received far less media coverage this season compared to last season.

The Celtics were generating a lot of buzz at the start of the season when they had a disastrous start, but the buzz actually died down as Garnett's form improved.

Perhaps because the games became less entertaining, Rondo only occasionally appeared in the media when he entered his peak in his fourth year of his career.

The scouting report details the Celtics' recent form, noting that they have played 66 games with a record of 38 wins and 28 losses.

Since the All-Star break, the Celtics have improved significantly. They had a record of 30 wins and 24 losses in the first half of the season, with a winning percentage of 55.5%. In their last 12 games, they have won 8 and lost 4, with a winning percentage of 66.7%.

However, given the current landscape of the Eastern Conference, Yi Shui believes that it will be extremely difficult for the Celtics to reach 50 wins and break into the top five in the East, with all other teams having only 15-17 games left to play.

The Knicks are 14.5 games ahead of the Celtics, and it's impossible for them to be overtaken.

The Magic, Pacers, and Cavaliers are all very solid teams.

The Hawks, while they may struggle against strong teams, are adept at beating weaker ones. And being in the Eastern Conference, it will be difficult for the Celtics to surpass them.

The Celtics are very likely to enter the playoffs this season as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, and it is unknown whether the Pacers or the Cavaliers will ultimately finish third in the East.

If it were the Cavaliers, Yi Shui thought that would be really interesting...

...

On March 18th, at 7:40 PM, the opening ceremony began at Madison Square Garden.

When the Celtics entered the arena, the fans immediately got excited, booing and shouting... loudly chanting "Kevin".

New York fans have a lot of mischievous types who love to stir things up. Garnett is the Celtics' only superstar, and Pierce is the Celtics' leader, so they chant Garnett's name to provoke Pierce.

Of course, this only applies when the Knicks are doing well; otherwise, these fans would turn on their own team and ignite internal conflicts.

After the players' entrance ceremony, the players from both teams greeted the camera with almost no expression, without any pleasantries, just a simple greeting.

Yi Shui really enjoys playing against these 'old-school' teams; the intense atmosphere and sense of ceremony are just too much!

The Celtics' goal remains the championship, and the Knicks, whose position as the league's best team is becoming increasingly secure, are naturally considered their ultimate rival in the East.

On the Knicks' side, despite the news they usually see saying that 'the Celtics' Big Three are a thing of the past,' they knew from playing against a Celtics team that had regained some form in January that this opponent was not easy to deal with! Perfect for the playoffs! Although they won that game, they only scored 87 points, their lowest score of the season!

Yi Shui dared not underestimate this opponent in the slightest. He remembered that the Celtics and the Lakers eventually met in the finals and fought a bloody seven games before being defeated.

After greeting everyone and returning to the bench, Yi Shui received a system notification: a mission has arrived!
"At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the Celtics formed the Big Three, and the veteran superstars shone brightly, about to make a comeback after a year of silence... Mission: Let the veterans wither away! Triggered."

Objective 1: Sweep the Celtics in the regular season. (Current head-to-head record: 2 wins, 0 losses)
Reward: A quick start guide to the Paul Pierce version of the Three Threat Stance, unlocking the next stage of the mission.

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away?
Yi Shui looked across at the other side. He hadn't thought about this before, but at this moment, he felt that the Celtics' Big Three this season had really had a tough time!

Garnett at his best had his offense completely collapse, and at the start of the season, even his defense couldn't keep up due to a sharp drop in athleticism, causing the entire team to fall apart on both offense and defense.

But Garnett didn't give up amidst the ridicule and disdain. Instead, he worked hard to adapt to his new physical condition and gradually improved throughout the season.

Looking only at the performances since the All-Star break, if you ask any NBA fan who has been watching the games, who is the best defensive player, Dwight Howard would definitely be number one. But the second one is most likely not Duncan, not James, not Yi Jianlian, not Gerald Wallace, but Garnett!
(End of this chapter)