One Guard

In the latest issue of the NBA Power Rankings, the Dallas Mavericks, who recently won 9 consecutive victories, became the top spot again after experiencing ups and downs. The Sacramento Kings ranked 29th among 30 teams. The reason why they are not at the bottom is entirely because Cousins' recent performance has allowed the team to win a few games. The Cleveland Cavaliers are still in the abyss of losing streak.

It seems that there is no suspense in the duel between these two teams. One is to win the championship, and the other is to rebuild the team. In the NBA, the gap between these two teams is often very huge.

However, at the press conference, Carlisle stated that the king is also a dangerous opponent. Once against the Kings, the Mavericks narrowly won by just 2 points. The trouble they bring to the Mavericks is much bigger than people imagine.

Carlisle said this in front of reporters, not to give face to the Kings, but it is true. People think that the Kings only need one Cousins, but in Carlisle's eyes, it's not that simple.

Tyreke Ace, the rookie of last year, is known as LeBron James as a guard. In his rookie season, he had an impressive record of 20+5+5. The Sacramento people undoubtedly regarded Ace as their core team building and regarded him as the next superstar.

Although this season, Ace's performance did not meet expectations, and the data even declined in the first season. But this still can't stop Ace's excellence, this guy's breakthrough and defensive ability will become a major threat to the Mavericks in the game.

Ace and Cousins' combination of inside and outside, its strength is far beyond people's expectations. If the 2010 NBA draft were to be played again, Carlisle could not say that Yiyang would definitely become the top pick, but he was sure that Cousins ​​would never fall out of the top three.

Although Cousins ​​was born as a power forward, in this era of dying inside, he is completely enough to play a forward. The strong body, soft touch and excellent technology make this big guy unbeatable on the inside. In Carlisle's view, Cousins ​​is already very good in all aspects. The only weakness may be his little temper. Take Cousins's verbal battle with Mavericks fans during this period of time. This is a typical performance of immature mentality.

On the bench, due to the appearance of Cousins, veteran forward Dalembert has become a strong point in the three-second zone of the rotation time of the Kings. And the Rockets’ veteran Carl Landry, who averaged 16.8 points per game this season, is a big killer for their bench!

Such a lineup, it stands to reason that the record will not be so bad. If Sacramento's management is attentive enough to actively reinforce it, the Kings may be out of the reconstruction phase.

It's just a pity that not all bosses love their business like Cuban. Not all faults have to be placed on the players' heads.

After Carlisle's analysis, the Mavericks players also understand that this bottom-ranked team is not useless. So when preparing for the game, this group of players who have won nine consecutive victories did not relax at all.

On the training ground, Carlisle split up the starting players and substitute players to bring the strength of the two sides closer, and then conduct confrontational training.

Now Yiyang and Nowitzki are divided into two different teams. According to the tactical arrangement, after Peja made a pick-and-roll for Yiyang, Yiyang directly broke through and hit the basket.

Although Kidd is outstanding in defense, he has nothing to do with Yiyang's starting speed. Nowitzki became the last barrier between Yiyang and the basket.

Carlisle originally hoped that Yiyang would distribute the ball to Stojakovi after attracting the defense, but Yiyang did not do that because he ended the offense in a simpler way.

Halfway through the breakthrough, Yiyang suddenly started speeding up! He decided to pass the ball directly, and Nowitzki moved his legs strenuously and hurriedly moved horizontally. However, the German, who seemed to be very slow, was easily broken by Yiyang. The latter easily succeeded, and Nowitzki has no way of doing this.

"Stop!" Seeing this scene, Carlisle, standing on the sidelines, blew his whistle and suspended the confrontational training.

Nowitzki thought he would be scolded, but Carlisle beckoned everyone. "Let's rest."

Carlisle knew very well that Nowitzki's defensive action was so slow, not because the guy didn't care, but because the German's stamina was very exhausted.

During the period before the start of the All-Star Game, many older players will encounter physical bottlenecks. Prior to this, the Mavericks' nine-game winning streak in the high-density schedule greatly increased the burden on the Mavericks.

Apart from Yiyang in this team, you can all call them "old guys" as the other main players.

In the game against the Cavaliers the day before yesterday, Carlisle found that in the fourth quarter, the efficiency of the players was plummeting. If it weren't for the Cavaliers to fall behind too much at the beginning, the Mavericks might be in danger of being overtaken.

Facts have proved that the sudden "poor state" is not accidental, but the accumulation of fatigue, so that the Mavericks players have reached a critical point.

The King himself is a troublesome opponent. After fighting with the fans, Cousins, a guy who is extremely vulnerable to emotions, will certainly continue to be hot. If the Sai Mavericks still encounter physical problems...

Carlisle shook his head. It is not so easy to win any game in the NBA...

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The Sleeping Train Arena in Sacramento at 7:30 pm on February 9, 2011.

When Yiyang walked out of the player tunnel holding the basketball to warm up, the overwhelming boos came immediately.

Today, the stands of the Sleeping Train Arena are all full. Cousins' excellent performance in the last few games has made the arena's seat rate pick up again. So the boos from the fans can be described as huge. If it is an ordinary person facing such a big boo on the court, let alone the game, it may not even walk smoothly.

This is not because Yiyang has done anything to offend the Kings fans, but now, all Sacramento people hope that Cousins ​​can become the best rookie, and all of Cousins’s competitors are the enemies of the Kings fans. .

Yiyang didn't care about these voices, but cast it on his own. After a while, the boos turned into cheers again.

Yiyang didn't need to look at it to know that it was that guy who appeared.

"How does the Sleeping Train Arena feel?" Peja Stojakovi may be the only Mavericks player that this group of Sacramento fans don't hate. He also greeted Yiyang after he walked the stadium under the cheers of the fans.

"It's the same everywhere." Yiyang replied calmly. The atmosphere of the away game can't affect this cold All-Star rookie, so for him, as long as the basket is the same, it doesn't make any difference where he plays. .

"Haha, I think this place was a nightmare for everyone at the beginning!" Stojakovi turned his head and looked at the familiar things around him, Mike Bi, Divac, Webb, Adelman, and a period of time. Gorgeous victories...

And now, Peja can feel that the whole arena is full of depressive atmosphere. This team that I love so much has been in decline for too long.

Peja cut off his thoughts, now is not the time for nostalgia. He and Yiyang opened their bows from the left and right outside the three-point line and shot them at random. However, what surprised the fans at the scene was that Yiyang's fatality rate was even higher!

This is not because of how accurate Yiyang is, but because Peja doesn't seem to feel very good today.

After the two shots for a while, there was a "bang" sound from the basketball colliding with the wooden floor from the other side of the court. Yiyang and Peja turned their heads to look around. In the other half of the game, Cousins ​​and Ace also started to warm up.

Cousins ​​didn't make an honest shot. He grabbed the basketball with one hand and slammed the backboard.

When Cousins ​​stepped into the three-second zone, his right foot slammed on the ground, and his whole body began to glide in the air. As he approached the basket, his hands caught the rebounding basketball.

"Boom!" A huge voice echoed on the scene. After pulling the basket with both hands, Cousins ​​fell from the air, turned around and provocatively extended the index finger of his right hand to Yiyang, and then hooked.

"Hahahaha, this kid is interesting." Peja laughed beside Yiyang. The war between young people seemed to have brought Peja back to the 96th year when many talents were born. The Croatians also look forward to how Yiyang will respond.

Yiyang watched the opponent vacate, dunk, and land, arrogantly provoking, never moving.

After watching the opponent's arrogant performance, he still left quietly, turning around and continuing to start shooting himself.

"He must be scared!" Seeing Yiyang didn't respond, Cousins ​​stood beside Ace bravely.

"Beat them, DeMarcus!"

"Let the proud Dallasites meet us so great!"

"You are the best rookie, prove it to everyone!"

Cousins' warm-up performance did not ignite Yiyang, but ignited the fans in the stands. This group of guys have been suppressed for too long, and now, they finally have a breaking point.

"How is it? Your opponent seems to be very tough!" Peja didn't know why he was so excited. Maybe he, like those fans, is looking forward to the performance of Yiyang and Cousins ​​more and more.

"The dunk during warm-up, I can dunk him better." Yiyang gave Peja a smile, and the Croatian found that this kid had a bad smile.