svetikya Chapter 671 Is the record for number one in history finally about to be broken? Lin Tian
Chapter 671 Is the record for number one in history finally about to be broken? Lin Tian
On January 2nd, the Knicks faced another Texas team, the Mavericks, on the road in a back-to-back game. The Mavericks are still one of the strongest teams in the Western Conference this season. They still have Nowitzki as their absolute core, still play their crazy jump shot and isolation style, and are still one of the most offensively potent teams in the league.
The Mavericks are currently ranked third in the Western Conference, behind only the Suns and Spurs, two top teams.
Everyone originally thought it would be a close game, and at least the Mavericks wouldn't be easily crushed by the Knicks in the second game of a back-to-back.
But as soon as the game started, everyone stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
Lin Tian went all out from the very first second of the game, scoring points non-stop!
Lin Tian's relentless attacks, both inside and outside, completely dismantled the Mavericks' already weak defense.
No matter if it's Terry, Daniels, Stackhouse, or anyone else, they are no match for Lin Tian and cannot stop his attacks at all.
In the first quarter, Lin Tian scored 25 points with inside drives and outside shots, giving the Knicks a 10-point lead.
Although the Mavericks' offensive firepower was indeed impressive, they quickly caught up in the second quarter and even took the lead at one point when Lin Tian had a bad shooting night in the first half of the second quarter.
But in the last two minutes of the second quarter, Lin Tian suddenly erupted again, hitting all four of his three-point attempts!
Not only did he bring his first-half score to 40 again, but he also extended his lead to 10 points once more!
In the second half, the two sides switched sides, but Lin Tian's hot streak did not cool down at all. He continued to shoot wildly and score points, and his score kept increasing.
Faced with Lin Tian's seemingly unstoppable and insane shooting touch, and his unstoppable momentum, the Mavericks finally couldn't hold back any longer.
They are human, their touch will fluctuate, and their condition will have normal fluctuations and changes.
But Lin Tian didn't seem to have that.
So in the entire third quarter, the Mavericks only scored 18 points, while Lin Tian scored 19 points by himself!
Lin Tian scored 59 points in just 3 quarters!
And he led the Knicks to a 19-point lead!
At the start of the fourth quarter, Lin Tian did not play but instead rested on the sidelines.
Judging from his and Don Nelson's expressions, if the Mavericks manage to catch up, Lin Tian will step in and seal the game.
If the Mavericks can close the gap and regain their form to turn the game around, Lin Tian will step in at any time to bring the game back under pressure.
Anyway, Lin Tian's fans are cheering for the Mavericks right now.
Even if Lin Tian goes up for another minute, even if he just goes up and gets his score to 60 before coming off, so as not to drive those obsessive-compulsive patients crazy, what should he do?
Unfortunately, the Mavericks clearly haven't found their rhythm yet. They played hard for 5 minutes in the fourth quarter, but instead of narrowing the 19-point deficit, Hill and his bench players extended the lead to 25 points!
Then?
Then even Hill, who had a stellar performance tonight with a season-high 21 points, went to rest. As for Lin Tian, he naturally wouldn't be playing again.
119: 100!
Ultimately, the Knicks defeated the Mavericks by 19 points, washing away the frustration and disappointment of losing to the Spurs the previous day.
Then, the Knicks started another winning streak!
And Lin Tian once again unleashed his madness!
他接下来在球队做客金州和萨克拉门托的两场比赛中又连续轰下54分和57分，率队拿到3连胜的同时，自己也连续3场比赛轰下50+！
Not only did he easily lead his team to a 3-1 record in the first week of 2007, but he also won the Player of the Week award.
At the same time, fans, media, and everyone else all noticed this.
Lin Tian said he would try to achieve an average score of over 52.4 this month, and it seems he wasn't just talking nonsense.
This guy is really starting to work in this direction!
After a three-game winning streak, the Knicks lost their final game of their Western tour, this time to the top seed in the Pacific Division.
Phoenix Suns!
The Suns went on a crazy run, scoring a whopping 149 points that night.
On the Knicks' side, apart from Lin Tian maintaining his hot streak and scoring a whopping 67 points, no other player on the team could score more than 15 points!
The lack of help, the lack of a reliable second scoring option, and the impact of the absence of Stoudemire and Anthony were all vividly displayed in this high-scoring battle!
Even though Lin Tian scored 67 points that night, the Knicks still lost by a full 17 points!
Everyone knows that if Lin Tian hadn't chosen to leave the court early and give up the game when there was still a 20-point gap between the two sides in the last 3 minutes, he would have had no problem scoring at least another 70 points that night!
But clearly, Lin Tian, who has scored 100 points once, is completely uninterested in and doesn't care about scores like 70 points. Lin Tian simply cannot bring himself to do something like having his teammates foul him repeatedly to create offensive opportunities and score 70 points when the team is already behind and has no chance of winning.
The loss of 67 points also became the highest personal score in all of Lin Tian's career losses!
He had never before scored so many points but failed to lead his team to victory.
After losing the game, Lin Tian didn't say anything harsh like "see you in New York".
No need.
If you haven't even played a real game, what's the point of making such threats? It's not like the team was sabotaged, targeted, or lost for any other reason. If he makes threats every time he loses, there will be far too many people wanting to meet Lin Tian in New York.
We only use this trick against those guys who win through underhanded tactics!
After returning to their home court, Lin Tian continued his crazy and terrifying performance, leading the Knicks to a six-game winning streak in their next six home games!
In these six games, Lin Tian scored 60 points in one game and 50 points in four games. Only in the game against the Pistons did Lin Tian score less than 50 points again, only getting 33 points.
The Pistons used their defense, which wasn't completely broken and still had some of their peak form, to stop Lin Tian from shooting 13 of 28. But even though Lin Tian's own shooting touch wasn't great, he saved the team in another way.
Because he alone drew a lot of the Pistons' defensive attention and resources.
In addition, the other Knicks players were also in excellent form that night, so Lin Tian kept passing the ball, looking for teammates, and setting them up.
Thanks to his selfless performance, many Knicks players put on quite impressive plays.
Hill 18 points, Houston 15 points, Okur 24 points!
Thanks to the output of these three guys, the Knicks still managed to score 120 points and hand the Pistons a crushing 18-point defeat!
Although Lin Tian only scored 33 points that night, he delivered 21 assists and grabbed 17 rebounds!
A super triple-double is no less impressive than a 50-point performance, and may even be more stunning!
After all, Lin Tian has scored countless 50 points this season, but tonight's near 30+20+20 stat line is truly rare.
Things are valued because they are rare!
Then, after this six-game home winning streak, the Knicks were able to completely stabilize their morale and team record. At the same time, their record for the entire month of January was temporarily set at 9 wins and 2 losses!
They remain firmly in second place in the East, and the gap between them and the third-place Cavaliers has reached 7 games!
At this point in the season, a seven-game lead is definitely a huge, precipitous advantage.
In other words, the Celtics, who are currently ranked first this year, are really strong and stable after their big trades. The Knicks' 9-2 record is already amazing enough, but the Celtics have also been incredibly strong during this period.
So far in January, they haven't lost a single game! A 10-game winning streak is bringing them closer and closer to retaining their long-awaited number one spot in the league!
This time, the Celtics are clearly on the verge of a true resurgence!
The GDP trio is simply a match made in heaven. Although none of them are particularly famous except for Duncan, their chemistry and understanding are so amazing that it's as if they've been playing together for 10 years!
With the increasingly mature Dwight Howard bringing terrifying pressure and defensive ability in the paint, the Celtics are now considered top-tier in the league in both offense and defense!
The Knicks and Celtics, the top two seeds in the East, met head-to-head at this time!
The Celtics, on a 10-game winning streak, faced off against the Knicks, who were on a 6-game winning streak!
Currently, the two teams are 3 games apart in wins, which is quite a significant gap considering that the season is about halfway through!
The good news is that these two teams haven't played each other this season!
They still have to play a full three more games!
Two of these matches will take place within the next week!
In other words, if the Knicks can win both of these games, they can close the gap to just one game in the blink of an eye!
That makes the question of who will be the top seed in the East this season incredibly big!
Conversely, if the Celtics can win both of these games, they could extend the gap between the two teams to five games!
In a game that can be played as two games, the difference between the inside and outside defenses can be enormous!
If the Spurs can win these two consecutive games, the race for the top spot in the Eastern Conference will essentially be over.
If the Knicks can achieve a winning streak, the battle between first and second place will most likely continue until April!
Therefore, this game, which kicked off first at Madison Square Garden, was extremely important!
It would be no exaggeration to say that this was the most important matchup in the Eastern Conference since the start of the season!
This game naturally became the one that TNT chose to broadcast live across the United States that day. Countless fans were glued to their TVs early on, eager to see how this top-of-the-table clash would turn out!
What we can't forget is that this game was also a reunion of Lin Tian with four former Pacers dynasty members: Parker, Ginobili, and Josh Howard!
The brothers who once created a dynasty together are now facing off again, but they must fight tooth and nail for hegemony in the East!
Who will win tonight, the Celtics or the Knicks?
Answer: The Celtics!
This highly anticipated and long-awaited game, full of symbolic significance, was completely controlled by the Celtics from the very beginning.
Although Lin Tian was still unstoppable in this game, still dominating the field and still making the entire Celtics team run for their lives, unfortunately his teammates really didn't put on any impressive performances tonight.
This situation is also related to the Celtics' strategy!
Rivers' instructions to his players during the game were to defend Lin Tian one-on-one, with everyone else not helping on him, but only keeping a close eye on their own players and not giving anyone else any chance to score or find their rhythm!
As for Lin Tian?
If you're so capable, then go ahead and score 100 points again and crush us!
Under Rivers' strategy, Lin Tian scored 20 points in the first quarter, 15 points in the second quarter, and 18 points in the third quarter, racking up a total of 53 points in just three quarters!
However, the Knicks were the team that got dominated in the first three quarters.
They were still down by 11 points to the Celtics after three quarters!
In the fourth quarter, Lin Tian didn't rest, but immediately showed off his incredible shooting touch!
In the first 7 minutes of the fourth quarter, Lin Tian made all 8 of his shots, including 3 of 3 three-pointers and 2 of 2 free throws. He kept shooting and making shots, accounting for all of the team's points in those 5 minutes, scoring a total of 21 points!
But after Lin Tian's incredible performance, the team fell behind the Celtics by 15 points!
In other words, after Lin Tian made all 8 of his shots, the Knicks fell further behind!
As for the reason?
Apart from Lin Tian, all other Knicks players went 0-for-7 in those 5 minutes!
Not a single point!
Apart from Lin Tian, all the Knicks players did not score a single point during this period!
As time went on, Lin Tian's stamina began to decline significantly, and his shooting touch started to fade and he began to miss shots. Meanwhile, the Celtics, relying on their superior shooting performance and excellent teamwork that night, began to quickly widen the score gap!
With only 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Celtics had a 21-point lead!
At this point, the Knicks had no reason to continue, and Don Nelson made a decisive substitution!
He substituted all his key players, effectively surrendering the game! The match was now over!
This game also fully exposed the Knicks' predicament this month.
It was all thanks to Lin Tian fighting alone!
If his performance declines or he doesn't play well enough, the Knicks will immediately collapse or be on the verge of collapse!
This team's current situation is completely inseparable from Lin Tian!
But sometimes, even if Lin Tian gives it his all and scores 74 points in a single game, he still can't bring his team a victory against the league's top teams!
This loss was absolutely devastating for the Knicks!
Even though they won the next two games in a row, with Lin Tian scoring 41 and 50 points respectively in those two games, the Knicks managed to recover slightly from this crushing defeat.
Although Lin Tian's average score is still 51.1 points after these few games, this average score has made his chances of catching Chamberlain's monthly average of 52 points extremely low again, because the Knicks only have two games left this month, and both of them are against top teams.
The Celtics in the East and the Spurs in the West!
It seems incredibly difficult to score a lot of points in these two games and break Chamberlain's record!
It was only at this point that the fans finally realized something—
That means their expectations of Lin Tian seem too high!
Despite the team lacking two key players, this monster led the team to an 11-3 record throughout January, ranking third in the league during that period. He has also averaged over 50 points per game this month so far.
Even so, fans were still disappointed, feeling it was a real pity that he didn't break Chamberlain's record. Perhaps we should be more realistic and not put so much pressure on Lin.
After thinking about this, many of Lin Tian's fans completely relaxed.
After all, Lin Tian has already surpassed Iverson to become the league's leading scorer this season, and the team has, as he said, secured second place in the Eastern Conference and a top-three position in the league.
If that's not enough, then the fans are being a bit unreasonable.
Just when the fans had given up and thought these records were insignificant, the Knicks players were at their most confident and eager for victory!
After all, for the Knicks, losing a crucial matchup against the Celtics is not the end of the world.
They still have plenty of opportunities to fight back! For example, on January 28th, the Knicks will travel to Boston to play the Celtics!
If they can win this game, they can quickly narrow the gap between the two sides! Once again, the suspense over the top spot in the East is reignited!
If we can win, anything is still possible!
But even with their united efforts, the Knicks still couldn't win the game that night! (End of Chapter)