At this time, Howard was starting to get a little anxious. Before this, his mentality had been relatively stable. After all, he had played in the playoffs for several years, so he still had the experience he needed, and he had never seen anything before.
But in this situation tonight, Howard sighed from the bottom of his heart, I have never seen this situation before!
Li Kaiming's sudden outburst in the third quarter caught the Magic off guard. Originally, the fans thought that the Magic would regain the field after returning from the second half, but they did not expect that they were beaten down by Li Kaiming's wave...
Van Gundy was also a little depressed. He had just used his last timeout not long ago. He couldn't use two consecutive timeouts in just a few minutes. And judging from the situation, even if he called a timeout, he did not have the confidence to use tactics to defeat Li Kaiming's firepower. Suppress it.
So the game could only go on.
At this moment, Magic point guard Jameer Nelson also became a half-court dribbling machine like Hinrich. Vince Carter directly took over the ball control in the positional battle, and the game fast-forwarded to the star singles session.
This kind of link usually comes at the last moment of the game, when the scores between the two sides are very close, and the role players can hardly develop offense, so the team stars need to step up to solve the problem.
Li Kaiming's sudden outburst directly advanced this link to the next three quarters.
Carter faced Nick Young's defense. After shaking the ball for a few times, he found that there was no space, so he just hesitated and made a pull-up jumper!
Nick Young tried his best to interfere with Carter, but after all, Carter is one of the "four shooting guards" who can be as famous as Kobe, Iverson and others. Although his scoring ability is worse than the other three, he faces a player who was promoted to the starting lineup in the first year. Nick Young, this ball can still be hit hard!
64 to 56!
The DJ at the scene extended his voice and shouted Vince Carter's name, and the camera also showed Carter retreating. His eyes were firm and he did not show any expression of celebration.
It can be seen that in his eyes, if such a ball can be scored, it is what it should be, and there is nothing to show off.
The Wizards served from the baseline, and Li Kaiming's super long three-pointer made the Magic players move their defensive formation two meters forward.
Lewis even took up his stance at the midline, waiting for Li Kaiming to come over.
For a time, the space of the stadium was stretched to the extreme, with ten players spread across the entire half. Such a terrifying threat was all because of the yellow-skinned guy in the stadium...
And this was without Li Kaiming holding the ball. If he had held the ball, Lewis would have been approaching from the bottom line.
After Hinrich dribbled the ball past the center line, he faced the Magic's defense. Seeing that Li Kaiming was already waving to him for the ball, he passed it without hesitation.
It was Li Kaiming who took the ball again, and the Magic players felt nervous!
Then he couldn't help but put most of his energy on Li Kaiming.
Lewis has completely surrendered. He is only thinking about winning this game as much as possible. If he does not fail to guard against Li Kaiming, he will lose the game. It can be said that he loses his wife and loses his troops.
He has become the backdrop for Li Kaiming's debut, but he doesn't want to be nailed to the pillar of shame forever.
When he thought that some people would brag about Li Kaiming in the future and that the latter would score 30 or 40 points against Rashard Lewis in his first career game, he felt a dull pain in his heart!
So since he could no longer guard against Li Kaiming, Lewis simply calmed down and did various things that contributed to the team's victory.
When an All-Star's mentality can reach this point in the game, this player is a great threat.
Li Kaiming took the ball to protect it and looked up to observe the situation on the court.
McGee can only stay in the penalty area, two of the other three are in the bottom corner, the other two are on the other side at the 40-degree three-point line, and Hinrich is near him, but he is heading towards Move towards the top of the arc.
Li Kaiming winked at Nick Young outside the three-point line, and then started to dribble forward. After being turned around by Li Kaiming, Lewis learned the lesson and stopped trying to steal, and just slipped and defended.
Nick Young came over to cover and blocked Lewis. Carter and Lewis were immediately in a dilemma.
Both players in this pick-and-roll have range. Li Kaiming, who is holding the ball, passes the ball well and cannot double-team. What should we do?
When the two defenders hesitated, Li Kaiming had already used the screen to confront Carter, while Nick Young quickly distanced himself and squatted beyond the three-point line in the distance.
Lewis had no choice but to follow.
Li Kaiming easily caused a mismatch. After facing Carter, he reduced his fancy dribbling and rushed in directly against Carter!
Although Carter was a great dunker, his physical fitness was still within the range of a shooting guard. Facing Li Kaiming, who was a head taller and heavier than him, he was unable to resist and could only retreat while calling Howard for assistance.
Seeing that he was about to enter the penalty area, Li Kaiming directly connected the ball, and at the same time, he used his elbow to lean on Carter's body. Carter was pushed back a few steps by him, and Howard was alone in front of him.
Li Kaiming went to the basket and suddenly raised the ball and made a feint. His several attempts at the basket were false and real. As the best defensive player, Howard rarely made the correct judgment several times, and this time the feint was more realistic and direct. Howard was so shaken that he jumped!
The main reason is that Li Kaiming is a little taller than Howard. If he doesn't jump, Li Kaiming can even stand where he is and complete the finish.
As for the jump, that's what Li Kaiming wanted to see. He passed the ball from Howard's crotch to McGee, who was "starving" with his chest against his back in the penalty area.
After McGee came on the court, he finally ate the cake sent by Li Kaiming. He couldn't wait to jump on the spot and dunked with both hands to win the two points.
66 to 56!
Seeing this scene, Van Gundy sighed on the sidelines.
The best defender in the league can't guard Li Kaiming, so he has no choice but to accept the reality. I'm afraid there is no player on this earth who can limit Li Kaiming.
After figuring this out, Van Gundy felt a sense of relief in his heart.
Only then did he realize that he had been trying to get into trouble before. Without Arenas, Li Kaiming might be the only core player, so as long as he found ways to guard Li Kaiming, this game could be easily won.
Now he wants to understand that with Li Kaiming's ghost passing, it is impossible to restrain him. Instead, with the lineup of the Wizards, the latter is afraid that the Magic team will double-team, so that they can compete with the Magic team in the finals. The fight was back and forth.
And now the Magic are lagging behind because of this. Li Kaiming has led the Wizards teammates, and the Wizards have fully blossomed, so they can beat the Magic.
If he guards the rest of the Wizards and doesn't give them a chance, is it possible that Li Kaiming can beat the Magic team by himself no matter how high the score is?
After thinking about everything, Van Gundy wanted to slap himself twice in front of more than 18,000 spectators!
What a pig brain!
Then he directly directed the Magic players from the sidelines to follow his new tactics.
In this attack of the Magic, Carter and Howard split the duo. McGee was easily distracted when faced with such a complicated defense. Howard, who was faster than him, found an opportunity and received a pass from Carter and dunked successfully!
66 to 58!
During the retreat, the Magic players also received instructions from Van Gundy. Although they had doubts in their hearts, they still changed their defense according to the order.
Van Gundy's inspiration saved the Magic. After that, although Li Kaiming was still unstoppable, the Wizards' other points were basically suppressed, and the Magic also took the opportunity to start chasing points, and finally caught up with the buzzer of the third quarter. , chasing the score to 79 to 78, only 1 point behind the Wizards!
Li Kaiming was on full fire in the third quarter. He made 6 of 8 in a single quarter, including 3 of 4 three-pointers. He scored 15 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists, single-handedly dragging the team forward.
