The bench carrying the starters?
Even though he was facing a different player, Anthony could not accept this.
Returning in the second half.
The teams switched sides and resumed play.
He attacked more aggressively and deliberately sought out Su Yan. As long as he could strike a heavy blow against Su Yan,
his momentum would return.
Right.
He had many ideas.
The key was... the effect was not good.
Especially when he deliberately tried to score one-on-one against Su Yan, Su Yan, who possessed superior strength and jumping ability, only put greater defensive pressure on Anthony.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
Anthony's offense clanked off the rim.
He was showing signs of being contained, and unwilling to concede, he started getting heated and drove harder for one-on-one scores.
He was about to fall into the... "Isolation Madness."
This was Anthony's weakness.
The more he failed to score, the more he insisted on forced attacks, forced shots, and forced drives, which only made things... worse and worse.
He was a superstar, after all.
A lot of the time, he played really well, and when he was in good form, these contested shots would often fall.
Coaches wouldn't say anything, nor was it easy for them to critique him.
The easily heated Anthony would lose some games because of this, but he still won more often.
However... once it came to the Playoffs, facing truly strong teams,
if he got heated, opponents wouldn't give him an inch, seizing weaknesses, striking while the iron was hot, and taking the game in one wave.
At the same time,
they would continue to target him in every subsequent game until the series was lost.
This was one of the reasons why Anthony, despite his strong individual abilities, could not lead the Denver Nuggets out of the West.
His highest achievement was stopping at the Western Conference Finals, which was last season.
And before last year, Anthony couldn't even lead the team past the first round—the reason lay here.
So the question is,
why did they suddenly rush to the Western Conference Finals last year?
Because... Chauncey Billups arrived. He was an "FMVP" level player.
He possessed a very strong ability to control the game.
He understood Anthony's personality, and so... he would always restrain him and forcibly control the game whenever Anthony started getting heated.
Once Anthony calmed down,
he would hand the primary attacking rights back to him.
He might not be able to restrain him every time, but it helped significantly. Once Anthony got heated less often,
the starters plus the bench,
meant the Denver Nuggets, with all their strength online, were very formidable, allowing them to overcome all obstacles and reach the Western Conference Finals stage.
What about Su Yan?!
Did he count as having consecutively locked down Durant and Anthony, two of the league's top Small Forwards?!
Yes, but not entirely.
Both players' individual scoring abilities were nearly top-tier in the league.
The current Su Yan found it difficult to completely shut them down.
The reason he was able to defend them in the last two games was largely because... they got heated themselves.
Against the Thunder, although Durant wasn't typically a player who got heated, due to Salena's presence,
he got heated.
Against the Denver Nuggets, Anthony was unhappy with the bench cutting the lead, and while losing points, he got heated and fell into "Isolation Madness."
Su Yan didn't need to consider anything else.
Focusing solely on defense, and with Anthony taking many forced shots that deviated from technical skill, his efficiency was naturally low.
Su Yan's defense would succeed.
Inside the CCTV Channel 5 studio.
Wang Meng gave a thumbs-up and praised, "Su Yan's defense caused Anthony to get heated and start falling into 'Isolation Madness.'
That's truly impressive!"
"Hah~"
Instructor Zhang chuckled, "Su Yan is a 'Top-tier 3&D Player,' perhaps even the strongest '3&D' player in the league.
He managed to stop Durant last game.
It's normal for him to stifle Anthony tonight too!"
"Haha~ Right, right, right!"
Wang Meng laughed in agreement, thoroughly praising Su Yan.
The two exchanged glances while expressing admiration.
Both of them knew the actual reason Su Yan was able to defend him, but there was no need to elaborate.
Just praise him and be done with it.
Returning attention to the court.
Billups saw that Anthony's condition was off. He first reminded him to calm down, but Anthony didn't listen.
Billups decisively took the ball and refused to pass it to Anthony.
Reversing the natural order?
Anthony was clearly the Denver Nuggets' boss, and Billups was the second-in-command who had arrived halfway. How dare he refuse to pass to the boss?
It was a private agreement.
Anthony also knew he got heated easily, so... he had a private agreement with Billups.
If he got heated during a game,
Billups should reduce the frequency of passes to him, Forcibly Controlling the Game until he calmed down.
Of course,
this wouldn't work every game, since... once a person gets heated, they can be hard to control.
Fortunately, it worked tonight.
Billups withheld the ball.
George Karl, the Head Coach of the Denver Nuggets, saw Anthony's bad state and substituted him out for a few minutes of rest.
He let him rest and cool down.
D'Antoni saw this and also substituted Su Yan out, giving him time to rest so he could continue matching up against Anthony later.
About 3 minutes later,
Anthony recovered. He stood up and went to the scorer's table, waiting for a dead ball opportunity to return to the court.
Su Yan did the same.
The two leaned against the scorer's table.
The savvy director switched the camera to Su Yan and Anthony, informing the fans that... the two teams' cores were about to re-enter the game.
"Hey~ Su Yan!"
The recovered Anthony, acting like a sunny big boy, actively greeted Su Yan.
"Hello, Carmelo!"
Su Yan responded politely.
"You're quite handsome!"
Anthony looked Su Yan up and down, chuckling, "Su Yan, with your looks and your rookie of the year status, you can chase girls easily.
Want me to teach you a trick that never fails?"
???
Wait, big brother, do you know what time it is right now?
We're playing a game!
And we're opponents.
Are you seriously teaching me how to flirt?
Su Yan suppressed the urge to complain and refused, "No need, thank you!"
"It's really simple!"
Anthony smiled and continued talking, regardless: "All you have to do is drive a sports car and park it on the street.
When you see a pretty girl,
be bold, walk right up, and ask her out to dinner, then reveal that you are an NBA player and that you have money.
Some girls might agree immediately since you're tall, handsome, and rich.
That's the simplest way, no difficulty involved.
Girls usually refuse, pretending to be reserved.
But,
seeing that you're tall and handsome, they will definitely talk to you.
That's where the opportunity comes in.
When the girl refuses, just tell her to wait a moment, then go to your sports car, open the trunk, and take out some cash.
Not too much, a few tens of thousands of US dollars is enough.
When the girl sees your sports car, over ninety percent of them will already be favorably impressed.
You walk over and say, 'Look, girl, it's nothing serious, I just genuinely want to invite you to dinner, and I'll give you 3,000 US dollars as compensation.'
It's hard for a girl not to be tempted.
If she's still not tempted, just keep raising the price a bit; within ten thousand, you can usually seal the deal.
Some girls will say they have a boyfriend, which might be true or false, but it doesn't matter. As long as the price is high enough,
over ninety percent of girls will agree to have dinner.
Ten thousand US dollars is... already too extravagant for them.
Once the girl agrees, her psychological defenses are broken. Then, you just need to take out another ten thousand US dollars and say,
'How about you forget your boyfriend?'
The girl will nod unconsciously, which is tacit agreement. She will get in your car and do everything you want!!!"
Holy hell... what you taught me makes so much sense that I can't even refute it!!!
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