Chapter 367: Successive Battles
Having a relationship with his sister-in-law is undoubtedly a shameless thing, but this feeling will only come to his mind afterwards, because Yang Mo has never been a man who can resist temptation.
After the first shot, Lu Xuefei was as limp as mud, but Yang Mo was unusually vigorous. Although this exercise would consume calories, it brought him more powerful strength.
The two of them lay there for a while. After Lu Xuefei regained some strength, she asked faintly, "Actually, Emma Watson is your new girlfriend , right?"
"Not yet." Yang Mo shook her head and said, "She and I really just met."
"So, it will be soon, right?" Lu Xuefei smiled and replied.
Yang Mo did not respond, which was equivalent to acquiescence. Facing Lu Xueman, he was unwilling to admit it, but facing Lu Xuefei, he did not hide anything. Now Lu Xuefei was the only woman who knew all about him, so there was no need to hide anything.
The two of them lay quietly for a while, Yang Mo picked her up by the waist, sent her back to her own room, and then went back to rest. When passing by Lu Xueman's room, Yang Mo quietly listened to her breathing, which was even and long, and it was obvious that she had fallen asleep long ago.
Yang Mo felt a little relieved, but at the same time she felt more guilty.
Sometimes, he himself felt that he was not a good person. But... every time someone came up to him, he couldn't help but let go of his most primitive instinct, which could overcome all reason and burn away all resistance.
Hexagram, hexagram! Should I say you are good or bad?
Yang Mo rubbed his chest, sighed helplessly, then quickly walked back to the room, lay down on the bed, covered himself with the quilt, and fell asleep peacefully. He no longer had to worry about Xue Fei coming to disturb the situation again, because she and he could no longer move.
When we woke up the next day, the whole city of New York was spreading the news that Yang Mo was dating Emma Watson. With the media fanning the flames, almost no one remembered that Yang Mo led the Knicks to defeat the arrogant defending champion last night.
The New York media did not applaud Yang Mo, but criticized him one-sidedly, believing that he should not talk about love during the regular season and affect the team's morale. At the same time, they also believed that Yang Mo, a movie star, had corrupted the entire team's ethos and led the team onto the wrong path.
In response to these accusations, Yang Mo expressed all his disdain with just a middle finger. When the media becomes a masturbation tool for some idiots, it is not worthy of respect, let alone the word authority.
However, due to the overwhelming reports, Yang Mo received calls from all over the world. She could only explain again and again that she and the other party were just ordinary friends, and those pictures were at most holding hands, right? The media loves to make up stories, so just treat them as bullshit.
Most of Yang Mo's girlfriends are from the entertainment industry and are used to this kind of hype and storytelling. In fact, Yang Mo did not have any actions beyond friendship with Emma Watson, so it was quickly explained away and this crisis, which seemed to be brewing, was handled safely.
When Yang Mo flew to San Antonio in the afternoon, the NBA officially announced the best players of the league's first week. Yang Mo beat LeBron James to become the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, while the Western Conference Player of the Week was Kobe Bryant, who had just been defeated by Yang Mo.
Yang Mo was elected because he led the team to victory in the first three games and averaged 33.5 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game. In fact, his most intense competition is LeBron James, whose statistics are even more impressive than Yang Mo's, averaging a triple-double. However, he lost in the record, as the Cavaliers lost two games in a row, to the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks.
After being beaten by Yang Mo twice in a row in the playoffs last year, LeBron James has subconsciously regarded Yang Mo as his biggest rival, and he can't wait to destroy Yang Mo. But every time Yang Mo's news reaches his mind, he can only describe it in four words: smug.
No one likes to see their opponents doing better than they do, and LeBron James certainly does. Especially after Yang Mo won the first Eastern Conference Player of the Year award of the new season, the envy and jealousy were beyond words: "The trip to Texas will be a touchstone for the league's strong teams. The Spurs, Mavericks and Rockets are the strongest teams among the super strong teams. No dark horse can beat them all at once. And they will also defeat all teams that look like strong teams!"
LeBron James' words were particularly clear, directed at the Knicks led by Yang Mo.
When the Knicks' charter plane landed in San Antonio, a reporter asked this question. Yang Mo smiled slightly, caught the grammatical errors in LeBron James' words and started to criticize them: "Cleveland does look like a strong team, but I found out in the playoffs last year that they were not good enough. There was no need for the Texas Three to stamp them as a weak team. Last year's Miami Heat certified them."
Yang Mo's rebuttal was extremely sharp. LeBron James wanted to compete with Yang Mo in verbal battle, but he was undoubtedly at a disadvantage.
LeBron James also knows this, so when he was asked by Chinese reporters in Houston, he said very straightforwardly: "I will no longer have any verbal communication with that person. I am better at proving my strength by winning games, while he relies more on his mouth, or on the news, or on the crazy fans outside the court."
"No, what LeBron James is best at is not proving his strength through games, but destroying his promises through games. If I remember correctly, before the start of the second game of last year's playoffs, he said that he would end the playoffs in five games, but the fact is that they lost the second home game." Facing LeBron James' attack, Yang Mo directly exposed the old accounts. He was not afraid of rubbing salt into James' wounds.
Yang Mo settled old scores, so LeBron James had no choice but to shut up. Did he have to stick out his face and let others slap him on the left and right? Last year's playoffs was what he considered the biggest shame of his basketball career. He was defeated twice in a row by an idol rookie player. Although he won in the end, it was not clear why. So, he has been accumulating strength and trying to get back on track in the game with Yang Mo. However, according to the schedule, he has to wait at least two weeks before he can have a direct confrontation with the Knicks.
LeBron James was silent, but Popovich of the Spurs stood up and made a public statement: "Our Tim Duncan needs a rest. We don't want our old players to run with those crazy people from the Knicks for 48 minutes. So... in the next game, Tim and Manu will take turns to rest. It's time for the young players to use up their energy."
Popovich's words were indeed meant to stab LeBron James, who had previously wanted to use the Spurs to teach the Knicks a lesson. As a result, the Spurs simply hid their main players and gave up the game.
Popovich's consideration is that the Knicks are so crazy now, and if they really run, how can these old players with old arms and legs run faster than them? If they get injured, it will be difficult to explain. Moreover, for the Spurs, a regular season game is nothing, and the biggest harm is if these old players get injured.
Popovich has always loved doing these things of hiding the main players and accumulating strength. Since Duncan got old, this kind of rest has become more common. Therefore, it has not caused any backlash. Everyone is used to it. At most, LeBron James will curse a few words in his heart, that's all.
The Spurs had only one French trot left out of their three-horse team. How could the Knicks, who were unstoppable, be afraid? In the match against the Spurs, Yang Mo put out a crazy battle lineup in the first quarter, and they led by ten points in the first quarter. Although Tony Parker could keep up with the pace and cause considerable damage, he was not protected by Duncan and assisted by Ginobili. He was just an All-Star guard with a stronger offensive power. He did not have the ability to change the game on his own.
In the second quarter, Yang Mo decisively changed to a five-man half-court lineup. In the competition with the pure academic Spurs, Yang Mo's somewhat wild tactics did not lose out at all. Although this had a lot to do with Popovich's tactical executor not being Duncan, it also proved from the side that Yang Mo's tactics were solid and reliable.
In the third quarter, Yang Mo immediately entered the acceleration mode. Because the French sports car had an accident when making a layup with three minutes left in the third quarter, his left foot stepped on Milicic's instep, causing him to sprain his ankle and leave the court. Popovich immediately announced the arrival of garbage time.
In the end, the game ended without any suspense, and the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs, who deliberately let the game go, 111:99. The team's record also jumped to first in the Eastern Conference.
As soon as this record came out, it shocked everyone. No one could have expected that Yang Mo could lead a weak team to such a great result. This was based on the fact that there was no head coach.
Since the head coach is so useless, why not just get rid of him? It would be great if Super Yang could be the player and head coach at the same time.
At this time, Popovich, as the loser, also enthusiastically praised Yang Mo's tactical qualities at the post-match press conference: "The opposing coach Super Yang has a very accurate grasp of the court. Whenever the team has problems, he can make changes in time or even in advance. To be honest, I was a bit passive in tactics tonight. I always felt that I was being suppressed. But... if Coach Super Yang cannot come up with a new tactic in the next period of time, their current good results will change immediately. Because their tactics are not unbreakable, but everyone is not familiar with it yet."
Yang Mo humbly accepted Popovich's words and said that he would definitely come up with better tactics and try to successfully replace the opponent before his opponent thoroughly studied the tactics.
After leaving San Antonio, the Knicks quickly rushed to Dallas, where they would play a back-to-back game. This was a major problem for the Knicks' physical strength, but Yang Mo had no choice but to go ahead.
The Dallas Mavericks did not adopt the same strategy of giving up as the San Antonio Spurs, they were determined to win this game. After all, the Knicks were exhausted and it was a good time to strangle them in one fell swoop.
After the game started, Yang Mo did not use a crazy lineup, but played steadily to save energy. But the Mavericks started running. Although the Mavericks are a jump-shooting team in a sense, they are too accurate. After one quarter, the Knicks were behind by eleven points.
Yang Mo wanted to kill the enemy, but his teammates were all exhausted. After all, back-to-back away games were difficult to play. Yang Mo had no choice but to use David Lee and others, but unfortunately these guys didn't work hard.
In a fit of anger, Yang Mo put them on the bench again.
Then he continued to work hard on the main players, but there was no other way. After all, the physical disadvantage could not be made up by Yang Mo's few words of spiritual mobilization. From the third quarter, Yang Mo simply gave up the assistance of his teammates and shouldered the team alone.
Then, the people of Dallas finally saw Yang Mo's growth this summer. He took out the weapons in his arsenal one by one, scoring continuously and breaking through into the restricted area. Josh Howard almost cried, and Dampier was already crying because he was knocked out of the court by Yang Mo's breakthrough dunk, and then... sprained his ankle!
Yang Mo's overwhelming performance in the third quarter directly proved his superstar attributes. His performance of 21 points in a single quarter told the world that I am now becoming a superstar who can handle everything with the ball by himself.
Thanks to Yang Mo's god-like performance in the third quarter, the Knicks finally tied the score before the fourth quarter.
However, in the fourth quarter, Yang Mo was surrounded by his former team Shawn Marion and Quentin Ross. Whether on offense or defense, Yang Mo always had two players around him. This was the defensive treatment of a superstar. Although Yang Mo was still able to rush into the penalty area, his scoring rate plummeted. After all, he was not a god and could not reach Jordan's level overnight. After all, it took more than ten or twenty years for him to achieve his goal, and Yang Mo could not complete it in one summer.
Yang Mo's shooting percentage dropped, and the rest of his teammates did not provide much help, and the Knicks eventually lost the game 98:105. Yang Mo's performance of 41 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks was impeccable. He also contributed a dunk that night and was also one of the top ten plays of the week, which directly dunked Dampier, who was known as the second best center in the Western Conference, out of the court.
In a sense, Yang Mo's defeat was an honorable one. The Mavericks players and head coach gave Yang Mo very high praise, all of which were sincere.
"The future undoubtedly belongs to Super Yang. He burst out with amazing energy when the team was in trouble. He almost killed our entire team by himself. He will become the most anticipated forward in the NBA after LeBron." Jason Kidd said from the bottom of his heart.
"A year ago, I was still competing with this guy for the starting position. At that time, we had a big fight, and I thought the starting position would definitely be mine. Now, you can see it. He is already a well-deserved All-Star player." Shawn Marion said self-deprecatingly. Although he was kicked out of the Heat by Yang Mo last year, his resentment had dissipated since Yang Mo was bought out, and Yang Mo's current performance has indeed made him look at him with new eyes, and he has to admit defeat.
"When I saw him arguing with Coach D'Antoni a few days ago, I was on D'Antoni's side. Now, I think I have to change my mind, because this guy is also very good. The Knicks have shown a new sign under his leadership. Of course, I don't mean that he can replace Coach D'Antoni. I think Coach D'Antoni can provide him with more help in terms of experience. If they can work together, the Knicks will definitely be better." Mavericks head coach Carlisle said so. He was openly driven away by his players before, so his butt was undoubtedly on the side of the head coach, but now Yang Mo made him change his mind, which shows how much Yang Mo surprised him tactically.
Yang Mo did not respond to the compliments from his opponents. He did not want to comment too much when he lost because it looked more like a loser struggling to survive. He preferred to spend his time watching the tape of his next opponent.
However, his teammates chose to have a good sleep. Two back-to-back games meant a rapid decline in physical strength, and they didn't even have the energy to fire.
The Knicks' next opponent is the Houston Rockets, a team without Yao Ming. They have entered a rebuilding period and Tracy McGrady has also been included in their trading list. As long as someone offers the right price, this former scoring champion and the so-called talented pull-up poet will be cleared out cleanly.
There is no way, this is the NBA. Who made Tracy McGrady choose to have surgery last year? He is only 50% of his peak strength now, with no explosive power and jumping ability that is about the same as a woman. For the Rockets, the only trading value left is... He is an expiring contract. Those teams eager to clear salary space can trade him away!
As for the rush to clear the salary cap, the Knicks are undoubtedly the most active. Although the buyout of Eddy Curry has saved them a lot of money, it still exceeds the luxury tax. If the Knicks continue to want to catch one or two big fish in the free market next year, then McGrady is undoubtedly their best trading partner, because his contract will expire next year, which will save the team more than 20 million!
The morning after arriving in Houston, Isaiah Thomas called Yang Mo and asked Yang Mo to pay attention to McGrady's financial status on the court. If it was still okay, he could consider trading him for some disobedient players.
Yang Mo nodded after hearing this. But he was wondering in his heart, if he told Monkey that his idol might help him, what would his expression ? After all, Monkey had scolded McGrady for three days and three nights on the Internet with a bunch of Kobe fans. If the website administrator hadn't blocked his account and ID, he would probably have continued to scold. In the words of Fatty, Brother Monkey, McGrady is your belief!
After a day's rest in Houston, when everyone's strength had almost recovered, the competition officially began.
Although this game was no longer hyped as the so-called Chinese Derby, it still attracted more than 20,000 fans to watch the game. CCTV on the other side of the ocean also bought the broadcasting rights of this game. This is to allow domestic fans to watch the Rockets game again. After all, after Yao Ming retired, it has been difficult to watch the Rockets game on CCTV. This can be regarded as making up for the wishes of the majority of Rockets fans.
