radicalducati Chapter 518 We don't believe others when they say they don't care about data, but Lin Tian
Chapter 518 We don't believe others when they say they don't care about data, but Lin Tian
The entire league is silent! Tonight, no one dares to utter a harsh word against Lin Tian!
Kidd is furious! Insiders reveal that Kidd went to a nightclub to drown his sorrows after learning that Lin was over 40 and 31!
Nash: I've always said that Lin is the best point guard in the NBA. He can do things that I can't do and don't even dare to dream of!
Chris Paul, the 05 number one draft pick: I grew up watching Lin play; he's my idol and mentor!
Deron Williams, a top guard from the 05 draft class: "I watch Lin's game videos every night to improve myself, and I will continue to strive towards his goal!"
Raymond Felton, one of the "05 Point Guard Trio": "I crave to play against Lin, I crave to challenge Lin, but I also know the gap between us. I look forward to being crushed by him!"
Lin Tian's first career stat-padding performance! He left the game 6 minutes early but still managed to put up epic numbers!
The age-old question resurfaces: If Lin played the entire game, could he have scored 45 points and dished out 35 assists?
Will this become the norm? Lin has shown a thirst for data for the first time; will he be able to maintain this "thirst" in the days to come?
What a pity! He left 6 minutes early! If Lin Tian had continued playing, he could have created an even more terrifying record!
It's not that it's impossible, it's just unnecessary. Lin is going to let everyone see how he can get going to spend money like crazy tonight!
Who else? After World War I, Lin had already emerged from the pyramids and stood atop their peak!
Magic Johnson personally ranks NBA point guards of all time: Lin is first, I'm third, Isaiah is fourth, and second place is vacant!
That night, Lin Tian once again silenced the league.
He once again accomplished something that many people wouldn't even dare to dream of.
And just like before, everything was handled effortlessly and casually.
To describe Lin Tian now, only one word is enough.
powerful!
But what was that saying?
Joy begets sorrow.
After the Knicks won such an epic, crushing victory, they returned to New York overnight, arriving in Brooklyn to experience what Lin Tian meant by "MINI ALL Yellow."
Then, they seemed to have been completely drained, and they couldn't find their rhythm in several games in a row.
Not only did they suffer a losing streak upon returning to New York, but they also went on a run of games with mixed results.
In short, the Knicks' performance has been inconsistent, with the entire team, including Lin Tian, struggling. After this period of decline and fluctuating results, the Knicks' record was temporarily set at 30 wins and 16 losses at the end of January.
Throughout January, they only managed an 8-7 record, and their performance throughout the month was far from excellent.
Although the team was not in good form and had both wins and losses, Lin Tian secured the title of assist king with his crazy 31 assists in that one game!
By the end of January, he had averaged 13.9 assists per game!
If this season were to end now, Lin Tian's average of 13.9 assists per game would rank third in NBA history!
在他前面的，只有89-90赛季斯托克顿的14.5次以及89-91赛季斯托克顿的14.2次！
Stockton is also the only player in NBA history to average more than 14 assists per game in a single season. Apart from him, neither Jason, Thomas, nor anyone else has ever achieved more than 14 assists per game in a single season.
This season, Lin Tian has another chance to do just that!
He even has a chance to break this record!
After all, Lin Tian has played 46 games so far this season, averaging 13.9 assists per game and delivering a total of 640 assists. If he plays all 36 games in the next season, as long as he delivers another 558 assists, bringing his total assists to 1198, his average assists per game will reach 14.6!
He could surpass Stockton and become the player with the most assists per game in a single season in NBA history!
This is quite difficult, because it means that Lin Tian will have to provide an average of 15.5 assists per game in the upcoming matches!
This number sounds somewhat frightening.
How scary is it?
It's definitely harder than averaging 40 points per game.
After all, there have been monsters in the history of the league who averaged 40 or even 50 points per game in a month, but looking at the whole history, apart from Stockton, no one has ever achieved more than 15.5 assists per game in a single month!
No one has ever done it before!
So, can Lin Tian do it?
"If I average 15.5 assists per game, I'll become the player with the highest single-season assist average in NBA history? No way, that's too difficult."
When interviewed by reporters, Lin Tian smiled and waved his hand, indicating that he couldn't do that.
"Moreover, if you set that as your goal, it will put too much pressure on your teammates. They will worry that they will miss the ball I pass to them, and they will feel psychologically burdened."
"I don't care at all how many assists I average in the end. I just hope we can make it into the playoffs well and then make a run for the championship in good health."
"As for the data and stuff, I don't care."
In this league, 99% of the star players will say in interviews that they don't care about stats, they only care about winning.
But how can I put it? 100% of reporters don't believe what these star players say, and don't care about the data? Bullshit!
But there are a few exceptions.
For example, Lin Tian said he didn't care about the data, and everyone believed him.
Because he has too many criminal records.
This guy really missed too many opportunities to pad his stats, choosing to leave the game prematurely far too often when he had the chance to make history.
Occasionally swiping his phone isn't annoying at all; in fact, it's quite gratifying. Fans and reporters even wish he would swipe it more often!
With so many records, so many opportunities, and such great abilities, it would be an absolute injustice if you didn't break a few more records!
However, few people believed Lin Tian's claim that averaging 15.5 assists per game was too difficult and that he couldn't achieve that in the second half of the season.
This season marks Lin Tian's tenth season in the industry. Everyone is very familiar with him—who he is, what his personality is, and what he likes to do.
In particular, the fans Lin Tian had accumulated over the past ten years had long since developed an almost worshipful and absolute trust in him.
They believed that Lin Tian could do anything!
What if you didn't do it?
If you don't do it, it means you don't want to.
Among Lin Tian's fans today, there is still a saying that circulates.
If you simply repeat what Lin Tian did in a completely emotionless, unbiased, and mechanical tone, then congratulations, you have become a "Lin Tian fanboy"!
There's no way around it; what he did was truly too unbelievable and too insane.
Ordinary people simply cannot comprehend how someone could accomplish so many insane and incredibly powerful things!
Of course, all of the above are either media speculation, fans' absolute trust, or peers' recognition of Lin Tian. None of them can be considered evidence or anything like that, and they cannot prove that Lin Tian can average at least 15.5 assists per game in the remaining 36 games.
But Lin Tian himself quickly demonstrated that he had this ability.
In their first game in February, Lin Tian led the Knicks to a home game against their old rivals in the East from the past few years.
New Jersey Nets.
The two teams have long since become two extremes in the league. The Nets play a slow and heavy style, focusing on half-court offense and low-speed offense and defense. Their core tactics are interior offense and twin towers lineup.
Meanwhile, the Knicks have long been the fastest, most aggressive, and most mobile fast-break team in the entire league.
Two teams, one fast and one slow, one inside and one outside, are facing off again!
This time, the duel between the two sides turned into a complete performance by Lin Tian!
During the game, Lin Tian capitalized on the Nets' slow movement, slow reaction, and excessive height, driving inside and shooting outside the Nets' defense, constantly attacking.
After he wreaked havoc on the Nets' defense, Lin Tian would constantly find opportunities to pass the ball to his teammates, allowing them to finish the play.
That night, Lin Tian only scored 26 points himself, but he delivered a crazy 22 assists!
This is Lin Tian's 7th game this season with more than 20 assists!
Single season!
And 99% of the players in the league will never have a single game with 20+ assists in their entire careers!
Even top players rarely have a single game with 20+ assists.
Looking at history, former single-game assist leader Skiles has 4 games with 20+ assists, "Lightning" Kevin Jensen has 7, and "Smiling Assassin" Isaiah Thomas has 9.
Total career appearances!
They've only gone back and forth in terms of the number of matches they've played against each other for half a season.
These three players already rank 3rd to 5th in the NBA for 20+ assists in a single game.
Thanks to his incredible performance in the past half-season, Lin Tian has long surpassed these three guys. He has now recorded 15 games with 20+ assists, temporarily ranking third in NBA history!
As for what came before him?
Magic Johnson is second with 22 assists, while John Stockton, who is currently in first place, has 30 games with more than 20 assists!
However, the rankings of these two are clearly not very stable.
Especially Magic Johnson, who is only 7 games behind Lin Tian. If Lin Tian maintains his crazy performance from the first half of the season, it won't take long before Lin Tian surpasses him and becomes the second greatest player in history by the end of the season.
As for Stockton, who is ranked first, although his number seems to be twice that of Lin Tian, it still comes down to this: Lin Tian has been in too good a form these past two years! Unless there is any serious injury or a precipitous drop in his competitive performance, Stockton's 30 appearances can only be maintained for a maximum of two more years!
More importantly, Lin Tian's playing style this season is significantly different from his previous time with the Pacers!
When he was with the Pacers, he was not only the team's primary playmaker and passer, but also their offensive spearhead and number one scorer!
So, although he dominated the assist charts for several years, he didn't have many overly impressive assist performances.
His impressive performance was largely focused on his scoring.
But this season, when Lin Tian came to the Knicks, and when the team had Anthony, Stoudemire, and other offensive and scoring talents, Lin Tian immediately changed his playing style.
His average points per game this season is only 24.9, the second lowest since he left the Bulls, only higher than his 23.7 points in the 97-98 season. At the same time, his number of field goal attempts is also the second lowest since his Bulls career.
But at the same time, his shooting percentage and assists also reached career highs!
In short, Lin Tian slightly toned down his offensive prowess and focused more on organizing the team, allowing other players to participate more in the offensive and run-and-gun tactics.
This season, Lin Tian has truly unleashed his organizational abilities without any concealment or suppression!
Because of this, Lin Tian will definitely not win the scoring title this season, nor is he prepared to. However, he will definitely be able to win the assist title this season by a huge margin, ahead of Nash, Kidd and others!
It's even possible that Lin Tian could break the record this season and become the player with the most assists per game in a single NBA season!
Of course, that's all in the future. Lin Tian's final assist count for this season will depend on the situation at the end of the season.
But regardless of how many assists Lin Tian ultimately made, the entire league is about to witness a grand event, a rather relaxed one!
The 2005 NBA All-Star Game!
This year's All-Star Game was quite different for Lin Tian compared to previous years.
He's the host this year!
Although Lin Tian remembered that this year's All-Star Game should have been held in Denver, for some reason it turned out to be in New York.
But Lin Tian clearly didn't care about this at all.
New York it is!
I've been in the league for 10 years and I've never played an All-Star game at home before! This year, I have to experience the joy of being the host country!
As for this year's All-Star votes, Lin Tian once again won by a huge margin, securing his seventh consecutive All-Star vote title.
Or to put it another way: Since Lin Tian left the Bulls, except for the 98-99 season when there was no All-Star Game, he has been the All-Star vote leader for the other 7 years!
Of course, he wasn't exactly dedicated to his All-Star voting. Although he had some amazing performances in the All-Star Game and even won the title four times in a single year, simultaneously winning the Slam Dunk Contest, Three-Point Contest, Skills Challenge, and All-Star MVP awards in the same year.
But there were also many times when this guy was just slacking off, and even refused to go because he was injured.
But this year, as the host, Lin Tian will definitely not be absent again.
We need to make our hometown folks happy!
As for the other All-Star players from the East and West, besides Lin Tian...
In the East, besides Lin Tian, the starting center is still Yao Ming, the two forwards are Stoudemire and Hill, and the other guard is Lin Tian's old friend Carter.
The starting five in the East largely met public expectations for the starting lineup. The only one that could be considered a slight surprise was Hill, who didn't play a single game last season and only played less than 50 games in total from 00 to 04. His performance this season has been just so-so.
Hill, who had just recovered from his illness, played 38 games in the first half of the season, averaging only 20 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists per game, and the Magic's record was only ranked 6th in the Eastern Conference.
At least in terms of performance, Hill is definitely not as good as his teammate, McGrady, who averages 29 points per game.
Even so, under these circumstances, Hill still beat his teammate McGrady to become the Eastern Conference All-Star starter!
This also shows how popular Hill is, and how likable his gentlemanly and gentle image is.
He's popular with the fans, but not with his teammates!
Of course, this teammate is mainly McGrady!
It is said that after the All-Star starting lineup was announced, McGrady was so angry that he quit training in the gym, turned around and ended the training session on his own, and left the gym.
He was extremely unhappy!
So disgruntled was he that very night that he once again forcefully expressed his desire to be traded to management.
I'm not staying here anymore!
I won't take this insult!
McGrady thus became the biggest fish on the trade market before the trade deadline this season.
As for whether he can leave this time, and whether the team will force him to stay until the end of the season, we can only wait and see.
While the Magic's two forwards caused some turmoil in the East, the starting lineups in the West were much simpler.
With Kobe and Iverson in the backcourt, Nowitzki and Garnett anchoring the frontcourt, and Shaquille O'Neal dominating the paint, the starting five for the West was a foregone conclusion; no one could pose a threat to them.
These five players are absolutely top-notch in terms of ability, popularity, and status! Their selection as All-Star starters is well-deserved!
In addition to their respective starting lineups, the All-Star reserve lineups were also announced in early February.
The Eastern Conference's bench consists of seven players: Duncan, Anthony, McGrady, Billups, Ben Wallace, and Wade.
It's worth mentioning that the Pacers, who have been a prolific All-Star team for the past seven years, contributing 3-4 All-Stars each year, have not had a single player selected this season.
There's nothing we can do about it. Although Webber has returned to the court this season, he has been plagued by a knee injury and is in poor form, averaging only 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. The once spirited "King" is now far from the court.
Furthermore, the Pacers have only a 22-24 record so far this season, ranking tenth in the Eastern Conference. They are still in a state of full-fledged effort to make the playoffs. In the star-studded Eastern Conference, it is reasonable that they cannot secure a playoff spot.
More importantly, the internal strife within the Pacers team continues!
After a clash with the Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills in early December, Artest disappeared for almost a month before returning to the team in early January to rejoin his teammates and continue playing.
But everyone could see that this team was different. The players were not as united as before, especially Artest, who always seemed to be detached from the system. He not only didn't fit in with his teammates, but his own stats also dropped significantly.
If it weren't for his still top-level defense, he would probably have lost his place on the team long ago.
Even so, everyone knows that his departure is only a matter of time.
The only question is, where will he go, and what will he bring to the Pacers? (End of Chapter)