Link's average stats last week were: 22.3 points, 8.7 assists, 8 rebounds, 1.3 Steals, and 0.3 Blocks.
Although his rebounds and assists were higher than Vince Carter's, the scoring difference was too large.
However, the media who voted for Link gave the reason that Link continuously led his team to overturn playoff-level Jazz and Magic, while the teams the UFO won against were not playoff-level teams, so Link's wins had more weight.
Regarding this...
Vince Carter himself didn't respond much, but he was more or less unhappy, after all, three of the four great shooting guards were in the Eastern Conference, and it wasn't easy to win the player of the week.
After all, for him, the NBA player of the week was not a big honor.
However...
This honor was extremely crucial for Link.
After earning an additional 500 Goat points again...
[Goat Value: 1,225/24,745]
He was another big step closer to the next player template draw.
In addition, after opening the random All-Star sparring partner card, Link found, to his dismay, that this player was another Interior.
Al Jefferson.
On the other hand, the Western Conference player of the week was awarded to the future NBA's greatest Power Forward – Tim Duncan.
Duncan led the San Antonio Spurs to a 3-1 record last week. Generally, each week of the regular season has 2-4 games.
Duncan averaged 24 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, 2.0 Blocks, and 0.3 Steals.
Very standard San Antonio Spurs-style stats.
Of course...
Duncan's power is hard to fully reflect in statistics.
...
...
"Congratulations, rookie, on getting your first NBA player of the week. You remind me of my old self, but I can't remember how many times I've won player of the week. Oh, right, I even forgot how many player of the month awards I've won..."
"I only remember winning 6 championship rings and 5 MVP trophies."
Jordan, who was playing golf, sent a long text message to congratulate Link after learning that he had won the Western Conference player of the week. Well, he didn't call.
On the other hand, after getting Al Jefferson's sparring partner card, Link couldn't wait to enter the Virtual Space and engage in a Hundred-Point Battle with him.
The Interior had too much advantage in one-on-one, but... Link could exploit bugs. In the first few rounds, he consumed his Stamina, and when the time was right, he started to go for the kill. In the end, Link defeated Al Jefferson in 5 games with an absolute advantage of 100 to 58.
He cleared all the rewards.
Three-star reward: [Backdown Punisher (Bronze)] (new)
Four-star reward: [Fadeaway Master (Bronze)] (existing), [Dream Shake] (new)
Five-star reward: [Dominance Moment: Restricted Area Tyrant] Lv1.
[Backdown Punisher (Bronze)] allows Link to slightly increase his strength and ball-handling ability when posting up, better enabling him to drive to the deep low post.
[Fadeaway Master (Bronze)], Link already had this, and it was a
[Dream Shake (Bronze)] allows Link to slightly increase his Explosive Acceleration, core strength, and ball-handling ability when posting up in the low post, enabling him to better shake off defenders.
However, what interested Link the most was – [Dominance Moment: Restricted Area Tyrant] Lv1:
1. After entering Dominance, post-up related attributes +15%
2. Post-up offensive badges, such as: [Backdown Punisher], [Fadeaway Master], and [Dream Shake], temporarily increase by one level.
3. Players can freely activate Dominance, each lasting 2 minutes, with a cooldown of 23 hours and 58 minutes.
4. To upgrade a player's Dominance level, a player Dominance of the same level and type needs to be merged.
...
...
This post-up Dominance Moment – Restricted Area Tyrant, despite its terrifying power, Link was after all only a point guard with a height of 194.5cm, weighing 102.5kg, and weak Power Forward strength. Trying to post up Interior players of this era was basically out of the question.
But!
Link, when activating Dominance Moment, had no problem dealing with small forward.
On the other hand...
After days of training, Link's player attributes once again saw a small increase.
Uh...
His physique and athletic attributes were as still as a wooden fish.
But his defense, playmaking, shooting, and finishing still improved...
[Mid-range Shooting] base attribute +1, increased to 92 (96); [Post Hook Shot] base attribute +5, increased to 78 (83); [Post Fadeaway Jumpshot] base attribute +6, increased to 76 (88); [Interior Defense] base attribute +6, increased to 86 (92); [Defensive Rebound] base attribute +3, increased to 85 (88).
...
...
The first game of the third week of the NBA regular season kicked off on November 12, 2001.
The opponent for the first game was the Houston Rockets.
The Houston Rockets' absolute core, Steve Francis, was out due to injury, which was undoubtedly good news for the Wizards playing away.
The Houston Rockets were quite interesting tonight, starting three Interior players: Kenny Thomas, 211cm tall and 118kg; Eddie Griffin, 208cm tall and 99kg; and the team's Center, Kelvin Cato, 211cm tall and 116kg.
Among them, Eddie Griffin was a semi-stretch big, with a Three-Point Shot, but his shooting percentage was average, only 33.5%. Although Link's current Three-Point Shot percentage was also only 34%, the difficulty of their Three-Point Shot attempts was vastly different.
Link was a pull-up shooter, while Eddie Griffin mostly took catch-and-shoot jumpers from open positions.
When the Houston Rockets saw Link swinging up to defend the small forward, the Rockets immediately had Kenny Thomas go to the low post to hard-post Link. After all, from the Rockets' perspective, this was a minor mismatch. With a 15kg weight difference, if Link was pushed under the basket by him, it would be very dangerous.
However...