The Whip of the God of Basketball - Chapter 399

Chapter 402

Riley, the old fox, felt right. He saw O’Neal being targeted at the beginning of the first quarter, so he replaced O’Neal in the first half of the first quarter and replaced Alonzo Mourning.

Then, the Heat began to play at a slow pace, using Davis’s personal ability to actively fight with Haslem to the basket, scoring consecutively at the basket, and slowly narrowing the point difference.

Because the Suns did not have Stoudemire, their offense was naturally prone to become unstable. They rushed at the beginning and missed three shots when they came back from a timeout. The iron consumption of the two sides went back and forth. By the middle of the first quarter, the score became 15 :11, the Suns lead the Heat by 4 points.

The Heat’s offense is not much higher. At this time, with Mourning’s foul on the inside defense, Marion was sent to the free throw line, and the Heat and the Suns began to make substitutions.

Riley replaced O’Neal again, and Leon was unsurprisingly replaced by a five-small team on the Suns side. This time he still used Brent Barry. Obviously Dudley’s performance in the first two games did not satisfy him. He would rather use the thin and fast Barry than the young and strong Dudley.

Because the most important thing for the five small lineups is the offense. As long as the offense can play high efficiency, then the defense will not matter even if it is almost.

But when there is O’Neal on the opposite side and you still use the fifth minor, then everything is a bit troublesome. As the center of the team, Boris Diaw has to defend against O’Neal.

After Marion made two free throws, it was the Heat’s turn to attack. O’Neal, who rested on the bench for a while, was energetic and asked for the ball from his ribs. He opened his arms and smashed his ass. Dior was gone and he was completely given by O’Neal. blocked.

After O’Neal received the ball, he pushed back and Dior wanted to take a stool. As a result, O’Neal was experienced and was not fooled. As soon as Dior withdrew, he squeezed in and buckled with one arm! O’Neal also hung up on the rim, and took two domineering steps after coming down. He was almost the last dragon in the league.

And the Suns with a small lineup completely opened the offensive formation. There was no one in the three-second zone. This made O’Neal uncomfortable. Dior took the ball from the waist and pulled it out to the three-point line. Then Marion moved from The wing cut into the basket, Dior made a high pass, Marion wanted an air relay.

But Haslem disagreed. He and Marion took off at the same time. The confrontation in the air made Marion unable to complete the air catch. He just took the ball off, turned around and hooked again, and missed. O’Neal turned around and scored a backboard, and the Heat counterattacked.

It was still O’Neal, he cut in the middle of the counterattack, went directly to the basket to hold Dior, White Chocolate had a through stop, and O’Neal turned around and made an easy hook shot and scored 4 points in a row!

At 15:16, the point difference was narrowed by the Heat to only 1 point.

After the two sides have exchanges on offense and defense, the Heat also took advantage. The first quarter ended with the Heat leading the Suns by 1 point at 31:30.

This makes Leon’s small lineup look a bit unbearable. For three consecutive games, as long as you get on the small lineup, you will lose points. As long as you get to Turiaf, you can control the situation. It’s a long time ago to switch to another coach. He opened his mouth and switched back to his normal style of play. But Leon obviously doesn’t think so. He believes that the players have not found the correct way to play when their height is at a disadvantage.

The sense of rhythm, self-confidence, and tacit understanding all need to be played out slowly. He firmly believes in his own ideas and ideas, so for most of the second quarter, the Suns still focus on a small lineup. Nash stepped up again, scoring personally when the team needed it. This season, Nash has played more Kobe-like, and fortunately, his form is really good.

At the end of the first half, the Suns tied with the Heat at 59:59. Nash scored a team-high 15 points in the half, and Shaquille O’Neal scored 18 points, which made people feel Glowed with a new style.

During the intermission, Dan D’Antoni and other assistant coaches complained to Leon, why use this small lineup with obvious loopholes, and where is his power? Also, continue to let Nash play like this, is it against his style?

Leon did not respond positively to this, he just said “I believe my teammates, they will find the best feeling to play this lineup.”

In fact, in the recent training, Leon has carried out careful guidance, including some tactical details, but the players will inevitably play according to their old habits when they are actually on the court.

For example, sometimes too many ball transfers, or hesitation in the choice of breakthrough or shooting, and pick-and-roll habit problems, this cannot be corrected in two or three sentences.

At present, the only player who truly understands and implements Leon’s intentions is Steve Nash. He is turning himself into a killer with scoring and assisting capabilities. He has allocated part of the organization’s tasks and put himself on the offensive end. More flexible and aggressive. Others are still slowly adapting to the changes in offensive roles in the five minor states.

In the locker room, Leon continued to emphasize that in the case of a small lineup, he must be more flexible and changeable, make good use of his dislocation advantage and space advantage, and play his offensiveness.

“Everyone has to become an attacker and attack actively, instead of waiting for Steve to feed you the ball!”

This is what Leon has said the most in the past few days. The Suns’ players have become accustomed to being fed the ball by Nash. The result is that the pressure on Nash’s shoulders in the playoffs has increased sharply. Once Nash can’t hold it up, others can’t stand. come out.

At the same time, Dior was scolded by Leon again. In the three games without Stoudemire, Dior played as the main insider on the field. It did not reach the height of the French magician in 2006. After the scolding, Lai Ang thought for a while and adjusted the formation. Changed to Sean Marion to play the center position, and changed Dior to the fourth position. The main activity area was raised from the waist and ribs to the top of the arc to further develop his passing ability and long-range shooting ability.

After making this adjustment, the Suns’ offense became smoother in the second half, because the players played more proactively, and they played on their own, reducing turnovers. Although not every offense can be effective, the team is very active in the offensive rebounding, creating more offensive opportunities.

On the Heat’s side, it is still dominated by the inside, using O’Neal to drive the team’s offense. But O’Neal was too old and his lack of physical strength began to show up. He shot a little too much in the first half, and in the second half the defender became Marion. Although Marion still couldn’t withstand O’Neal, O’Neal, whose physical strength was declining, began to miss consecutive attacks.

Once they didn’t make it, they would have to be counterattacked by the Suns. In the counterattack, Jaskovicius’ three-pointers came very swift and violent. Two consecutive three-pointers made a quick break and opened the score. . These were the only two three-pointers he hit in the entire game, but two three-pointers that changed the situation.

At this time ~www.mtlnovel.com~ The Heat began to find it difficult because they did not have Wade. Riley had to put O’Neal on the bench and rest more. Without O’Neal, the Heat’s offensive system would be messed up. The set has become a piecemeal fight that relies on the player’s personal ability and small cooperation. An Undersize power forward like Haslem, once there is no such thing as a super center in the interior, he has almost no offensive role.

Once O’Neal is off the field, the Suns have a pure five small lineup, playing Mourning as the center of the Heat. The Suns players will not easily break through, but constantly use the pick and roll to find opportunities for dislocation, and then start at the bottom line, horns and mid lane. One-on-one attack. Mourning had no other effect except to protect the backcourt rebounds. The offensive Suns defensive rebounds protected well in the second half, and the Heat did not have any chance.

Leon watched the performance of the Suns from the sidelines, and the points were almost pulled apart. He knew that the players were finally getting a feel for it. For the Heat, O’Neal is sweating profusely on the bench. He is 35 years old this year, and his weight is still around 300 pounds, and there is a tendency to rise further. He will never become that peak behemoth again. .

In the NBA, behemoths will grow old and be defeated by new behemoths, but now it seems that no new real behemoths will appear.

(End of this chapter)