warrior godfather

Chapter 663 Whoever gets three points wins the world
What will the game be like when the Warriors give up defense and focus on attacking their opponents?

This kind of fantasy that only existed in the mind of a certain Warriors fan before became a reality in the finals.

After Zhang Yu called a timeout, the Warriors' defense plummeted, without the demeanor of the league's top defensive team. The proud defensive system completely "collapsed", and the Cavaliers frequently attacked the inside and succeeded.

In the Quicken Loans Center, in front of Cleveland fans, James showed off his skills. He scored 14 points in the first quarter, 12 of which came from inside the penalty area. From the data point of view, it can be said that he defeated the Warriors' defense by himself. .

However, James' "King of the World" did not allow the Cavaliers to take the lead in the score. At the end of the first quarter, they trailed the Warriors by 30 points 36:6.

This is the result of fighting against the Warriors.

Zhang Yu half gave up on defense and spared no effort to reduce physical confrontation, in exchange for a qualitative change in the offensive space.

With the referee favoring the Cavaliers, Antetokounmpo will definitely be targeted by the referee if he stays on the court. He is useless on the defensive end and has no shooting range. Zhang Yu simply replaces him, recharges his energy and concentrates on leading the rotation line-up.

Olynyk can shoot three-pointers, can support, and his defense and inside finishing, which he is not good at, are not shortcomings in this game. He just returned to the starting lineup and opened up space.

The Warriors have returned to the modern basketball configuration of one ball handler + three shooters + one end point. Although Green is not qualified as an end point, he can make up for it with passing. Leonard can also provide singles with the ball, which is better than pure Three shooters + one endpoint configuration is stronger.

With the Warriors' wide offensive space, it is more difficult for the Cavaliers to make subsequent rotations. Without relaxing the attack on Curry, they can only give the Warriors players a chance to open up.

In the beginning, all the opportunities came from Leonard. He didn't dare to get up on the defensive end. He felt aggrieved when James easily broke through and scored. He had a chance to vent on the offensive end and he didn't hold back. Scored 10 points.

Director Lu didn't dare to short Leonard any longer, and turned to short Green.

But Green also knew that he was inaccurate for three-pointers, and he didn't shoot from the outside when he caught the ball, so he resolutely went to the basket to kill.

No matter how bad his finishing at the basket is, it is impossible for the Cavaliers to watch him go to the basket. Someone must shrink to the basket to protect the frame.

In this way, there will be gaps on the outside, and Green can pass the ball to the open teammates with his wide vision and delicate skills.

Clay, Leonard, and Olynik all have precise three-pointers, and they have a high degree of openness, and they have repeatedly punished the Cavaliers for emptying.

And all of this stems from the Cavaliers' attack on Curry, which is why Zhang Yu dared to fight against the Cavaliers.

Director Lu is a very good coach. He conforms to the modern basketball concept and is good at handling the relationship with the players. With this, he became the head coach of the Cavaliers. However, he is stubborn, ignorant of flexibility, and stiff on the spot.

In the last game, he endured the humiliation, followed the players' ideas, changed to a defense, and established his right to speak in the locker room. In this game, he changed back to flanking Curry.

Director Lu insisted that the Cavaliers can only win the game if they limit Curry's scoring. The G2 Cavaliers switched defenses in exchange for a disastrous defeat, which strengthened his thinking.

But he ignored that the Cavaliers flanked Curry all the way in the first game, which was also a fiasco.

The rotation of the Cavaliers is too poor, and the finishing ability of Leonard, Clay, and Antetokounmpo is too strong. The price of locking Curry is the outbreak of the Warriors as a whole.

Today, the Cavaliers have home court advantage. Switching defenses are actually better than single defenses. They can use their upper bodies unscrupulously, which greatly makes up for the weakness of the Cavaliers players' single defenses.

If Zhang Yu sat in Lu's position, he would never let go of this good opportunity.

The game is to use whatever means you can to use your strongest point to attack your opponent's weakest point. Since you have home court advantage, you must use it to the extreme in order to defeat an opponent who is stronger than you.

Director Lu is not a pedantic person, and he will not let the home court advantage go, but his stubborn character and the close scores of the two teams made him not make any adjustments, and continued to stick to the strategy of flanking Curry.

This allows the Warriors to get a lot of open opportunities, so as to avoid physical confrontation with the Cavaliers in every offensive round.

Zhang Yu also deliberately replaced the shooter, and told the players to finish with more shots, without giving the referee a chance to blow the whistle, and shot a lot of three-pointers, and the offensive efficiency was higher than before.

The Cavaliers' offense is also developing very smoothly. Director Lu does not make adjustments on the defensive end, but the offensive end makes full use of the home court advantage.

James is unstoppable, or rather unstoppable.

After the main players came back in the second quarter, Green and Leonard were negligent for a while and forgot Zhang Yu's instructions. There were two times when the defense was very aggressive and they gave enough physical confrontation, but they were called fouls by the referee.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the official timeout, Zhang Yu emphasized again the Warriors' principle of "don't make a move if you can't make a move, and don't fight if you can't fight". Everyone dared not be careless and paid more attention to controlling their actions on the defensive end.

Irving was never afraid of confrontation. He avoided the defense by shaking the dribble and changing his rhythm to create shooting space. He never made many free throws.

Love used to have a lot of low-post singles in the Timberwolves, and he could get a lot of free throws every game. After coming to the Cavaliers, his tactical status declined, and he gradually became a blue-collar player, and his free throws were much less.

Today, in order to maximize the home court advantage, Director Lu arranged a lot of low-post singles tactics for Love. The Warriors did not dare to take it hard.

All the role players of the Cavaliers are reckless. The first reaction after getting the ball is not to shoot, but to bury their heads and rush to the basket, using every opportunity to create physical contact.

Richard Jefferson, Smith, Shumpert, and Tristan Thompson are all extremely brave. They changed their submissiveness in the first two games and imitated James to attack the basket.

After being blocked by Leonard and Green twice, they restrained a little and became more cautious.

The Warriors can't guard James, can't they guard others?

They don't have James' body and inside finishing ability. Green and Leonard can defend without physical contact.

The Cavaliers' offense still depends on the Big Three. Zhang Yu's defensive strategy is very clear. Even if he can't get up to the body, he still insists on single defense.

Zhang Yu is well aware of the power of the Cavaliers shooters. Smith, Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson, and Shumpert are all elite shooters. Irving and Love's three-point shooting percentage in the playoffs is even higher. More than 40%, they must not be given a chance.

In his previous life, in the three finals the Cavaliers lost, the overall three-point shooting percentage was below 33%, and two of them were below 25%.

Of the four games the Cavaliers have won, they have shot 36 percent or better from 40-point range in three and [-] percent or better in two.

In the crucial G3, the Cavaliers shot 48% of their three-pointers and beat the Warriors by 120 points 90:30, which is also the biggest difference in this round of finals.

The same is true for the Warriors. In the three games they won, the three-point shooting percentage was at least equal to that of the Cavaliers, and it was much higher than the Cavaliers in two games, which brought two big victories to the Warriors.

The three-pointer is the lifeline of the two teams. If you make a three-pointer, you will live, and if you don’t make a three-pointer, you will die.

This is the era of small ball. It is outdated for those who get inside to win the world. Now it is the world who gets three-pointers.

Therefore, Zhang Yu must not let the Cavaliers make three-pointers. He can tolerate James breaking through to the basket and scoring layups against the defense-even if the defensive intensity is not so high, he will never allow the Cavaliers shooters to shoot away.

This strategy gave the Warriors a mediocre defensive impression. Irving, James, and Love repeatedly hit the inside and succeeded, and the cheers in the audience at the Quicken Loans Center were louder and louder.

But in terms of score, the Warriors have maintained their lead and even continued to expand, from 6 points at the end of the first quarter, to 8 points at the end of the first half, and then to 10 points at the end of the third quarter. Always gain momentum.

And all this, just because three points is one point more than two points.

When the Cavaliers scored inside the Warriors, Curry attracted a double attack, creating many four-on-three opportunities for his teammates, and the Warriors made a lot of open three-pointers.

The Warriors couldn't defend against the Cavaliers' offense, but their offensive efficiency was higher than that of the Cavaliers. Reflected in the score, the Warriors have always been ahead.

James rushed to the inside for a layup, full of domineering, looking back, Leonard made an open three-pointer from the corner, which was unremarkable, but made James' efforts come to naught.

Seeing that the Cavaliers had been falling behind, the referee was very anxious and wanted to help the Cavaliers, but he couldn't find a chance to make a shot.

The Warriors deliberately controlled the intensity of physical confrontation on both ends of the offense and defense, and did not give the referee a chance to blow the whistle. It takes a strong hit to complete the finish.

In the first half, the Warriors players showed their flaws a few times and were caught by the referee, but then they learned to be smart and didn't make a move unless they could make a move. In the last confrontation, they just dodged if they could.

Don't you want to score?I'll just give it to you, anyway, looking back, you can't guard me, I made a perfect three-pointer, which is one more point than your hard work rushing to the basket, why not do it?
The referee could only stare wide-eyed, looking for all opportunities to blow the whistle, and even whistled the Warriors' offensive fouls for three consecutive rounds, but they couldn't change the situation on the court.

As long as the Cavaliers have been pinching Curry, the Warriors will continue to get open opportunities, and they can always make three-pointers. The offensive efficiency is always higher than that of the Cavaliers, and they always maintain the lead.

Director Lu thought he had found the key to unlock the door to victory, but that key belonged to the Warriors.

In the end, the Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 134:123, leading 3:0 and winning the final match point.

(End of this chapter)