warrior godfather

Chapter 692 Flexibility
The Warriors' style of play is simple, but effective.

The advantage of body shape is the most direct advantage, and it is also an advantage that cannot be compensated by other means.

Zhang Yu has always attached great importance to this. Although the Warriors are the pioneers of the death five, the size of the players is not small at all.

Curry is a tall point guard, Clay is a standard striker and serves as the second position, Butler and Leonard are both standard small forwards, and Antetokounmpo is even taller as a center.

Only Green is 2 meters tall and belongs to a short insider, but he has advantages in wingspan and confrontation, enough to fight against a seven-footer inside without falling behind.

On the other hand, the Celtics, except Durant has an advantage in size, center Horford is only 2 meters tall, Crowder is only 08 meters, Bradley is 1 meters, and Thomas Jr. is 98 meters. are at a disadvantage.

This gives the Warriors a natural dislocation advantage. Clay can play against Thomas Jr. and Antetokounmpo against Crowder directly. The Celtics have to help defend, otherwise they will definitely suffer.

The Warriors' offense doesn't stop there. Zhang Yu also uses the powerful shooting threat of Splash to force the Celtics to switch defenses through pick-and-rolls and screens, creating a greater dislocation advantage, and using the Warriors' powerful striker to target the short Celtics. back-court.

When Cole was in the Warriors before, the Warriors focused on passing and cutting tactics. The purpose was to create open shots for Splash, or use Splash as bait to create opportunities for strikers to cut to the basket and score.

This can give full play to the advantages of Splash's three-point accuracy, allow role players to participate, and increase their enthusiasm.

But it is also because the Warriors, except for Curry, lack singles ability, so they have to do it as a last resort.

Last season, Leonard grew up, and Clay gradually developed a stable post-up singles. The ratio of the Warriors' passing and cutting has been reduced.

One summer has passed, Leonard and Clay have entered their peak period, and Antetokounmpo has finally grown up and turned into an inside monster. The Warriors no longer need to pass and cut, and can directly use their personal abilities to solve problems.

On the other hand, the Celtics lack an advantage in size. Except for Durant and Thomas Jr., everyone else has no singles ability. Mainly pass on.

The Warriors responded with ease, and they didn't need to show the intensity of the playoffs. They only used one move to switch defenses, and they completely cracked the Celtics' passes.

Clay, Leonard, and Antetokounmpo can all go from one defense to four, and the three of them will switch defenses every time they cover. Curry and Olynik can also switch defenses, but they will not switch in front of Durant.

Cole understands the Warriors, and Zhang Yu also understands Cole.

Cole has a characteristic. He doesn't like his players playing singles with the ball. He thinks it is a very inefficient offensive method and will hurt the enthusiasm of role players.

When he was in the Warriors before, he repeatedly persuaded Zhang Yu that he should not play alone or play alone when attacking. It is best to solve the problem with passing and cutting in every round, so as to create a positive and disciplined team. .

Zhang Yu does not refute every time, but increases the proportion of singles in offensive tactics year by year, taking advantage of the Warriors' many stars and strong personal abilities.

He agrees with Cole very much. Passing and cutting really helps to cultivate the enthusiasm and discipline of role players, but the Warriors start with stars and almost no role players. Why use passing and cutting?
This game against the Celtics is the best example.

When the Warriors stopped playing pass and cut, and switched to pick-and-roll and low post, the Celtics' defense was jittery.

As long as Thomas Jr. is named, others will immediately go up to help defend him and help him resist the impact.

And this gave the Warriors other players a chance to score. Air cuts, three-pointers, and a second breakthrough after receiving the ball all made it difficult for the Celtics, who had deflected their defensive formation because of helping defend Thomas Jr., to deal with it.

In addition, the pick-and-roll of Curry and Antetokounmpo is also very effective.

Cole was extremely afraid of Curry and never gave him a chance to shoot a three-pointer. As long as there was a screen, Crowder and Horford would rush out to delay Curry and block his shooting space. At the same time, Bradley squeezed the screen hard, Go after Curry.

This is usually a defense that will only be used in the playoffs, and it is very targeted, but for Curry, it is already a habit.

He didn't attack aggressively, but just passed the ball to Antetokounmpo after attracting defensive attention.

At this time, Leonard and Clare opened up the space, Horford was pinned by Olynik on the three-point line, Crowder made a save to delay Curry, and the Celtics opened the penalty area wide.

While Bradley and Crowder's defensive attention is on Curry, Antetokounmpo has a huge space in front of him. After receiving the ball, he immediately starts to attack the frame, and it is difficult for Crowder to return to his position in time.

The Celtics have no one to shrink the frame, and Antetokounmpo will finish by himself. If the two strikers of Horford and Durant recover the defense, Antetokounmpo will pass the ball out in time and give it to the open teammate to finish. .

In the first half, the Warriors penetrated the Celtics' defense with these two tricks, but it was difficult for the Celtics to break through the Warriors' defense.

Curry didn't even push, just played a handoff with Olynyk, then caught Antetokounmpo's pick-and-roll return pass, made two three-pointers, and shot on the fast break counterattack. Scored a drop shot, and other than that, he singled out Bradley and scored a 2+1, scoring a total of 11 points.

At the end of the second quarter, the Warriors led the Celtics by 68 points 54:14, establishing a very solid lead.

During the halftime break, Cole, who woke up like a dream, finally made adjustments.

He replaced Crowder with Amir Johnson who was 2 meters. He relaxed his defense against Curry and let Bradley chase Curry. Follow Antetokounmpo closely and don't give him a chance to attack the basket.

In the first half, Antetokounmpo scored 16 points, the most of the Warriors team, all of which were obtained in the penalty area. There were also 4 assists, which drove the Warriors' overall offense.

Inspired by the starting position, Antetokounmpo practiced hard for a summer, and his weight increased to 243 pounds (110 kilograms). Without significantly affecting his agility, he reached the highest level, and his strength and confrontation were raised to the peak level. .

The accumulated experience of the three seasons has also been thinned out in this offseason. His movement and control skills, inside finishing, low-post footsteps and passing have all improved a lot. Although it is still relatively rough, Antetokounmpo has become more and more powerful with the cooperation His body, in this era of withered insiders, has been able to exert great power.

In the first half, the Celtics paid too much for Antetokounmpo.

In the second half, Kerr would rather take a risk than let him score.

But if Curry's three-pointer is not released, the Celtics will not be able to prevent Antetokounmpo from going down. If they want to hold the inside line, they must relax Curry's defense.

Cole also saw that Curry's performance was mediocre in the first half, and he seemed to have no desire to make a shot. The inside line was about to be smashed by Antetokounmpo, so he had no choice but to take a risk on Curry's touch.

This has become the standard equipment for every opponent of the Warriors. No matter how famous Curry is, he can't just leave the basket and blindly lay down heavy troops on the three-point line.

Except for Director Lu, who is the top coach, and Nas, who is only an assistant coach now, no one would do this.

Even though Cole has been in the Warriors for 4 years and has witnessed Curry's countless three-pointers against the sky, he still can't sit back and watch Antetokounmpo keep hitting the Celtics' penalty area.

But what Zhang Yu is best at is following the trend and adapting to changing circumstances.

When Antetokounmpo was blocked from attacking the inside for two consecutive rounds in the third quarter, he immediately noticed the changes in the Celtics' defense, and then adjusted his offensive tactics.

Zhang Yu used Curry as the main attack point of the pick-and-roll, and gave him unlimited firepower. Antetokounmpo's screens no longer focused on attacking the frame, reducing the false screens that were quickly disassembled, and instead made a solid wall. , improving cover quality.

After Curry instigated the pick-and-roll, as long as Amir Johnson didn't jump out, he would use the cover to shoot a three-pointer, making firm and decisive shots.

To Kerr's disappointment, Curry's touch is excellent.

Within 6 minutes after the start of the second half, he took 5 three-pointers and made 3 of them. All of them were made by Amir Johnson with the help of the gap that appeared after the screen.

Curry's three-pointer rained down, completely igniting the atmosphere at the Chase Center, and the point difference was further widened to 18 points. The situation on the court became more and more unfavorable for the Celtics.

At this critical juncture, Cole no longer insisted on passing and cutting, called a timeout, waved his hand, handed all the ball to Durant, and said to him:
"Kevin, it's up to you now!"

Durant was stunned. He left the Thunder because he was tired of endless singles and wanted to seek a more team style of play, but now, he had to return to the old way of singles with the ball.

There is no way, the hope of a comeback is on him, Durant can only temporarily forget the pass and cut that he has practiced in the training camp for more than a month, and pick up his old job again.

After the timeout ended, Durant took the ball and Horford picked and rolled, switched Olynyk in front of him, scored 5 points in a row, and narrowed the point difference to 13 points.

Zhang Yu immediately made adjustments, called a timeout, replaced Olynik, replaced Green, sent out the dead five, and used unlimited defenses to deal with Durant's singles with the ball.

For Durant and Cole, the scene in front of them is so familiar. In the Western Conference Finals last season, the Warriors defended Durant in this way, and achieved excellent results.

This is not to say that the Warriors can prevent Durant, but that it has given Durant a lot of consumption, so that every attack of him is completed in the most difficult way.

Today, Durant re-experienced the feeling of playing against the four famous players of the Warriors, the feeling of tense nerves in every round, and the extreme operation to score, the painful feeling.

The Celtics had just improved, but immediately fell silent. Facing the impregnable wall of the Death Five, their offensive efficiency continued to decline, they were counterattacked by mistakes, and the point difference was slowly opened.

At the end of the third quarter, the Warriors led the Celtics by 92 points with 74:18, and the overall situation was set.

In the fourth quarter, the Celtics struggled hard, and Durant tried his best, but he was no match for four hands. Under the huge strength gap, the Celtics were still unable to narrow the point difference.

In the end, the Warriors beat the Celtics 115:99 to get off to a good start to the season.

(End of this chapter)