warrior godfather

Chapter 777 We Can Beat Fifth Elementary School, And We Can Break Fifth Elementary School
It is not surprising that the Cavaliers lost to the Celtics, but the way the Cavaliers lost to the Celtics was beyond people's expectations.

No matter how strong the Celtics are, the Cavaliers also have James, so they have to win at least two games, right?
As a result, the Cavaliers won the next game with difficulty except with the help of the referee. The rest of the time, they were suppressed by the Celtics and lost cleanly.

This can't help but make the fans feel a little familiar. Isn't James the same way before? It's hard to win, but easy to lose. It's just that he was swept in the finals before, but this year he was swept by Gentleman in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and he has regressed a lot.

After being out this time, James will soon be 35 years old. Except for the most loyal Jamie, no one is optimistic that he can win the championship.

Many players retired when they were 35 years old. Although James' statistics are still so luxurious, his dominance over the game is not as good as every year. The defense is getting more and more lazy, and the Cavaliers' lineup is getting worse and worse. It used to be stable Reaching the Finals, now I can't even make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, let alone win the championship.

It is almost a foregone conclusion that James will not be crowned for life. His best choice is to finish the rest of his career in the Cavaliers to make up for the damage caused to the Cleveland fans when he left the Cavaliers. Retiring from the military is a complete career.

It's just that such an ending doesn't satisfy those fans of winning.

James also lost miserably before, but at any rate, he lost after reaching the finals. The Big Three looked quite bluffing, as if there was no hope of winning the championship, and attracted some fans who hated the Warriors.

But now, the Cavaliers can't even beat the Celtics, they can't touch the Eastern Conference Finals, and they are far away from winning the championship. These winning fans immediately abandoned James and switched to the Celtics' camp.

The Celtics' playoff record is second only to the Warriors, similar to the Rockets, and their opponents are the Big Three Cavaliers, which is full of gold.

Durant, Leonard, and Irving are powerful. Each of them has the ability to decide the game. They take turns to break out, and the opponent is difficult to parry. They also play pass and cut tactics. They don't fight alone. There is a kind of warrior who was invincible in the world. , the charm that perfectly combines the individual and the team.

Horford is also a rare space-based power forward in the league. He can shoot, respond, and switch defenses, which perfectly meets the requirements of the small ball era.

In addition, the Celtics also have Smart, Rozier, Morris and other high-quality players who are in the rookie bonus period. The lineup is reasonable, the offense and defense are balanced, and the depth of the lineup is better than that of the Warriors.

After the Celtics easily defeated the Cavaliers, the clamor for the title surged, even surpassing the Warriors.

At this time, many fans of winning the game also joined the Celtics camp. The Celtics' already huge fan base has expanded a lot. They even don't care about the Bulls and start provoking Warriors fans.

But the two sides failed to quarrel, perhaps because of the influence of Curry, the Warriors fans are more pragmatic, focusing on the Western Conference Finals with the Rockets in front of them, and ignore the provocations of the Celtics fans.

It is also one of the three major teams that joined the NBA at the beginning of its founding. For 60 years, the Celtics were the giants, and the Warriors were the big ones. But in the last 10 years, the Warriors have been the dynasty. The upstart who had no crown for 10 years.

The Warriors fans are used to the feeling of winning the championship. They have confidence in their hearts and don't panic at all. They smiled and watched the Celtics fans get carried away, quietly waiting for the day when they will be slapped in the face.

They have no doubt that the Warriors will fall in the Finals, or even in the Western Conference Finals, because they have Antetokounmpo, Curry, and Zhang Yu.

……

December 5, Chase Center.

Fans in the Bay Area are very happy. They finally don't have to wait a week for the game to watch as they did in the first round.

This is also their routine in the playoffs in the past few years. The Warriors always sweep and advance. Fans can only watch two home games. The opponent in the next round needs a long and fierce battle to decide. For a long time, Warriors fans waited for a long time before they had the chance to watch the game.

Although it is very cool to win, and it is also very cool to win a big victory, the long wait still annoys the fans.

Fortunately, the Warriors met the Rockets this year, and they also won it neatly. The Gentleman swept the Jazz 4:1 in the second round, which did not make Warriors fans wait too long.

However, the Rockets' understatement of the promotion process also made Warriors fans a little worried about whether there will be any twists and turns in the Western Conference Finals.

The Rockets not only won the second round with ease, but also swept the Spurs 4:1 in the first round. Although they failed to complete the sweep, they also showed strong dominance, but they were slightly inferior to the Warriors.

Moreover, the Rockets this season have a completely different style of play from last season, from running and bombing to creeping and bombing. From the lineup to the style of play, everything reveals the taste of targeting the Warriors, slowing down the pace and focusing on positional offense.

After D'Antoni experienced the failure of last season, he finally understood that no team can win the series against the Warriors, grab the rhythm, and fight for transitions. The result is likely to be beaten by the Warriors into more transitions.

This season, the Rockets' conversion attack frequency can only be ranked 13th in the league, and they ranked second in the league last season.

But the efficiency of the Rockets' conversion is the first in the league, not pursuing quantity but pursuing quality.

When attacking from the ground, the Rockets are worthy of everyone. They have two magic weapons: pick-and-roll and singles.

People's general thinking is that the pick-and-roll has more changes than singles, which is conducive to the ball holder to send opportunities for teammates, and the overall efficiency will be higher.

But the Rockets are a special case. Their singles are too strong this season, ranking first in the league in frequency and second in efficiency. The combined efficiency of singles is 1.124 points per round, only behind the Celtics, but far exceeding the Celtics in frequency.

The Warriors' singles efficiency ranks third, slightly behind the Celtics and Rockets, but the frequency is only ranked in the middle and lower reaches of the league. Pick-and-rolls and counterattacks are the Warriors' magic weapon for victory.

Harden and Paul played the peak singles seasons of their careers respectively. In the history with data available, combined with production, Harden's singles efficiency this season is no one can come close.

The Rockets' offensive position is extremely modern and magic ball-oriented. It can be simply summarized as a three-choice question: Harden and Paul take shots; Capela eats cakes; Rockets shooters shoot three-pointers.

This is a very cruel and ruthless multiple-choice question, because no matter which option is selected, the efficiency seems to be crushing-Harden's attack frame, Harden's three-pointer with the ball, Paul's three-pointer, Paul's mid-range , Capela's dunk, Ariza, Gordon, and even Tucker's corner three-pointer are all poison.

The Rockets can choose one of three poisons. The method is very simple. They seldom do complex tactical coordination. They rely on Harden and Paul's strong ball-holding threat and passing ability, the Rockets' ability to eat cakes inside, and accurate configuration and projection. A large number of shooters.

This is very similar to the Warriors. The Warriors this season are also Icuri and Antetokounmpo's strong ball-holding threats and passing abilities. They attract defenses and send out passes to create opportunities for teammates.

But the Warriors have the foundation of passing and cutting, and Curry also has a unique ability to run without the ball. The tactics are still more complicated and subtle than the Rockets, and they are not completely simple and crude.

In the main rotation of the Rockets, except for the center, the worst three-pointer may be Tucker. In the second round of the series that just ended, he made 25 of 13 three-pointers. Nene, on the other hand, has super finishing ability, and the threat of eating cakes on the court prevents them from dragging space at all on the offensive end.

The Rockets' system relies on reasonable staffing and the magic ball theory of optimizing shot selection. Except for Paul, the others completely abandon the mid-range and only need the basket and three-pointers.

Like the Warriors, the Rockets can change the opponent's defense without so much tactical cooperation because of their good space and strong ball-handler ability.

Coupled with the fact that the Rockets have a strict selection of shooting positions, the league has the least distance in the efficiency depression to maximize the shooting efficiency. As a result, the Rockets' effective shooting percentage is as high as 55.1%, ranking second in the league, second only to the Warriors.

It is worth mentioning that the Rockets have very few passes, but their turnovers and passes do not match, and their controlled turnover rate only ranks 11th in the league.

This is because Harden is a ball-handler who likes to pass risky balls very much, especially when he converts super-long balls, lobs that slide past the fingertips of the opponent's center forward during the breakthrough process, and jumps up in the air and turns back to pass 45 degrees. A high-difficulty ball on the scoring line.

As the so-called high risk and high reward, these difficult passes make Harden's offense extremely sharp, but it also increases his risk of mistakes.

In the regular season, Harden is the player with the second most turnovers in the league, second only to Westbrook.

However, in the playoffs, the Rockets did a good job of controlling mistakes, ranking first in the league in terms of turnover rate.

But the reason for this situation is that both the Spurs and the Jazz have chosen a very conservative defensive strategy: the center squats under the basket, the outside line does not lose its position as much as possible, and hopes that Harden will make a mid-range shot.

The advantage of this defensive strategy is that it can give the Rockets fewer three-pointers, and it can also reduce Harden's attack frame and Capela's pie. The disadvantage is that the defense is not aggressive, it is difficult to make mistakes, and it is afraid of mid-range accuracy. ball handler.

If in the last season, this defensive strategy would have made it difficult for the Rockets to parry, but now, the Rockets have Paul, one of the best mid-range masters in the league, and want to beat the Rockets by squatting for the mid-range like last season. It is no longer possible.

After the Warriors traded for Lopez, they happened to be a squatting team. Lopez has been guarding the penalty area and has never been defended.

In the last match between the two teams in the regular season, Zhang Yu gave Lopez a lot of playing time, let him stay in the pit, and gave Paul a lot of mid-range opportunities. Paul also seized the opportunity and scored high points to help the Rockets win. game.

This gave Rockets fans great confidence, and it also made some commentators not optimistic about the Warriors' performance in the Western Conference Finals.

It is impossible not to use Lopez, who was traded by the Warriors at a huge price, but if you want to use Lopez, you have to stay in the pit and give Paul a chance.

People have reached a consensus that Zhang Yu's use of Lopez will have a major impact on the outcome of the series.

In the pre-match interview, the reporter asked this question, and Zhang Yu replied:

"Brook is an important member of the team. After he came to the team, he played an important role. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, his defense and three-pointers were also important reasons for our easy victory. He still played in the Western Conference finals. There's going to be a lot of minutes and he's going to be the key to beating the Rockets..."

As soon as Zhang Yu said this, Rockets fans were ecstatic.

"Lopez is slower than Adams. Coach Z dares to go up to Lopez to give Paul points, haha!"

"Paul scored 40+ against Adams. I wonder how many points he can get against Lopez?"

"Harden still has a one-handed drop shot. If Lopez dares to squat in the hole, Harden Paul can just go in with unlimited pick-and-rolls. Isn't that how the regular season is played? The Warriors are not opponents at all..."

Warriors fans are also very worried. In the last match between the two sides in the regular season, Lopez had a great negative impact on the Warriors' defense. Why did Coach Z insist on going his own way and use Capela?

They didn't know the answer, but they still chose to support the team and Zhang Yu.

Because Zhang Yu created the Warriors dynasty, in the hearts of Warriors fans, Zhang Yu's status is no less than Curry, and may even be even better.

Countless failed superstars are reminding them that it is not possible to win the championship with a superstar, but Zhang Yu led the Warriors to 5 championships.

Tonight, with the belief that they must win, they came to the Chase Center early to witness another battle on the way for the Warriors to defend their title.

At the same time, in the luxurious locker room of the home team, Zhang Yu is making the final pre-match arrangement:

"Andrew, you come to defend Harden, this is our home court, don't worry too much, make bold moves, the referee won't give him too many fouls; Jaylen, you come to defend Paul, you must always pay attention to Capela's Screen, you must squeeze through the screen as quickly as possible, this is your most important task tonight; Brook, you squat under the basket, you can give Paul a mid-range shot, but you can’t let Harden throw it easily, pay attention to him and Capela's connection, try to do one defense and two..."

"Harden may look for Stephen's misplacement. We must implement a long delay and try not to let Stephen face Harden. Giannis, after Harden breaks through to the inside, you have to help defend more, don't be afraid of missing the bottom corner, other People do a good job of rotation. If you really can’t make up for it, remember, you must never miss the corner. Ariza and Tucker’s corner three-pointers are extremely accurate. They can make the Rockets shoot 45 degrees, but they can’t make them shoot corners. Jump harder, they can't shoot from the middle distance, and they have Brook and Giannis protecting the basket when they go to the basket..."

After emphasizing defense, Zhang Yu talked about offense again:

"The Rockets have been targeting us. Whether it's trading or playing style, they have built a lineup that can change defenses infinitely, slowing down the pace of the game, limiting our running positions and counterattacks, so we can't do what they want!"

"Seize every opportunity to counterattack, don't be afraid of mistakes, pass the ball boldly, and move boldly. Giannis, Andrew, play your impact; Stephen, the pick-and-roll between you, Giannis, and Brook is very critical. The Rockets will definitely switch defenses infinitely. You can dislocate and play big, or you can give the ball to Giannis and let him play big and small, it’s up to you to decide; There is running without the ball to implicate the Rockets' defense. When there is an opportunity, Stephen remembers to pass the ball, boldly shoot three-pointers, don't be afraid to hit the iron..."

"In the end, the Rockets don't play fast breaks, so they all grab offensive rebounds for me! We have an absolute advantage in size, and we must not give up this advantage. Let me penetrate the inside of the Rockets and let them know that we can play five small players." , can also break the five little ones, understand?"

Zhang Yu finally shouted, and everyone responded in unison:

"Yes, boss!"

Then the Warriors stood up, put their hands together, and shouted:
"Let's go, Warriors!"

(End of this chapter)