I was determined to be bad, but I went straight to the Basketball Hall of Fame

Chapter 288 coincides with each other (fifth)

The game started on time, and the Clippers are still a lineup of inside duo.

It was Bledsoe who replaced Curry in the starting position.

In November, Bledsoe gained the trust of Dunleavy and appeared in a large number of starting positions.

However, his performance is not very stable. Sometimes he can score more than ten points in a single game, and sometimes he will score nothing.

Kirk Hinrich and Bledsoe basically split minutes, with Hinrich more solid but less dynamic.

Baron Davis' condition is getting better and better. After a hard recovery training in the summer, he lost weight, and his strength has returned to about [-]% of his peak period.

It's just that without the ball in the offense, Baron Davis is still not as good as playing with the ball.

Throughout November, Barron missed Curry terribly.

Compared with the instability of the backcourt, the Clippers' frontcourt is quite stable.

Ricky Davis is now the Clippers' starting small forward.

And he has completely regarded himself as a 3D player, focusing on defense and shooting three-pointers.

As the season progressed, he got better and better.

Not to mention the inside line, Randolph and Gasol Jr. partner more and more tacitly.

Overall, the Clippers are gradually getting out of the trough in November.

Moreover, Dunleavy has been adjusting the team's defense for more than half a month.

Some time ago, Olshey found Dunleavy and showed him an article called "The Use and Limitation of Pick and Roll in the Current Game Trend".

Lao Deng originally scoffed. As a senior head coach, how could he look at such things.

Tactics and strategies are all contained in his extremely clever mind.

Olshey, however, said the article was a draft written by Mr. Smart.

Smart hopes this article will help address the Clippers' defensive woes.

Dunleavy was very surprised, "Why didn't Smart let me see it himself?"

Olshey said, "I guess Mr. Smart didn't want to put pressure on you, Mike. Someone else found this and sent it to me. Take a look, I think it makes sense."

Dunleavy took 10 minutes to look at it carefully, then sat on the sidelines and fell into deep thought.

The writing is indeed very reasonable. Although it is a rather simple article, it has insight into the major problems of the Clippers' defensive end.

In particular, he reversed a concept of Dunleavy, who believed that the team's poor defense was because everyone did not work hard.

But the reality is that everyone has worked hard, even harder than last season, but other teams have improved.

There are not many situations like this in the NBA. Isn't it the case with the Clippers in 2007?
In 06, he was still majestic, but in 07, he was in a slump. Is it just an injury problem?
Brand is still at his peak, and the lineup doesn't age overnight.

Teams like the Spurs are getting old, so why do they stay evergreen?
In this increasingly competitive league, there will be new situations every season that require new changes.

The article, along with the recent losing streak, made Dunleavy realize the team needed to make a change.

So, following the instructions of the article, Dunleavy began to rearrange the team's defense and increase the proportion of defensive training in daily training.

The previous game against the Hornets has shown certain results. They won the Hornets at 90:86 at home, ending their five-game losing streak against the Hornets.

Tonight's game, Dunleavy continued to emphasize the basic defensive strategy before the game: very simple, it is to retreat.

"Today is the Spurs. Parker's shooting is not stable. Let's increase the ratio of sinking and retreating a little."

Before the start of the game, Deng Lewei murmured in his heart, and at the same time looked back at the auditorium - Min Congda was not in his seat.

To be honest, Lao Deng and the Clippers players still feel quite uncomfortable when Min Congda is not yelling from behind.

Recently, he didn't come to the training center to have a meal. Everyone thought that Mr. Smart must be disappointed with the team's record.

This made the Clippers players hold their breath, wanting to win!

The Spurs' lineup tonight is very small compared to the past.

Duncan came to the center position, with DeJuan Blair at power forward, Jefferson at small forward, Manu Ginobili and Parker at guard.

Ginobili returned to the starting position from the sixth man in the past, because under the new system, the perimeter has to take on more scoring tasks.

After Duncan came to the fifth position, his main job will be defense, and his role on the offensive end will gradually weaken.

Of course, at critical moments, Duncan will still be the team's most important offensive option.

In the first quarter of the game, just two rounds after the opening, Popovich felt that the Clippers tonight were different from more than half a month ago.

The Spurs' first offense, Duncan's high pick-and-roll, very solid high-quality screen, Parker went to the right.

As a result, Gasol did not switch defenses for this ball, but quickly sank to the basket, while Bledsoe squeezed desperately to chase Parker.

Parker tried to rush to the basket, but Xiaojia was in a good position. He didn't have a good chance and could only pass the ball to Ginobili on the wing.

Ginobili made a throw after the breakthrough and missed. Gasol got the rebound in the backcourt and the Clippers launched a counterattack.

Popovich smelled a change in the Clippers' defense.

"The most stable retreat defense is indeed very suitable, but if it is only retreat, the effect will not be very good."

The big man retreats to the basket, which is the most stable way to defend against pick-and-rolls, protecting the three-second zone and backcourt rebounds.

But this gives the smaller players more room to move, especially the small players with strong shooting, who will punish the retreating big players in the middle distance.

Therefore, it is required that the small man must spare no effort to squeeze through the defense, chase from behind, interfere and block the middle distance.

What Bledsoe lacks most is physical strength, and young people are very physically fit.

If it's just a simple retreat, then the Clippers' defensive method is still too simple.

Subsequently, during the Clippers' offense, Randolph forced Blair in a low position, turned around and hit the board.

The Spurs still use the pick-and-roll to launch the offense, this time it's Blair's pick-and-roll, and Ginobili organizes it.

But this time the Clippers didn't make a complete retreat, and the slower Randolph took a weak delay.

Strong delays can only be played by players like Kevin Garnett. After high-intensity delays from outside the three-point line, they can return to the basket to block opponents' layups.

Weak delay, it seems to be pretending, reaching out to block it, but it is not completely ineffective, it can still delay the ball holder for a short time.

It is this short period of time that gives the defender the opportunity to adjust his position.

Randolph retreated after a weak delay, and Baron Davis was able to cover Ginobili in time.

Of course, Ginobili still rushed to the basket with the ball and gave the ball to Duncan, who caught the ball and made a layup.

But the Spurs' offense will obviously not be like the previous game, where a pick-and-roll has several opportunities to play casually.

In addition, in order to target the Spurs' fast offense, Ricky Davis will cooperate with the double-team delay of the ball holder almost every time the offense and defense transition is over, and immediately retreat to defend against his own defender after the delay is over.

This consumes a lot of physical energy of the players, but the effect is quite good.

In the first quarter of the game, the Clippers turned out to be 25:19, leading the Spurs by 6 points.

The Spurs, who can't get up to speed, are completely misfired offensively and have no moves on the court.

Min Congda watched the progress of the first quarter, and the steak in his mouth suddenly felt bad.

And the more he watched, the more he felt confused, "Why do I think the Clippers' defense is the same as what I wrote in my article? Could it be that Lao Deng's thinking coincides with mine?"

(End of this chapter)