With three points at the start, Nash begged for a maximum salary to renew his contract

Chapter 394 Finals, another battle with Durant

The Nets are really strong this season. The ball has been completely handed over to Jokic. Both Durant and Booker focus more on off-ball offense and will only take over when the team needs to attack. Play singles with the ball.

Under Jokic's guidance, both Booker and Durant showed in this playoffs that they were not inferior to their own performances at the same time in another time and space.

So what kind of performance did Durant and Booker originally perform in the 20-21 season?

Let’s talk about Durant first. Due to a torn Achilles tendon in the regular season, he didn’t play many games and only played 35 games. However, in these short 30 games, Durant quickly adjusted to his condition. In the playoffs, he was full of firepower, averaging 34.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. His field goal percentage and three-point shooting percentage reached 51.4% and 40.2% respectively. The offensive end was almost unsolvable, even Antetokounmpo Ade Tokunbo was helpless against death.

If it weren't for Antetokounmpo's shocking move, which directly cost the Nets Irving, Durant might have secured his third career championship.

Booker's performance on the other side was not bad at all, averaging 27.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. The offensive end was also extremely difficult, leading the Suns all the way to the finals. Unfortunately, they also encountered the Bucks led by Antetokounmpo in the finals. sanctions.

In different time and space, the stories become completely different.

Here, Antetokounmpo failed to defeat Durant and Booker successively to reach the top. Instead, he was beaten by the two together with Jokic in the Eastern Conference Finals.

With two major offensive points, plus a Jokic with a range that reaches beyond the three-point line and can organize and support, he is almost a bigger Doncic.

The Nets are indeed worthy of being the strongest opponent the Jazz have encountered in the playoffs so far.
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2021年7月7日，在爵士队主场盐湖城能源方案球馆，NBA2020-21赛季总决赛的G1比赛正式开始。

The Jazz are worthy of being called the Devil's home court. The home atmosphere is super strong and the quality of the fans is extremely low. Before the game even started, many Nets players had already been insulted several times.

Jazz fans can't help but feel excited. After all, this is the most likely time for the Jazz to win a championship in decades, or even in the next few decades.

They had been waiting for this day for who knows how long.

Prior to this, the period when the Jazz was most likely to win the championship was the black and white era of Karl Malone and Stockton. At that time, they reached the finals twice, but were unlucky to encounter Jordan in his heyday.

Now, the arrival of Wang Chao has brought them the hope of winning the championship. How could the fans in Salt Lake City not be excited? They want to use every method to interfere with their opponents so that their team can easily win the championship.

The Jazz's starting lineup for the Finals is point guard Westbrook, shooting guard Jordan Clarkson, small forward Wang Chao, power forward Aaron Gordon, and center Cousins.

Veterans including Anthony, Howard, Griffin and Aldridge were all gearing up on the bench.

The Nets' starting lineup has changed a lot from before, starting with point guard Elfrid Payton, shooting guard Devin Booker, small forward Kevin Durant, and power forward Jarrett. Allen, center Jokic.

Except for the Big Three of Durant, Jokic and Booker, the other two starters are all blue-collar players. Guard Elfrid Payton participated in the draft in 2014 and has been unknown in his career. The data of 10 points and 6 assists can have a place in the league, but that's it.

After Paul left the team, the Nets waived Whiteside to free up salary space and chose to sign the guard to fill the vacancy in the team. His performance in the Nets was not seeking merit but seeking no faults. This season he averaged 8.7 points and 5.2 assists per game for the team.

Jarrett Allen is a standard blue-collar inside player, averaging 12+9 per game in his career. He mainly focuses on defense on the court. With his pretty good athletic ability, he can pick and roll and go to the basket. Bread, but that’s all.

These two players have very little help to the Nets' Big Three. They can only say that they try not to hinder them. This is enough for the three Nets. After all, the performance of these three people alone is enough for the team to win most of the games. Most games.

It's just that this may not include Wang Chao's team.

After a simple warm-up, the starting players of both sides stayed on the court, and the other substitutes came off the court to wait for the game to start.

The referee took the ball to the center circle. With a whistle, the basketball was thrown high into the air. Jarrett Allen, who was responsible for the jump ball of the Nets, competed with Aaron Gordon of the Jazz for the ball.

Although he has the advantage in height, Jarrett Allen's burst and bounce are still too poor when facing the spring man Gordon, and Gordon easily wins the ball.

The Jazz attack.

Westbrook dribbled the ball past half court, and then stood at the top of the three-point line. He did not pass the ball to Wang Chao immediately, because in the Jazz's tactical system, Wang Chao rarely attacks with the ball. He will only take the initiative to ask for the ball when the game reaches critical moments in the final quarter.

The basketball was in Westbrook's hands most of the time.

This does not mean that Westbrook has to attack by himself when he has the ball in hand.

He waited patiently for all the players to be in position, and then watched Wang Chao start running without the ball from the right corner, using his mobility advantage to easily get rid of Durant who was guarding him and go out to the outside.

Without any hesitation, Westbrook immediately passed the ball.

Wang Chao, who received the pass from outside the three-point line, immediately jumped up and shot.

With the blessing of multiple talents, Wang Chao's shooting speed is extremely fast. Although Durant tried his best to keep up with Wang Chao, he was still half a beat slow. He could only watch the basketball draw a perfect parabola in the air. , and then responded to the network.

This was Durant's first head-to-head matchup with Wang Chao after a serious injury. Wang Chao's completely different style of play made him uncomfortable. But more importantly, Durant, who suffered a severe torn Achilles tendon, His speed and explosive power have dropped significantly. Although he has no obvious impact on the offensive end, he is extremely deadly on the defensive end. This makes it difficult for him to keep up with Wang Chao's speed, which is already at the top of the league.

But here's the problem. Durant can't keep up with Wang Chao, but even so, he is still the only player in the Nets who is suitable to defend Wang Chao. Even if he can't defend him, he can only defend it hard. After all, If he doesn't defend, Wang Chao's offense will only be easier and simpler.

At the same time, out of personal wishes, Durant also hopes to personally defend Wang Chao and defeat Wang Chao head-on on the court. This is the opportunity he has longed for.

No matter how explosive Wang Chao's performance is in the regular season, it cannot hide the fact that the Jazz's overall strength is significantly weaker than the Clippers.

As for the Nets, they are a team with strong offense and weak defense. Since they can't guard Wang Chao, they can just use offense to win.

The Nets attack.

After Payton dribbled the ball across half court, he handed the basketball to Jokic.

In the Nets, the point guard's job is to dribble the ball across half court to save Jokic's energy. As for the organization and support on the offensive end, Jokic alone is enough.

Jokic, who was just standing in the top arc and holding the ball high, glanced at the entire court, but his movements couldn't help but pause slightly.

At this moment, the Jazz's defensive position was somewhat different from what he had expected before.In front of Durant was not the planned Wang Chao, but Jazz power forward Aaron Gordon. Wang Chao stood in front of Devin Booker, letting Jordan Clarkson run to meet Jarrett. Allen counterpoint.

What is this routine?
After the initial surprise, Jokic roughly guessed what the Jazz were thinking.

Aaron Gordon is 2 meters tall. Although there is a gap in height between him and Durant, with his excellent dynamic talent and jumping, he can still cause some interference to Durant, who has average athletic ability at this stage.

When Wang Chao went to defend Booker, he was obviously determined to completely lock down Booker's offense with his superb single defense ability.

Although he understood Wang Chao's intention, Jokic still didn't understand it.

"The best Gordon can do is interfere with Durant, and he will definitely not be able to prevent him. Does Wang Chao think Booker is more dangerous than Durant?"

Of course Wang Chao doesn't think so, but in his mind, Booker's threat at this stage is indeed not inferior to Durant, but more importantly, Gordon is only suitable for defending Durant, and he cannot keep up with Booker's speed. , so there is such a defensive arrangement.

Since Wang Chao ran to defend Booker, Jokic certainly would not pass the ball to Booker, so he handed the card to Durant.

Durant received the ball in the mid-range and faced Gordon with his back. After two dribbles, he turned over and shot a fadeaway jumper.

After the serious injury, Durant became more and more fond of shooting with his back. This move is not so demanding on the body, is simple and efficient, and is very suitable for him.

When he turned around to shoot, Gordon took off with all his strength, leaping high in front of Durant, as if he was going to block Durant head-on.

This momentum even startled Durant, and he subconsciously raised the angle of his shot.

This adjustment of the shooting angle caused the basketball to deviate from its original route, bounced off the edge of the basket, and was picked off by Cousins ​​for the rebound.

Durant frowned slightly. He was mainly frightened by Gordon's jumping height just now. In fact, the latter did not really interfere with him much.

But in this way, he also understood why Wang Chao asked Gordon to defend him.

"If you think you can prevent me this way, then you are underestimating me!"

Will Wang Chao underestimate Durant?Of course not. He knows better than anyone that Durant is not bad at all after recovering from a serious injury.

It's just that the Jazz are similar to the Nets, that is, since they can't be defended, can't they win as long as they score higher than the opponent?
In the next round, Wang Chao used his teammates' off-ball pick-and-roll cover from the outside to go straight to the basket, and then received Westbrook's alley-oop dunk and scored, and the score reached 5:0.

The Nets attacked, and Durant did not miss the opportunity this time, hitting a mid-range shot against Gordon's defense.

But the offense had just scored, and the Jazz turned around and already sent the ball out for a fast break.

Wang Chao, Westbrook, Gordon and others all moved very fast and caught the Nets off guard. Wang Chao attracted the defender and passed the ball to Gordon, who dunked with both hands.
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In the first quarter of the game, the Jazz always suppressed the Nets on the court. Although the Nets' offense could not be stopped by the Jazz, under the leadership of Wang Chao, the offensive rhythm was better than that of their opponents.

And this also has a lot to do with Wang Chao's defense against Booker.

Booker was really depressed in this game.

Originally, this season, whether in the regular season or the playoffs, Booker had the best performance of his career. He thought he would leap over the dragon's abyss and soar into the sky.

As a result, his confrontation with Wang Chao caused him to fall hard from the sky to the ground.

Wang Chao's defense is so strong that there are almost no flaws to speak of, and Booker's height, wingspan, strength, speed, jumping, explosive power and other aspects cannot match Wang Chao in any aspect.

Even Booker's best ability to catch the ball and make a jump shot after going around the pick-and-roll couldn't find any chance due to Wang Chao's talent for screening and anticipation.

The result was that at the end of the first quarter, the Jazz led by 31 points at 26:5. Booker made 2 of 0 shots in a single quarter and failed to score a point.

The Nets' offense is mainly supported by Durant and Jokic.

However, by the second quarter of the game, the Jazz's lineup was adjusted, and Jokic also began to run into trouble.

Jokic played relatively easily against Cousins ​​in the first quarter.

Cousins, like Durant, is a player who has suffered a serious Achilles tendon rupture, but as a center, his recovery is obviously much worse than Durant. Although he can play in the game, his strength is not as good as before. Moreover, Cousins ​​​​Not good at defense.

But in the subsequent game, the Nets replaced Howard.

Today's Howard is actually not as strong as before. Coupled with Jokic's growth, it is difficult to contain Jokic's performance through his own defense in one-on-one situations.

But Cousins, who had been playing against him before, was suddenly replaced by Howard, who was tough on the defensive end. It was difficult for anyone to react to the sudden change in style.

The same was true for Jokic. He was confused by Howard for a while and made two mistakes in a row. Both times, Wang Chao seized the opportunity and made a fast break counterattack.

Although the Jazz's lineup is not as strong as last season's Clippers, their fast break counterattack is quite sharp. After all, they have three highly mobile players in Wang Chao, Westbrook and Aaron Gordon.

At halftime of the game, the Jazz's lead had expanded to more than double digits. In the third quarter of the second half, the situation became increasingly unfavorable to the Nets, because at this stage of the game, the substitute players also Start to gain strength gradually.

The Jazz have Anthony, Griffin and Aldridge on the bench. The strength of these veterans may have weakened due to age, but their game experience and skills are still there.

The most important thing is that there is no such player on the Nets' bench. Even if they buy out Whiteside's big contract, the limitation of salary space still makes it difficult for them to gain anything in the free market.

The Nets' strength is all reflected in the starting three, and the bench is also one of their weaknesses.

(End of this chapter)