After the confession failed, I went to the NBA to play and lose weight

Chapter 269
I don’t know if it’s bottomed out or not. James’ performance today is obviously much better than in the previous four games. Although the outside three-pointer is still not allowed-the previous 5-for-3 was more like eating dumplings, but he passed frequently. Breaking through to score points or create kills also really helped the team stabilize the situation.

The so-called gaining wisdom through a pitfall has been tempered in four games. If James can't make progress, then he won't be able to reach the position he is today.

Although the adjustment seems to come a bit late now, it has really brought a lot of trouble to the Magic. Turkoglu, who is used to his previous performance, feels particularly difficult to defend today.

The Cavaliers fans are undoubtedly very excited to see this scene, because it means that James can finally stand up, and this game can still play against the opponent so anxiously at the Magic's home court, and it is really expected to win if it continues.

But in fact, hidden dangers are gradually accumulated. For example, the teammates played well before, but James, the core, did not play well, and as a result, he failed to seize the best opportunities; now that he is better, the teammates On the contrary, it's not good enough, and I can't help him any more.

If it weren't for the good defensive end, which somewhat restricted the Magic's offensive transfer and didn't make their offense play too smoothly, they should be even more behind now.

James also played the entire first quarter. After Turkoglu left the court, Li Chengming did not come up to defend him. He faced Bogans and other guards. This is also the reason for his good performance.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Magic had Turkoglu and Lewis playing with a substitute lineup, and no one on the Cavaliers could match Turkoglu.

Although when the two were on the court at the same time, James did not actually defend the Turks who were supposed to be facing each other, but anyway, he would still create some threats of assisting defense and cooperate with the inside defense to limit him.

And on the offensive end, it can also constantly consume opponents. Turkoglu's statistics in this series are not impressive, and he can only rank fourth in the team.

But after James is off the court, the Cavaliers' flanks really can't pose too much threat to Turkoglu, so that he doesn't have to spend too much energy on the defensive end, and there is no one who can match him offensively, so he is completely liberated. up.

This is another part of the hidden danger, that is, there are still too few players who can play for the Cavaliers.

It is undeniable that other players have performed well in the past, but their functionality is too strong and their independent offense is limited. This is doomed that they can explode in one or two games, but they cannot maintain it for a long time.

If James can cover the bottom line, it's okay, but if he can't, it's useless even if he breaks out. After all, the Magic is not like the Wizards, and the offense is not so restricted.

The first four games of the series were basically in this mode, and in this one, no one else could stand out.

They were able to match up when they were the main force, but when they entered the substitute rotation stage, the Cavaliers' offense fell into a moment of stagnation.

In the regular season, Daniel Gibson averaged 10.4 points with a 9% three-point shooting percentage. He was the Cavaliers' first scoring point off the bench. In the first round, this number was more than [-] points, but when he entered this round of the series After that, Gibson basically became tasteless.

Defense, can't defend, can't make shots, as if suddenly lost his shooting bag.

There are reasons for personal status and mentality, and it is also inseparable from the Magic's defense. In particular, Howard's defensive area can ensure that he can interfere with the Cavaliers' outside shots in time, which is a fatal blow to a shooter like Gibson.

So although from the data level, Li Chengming is the best performer of the Magic in this series, but when you look deeper, Howard's defense is the foundation of everything.

Just like howard was too disturbed in the last game, the Magic's defensive system almost collapsed. Even if Li Chengming can still perform personally, the game cannot be saved.

At this stage when Li Chengming and Howard are not on the court for the time being, Turkoglu takes Lewis, Arroyo, Doolin and Garrity, which is equivalent to taking four three-point shooters at the same time, and then basically relies on his A breakthrough will make the Cavaliers stretched and hard to defend.

They also focus on breaking through and scoring. There is a big difference between Turkoglu and James, which lies in their breakthrough methods.

James is a pure tank breakthrough, the kind that can drop ten times with one force, but when he meets an opponent who is worthy of him in terms of strength and physique, especially when there is a strong center guarding the penalty area in the interior, James' breakthrough threat is really important. halved; while Turkoglu is taking the rhythmic path, the speed is not fast, and the impact is not strong, but he can always break in after going around.

It's just that this requires him to fully concentrate on his personal offense, and he will slack off on defense.

This is actually a big change Van Gundy made in this game, that is, simply let Turkoglu and James stagger the time as much as possible, let him concentrate on attacking, and don't have to pay too much attention to defending James, completely liberating him.

Because after a few games, he felt that James' personal offense was not as scary as the outside world made it out to be.

Compared with the Cavaliers who would rather open the perimeter and absolutely pinch Li Chengming or Howard, the Magic did not have the defensive strength they had against James in the previous games.

This has to be said, and it is also the underlying reason for James' seemingly outburst.

And his poor three-point shooting is also because it is a catch shot, but the Magic always pay attention to the interference from the outside line. With James' shooting, it really seems too difficult for him to ignore the interference and score.

The Magic can always ensure that there is a core on the court who can control the ball, and can use their own personal offense to open up the situation when necessary. This is what the current Cavaliers lack and what James most desires.

Of course, the Magic's "five outside" lineup also has a big flaw, that is, the defensive end is not strong enough, especially the inside line is easy to be penetrated by opponents.

But the inside combination of the Cavaliers at this time is Varejao and Wallace. Wallace has almost no offense, and Varejao can only eat and eat. He can't grasp the pain points of the Magic.

After three and a half minutes like this, the Magic pulled the score to 7 points by relying on rotation. Mike Brown had to call a timeout, and after the timeout, he was ready to take the big Z first.

But the Magic have replaced Turkoglu and replaced Howard and Nelson.

The Cavaliers had to return to the previous strategy of double-teaming inside. In this way, Lewis and Nelson from the outside got shooting opportunities one after another. At 14:7, the Cavaliers had to call a second timeout within 25 minutes.

And this timeout actually has no other arrangements, just to bring James up.

This is really true. In fact, the head coach only knows the joke of "going to James", but the Cavaliers are indeed suffering from James' dependence. field is particularly serious.

It seems that once James is ready to play, everyone is ready to watch him play.

But I have to say that it was really effective at this time, because the Magic replaced Turkoglu for a while to rest, and Bogans was leading the defense against James on the court.

As a result, in the face of James' breakthrough, Bogans could only pay two fouls in a short period of time, which also allowed him to achieve a 2+1.

Howard was pulled out by the big Z, and it will take time to return to defense, so if the outside leader fails to slow down James' speed first and let him keep sprinting, Howard will not be able to make up the defense in time.

At this time, the Cavaliers double-teamed Howard and the timely slashing tactics also achieved results. It not only disrupted the Magic's offensive rhythm, but also forced Howard to make mistakes and obtained a chance to switch offenses. James' forte.

Whenever there is a fast break opportunity, this "big boy" with more than two meters and more than 200 pounds can run faster than a small guard who is 1.8 meters...

He just wants to score, what's wrong with him?
By the time Li Chengming and Turkoglu changed to the court again, the Cavaliers had caught up to only 5 points.

However, Van Gundy didn't look anxious about this, and the formation of troops was still in accordance with this established plan.

Right now, only the referee's whistle is likely to disrupt his rotation plan.

As soon as Li Chengming and others entered the court, the Magic team regained stability.

In the last two minutes of the half, Turkoglu regained his energy to lead the defense against James again. Howard watched over the inside and Li Chengming was on standby at any time. The Magic returned to their previous defensive rhythm.

As a result, James misfired directly, not because he was completely blocked, but because he stopped attacking himself and handed the ball to West. He either waited for an opportunity by the side, and occasionally cut and ran without the ball.

James has such a large weight, it is of course impossible to expect him to constantly move like a shooter, not to mention that strikers play differently from defenders. They use screens to cut or cut inside to the basket, which is an ordinary forward. The normal opening method for this position.

It's just that Bird, Pippen, and James are three players with outstanding personal abilities who have surpassed the position itself. If they are limited to their inherent style of play, it would be a waste of money.

Although West's performance in this series has also been ups and downs, he is definitely worth the money, even if he only looks at defense, he is a positive contribution.

With a height of 1.9 meters to defend Turkoglu who is [-] meters tall, what else can he be asked to do?

And when James gave up his main offensive power, he had to take on the burden of organization at any time, otherwise it would be "I, Zhan, attracts defense, and I can't beat four-on-five, teammate Sibby."

Today, his shooting state is actually average, but the breakthrough is very lethal, and it is also because he rushed very resolutely. Relying on the fast first step, there is no magic team that can keep up.

In fact, the Magic are afraid of this kind of speed guard, and even Howard can't completely restrain him.

It's just that West's personal ability is limited after all. If Parker is replaced, the result may be completely different.

Relying on West's breakthrough and consecutive kills, the Cavaliers still did not allow the Magic to widen the point difference before the end of the halftime.

In the last round before the end of the second quarter, relying on the connection between West and James, James got a chance to dunk. Li Chengming saw that nothing could be done, so he didn't make up the defense to let him form a dunk to avoid being beaten.

In this way, at the halftime break, the score of the two teams was 42:48.

The Magic still retain a small lead of 6 points, and this lag is completely acceptable for the Cavaliers on the road.

Just from the first half of the game, the Magic played with ease. Whether it was Howard, Li Chengming or Turkoglu, they didn't make any special efforts, but they could play for a while when it was time for them to play.

所以魔术队这边半场得分比较平均，李成名6投4中拿到11分，霍华德7分7篮板，特科格鲁6中3得到9分3篮板5助攻，出手最多的是刘易斯，8投仅3中，三分球5中2拿到8分。

As for the Cavaliers, apart from James scoring 13 points in the halftime on 7 of 20 shots, only West scored in double figures.

And both of them have a lot of free throws. Although this is related to their many breakthroughs and kills, it still made many home fans dissatisfied. Shouts of "REF SUCKS".

As a home team, but did not enjoy the treatment due to the home team, is this reasonable?
So in fact, it's not just Li Chengming who is dissatisfied. Howard and other teammates and the coaching staff headed by Van Gundy have also put pressure on the referee many times.

I believe that as long as the alliance hadn't placed a mission to die, such a situation should not happen again in the second half.

There was a 15-minute break at halftime, which seemed quite long, but it ended in a flash.

Before the official start of the second half of the game, the CCTV live broadcast room is also in progress for the summary of the first half and the outlook for the second half.

Sun Zhengping mentioned a topic of "James vs. Magic Big Four", which was actually promoted by many local media in the United States before the game.

Sun Zhengping thinks this is a bit like "three heroes fighting Lu Bu", but can James compare with Lu Bu?
Among other things, Lu Bu is a family slave with three surnames...

Director Zhang commented on this: "Although I don't think Howard is worse than James, but in comparison, the Magic team does have more helpers than the Cavaliers team. Turkoglu and Lewis will not talk about it." , our Li Chengming has played up to now and is absolutely worthy of his All-Star position."

This is of course a part of the truth, because the Cavaliers have only one scorer averaging 20+ points per game this season, James, the Magic has two, and Turkoglu is close to 20 points, and Lewis can also average 17 or 8 points per game , Nelson also has the ability to average close to 15 points per game.

Therefore, in the regular season, the Magic often have offensive overflow and insufficient ball possession. Whether it is Li Chengming, Turkoglu, Howard, Lewis, or even Nelson, if they score more penalty kicks, they may be able to get it. 20+, that is, it is difficult to guarantee the efficiency.

In contrast to the Cavaliers players, Big Z used to be an All-Star, but in the past, he couldn’t even average 15 points per game in the regular season. In this series, he only scored 15 points in one game, and Szczerbiak also passed his peak. In the early stage, it is obviously different to collect data on a bad team like the Sonics and the Cavaliers. The rest of the players are not well-known, and they are all at the level of role players in offense.

What they really can do is actually defense, or the head coach Mike Brown has indeed built a good defensive system for them.

This is a bit like the Philadelphians who challenged the OK combination back then. The offense was handed over to Iverson, and the defense was all explosive.

But in the finals, after the best defensive player Mu Tongbo was directly eaten by O'Neal, the Phillies were destined to be impossible to climb over the mountain of the Lakers.

The same is true for the Cavaliers. The former DPOY, who should have had high hopes, could not restrain Howard and Li Chengming.

On the contrary, it may be because it was too easy. After returning to the home court, I didn't find the state at the beginning, and I slowly got a feeling in the second quarter.

This is purely crushing the lineup, but in terms of total salary this season, the Cavaliers are even better than the Magic. ?

Anyway, James is slandering the team management in his heart at this time. This game is not over, this series, this season is not over yet, but his mind has already begun to think about the offseason trade.

He can't directly intervene in the management's transactions, but he can learn from Kobe and put pressure on the management: If you don't trade to make good teammates, I will leave!
(End of this chapter)