Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

It was April 4th, and the NBA playoffs had already started the day before.

What will be played tonight are the remaining four playoff games in the East and West.

Chicago United Center.

The Bulls faced the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs.

After James left the Heat and Bosh retired due to illness, the Heat's record went from bad to worse.

Because the Big Three of the Heat failed to win the championship, and James quit when the Heat was in trouble, he was indeed a bit sorry for his brothers like Wade.

As the saying goes, time reveals a person's true character. After this battle, Wade has seen through James's personality and realized that there is no brotherhood between them.

In this case, Wade would definitely not follow James, so he finally chose to stay with the team.

Anyway, Wade has won the championship with O'Neal before, and now he continues to stay in the Heat as the best player in team history. Apart from anything else, the maximum salary contract is still secure.

To be honest, although the Heat's Big Three failed to win the championship, Wade's reputation and historical status were preserved.

If Wade can stay in Miami now, he will represent one man, one city.

Especially now that the Heat are in a period of decline and reconstruction, it is even more commendable that Wade can stick with it.

By the way, if the Heat wanted to give up, they should have done it thoroughly. However, the Heat competed for the championship in previous years, and although they did not achieve it, they still won the Eastern Conference championship. It is definitely not okay for them to continue to be in a bad state this year.

Coach Spoelstra is indeed a capable coach who is good at motivating role players and allowing them to fully demonstrate their strengths.

Coupled with Wade's personal strength in the late peak period.

The Heat then stumbled into the playoffs with the eighth place record in the Eastern Conference.

However, facing the Bulls in the first round, we can only say that this year is just like that, and we will just sell two more playoff tickets.

Everyone in and out of the league knows that the Bulls' first-round matchup with the Heat is undoubtedly a blessing in disguise.

Of course, to the bull, it's like a lion fighting a rabbit with all its strength.

The playoffs are different from the regular season. You have to stay vigilant and have a sense of crisis and hunger.

Therefore, after the first round of the playoffs started, the Bulls did not take the game lightly just because the Heat's lineup was too poor.

After the G1 game officially started, the Bulls' starting five immediately took action.

It was still Duane who attacked first with the ball, while Curry ran without the ball to attract defense.

It seems that the Heat have not corrected their mindset and still think that the Bulls' first offensive point is Durant, so their defense against Curry is not very tight.

As a ball-blind identifier, Horford is good at doing things that cannot be reflected in the data.

One of them is that Horford's screen quality is very high.

With the help of Horford, Curry's offensive firepower in the playoffs is no worse than in the regular season.

This game demonstrated this vividly.

More than 4 minutes into the game, Curry made 3 three-pointers with the help of Duane's breakthrough and Horford's screen, taking advantage of the wide open space.

The Heat realized that something was wrong, but it was too late.

Without waiting for the Heat to call a timeout, Curry rewarded himself with an ultra-long three-pointer from two steps outside the three-point line after halftime.

However, when Curry gets into good form, he is unstoppable.

Just in a flash, he made another three-pointer.

When encountering this kind of thing, Coach Spoelstra knew that something bad had happened, and the league called a timeout, hoping that this way Curry's touch would cool down a little.

During the timeout, Spoelstra adjusted the lineup and deployed a new defensive strategy in an attempt to lock Curry.

The Bulls also knew that the Heat would focus on defending Curry, the team's first scoring point, so they let Curry hold the ball and Durant run without the ball.

After the timeout, the Heat players on the court found that Curry had the ball and did not dare to act on their own, so they could only let Dragic and Wade double-team Curry.

Seeing this situation, Curry didn't stick to the ball, but instead passed it to Horford who came up to play pick-and-roll with Curry.

Horford has good passing ability and also has certain shooting ability.

If there is no one defending, just shoot a three-pointer directly. Anyway, there are Gobert and Duane under the basket to position and grab rebounds.

If someone comes up to defend, Duane will cut directly to the basket and finish near the basket after receiving the ball.

If Duane gets the ball and is double-teamed under the basket, he can also feed Gobert, or pass it to Bojan in the corner, or Curry at the top of the arc.

In addition, Gobert can also set a screen for Duane under the basket and help Duane block the pursuers behind him before the double team attacks.

In this way, Duane can directly complete singles under the basket with his personal strength.

It has to be said that the most essential point of Tyronn Lue's offensive tactics is to give the ball to the best player on the court.

If Curry is the main player, let Duane hold the ball to attract the defense. If Duane is the main player, let Curry be the cover.

Of course, the Bulls configuration is quite good. It can play dual cores and dual guns.

Both Duane and Curry can play without the ball, so there is no pressure at all when they work together.

Add to that Horford’s jack of all trades, a high basketball IQ.

The Bulls don't just play two-man shows, they usually play triangle offense. However, Horford's offensive firepower is not that strong, so as the center, he is more about issuing cards and setting screens, and then occasionally shooting a few shots and breaking through a few times.

Horford's offensive efficiency is very high because he doesn't have to do too many difficult things.

Although he didn't play much in the first quarter, he still scored 6 points.

At the same time, Curry and Duane scored 16 points and 11 points respectively.

In the first quarter alone, the Bulls scored 33 points using a triangle offense featuring Durant, Curry and Horford, while other role players also scored 6 points.

The score in a single quarter was almost 40! For the playoffs, this is simply unimaginable!

However, the fact is happening right before our eyes, and we have to believe it.

In the small ball era, three-pointers can quickly widen the score gap!

Because the intensity of the playoffs is much greater than that of the regular season, the three-point shooting percentage often drops significantly.

However, the Bulls have two of the best shooters in the league, Durant and Curry, and even the best shooters in NBA history.

Relying on their own shooting ability, they can ignore most interference and maintain a sharpshooter-level three-point shooting rate in the playoffs, contrary to common sense.

It is also this exaggerated personal ability that makes the Bulls' opponents not know how to defend and how to limit the offense of Durant and Curry.

Back to the topic, after four quarters, the score was fixed at 91 to 122.

Relying on the unstoppable offensive in the first quarter, the Bulls suppressed the Heat early and eventually won the game with a huge advantage of 31 points.

Two days later, G2 was held as scheduled.

It was basically a replica of G1. First, Durant held the ball and made a breakthrough, looking for opportunities for Curry to use screens to shoot in open positions, thus cultivating Curry's touch.

The Heat wanted to limit Curry's off-ball running, but Wade not only failed to keep up with Curry, but was instead made to vomit by Curry.

All I can say is, how old is Curry and how old is Wade?
Wade is 34 years old this year. Although he is still at the end of his prime, letting Wade chase Curry all over the court is as ridiculous as D'Antoni letting the 35-year-old Kobe play run-and-gun.

Moreover, Wade is chasing Curry, who has many tall mountains ahead of him, such as Gobert, Horford, Portis, Jokic, and Pachulia.

To be honest, in high-intensity games, the difference between Curry with teammates covering him and Curry without teammates covering him is huge.

As the Bulls' first offensive point, Curry has received tactical support from the entire team.

With the constant cover and help from his teammates in the interior, Wade's pursuit was nothing to Curry.

Therefore, Curry, who found his touch early in the first quarter, quickly started shooting three-pointers.

As the Heat had to devote more defensive resources to Curry, the defensive limitations on Durant were also lifted.

Of course, Duane will step out from time to time and hold the ball for a while.

Before the Heat could react, Duane led the team to a small climax, quickly widening the score gap.

95 to 111, the Heat's performance on both offense and defense in G2 was obviously better than in G1, but they still couldn't stop the Bulls from winning two consecutive games at home.

As for the upcoming American Airlines Arena in Miami, there aren’t many changes.

Even with the support of home fans, it was still difficult for the Heat to win a victory against the Bulls with their current configuration.

The Bulls gave the opponent almost no chance, and G3 finally brought the suspense of the game to the fourth quarter.

Duan stood out early and quickly widened the score gap by traveling during off-peak hours.

Afterwards, Curry used his best three-pointer to break through the Heat's defense and psychological defenses time and time again, locking in the victory of the game in advance.

Originally, the Bulls would have chosen to let their opponents go if they had a 3-0 record.

Who would have thought that after Game 3, the Heat would feel a little discouraged.

The Bulls didn't want to win in Game 4, and they used substitute players for half of the first quarter, including sophomore and junior rookies.

However, the Bulls still took the lead.

In order to give more rookies more playoff experience, the Bulls even had an unprecedented situation where the substitute players played more minutes in a game than the starting players.

However, the Heat seemed to surrender early.

When faced with this kind of situation, the Bulls could only replace the starting five in the third quarter, let the main players mess up the game, and then clock out after three quarters.

By the way, not long after the Bulls advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals, their opponents also successfully advanced.

The Cavaliers, who have two No. 4 picks, defeated the fifth-ranked Hawks in the Eastern Conference with a record of 1-.

All I can say is that you don’t have to have talent, but you can’t have it.

For most of the top draft picks, even if they have problems with their mentality, their talent is unquestionable.

The Cavaliers' two No. 1 picks have basically matured their skills in the past two years, and have also established the mentality to achieve results in the playoffs.

Now is the time for it to blossom and bear fruit.

It's a pity that they are too young. And they are unlucky to have met the defending champion team like the Bulls so early.

Usually, when new stars in the league lead their teams into the playoffs, they are often blessed with some trash talk from veteran stars.

Perhaps Duane should think ahead and think about what words he can say to encourage Irving and Wiggins besides "the future is yours". (End of this chapter)