Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

The Bulls faced the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and I thought it would be another round of welfare games.

I never expected that the Cavaliers' fighting power this year would be so extraordinary.

On April 4, G30 of the Eastern Conference semifinals kicked off at the United Center.

After the game officially started, the one-sided crushing game that Bulls fans expected from beginning to end did not appear.

Although the Cavaliers were on the lagging side, they were able to withstand the Bulls' aggressive offensive.

The reason for this situation is naturally related to the Bulls' underestimation of their opponents.

However, to be honest, the most important factor is that the Cavaliers' main players played really well.

This season, the Bulls are mainly playing with Durant and Curry, while the Cavaliers also have Irving and Wiggins.

Although Irving and Wiggins are not known for their defense, their physical talents can match Curry and Durant, who is in declining form.

In particular, Irving continued to consume Curry with offense, which also caused Curry's scoring efficiency to decline significantly.

As the No. 14 pick in the draft, Wiggins' physical talent goes without saying.

Although he is shorter than Duane, he can still interfere with Duane to a certain extent with his jumping ability and outstanding arm span.

In the past, it was easy for Durant to deal with Wiggins' level of defense.

It can only be said that time is merciless. Duane's jumping ability, jumping speed, and even shooting speed have been declining with the passage of time.

This also means that in the future there will be more and more players like Wiggins who can limit Durant's offense.

Fortunately, Dunn has more than one common scoring method.

With the help of rich game experience, Duane quickly used other offensive methods, making Wiggins unsure of how to defend in a short period of time.

Obviously, Wiggins conducted in-depth research on Duane before the game started and mastered almost most of the means to limit Duane's scoring.

However, Dunn has too many offensive methods at his disposal.

Even if Wiggins has already seen through his breakthrough rhythm and shooting method in advance, Durant can still readjust his breakthrough rhythm and method, and then combine passing and shooting threats to break through Wiggins' defense.

Of course, Wiggins adjusted quickly as well.

In the first quarter, they were prepared to limit Duan's offense, but in the second quarter, they were defeated by Duan's personal ability.

After suffering a setback in the first quarter, Wiggins finally learned how to keep up with Duane's adjusted offensive rhythm and re-demonstrated his potential as an outside defensive gate at the beginning of the third quarter.

However, Duane wanted to win Game 1, so he did not insist on his own way and rely on his personal ability to break through Wiggins' defense.

Relying on constantly asking Horford to come out for screens, Wiggins, who is not good at squeezing screens, can only watch Duane continue to take mid-range shots with the help of screens.

In fact, what Duane did in this game was similar to what Wiggins did. He led the team in the first three quarters and tried his best to help the team establish a leading advantage.

At the same time, if there is an opportunity, we must also limit the scoring of the opponent's core players.

As for the fourth quarter, it will be left to another core player of the team.

And when it comes to handling these things, Duane is undoubtedly more experienced than Wiggins.

Besides, Duane also believes that Curry can lead the team's offense in the fourth quarter and make the final decision at the critical moment.

Wiggins didn't dare to spend all his energy in the first three quarters.

That’s why Dunn opened fire early in the third quarter.

Even though Wiggins was sweating, he couldn't limit Duane's scoring or catch up with Duane in personal scoring.

Duane's influence on the court far exceeded Wiggins'. After the first three quarters, the Bulls established a 12-point lead with Duane leading the charge.

Although it is not a lot, it reduces a lot of pressure on Curry.

After Irving got the ball at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he seemed to be able to kill any god that stood in his way.

Fortunately, the Bulls first continued to double-team, and then targeted Irving on the offensive end, thereby consuming Irving's physical strength, which limited Irving's offensive efficiency.

At the same time, after Curry tried three shots in the first half of the fourth quarter, he finally found his touch and made two consecutive three-pointers to rebuild the score difference to double digits.

After Irving was locked down, the Cavaliers could only let Wiggins step up and score.

However, Wiggins, who lacks playoff experience, did not play tough enough.

At the critical moment, he did not choose to go to the basket, but like a classic star, he used a long two-point shot to decide the outcome. Compared with his physical talent, Wiggins' basketball talent is actually average.

Therefore, compared to those stars who are good at mid-range shots, Wiggins' mid-range shooting percentage is not that high.

Now it’s the playoffs, when the competition intensity is even higher.

If he keeps shooting long two-pointers, there's no need to say what the outcome of the game will be.

In fact, this is just like the star player not playing in the key ball and passing the blame to the role players.

At critical moments, stars are needed to step up and score!
At this time, the purpose of the opponent's defense is to prevent the star player from getting the ball and let the ball fall into the hands of someone with worse scoring ability.

It's like the Pistons defending the Lakers with the OK combination. Giving the ball to Kobe is the best strategy to win.

The Bulls have been implementing this strategy in this series.

Although Wiggins is better at defending than Irving, his offensive ability is weaker and his offensive choices are also problematic.

The Bulls want to let Wiggins get the ball in the fourth quarter as much as possible and attack at critical moments.

If Wiggins gets into hot form in the fourth quarter, the Bulls will have to accept the loss.

Anyway, a series can only have seven games at most, and it is impossible for Wiggins to explode in every game.

The facts have indeed proved that the Bulls' defensive strategy is correct.

Wiggins, who lacked playoff experience, was unable to solve the Cavaliers' scoring problem in the fourth quarter.

Of course, the Cavaliers' loss was not just due to Wiggins alone.

Irving was locked down. The fact that Irving was locked down was itself an important factor in the Cavaliers' loss.

Another thing is what someone often says, the role players did not stand out.

Last year, the Bulls were able to make great progress even with Durant as the sole core player because the role players were strong enough to rival the starters and even performed better than some of the stars.

The quality of the Bulls' role players has declined significantly this year, but the main lineup is better than last year.

The Bulls won two consecutive home games, and the plus-minus value of the starting five was basically above +20 in every game.

In G3, the Cavaliers made a lot of adjustments, and the referees also strongly supported the Cavaliers and tried their best to help them win the game.

Unfortunately, it backfired.

The Bulls won points with their starting lineup, the bench kept the score close, and Duane made two consecutive pick-and-rolls in the last minute, forcing the Bulls to survive.

In the end, it was 5 vs. 8, and they won G3 with a 3-point advantage.

After winning the match point and securing victory, the Bulls began to follow the principle of forgiving others when they can. They put on a show in Game 4, then decisively backed off, and Chicago ended the series.

However, the Bulls swept the Cavaliers 4-1 and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals early.

Throughout the series, Curry was the team's undisputed leading scorer.

However, the outside world's doubts about Curry have increased.

One of the reasons is that the league announced the top three candidates for this year's regular season MVP, and Curry is one of them.

Another reason is that the Bulls' key balls were mostly handled by Duane.

Although Curry also played a lot, he shot more three-pointers because of his playing habits.

However, his three-point shooting percentage at critical moments is far lower than that at normal times, which makes fans feel that Curry is shooting blindly and does not want to win at all, just like an undercover agent.

In comparison, Duane, who led the charge in the first three quarters and made the final decision in the fourth quarter, was undoubtedly much more stable and reliable.

Therefore, many people think that Curry is just taking advantage of Duan's ability to lead the team and bully others.

Before winning the regular season MVP, Curry could only endure it all silently.

But Curry feels that this day will not be too far away.

Even if it doesn’t work out this year, there’s still next year.

Just like those historical superstars in the past, rumors and controversies cannot reduce their star quality.

As long as you go through the baptism of the playoffs, gold will always shine. (End of this chapter)