Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

"Defend, defend, defend!"

On June 6th, Game 4 of the Finals kicked off again at the United Center in Chicago.

Only halfway through the first quarter, 20,000 Bulls fans at the scene were already shouting for defense.

The reason for this situation is naturally because the Clippers' offense in the first quarter was extremely fierce, making it difficult for the Bulls to cope.

To be honest, Duan was somewhat caught off guard by this situation.

I thought that by confusing Durant in Game 1, we could easily win the first two home games.

Who would have thought that the Clippers' internal adjustments would come so quickly.

After losing Game 1, the Clippers players could also see that Durant was absent-minded and a little lost on the court.

"Maybe Duane is Durant's inner demon!"

The vast majority of Clippers players and coaching staff already have the answer in their hearts.

Everyone is familiar with Durant's career. Although he has rich experience in the finals and has honors such as FMVP.

However, Durant has been defeated by Durant many times.

It's just like when Karl Malone faced Jordan in the finals, he was always one step short.

If he can't overcome his inner demons, he will eventually become Jordan's defeated opponent.

Now Durant is in the same predicament.

In this situation, normally, the Clippers should do their best to help Durant resolve his inner demons.

However, the Clippers don't have many games left to lose.

Every game in the finals must be fought against every second and with all our strength!
You know, it was not easy for Paul and Griffin to make it to the finals once.

And their careers have reached the middle and late stages.

As one of the Big Three of the Clippers, Durant already has a championship, Finals MVP and regular season MVP, while Paul and Griffin don't even have honors like being in the All-NBA First Team.

We finally made it to the finals, but considering that our peak competitive form cannot be maintained for long.

Paul and Griffin had to unite and take over the team with the support of Rivers.

This was something Durant did not expect, and the Bulls did not expect it either.

This rather strange situation occurred suddenly, and the Bulls' arrangement at the beginning of G2 was completely useless.

Then we just watched Paul and Griffin play a one-man show, using pick-and-roll to attract the defense and then constantly dribbling the ball to break into the paint.

Instead, Durant became the Clippers' spot shooter.

Because of Durant's personal strength, the Bulls cannot easily ignore it, so they dispersed some of their defensive resources to limit Durant, and they were unable to do anything about Paul and Griffin.

If Griffin gets the ball in the paint, Horford can still limit Griffin a little.

However, judging from the course of G1, Horford couldn't really defend Griffin.

Not to mention, Griffin is not only able to finish directly from mid-range after receiving the ball in a pick-and-roll, but also has the ability to face the basket from the outside.

When Griffin pulled to the outside, constantly changed directions, turned around and broke through, and played one-on-one against Horford, even though Horford's footsteps were very agile, he found it difficult to keep up with Griffin's rhythm and speed.

I can only say that Griffin deserves to be the No. 1 pick.

This also proves the saying that talent can be used but cannot be absent.

No matter how strong Horford is, he is only the third pick, while Griffin is the first pick!
It is worth mentioning that Griffin can not only get the ball and break through, but also has excellent breakthrough and passing ability.

The Bulls want to limit Griffin's attacking effect, so Gobert needs to stay in the interior.

Griffin knows Gobert's ability to protect the rim, so when the timing of the attack is not good, he will not force the attack, but will try to cooperate with other teammates as much as possible.

This scene can be seen frequently in this game.

Griffin set the screen and received a pass from Paul halfway through his run, then continued to break into the inside.

At the same time, Paul also ran to the low post from the other side.

Once Gobert focused on Griffin, Griffin faked a pass and passed the ball back to Paul.

Paul would either cut directly for a layup or, facing the Bulls' inside players' help defense, use his footwork to create space and then take a mid-range fadeaway jump shot.

Paul's killer move is the mid-range shot. Although it is not as good as Durant on the team, it is not much different.

In comparison, although Paul's mid-range shooting rate and output are not as good as Durant's, he plays more reasonably. Therefore, some of the ball rights that should have belonged to Durant tonight were taken away by Paul, and the Clippers did not fall into a scoring shortage due to the lack of Durant's mid-range scoring.

On the contrary, because Paul played more rationally and as a team, he established a considerable advantage in the early stages.

However, this is mainly because the Bulls did not expect the Clippers to marginalize Durant without saying a word.

You know, after Durant delegated power to Curry and made a gesture of retreating at the height of his career, Durant has become the league's number one player this season.

Of course, there is nothing that can convince you of the dominance of a league leader who always loses.

The Clippers want to win, so it is understandable that the other two star players want to seize power.

After the Bulls realized this, they immediately made adjustments.

A living person cannot be suffocated to death by urine!
In order to test whether the Clippers really got Durant, the Bulls changed to focusing on the big players and letting go of the small ones, constantly double-teaming the ball handler and limiting the performance of Paul and Griffin as much as possible.

As for Durant, if he is on the wing, defend him; if he is in the corner, just let him go.

Durant's three-point threat is actually not that great, and he mostly plays one-on-one with the ball.

As long as it is not Durant's scoring sweet spot, the Bulls can turn a blind eye for the time being.

At this time, Rivers on the sidelines saw the Bulls' adjusted defensive arrangement and his mouth corners slightly raised.

Although Rivers' on-the-spot command ability is relatively poor, he is willing to trust role players.

Now the Bulls' strategy of double-teaming the ball handler will undoubtedly liberate the Clippers' role players.

They are all NBA players, they have all played in the finals, they can receive passes from their teammates in open positions, dare to attack, and score.

As a chicken soup coach, Rivers is best at encouraging players who usually perform averagely but want to improve.

It's also because he treats these role players too well. Sometimes even if these players make mistakes, Rivers is embarrassed to take them off, so they make mistakes again and again, and the game situation becomes increasingly unfavorable.

The Bulls' current defensive strategy of double-teaming Paul and Griffin is undoubtedly a mistake for the Clippers.

As long as the Clippers role players on the field can seize such opportunities in time, they can launch a fatal blow to the Bulls and quickly widen the score gap.

It is worth mentioning that Rivers' defensive coaching is also good.

This means that when the team is leading, even if he remains silent on the sidelines, the team can still win the game with his leadership and good defense.

Therefore, Rivers still has the ability to play in a favorable situation.

In Rivers' view, tonight is a favorable game.

Who would have thought that the situation would suddenly change in the third quarter.

The Bulls' defense certainly failed to limit the performance of the Clippers' role players in the first half, but the Bulls also fought back, relying on Durant and Curry's pick-and-roll and switching players between the two.

Duane kept backing Paul from the high post, increasing Paul's physical exertion.

Curry gave Griffin a military training, making Griffin sweat profusely.

By the third quarter, Paul and Griffin both had some problems with their physical strength.

Originally, due to physical problems, Griffin often performs extremely well in the first three quarters but performs extremely poorly in the fourth quarter.

But Paul just likes to take on too much and develop all around.

As a point guard, you naturally need to control the ball and organize the team. And for point guards in the small ball era, scoring is also essential. But Paul likes to go all out on defense.

However, Paul's physical fitness is only suitable for him to play on the floor.

Therefore, even though Paul is the point guard with the most buzzer-beaters, his scoring stats have not been going up.

The only two seasons in which he averaged over 20 points per game were in his junior and senior years, when he had the most energy.

All I can say is that being both offensive and defensive, and being all-round and comprehensive, has always been a bad thing.

People can only do what they are capable of. Paul doesn't have the physical strength to keep the team going, and the end result will be a failure.

Tonight certainly proved that.

The Bulls began to fight back in the third quarter, but both Paul and Griffin had physical problems and their scoring efficiency dropped significantly.

Seeing the Clippers keep missing shots, the Bulls took the opportunity to grab the rebound and launched a defensive counterattack, further narrowing the gap.

Until Curry gradually got into the groove, developing his touch by relying on chase three-pointers and three-pointers from the corner with help from screens.

Then, he made three consecutive three-pointers, which shocked the dumbfounded Rivers and he called a timeout immediately. (End of this chapter)