When pride still matters

Chapter 176
Gregg Popovich turned a deaf ear to Yu Fei's provocation and conveyed instructions to Bowen: "Unless he hits consecutive hits, there is no need to make changes."

Bowen took the order.

The Spurs have studied the Bucks, and they want to know how this team went from being unable to make the playoffs to being No. [-] in the league.

To be sure, it wasn't Sprewell and Laettner who brought about this change.

Yu Fei attracted the attention of the Spurs like a genetically mutated white tiger in the zoo.

After research, the Spurs found that Yu Fei has the highest ball possession rate in the league, but his probability of converting the ball possession into points is also the highest in the league.

At the same time, when Yu Fei holds the ball, the Bucks are always in a winning state (the plus and minus values ​​are plus +).

Therefore, it is the Spurs' strategy to disrupt Yu Fei's rhythm, cut him off from his teammates, and make him hesitate on the offensive end.

Popovich likes to use "sugar" to test those genius creators.

Typically, the Spurs don't lock down their teammates, while at the same time, leaving enough space for their offense to force them to hesitate.

This move can be said to be a great success for James during the Heat period.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for flying.

do you remember?In his previous life, he started watching football seriously in 2015. He may not know what James was like before that, but he grew up in the small ball era, and he knows what it will be like to be ridiculed if a core player gets open but doesn't dare to take a shot.

So if the Spurs dare to shoot, he dares to shoot. Anyway, he has a 36% three-point shooting rate and a 42% pure jump shooting rate. Especially his jump shot shooting rate is only 2 percentage points lower than the Spurs team's average shooting rate. , the Spurs really dare to let him shoot, and he is confident that the shot will kill his opponent.

Subsequently, Stephen Jackson broke through and passed the ball from behind to David Robinson.

The Admiral dunked in the penalty area.

5 is better than 6
The Spurs went ahead by 1 point. Stephen Jackson said to Yu Fei: "Hey, sophomore, you can try to score another goal."

Yu Fei glanced at Ray Allen, who was about to dribble the ball across half court.

I mean, everyone has said this, how can I not respond?
"People who can't stay calm can't be great." Ray Allen said and passed the ball to Yu Fei.

In this world, all celebrities can find aphorisms to the contrary.

Not to mention that people like Ray Allen, who have never been associated with "greatness" in their lives, have no qualifications to define what greatness is.

Yu Fei's understanding is that when the other party provokes me, I respond until they shut up.

The scene that reflects Yu Fei's mentality of "even if an ant bites me, I will break it into pieces" happened in this round.

Bowen still gave Yu Fei half a step of space.

But Yu Fei didn't immediately take the second shot. Instead, he asked Sprewell to pick and roll. He wanted to force the Spurs to switch defense and face Stephen Jackson in a misplaced position.

Yu Fei chose to break through, push inward with his body, almost carrying Jackson's body to collect the ball at the free throw line, start, change hands in the air and pick the basket to score.

Since Jackson occupied the defensive position, Duncan and Robinson could only interfere from the side, but Yu Fei changed hands to avoid it.

Of course, as a new star that the alliance intends to promote, Yu Fei will have additional rewards in this battle.

Dick Bavetta called a defensive foul on Stephen Jackson.

"Are you kidding me?" Jackson yelled, "This is just a normal confrontation!"

"That's it for normal confrontation. No wonder people in Dallas are complaining on my radio that you guys are playing dirty." Yu Fei said darkly, "I now suspect that you deliberately injured Dirk."

Bavetta interrupted Yu Fei's output: "Fry, shut up, it's a penalty ball!"

"No problem, sir."

Dealing well with Bavetta is a required course for every star player.

Because this person is the royal director of the alliance.If the league wants to extend a certain series by one or two games, then Bavetta will appear on stage, betting on his own pedigree and blowing judgment whistles that make Sacramento people chant "How God allowed it."

The great thing about having a good relationship with him is that he will take care of you on a regular basis, and then make you feel like an untouchable God on those "special" nights.

Everyone who has experienced that kind of game will shout like Barkley that there is plenty of time to rest after death.

Yu Fei hit an extra penalty and scored eight points in a row.

8 is better than 6
Subsequently, Parker broke through and tried to go for a layup but was blocked by Yu Fei who was sent back to the basket.

It's a pity that the rebounds were controlled by the Spurs.

Duncan grabbed the offensive rebound, pushed past Anthony Mason, and it was as easy as confronting the air, hitting it high and setting up the basket for a score.

No trash talk.

As the core of the Spurs, Duncan is the quietest person on the Spurs in most cases.

After O'Neal destroyed the Great Wall, the No. 1 player in the league was undoubtedly Duncan.

This is the strongest opponent Yu Fei has encountered so far.

Yu Fei decided to have a head-on confrontation with Duncan.

Seeing Yu Fei beating like this, George Karl frowned.

Although the Spurs intend to give Yu Fei space to shoot, he can't be so realistic, right?You just vote when others ask you to. When did Da Fei become such an obedient person?
Fortunately, Yu Fei did not lose his mind.

Yu Fei adjusted himself from the core position of the playmaker to the attacker. Then, Sprewell became the field controller, and Ray Allen was responsible for initiating the tactics. It seemed very abstract, but this was the Bucks' offensive posture after the start. .

Except for the first few rounds, Yu Fei does not have to attack with the ball in every round. He will cool down for one or two rounds after completing the attack.

During the cooling down round, the Bucks can play according to their usual tactics.

However, Karl couldn't accept that Yu Fei, the big boss, suddenly turned into a thug.

Five minutes into the first quarter, the two sides were tied 5-14.

Karl took the initiative to request a timeout and communicated with Yu Fei on the sidelines, "Fry, it's time to change the way you play. You have to let the ball flow."

Yu Fei said: "Didn't Rey-ray do a good job?"

"Him?" Karl glanced at Ray Allen with disgust, "You shot well, and almost all of his assists came from you."

Yu Fei said: "This shows that I have the potential to become the scoring champion."

"No, you can't be the scoring champion. Our team doesn't have enough resources to support the scoring champion." Karl said, "You have to be the all-around king, just like before."

Yu Fei's desire to score was suppressed by Karl.

"OK." Yu Fei said, "I'm fine."

This made Carl relieved.

Yu Fei is young and promising. As the youngest MVP in history, this is an achievement that he can be proud of. However, if he suddenly feels that he needs to become the scoring leader as MVP, it will be a disaster for the Bucks.

With so many scoring points in the Bucks' starting lineup, what they need most is his passing. Once he becomes obsessed with offense, the delicate balance originally formed in the regular season will be completely broken.

Yu Fei, who returned to the court, called for a pick-and-roll again.

The Spurs have adjusted their defense against the Bucks' pick-and-roll tactics.

Before, Popovich asked for a defense change, but now, he asked the players to double-team Yu Fei resolutely.

Because every time Yu Fei called for a pick-and-roll in the past 5 minutes, he finished it by himself.

Bowen and Jackson stepped forward to attack at the same time. Yu Fei stopped the ball on the right side, but used his higher vision to find Sprewell in the open space, and then passed the ball.

Sprewell caught the ball and hit a three-pointer.

17 is better than 14
The madman looked very excited after scoring. This was his first goal tonight.He is definitely one of the players on the team who most wants to beat the Spurs, because it was the Spurs who blocked his championship dream a few years ago.He firmly believes that if the Knicks successfully win the championship in 1999, the fairy tale of a black-and-white story will be enough to make them one of the Knicks in 1970 and become the supreme legend.

Yu Fei saw it and Sprewell was very excited.

Moreover, while excited, it also feels very hot.

This was evident during the pre-game warm-up. After the game started, Sprewell ran back for 5 minutes, came back from a timeout and took the first shot, but still scored.

Yu Fei believes that he will break out tonight.

On the other side, there was Parker again.

His speed makes it difficult for the Bucks to guard against him. Even in the era when he can get started, if you want to catch this little speed, you must first be able to react.

On the Bucks' side, Yu Fei can't keep up with Parker, and Ray Allen has no chance. Sprewell, who has the best defensive skills and experience, has been passed by Parker again and again.

The problem for Parker is that in an era when the three-point line is available, he faces a terrible cutter threat, so rather than risk completing the offense himself, he is better off passing the ball to Duncan.

Duncan caught the ball and leaned on Mason to force a shot. He missed but caused a foul.

At the free throw line, Duncan made the first free throw but missed the second.

This scene was seen by George Karl.

Normally, if the hand is not smooth, the first ball should be missed, and then the second ball should be adjusted back.But Duncan made the first free throw and missed the second.

This performance is consistent with Duncan's free throw shooting rate in the playoffs so far: 62%.

This can no longer be described as unstable. This is inaccurate as evidenced by figures.

Karl suddenly had an idea.

This idea became firm after Duncan beat Mason again with a back attack.

As soon as I thought about cutting Deng, the sky and the earth became wider.

At the end of the first quarter, the two sides went from a smooth start, to a partial fight in the middle, to a rare point at the end of the quarter. The Spurs vividly demonstrated the whole process of how to turn a game from good to "fucking ugly" teaching.

24 is better than 22
The Bucks lead the Spurs by 2 points.

During the break, George Karl proposed the "Buddha-destroying tactic" to the players.

When Duncan attacks, people nearby need to give him a strong double-team.

If Duncan hits the basket, no matter what, give him a foul.

If he sets up a shooting motion from a good position, foul him hard.

As long as Duncan is on the court, the zone defense must be from start to finish.

The three people with the most accurate three-point shooting percentages on the Spurs are Steve Kerr, Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen. The first two are substitutes. Bowen only shoots corner three-pointers, while The main players such as Parker and Jackson are all players who are not accurate in three-pointers.

This is the source of the Bucks' confidence in double-teaming Duncan.

In the second quarter, Duncan, who played the entire first quarter, continued to play.

Concepts such as maintaining health, rationally allocating playing time, and protecting the absolute core in the small ball era do not exist in the contemporary era.Especially for the single-core Spurs, Duncan averaged 42 minutes per game during the playoffs.

Basically, as long as the score is not open, he stays on the court.

The Bucks were better than the Spurs and gave Yu Fei a 2-minute rest in the first quarter.

Then, Karl asked Yu Fei to play in the second quarter.

The "Buddha-killing Tactics" was officially implemented.

Although highly targeted, Duncan is still a difficulty that the Bucks cannot solve.

Double-teaming Duncan had little effect.

What really worked was cutting down Deng.

When Duncan was continuously sent to the free throw line and made one of two free throws, Bill Walton, who was sitting on the sidelines as a commentator, recalled Duncan's free throw disaster so far in the playoffs.

In the first game of the first round of the playoffs against the Suns, Duncan missed a key free throw in the fourth quarter and made 4 of 1 free throws in overtime, causing the Spurs to lose at home.In the first game of the semifinals against the Lakers, the Spurs took an overwhelming 35 free throws, but missed 14 free throws. Duncan contributed half of them.

Yu Fei thinks Duncan is a hexagonal warrior.

In fact, this is too absolute a judgment.

Duncan is not without his problems, and free throw shooting is his biggest weakness.

He briefly solved this problem in the 99-00 season, when he shot 76% from the free throw line, but it didn't last long.Soon, his free throw percentage dropped back below 70%.

However, this is not a problem with Duncan alone. The entire Spurs team is generally not good at free throws, but Duncan is the core. If his free throws are visibly bad, opponents will naturally make a fuss about him.

Carl's strategy worked.

Duncan showed obvious lack of confidence when he stepped to the free throw line. The more he worried about missing the free throw, the harder it was to maintain the stability of the free throw.

Every time his free throw went wide, it gave the Bucks a chance to counterattack.

This is Yu Fei's favorite moment.

In the first half, the Spurs trailed by 11 points.

Popovich said gloomily: "Our free throw shooting is not good. This is a problem that needs to be solved urgently."

On a night when Duncan's free throw shooting rate was on par with O'Neal, the Spurs' most advantageous inside line was unable to rely on personal offense to complete their dominance. This was the Spurs' biggest pain point.

Because the Bucks will send Duncan to the free throw line before he can finish the offense.

The Bucks learned the Spurs' philosophy.

That means winning at all costs.

The Spurs made the game ugly, and the Bucks' Buddha-cutting tactics completely made the game unwatchable.

But who can say no to them?

In the second half, Duncan completed 2+1 strongly, as if to prove that the poor serving feel in the first half had gone with the wind.

Then, Yu Fei dribbled the ball across half court, and before the Spurs gained a firm foothold, he suddenly raised his hand and shot a three-pointer.

"Shh!"

This goal brought the point difference back to 11 points.

Then, the Spurs never gave Yu Fei a chance to take an open shot from the outside.

Because Yu Fei made 5 of 4 outside shots tonight, with a very high hit rate, it would be an extremely terrible thing if he went crazy shooting.

The Spurs' defensive intensity against Fei skyrocketed.

This is the reason why Yu Fei's shooting percentage dropped in the second half. However, the problem of Duncan's inability to stably hit free throws is still there. If the problem of the inside strong point unable to maximize the offensive and defensive advantages cannot be solved, the Spurs will be unable to reverse the situation.

Duncan is still Duncan. Even if this genuine No. 1 in the league cannot play a lot of singles, he still uses his dominant defense and rebounding to prevent the Bucks from launching an offensive against the Spurs' inside line.

In the end, the Bucks' shooters stood up and hit three consecutive three-pointers at critical moments, frustrating the Spurs who were chasing points.

This game will wake them up and let go of all unrealistic illusions. The Bucks are prepared and the Bucks are real.

Yu Fei is their true portrayal.

They can't wait to end the Western Conference team's monopoly on the championship!
(End of this chapter)