The Golden Age of Basketball

For Bellman, the new assistant coach of the Trail Blazers, the big problem he has to face, in addition to the fact that NBA professional players are not NCAA college students, another challenge is the huge difference between the NBA's defensive rules and college basketball.

In addition to the difference in the referee's whistle-blowing scale, the biggest difference between the nba's defensive rules and the ncaa's rules is that the ncaa allows the existence of zone defense, while the nba does not allow zone defense.

Moreover, the NBA's defensive rules are not as simple as not being able to defend against the zone. The core definition of the "illegal defense" rules formulated by the league is: you cannot double-team people without the ball.

In other words, the only defensive methods that the defender can use on the field are man-to-man, double-team the ball holder, and switch defenses. Once a certain two players double-team an off-ball player, or the defender has a player If you can't find an offensive player to match yourself, then the defensive team will be sentenced to illegal defense, and the offensive team will make a free throw.

For Bellman, who is good at using zone defense and has adapted to the rules of college and high school, it is extremely difficult to integrate his defensive thinking into the NBA.

In order to be able to resolve this contradiction, before going to the Trail Blazers for an interview, Bellman did a lot of preparatory work, studied a lot of tactics books, and watched a lot of videos of real NBA games.

After a detailed analysis, Behrman believes that in today's nba, although zone defense is prohibited, it is the referee who judges illegal defense after all. Referees are humans, not machines, and the judgment of illegal defense itself is very vague .

Therefore, Bellman proposed that when the Blazers' overall individual defensive ability is not strong, they should play the rules and use "illegal defenses" covertly to improve the team's defensive efficiency.

His idea has also been affirmed by the Blazers' management and leaders. They believe that it is really difficult to use some crooked moves if they want to wrestle with the Lakers without making some tactical innovations.

Later in the team training, Bellman began to emphasize that when the players are defending, while marking the opposing players, they must always pay attention to the opponent's arrow personnel who are off the ball.

Of course, this transformation process is very difficult. Sometimes, if you accidentally lose the person you are defending, you will not be optimistic about the arrow player without the ball;

This is the case with Sampson's ball. After he and Gan Guoyang switched defenses, he was going to defend Adams, but he saw Sanders cutting inward, so he wanted to delay and interfere a little according to Behrman's instructions. Sanders' running position.

But his movement was too obvious, and he was going towards Sanders, so he was caught by the referee and called an illegal defense.

Obviously, for an old player like Sampson, it is really difficult to adapt to such a defensive strategy. After all, he has played in the NBA for so many years, and he has long adapted to the simple man-to-man defense.

Not only Sampson, but other players are gradually learning and adapting to this defensive method. Maybe they don’t need to be too tight against a team like the Suns, but the regular season is a place for experimentation and running-in. I believe this Defense will come in handy in future head-to-head games.

With the sun's free throw, they changed the score to 14:9, only 5 points behind.

The effect of Edwards after playing was indeed obvious. Gan Guoyang returned to the basket, and the Suns' outside conduction of the ball became much smoother. Sanders made an empty cut to the basket for a layup, but was interfered by Gan Guoyang and missed the layup. Drexler got the rebound.

This time Ramsey didn't call run-run-run again, and Drexler began to dribble across half court to organize the offense.

"Drexler dribbles the ball, he and Gan do a pick-and-roll in the high post, Gan catches the ball at the free throw line, jump shot! Misses...but Gan grabs the offensive rebound, the basket, swings away Edwards, dunk! A beautiful hard dunk, the rim is shaking."

Gan Guoyang played more relaxed. The hard training in Houston and the complete training camp after arriving in Portland made Gan Guoyang in very good condition.

It can also be seen from his mid-range shots that Gan Guoyang's playing mentality is still very relaxed, and he began to try various offensive methods.

Although the goal was not scored, it fell far away. Gan Guoyang also picked up an offensive rebound and scored the goal.

Gradually, the Blazers began to slowly return to the familiar game mode of last season. Gan Guoyang guarded the basket and defended with all his strength on the outside.

The Suns' shooting rate quickly increased, especially for Sanders, and Vandeweghe still couldn't restrain him.

But Sanders also couldn't restrain Vandeweghe. Vandeweghe also showed a good competitive state. His shooting still has a strong lethal ability. A very effective tactic.

"Vanderweghe received a pass from Drexler and made a right-wing jumper! 22:16, the point difference became 6 points."

In the counterattack, Vandeweghe performed a "Vandeweghe step" after receiving the ball from the right wing, easily shook Sanders away with a probe, and then hit an 18-foot jumper.

"Buzz~" At this time, the buzzer sounded on the sidelines. Since there was no dead ball timeout on both sides, the first quarter entered the official timeout period, and there were still 2 minutes before the end of the first quarter.

"Gan, take a break after the game, and Carl is on. And Clyde is off, Paxon is on, Kiki, you can also take a break, Jerome, you are on." The Blazers started the first personnel rotation, three on three Down.

Now Paxson has become Drexler's substitute. Although he is not reconciled, he does have a gap with Drexler in terms of personal ability. This is especially evident in the game between the Western Conference Finals and the Lakers.

In the Western Conference Finals, Drexler is often the team's first defensive point on the perimeter, responsible for defending against Magic Johnson. At the same time, on the offensive end, he also shoulders the responsibility of fast breaks and organizing offenses. Paxson couldn't do it.

However, in the first few games of the season, the burden on Paxson's shoulders is not light. Due to a leg injury, Drexler will not play too long in each game, and Paxson still needs to be able to play continuously on the court. contribution.

"How about Mr. Behrman, what do you think of our defense?" After Gan Guoyang got off the court, he drank water and asked about Coach Behrman sitting next to him.

"It's good, but when the opponent's offensive strategy suddenly changes, your response is still insufficient, so you have changed back to the original familiar routine." Bellman also pointed out the main problem facing the Blazers in these 10 minutes. The problem - still not enough running in.

The Blazers' offensive coordination has been quite skilled, but the defensive end still lacks sufficient tacit understanding in switching defenses.

When the Suns change their offensive strategy, such as replacing Edwards, Gan Guoyang and Sampson should be exchanged in time.

Furthermore, if in the future games, the opponent's inside players open up space, some players should come out in time to switch defenses with Gan Guoyang, so that Gan Guoyang can take care of his own defensive area, and at the same time, the opposing player will not be blocked. Completely empty, or be called an illegal defense.

"We still need to adapt slowly. To be honest, I almost forgot how to defend the zone. Standing on the field, it is inevitable to think about where we should go, and we must keep an eye on our own people, otherwise we will be punished." Called a foul."

"Actually, I've watched videos of many games. The whistleblowing of illegal defense is not so strict. If you don't believe me, you can try it in the future." Behrman leaned into Gan Guoyang's ear and said.

Gan Guoyang thinks about it, it seems to be the same, because in the rapid offensive and defensive transition, there are often situations where the opponent cannot be found, and the first step of a center like Gan Guoyang must be to go straight to the basket to defend, while the opponent's center may still be slow. The ground is in the backcourt. At this time, illegal defense is very difficult to judge.

Gan Guoyang nodded. He had already started thinking about how to use this system to deal with the Lakers' super perimeter when they met the Lakers in the future.

But the situation on the field is tilted towards the sun.

After surviving the unfavorable start, the Suns' offense gradually found a feeling, and Alwan Adams finally began to show his value.

After Gan Guoyang left the field, the Blazers' defensive intensity dropped a notch. Adams used his outstanding skills to break through the middle for two consecutive layups. His footwork was very clever. Kenny Carr was almost played around by Adams.

The Blazers' offensive efficiency has also begun to decline. Compared with last season, Colter does not seem to have made much progress. I don't know that this guy played there for a summer vacation.

During training in the training camp, Ramsey felt that Colter's condition was not very good. Although he was still quite satisfactory, his personal ability did not improve much, and his physical condition even declined.

This is obviously the result of not doing physical training in the summer.

"Cort held the ball and broke through for a layup! The ball was big, the rebound was taken by the Suns, the score is now 28:24, the Suns are only four points behind, and there are 19 seconds left before the end of the first quarter Chung, Suns last drive...Adams gets the ball high, Kenny Carr defends Adams, Adams watches...Adams drives, Sampson backs up, Adams passes to Davis on the right , Davis made a mid-range shot! The goal is scored! Two points hit, Walter Davis, 28:26, the sun and the Blazers are only two points away."

With Paxson missing a long-range three-pointer, the Blazers only had a two-point advantage over the Suns, and the first quarter ended.

Ramsey looked at his bench, thinking he was going to try another young point guard.