Legendary star

Chapter 844 Psychological Warfare

"This game, we will definitely win."

Seeing the score shrinking little by little under the Heat's half-court pressing defense, Erik Spoelstra stood on the sidelines, his eyes were full of excitement, as long as the Heat can maintain This kind of game state will be able to overtake the Spurs sooner or later.

Although at the beginning of the first quarter, the Spurs suppressed the Heat on both ends of the offense and defense, and beat the Heat by a huge 19-11 point difference before the official timeout, but from Eric Spoelster The timeout started, and the Spurs' pressure on the Heat began to gradually loosen. Under the Heat's half-court pressing defense, the Heat players led by LeBron James launched wave after wave of fierce counterattacks, and finally At the end of the first quarter, the Heat narrowed the point difference to only 4 points left. Losing 4 points in a single quarter is not a big deal, not to mention that the Heat are still 8 points behind, and the situation on the court is almost the same. It was when the Spurs were pressed on the ground that they fought back and reversed the unfavorable situation on the field in one fell swoop. Therefore, at the end of the first quarter, although the Heat were still behind in the score, the Heat fans at the scene, and the Heat's Head coach Eric Spoelstra didn't have too much worry, because they knew that the Heat would definitely overtake the score and eventually beat the Spurs.

After a short timeout, Eric Spoelstra arranged for Dwyane Wade, who didn't play much in the first quarter, and Ray Allen played with the bench, and the Heat's starter The lineup is top-notch in the entire league, but because of the high salaries of the Heat's Big Three and the stingy mentality of the Heat's management, the Heat can only rely on the veteran's basic salary and the mid-level contract to sign some veterans who are no longer in their prime. It's time to tinker, so the Heat's bench lineup is pretty bad compared to the Spurs.

Although these veterans are no longer capable enough to take the rotation position of a championship team, relying on their rich game experience, the leadership of the Big Three, and the sudden explosion in this season's playoffs Ray Allen, the Heat's bench lineup is also remarkable when facing the Spurs bench composed of Manu Ginobili, Danny Green and Boris Diaw. Influenced by the frantic counterattack in the first quarter, the heat's substitutes had the upper hand in momentum, but they couldn't turn the momentum into victory, and they couldn't continue the heat's chasing momentum in the second half of the first quarter. .

Fortunately, the Heat, from head coach Eric Spoelstra to James, do not report too much hope for the bench lineup, expecting them to overtake the score, it is better to pray that the Spurs team suddenly loses touch , So when the first half of the second quarter ended and the Spurs' lead expanded to 6 points, James and Erik Spoelstra also looked indifferent. The performance is exactly the same as their psychological expectations.

Although the Spurs are still in the lead, they have no momentum to continue to expand their lead. If the Spurs do not make adjustments, when the main lineups of both sides return to the field, the situation on the field will definitely return to the first place again. The state in the second half of a quarter, so after the timeout, Popovich decisively replaced Thiago Splitter with Danny Green and entered the main lineup, pushing Meng Xu to the fourth position .

And when the main players of both sides reappeared, Meng Xu, who had rested for most of the quarter, directly stuck to James when the referee blew the whistle to start the game, and compared with the performance of the two sides in the first quarter. , Meng Xu's defense against James is obviously more fierce now.

"Is this old guy crazy?"

Seeing Meng Xu who was frantically defending James, Eric Spoelstra, who was standing on the sidelines, couldn't understand the Spurs' tactics. Meng Xu's strength and state after his comeback were so strong that Eric - Spoelstra was very surprised. For this reason, Eric Spoelstra did not hesitate to let James take the fourth position to avoid the matchup with Meng Xu, but in this game During the game, Popovich kept arranging Meng Xu to take the initiative to find James, provoking a one-on-one match between James and Meng Xu. Meng Xu's physical fitness has always been very good. Before he retired, he was even called "the Iron Man", but Meng Xu is now 33 years old. Eric Spoelstra does not believe that Meng Xu's current physical fitness can still support his almost crazy style of play.

"Greg, if Meng continues to play like this, there will be no physical problems, right?" Not to mention Eric Spoelstra, even Popovich's assistant coach, Brett Brown The arrangement is somewhat incomprehensible. The reason why Popovich arranged for Kawhi Leonard and Meng Xu to start together is that he hopes to rely on Kawhi Leonard's excellent defense to relieve Meng Xu's pressure on the defensive end, so that Meng Xu Putting all his limited physical strength into the offensive end, Brett Brown believes that Eric Spoelstra arranged for Shane Battier and James to play together, and he also has this idea, but Popovich Qi now makes Meng Xu keep looking for James on both ends of the offense and defense, and makes Meng Xu consume a lot of energy in the second quarter, so Brett Brown still can't understand the purpose of Popovich's arrangement what is it.

"Brett, in a game or a round of series, the competition is not only the strength and fighting spirit of the two sides, and it is not only the competition between the two sides at the tactical level, but also a very important point, that is human nature, remember Did I tell you about the two finals in which the Pacers beat the Lakers in a row? The Pacers did not win in terms of strength, nor in tactics, but in Larry Bird's control of humanity."

After the assistant coach asked, Popovich tilted his head and explained in detail to Brett Brown in a very small voice. Although Larry Bird is not the greatest player in NBA history, but He is the most legendary player in NBA history, because he is the only legend in NBA history who has included the best player, best coach, and best general manager.

Especially Larry Bird's experience of coaching the Pacers is even more legendary than Larry Bird's playing career. Larry Bird coached the Pacers for five seasons as the head coach, and in this In the five seasons, the worst record of the Pacers was the Eastern Conference finals. Among them, they entered the finals three times and won the championship twice. Larry Bird led the Pacers to defeat the strong for two consecutive seasons. Defeating the Lakers, who were in full swing at the time, and causing the Lakers with the F4 combination to fall apart, was a classic battle in the finals.

As an ambitious Popovich who wants to build the Spurs into a giant, it is impossible not to study how the Pacers beat the strong with the weak, and the more thorough the analysis, the more Popovich admires Larry Bird, human nature, psychological warfare, these are all important parts of a game, and they can even affect the entire game, and they are always important weights to leverage victory, and what Popovich is doing now is Psychological warfare, using James' psychology of wanting to defeat Meng Xu, to leverage the foundation of the Heat.

(End of this chapter)