basketball court controller

Chapter 75
Some media said that Zhang Chen's ability to attract the defensive Heat is also very successful. After all, they are a strong team with a deep lineup, and others can also score.

But some media also said that this defensive tactic is correct. The failure of the Pistons is not a tactical problem, but their inside line is too bad. As long as their inside line can contain Mourning a little, the result will be different.

Therefore, in the next five games, since they all encountered Eastern teams, they tried this defensive theory. The result was that Zhang Chen's score decreased and his assists increased. The field goal percentage of the team always began to rise inexplicably, suppressing the first three quarters, and unable to suppress the fourth quarter. By the time everyone found out, the Heat had already won 10 consecutive victories.

In the East's record list, the Heat only ranked second because of one less game. After the All-Star, they have ranked fourth in the East to second in the East.

Did flanking Zhang Chen actually give the Heat a chance? This is really uncertain. The other players of the Heat team were also amazing in the fourth quarter. It seems that flanking Zhang Chen is not such a good choice.

On March 3, the Heat challenged the Spurs away.

Zhang Chen was still pinched, but the Spurs did not come back in the fourth quarter. They won 93:73 by 20 points, and the Spurs also let out a sigh of relief.

After the game, Spurs coach Popovich said that this is the real tactic against the Heat, and other people's imitations have not imitated the essence.

He naturally has the confidence to be arrogant. The Spurs have Duncan and David Robinson. The teams that flanked Zhang Chen before were overwhelmed by Mourning in the interior, and they almost choked both of them. It is understandable that Ben charged into battle by himself and suffered a disastrous defeat.

But some people questioned, what is the difference between this and the finals of last season, why did not succeed at that time, in fact, Zhang Chen did not shoot three-pointers like crazy, so another point of view appeared, this is the Heat's confusion The opponent, Zhang Chen, didn't try his best at all. Anyway, there are not many games left, and there is no need for the Heat to work hard.

On March 3, the Heat returned to their home court against the Seattle SuperSonics, and their main point guard Tim Hardaway, who had been absent for nearly three months, finally returned.

Tim Hardaway has the ability to shoot, which also declares that if he continues to pinch Zhang Chen, he may lose the effect in the first three quarters, but this also depends on Hardaway's state. If he is like last season in the playoffs, His role is not much greater than that of Anthony Carter, and his age also makes people wonder whether returning after injury can regain the previous feeling.

The insiders of the Supersonic are Wen-Baker and Grant, which are not as good as the Heat, but it is not a problem to limit it. Originally, the Supersonic also planned to flank Zhang Chen. Zhang Chen didn't even pass the ball well.

But when Hardaway scored three consecutive three-pointers to announce his return, the Sonics could only give up the flanking.

After giving up the flank attack, Zhang Chen immediately erupted, and the people who were flanked during this period were all dizzy.

In fact, the Supersonics' strong point, the Heat, couldn't defend against them, but Zhang Chen's outburst directly put them into a passive position. It was the first time that the Heat took the lead in the entire game during this period, and the fourth quarter of the game had already fallen into garbage time.

At 101:83, Hardaway returned, and the Heat ushered in a hearty loud noise.

This also proves the value of Hardaway. Various newspapers wrote articles one after another. The Heat have made up for their shortcomings. It is time for the defending champion to really show its strength.

However, the Heat were immediately picked up by the Lakers with the league's No. [-] record. Speaking of which, the Heat and the Lakers have very similar lineups.

On the first position, Tim Hardaway and Ron Harper are both veterans who were once very good.

In the second position, Zhang Chen started the Eastern All-Star, and Kobe Bryant started the Western All-Star, and both of them had the data of 20+5+5.

At the third position, Jamal Mashburn and Glenn Rice are both small forwards with strong scoring ability, and both are strong offensively and weak defensively.

On the fourth position, P-J-Brown and A-C-Green are both defensive power forwards.

At the fifth position, the Eastern All-Star starter Alonzo Mourning and the Western All-Star starter Shaquille O'Neal, but Mourning is 20+10, O'Neal is 30+10, and the offensive ability of the fat man is obviously a bug.

In fact, even the bench lineup is very similar. In the league, such a balance of inside and outside lines can be regarded as a standard configuration, but it is very rare.

In this case where the characteristics of players at each position are extremely similar, it depends on which position can break the deadlock. From the data point of view, O'Neal is the breakthrough point, and it is actually.

In the center position, Mourning is one of the very few players who can fight against O'Neal in terms of strength, but he still can't stop O'Neal, because his height is too short, facing O'Neal with his butt It was really helpless to sit on his ecstasy little hook, and because of his short stature in the offense, he couldn't knock O'Neal away like other insiders, so the Heat lost helplessly.

After the game, Mayfair Jackson also made some confident remarks, saying that the Lakers don't need to flank any opponent at all, but there are too many excellent players on their team, and the opponents don't know which one to flank.

Moreover, after winning the Heat, they have already won 15 consecutive victories. Looking at their upcoming schedule, they can continue to win consecutively. No team in the West has the ability to compete with them for the first place. No.2 is directly behind by more than a dozen Now their pursuit is to see if they can reach 70 wins.

It can only be said that the Lakers this season are really terrifying.

After this game, they were farther away from the first place in the East, but then they faced another tough battle.

The Phoenix Suns have become even stronger this season. They introduced Anfernee Hardaway and got Sean Marion in the draft.

The "super backcourt" composed of Jason Kidd and Anfernee Hardaway can score 30 points, 15 assists and 15 rebounds. In addition to them, the team has four players who can score in double figures. Including the team's most scoring all-around power forward Clifford Robinson.

In many cases, five players on the Suns field can shoot three-pointers, which is a typical small ball tactics.

If the Lakers can beat the Heat and follow the kingly path, what the Heat are most afraid of is a team like the Suns who are slanting their swords. After all, there are too few teams like the Lakers who are directly shot to death. Have as much as you want.

If they lose again, the Heat will be farther and farther away from the Pacers, because the Heat's remaining opponents are many ruthless players, and they are ruthless players in the West. They must find a way to win any game.

What is the difference between the first in the Eastern Conference and the second in the Eastern Conference? For the Heat, the difference is a bit big.

The current situation in the Eastern Conference is that the Pacers are at the same level as them, and they are at the forefront. Next is the New York Knicks. Although Ewing continues to age, the Knicks are still performing well this year. This kind of young insider has also begun to rise. It can be said that the Heat and the Knicks are the only two teams with a kingly configuration among the teams that have hope for the playoffs this season.

That is to say, there are inside and outside, and the offense and defense are not unbalanced. Unlike last season, after Zhang Chen's rise, the Heat's play style is now very orthodox. Under such circumstances, they don't want to meet the old opponent of the Knicks, but The Knicks are very likely to fight for the third place.

If you can squeeze the Pacers down and let them and the Knicks, the two biggest opponents of the Heat, fight first, it will be more cost-effective.

Therefore, as the situation became clearer, the Heat became more and more obsessed with victory.

As far as the configuration of the Heat and the Suns is concerned, the strengths of the two teams are estimated to be unrestricted by the other team.

Now Anfernee Hardaway can't guard Zhang Chen, and they have no one inside who can guard Mourning, but the Heat PJ-Brown also can't guard Clifford Robinson, and the Suns Quick play tactics, it is estimated that the Heat will find it difficult to defend their outside shots.

To put it bluntly, this game is a battle of rhythm. The Suns want to run, while the Heat want to slow down as much as possible, so that Zhang Chen, Mourning and Mashburn can fight in positions.

At the beginning of the game, what the Heat did not expect was that the Suns did not use their regular center Luke Longley, but let Marion play the starting lineup, which was a completely small lineup.

After the Heat's first offense against Mourning was scored, the Suns' offense was over before the Heat had time to return to defense.

Then they took P-J-Brown, Clifford Robinson and Marion to flank Mourning to deal with the Heat's offense. This is a relatively rare defensive method, but because Marion moves very fast, they Not worried about P-J-Brown's half shot.

In this case, Zhang Chen's singles attack is the most efficient.

But the Sun's counterattack was so sharp that the Heat could hardly organize a formal defense.

Pat Riley had no choice but to use Bowen to put P-J-Brown in less than 3 minutes, and the Heat followed suit with a small lineup.

But they didn't use a small lineup to play fast, just to be able to return to defense quickly. They still need to slow down the rhythm during offense, otherwise they will probably collapse. The Heat, who are accustomed to the conventional style of play, cannot follow the Suns. The team is bombarded.

This season, the Heat used a small lineup, pushed Mashburn to the power forward position, and dealt with many fast teams, but they have never encountered a team that is as thoroughly fast as the Suns.

The insiders who can play this way are the Suns and their super sixth man Rodney Rogers, and the Heat definitely can't run like this inside. Even Mourning, who has strong endurance, can't run for a long time to defend.

Seeing such a situation, Pat Riley was also a little helpless. He couldn't keep up with the speed of the opponent, so the defense could only depend on God.

But at this time, Zhang Chen had an idea.

(End of this chapter)