naaapseattle Chapter 365 Finals: Fighting the Lone Ranger
Chapter 365 Finals: Fighting the Lone Ranger
Chapter 365 Finals: Fighting the Lone Ranger
On May 6, the finals officially started.
In G1, the Time Warner Center, which can accommodate 19026 people, continued to be full. Cheers resounded throughout Charlotte, and the home team played.
Li Ke waved to the fans on both sides, winning more cheers and screams.
Then, the Lone Ranger came out, and the Time Warner Center booed again.
The game is about to start, and the atmosphere on the scene is already quite hot, worthy of the heat of the finals.
In the commentary seat, Mike Breen sat in the middle, with Charles Barkley on one side and Kenny Smith on the other.
"Finally... the finals are finally about to begin!"
"Charles, Kenny, before the game starts, can you predict this year's finals?"
According to the usual practice, before the start of the game, Mike Breen asked the two bright lights around him to stand up and make predictions.
Although they knew that as long as they predicted, there was a possibility of being slapped in the face, Barkley and Kenny Smith still couldn't refuse.
Kenny Smith touched his chin and decided to take the lead: "The Bobcats undoubtedly have a huge advantage. They are in a very good state. They have swept the first two rounds of the three playoff rounds in the Eastern Conference. They also defeated the Cavaliers with a huge advantage of 4 to 1 in the Eastern Conference Finals."
"On the other hand, the Lone Ranger, 4-2 in the first round, swept the second round, and was held back by the Thunder to the tiebreaker in the Western Conference Finals. As far as the state is concerned, the Lone Ranger is much worse than the Bobcats."
“再看看人员构成，独行侠太老了，33岁的德克、33岁的贾森·特里、31岁的卡隆·巴特勒、33岁的肖恩·马里昂、以及38岁的贾森·基德……”
"Too old, they are too old, after going through the hard battles in the Western Conference finals, the finals, their physical condition is likely to be unable to keep up."
Therefore, Kenny Smith is infinitely optimistic about the Bobcats.
Barkley cannot be the same as Kenny Smith, he can only make a compromise: "I don't think the Bobcats have a great advantage, I think the Lone Ranger is not weaker than the Bobcats at all..."
Then there's the reason: "The Bobcats are in really good shape, but the Lone Rangers are not bad at all, yes, they were indeed dragged to Game [-] by the Thunder.
What I want to say is that if the Lone Ranger is replaced by the Bobcats, it will be difficult for them to get cheap in the hands of the Thunder.
The influence of the strong west and the weak east is still too great. In my opinion, the focus of this round of finals will be——
Can the Bobcats guard Dirk Nowitzki, who is almost godlike..."
The old driver's current state is indeed a hidden danger. He scored 48 points in the tiebreaker of the Western Conference finals just concluded.
In the 7 games of the Western Conference Finals, the old driver averaged 32.7 points per game.
This state is so much stronger than Li Ke.
Of course, the most important point is that the 33-year-old driver is indeed at the peak of his career this year.
With a golden rooster alone, he has killed countless opposing defensive players.
From Aldridge, the big trainer in the first round of the playoffs, to Jiasao and Odom in the second round, to Ibaka and Nick Collison in the Western Conference finals, they can't prevent the old drivers in this state.
Barkley's meaning is very simple, unless the Bobcats can prevent the old driver, otherwise, the suspense of this round of finals will continue...
The trio in the commentary didn't know that the Bobcats already had an all-round way to deal with the old driver.
……
With both sides on the starting field, the game is about to start.
Compared with the previous life, the center of this Lone Ranger team is still Tyson Chandler.
It is not accidental that the boxing champion left the Hornets. Injuries are part of the reason. More importantly, the boxing champion himself does not want to keep the Hornets.
So, the Hornets replaced Okafor with him, and the Raptors didn't stay long after winning the boxing champion. This time, the main reason was injuries.
The boxing champion who transferred to the Raptors basically didn't play. Even so, the Lone Ranger, who lacked a center, still took the boxing champion under his command.
The jump ball in this game is Jordan vs. boxing champion.
Although the boxing champion is higher, Jordan's bounce and bounce speed are better. With a snap, the Bobcats got the ball for the first attack.
Curry controlled the frontcourt and handed the ball to Captain Jack.
Just looking at this move, the Bobcats' offense hasn't changed much.
But Li Ke, who was seated on the left, immediately searched for the old driver's position.
The Lone Ranger's defensive matchup is like this, Kidd is against Curry, Deshaun Stevenson is against Captain Jack, Sean Marion is against Li Ke, the old driver is against Jamison, and the center is unchanged.
After finding the position of the old driver, Li Ke quickly started.
He circled to the left side of the top of the arc to catch the ball, and by the way, Jamison also brought it up, forming a pick-and-roll in an instant.
The Lone Ranger is dumbfounded, isn't the Bobcats' offense like this?
In the impression of the Lone Ranger, the Bobcats rarely play this kind of direct pick-and-roll. Most of the time, they play off the ball on both sides.
Suddenly there was a pick-and-roll, and the Lone Ranger could only meet the pick-and-roll and switch defenses, and the old driver faced Li Ke like this.
With the footsteps of an old driver, it is no problem to keep up with Li Ke in the first few steps.
But in the next few steps, he will inevitably be thrown away by Li Ke.
Considering that the Lone Ranger has boxing champion Chandler standing inside, the Bobcats' pick-and-roll offensive seems to be not a big problem.
Surprisingly, Li Ke was not in a hurry to get rid of the old driver.
Instead, after Jamison pulled Marion away, he sat on the old driver with his back.
"After the pick-and-roll, Sheldon's style of play is too strange!"
Strange is a bit strange, but the effect is very significant. He rolled over the old driver and advanced two steps, and made a turnaround jump shot from the mid-range.
Swish-!
"The goal is scored, 2 to 0, the Bobcats are ahead!"
"Sheldon's back punch is still a signature, every hit is accurate!"
Almost everyone thinks that this is just a common, unsurprising back shot.
Including Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, he just got up and stared at the team's defense for a while at the moment the pick-and-roll appeared.
Seeing Li Ke scoring a goal with his back, Carlisle also sat back without any surprise.
Only the Bobcats themselves know how important it is to stare at the old driver's back after the pick-and-roll switch.
In the Lone Ranger's offense, Old Kidd controlled the ball across half court, and then made a pick-and-roll cooperation with Marion.
The Bobcats switch defenses directly. Although Jamison is the starter at position [-] now, it is not a big problem for the three outside defenses to have unlimited defenses.
Li Ke met Kidd who was in control of the ball. He knew that Kidd would still pass the ball with a high probability.
Therefore, his defense appears careless.
Kidd made a breakthrough, Li Ke quickly followed, but kept a safe distance.
When Kidd passed the ball to the old driver on one side, Li Ke quickly emptied Kidd and caught him.
Although the attack was timely, the old driver who caught the ball in the middle distance was a golden rooster on his own, whoosh!
"2 to 2, Dirk quickly returned the ball, and the score is now tied!"
"As the analysis before the game said, this game may be the superstar battle between Sheldon and Dirk..."
In the backcourt, after the kick-off, the Bobcats rushed to the frontcourt quickly, and the speed of offensive and defensive transitions was extremely fast.
Captain Jack received the ball at the top of the arc, Li Ke came out to catch the ball, and Jamison gave a cover.
Like a copy of the opening shot, Li Ke once again met the old driver's defense through the pick-and-roll.
This time, he changed his style of play.
Accelerating, sprinting, throwing away the old driver in an instant, and finally, before the boxing champion's defense approached, he stopped and shot.
Swish-!
"Go in again, Sheldon defeated Dirk's defense again!"
"4 to 2, Bobcats lead again."
After two waves of pick-and-roll and defense, Rick Carlisle hadn't noticed the Bobcats' intentions.
But for the Bobcats' two consecutive pick-and-rolls, he felt the need to make some changes.
"Don't switch defenses, Dirk, delay the return, delay the return!"
It is definitely not enough to switch defenses directly. The old driver can't stop Li Ke. If he delays his return, there is still a possibility of successful defense.
The Bobcats didn't care how the Lone Ranger's defense changed at all. They retreated quickly and waited for the Lone Ranger to slowly push through half court.
As a latecomer, Li Ke actually knows this Lone Ranger team very well.
In history, the Lone Ranger who defeated the Big Three of the Heat to win the championship relied on Dirk, who blocked and killed the god, but some people also blamed Lebron, who played abnormally.
In fact, even if LeBron played normally, the Heat would lose.
To put it simply, the Heat back then were so weak inside that they could only shrink their defense when they encountered the Lone Ranger.
The result of shrinking the defense is that the Lone Ranger, who originally relied heavily on the old driver's offense, faced the Heat with full firepower on the outside.
In six games, the Lone Ranger averaged 8.5 three-pointers per game, and his shooting percentage was as high as 41.1%.
This peripheral projection is enough to explode the heat and burn it to pieces.
The Bobcats don't have this problem. They have Jordan on the inside, plus a bunch of swingmen who can switch to the fourth position. The Bobcats' inside hardness is sufficient.
Therefore, on the defensive end, what they have to do is just strangle the old driver.
Considering that the old driver has the unstoppable stunt of Golden Rooster independence, the Bobcats did not put all their defenses on the old driver's side.
Their defense is still very scattered, focusing on the more scattered scoring points of the Lone Ranger other than the old driver.
The Lone Ranger's starting lineup is defensive, except for Marion who can steal two, only Deshaun Stevenson's three-pointer is worthy of attention.
Therefore, as soon as Kidd got the ball, the Bobcats' defense still involuntarily shifted to the old driver's side.
In this attack, the Lone Ranger played countless cooperations from the outside, and the time passed by, and the basketball returned to Kidd.
And Kidd made the last pass, and the old driver finally caught the ball.
A mid-range shot against the defense, hit again with a swish.
"This Dirk is really hot!"
Off the court, Rivers shook his head, he just sighed with emotion.
He has full confidence in this game.
The Bobcats' offense came back, intentionally or inadvertently, and the Bobcats hit another pick-and-roll.
It was still Li Ke and Jamison's pick-and-roll, and the Lone Ranger chose to delay the return.
Obviously Li Ke was able to pierce the Lone Ranger's defense with one stride, but after the pick-and-roll, he passed a pass to Curry who circled behind him.
Curry receives the ball and another pick-and-roll with Jamison.
In this way, even the old driver who wanted to use the delayed return to avoid directly facing the opponent with the ball had to switch defenses urgently and switched to Curry.
Then, he could only turn his huge body, followed the flexible Curry, and cooperated with the boxing champion's frame to interfere with Curry's basket throw.
Bang!
Curry hit the first iron of the game.
Afterwards, in the Lone Ranger's attack, Kidd made a breakthrough and rushed to the basket, but was capped by Jordan Jr. with a volleyball cap, and the cap flew away.
If you want to talk about the difference between the Bobcats and the Big Three in the previous life, the biggest difference is Jordan.
The Lone Ranger, who didn't have any breakthrough skills, now has to face the protection of a top blue-collar center. The word "uncomfortable" on the offensive end has already been written on his face.
Bobcats' offense, the fourth time since the start of the game, Jamison appeared at the top of the arc and made a single block for Li Ke.
The Lone Ranger continued to delay his return, but Li Ke used a quick breakthrough to force the Lone Ranger to pinch Li Ke on the spot.
Li Ke scored the ball backwards and found Jamison who was wide open.
Swish-!
With a crisp netting sound, Jamison hit an open three-pointer, and the Bobcats gained the advantage in the score.
Jamison appeared in high positions again and again, setting wall pick-and-rolls for Li Ke and Curry, forcing the old driver to switch to Li Ke or Curry.
No matter how slow Rick Carlisle's reaction was, he now understands that the Bobcats played this way not only because of the old driver's poor defense.
"It's not right to fight like this..."
Terry Stotts is the offensive assistant coach of the Lone Ranger. Although the problem with the Lone Ranger is defense, he is keenly aware of:
If the problems on the defensive end continue, the Lone Ranger's offense will also be brought down.
Carlisle also nodded: "We can't let Dirk continue to be exposed to the Bobcats' offensive firepower. We have to make some changes."
What can the Lone Ranger do to change?It's nothing more than moving the old driver's position so that he doesn't have to follow the Bobcats' pick-and-roll defense.
To put it bluntly, let the old driver go to the top of the penalty area and move the position of the boxing champion out.
The operability of such a change is still there. Although the boxing champion is also a blue-collar center, his coverage area is huge. In terms of defense, he is much better than Jordan.
This season, the Lone Ranger's offensive core is the old driver, and the defensive core is the boxing champion.
The boxing champion's defensive performance this season can be said to be underestimated, so much so that when he joined the Knicks the following year, he was added a Dpoy by the league.
Now that it was operable, the Lone Ranger immediately made a change.
Once the Lone Ranger changed, so did the Bobcats.
After the Bobcats attacked, Li Ke suddenly got into the low position, not directly into the low position, but used the cover to get rid of Marion and reached the low position.
The old driver who was protecting the frame under the basket was forced to step up, but Li Ke's back attack broke the old driver's defense.
Next, the Bobcats' offense changed from various mid-range and close-range shots at the beginning of the game to various attacks that broke through the basket.
The old driver became the "best defensive player", and he had to stay within the focus of the broadcast camera for tens of seconds in almost every defensive round of the Lone Ranger.
The first quarter ended quickly, and the old driver was forced to play offensively and defensively.
But his offense and defense are one-on-one, which is to say.
On the offensive end, scoring 11 points in a single quarter is no problem.
The problem is defense. The Bobcats' offense, Li Ke, Curry, Jamison and even Captain Jack, all found breakthroughs from his side and scored various points.
For a while, the old driver turned into a colander and sent the Bobcats 32 points in the first quarter.
With a score of 32 to 26, the Bobcats took a 6-point lead in a single quarter...
(End of this chapter)