Pick Westbrook

Chapter 145 The Magic Team Wasn't Perfect
12 month 27 day.

The Bucks played against the Magic at home.

"Since the Magic reached the Finals last season, their self-confidence has exploded, and they always feel that the king of heaven and I are not their opponents."

"Of course, the Magic with DPOY Howard does have such strength."

Li Lai looked at Howard on the court with eyes full of envy.

Although Howard has always been playing with his body, he has to admit that at his peak, he did have a terrifying dominance on the defensive end.

After all, he is the only man in the history of the NBA who has three consecutive DPOYs. This is not even as strong as the NBA block king Dameng Olajuwon, the iron-blooded defense Ben Wallace, the worm Rodman and the African mountain Mutombo. The glory that can be obtained.

"However, after being so insulted by the Lakers last season, the Magic have made a lot of changes in the lineup this season."

"They let go of Hedo Turkoglu, the core of tactics, and traded for half-human, half-god Vince Carter."

Tyronn Lue is very optimistic about this deal.

Because he looked at the Finals match between the Magic and the Lakers, the Magic almost died in the hands of Kobe in that round of the series.

Howard's defense is indeed good, but it is very good at defending the inside and protecting the frame. Many commentators at the time even said that Howard should be the best player in the league in protecting the frame.

It's just that Kobe is used to shooting in the middle distance, which is exactly the opposite of Howard and the Magic's defensive strengths.

If Howard threw himself out to defend Kobe, then Gasol and Bynum would have another bombardment of receiving the ball inside. If he didn't throw out, he could only watch Kobe's steady mid-range shot.

At that time, Stan Van Gundy even arranged for Turkoglu and Courtney Lee to double-team Kobe at the same time, but it turned out that the two still couldn't guard Kobe.

So this season, the Magic learned from the pain and traded another four major shooting guard Vince Carter. Their purpose is to hope that the almighty Carter can limit Kobe in this season's finals.

The reason why Tyronn Lue is optimistic about this deal is at this point. Whether it is fame, strength or experience, Carter is a player very close to Kobe.

If you want to ask who is the best at offense among the four major points, Carter may be the one who is most likely to be ignored. No matter Kobe, Iverson or cousin McGrady, they all have the league's strong one-on-one scoring ability.

Ask who is the best at defense among the four shooting guards. Of course, Carter is not the best one. Kobe's defense may be regarded as the most outstanding of the four.

When it comes to passing, Carter has no advantage. It seems that except for dunks, the world's memory of the four shooting guards is not deep enough.

But if you want to ask the four shooting guards who is the most versatile and who has the least weakness, maybe Carter has to be counted.

Because Carter has the most accurate three-pointers among the four shooting guards, averaging 38% of his three-pointers per game and even leading the other three by a long way.

At this point, he is also very suitable for the Magic's style of play, because they are a one-star four-shooter lineup built entirely on Howard, and what they need most is outside players with stable three-point shooting ability.

In addition, the Magic also traded for Matt Barnes, who is also a ruthless man who defends extremely fiercely on the back line.

In short, the Magic's reinforcement operation intention in the off-season is obvious. They are trying to enhance the defensive ability of the team's outside players while ensuring three-pointers, and the purpose is to target Kobe.

"But the Magic are so sure they can make the playoffs and meet the Lakers?"

Li Lai couldn't help but smiled lightly.

Don't talk about whether Carter and Barnes can really defend Kobe in the finals, just talk about the most simple and fundamental truth. If Howard is the shield of the Magic, then Turkoglu is the spear of the Magic. Now The spear is gone, and there is only a shield. Is this still the Magic?

Don't look at how Turkoglu is defensively stretching his hips and how slow his pace is. He is called LeBron of Turkey in Europe. His playing style is also a point forward, and his passing ability is definitely underestimated. up.

Of course, this is not to say that Carter is not as good as Turkoglu, but that the Magic's lineup needs Turkoglu's passing ability too much, and Howard's offense also needs a good passer.

Now that they lack Turkoglu, the Magic are no longer a championship-level team. Of course, they are still a strong team in the forefront of the league. There are three All-Star players, Howard, Vince Carter, and Lewis. It is an opponent that cannot be ignored.

Game start.

Bucks regular lineup.

Magic starting lineup: point guard Jamal Nelson, shooting guard Carter, small forward Lewis, power forward Brandon Bass and center Howard.

As soon as Howard came up, he jumped high and succeeded in jumping the ball with a dominant advantage.

Nelson dribbles across half court, then waits for his teammates to drop low.

"This class is missing a lot of offensive variation."

Li Lai frowned, extremely dissatisfied with the Magic's current style of play.

Without Turkoglu's excellent point of dribbling, pick-and-roll, and high-low passing, the Magic now let Howard choose to play hard inside like O'Neal?

Howard caught the ball with his back inside, and before he could hit it, Rasheed decisively went up to double-team.

Although Howard's singles skills are not top-notch in the league, but because of his physical talent, he can push through Yi Jianlian and score an easy dunk with complete brute force, so Li Lai arranged to double-team Howard's defense from the very beginning. tactics.

After seeing this scene off the court, Stan Van Gundy nodded in satisfaction.

Double-teaming Howard is the opponent's style of play that the Magic most want to see, because the Magic's perimeter has the third best three-point shooter group in the league, and they also rank second in the league in terms of accuracy and field goal percentage.

After Rasheed went up to double-team, Magic power forward Brandon Bass was in the open position.

Although Bass is an inside player without three-point shooting, his body is also abnormal. He is a player who is as good at bombing the basket as Howard, so it is not a wise choice to empty him at the waist position.

Artest shrinks the inside to help defend Bass, and the Magic's outside has a chance.

Howard passed the ball steadily to the three-point shooter Lewis, but at the same time Westbrook's defense came again.

Lewis continued to dribble the ball from the outside to Nelson, but that position was also firmly held by Curry.

When Nelson wanted to pass back to Carter on the weak side at 45 degrees, Rasheed Wallace, who shrank the inside line, switched defenses in time.

"The Bucks' transition defense is so fast!"

Barkley couldn't help but let out an exclamation.

Based on their flexible lineup, the Bucks played a very targeted rotation defense at the beginning of the game, and the speed of the defense was very fast. It not only solved Howard's inside threat problem, but also held down the Magic's outside line Three point fort.

This kind of defense is equivalent to choking the lifeblood of the Magic.

Li Lai is also satisfied with the rapid rotation of defensive players on the court. In fact, he has let the Bucks play this defensive tactic last season, so everyone is familiar with it.

"This defensive tactic of infinite rotation outside is originally the tactic designed by their head coach Spoelstra in the period of the Heat's Big Three to solve the problem of Bosh's weak inside defense. Combination of internal and external attacks.

"Even the Spurs team, which is best at combining internal and external tactics, is no exception."

"So now I follow the example and use it to defend the Magic, which is naturally useful."

Of course, in Lee's view, the reason why it is so useful is because the Magic lacks Turkoglu. If the opponent is still there, the Bucks will not be so easy to defend.

At this time, Carter took the initiative to ask for the ball from the outside.

The Magic's offense was completely deflated at the beginning of the game, and they also needed this veteran with extremely strong experience and strength to stand up.

But Rasheed Wallace is defending Carter!
Even in the face of a strong defender like Rasheed, Carter still decisively lowered his center of gravity and started to speed up!
His first steps are just as fast as his cousin's!

After half a step past Rashid, it was basically difficult for the latter to catch up with him.

Carter jumped directly from the free throw line, and Yi Jianlian jumped high and wanted to defend.

"But how can you prevent it, this is a UFO!"

boom!
A powerful slam dunk.

Tyronn Lue was extremely nervous after seeing Carter's attack.

"If Carter is allowed to play like this throughout the game, he may take off directly in tonight's game."

Li Lai smiled and said, "Just take off when you take off! I'll let Carter buckle up tonight."

"As long as Howard doesn't go crazy, the Magic will never be our opponent."

The Bucks attack.

Yi Jianlian holds the ball in a high position and deals the cards.

Howard's face was almost green, but he still deeply remembered the scene when he played against the Bucks last season.

"Don't go to defend Yi Jianlian, the three-pointer will shoot you to death, go to defend Yi Jianlian, the team's interior is almost completely like no one's land."

Sure enough, Westbrook made an air cut and received an easy-to-link pass, and the Turtle made a successful dunk with the tomahawk.

This is the best team in the league to protect the frame!
This team also has DPOY Howard!

But the Bucks play is so simple and practical.

Kenny Smith said excitedly: "Compared to the difficulty when the Magic played the Bucks in the offensive round, it is not too easy for the Bucks to play the Magic on the offensive end."

Barkley nodded in agreement.

In his opinion, the strength of the Magic team has actually declined this season. They are not as powerful as last season on the offensive end, especially Howard. The deterrence of the penalty area has been reduced by at least one-third, which also directly affects the Magic's entire team offense.

Of course, with Carter on the defensive end, the Magic's perimeter defense has indeed improved to a new level. At least this season, they will not be stabbed by Kobe at will again.

"This is what you give and you get. It's a pity that the Magic team failed to achieve perfection in the team lineup."

　Less than [-] words.

　　Make it up tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)