Pick Westbrook

Chapter 335 Hornets' Classic Tactics
The second quarter ended quickly.

Under Beverly's defense, OJ-Mayo only made 6 of 2 shots on the offensive end, which is extremely dismal.

At the same time, JR Smith, the best sixth man of the Hornets, was also chased and intercepted by the Grizzlies, and he also did not perform well.

After Diaw passed two good balls, the Grizzlies immediately replaced OJ-Mayo and replaced Tony Allen, and then the main players played one after another.

The two teams tied the score at halftime.

40: 40.

On-site commentary desk.

Kenny Smith shook his head repeatedly and said, "A total of 80 points in the half, this is the lowest score in a half since this year's playoffs."

"The Grizzlies and Hornets are both exceptionally good defensively, so this series is bound to turn into a meat grinder."

Buckley nodded in agreement.

Of course, in his opinion, the Hornets are the more talented team on the offensive end, and they may play out the offense in the next game.

But in tonight's game, the Grizzlies did completely defend the Hornets.

Hornets coaching bench.

Stevens looked at Li Lai and said anxiously, "We can try a smaller lineup. After all, we used this lineup to beat Yao Ming, the number one center in the league, in the last round against the Rockets."

"Now facing the Grizzlies who also have Marc Gasol, it should work wonders."

Li Lai shook his head and said, "The problem is that Marc Gasol is the starting point of offense and the support point of holding the ball. This is different from Yao Ming's way of playing on the court."

"Once we use a small lineup on the court, the penalty area will inevitably double-team in order to defend Marc Gasol."

"It's never a good thing to double-team him."

Li Lai is still afraid of Gasol's passing ability, so there is a high probability that he will not be in the small lineup in this round of the series.

But the suggestion made by Stevens makes sense. The Hornets have been unable to open up the offensive end.

In addition to using a small lineup to increase the flexibility of players on the field to improve the efficiency of the offensive end, it may be really difficult for them to think of other better ways.

But Li Lai believes that such a change will make Gasol's role on the court infinitely magnified, and the opponent can also play his favorite and most comfortable offensive method, which is not a good thing for the Hornets.

So, more harm than good.

on the field.

Paul and Jordan finally succeeded in the pick-and-roll to replace Gasol Jr. Facing this opportunity to play big, Paul grasped it with great heart, stepped back from the mid-range and made a fallback shot.

"Keep on the defensive!"

After the goal, Paul stretched out his hand to signal to all his teammates.

This game has been played so far, and every offense is of great significance to the two teams, so they cannot relax on the defensive end at any time.

"The key is that the referee's whistleblowing is still extremely loose, which leads to the increasing defensive intensity of both sides on the court."

Su Qun said seriously.

Long before the start of this round of the series, many commentators and commentators were talking about the confrontation between the Hornets and the Grizzlies, the two defensive teams.

This kind of public opinion has also led to the referee's whistleblowing scale today, which is to reduce dispensable whistleblowing, and at the same time reduce the trigger line for technical fouls and malicious fouls.

In order to create a wonderful defensive battle for the fans.

"Of course, such whistleblowing is extremely fair to the two teams, and the league also intends to upgrade the defensive strength of the two teams to the meaning of the 90s."

"It's a muscle-on-muscle, bone-on-bone defense for former NBA fans."

The NBA has always been a business league, and they have a lot of experience in creating public opinion topics and the atmosphere of the playoffs.

Su Qun has already understood how the NBA works. Of course, this method is still fair to the two teams, but it is extremely unfair to the head coaches of the two teams.

Su Qun said: "In the NBA playoffs, we have seen too many times when the referee whistled on the court to affect a series."

"But what I want to say is that no matter what the fans think of whistleblowing, right or wrong, biased or not biased, the result still tends to be fair."

"The real championship will always belong to the strongest and most flawless team."

Yu Jia heard something in Su Qun's words, and he asked curiously, "What is the strongest team?"

Su Qun said: "Selfless players, a perfect team, and a coaching staff who help the team approach perfection."

Yu Jia nodded, knowing that what Su Qun wanted to say at this moment was the latter sentence.

"A coaching staff that helps the team get closer to perfection."

"At this point, it should not only be the coach motivating the performance of the players on the court, but also the coach's reaction when the team faces the penalty scale on the court."

"Some teams have a hard time defending one-on-one when the referee suddenly relaxes the call, and some teams find it difficult to play unsolvable offense when the referee suddenly tightens the call."

"After the game, countless fans of these teams said that it was a black call. In fact, whether they can adapt to such a whistle-blowing scale and make quick adjustments is part of the team's strength."

"In this round of the series, this is the part that tests the coaching staff of the Hornets and the coaching staff of the Grizzlies!"

The third quarter is over.

Paul fully demonstrated his responsibilities as a team leader in this quarter. After he succeeded in consecutive singles, he sent 3 assists, and the Hornets finally opened the score.

65: 60.

Game four.

The Grizzlies suddenly changed their tactical strategy, allowing Zach Randolph to frequently single in the paint.

The player defending Zach Randolph at this time is Rashard Lewis.

"Although Lewis is 208cm tall, his weight is only 104kg. In contrast, Randolph, the big black bear, has a huge weight of 120kg."

"The weight difference between the two is too obvious, and Randolph is also a player who is very good at using body collisions. He can use his strength to push out of space and rush into the paint."

"It's difficult to guard him at this time, and Randolph is also a player with very solid offensive skills."

Du Feng said seriously.

You need to have a body, and you need offensive skills to have offensive skills. This is why Zach Randolph and Gasol can be called the black and white double bears of the Grizzlies.

Li Lai knew very well that Du Feng's evaluation of Randolph was still a bit low. The opponent was really an underestimated player, especially after entering the playoffs.

In the last round of the series, Randolph averaged 18 points, 10 rebounds and 2 steals per game against Duncan, which is even better than Duncan.

The most jaw-dropping thing is that Randolph's powerful style of play looks very brutal, but in fact it is rough and subtle. Many of his aggressive attacks will not be easily whistled by the referee.

This makes those defenders miserable when defending Randolph.

The physical confrontation is incomparable, the opponent's offensive end is still extremely delicate, and at the same time, the basketball IQ is not bad, it is difficult to cause the opponent's offensive foul.

Although the Spurs lost to the Grizzlies made Popovich dissatisfied, even the old man had to admit that the Grizzlies are really a very strong team.

on the field.

The Grizzlies suddenly let Randolph completely beat the Hornets by surprise in singles inside, and Lewis was almost crippled on the court.

Randolph scored 6 points on 10-for-6 shooting in just six minutes.

Because of the defensive battle between the two teams, these 12 points are almost worth a thousand dollars.

More importantly, because the Grizzlies only let Randolph start singles in the last quarter of the game, Li Lai did not have enough time to adjust.

In the end, he could only put Diaw on the court and take Lewis, hoping that such a substitution adjustment could bring some changes to the Hornets.

It's just that Diaw's playing only increased the Hornets' advantage on the offensive end, and there is still nothing to do with Randolph on the defensive end.

Finally the game is over.

The Hornets lost their first playoff game 89-94.

The big score is 0:1.

马克-加索尔12分9篮板4助攻，扎克-兰多夫21分10篮板，鲁迪-盖伊16分4篮板3助攻，迈克-康利10分2篮板5助攻，O.J-梅奥9分2篮板。

保罗17分3篮板7助攻，小乔丹5分8篮板，伦纳德10分5篮板2助攻，文斯卡特9分3篮板，吉米巴特勒7分5篮板1抢断1盖帽，贝弗利4分3篮板1抢断5犯规，JR史密斯11分2篮板1助攻。

Post-match interview.

Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said arrogantly: "I know you all looked down on us before the series started."

"Especially Big Mouth Barkley, even his completely unreliable guy dares to reverse poisonous milk and predict that the Grizzlies will win?"

"You all think that the Hornets are great. The head coach of the Hornets, Li Lai, is great. They have a longer rest period."

"But in the end, we won!"

"In my opinion, there is no difference between Li Lai and Popovich."

Seeing such an arrogant Lionel Hollins, the interviewing reporters couldn't help wiping away his sweat.

It's only the first game in this series, so you're so arrogant after winning?

Lionel Hollins reminded the reporters: "Tonight's home game is New Orleans, the Hornets home game."

"But it is their home court, we still won the game, as long as we win the next game, we will hold a 2:0 lead."

"We can't even beat our Hornets at home, and they won't be our opponents in away games."

"The Grizzlies will sweep the Hornets 4-0 and reach the conference finals!"

The Hornets post-game press conference here.

A reporter saw the latest news headlines and reminded Li Lai of what had happened at the press conference on the other side.

Paul on the side was extremely angry when he heard Lionel Hollins blatantly insulting Coach Li Lai and the Hornets.

Leonard still had an expressionless expression on his face, but his fists on the table were clenched tightly.

On the aisle behind the release room, Du Feng couldn't hold back the anger in his chest at this moment, and kicked the wall next to him.

Not to mention, at 207cm tall, he still looks quite powerful at the moment.

Stevens patted Du Feng on the shoulder, and at the same time motioned him to continue to look at the coach, and said, "I understand your feelings, but you have to take revenge on the court."

Li Lai looked at the reporter who was interviewing him. He had a different mood from everyone around him.

Li Lai praised with a smile: "Coach Lionel Hollins' coaching is very good tonight. He has already noticed our weakness in the power forward position."

"So it was very premeditated to let Zach Randolph play a single in this position until the fourth quarter. The Hornets didn't react quickly. This is my problem."

"Because my response was not timely, the efforts of the players in this game were in vain, but I will assure the players and the coaching staff."

"The series is next!"

"Zach Randolph will never get such a comfortable iso matchup again!!!"

All the people present looked at Li Lai, who was lightly understated by Feng Qingyun, and couldn't help but shuddered at the same time.

They all felt great power and anger from Li Lai's words.

"The Grizzlies have suffered!"

After the interview, Li Lai immediately called all the coaching staff members of the team.

5 month 15 day.

Game [-] of the Hornets vs. Grizzlies.

Coach Lionel Hollins walked towards the technical stage arrogantly. He was going to give Li a good face before the start of the game just like the last game.

But after walking to the technical stage, Lionel Hollins found that Li Lai, who was opposite him, had no intention of coming over at all, but squinted at him, and then stretched out a middle finger.

"Oh, this guy dares to give me the middle finger!"

Next to the technical stage is the commentary stage. Kenny Smith and Barkley saw the contest between Li Lai and Lionel Hollins in their eyes.

Kenny Smith said with a smile: "Coach Lionel Hollins threw Li Lai a swing in the last game, and the opponent was caught off guard."

"And tonight, Li Lai's middle finger also caught Coach Lionel Hollins by surprise."

Barkley opened his mouth and said happily: "If Coach Li Lai no longer coaches the NBA in the future, just like the former coach Jeff Van Gundy, I hope to invite him to come to TNT as a commentator."

"That guy will be very interesting."

Game start.

Hornets regular starting lineup.

The Grizzlies regular starting lineup.

Jordan struggled to get the first wave of offensive ball for the Hornets.

Hornets attack.

Paul advanced with the ball, and immediately raised his hand to indicate a pick-and-roll tactic.

Leonard cut to the inside to screen for Lewis, who then mentioned outside the three-point line and Vince Carter picked and rolled again, and then Jordan went directly to screen.

This attacking picture shocked everyone watching the battle.

CCTV commentary desk.

Su Qun said very seriously: "See, the Hornets' offensive tactics have changed."

"Before, Lewis moved from the strong side to the weak side to attract the defensive attention inside, and at the same time, he picked and rolled with Leonard again while moving to the three-point line."

"There are two purposes for such continuous pick-and-rolls. One is to create opportunities for Lewis to shoot outside the three-point line, but this is not easy, so another more important purpose is to allow Jordan to get the opportunity to play pick-and-rolls. "

"But in the last game, the Grizzlies handled this offensive tactical play very well, allowing Tony Allen to switch defenses and keep Gasol under the basket as much as possible."

"In this way, it will be difficult for Paul's favorite small player to appear. At the same time, he will face a very strong individual defender Tony Allen, and Gasol can stay at the basket and do his best job of protecting the frame. It can be said to kill three birds with one stone.”

"The reason why the Hornets fell behind in the first quarter of the last game, and Paul didn't fully demonstrate his strength is a big reason for this."

Yu Jia nodded in agreement and said: "Obviously, the coaching staff of the Hornets spent a lot of time and energy to crack this tactic after the last game."

"Now that Leonard is actively moving, Tony Allen has to be taken away on the court. At the same time, in the process of Leonard cutting inside and Lewis picking and rolling, Tony Allen has to switch to Lewis again."

"Attention, Lewis is a high three-point fortress. Tony Allen didn't dare to take a step away from Lewis when he was taken out."

"The Hornets sort of solved Paul's biggest isolation problem."

Su Qun nodded, but shook his head quickly.

He wanted to say that the Hornets' change in offensive tactics not only brought Tony Allen out of the corner three-point line, but also because Jordan had never participated in pick-and-roll tactics, the sudden introduction of Gasol at this time would inevitably follow him. go up.

"The Hornets' classic tactics are coming!"

(End of this chapter)