The Legend of the Hungry Wolf in Basketball

Chapter 304 [Rare half-time difference]

The Spurs have at least one quality that far outshines the Clippers, and that is the ability of players to adjust themselves on the court. The "GDP combination" has played together for too many years, reached the peak, and also experienced disastrous defeats. They can deal with everything with a normal heart, which is commendable.

Most of the Clippers players have never experienced failure, especially Curry and Thornton, who started their careers smoothly. Ye Feng, Love, McGee and others also hate losing. When the score falls behind, they will feel a little bit unhappy comfortable.It is very rare for the Clippers to fall behind in the opening game.

The Clippers attack, the Spurs Duncan sits on the inside, Blair goes out to defend Love, Blair is not tall enough, it is difficult to block shots if he is inside, and if the Clippers are willing, they have many ways to attack with mismatches.

After the pick-and-roll, Ye Feng went to the low post to catch the ball, and Duncan defended from behind.As soon as Ye Feng made a move, Ginobili stepped forward to help defend, leaving Tony Allen empty.Duncan has a height advantage in defending the low post, and his predictions are also very accurate. Ye Feng can't easily get into the basket to score by turning around. Once Ginobili defends, he seals off his movement space.

When the Clippers deployed Tony Allen, they would have this weakness. Ye Feng passed the ball, and Allen made a jumper, but the ball missed, and the rebound was caught by Duncan.

Allen was not used as an offensive point last season, and his shooting confidence is not as good as before. It is no wonder that he has few offensive and defensive players in the league.

The Spurs counterattacked, and Allen kept pestering Ginobili. The latter relied on Blair's cover to escape, received a pass from Parker, and broke through to the inside.Love didn't keep up, and Ginobili easily scored on the basketball. 2 to 8.

The Clippers' defense is not impeccable, Thibodeau shouted at the field: "Switch the inside defense!"

It is difficult for Love to defend against Ginobili. At this time, McGee needs to go out to defend the pick-and-roll and let Love fight Duncan in the low post.

Kidd organized an attack to the frontcourt, Ye Feng pulled up to a high position, ready for a singles.When the low post was double-teamed, he went to the high post to get the ball. At this time, the Spurs' defense became a 122 zone defense.

The Spurs' strategy is very smart. If Ye Feng breaks through the middle at this time, he will get into the crowd, and it will be difficult to score a goal no matter how good he is.If the screen breaks out to the sides, the Spurs can double-team and force him to pass.

What if it is passed directly?

Ye Feng passed the ball to Tony Allen, and Ginobili immediately defended from the penalty area line. He was one step away, and the Spurs kept two or three guards in the penalty area.Allen passes the ball to whomever it is passed to, and the person closest to him will make up for it, and there is still no chance of an open space.

Unless McGee and Tony Allen can also pull out and shoot three-pointers, this defensive formation is not easy to break.There are only two people in the entire league who can receive this kind of defensive treatment of "preferring to let others shoot than to stare at him". One is Ye Feng and the other is LeBron James.

After several backhands, the ball was passed back to Ye Feng. He took the ball at the top of the arc. There were only 5 seconds left in the attack time. He stepped down the dribble and went to the right. Biased.

His touch is not very good, and the Clippers' offense is in trouble.

Popovich applauded the players on the sidelines, and the Spurs played well in the opening game.In the next round, Duncan singled Love, turned around and missed a jumper, and the Clippers finally blocked the Spurs' offense.

On the defensive end, the Clippers did not dare to use a 122 zone defense. The five Spurs players on the court are all good at shooting, and Blair can also hit a stable mid-range shot.

After that, the shooting rate of both sides began to decline. After 6 minutes of playing, the score was 10 to 16, and the Clippers fell behind by 6 points.The Spurs' defense did have an effect. As soon as Ye Feng received the ball, he immediately double-teamed. Kidd and Tony Allen were the targets of relaxed defense. Allen missed a goal, and Kidd only hit a mid-range shot. .

After Kidd won the championship, the suffocating energy was also relaxed. This season, his state has declined seriously. The offensive end has been unable to provide much help to the team. Curry has a good momentum, but he sits on the sidelines.Thibodeau hoped that Kidd could use his experience and defense to help the team this time, so he continued to start.

Low-post McGee has a height advantage against Blair, and the Clippers also passed the ball to make him hit two.But Blair is very good at keeping opponents out of the penalty area. McGee didn't enter the penalty area, and his hooks on both sides of the low post were not accurate enough, and both shots missed.

Thibodeau was forced to replace Kidd, Tony Allen, Curry and Wright, intending to strengthen the offense.The Spurs also replaced Blair with veteran McDyess.

Popovich replaced Blair in order to give him the strength to fight O'Neal in the second quarter. It would definitely not work to expect McDyess to fight O'Neal.

Thibodeau did not use Thornton in order to have a stronger attack in the second team, but Wright could be replaced instead of Barnes. This is a stupid move.Asking Wright to guard Ginobili is not an option.

After the game restarted, Ginobili broke through and scored twice immediately. The second time also caused Wright to foul, scoring 2+1, and the score was stretched.Among the many movie kings in the NBA, apart from Varejao, Ginobili is the most powerful. His breakthrough movements are irregular, his foot is unstable, and he will fall when touched. If he falls, the referee will definitely call a foul.But before he fell down, he could often throw the ball into the basket with weird postures, Ye Feng wondered if he also used the trampoline to practice shooting.

Ye Feng took the initiative to switch positions with Wright to guard against Ginobili, but the Spurs kept picking and rolling, and Ginobili always had a way to bypass him to attack.

The Clippers trailed 24 to 36 by 12 points in the first quarter.Ginobili scored 13 points in a single quarter and is in good shape.Ye Feng was double-teamed, and the other players of the Clippers did not live up to expectations. Except for Curry who scored 7 points off the bench and hit a three-pointer, almost no one else scored.

In the second quarter, the Clippers sent O'Neill, Gortat, Smith, Thornton, and Kidd to play.The Spurs replaced Bonner, Blair, Alonzo Gee, Gary Neal, George Hill.

The Clippers, who usually have an advantage from the bench, failed to recover the score this time. Blair was very strong and resisted O'Neal in the low post, constantly interfering.O'Neal couldn't get into the basket, and his shots were out of sight, and he missed three consecutive shots.In addition, Bonner and Blair can also evacuate the inside, giving the two defenders Neal and Hill more opportunities to break through.

Gortat has to defend against Bonner. His three-point shooting percentage is 46%, and he must not let it go.When Blair goes to the high screen, O'Neal must defend the pick-and-roll, which is a bit too much for his current physical condition.The Spurs guard broke through and scored consecutive layups. Smith made up the defense, and there was an open space on the outside. Neal hit two three-pointers.

After 5 minutes in the second quarter, the point difference widened to 21 points.This was something no one expected before the game, and the Spurs went crazy at home.

Thibodeau requested a timeout.

Barkley said: "The Clippers always lead their opponents in the first quarter, and the substitutes came up to add icing on the cake in the second quarter. Today they fell behind in the first quarter, and the substitutes also played abnormally. Actually, I think this time we should play Smith and Thornton's pick-and-roll Cooperating with O'Neal instead of letting him play Blair in the low post, the Spurs have a lot of strength in the second year rookie. Smith has an advantage against Alonzo Gee."

Kenny Smith said: "The Spurs are leading now, mainly due to their successful defense against Ye Feng. He interfered closely, and he double-teamed after receiving the ball. Ye Feng didn't take many shots in the first quarter and only scored 6 points. If the Clippers If the role players can't stand up, the game is not good."

Thibodeau is very dissatisfied with the performance of the role players. The last time he yelled at the players has forgotten when it was.Kidd played too badly in this game, and missed many open jumpers. In the second quarter, Thibodeau wanted him to play with a substitute and organize the offense, but he still didn't play well, and even made a pass error to allow Hill to steal successfully.

21 points is not a small difference, and we need to find some ways to recover it.The Clippers changed the lineup, playing Barnes to guard Ginobili, but Kidd stayed on the court.This is Thibodeau's mistake.The overall speed of the Spurs is not too fast, but the back line is full of fast players. Kidd is also exhausted against the young Hill.Neal scored 10 points in a single quarter, helping the Spurs lead 69-51 at halftime.Ye Feng felt even more depressed, it would be great if the Clippers added such a person.

During the intermission, Thibodeau said in the locker room: "What's the matter with you today? Everyone is listless, don't you want to win? This is the third away game, I know you are a bit tired, but we are The defending champions, the Spurs were easily eliminated by the Lakers last season, they are nothing special!"

The record is there, how can you say that the Spurs are nothing special?The players didn't answer.

Ye Feng stood up and said, "Coach, let's go on offense in the second half. The Spurs can double-team me if there are no shooters on the field. As long as they can't double-team, I'll open up and shoot from the outside."

Thibodeau will not get into the dead end of fighting defense again. He thought about it and said: "Stephen (Curry) came on in the second half and looked for opportunities to shoot from the outside. Ye took the 2nd position and defended Ginobili. Rael (Wright) plays the 3rd position, keeps an eye on Jefferson, don’t let him shoot three-pointers. Josh (Smith) plays the 4th position, pay attention to interspersed running positions to find opportunities, Kevin (Love) evacuates the inside , pulled to the outside pick-and-roll and shot, in the second half, we must chase it back!"

The team members still did not say a word, lifeless.Ye Feng yelled: "Come on! Don't be lethargic! In the second half, we'll catch up and come back, shout to me - we must win!"

"We must win!" Ye Feng called out, and everyone followed suit, even if they were a little tired inside, they had to give the boss some face.They also want to continue the winning streak. The Spurs are really good this season, but not to the point of being invincible.

During the halftime comment, both Barkley and Smith believed that there was a problem with the Clippers themselves. Barkley also said that Thibodeau made many mistakes in the formation. If the Spurs play Parker, he shouldn't be playing Kidd. This game needs to be played with Curry's speed.

The second half is about to begin.

(End of this chapter)