The Legend of the Hungry Wolf in Basketball

Chapter 519 [Home Streak! 】

In Game [-] of the Eastern Conference finals, the Heat won away and won home court advantage.

LeBron James scored 25 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. Chris Bosh showed his power against Humphries and scored a game-high 33 points and 8 rebounds. Although Wade did not perform particularly well, the Heat still 97 Than 91 won the game.

This season, the Heat's internal strength has improved significantly. Usually, Dalembert plays the starting center. In fact, Bosh plays the center most of the time. Chandler Parsons has found a position in the team. The main substitute at position 3 can get about 4 minutes of playing time per game, averaging 30 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.2 steals per game.The shooting percentage was 1.2%, and the three-point shooting percentage was 45.6%.Parsons is a good off-ball role player, not as flashy as Mayo, but a good helper.

Other insiders such as Joel Anthony, Haslem, Harrelson and others have only one role, and that is to "cut the beast"!
"Warcraft" Dwight Howard is in the same situation as "Shark" O'Neal back then. Since entering the league, he has been the target of being cut off. He has ranked first in the league in free throws for many seasons, but the number of hits is not so impressive.

At the beginning of this season, the Nets also announced that Howard had practiced free throws in the summer, and his shooting percentage was as high as 80%. After the start of the regular season, it was discovered that Howard had not improved, but was even worse than before, with only 47.7% shooting.This makes the Nets have a weakness. Sometimes, Harden and Wall are about to hit the basket, the referee blows the whistle, and the players without the team hug Howard and send him to the free throw line.

Such tactics caused extreme dissatisfaction among New York fans.There was also news that the alliance was planning to change the rules and ban "beast-killing tactics".David Stern also made a statement, saying that this tactic is a bit "funny", and he is considering changing the rules to avoid the tactic of "cutting beasts" on the court again.

As we all know, free throws are a major weakness of Howard, and sending Howard to the free throw line has become a great weapon for other teams in the league to attack the Nets.For example, the Lakers beat the Nets twice in the regular season, and the Lakers sent Howard to the free throw line again and again.Howard made only 25 of 11 shots at the Lakers' home court and was once irritated.At that time, Kobe said in an interview that this is a reasonable use of the rules, as long as they are playing the Nets, they will be happy to use this tactic.

This season the Nets have the lowest free throw percentage in the league. Whether their free throw percentage can improve depends on how long Howard plays on the court. Coach Avery Johnson has made it clear that he will not replace Howard because of this. The Nets need Howard defense.There is no doubt that the team that "cut the beast" can benefit from this, but the flow of the game will be destroyed by it.

Previously, in response to the "shark hacking tactic", the league changed the rules so that the team could no longer easily foul people without the ball within 2 minutes before the end of the game, because once a foul is committed, not only the fouled player can make free throws, but the fouled team also has possession of the ball.However, fouls outside of this time will only send the fouled player to the free throw line.Now, as slaying beasts has become a common phenomenon, Stern considers making a change.

Stern said: "We have adjusted the rules before, for fouls on players without the ball in the last two minutes, we saw something last year, there were fouls on players without the ball in the first quarter, I think this It's so funny. Everyone chose to foul Splitter last year, and we thought about changing the rule, but the committee didn't want to. Because the reality is these are purely from a basketball standpoint. I understand some people's point of view, 'As a Professional player, how can you not free throw?'”

Some pros just can't make free throws.Is it necessary to change the rules in their favor in order to make them more awesome, to make use of their strengths and avoid weaknesses?Now there is a more reasonable suggestion, which is to allow the fouled team to decide whether to choose a free throw or a throw-in to continue possession.While this might shatter the game, it at least prevents the fouling team from benefiting from the opponent's free throws and avoids some ridiculous scenes.

Of course, Nets fans and Howard fans were not happy, and they scolded the Heat for being shameless and invincible.The Heat fans' counterattack was also very straightforward. If they have the ability, the Nets will also kill others?If you don't cut it yourself, you won't let others cut it.Don't Dalembert, Joel Anthony and others also have bad free throws?
No idiot would think that O'Neal dragged the team back when he was in the Lakers. Now Howard can't play well can only be blamed for not being strong enough.

Originally, experts thought that the odds of the two sides' winning and losing were [-]-[-], with the Heat four and the Nets six. Now they think that the Heat are likely to eliminate the Nets and advance to the finals, and the outcome has become five-on-five.

The Big Three of the Heat are very capable, and the second lineup is led by "Gentlemen's Sword" Ray Allen and "Mr. Billionaire" Rashad Lewis. The strength is strong.In the regular season, they focused on training newcomers and adapting their tactics. They did not play at their best level, and now they are starting to go all out.

Looking at the Nets again, Battier, Butler, and Ariza all showed a downward trend, and Humphries' data also dropped to 9.3 points and 8.7 rebounds.Although there are many players, but the Nets can really play a big role on the court, there are only four players, Howard, Harden, Wall, and the substitute Jamal Crawford.If the Big Three of the Heat play for a long time, the Big Three of the Nets will not be an opponent, especially when Howard is still on the court. It is really sad that the team bosses are mixed like this.

If the Heat advance to the Finals, many people will be happy. Watching the peak match between Ye Feng and James is much better than watching "Beast Killing Tactics" and Howard's free throws.In the finals of last season, the Clippers were not polite to Howard, and they could even cut Wall. As a guard, his free throws were not very good, and his mid-range and long-range shots were even worse.

Of course, the Clippers coaching staff has no time to study the Heat now, they must concentrate on dealing with the Dallas Mavericks.The Mavericks are also a star team, ranking fourth in the official strength list. They are no worse than the other three teams, but they did not have a very good record in the regular season due to their uneven lineup and injuries.

In order to better play, Ye Feng practiced shooting at home during the holiday, trying to ensure the best touch in the second game.

The Clippers coaching staff decided to adjust the lineup, change tactics, and let Isiah Thomas start against Deron Williams.Matt Barnes faced veteran Vince Carter, and Ye Feng played small forward against Sean Marion.The Gasol brothers continued to start, compressing the defense and stabilizing the inside.

Although Thomas is short and suffers defensively, if he can prevent Deron from breaking through and force him to shoot, it will be a success.Ye Feng formed a triangle with the Gasol brothers in the penalty area and was responsible for defending pick-and-rolls. Even Josh Smith's job back then would not allow the Mavericks players to break through and do whatever they wanted.

The Mavericks started Game [-] unchanged.After the opening, I really felt uncomfortable.Deron and Nowitzki have repeatedly relied on their height advantage to make jump shots from the outside, with average efficiency.Ye Feng made Marion deflated many times, and the offensive end was unable to play a role.Now the two are not at the same level of players. Marion can't squeeze Ye Feng at all, and Ye Feng will interfere with his back throw.Ye Feng didn't block the ball, his hand was always dangling in front of Marion's eyes, and he deliberately clenched it into a claw shape, which looked like he was going to insert it into his eyes. Although he couldn't block it, it added a lot of psychological pressure to the opponent. pressure.

The strategy of the Clippers in the first quarter is to defend one and never double-team any of the Mavericks.Deron scored 11 points, but Nowitzki failed to take advantage of too much in front of Gasol.

From entering the league to the present, Nowitzki has experienced too many failures, and his mentality of wanting to win and fear of losing has become more and more serious. When it comes to such a critical game, he is under great psychological pressure.All fans questioned his ability, saying that he is a softie, and it is impossible not to be affected at all.And he is indeed not young, and his state has begun to decline.In the first quarter, he made 7 of 3 shots and scored 7 points, which was not efficient.

Ye Feng's shooting was not in vain, he scored 16 points in the first quarter, 6 of which were jump shots.The Clippers lead 31 to 25.

In the second quarter, the two sides competed with substitutes, and the Mavericks' inside line gained the upper hand again, recovering the score.The depth of the Mavericks' bench is indeed stronger than that of the Clippers.

In the third quarter, the situation changed suddenly.The Mavericks double-teamed Ye Feng and emptied a player from the Clippers. Matt Barnes became the first choice to be emptied. How did he know that Barnes exploded like taking a stimulant in this game and made three shots in a single quarter? Record a three-pointer, and there is a good show of a breakthrough layup.

Defensive players suddenly stood up and scored, the Mavericks were in trouble immediately, and the score was pulled away.Ye Feng saw the timing and forced a breakthrough, causing two fouls and making free throws.At the end of the third quarter, the Clippers led 91 to 79 by 12 points.

As soon as the fourth quarter came up, the Clippers continued to use the main players, only Thornton replaced Thomas.The Gasol brothers and Ye Feng are both going to play for more than 40 minutes. They don't need to save energy, they just want to ensure that they win the game. As long as they can lead 2-0 with a big score, it will be very beneficial.It takes two days to go to Dallas to play away, so I can get a full rest.

The Mavericks are also very aware of this. In the first game, only Collison replaced Carter and formed a double guard with Deron to strengthen the attack.It's a pity that the Clippers used their height advantage to frequently dislocate their offensive jumpers to score. Not only did the Mavericks fail to recover the score, but they were fooled by Ye Feng and Thornton's pick-and-roll cooperation.

Thornton began to show his strength in the final quarter, scoring 8 points in a row.The reason why the Clippers are willing to let Curry go is that Thornton is not much worse than Curry. If he can hit a jumper after a pick-and-roll, the Mavericks will not be able to double-team Ye Feng.This made it easier for Ye Feng to attack.

In desperation, the Mavericks replaced Collison to strengthen their defense. Although they scored a lot of goals under the leadership of Deron and Nowitzki, they could not recover the score after all.The Clippers won another game 112 to 104.

There are not many teams that can come back from a 0-2 deficit. The Mavericks have done it, but their opponent was the Rockets at that time.The Clippers are not comparable to the Rockets.

(End of this chapter)