Start coaching the Thunder, starting with Westbrook

Chapter 236 Discussion and Arrangement

The Thunder currently have a strong influence in China and the United States, and they are not weaker than the Heat in the limelight. After all, the Heat failed to win the championship last year, but this year the Thunder not only have an amazing record in the regular season, but also just sent the defending champion out of the playoffs.

Before the start of the finals, the Thunder accounted for 93% of the winning percentages given to both sides by the outside world, leaving only 7% for the Heat.

This still depends on the fact that their promotion in the Eastern Conference seems to be relatively easy, especially in the Eastern Conference Finals. The No. [-] Pacers in the Eastern Conference have nothing to fight back in front of them.

Although it is understandable to think about it from a deeper level, because the biggest weakness of the Heat lies in the inside line. The Pacers should have an advantage in the inside line.

Especially a big center like Hibbert should have been the nemesis of James' style of play.

However, with the new changes in the inside vertical take-off rules introduced in April this year, Hibbert's inside defense was greatly weakened, which also caused the Pacers to be unable to play Hibbert's due role in this round of the series. In the end, even Bosh was liberated.

This change is probably not very clear to many later fans. After all, the NBA will introduce some new regulations every year. Some may not be effective, and some may have specific changes for certain people, such as the revision of the walking rules five years ago...

But compared to the Pacers, the Thunder not only have a frame-protecting big center like Gobert, but also a highly mobile fourth position like Ibaka and Antetokounmpo. Even Perkins can occasionally be brought up to guard the penalty area.

What's even more frightening is that the Thunder has the most powerful striker group in the league.

After the big center was restricted by the rules, the forward group became James' nightmare.

So for this finals, Li Sheng is full of confidence. After crossing the Spurs, the only mountain in his heart, another thought that arises in his heart is that this year's Spurs do not seem to be as terrible as imagined. Does that also mean that the Heat are actually weaker than imagined?

This is not impossible. In fact, if you don't consider Wade, who has recovered his form in the playoffs, the current Heat basically becomes James' team alone.

Bosh is really useless. The offensive end opens up space for James to break through, and the defensive end has to push the opponent's inside line. The statistics are not displayed.

Perhaps only the inside of the team can see his role for a while and see his strength. Maybe this is why Riley will give him a maximum salary without hesitation later.

If it weren't for the injury, he might really be rejuvenating for a second time...

And this season, the Heat also brought in a Lewis, who played a similar role to Bosh. As a result, the Heat's offense and defense in the low post were almost rotten.

As for why James' teams are playing, it feels like he's the only one, well, that's a question.

In his previous life, he had followed the finals of 13 and 14. Li Sheng can only say that the Spurs are better than the Heat in all aspects except that the core is older than the Heat and the stamina may be weak in the protracted battle. Therefore, they were able to take the lead in 13, and they were also a gentleman in 14.

This year's Heat team is just in a low period. The finals have consumed too much Wade in successive years, and the Eastern Conference Finals seem to be coming back.

As for James, Li Sheng thinks it is enough to use the way the Warriors deal with him.

In fact, there are people who can match the four famous players of the Warriors era in this Thunder team. Compared with them, although the Thunder does not have the outside accuracy like Splash, if they want to put on a dead five, all five players have the ability to shoot three-pointers from the outside. In fact, the offensive threat may not necessarily be much worse.

Because Durant definitely has a matchup advantage, although according to the current lineup arrangement of the Heat, James should still be used to directly match Durant, but James' single defense cannot limit Durant, not to mention, Durant can still play pick and roll.

Lewis or Bosh, who were replaced by insiders, would certainly not be able to guard him.

And Westbrook should be able to bully Wade a little bit with his young impact. Of course, he can switch to a misplaced or misplaced as much as possible. Anyway, against the Heat, he must focus on the inside and hit their weaknesses.

Just because Bosh and Lewis can defend pick-and-rolls doesn't mean they can really defend them, in fact, they can only keep up with the pace a little bit.

In the days before the finals, neither the coaching staff nor the players can completely rest. The players need to train properly to maintain a good state, and the coaching staff needs to start studying the opponents in the finals.

Li Sheng gathered all the assistant coaches and began to watch the videos of the Heat's playoffs repeatedly, looking for usable information.

"Compared to last season, the Heat this season has declined significantly..."

Udoka, as one of the members of the coaching staff who also followed the Spurs to win the championship last year against the Heat, of course, also participated in the research on the Heat in the Spurs Finals last year.

"Their offensive and defensive efficiency have declined to varying degrees."

Not only watching videos, but also data analysis.

Messina took out a form and said: "In fact, in the regular season, this situation has been obvious. In the past two seasons, the Heat have been very good at using the tactics of pressing from the outside, using tight defense to play a wave of offensive climax in a short period of time.

"Wade and James' outside combination is very defensive and oppressive. The role of Chalmers is also easy to be overlooked. His steal awareness is also good. In addition, Bosh and Battier's ability to defend against pick-and-rolls. Although the Heat have a weakness inside, they can find ways to force their opponents to stop at a high position and isolate the opponent's internal and external connections.

"But starting from this season, it may be affected by Wade's injury, or it may be the loss of the championship last year, which made them often lose their focus in the game. It was not until the second half of the season that the state slowly recovered.

"They are also slowly adjusting in the playoffs, but we can look at their performance last season. In fact, I think that compared to the decline in the defensive end, their offensive weakness is the most obvious manifestation. The weakness of the shooters has also weakened the breakthrough threat of James and Wade a lot.

"At least in this case, the opponents are more daring to go up to double-team and force them to play..."

In fact, the main thing is that the main three-point shooters, such as Battier and Ray Allen, are old and no longer as amazing as before.

Last season, Battier made 43% of his three-pointers in the regular season, averaging two goals per game. As a result, he dropped to 33% this season.

And Allen is more like a nerve knife now, and he is less accurate. In the Eastern Conference Finals, he played a positive role in almost two games. Other times, not to mention holding back, it is basically useless.

As for Chalmers, Bosh and others, they also all declined to varying degrees. Although Lewis's data efficiency looks good, but the role of Bosh is a bit duplicated, and the superimposed effect is not good enough.

On the contrary, James' stats this year seem to be better than before, and then the fans came to say that James did his best for his teammates in the CBA, without thinking about the underlying reasons.

Of course, the Thunder coaching staff won't think about this either. They analyze these just to see the Heat's weaknesses and how to use them to deal with them.

"So you said, if we only defend James and let him shoot, how many points can he score in a game?"

(End of this chapter)