Rebirth of Hayes Cyclone

Chapter 253 [Battle of Vengeance!United States VS Greece]

After the China VS US match, players from both sides congratulated each other and the atmosphere was friendly.

Yao Ming played in the NBA All-Star Game on behalf of the West and the East respectively, and has some friendship with the American teams.Especially Hayes.Yao Ming was not polite to him at all, and he said straight before the game: "During the game, don't be too tight, you know..."

"We all understand this, don't worry." Hayes laughed.

The two sides played four warm-up matches before and knew each other's strengths well. It is impossible for the Chinese team to win.The United States is well aware of this, so although they are stronger inside, the offense chose to shoot from the outside, making 14 three-pointers.

The Olympic men's basketball competition system is a single round-robin group, with the top four advancing to the quarter-finals.After the Chinese team played the American Dream 8 team, their next opponents were Spain, Angola, Germany and Greece.For China, this is the group of death.Regardless of honors, just looking at the results of the confrontation, except for Angola, other teams have almost an overwhelming advantage over China.To break out, one must use the horse racing tactics used by Tian Ji.

Most people have heard the allusion of "Tian Ji Horse Racing". "Use the horse under the king and the other horse, take the king's horse and the other horse, and take the king's horse and the other horse."

The Chinese team has a favorable schedule.In the first two games against the United States and Spain, it doesn't matter if you lose. The main purpose is to find the players' status and confidence.The third game against Angola was a respite, a victory that could boost morale.The fourth game is the key, to fight Germany desperately, success or failure depends on it.The last game left some room for China to maneuver. If Greece qualify early and wait for an opportunity to choose an opponent in the knockout round, they may release water so that China will not be completely useless once it loses to Germany.

And the United States has no willingness to massacre China by a large margin.The reason is simple. China is the host country, and most of the people watching the game are Chinese. No Chinese is willing to see the host country being massacred.If Dream 8 tries its best to play China in the first game, not only will it not win popularity, but it may also be cursed by the home fans in the next game.So the Dream 8 team chose to train.Breaking the zone defense depends on three-pointers, so they practiced three-pointers from the outside.

Dream 8 team's second match against African champion Angola.There is also no suspense in this game. The United States won 118 to 72 by 46 points and won two consecutive victories.

The two big victories did not make the stars of the Dream 8 team happy. The third game was a battle of revenge!

On August 8th, the men's basketball group stage ushered in a focus matchup. The two sides were the American men's basketball team and the Greek men's basketball team.

At the World Championships two years ago, Greece upset the Dream 7 team and entered the final.The people who are most looking forward to this game are James, Wade, Anthony and other players who participated in the World Championships. They all dream of revenge by defeating the Greek team.

The 12 players in the Greek team are all from Europe.

Spanoulis, who won the NBA championship with the Rockets, did not play well with the Spurs last season. His three-point shooting percentage of less than [-]% has always been criticized.In the middle of last season, Spanoulis' mother fell ill. Since his father had passed away, he hoped to return to China to take care of his mother, so he gave up the NBA and returned to Europe.

Greece also has Papalukas, who is known as the strongest point guard outside the NBA, super defender Diamantidis.No country dare to underestimate such an outside line combination.And among the inside players, there are also outrageous devil fat people like the little shark Sotsennidis.

The outside world predicts that it will be difficult for Greece to win against the United States, but at least it will not let the United States win easily.

Greek coach Yannakis also said before the game: "The US team is not invincible, and the players and I have always believed in this."

The 2006 World Championships US VS Greece semi-finals can be said to be a peak matchup since the birth of basketball, because they represent two completely different basketball concepts and philosophies.Greece advocates overall basketball with defense first, while the United States pursues offensive basketball with superior personal ability. They represent the two development directions of basketball.

After seeing the performance of the Greek team in the World Championships, people will know the true meaning of winning by defense.No big-name players, no core, Greece has shown the world the real art of overall basketball, when one-on-one, maybe other strong teams can beat them in any position, but when they use skillful coordination, fast rotation and oppression When fighting as a whole without a strong defense, they will exert a strength far greater than the simple sum of the abilities of five people.

The scary thing about the US team is that they have a strong offensive ability that surpasses other teams, so physical fitness and offense are the biggest capital of the United States.The United States adopts a tactic of offense-driven defense. On the defensive end, while ensuring offense, it uses its body and super personal athletic ability to easily suppress the opponent's offense and force the opponent to make mistakes, thus creating opportunities for a quick counterattack.

This aggressive defense allowed the United States to easily crush their opponents in the previous games, until Greece provided people with a way to beat the US team: that is to control the inside and force the US team to shoot outside the three-point line.

In order to avenge Greece, the first two games of the Olympic Games, the United States focused on outside attack, and Ray Allen played more time than Wade.Billups also played more minutes than Chris Paul, who nearly won last season's MVP.The reason is that these two players are better at shooting three-pointers.

Before the game, the old coach K arranged a triangle offensive tactic.Hayes was pushed to the core position inside. "Today's offense must be centered on the inside. Amare (Stoudemire) pulls up high to attack, leaving enough room for Chuck to attack. Chauncey (Billups) and Kobe on the outside with Chuck They form a triangle, and LeBron (James) waits for an opportunity to break through from the middle to the inside."

In order to better break the defense of the Greek team, the Dream 8 team removed the starting center Dwight Howard in the first two games, and made Stoudemire, who has a strong mid-range shooting ability, the starting center.

"Chuck, how many points we can win in this game depends on you." Old coach K said to Hayes: "If they don't double-team, you can attack as you like."

"No one in the Greek team can guard me." Hayes smiled confidently.He is still a little humble, because he has long believed that no one in this world can defend him one-on-one.

In the first two games, Hayes scored a total of 26 points, but he played only 22 minutes in each game, and he mostly supported the offense.Playing in the U.S. team is easier than the usual practice games for the Bobcats.

On the other side, the Greek coach Yannakis said: "We must slow down the pace in the offense and return to the defense quickly. We cannot let the US team play a fast break. Only when we lose position and defend the zone defense well can we win the game. Possibly. Andres (Gillinia Dakis), you should pay attention to Hayes' low-post offense in the interior. Although he is only 198cm tall, his singles ability in the interior is much stronger than Howard."

Yannakis is very concerned about Hayes' offense. Although their power forward Fortis is 208cm tall, but weighs only 99kg, it is difficult to resist Hayes.So he arranged for Jilinia Dakis, who is 216cm tall, to defend. If Hayes pulls out from the outside, he will let Fortis follow up.

To fight the United States, Greece is going to put up a tie-in battle.Although Yannakis is the No. [-] scoring leader in Greek history, what he spent a lot of time building after taking over the team is an impregnable defensive system.Yannakis doesn't care about those accusations of "ugly play", because he knows that as long as the Greek team can win, all voices will immediately disappear.
US team starting lineup: Billups, Kobe, James, Hayes, Stoudemire.
The starting lineup of the Greek team: Diamantidis, Spanoulis, Fortis, Kylinia Dakis, Vaslopoulos.

Seeing Stoudemire play, Yannakis immediately realized that the US team wanted to strengthen the offense and break the zone defense.

The game started. Although Stoudemire was at a disadvantage in height, he relied on his excellent jumping ability to jump the ball to win. The Dream 8 team took the lead.

Billups slowly took the ball across half court to Kobe on the left, and Billups ran to the left baseline.Kobe took a step and gave the ball to Hayes who was standing one meter outside the three-second zone at a 45-degree angle and asked for the ball.

Gillian Dakis holds off Hayes.

Let such a tall person guard me, the Greeks really think highly of me.But how fast can you go?Thinking to himself, Hayes took a step behind his opponent, swayed his shoulders to the left, and turned quickly to the basket.His physical fitness is low-to-middle in the NBA, but in the international arena, he has an advantage.Hayes passed Gillian Dakis with one step, took the ball with both hands, stepped to the basket with another step, and dunked the ball with both hands! 2 to 0.

The US team took the lead.Greece attacked, the U.S. team began to press the frontcourt, and Hayes kept up with No. 9 Fortis.

Although the height is much shorter than the opponent, Hayes thinks it is easy to defend.Because Fortis is too weak and his speed is not fast, he can't get rid of him or squeeze in. As a power forward, he can only swing on the outside.

Fortis also played in the NBA. He was selected by the Memphis Grizzlies with the 2001th overall pick in the second round of 48. In the 2001-2002 NBA season, he represented the Grizzlies in 28 games with 3.9 points and 2.2 rebounds. Later, he was cut because of his poor level. , the main reason is that his physical fitness is not good.Fortsis has a very good touch, an accurate shot from 18 feet, wrong free throws, and has the range to cover the three-point line.But under the defense of Hayes, it is very difficult for him to connect the ball.

Just to get a seat, Fortis was hit hard by Hayes.After watching the game video before the game, Fortis felt that although Hayes was fierce, he was not helpless, and volunteered to defend Hayes.Now he is glad that the coach didn't arrange it like this, otherwise he would be dead.

Spanoulis used Fortis's high screen to break through, and Hayes immediately switched defenses to keep up with the former teammate.

Spanoulis stepped down and changed hands, and then broke through in disguise.If someone else is defending him, he may pass by speed.However, Hayes practiced in the national team for a period of time, and when he had nothing to do, he would single out Wade, Paul, Deron and other fastest guys, and he had a new experience in defending against breakthroughs.

As long as the opponent's center of gravity is not forward, no matter how realistic the feint is, it is impossible to break through successfully. The purpose of the feint is to change the defender's center of gravity.Hayes' reaction speed is unusual. He took advantage of this feature. Before the opponent moved forward, his center of gravity did not move, and he changed direction only after confirming the opponent's intention.The advantage of reaction speed enables him to almost always block the opponent's breakthrough route.

Wade, Paul and other breakthrough masters are horrified by Hayes' progress in defending the perimeter.What's more, what about Spanoulis, who can't even adapt to the NBA?
Hayes' right hand accurately extended to the dribble line of Spanoulis and shot the ball down.When James saw it, he immediately ran to the Greek basket.

Hayes took a step forward, got the ball, turned and jumped, and threw it out with a windmill dunk.

If it is an ordinary person, this kind of ball may not be caught, but it is James who breaks fast. He used an awkward posture to catch the basketball with one hand, took the ball and took two steps to dunk successfully! 4 to 0.

(End of this chapter)