basketball pope

Chapter 89 [The biggest weakness]

On June 6, the first battle between the two sides started at Madison Square Garden.

David Stern didn't come to watch the game, watching the live broadcast at home, waiting for the assistant to report the news about the ratings.

The bad news came when the players were warming up. As expected by Stern, the ratings were not high, only 10.7. Although the game will increase after the start of the game, it is very sad. Fab.

This is the charm of a superstar, and it is the value of Michael Jordan. All the finals he participated in had a very high ratings, even reaching a record 1993 in 17.9.

Assistant Adam Silva asked: "David, which team do you think will win?"

"I hope the Knicks will win because they have a good offense. If the Knicks can hold the offensive banner high next season, I hope they will build a dynasty." Stern said two hopes in a row, obviously disliking the Jazz.

This is the sadness of the Salt Lake City team. In terms of geographical location, the Jazz can only be regarded as a fourth-tier city in the NBA, and even Toronto, where the Raptors are located, is inferior.

In addition, Salt Lake City is also the center of Mormonism, and Mormons are fanatics.This place, if not the worst, is definitely in the bottom five in the league.

CCTV5 live broadcast, Zhang Lili introduced the players. "Today the Knicks have changed again. Oakley is back in the starting lineup with Ben Wallace, the point guard is a guest star of Starks, the Houston shooting guard, and the small forward Bowen."

Sun Zhengping said: "Oakley and Malone are old opponents. Malone has elbowed a lot of people. He has to restrain himself when facing Oakley, otherwise the two are likely to fight."

Some media have selected the dirtiest player in the league, and Malone ranked second.

Malone once knocked "Assassin" Thomas from the air to the ground and fainted. In this playoff, Malone also gave "Admiral" Robinson an elbow shock.

The wicked still need the wicked grind, and it is Oakley who ranks first on this list.

Oakley is never afraid of foul fouls or fights. What he is good at is avoiding the referee's sight, using small fouls and big moves to prevent opponents from scoring.

Jazz starting: Stockton, Hornacek, Russell, Malone, Foster.

Starks cameo point guard, is the result of the consultation between Yang Rui and Van Gundy, and plans to win by surprise.

The 36-year-old Stockton has started playing health basketball this season. He was originally in poor physical fitness. He is 185cm tall and weighs only 77kg.

Yang Rui was very curious about Stockton's defense level in his previous life, because many people said that this naturally thin guy is extremely tough, and his defense is top-notch.

Yang Rui watched a lot of videos because of this, and found that Stockton had a good sense of consciousness and a lot of small movements, but he basically had no way to do it after dislocation. A big man who can shoot is a bad thing to say, Stockton's defensive honor is too watery.

On Starks, in order to let him directly singled out Stockton, this is a good opportunity.

Oakley gave Houston a no-ball cover from the side. Houston attracted the inside defense and could be singled out. He could also pass Oakley to respond to the pass. He could shoot when there was an open space.

Foster won with a jump ball and the game started.

The Knicks are man-to-man defensively and are positioned relatively inward.Playing the Jazz is all you need to shrink as much as you want. Sloan doesn't allow players to shoot more three-pointers at all. Unless it's a particularly good opportunity, wait for the scolding.

Entering the playoffs, the Jazz also made the fewest three-pointers of any team, averaging 9.1 attempts per game.

Malone gave Stockton a high position to pick and roll, Oakley immediately switched defense, Stockton took two steps laterally, and passed to Malone who squeezed Starks' empty cut in the middle.

Just as Malone took a step, he was blocked by the retracted Ben Wallace, and Foster was emptied.Oakley also let go of Stockton's retraction, forming a double-team.

Malone is 206cm tall, and he can't squeeze into the basket and force a shot with limited efficiency, so he points the ball to the left bottom line.

Foster took the ball in the open space, stood still and waited for his teammates to respond, and passed the ball out.

The white center, who was selected by the Bullets with the 90th overall pick in the 8s, has an outrageous offensive ability and relies entirely on defense to make ends meet.This season, he averaged 5.7 points per game, which is the peak of his career.The league would be hard-pressed to find a bluer blue collar than that.

The Jazz players passed back and forth, ran pick-and-rolls, and ran out of space for 24 seconds. Russell's pull-up jumper missed under the interference of Bowen, and Ben protected the rebound.

The Knicks attacked, and Starks dribbled the ball to the frontcourt and was snuggled by Stockton. He waited for Houston to get rid of off-ball screens and passed the ball.

Malone switched defenses quickly, and Houston didn't have a direct shot and gave the ball to Oakley.

Oakley guarded the ball and stood still, and then distributed it to Starks, who moved to the left baseline, who missed a pull-up jumper to catch the ball.The opportunity has come, and Starks catches the ball and shoots quickly, but Stockton can't cover it.

Big Ben got stuck on the other side, grabbed the offensive rebound and passed it out.Houston moved to the free throw line to catch the ball and hit it under the interference of Hornacek. 2 to 0.

The players don’t have any fancy moves in their offense. The Knicks’ coach for the past two days is to catch and shoot, take advantage of their height and sense of rhythm to make quick shots, and then fight for offensive rebounds, aiming at the weakness of the Jazz, who only has Malone as a rebounder.

The Jazz attacked, the penalty area was blocked by the Knicks players, and the perimeter was shot from a long distance. 24 seconds were approaching, Malone's mid-shot missed under the interference of Starks, and Big Ben grabbed the rebound.

In the Knicks positional battle, Malone switched to defending the basket in order to protect the backcourt rebounds. Foster averaged 18.5 minutes per game and only 3.5 rebounds, which was weak.

Houston relied on Oakley to cover and got rid of Hornacek, received the ball and got a dislocation one-on-one opportunity, accelerated the homeopathic two steps to get rid of Foster, and scored a high-level pull-up jumper.

Similar to the position just now, Houston feels extremely soft, with two hollows. 4 to 0.

Jazz offense, players pass back and forth, pick-and-roll, but every time the Knicks switch defenses in time, there is no time.

Hornacek made a breakthrough shot from the right, missed the basket under the interference of Oakley, and Big Ben grabbed the rebound.

The Knicks played very simply. Starks took it to the front court to singled out Stockton and missed a pull-up jumper.

In the Jazz positional battle, the pick-and-roll was limited by the Knicks' compression defense.

Even though the opponent blocked the penalty area, the Jazz still tried hard to hit the basket, and shot close to the basket according to Sloan's arrangement. This was a strategic mistake.

As soon as Stockton makes a breakthrough, he will get into the crowd, and the ball will be distributed. Malone can only choose a high mid-range shot and can't get to the basket.

Hornacek also couldn't run out of space with Foster's cover. The Knicks players were resolute in switching defenses, and there were people who rotated to make up defenses. Anyway, Foster didn't care about the periphery.

Yang Rui watched the game from the sidelines and had a peculiar impression. He felt that the biggest weakness of this Jazz team was the well-known coach, Jerry Sloan.

(End of this chapter)