am i proud?

Chapter 141 Running and Bombing (Today's second update)

After the Dec. 12 game, Carlisle has been absent-minded, even in the postgame press conference.

Twice when reporters asked him questions, he acted as if he didn't hear them. It wasn't until the press officer reminded him that he came back to answer the questions.

Wang Dalin also kept a serious expression at the press conference, he was always concerned about Daben's injury.

这场比赛王大林砍下27分12篮板11助攻的三双，表现出色的同时也让佩顿的22分10篮板13助攻完全做了无用功。

After the game, the generals of the Pistons went to the hospital to visit Da Ben, who was lying on the hospital bed. He has undergone an MRI examination, but the test results will not come out until tomorrow morning.

Wang Dalin saw that his ankle was red and swollen. He estimated that Daben's ankle injury might be more serious. If it reached the third-grade sprain, it meant that Daben would be out for at least two weeks, maybe even longer.

Sure enough, as Wang Dalin expected, the MRI results came out the next day, and Daben suffered a grade-three sprain in his right ankle. Although no bone was injured, he had to recuperate for at least two to three weeks.

As for whether he can resume training immediately after two or three weeks, it depends on his recovery.

Big Ben's expression was obviously a little frustrated, not thinking about whether the injury would affect his contract. After all, he signed a four-year $4 million contract with the Pistons, and it is only the second year.

It's a pity that he can't continue to fight on the court with his teammates, and now that the Pistons are gaining momentum, without such an important combat power as him, will the team's record be affected?
"Oh! My injury came at such an inopportune time!" Da Ben said dejectedly.

While peeling an apple for him, Wang Dalin smiled and said, "Brother, your injury came at the right time! Think about it, if you suffer this kind of injury again in mid-April next year, how will we play in the playoffs?"

When Billups heard Wang Dalin say that Big Ben was injured at the right time, he couldn't help but smiled, and he immediately smiled and said: "The third brother is right, big brother, you are injured now, it is better than getting injured when you are about to play in the playoffs!"

Daben was a little worried: "But what about the team's record? After the Rockets and the Knicks, you will go through five consecutive away games, and the opponents are all Western teams!"

Wang Dalin pretended to be relaxed and said with a smile: "What happened to the western team? Didn't we just clean up the Sonics yesterday?"

Billups also laughed and said, "That's right, the Western Conference teams aren't that great, but we are very strong!"

Big Ben is still frowning. Obviously, he knows that this is just his brother comforting himself. How can the Western Conference team be "not very good" as Billups said?
Since Jordan retired in the summer of 1998, the league has entered a pattern where the west is strong and the east is weak. The Spurs and Lakers who won the championship in the past three years are both from the west.

Let's take this season as an example. Don't look at the Pistons who are now ranked first in the East, but if you really want to throw all the top eight teams in the West to the East, it is estimated that the Pistons will struggle to even rank in the top five.

At present, the Lakers, Kings, and Spurs are currently ranked in the front of the West. No matter who the Pistons meet, they will probably lose more and win less. Even the slightly weaker Mavericks, Timberwolves, Trail Blazers, Jazz, and Supersonics can only be evenly matched with each other.

If the personal abilities of these main players in the Pistons can be further improved, and the cooperation between the players is more tacit, they can certainly become a strong contender for the championship, just like they did two years later in the original time and space, but now...

After all, they are a new team assembled this season. Even if they have the future champion coach Rick Carlisle, even if they have an excellent record at the beginning of the season, they are still too immature after all!
If the rookie coach Carlisle and the young team leader Wang Dalin will encounter any setbacks in the future, perhaps the next few games will be the most severe test they are about to face.

After visiting Big Ben, Wang Dalin and Billups returned to the arena. The team will have a training session in the afternoon of December 12-6, and Carlisle will practice a new set of tactics.

Without the big book, the Pistons will definitely not be able to play as before, and the offensive and defensive tactics must be greatly adjusted. This is naturally a very serious challenge for the young coach Carlisle.

"In the next games, we will play run-and-gun tactics!" Carlisle announced his decision to everyone succinctly. "Until Ben comes back, we must try our best to maintain the current ranking!"

Robinson asked worriedly: "But Rick, if you run and bomb, what should you do when defending?"

Carlisle smiled and said, "It's very simple, we play zone defense!"

That's right, the league has released the restrictions on zone defense this season, but the teams don't know much about zone defense at present, and they seem to be skeptical about the effect of zone defense.

Carlisle sneered at this. If the zone defense is really not effective, how could the American men's basketball team play so embarrassingly in the Olympics?

Just in the past 2000, the U.S. team faced Lithuania in the semi-finals of the Olympic Games. In the end, they only won by 2 points... If Lithuania's last desperate goal can be made, the powerful "Dream Four" really lost.

With the powerful attacking power of the "Dream Team Four", they still only scored 85 points under the Lithuanian team's zone defense, which proves the powerful power of the zone defense.

However, FIBA ​​basketball rules do not have "three seconds of defense in the penalty area", so the zone defense can undoubtedly play a stronger role. Carlisle will not copy those "2-3 zone defense" or "2-1-2 zone defense", but adopts the "hybrid zone defense" commonly used by the Kings this season.

Zone defense, as the name suggests, means joint defense. It is divided into two types: positional zone defense and counterpoint zone defense.

Combining zone defense with man-to-man defense has become a "hybrid zone defense". This defensive tactic that combines zone defense and man-to-man defense is more collective than man-to-man defense and more targeted than pure zone defense.

At present, the Pistons have lost the inside pillar of Big Ben, so they can use the zone defense to strengthen the area defense, and they will not be easily rushed to the basket by the opponent.

In fact, the Kings frequently used this defensive tactic in games this season, mainly to deal with O'Neal of the Lakers and Duncan of the Spurs.

Since the defensive effect is good, Carlisle is not afraid of being accused of plagiarism, so he just takes it and uses it.

The generals of the Pistons are all professional players who have played basketball for many years. Even Wang Dalin, a rookie, has received relatively formal basketball training since elementary school, so everyone adapts to the new tactics very quickly. After three days of rehearsal, they are already playing decently.

They can't help but be able to get their positions right when defending, and they can also play as fast-paced defensive counterattacks and fluid half-court attacks as possible when attacking.

Many people think that running and bombing is a quick defensive counterattack. In fact, running and bombing tactics are far more than that simple. This tactic puts more emphasis on the conduction of the ball and the decisiveness of shooting... Any player can shoot decisively at any place and at any time, as long as you think the shooting opportunity is good enough.

Billups, Hamilton, Wang Dalin and Robinson in the Pistons have good mid-range and long-range shots, and even the substitute players Corris Williams, Joan Barry and Damon Jones also have good shooting ability, so the run-and-gun tactics are undoubtedly very suitable for them.

Of course, training and real competition are naturally different, so how good this offensive and defensive tactics can be played has to be tested in actual combat.

On the evening of December 12th, the Pistons played against the Rockets in the Western Conference at home. In this game, they let everyone see the power of the "mixed defense" and let everyone see how terrible they are.

77:105, this is the final score of the game. The Rockets lost a full 27 points. It can be said that they were bloodbathed by the Pistons.

The Rockets' players are not lacking in offensive talent. For example, Francis and Mobley are the league's first-class outside offensive masters, but they can't break into the inside against the "mixed defense" of the Pistons.

As for the Pistons, as soon as they grab the backcourt rebounds, they will immediately launch a fast break. They pass the ball up to two or three times at a time, and then shoot immediately.

People originally thought that the Pistons' interior defense would suffer major flaws after losing the big book, but they didn't expect Wang Dalin to be so effective after being promoted to the fifth position... It's impossible for Carlisle to use a meat shield center like Alexander or Gates. How can they run?
Therefore, under this tactic, Wang Dalin must be at the fifth position. Only when he plays center forward for the Pistons can he really exert his power.

This kind of half-court offense is open-ended. The players have a wide range of running, and almost all of them will swim beyond the three-point line.

When the defensive range was forced to expand, the Rockets' already weak defense became even more riddled with holes.

In the end, the Pistons won by a big score. Wang Dalin scored 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Although the score was not high, he scored a triple-double again and performed quite efficiently.

Look at the scores of the rest of the Pistons. Hamilton had 21 points, Billups had 17 points, Robinson had 13 points, Williams had 15 points, and Barry had 11 points.

Carlisle was not blindly happy. Beating the Rockets didn't make him completely at ease with this offensive and defensive tactics. The next Knicks team is the real test they will encounter.

Last time they beat the Knicks, Wang Dalin also made Houston almost autistic, but everyone knows that the Knicks are not weak, even if they just changed their head coach.

On December 12, the Pistons played against the Knicks at home. Both sides played a very high defensive intensity in this game.

The Knicks have been carefully trained by Jeff Van Gundy for more than six years. There is no doubt that they can play high-intensity defense at any time.

But the Pistons don't have a big book. It stands to reason that they can't play such a high-intensity defense anyway, but the fact is...they just did it!

In this game, Wang Dalin and his teammates gave full play to the advantages of zone defense combined with man-to-man defense. Whenever the opponent plays a pick-and-roll, they immediately switch positions and then immediately form a second defense and one defense in the area... This kind of defense, from Wang Dalin's forward-looking perspective, isn't it just the kind of infinite rotation of the future Warriors?
Of course, they are just beginners, and it is not bad to be able to play half of the power of the future Warriors' unlimited defense, but in this era, who has seen this kind of defensive tactics that transcends the times?

Let alone the new head coach of the Knicks, Don Cheney, what if it is the old thief Bobo, the "magic fortune teller" and the "Zen Master"?
最终这场比赛尼克斯队91:97败北，活塞队豪取三连胜，王大林再次打出17分10篮板10助攻的三双。

接下来他们即将开始一连串的西部客场之旅，从12月16日客场挑战快船队开始，紧接着是12月18日对国王，12月19日背靠背打勇士，12月21日打开拓者，最后12月22日再来一个背靠背打超音速。

The five-game schedule is already very difficult, and there are two back-to-backs... I have to say that the NBA's schedule is really poisonous, which is too abnormal!

Taking advantage of two days left, Carlisle once again convened the team members to conduct a drill on offensive and defensive tactics.

As the saying goes, "Grind your guns before the battle, and you will be happy if you are unhappy." When they flew to Los Angeles on the morning of December 12, they were already familiar with this new tactic.

The Clippers this season are naturally not considered a strong team in the Western Conference. In Wang Dalin's impression, their final record is ranked ninth or tenth in the Western Conference. He can't remember clearly.

However, with Elton Brand's strong joining this season, coupled with the original high-quality players in the team such as Jeff McGinnis, Quentin Richardson, Lamar Odom and Corey Maggette, their strength is not weak.

That is to say, there are too many strong teams in the west. If they are in the east, they can at least rank fifth or sixth.

For this game, the media agreed that the Pistons would fall into the sand in Los Angeles. After all, they lost the inside pillar of Big Ben, and they couldn't limit the All-Star insider like Brand at all.

But when the game started, the media reporters were dumbfounded... Isn't the Pistons too good?
Just like the huge impact brought by the birth of the "Splash Brothers" of the Warriors in later generations, the Pistons showed strong offensive and defensive strength in this game. They not only prevented Brand, an all-star power forward, from falling short of standards, but also played a mercury-like offense.

How knowledgeable are Los Angeles fans?

They were surprised to find that the Pistons' offense in this game... Isn't this the "Show-Time" of the Lakers in the 80s?

After the absence of Ben, the Pistons' inside defensive intensity did drop by more than one notch, especially after Maggette, Odom and others began to attack the inside frequently in the second half, the Clippers' offense immediately improved.

However, the Pistons' offensive firepower has been maintained at a very high level, and their offensive efficiency is significantly higher. Even if the Clippers recovered some points in the second half, they still could not close the point difference to single digits.

In this way, the game ended. In the end, the Pistons beat the Clippers 102:91 and won four consecutive victories.

When Daben was injured suddenly, the outside media were generally not very optimistic about the Pistons, even thinking that they might usher in their first four-game losing streak this season, but they slapped the media reporters in the face with their performance.

Four consecutive losses?
impossible!

What we want is four straight wins... well, probably more than four straight wins!

On December 12, the Pistons challenged the Kings away.

As of this game, the Pistons ranked first in the East with a record of 17 wins and 4 losses, while the Kings ranked third in the West with 18 wins and 7 losses, second only to the Spurs and Lakers in winning percentage.

The two sides haven't played against each other this season, but the Pistons beat the fourth-ranked Mavericks in the West twice this season, as well as the Sonics, a traditional team. Adelman naturally dare not underestimate them.

Adelman focused on the last three games of the Pistons, and he found that the Pistons are now playing very similarly to the Kings.Especially Wang Dalin's high-level support is almost the same as Divac's, but their defensive tactics seem to be better.

In the last four games, Wang Dalin has scored consecutive triple-doubles, making him the best player in the Eastern Conference last week. On the surface, his scoring average has dropped, but his threat on the court has become even greater.

No matter how strong a player's offensive power is, if he can't lead the team to victory, it is meaningless.
Just like Kobe in 2006 and 2007, even though he won the scoring title for two consecutive seasons and scored 81 points in a single game and 50+ in four consecutive games, he just couldn't lead the Lakers to go further in the playoffs.

And a player like Jason Kidd, although he has never averaged more than 20 points per game in his career, he can lead the team to achieve good results.

Needless to say, he led the Nets to the finals twice, and later he won the championship with the Mavericks...Of course, he was no longer the team leader at that time, but his role was crucial.

It can be said that even if the "veteran driver" at the time was as unstoppable as a cheat, they would not be able to defeat the Heat with the "Big Three" without the old Kidd's pinnacle.

在那轮系列赛中，老基德场均可以贡献7.7分4.5篮板6.3助攻0.8盖帽1.2抢断，三分命中率高达42.9%……你没看错，这个三分命中率真是老基德打出来的！
Wang Dalin's performance this season is very similar to Jason Kidd, the difference is that he can not only play a very comprehensive performance to lead the team to victory, but also has the league's first-class offensive firepower. From this point of view, he is even more terrifying than Kidd.

Adelman thought to himself: "Perhaps, his only shortcoming...is he still too young?"

　Thanks to "Running Roe Deer" for the monthly pass encouragement!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)