the rest, only noise

Chapter 945

At the beginning of the second quarter, facing the Verdun defense line again, the Knicks' outside trio have all changed.

The advantage of Rauf, Wilson, and Stevens over Stockton, Williams, and Miller is that the core ball holder is more reassuring.

Rauf is a bigger offensive threat than Stockton.

In terms of defense alone, Stockton's threat lies in launching tactics with the ball, and Rauf himself is a threat with the ball.Therefore, to defend him, the Blazers need to spend more energy.

Wilson is the third-ranked ball handler in the Knicks. Except for the two point guards Stockton and Rauf, everyone else is inferior to him.But his threat with the ball is the biggest in the team. As the team's number one attacker, whether he holds the ball alone or initiates tactics with the ball, he can change the opponent's defense.

Compared with Miller, Stevens' ball handling is half a catty.

Over the years with the Knicks, he's been mostly praised for his defense, but he's used other skills whenever the Knicks need him.

Holding the ball is one of them. As an auxiliary role to crack the defense line of Verdun, his ability to hold the ball is basically sufficient.

When Jordan saw Wilson, he felt like Zhang Yishan in "The Deer and Ding Tale", ferocious and exerting too much force.

Although the public opinion claims that Jordan and Wilson are the sad birds of this generation, before Elvin Johnson changed from a magician to a tragedy, he had two crowns in his hands. At least before 1987, it was no problem to call the duo with Bird.

Although Jordan is currently full of personal honors, he has none of the most critical championships.

Wilson has already won a ring that can be worn all over his hand.

How can Jordan, who has been so strong all his life, stand this?
In the short term, his goal is to win a ring, and in the long run, his goal is to surpass Wilson's number of rings.

But these things, as short as half a year, as long as [-] years, are not things that can be completed immediately.

The only thing he can do at the moment is knock Wilson out.

This thinking is reflected in its actions.

Jordan's extreme close defense, the attitude of not giving up without forcing people out of mistakes, let Wilson pass the ball.

"Do you just run away from problems?" Jordan prodded him.

Wilson smiled sarcastically: "No, I just want to change the solution. Only a natural loser like you has only one way. Winners are never restrained."

Although Wilson has never read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he has mastered the essence of the lesson "Zhuge Liang scolded Wang Lang to death".

No matter what the other party says, first stand directly on a commanding height that is absolutely correct. Since he is absolutely correct (winner), then Jordan is absolutely wrong (loser).An incarnation of absolute error, no matter what wise words are uttered, are soul arsenic and are not worth listening to.

The Knicks broke through the Verdun defense led by Jordan.

This is good news.

This is the time when the morale of the Blazers is at its peak. Breaking their line of defense can disintegrate their defenses.

Then came the defensive end, McHale weak-side screen, Ewing high pick-and-roll.

Rauf looked like he was going to attack with the ball, and the Blazers focused on defending him.

However, Ewing, who stepped forward to pick and roll, actually "didn't wait" for Rauf to take advantage of his pick and roll wall, and went down the inside lane.

Mason, who was only focused on Rauf, didn't know how to react for a while.

Go back with Ewing, or switch to Rauf?
It was this moment of hesitation that allowed Ewing to cut to the basket, and Rauf easily made a pass.

Ewing catches the ball, and it's Clifford Robinson who comes to help.

How can a mere "big tree" resist the violent orangutan?

Clifford was ruthlessly dunked by Ewing.

"Whoever blocks me will die!" Ewing yelled in the middle of the second.

Pat Riley ponders: Didn't the pick-and-roll come to fruition?

In this day and age, there is no concept of a fake pick-and-roll.

Even, there are only a few teams that use a large number of pick-and-rolls.

And the outrageous acts in the eyes of old coaches like fake pick-and-rolls are extinct.

The purpose of the pick-and-roll is to create dislocations and local overplays, and if you come up with a fake pick-and-roll, what is it in the eyes of coaches who don't understand the trick?That's a double-team risk for the ball handler.Because the fake pick-and-roll has fewer steps to block people, the opponent can step forward to put pressure on the ball holder in the first place.

It was also Riley's choice.

He told Alvin Robertson and Jordan: "Next time they do this again, directly pinch the ball holder!"

The Blazers responded with the ball and did not score.

Clifford Robinson bounced off the pick-and-roll for a catch-and-shoot.

Ewing received the defensive rebound, and the Blazers pressed on the spot.

But Ewing lifted the ball over his head and threw it to the fast-running Stevens, and the press was broken.

With the mobility of members of Verdun's defense, few teams can play fast breaks against the Blazers.

This round, they successfully returned to defense.

Another positional battle, this time with Stevens holding the ball.

McHale whistled, "Baby, I'm coming!"

Stevens had a hard time convincing himself that this old, unscrupulous guy had been the Knicks captain for many years.

McHale fully understood Louis' arrangements.

He ran to the top of the key and first set a screen next to Stevens.

Clifford was about to switch defenses when, suddenly, McHale cut inside without waiting for Stevens to make a move.

Seeing the Knicks repeating their old tricks, Clifford decisively teamed up with Cosey to double-team Stevens.

However, how the Blazers will react to the Knicks' fake pick-and-roll tactics is within Louie's calculations.

Because of his poor passing skills, Stevens did not forcefully challenge the opponent to double-team and pass to McHale. Instead, he passed the ball to Wilson, who was watched closely by Jordan.

Wilson received the ball without pausing, and sent a through ball to McHale who went down to the paint area at a 45-degree angle from the left wing.

McHale caught the ball and turned around for a layup.

"Ahlulululu~~~~" McHale shouted meanly, "It's just that loose!"

Louis reprimanded: "Be careful I will kick you again!"

The Knicks had no personal ability in these two positional battles, and they were simply tactics from outside to inside.

Take the inside player's fake pick-and-roll as an opportunity to disrupt the Blazers' defense.

The problem lies in the Blazers' switching tactics.

Because of switching defenses, they placed a large number of players outside the paint. When Sabonis sat on the bench to rest, the Blazers' interior defense was as thin as before.

At this time, whether it is Ewing or McHale, as long as they go down to the paint area to catch the ball alone, it is easy to score.

If the defense is changed normally, or if the defense is not changed, for example, Clifford/Mason does not flank, but chooses to chase Ewing/McHale who is going down, it will not work either.

In the next round, Riley asked the players not to switch defenses and follow to the end.

The result was still smashed.

Because the attacker always has the initiative.

When to turn the pick-and-roll into a fake pick-and-roll is up to the Knicks to decide.

As they used more and more false pick-and-rolls, the Jamaica gun king, who was regarded by Louis as the league's number one pick-and-roller, even made a more flamboyant routine-convincing the Blazers that he wanted a real pick-and-roll, because after Rauf dribbled, he didn't mean to move.

When Rauf was about to go to the pick-and-roll position, he opened it.

Rauf still didn't use the pick-and-roll, but the Blazers' defense was torn apart because of Ewing's sudden roll.

Mason actually collided with Robertson, and Rauf saw Ewing pointing to the basket and directly sent an alley-oop pass.

"The orangutan has become a spirit!" Louis exclaimed.

Ewing has many faults that Louie has read since his rookie days, but there is one thing that even Louis can't fault.

That's his pick and roll and screens.

It can be described as perfect.

Pick-and-roll quality, pick-and-roll timing, pick-and-roll style, pick-and-roll selection For a team that has to play a lot of pick-and-roll and screen tactics, Ewing's inside is perfect.

McHale can't achieve Ewing's high quality of completion, but still the same sentence, allowing players to use their subjective initiative to judge whether the opponent's pick-and-roll is a real pick-and-roll or a fake pick-and-roll and then decide whether to switch or not is a wrong decision that is doomed to fail.

Because no matter whether you can see the opponent's pick-and-roll intention or not, the defense has to make a decision before moving. If the opponent doesn't move, you can't move.

But if the opponent moves first—for example, McHale goes down first, and Clifford can react, but his body has been pulled away. If he moves again at this time, even if he can use the blocking threat to affect McHale's offense, it is bound to mess up his own defense.

McHale made an inside pass to Ewing.

The orangutan dunks Clifford again.

A false screen made the Blazers' defense system go crazy.

At the same time, the Blazers' Verdun defense began to expose problems.

The public believed that Alvin Robertson's reinforcement was a good move for the Blazers. He added depth to the Verdun defense and allowed Jordan to sit down and rest at certain times.

However, now that McDaniel can't play, they lack a titan who can fight hand-to-hand with their opponents. Robertson and Jordan's defensive attributes overlap.

Under the same defense, Robertson's effect is not as good as Jordan's. Since he joined the team not long ago, and the tacit understanding with his teammates is not enough, so he can't bring the suffocation of Verdun's defense in the frontcourt.

As the Knicks adjusted to that defensive intensity, Riley found they couldn't force the Knicks into turnovers.

(End of this chapter)