NBA: Duncan feels uneasy coaching Warriors

Chapter 183 So How Should Your Excellency Respond?

However, the referees ignored Popovich's dissatisfaction.

It’s not really the age of the body whistle, especially for these old-school players in the league.
At least Duncan, 38, isn't.

In the Timberwolves' offensive round, they still avoided Leonard's defense.

The Timberwolves always maintain that all three outsiders have the offensive ability. Even Middleton, he also has the ability to finish with the ball after the pick-and-roll.

If for other teams, the opponent's first and second leaders can choose to avoid playing, then for the Spurs, the effect will be achieved.

For example, against the Heat, if James and Wade can choose not to take the initiative, then it is basically difficult for the Heat to win.

After all, apart from these two, Bosh often doesn't take a lot of possessions to attack, and the other Heat players are all role players.

The Spurs are still really afraid of the kind of team that can attack.

Just like the Mavericks this season are actually not very competitive, and if they are really competitive, they will not be eighth in the Western Conference.

But the Mavericks are a group of people, everyone can swing the ball twice, and there is Nowitzki, a mid-range master.

The Timberwolves' lineup is still an upgraded version of the Mavericks' lineup.

The Mavericks guys, they're offensive but not defensive, like Monta Ellis.

And the Timberwolves' role players are no ordinary role players.

In addition to the two core players Giannis Antetokounmpo and Butler, there are two All-Star players who are still in their prime, Iguodala and Luol Deng.

Although Josh was not selected as an All-Star, his previous statistics were pretty good, and he can play with the ball.

Although Middleton is still in the second grade, his ability to hold the ball and jump shot has basically been developed.

These players may not be much better than the Mavericks in terms of offense alone.

But the Mavericks' players belong to a group of strong offensive and defensive players. When the Timberwolves' offensive firepower can be equal to that of the Mavericks, their defense is directly two or three grades higher than the Mavericks.

After all, the Mavericks can defend best, is already the old Marion.

The Spurs are far less powerful than they appear.

The ability to easily beat the Heat is purely because the Spurs restricted James, and then Wade declined to give James much support.

On the outside and mid-range, Leonard looked at James, James went inside, and Duncan helped defend James.

When the Heat's Ray Allen chassis still had fuel, Wade was still a superstar-level combat power. At that time, the Spurs had never played against the Heat.

Leonard is a bit ridiculously strong now, but it is much easier to avoid Leonard on the defensive end.

Although Duncan is still very strong, but for the 38-year-old Duncan, it is too difficult for Duncan to attack and defend.

The two sides continued to fight.

On the offensive end of the Spurs, Duncan saw Muscala's single defense and chose to fight Muscala hard.

A very simple truth.

The opponent no longer uses their defensive strengths to defend against Duncan, so the Timberwolves' defensive strengths can defend more of Duncan's teammates.

As the team leader, Duncan shouldered the responsibility at this time.

If Muscala dared to defend him, he would beat Muscala down.

However, on the defensive end of the Spurs, the Timberwolves also frequently go to Duncan to play on this point.

I don't ask for a high success rate, just make it clear that telling Popovich is to consume Duncan and replace Duncan if he has the ability.

If Duncan doesn't play, it will be happier for the Timberwolves.

Popovich also knew this, so even after seeing this scene on the court, he still insisted not to let Duncan be replaced too early.

It was only when there were 2 minutes left in the first quarter that Duncan was replaced for a rest.

This is a normal rotation.

After Duncan was replaced, Muscala was also replaced.

In this short period of time, Muscala was directly beaten by Duncan to the third offense.

But Su Chen didn't blame Muscala, instead he patted Muscala on the back to encourage Muscala.

Sign that he's doing a good job.

Muscala, the three criminals, is not the Timberwolves who are uncomfortable, but the Spurs who are really uncomfortable.

Muscala was originally on the team, and he was a player who had fallen out of the rotation. Even if he was beaten by Duncan's six fouls in the first quarter and graduated, as long as it worked, it would be very good.

On the contrary, because of Muscala's fierce defense, some balls did not call defensive fouls, but it also caused trouble for Duncan.

In order to save energy, Duncan did not choose to squeeze Muscala to the basket for every ball to play, and used more signatures to hit the board.

The closer the distance to the basket, the higher the shooting rate. Although Duncan's trick is a signature skill, it is not the basket or every goal that can be scored after all.

Muscala has a lot of defensive moves on every ball, and he is not afraid of fouls at all. Anyway, he just doesn't give Duncan a comfortable shooting space.

Under such circumstances, Duncan's system was exhausted, but the success rate was not very high.

The best thing Muscala did was that he didn't give a 2+1. The three fouls were very fierce and prevented Duncan from hitting the rebound. There was a ball when Duncan actually squeezed to the basket for a dunk, but he didn't foul.

Because he still fouled in that situation, not only did he have to foul, but he couldn't stop Duncan.

This is where Muscala is clever.

This is also what Su Chen admires Muscala very much. Although his talent is mediocre, his defensive IQ is not bad.

The Spurs entered the rotation time. The Spurs were still ahead by a lot of points. When the Spurs were in the rotation, the Timberwolves chased back a little bit.

The first quarter is over.

Timberwolves 21:27 Spurs.

Although the Timberwolves trailed the Spurs by six points in the first quarter, Su Chen did not express any blame to any players, but instead encouraged them with satisfaction.

"Duncan did a great job. Duncan scored 20 points in the first quarter, which has exceeded Duncan's average points per game in the playoffs."

"This is the 38-year-old Duncan. Even when Duncan was at his peak, it was difficult to score 20 points in a single quarter."

Johnson praised Duncan.

"You also know that it is the 38-year-old Duncan. The Timberwolves defended Duncan purely in the first quarter, without any double-teaming."

"Should Duncan continue to score such points in the second and third quarters? Will the Spurs rely on the 38-year-old Duncan to score 60 points in three quarters?"

Kenny Smith, on the other hand, saw some of these things.

"Su Chen's tactic will definitely not work if he meets me. If I really let me play one-on-one, I can beat the inside of the Timberwolves to the point where I doubt my career."

O'Neill laughed at this moment.

O'Neal's career is basically a collection of more than one dozen games, and he scored with two people, so O'Neal can pretend to say something.

Give me the ball, there are only two guards against me.

Although I am slightly inferior to Jordan's only three man defense, this can already represent O'Neal's dominance.

When talking about double-teaming, O'Neal thought of the Pistons.

Two Wallaces, one supported him with strength, and the other kept interfering with him.

There are still many people who say that Da Ben is a good player to defend him. If he really defends him directly like Su Chen, he can directly detain Da Ben into doubting his career.

"Dude, you weren't as good as Duncan when he was his age."

Barkley short-circuited O'Neill.

"What does it mean to be inferior to Duncan? Duncan's strength lies in his own strong offense and top-level organizational ability inside."

"In terms of offensive ability alone, even if I am the same age as Duncan, I am not in vain."

O'Neill said unconvinced.

It is not unreasonable for O'Neal to say this. In fact, O'Neal only relies on his tonnage at the basket, and even makes the opponent afraid in 1V1 situations.

But the reason why O'Neal is not like Duncan at his age is because he has been a cool dunk throughout his career, and he is just a word dunk for double teams.

This makes O'Neal's ability to handle double-teams far worse than Duncan's.

In addition, O'Neal itself is slow, and O'Neal is often intercepted by the opponent's double-team, or makes mistakes.

And this time, in the Spurs camp.

Popovich felt it was difficult to handle.

After his analysis with the teaching assistants, even as an opponent, he had to admit that Su Chen came up with an S-level countermeasure.

Danny Green's defense is good, but his size is a bit of a disadvantage for the Timberwolves, and the Timberwolves will set up some pick-and-rolls.

Danny Green's ability to circumnavigate the pick-and-roll is not very strong, at least compared to Leonard, it is still much worse.

Originally relying on Duncan and Leonard's one-in-one-out defense, the Spurs' defensive system was very indestructible, but after Su Chen handled it like this, the Spurs' defense immediately downshifted.

Avoiding Leonard's defense while directly facing Duncan's defense, not afraid that Duncan's defense will consume Duncan's physical strength.

At the same time, the Timberwolves are not only playing Danny Green, they will call Tony Parker more often.

Danny Green is still a shooter with defensive attributes, which was given by the Timberwolves.

Not to mention the old sports car.

The Spurs' defense has always been a strong defensive team from the outside world, but the Spurs are also a team with defensive weaknesses.

After all, Parker's height is so tall, and the teams he usually faces will have a point guard similar to Parker on the field.

After all, Parker's defensive experience is relatively rich, and he uses his experience to make up for his own shortcomings.

But now with the overall height of the Timberwolves, Parker's defensive experience is relatively limited, and the Timberwolves have obvious disadvantages in height except for Beverly.

In this case, Beverly did not play in the entire first quarter.

Muscala was activated, but Beverly, who played well before, was pressed.

Strictly speaking, the Timberwolves have not really expanded to a ten-man rotation, and the rotation is still a nine-man rotation.

It's just that Beverly and Muscala switched.

Su Chen's strategy was to directly hit the weakest point of the Spurs.

This is not something that can be solved by taking a break between festivals.

Popovich can only arrange for the team to carry out long rotations, trying to allow Duncan to get more rest time.

The second quarter begins.

The Spurs still maintained their rotation, with both Duncan and Parker resting off the court.

After all, Duncan and Parker were almost all named and beaten by the opponent.

Parker is better. Duncan never thought that he could be named by the opponent to beat him.

"Take a rest off the court, it depends on how long Duncan will rest."

Su Chen smiled slightly after seeing the transfer of the Spurs.

At this time, the Timberwolves directly replaced the full main lineup: Serge Ibaka (C), Giannis Antetokounmpo (PF), Luol Deng (SF), Andre Iguoda La (SG), Jimmy Butler (PG)

The Spurs lineup is: Splitter (C), Boris Diaw (PF), Kawhi Leonard (SF), Danny Green (SG), Mills (PG)

Seeing this lineup, Su Chen directly played a double punch tactic.

Without Duncan on the court, what are you afraid of the Spurs' inside defense, and they don't shoot from mid-range.

Leonard can limit Giannis Antetokounmpo and also defend Butler. It can be said that he is a real super lock.

The strength of the FMVP level this season is not a joke.

But when Duncan is not on the court, the Spurs will face a problem.

That is, the Timberwolves have returned to the most commonly used double-rush lineup. In fact, this double-rush tactic has not been used much against the Spurs in this series.

Not only has it not been used against the Spurs, in the last series, the Warriors rarely played double rush after using Green to defend Giannis Antetokounmpo.

When playing warriors, directly choose five punches.

The Timberwolves' double rush system goes back to the regular season.

During the regular season, the Timberwolves rushed to the second place in the Western Conference by virtue of this double rush system.

When facing the Blazers in the first round, the double punch system was also used.

In fact, this can be regarded as a signature system of the Timberwolves.

But because it has been useless for too long, the Spurs have forgotten that the Timberwolves were originally a double-star double-rush system.

Leonard is strong, and he can handle the two stars of the Timberwolves at will.

But now Leonard has to choose a multiple-choice question. Will he defend Giannis Antetokounmpo or Butler?
When Duncan was there before, Duncan could deal with Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Now Duncan rests off the court and Leonard goes to deal with Giannis Antetokounmpo, so Butler has nothing to do.

Although Danny Green can also defend first, Butler is the size of a striker after all, and Green's movements are too small to defend when he rushes in.

With bigger moves, Butler is another good foul maker.

Butler is a very hardworking player. He knows that he is not talented enough, so he will work hard to improve himself.

This improvement is not only an improvement in his strength and confrontation, but also makes his mid-range shot more stable.

At the same time, Butler is also working hard on the new breakthrough rules. He has his own understanding of how to make fouls.

That's why Su Chen played double-star tactics from the beginning of the regular season.

Needless to say Giannis Antetokounmpo, there are only a few who can limit him.

At the same time, Butler's ability to draw fouls is very strong.

In the impression of many people, Harden is a master of porcelain.

In fact, Butler is essentially a fine Butler.

After all, talent is not enough, and the only way to make up for it is to rely on diligence.

(End of this chapter)