Bishop: since 1998

Chapter 55 Poor defense is also a tradition of the Suns!

In the third quarter of the game, Li Mu chose to let the blacksmith team play.

Billups, Kobe, Bowen, Big Ben, O'Neal.

No Rice, no Horry.

Li Mu didn't want to play with the Suns' rhythm, but aimed at the Suns' weaknesses.

"Going forward, the Lakers, they're not going to compete with the Suns in their shooting game, they're good at it, they're going to compete with the Suns, they're not good at it.

For example, defense. "

The game started in the third quarter, Kidd dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, Billups stepped forward to press,

In other positions, the inside line strengthens physical confrontation, Kobe and Bowen help defend on both sides, cutting off Kidd's passing route to the inside line.

There are two main goals, one is to let Kidd go heads-up.

The other is to let the Suns attack from outside.

"The Lakers are starting to change their defensive tactics. Kidd's organizational skills are too strong. Kidd and his teammates should really be cut out." Mike Breen explained.

"Kidd, will he go as the Lakers plan?"

Kidd saw through the Lakers' tactics at a glance.

At this time, although he also knew that he was biased, in terms of offense, he was a little behind the top superstars.

However, it also depends on who will defend. How can I say that it is not difficult to clean up Billups in front of me!

No way, the hard power of the Suns is much worse than that of the Lakers. In the first half of the game, relying on the shots of their teammates, they did keep up with the Lakers and even suppressed the Lakers.

However, such a situation will not last long. Once the Lakers defend with playoff-level strength and the Suns' physical fitness declines, their good shooting battles will never be effective for long.

To put it bluntly, if the Suns want to beat the Lakers, they can't win by luck alone.

Therefore, it is also time to unblock your own offensive firepower and blow up the Lakers in one position, so that the Suns can get more offensive space.

Just do it, the first ball, Kidd automatically into the set, back singles Billups.

Back hit like a bulldozer, arching to the inside shooting sweet spot, when Kobe and Bowen, the help defense on both sides, were not in place, turned around and shot a jumper...

Boom-!
Kidd shot the iron, he is called 'the base does not attack', not without reason.

He is too comprehensive, and his offense is a bit biased, but he really can't do it.

This season, he was able to play close to his peak data in the Suns, not because his offensive skills have improved.

Instead, the Suns' offensive tempo has accelerated, the number of offensive rounds has increased, and there are "four shots" built around him.

It is difficult not to increase assists and points.

In other words, Billups' defense is not necessarily too bad.

After all, Kidd is still Kidd, as stable as him, and quickly found an effective way to attack.

Next, playing Billups, he directly chose to break through with the ball.

Use the body to force kills, close shots, and score consecutive offenses.

The strength that Billups has grown at this time is really not enough.

Outside the court, Li Mu saw Kidd attacking the basket, immediately thought of Bo Wen, and shouted a few words to the court, "Let Bruce and Chauncey switch defenses, and the other tactics remain the same."

On the court, Kidd saw that the Lakers were changing defenses, and Bowen was still playing small forward. He continued to choose to break through.

Bowen's footsteps were nimble, and he jumped in front of Kidd to interfere. Kidd changed direction and accelerated. Bowen was also able to keep up, and then used a jellybean defense to make Kidd's shot go wide.

After trying twice, Kidd found that the face-to-basket attack was blocked by Bowen, and the back-up attack, the advantage in physical strength, could not crush Bowen.

I can only force the shot, and find that luck is not on my side, and the forced shot misses, so I can only distribute the ball to the outside line.

At this time, the powerful mobility of the Lakers began to show off.

The Lakers cut off Kidd's route to pass the ball inside, not just forcing Kidd to single out, but Kobe, Bowen, and Billups' perimeter defense is very strong.

Li Mu believes that with one of the best defenses in the league, allowing the Suns to shoot from outside may not kill the Lakers.

In fact, Li Mu can be confident that the Suns' outside line really can't kill the Lakers.

Not only because of Chapman and McLeod, the state of the two has declined a lot, but the Suns' running and bombing offense has too many burdens, and they did not go into battle lightly, reaching the extreme of offense.

People like to reflect, and so did the Suns.

In the 93/94 season, the Suns lost the championship in the finals, and gradually understood the importance of strengthening defense.

At the same time, there is also the ability to strengthen the inside line.

The goal is the same, that is to strengthen the defense.

In other words, this Suns team is conservative in offense now, knowing that they can only attack, but they will not win the championship, so they want to have both offense and defense.

The idea is not unreasonable, defense wins championships, offense wins tickets.

Choosing to trade to get Kidd, there is a defensive factor in Kidd.

The Suns have a tradition of running and bombing, but the introduction of Langley also wants to strengthen the defense.

In Li Mu's previous life, the 04-09 Suns team, whose offense reached its peak, won a game in the regular season.

In the end, in order to hit the championship, they also chose to compromise and strengthen their defense. Even if Minash's defense could not support them, they decided to change, and they even did not hesitate to introduce O'Neal.

As a result, the defense did not strengthen much, and the offense that could kill the strong team was lost.

The current version of the Suns, that is, the version of the Suns that introduced O'Neal, is repeating the same old path.

This is called reincarnation, and the Suns always have to face their own hearts.

The root of this lies in the poor defense, which is also the tradition of the Suns.

There is one thing to say, offense and defense, in this Suns team, do not coexist.

If you want to have both offense and defense, it will only make the team very tangled. The current Suns are very tangled offensively.

Obviously Kidd, this kind of steady point guard is not suitable for running and bombing.

Just for the sake of defense, the Suns chose to build a team with Kidd as the core.

Kidd is indeed a superstar, but he is very versatile and will not put all his energy on offense. His defense is also at the ceiling level of the league, and he does not need to bet all his victory on offense.

He is different from Nash, as stable as him, how could he choose a very risky offensive method?
The Suns also struggled to produce a suffocating offensive performance.

Not to mention, the Lakers' defense is still very strong.

Chapman and McLeod, under the frantic defense of Kobe and Billups, their shooting efficiency is not high.

On the contrary, after the Lakers defended against the Suns' offense, they quickly counterattacked and played vigorously.

The counterattack rushed, and Chapman and McLeod couldn't keep up.

Kidd kept up, but the Lakers counterattacked with three swords at once. When he came back alone, he could only wait for the serve, and the rest could only sigh!

Seeing the situation on the court, the Suns missed the outside shot and the inside offense was locked. Danny Ainge immediately replaced Longley with Clifford Robinson, added a three-pointer, and opened the inside line to let Chapman and Mike Lauder, make an air cut and play inside.

Daben started to show his powerful sweeping ability in the paint, and he was not afraid of being misplaced at all.

The Suns' tactics of cutting outside and playing inside also declared bankruptcy.

Clifford Robinson's three-pointer is also a drop in the bucket.

After the third quarter, the Suns had fallen behind by 10 points.

This is still Kidd's intention to control the rhythm. From the beginning of the third quarter, the Suns had physical problems and their shooting percentage dropped.

In this way, he can only deal with the opponent in front of him like a superstar.

The name is Bowen.

Sure enough, evasion cannot beat the Lakers.

In the next fourth quarter, Kidd chose to try to connect with the inside line. If there was no chance, he would go head-to-head with Bowen.

Bowen did not disappoint Li Mu. He defended Kidd with a candy-style defense. In the second half, Kidd made only 10 of 3 shots, 4 of 2 free throws, and only scored 8 points.

In addition, 4 points were lost when Billups defended Kidd.

hum~
With the buzzer on the scoreboard, the game time is over.

With a score of 105 to 91, the Lakers defeated the Suns by 14 points and achieved 16 consecutive victories in the new season.

……

The next night, the Lakers quickly extended their winning streak to 17.

The opponent is still the Suns.

However, the venue of the game is the Lakers' home stadium, the Great Western Forum.

After the previous night's game, the Suns led by Kidd knew that they couldn't guard O'Neal, so they chose to face O'Neal directly.

Therefore, in the next day's game, there was a way to beat O'Neal.

This task is given to the Suns inside Longley, Robinson and Kidd outside.

Kidd can break into the inside and kill O'Neal.

The reason why Kidd doesn't choose to break through is not because his breakthrough ability is not strong, but because his shooting is not good.

Regarding Kidd's defense, the league has a consensus on preventing breakthroughs and not preventing shots, and preventing passes and not preventing shots.

In this way, Kidd's breakthrough is naturally not efficient.

In order to kill O'Neal, Kidd tried his best not to have offensive efficiency, but also rushed inside to attack O'Neal.

O'Neill didn't care, as long as he rushed into the penalty area, he had to show his toughness, even if he paid for a foul, he was very happy.

Almost.

Only one foul away, Kidd and his Suns did it, pushing O'Neal to the goal of 6 fouls graduation.

There was no suspense about the result of the game. The Lakers defeated the Suns in two consecutive games 116 to 103.

……

(End of this chapter)