The strongest champion puzzle

Chapter 151
On November 11th, Zhang Xiaotian followed the team to Toronto.

The Heat's schedule at the beginning of the season was not very good. Coupled with their state and running-in, if Zhang Xiaotian hadn't cheated, they would not have won consecutive victories.

The Raptors this season are not so easy to play.

After getting Rudy Gay, the Raptors' outside trio of DeRozan, Lowry, and Rudy Gay can't be ignored on both ends of the offense and defense. In this game for the Heat, Bosh didn't have any support because of the birth of his son. come together.

Fortunately, the Raptors are an outside team, and the Heat are naturally not afraid of fighting outside.

However, Haslem replaced Bosh on the inside. Not only did the Heat completely lose their offensive power inside, but their height also dropped a lot.

That is to say, facing the Raptors, the Heat can line up this kind of lineup, because the Raptors are an outside team without a pure three-point shooter. If the Heat shrink their defense, they are not very worried that the opponent will explode outside the three-point line.

At the beginning of the game, the Raptors must have won the jump ball. They are also extremely smart to attack the inside first. Facing a lineup with obvious weaknesses, professional teams will not make mistakes in judgment.

The Raptors played well in the first few shots, but quickly found that defending small lineups is also very troublesome.

It is also because their center Valanciunas' defense ability is not very good, so James and Wade can safely kill inside.

Rudy Gay and Zhang Xiaotian also have a bit of grievances. Zhang Xiaotian is ready to talk trash, but just as worried, Rudy Gay was arranged to switch to James.

On the defensive end, James is the obvious four.

But on the offensive end, he can't actually be regarded as an insider, because he is the one who handles the ball most of the time.

In the Heat's style of play, everyone is very wide open. In many cases, there is no deep inside position. This is their threat, and they can't get out by playing big men.

Because of this, it is normal to switch defenses. Rudy Gay basically does not need to fight in the interior when defending James, which is similar to defending James at the third position.

At this time, Zhang Xiaotian, an outside player facing the Raptors' [-]th position, should stand up.

Zhang Xiaotian's own strength is not too bad now, and he can still fight if he is misplaced.

It's just that Bosh didn't play in this game. Haslem didn't have Bosh's ability to open up space. Zhang Xiaotian used his footsteps to rush the opponent and often crashed into the encirclement of the inside line.

Not only him, but other people also encountered this problem.

It's just that Wade and James are more capable, and they are not as severely restrained as Zhang Xiaotian.

It's not enough to show off with only two points, Zhang Xiaotian's weakness has also been exposed, his ability to catch and shoot is not good enough, and the running-in with James and Wade is actually still going on.

The Raptors rely on the inside to firmly occupy the advantage. Although the inside was only their fourth choice in the past, today's situation is special. Valanciunas can safely bully Haslem inside.

Spoelstra is also a champion coach. Although he is relatively rigid to Popovich, he will make adjustments when encountering problems.

He simply replaced Zhang Xiaotian and Wade, put on Ray Allen, Battier, Lewis and other shooters to cooperate with James, and used Chris Anderson inside.

This lineup can fully play the role of James, break through the ball, and have three outside shooters.

After James has led the shooters, let Wade lead. In this case, the inside only needs to defend, and Joel Anthony can also come up for a while.

In the middle, Zhang Xiaotian has also partnered with the two big guys of the team, but now this style of play, his role is relatively small.

Just relying on a simple breakthrough to score the ball, the situation on the court changed unexpectedly, and the Heat gradually took the initiative.

It's not that the Raptors can't guard against this tactic, they can't guard against James and Wade.

In the offense, they didn't hit the outside line at all. DeRozan is okay, but the mid-range should be more stable. Lowry and Rudy Gay are two iron men.

Lowry let the Heat release him for a three-pointer, and he has some problems with his touch.

Rudy Gay is habitually strong, and Dwayne Casey can't do anything about this offensive choice. It is obviously a very powerful supplement, but it always fails to achieve the effect he hoped for.

Fortunately, Terrence Ross, who came off the bench, felt okay. At halftime, the Heat only led by 2 points.

After all, their style of play is slanted forward, and without Bosh rebounding is even more of a problem. If the shooting percentage drops slightly, the Raptors may seize the opportunity.

But in the event of a flaw, the Heat have nothing more to do.

Fortunately, in addition to their offense on the outside, their defense is also top-notch. It is not easy for the Raptors to score points.

Therefore, this game will be a tough one.

In the second half, the Heat's defense began to target Valanciunas. As long as he got the ball near the penalty area, he would flank. Anyway, Valanciunas had no ability to respond.

The Raptors' response was DeRozan's singles. Wade's defense was very good, but he was a bit disadvantaged.

However, it is also difficult for DeRozan to limit Wade, and James is still unstoppable.

To limit James, you must have a defense master, and the Raptors obviously don't have this configuration.

Rudy Gay couldn't restrain James, and he was only average on the offensive end. It was Zhang Xiaotian who defended him.

James' single defense is definitely good, but the team needs his defense more, so it's best for Zhang Xiaotian to do defensive scoring.

Although he paid the price of two fouls, Zhang Xiaotian did a good job of defending. Rudy Gay still performed mediocrely even with his strength.

This is also because he has to face James' defense when he rushes in. As long as Zhang Xiaotian wraps up the opponent, Rudy Gay will naturally not be able to score as he wants.

On Rudy Gay, Zhang Xiaotian also felt his progress.

The current Rudy Gay is no longer able to maintain half of his shooting percentage in front of him like before.

The two sides were in a stalemate until the fourth quarter. At the end of the quarter, James went down to rest, and Zhang Xiaotian was replaced. The Heat are still figuring out how to use him, and the playing time is still fine-tuning.

However, when he played at the beginning of the fourth quarter and played against Wade with three substitutes, Zhang Xiaotian knew the opportunity had come.

Wade is not as sticky as James, and Zhang Xiaotian scored 4 points in a row.

The Raptors hadn't realized the danger yet, DeRozan was still resting, and Rudy Gay was locked by Zhang Xiaotian, who had activated his skills, and the Heat hit a 10:0 climax.

The Raptors coach never expected that Rudy Gay would lead the team like this.

It was too late for DeRozan to come up to save the game, because James, who had rested, scored consecutively again after playing, without giving the Raptors any chance.

The Heat finally made another victory at 105:94 and won five consecutive victories.

The only pity is that Zhang Xiaotian's mission still hasn't made any progress.

(End of this chapter)