The strongest champion puzzle

Chapter 410
"I don't know when the winning streak will end. I will try my best to help the team win every game, but I don't value the winning streak. The regular season only makes the team stronger. Our goal is the championship. Nothing else counts."

In the interview, he talked about his love for the championship, which is Zhang Xiaotian's repertoire.

He played at a core level, and other players sometimes compliment him, and those who are unhappy with him will not do too much.

On the basketball court, the winner is king. If you want to step on Zhang Xiaotian a few times, you must beat the Spurs.

The Spurs have been sitting on the No. [-] throne in the Western Conference for some time, and they don't have too many ruthless players in their schedule. It is not so easy to see the Spurs lose.

After Duncan left, it was a blessing for the Spurs to usher in Zhang Xiaotian as a hard-handed core at a critical moment.

After a three-day break, the Spurs had to play back-to-back away games, and it was an away game between the east and west, which was extremely frustrating.

Conditions are much better now than in ancient times, but it is still difficult for old players to struggle.

The two old guys, Parker and Ginobili, are Popovich's darlings, and the rotation is certain.

The first back-to-back opponent is the Bucks. Under the guidance of Kidd, the Bucks still have some improvement this season.

They were also willing to spend money in the summer, adding four million players to the lineup, but all of these players were priced at a premium.

An insider with an average of 5 points per game, a striker and a guard with an average of 7 points per game, once this price is put out, everyone will know that the Bucks are really rich.

In this way, the Bucks have three players who earn more than 1000 million as substitutes, which scares everyone to death.

The improvement of the Bucks' strength is mainly due to the growth of the new core Antetokounmpo. In the past few years, the Bucks have gathered a few good players on the front line, and the improvement in performance is expected.

The Bucks' starting four forwards, what is the inside line of the big contract, there is nowhere to use the money.

In fact, their lineup can be regarded as an excellent weapon to break a small lineup. It is highly flexible. If it weren't for the impact of injuries, they could have put up a five-forward lineup. Riley's original vision was realized in the Bucks.

In the small ball era, once the Bucks' striker lineup was put out, most teams would not be able to deal with it. If it weren't for the relatively large difference in the abilities of several strikers, the Spurs would definitely not be able to catch it.

Even now, the Spurs are at a disadvantage in the lineup.

Zhang Xiaotian and Leonard are also a bit difficult to use. They are also assisting defense. The forward players are actually faster than the real insiders. Of course, they can't handle the ruthless insiders. Aldridge and Gasol are hard to take advantage of. .

The Spurs have to deal with the Bucks' tricks, one is to open the outside line, and the other is to defend.

The team is divided into positions to perform their duties. If there are all strikers, it is much easier to target.

The Spurs are a two-pronged approach, targeted defense plus more shots from outside the three-point line.

The Spurs' three-pointer is a bit metaphysical. Many players have this skill but it feels very good. It can be used to explode but cannot be used as a conventional weapon.

The main players in the first quarter were able to fully implement the tactics, but when it came to the rotation period, it was the Bucks who took advantage, after all, there were a lot of tens of millions of substitutes.

In fact, the Spurs' current bench is also metaphysical. There is no real bench leader, that is, a sixth man with outstanding ability. Whoever is in a good state can play more.

This has produced a group of role players who can play, but no real hard roles.

After the main force came on the field, they failed to resist Antetokounmpo's dislocation advantage. The Spurs fell behind by double digits at the end of the first half.

This is really helpless. If Popovich wants to lose his temper, there should be a problem with the tactical arrangement.

However, Popovich does not intend to withdraw from the inside, and wants to play inside more targetedly.

If the opponent can't use it without an inside line, Popovich doesn't need to be called a famous coach.

Of course, Antetokounmpo still needs Leonard to match up.

After playing in the league for a few years, this young man has developed a lot of muscle and flexibility, which most people really can't handle.

Expanding the combination of offense and defense, playing inside and outside, Zhang Xiaotian and Leonard's singles with the ball must be put back.

Although Zhang Xiaotian felt that using one big and four small ones could defeat the opponent, he had to admit that it was a good way to fight like this.

This requires some strength from the inside. Aldridge and Gasol performed better than in the first half, but obviously relying on the two of them cannot recover the score.

This kind of game also has the meaning of testing the lineup, and Zhang Xiaotian can't say anything.

Anyway, in the last quarter, the Spurs will definitely use more efficient methods.

What I didn't expect was that someone showed his strength at this time, and that was Dedmond.

He didn't play until the last 4 minutes of the third quarter, but he played and scored 8 points in a row in the interior, helping the team narrow the gap between the two sides to 2 points.

It is indeed useful to break through the striker lineup inside, but the technical inside of Aldridge and Gasol is more difficult, black and hard but very easy to use, just do it directly at the basket.

It's easy to say when the score catches up. In the fourth quarter, Zhang Xiaotian turned on the offensive mode when he came on the court.

Dedmond is now noticed that it is not so easy to score, but he still grabbed offensive rebounds a few times and scored 2+1, and the scores of the two sides also turned over.

Zhang Xiaotian felt that it would be good for Dedmon to stay on the court until the end. With him and Leonard on the offensive end, it would be enough to grab shots and rebounds inside, and just dunk.

However, in a team like the Spurs, everyone has a chance for role players, but they won't be reused soon.

In the end, the team still used Aldridge and Gasol. After all, the two are higher-level players with so much salary. It is not a loss for Popovich to think of them as a good team.

But this time is already the time for stars, Zhang Xiaotian and Leonard's pick-and-roll is almost impossible to solve.

The Bucks are all forwards, so there will be no problem switching defenses, but they can't defend against them if they switch defenses or not.

And Antetokounmpo's weakness of not being stable enough in the long-range shots was also exposed. He was either Zhang Xiaotian or Leonard in front of him, and he rushed in to attack without any discussion.

In the first three quarters, he could completely overwhelm the Spurs' defense, but at the last moment, the level of defense has been raised to the extreme, and Antetokounmpo is still a little bit worse.

"As soon as Zhang Xiaotian sent the ball in, Leonard dunked the ball, perfect cooperation."

"The Spurs' two insiders were pulling out, and Zhang Xiaotian went in... Another dunk. The Spurs played too passionately today."

"Veteran Manu Ginobili's steal...Zhang Xiaotian hit a three-pointer. The Spurs have already led by 9 points. The Bucks' chances are running out."

"Beautiful ... Aldridge blocked Jabari Parker's shot, he showed his toughness."

In the last few minutes, the Spurs broke out completely on both ends of the offense and defense. After Antetokounmpo was restricted, the Bucks were already dying. Although they finally put Monroe on the court, it was obvious that even they did not adapt.

(End of this chapter)