I didn't want to fly away

Chapter 93 Three Points Lost, Streak Ended

The Clippers' defensive resources are not bad, but after a month of consecutive victories, many people are complacent and slack on the defensive end.

Now Dunleavy emphasizes defense, and the Clippers players are gradually getting serious.

The Clippers still played a three-two defense tactic, and directly played the Magic in a 6-0 spurt at the beginning of the second quarter.

But Big Van Gundy also has two brushes. If the situation is wrong, he will not be as indifferent as Little Van Gundy.

As the Magic took the lead in calling a timeout, the direction of the game changed again.

The Magic's basic semi-circle tactics, that is, 1 inside and 4 outside, one star shoots all directions, outside shooters are distributed outside the three-point line, and the penalty area is cleared and handed over to Howard.

When the rest of the Magic stand on the outside, constantly scoring points to pull the Clippers' defense, and Howard has a speed advantage against Kaman, the Magic has a very strong offensive point under the basket.

In the past, Howard was used as a super blue-collar, but with the support of the semi-circle tactics, Howard has the strength to play inside even if he has no basket.

Kaman is taller than Howard, but Howard can still run, jump and drill under the basket.

That is to say, Howard does not have the strength advantage to hit Kaman with his back, otherwise Howard would get up and dunk with two hard punches.

Now that Kaman can't be carried, Howard will use his brain and footsteps, and finally get to the basket and finish with a small hit.

Relying on Howard's fire support at the basket, the Magic finally took a breather.

Although it has not yet reached the critical moment, the Clippers know that it is time to fight the bayonet.

The Magic's offense relies on touch, but its defense is definitely not bad.

Against a team like the Clippers that is good at outside shooting, the Magic has abundant defensive resources.

Iverson handed the ball to Lu Yi after halftime, and as soon as Lu Yi got the ball, he faced the two double-teaming directly.

For other teams, Lu Yi can find opportunities to break the double-team with a pass.

But playing the Magic is not enough. The Magic can also resort to semi-circle tactics on the defensive end.

As long as it is not the opponent's point guard holding the ball, the Magic wing players can directly double-team the ball holder.

The double-team may miss the corner, but as long as the shot cannot be made in time, Howard will quickly help out.

What is the No. [-] pick?Even if Howard is a rough guy, he is still the No. [-] pick who can run and jump with top physical talent!

Relying on Howard's running and jumping ability, as long as the defensive enthusiasm of outside players is shown, the Magic's defense will not be bad.

Because of this, as early as the intermission, Dunleavy emphasized to Lu Yi that Lu Yi should make a decisive move in this game, and he must not hesitate.

Because today's match against the Magic is very likely to be the defensive strength encountered in the playoffs in the future.

Lu Yi doesn't have the ability to play tough singles and hard solutions in the face of double-teams, so the team can't go far.

Therefore, Lu Yi will be under a lot of pressure today, but if he can get over it, he will gain a lot.

No way, Lu Yi also wants to play a reasonable ball.

But although offense is encouraged these years, defense has not been weakened by rules and referees to almost non-existence.

If Lu Yi wants to ensure his outside shooting percentage and carry the team forward with offense, he has to make more Kobe-style strong shots.

Facing the double-teaming of Carter and Redick, Lu Yi tried to turn his back to get rid of the defense, but Carter reached out to destroy Lu Yi's dribble, and Lu Yi felt the pressure with luck.

There is no way, Lu Yi immediately changed direction to open up a little space, and then faced the frame to find the position of the basket, which quickly made a strong shot.

Lu Yi was able to find a mobile phone opportunity this time, which was considered a success.

It's just that if you want to convert your shots into points, you need to work harder.

Duang——

Hard work!
Not finding five top points, and not shooting along the three-point line, but about two steps away from the three-point line, Lu Yi's three-point ability has also been weakened a lot.

What's more, this was a hasty shot under double-teaming, and the shooting rhythm was somewhat destroyed.

Fortunately, Lu Yi hit the iron, but his teammates were strong.

The rebound formed by shooting a super long three-pointer is easy to bounce out. The Magic sent two people to cover Lu Yi at the top arc, and there was no one within a step or two of the top arc three-point line.

Howard did rush out from the inside, but the rebound was still controlled by Thornton.

Coincidentally, Howard came out, and Thornton rushed in.

However, Howard's return to defense was too fast. Thornton attacked the basket strongly, but he took the initiative to find a confrontation but was overturned by Howard from the air.

beep--

The referee blew the whistle, and later made two free throws. Thornton may have lost the confrontation, and the fall was affected, and he missed both free throws.

This made the Clippers miss the chance to overtake the score.

The Magic attacked again, still using a semicircle tactic, handing the ball to Howard as much as possible.

Howard did not disappoint Van Gundy, and once again scored the ball after a confrontation at the basket.

Dunleavy also called a timeout when he saw that the situation was wrong.

A dead horse is used as a living horse doctor. Dunleavy felt that since Howard can run and jump and is so tough, he can only send Jordan on the field.

If it is Jordan in his peak period, he may be able to carry it with Howard in the same period.

But now Jordan doesn't know how to play, but Howard has entered his peak period.

The young Jordan at the peak can't beat Howard at the end of his peak, let alone Howard who can now replace James alone.

Jordan still couldn't guard Howard after he came on the court, but the rebound protection played a certain role.

Dunleavy had nothing to do with Howard, so he gave Jordan some opportunities.

Fortunately, the decisive factor in this game is not the inside line.

Even with tactical support, Howard's scoring is still limited.

The key to the Magic's victory lies in the stable output from the outside. It just so happens that the Clippers also rely on the outside to win.

But today, Lu Yi is a little stretched.

From frugality to luxury is easy, from luxury to frugality.

Before Lu Yi practiced a few strong shots, the opponents he met later did not double-team.

With a single defense that is not strong, Lu Yi easily played 30+ performances in three quarters.

Today I suddenly increased the intensity, but I really couldn't adapt to it.

The most important thing is that Lu Yi is a bit obsessed, and so is Dunleavy.

Fans of the authorities, the coaching staff of the Clippers think that Lu Yi has no problem shooting three-pointers. After a while, the feel will return.

However, Lu Yi just failed to bottom out today.

The harder Lu Yi hit the iron, the more he wanted to hit a three-pointer, the harder he shot, and he wanted to get rid of his demons, but he fell to the bottom.

In the second quarter, Lu Yi made 12 three-pointers without knowing it, but only hit 3 of them.

If the scoring efficiency is like this throughout the game, basically he can only lead the team to compete for the No. [-] pick.

It was under the influence of Lu Yi's poor performance that the Clippers' morale was frustrated, and their overall performance was not very good.

The second quarter continued to lose points. After the first half, it was already 55 to 43, a full 12 points behind.

With the start of the third quarter, Iverson and Scola used the mid-range to help the team narrow the point difference to less than 10 points, and Lu Yi, who was watching the game off the court, came back to his senses.

The ability to break double teams and hard solutions must be practiced, but this does not mean blindly shooting three-pointers. It is also necessary to try to shoot a few mid-range shots and connect some breakthroughs.

Since Lu Yi is about to be double-teamed two or three steps away from the three-point line, let the ball be handled by others first, such as Iverson.

When the rest of the Clippers can score points and involve the Magic's defensive energy, Lu Yida can step up to the pick-and-roll to respond, and then shoot from the middle distance to destroy the defense.

Lu Yi, who re-entered the field in the second half of the third quarter, broke his personal scoring drought. He made 2 mid-range shots in a row, allowing the Magic to quickly adjust their defense.

After that, Lu Yi started to shoot three-pointers again, and at least he made 4 of 2 three-pointers.

It's a pity that Lu Yi adjusted his state, but other teammates failed to seize the open opportunity because they couldn't touch the ball for a long time and didn't feel good.

After the third quarter, Iverson and Lu Yi have been busy for a long time, and the point difference still widened by 1 point.

Falling behind for three consecutive quarters, the morale of the Clippers dropped to freezing point.

Maybe even Dunleavy felt discouraged. Before the fourth quarter, the usual blood was gone.

In the fourth quarter, the Clippers played with their ability, but the Magic beat the dog in the water.

Lu Yi felt that the touch had returned, but the facts showed that it did not.

After a while of shooting 6 of 2 three-pointers, Lu Yi handed over the ball again, looking for opportunities to catch the ball and shoot.

Maybe it was because his teammates wanted to get off work early, or to make up points during garbage time, but Lu Yi didn't get the ball for a while.

In the end, seeing that the point difference was heading towards 15 points, Lu Yi was no longer struggling.

"Think of it as being lazy for a while today!"

Lu Yi's mentality is not bad, the regular season is still long, and the winning streak cannot continue forever.

One day, the winning streak will come to an end.

The Clippers did not lose to bad teams, nor did they lose to Western Conference teams.

Losing to last season's Finals team, now the number one Magic in the Eastern Conference, is not a shame.

(End of this chapter)