Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 201 201. Holding the match point, Payton is injured (two-in-one chapter)

In the second quarter, the gap was widened instantly after the substitute players of the two sides came on the field.

The Timberwolves are one of the teams with the deepest lineup among the [-] teams in the league this season. Iguodala, Ariza, and Gerald Wallace are all proper starters in other teams.

And this season's Timberwolves have achieved a true offensive and defensive balance. Both the starting lineup and the bench lineup have excellent defensive blockers, which allows the Timberwolves to get more opportunities for offensive and defensive conversions on the court.

As for the Denver Nuggets, although Steve Blake, JR Smith and Kleiza are also sitting on the bench, head coach George Karl does not trust JR Smith and Kleiza.

The average playing time of the two players in the first round of the playoffs is about 12 minutes per game, which is extremely marginalized in George Karl's system.

Only Blake can officially enter George Karl's rotation on the entire Nuggets bench. In a sense, the Nuggets are a six-man rotation.

In the first round of the playoffs, Blake averaged 32 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists in 4 minutes per game.

This is already the most capable player on the Nuggets' bench, but in the eyes of the Timberwolves, it seems a bit small.

In the first half of the second quarter, George Karl still played his deadly and manipulative coaching style, allowing Anthony and Nehbar to rush back to the court after only a short rest of just over a minute.

George Karl's performance made many Timberwolves fans start to ridicule that George Karl is a basketball coach who uses paper talk to the extreme.

Before the start of the semifinals, in the face of media interviews, George Karl said a lot of things to pay attention to in this round of the series with the Timberwolves. At the same time, he said that the Nuggets' tactical system will cause trouble for the Timberwolves.

As a result, once the two sides played against each other, George Karl's so-called winning theories all became deadly main players.

The fans did not see George Karl making any changes in this round of the series. The fans only saw George Karl standing on the sidelines with his hands pinched on his waist, looking helpless and furious, and saw Nehbar struggling to lead the team forward by himself. .

Throughout the second quarter, the Timberwolves with a stronger lineup gradually took the initiative on the court. Even if Nehbar was still on the court, the Timberwolves quickly completed the crushing of the situation.

Luke is very aware of the personal flaws of his former disciple. In addition to his lack of physical confrontation on the field, physical strength is Nehbar's biggest enemy.

European basketball pays attention to team basketball, and there are very few games that bring individual heroism to the extreme.

And the training style of European basketball is also different from that of the United States. As the star of the team, Anthony can play for 44 minutes under the high-intensity confrontation of the playoffs and still be alive and well, but it is difficult for Nehbar to do this.

Just as Spanoulis can only play a maximum of 30 minutes in this confrontation in the playoffs, the rapid loss of physical strength makes it difficult for players to maintain a high level of competition.

Luke, who knows that Nehbar can't play for a long time, rotates normally, and he didn't mess up because George Karl took the main force in advance.

As Spanoulis and Iguodala played together in the second quarter, the Timberwolves extended their lead to 11 points at halftime.

…………

"The performance of the Nuggets in the first half was too passive. They have been led by the rhythm of the Timberwolves to play, and in the end they did not take advantage of both offensive and defensive ends."

"Especially the head coach George disappointed me very much. The Timberwolves' defense obviously restrained the Nuggets' offensive system. As a result, George still maintained the original team's style of play."

"Even if the current Nuggets lineup does not have much room for adjustment, I am still disappointed by George's choice of only increasing the playing time of the main players." In the studio, Charles Barkley said shaking his head.

As we all know, Barkley and Kenny Smith have been partners for a long time, and they are even called golden partners by fans.

But one of the two hates the Timberwolves very much, and the other likes the Timberwolves very much. Whenever they comment on a Timberwolves game, the two will inevitably disagree when sitting in the studio.

In this round of the series, Barkley didn't expect the Nuggets to upset the Timberwolves. After all, there is still a certain gap between the two teams, but the performance of the Nuggets still makes Barkley feel depressed.

"Yes, the performance of the Nuggets is really unsatisfactory. On the contrary, the Timberwolves have made a lot of preparations for this round of the series."

"Luke would have taken a risk starting first-year rookie Paul Millsap in this game."

"Even if Paul was mature enough in the first round of the playoffs, Paul hasn't really experienced the playoffs after all."

"But at present, Luke's bold attempt has worked."

"I boldly predict that the Timberwolves will still sweep this round of the series 4:0. Unless Carmelo can feel hot in a certain game and use his personal ability to blow up Ron's matchup, it will be difficult for the Nuggets to win this round of the series. Win the game." Looking at Barkley with a smile on his face, Kenny Smith said with a hidden knife in his words.

At the end of the half, Paul Millsap, who was pushed into the starting position by Luke, performed well, especially on the defensive end against Nene. Millsap allowed Nene to score only 6 points in the first half, which obviously reached the goal of Luke gram expectations.

And Millsap also hit a mid-range shot on the left and right sides, plus two free throws and two free throws, Millsap also contributed 6 points and 5 rebounds, which is satisfactory on both ends of the offense and defense.

…………

In the second half, Nuggets coach George Karl responded to Anthony being guarded by Artest.

George Karl has served as a basketball coach in the NBA for 20 years. He also led the Bucks to a high-energy record of 64 wins and 18 losses.

In terms of personal ability, George Karl is definitely not an idiot, but George Karl's biggest problem is that his coaching style is too rigid, and he relies too much on the personal performance of the stars, and the relationship with the players is not handled properly.

In this game, Anthony can't take advantage of the matchup with Artest at all. Artest's defensive ability is too strong, whether it is strength or lateral speed, it makes Anthony feel tricky.

Artest's comprehensive defensive end makes Anthony do not know how to start, even if Anthony's offensive methods are very rich, he can't break through Artest's iron wall.

Anthony's offensive methods in this period are nothing more than a three-threat jumper, a breakthrough with the ball in the face, and a turnaround jumper after using his back to push the defender away.

These three offensive methods allowed Anthony to average 28.9 points per game this season, ranking third in the league.

However, unlike other defensive players, Artest's defense is extremely aggressive, sticking to Anthony on the defensive end, actively passing power to Anthony, trying to interfere with Anthony's shooting rhythm.

And Artest's lateral speed is also very quick, Anthony would have some difficulty getting past Artest in one-on-one.

And once Anthony and inside players frequently play pick-and-rolls, the Nuggets' offensive system will undergo some changes, making the game gradually enter the rhythm of the Timberwolves.

It is precisely because of this that Anthony's performance in the first half was so bad that fans could not see that this was a game played by the league's best scorer.

In the second half, in order to make Anthony play more comfortably on the offensive end, George Karl gave up his plan to let Anthony continue to attack with the ball, and instead let Anthony play off the ball, using the pick-and-roll as a catch-and-shoot role.

Although catching and shooting is not Anthony's strong point, switching to playing off the ball allows Anthony to avoid Artest's defensive interference to the greatest extent.

Especially when teammates frequently make off-the-ball pick-and-rolls for Anthony on the offensive end, Anthony's offensive opportunities will be greatly increased, thereby relieving Nehbar's offensive pressure and taking on the heavy responsibility of the team's counterattack in the second half.

However, George Karl's idea is good, but this season's Timberwolves have a variety of defensive changes.

Seeing the Nuggets' offensive change after returning from the second half, Luke took advantage of the dead ball stage to directly win Millsap and put Gerald Wallace back on the starting lineup.

Luke's substitution made Nuggets coach George Karl couldn't help frowning, wondering what Luke was thinking again.

It wasn't until the game restarted that George Karl knew he had underestimated the Timberwolves' defense.

I saw that after Gerald Wallace came on the field, the Timberwolves chose to switch defenses as soon as they faced the Nuggets' off-ball pick-and-roll.

Except for Ben Wallace who never came out of the penalty area, and Allen Iverson going around the pick-and-roll, everyone else faced the Nuggets' pick-and-roll must change every pick-and-roll, and resolutely refused to give Anthony any chance to shoot.

As long as Ben Wallace goes to the penalty area, it is a deterrent, which is equivalent to cutting off one of the Nuggets' offensive options, so that the Nuggets dare not easily rush to the inside.

Now the Timberwolves have used unlimited defenses to start catching and shooting the Nuggets, which has made the Nuggets' offensive environment worse and worse.

We can only temporarily change the strategy and let Nene use the tonnage advantage to single Gerald Wallace.

Watching Nene play back-up singles for two consecutive offensive rounds, Luke stood off the court with his arms crossed, and there was no trace of tension on his face.

In the first round of the playoffs, Nene contributed an average of 15.2 points per game. He shot close to 60% from the mid-range on both sides, but Nene was not a scorer.

Once the Timberwolves can limit the performance of Anthony and Nehbar at the same time, even if Nene scores 20 or even 30 points, it will not affect the game.

So even though Gerald Wallace was eaten raw by Nene for two consecutive offensive rounds after he came on the field, he couldn't see any emotion on Luke's face, as if he acquiesced to this result.

Throughout the second half, Nene seized the opportunity to play more and more smoothly. Nene, who scored only six points in the first half, scored 9 points in a single quarter in the third quarter.

However, Nene's outstanding performance not only failed to help the team narrow the score, but at the end of the third quarter, the Timberwolves extended their lead to 15 points.

Looking at the game situation that gradually began to escape his control, George Karl's face was a little ugly. I don't know if it was because he was not as good as others, or Anthony's performance was too stretched. In short, George Karl's face was as pale as diarrhea.

George Karl, who was unconvinced in the last quarter, also tried to counterattack, but the Timberwolves, who have always played steadily, did not give the Nuggets any chance.

With Iverson teaming up with Artest to play a 9:0 climax, the Timberwolves extended their lead to 25 points and officially announced that the game has entered garbage time.

"Dududu~"

At the end of the game, the Timberwolves beat the Nuggets by 27 points at home. In the second half, they almost contained the Nuggets' counterattack momentum in a textbook way.

Throughout the game, Iverson single-handedly broke the Nuggets' defense, even more easily than the Utah Jazz in the first round.

In the face of Nehbar and others' defense in turn, Iverson scored 41 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals, taking scoring to the extreme.

除此之外球队中锋本华莱士也在比赛中力压马库斯坎比，用一份7分16篮板4助攻2抢断6封盖的数据告诉球迷谁才是最佳防守球员。

And three of these six blocks were directly given to the two-meter-tall Marcus Camby, which can be said to have brought Marcus Camby back to his original form in one game.

Compared with Ben Wallace's outstanding performance, Camby only scored 38 points, 5 rebounds and 11 blocked shots in 2 minutes of appearance.

Looking at the data alone, Camby, who is a blue-collar center, is still so-so, but the fans who watched the game all the time knew how weak Camby was in the matchup with Ben Wallace.

The penalty area ended weakly, and the rebound was stuck and swayed left and right by Da Ben, completely looking like a softie.

Marcus Camby, who was originally in the contract year, is likely to get the next contract with an annual salary of more than [-] million yuan, but after this battle, the market value of Camby can be said to have dropped significantly, and the [-] million yuan contract that was about to be obtained was abruptly rejected. Ben Wallace hit fly.

The most depressing thing is that this kind of fight, which is obviously not at the same level, will be staged for many consecutive games in the future, which makes Marcus Camby very depressed, and even has fear in his heart.

…………

In the next two games, George Karl made some tentative adjustments to the lineup, but the results the Nuggets gained were not optimistic.

After losing two consecutive games, the Timberwolves held the match point and rewritten the big score to 3:0.

3:0 basically meant that the Nuggets were ruled out in advance.

The only bad thing is that "The Glove" Payton accidentally sprained his ankle in the third game of the series and is expected to be absent for a period of time, at least the "Glove" Payton will not appear in the game against the Nuggets in G4.

Payton's injury still caused some Timberwolves fans to worry. After all, the Timberwolves already lacked Kevin Garnett. If "Glove" Payton can't play due to injury, it will have a very big impact on the entire team's defensive system. Influence.

So far, Payton, who has entered the playoffs, has averaged 9.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.7 steals per game, and his three-point shooting percentage has reached 43%, setting a career high in the playoffs.

Although Payton's personal data is no longer as good as it was at his peak, many of Payton's contributions on the court cannot be reflected in the data.

Whether it is defensive experience or control of the rhythm of the game, Payton is one of the best point guards in the league today.

The Timberwolves' defensive pressure will go up a notch when Payton is on the floor, an area that neither Spanoulis nor Iguodala can fill.

Fortunately, "The Glove" Payton's injury is not serious. The suggestion given by the team doctor is to rest for one to two weeks, and he can catch up with the Western Conference Finals at the latest.

In this round of the series, whether Payton plays or not, it will be difficult for the Nuggets to make waves.

To be conservative, Luke is not eager for Payton to come back. At least before the Timberwolves get into trouble, Payton can sit on the court to recuperate.

　Ask for a monthly ticket, ask for a recommendation ticket, thank you, third child!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)