Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 45 45. There are thousands of roads, safety first!No Speeding Minnesota!

As the game is about to start, the two sides announced the starting lineup for the game.

Suns: Nash, Quinyan Richardson, Joe Johnson, Marion, and Stoudemire.

Timberwolves: Nehbar, Madman, Salmons, Szczerbiak, and Garnett.

In this game, Luke chose to put the "alien" Cassel on the bench, and also did not put the defensive champion Hassell in the starting lineup.

One of these two people can't defend, and the other can't attack. Compared with them, Nehbar, who was born in Europe, is more suitable to match Nash.

In addition, the reason why Luke puts Salmons, who has just joined the team, in the starting lineup is mainly because Salmons has excellent single-defense ability and is more suitable for playing in a chaotic situation.

After all, the Suns' player at the small forward position is Joe Johnson. When Nehbar was forced to the No. [-] position, Luke had no better choice.

To paraphrase a sentence from later generations, besides choosing to believe in him, what else can Luke do!

The two sides jumped the ball in the middle circle, and the first offensive ball was taken by the Suns first.

As soon as the game started, the Suns moved in an orderly manner. In fact, compared with the running and bombing during chaotic battles, the threat of the Suns in positional warfare was obviously much smaller.

The positional battle of the Suns is mainly to play the high pick-and-roll of Nash and Stoudemire, and then Joe Johnson and Richardson pull apart, and Marion tries to find an opportunity to cut to the basket.

Speaking of which, D'Antoni's coaching methods are completely different. The Suns' style of play in positional warfare is very similar to when D'Antoni coached the Rockets later.

That is, Harden and Capela will play the pick-and-roll in the high position, and the others will all pull away. As for who will complete the final end point, it will depend entirely on Harden's choice.

This is the case with the Suns at present, Nash is the absolute commander of this team, but Stoudemire's ability to attack the basket is far stronger than Capela, which also makes Stoudemire and Nash's pick-and-roll become more difficult. more threatening.

Using the pick-and-roll, Nash began to break through from the left to the inside, while Stoudemire began to cut to the basket at the same time.

As an inside player with a height of 80 meters, Stoudemire's athletic ability is definitely the top in history, especially when playing the center position, Stoudemire's mobility is higher than that of more than [-]% of the league's centers .

However, in this game, it was "Peak" Garnett who was responsible for defending Stoudemire, which made it impossible for Stoudemire to get rid of Garnett's defense at all. Opportunity to attack the basket.

I'm afraid the only thing Garnett needs to worry about is whether Nehbar can keep up with Nash after the pick-and-roll, so that Nash can't easily kill the game with a throw.

"boom!"

Stoudemire's attack position was completely blocked by Garnett in advance, so this ball Nash used a trick of horseback archery to try his hand, but unfortunately, the ball was slightly stronger, and it hit the neck of the basket and bounced out of the frame .

Stuck on Stoudemire, Garnett used his terrifying height and wingspan to protect the backboard.

Garnett, who took off the backboard, looked straight ahead. At this time, Madman and Salmons had already rushed to the frontcourt, following the instructions of head coach Luke to play a fast break without thinking.

As for the task of protecting the rebound, Garnett, Szczerbiak and Nehbar jointly completed it.

Seeing Salmons, who was in an extremely prominent return position, Garnett threw a long pass directly in the backcourt.

However, the mobility of this Suns team is also very strong. In other words, this Suns team is the most defensive and counterattack team this season. Even the Timberwolves coached by Luke are a bit weaker in this regard.

So when Garnett raised his hand to pass the ball in the backcourt, Richardson had already returned to the half court immediately, getting stuck in the receiving route of Salmons and Madman ahead of time and preparing to steal.

I saw Salmons, who was running forward, turned his head and jumped high, using his height advantage to barely catch the pass over Richardson's head.

But at the same time, it also disrupted Salmons' offensive rhythm, causing Salmons to almost fall to the ground and make a mistake.

"Damn it, you rookie, so what if you catch the ball, you can only make mistakes." His body was close to Salmons, and Richardson was using small movements with his hands while interfering with Sal with his mouth. Mons.

Ignoring Richardson's taunt, Salmons took a look at the madman who was behind him, gritted his teeth, and went inside to kill Richardson.

Salmons's aura is quite a sense of rushing to the basket with a pack of explosives.

"Bang!"

"beep!"

Under the continuous interference of Richardson's hand movements, Salmons's jump height was insufficient, and he dunked the ball directly on the neck of the basket and lost his balance.

However, at the same time as the hammering sound, there was the whistle of the baseline referee. The referee blew Richardson for a foul. Even though he failed to score a defensive counterattack, Salmons still got two free throw opportunities.

"No! How could I have fouled this ball, the movements of my hands have been explained very cleanly."

"Obviously he was speeding up too fast and lost his balance. This is really a bad call!" He walked towards the referee angrily, and Richardson felt unreasonable about the referee's call.

But the referee ignored Richardson, just glanced at him and walked to the bottom line to signal Salmons to make a free throw.

"Shu~"

"Shu~"

As Salmons made two free throws at the free throw line, Salmons, who retreated to the backcourt, blew his whistle when he passed Richardson, and then replied with a proud face: "You You're right, catching the ball wasn't great because I only got two points."

"Damn it, you're looking for death!" Richardson gave Salmons a vicious look, obviously disgusted that the rookie dared to mock him.

In the offensive round of the Suns, the Suns, who fell into positional warfare again, still played the same way, but the Timberwolves' lineup is too good in terms of mobility and defensive ability.

This makes it difficult for the Suns to get opportunities just by relying on speed and pick-and-rolls, especially when Stoudemire is being taken care of by Garnett, the Suns are somewhat passive in the situation.

"Shua~" After receiving Nash's breakthrough goal, this time Richardson made a steady three-pointer from the right corner.

"Rookie, you managed to piss me off. As I said, you are looking for death!" Richardson said with disdain after hitting a three-pointer.

"I'm not a rookie." Salmons pouted with a strange expression.

Nehbar held the ball through halftime. Although Kassel was pushed on the bench by Luke, the Timberwolves were still on the court.

It's just that the starting point of this set of tactics has become Nehbar, and the main attack point has also become weird, from the original Garnett and Malone to Garnett and Szczerbiak.

The ball was handed over to Garnett, and then Nehbar suddenly ran to the left unreasonably, and shouted for his teammates to pull away.

This scene on the field made Salmons fall into a short state of stupefaction, because Nehbar's position seemed to be different from what coach Luke ordered before the game.

But Garnett, who was standing in a high position with the ball, understood Nehbar's thoughts immediately, turned his head and roared at Salmons viciously: "Pull away!"

Hearing Kevin Garnett's roar, Salmons could no longer ignore Luke's orders, and immediately pulled away from Madman and others to the right.

After all, Salmons knows very well that Garnett is definitely something he can't mess with on this team.

After everyone pulled away, Garnett directly passed a lob pass to Nehbar who wanted the ball in the low post, and then pulled himself to the right side, giving Nehbar the space on the left side.

Holding the ball with his back to Nash, Nehbar did not hesitate at all, nor did he give the Suns time to react. At the moment when he used his strength to push Nash away, Nehbar directly used his signature European turn to open up space with Nash, directly Finished with a basket lick.

As Nehbar saw the opportunity in this round and used his weight advantage to play Nash in the low post, the Timberwolves fans at home burst into cheers immediately, and even Luke, who was sitting off the field, gave his disciples applause.

Nehbar played this ball very smartly. When Nehbar observed that Stoudemire was called out of the restricted area and the Suns restricted area was in an open state, Nehbar immediately used his body to force Nash.

Nash couldn't help frowning, and asked Marion from the bottom line why he didn't come to help defend.

Nash's weight is 88 kilograms. Compared with Nehbar, the two are not at the same level at all, especially in the physical confrontation at the basket just now. Nehbar's collision almost knocked Nash out half a meter.

This physical disadvantage really made Nash helpless.

In the next period of time, the two teams fell into anxiety, but there is one thing that the two teams have a tacit understanding, that is, once the outside offense misses the shot, the whole team will withdraw the defense immediately, and would rather give up offensive rebounds than choke the opponent. defensive counterattack.

Luke did a lot better than D'Antoni in this regard. D'Antoni at least left Stoudemire and Marion fighting for rebounds in the frontcourt, and then the other three returned to defense immediately.

But after the Timberwolves' offense, everyone retreated to the backcourt, even Garnett was no exception. It was clear that he completely gave up offensive rebounds and focused on the "seven-second offense" that pinched the Suns.

This scene made Suns coach D'Antoni's teeth itch off the court, and he couldn't help but look at Luke many times. If eyes can kill, I believe Luke can already choose a graveyard with D'Antoni.

Obviously, the Suns who can't play the run-and-gun tactics are equivalent to cutting off their own arms. Not only is the firepower on the offensive end sharply reduced, but they will also be crazily targeted by the Timberwolves on the defensive end.

After all, the overall defensive ability of the Suns is very poor. In most cases, they have to rely on Sean Marion's help defense. Others' single defense ability is so-so.

Especially when the Timberwolves also deployed five small lineups, and their mobility was no worse than that of the Suns, this kind of play without rebounding at all made D'Antoni drunk.

D'Antoni has always believed that his coaching philosophy is ten years ahead of those old-timers in the league. In those old-fashioned stereotypes, he still stays in the thinking of rebounding big, weak three-pointers, champion inside, and soft outside.

But in this game, D'Antoni met a lunatic, a guy crazier than himself! !

He even chose to give up the rebounds completely and resolutely press the Suns' quick whirlwind, which made D'Antoni a little at a loss. Strictly speaking, D'Antoni has never seen this situation.

"This guy is a lunatic!" D'Antoni said with a blushing face, gritting his teeth while standing off the court.

Throughout the first quarter, the Suns tried every means to speed up, and the Timberwolves tried every means to stop the Suns from speeding up. This is the epitome of the first quarter of the game between the two sides.

After the first quarter, the Timberwolves not only led the Suns by five points, but also limited the Suns, who ranked first in the league in offensive firepower this season, to only 19 points, which made many fans watching the game unbelievable.

The Suns, who rank first in the league in scoring per game, only scored 19 points in a single quarter!
The promised Mars hit the Earth?The promised epic battle?
As a result, that's it? !

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(End of this chapter)