Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 77 77. Have you started yet?No, it's over!
After the start of the game, the Sonics got the ball first. The starting lineup of the Sonics in this game is: Ridnour, Ray Allen, Daniels, Lewis, and Jerome James.

The Timberwolves are: Cassel, Madman, Szczerbiak, Garnett, and "Sugar Man" Olowokandi.

From the point of view of the starting lineup, the Sonics are obviously an outside attacking team. In the starting power forward position, the Sonics head coach McMillan chose Rashad Lewis.

Rather than the twin towers of Reggie Evans and Jerome James that were occasionally used during the regular season.

Even though Lewis has extremely poor defensive ability at the power forward position, the key is that this lineup can play the strongest offensive firepower of the Supersonics.

If Lewis is allowed to play the third position and Daniels won the starting lineup, the Sonics' offensive options will be too monotonous, and Ray Allen and Lewis can only use their personal abilities to play singles.

After all, the player Reggie Evans basically has no offensive ability, except for rebounding, he is completely useless.

Seeing that McMillan still insisted on his regular starting lineup, Luke, who was sitting off the court, had a smile on his lips.

Luke can naturally understand McMillan's thoughts. This lineup is the strongest lineup for the Supersonics, and it is the best match for the Supersonics.

With the Sonics clearly at a disadvantage throughout the series, McMillan decided to use offense to dominate the game.

Anyway, on the defensive end, they definitely can't defend against the indiscriminate bombing of the Timberwolves. Instead of trying to balance the offensive and defensive ends, it is better to maximize the offensive and see if they can win a few games with a slanted front.

This kind of thinking is naturally no problem for McMillan, who has a steady coaching style and is unwilling to make attempts.
But in Luke's eyes, Jerome James' reputation is not alone in this round of the series. Looking at it now, Lewis may also fall into the abyss.

After all, Lewis is tall enough to play a power forward, but his weight and defensive ability are too hip. In this group of individual matchups with Garnett, even if two Lewis are tied together, it is impossible to prevent Garnett. This "Wolf King".

Originally, Lewis' offensive efficiency in the first round of the playoffs attracted dissatisfaction from many fans, and was labeled "Seattle Iron King" by fans.

If Lewis is also beaten on the defensive end in this round of the series, Luke thinks that this guy will most likely be depressed.

.........

At first, the Supersonics did not open up the situation by running from Ray Allen and Lewis as before.

On the contrary, after the pick-and-roll, Ridnor directly hoisted the ball to Jerome James who wanted the ball in the low post. It seemed that Jerome James wanted to single out the "sugar man" in the interior and take the lead in opening the offense from the interior.

Facing the "Sugar Man" with his back, Jerome James is now full of confidence. The first round of the series against the Kings made Jerome James feel a little ecstatic. He even thought that he was the No. [-] player in the Western Conference even better than Yao Ming. Center!

"I really don't know why you came up to defend me, you parallel importer!"

Hearing Jerome James' ridicule, "Sugar Man" didn't respond out loud. Over the years, "Sugar Man" has long been used to words like the number one scholar in parallel imports, and now the "Sugar Man" is completely immune to hearing them.

For Olowokandi, the most important thing now is to complete the tasks assigned to him by head coach Luke. This game is the first time that Olowokandi has been put on the starting lineup by Luke. Work hard to play this game well!

"boom!"

As Jerome James slammed into Olowokandi fiercely with his back, Jerome James, who was originally mocking, suddenly changed his face.

Jerome James realized that he hadn't taken advantage of his strength at all. When he pushed his back, "Sugar Man" not only remained motionless, but the force returned made Jerome James feel numb in his shoulders!

Gritting his teeth and continuing to gouge hard with his back, Jerome James finally recognized the strength of Olowokandi after many consecutive physical confrontations failed to push the "Sugar Man".

In the end, Jerome James had no choice but to turn around and use a throw to complete the offense.

"Snapped!"

But just when Jerome James found that his strength was completely immobile, and he turned around and used a throw to make a shot, Jerome James only saw a black shadow rushing out of his eyes.

Then the basketball flew directly to the backcourt as if it was capped by a volleyball ball. This time, Olowokandi blocked the block very hard and slapped the ball far away.

At the same time, it also made Jerome James dizzy. For a moment, Jerome James didn't know what happened just now!
Seeing Olowokandi's volleyball hat, the madman with an excellent offensive sense rushed to the front court immediately.

When the basketball was about to roll off the bottom line, the madman who was sprinting with all his strength picked up the basketball and completed an unguarded dunk with both hands!

The madman's reaction to this ball was very fast. The moment "sugar man" raised his hand to block the shot, the madman seemed to start sprinting in front of the court.

Obviously, the madman has formed muscle memory in Luke's counterattack tactics. As long as the enemy team makes a shot in the offensive round, the madman will immediately launch a fast break.

This kind of behavior has become a habit unintentionally, making the madman the best defensive counterattacker in the league this season!
Even Minnesota fans have a new title for the madman, called "Charging Wolf"!
As Olowokandi sent a big hat on the defensive end, and the madman understood and rushed forward to send a counterattack, the entire Timberwolves arena instantly became lively, and crazy shouts came from the fans.

It seems that the Timberwolves have brought the atmosphere of the home court up just after the opening game, forming a crush on the Supersonics in terms of momentum.

"Damn it!" Jerome James gritted his teeth and glared at "Sugar Man".

"I advise you to keep your mouth shut before my teammates go crazy." Olowokandi pouted slightly disdainfully.

The words of "sugar man" reminded Jerome James of something, and Jerome James swallowed the words that were on his lips.

It wasn't until this time that Jerome James realized that although "Sugar Man" was a face-melon, none of his teammates were good at it!
If it really arouses the anger of the Timberwolves, Jerome James doesn't think he can walk off the court intact.

"You're a guy who can only rely on his teammates!" Jerome James underestimated in a sour tone.

It was still a supersonic offensive round. This time Jerome James did not take the initiative to ask for the ball in the low post. I don’t know if the block from the "Sugar Man" left a psychological shadow on James. In short, James did not ask for the ball at all in this offensive round. mean.

According to the tactics, the Supersonics kept using off-the-ball pick-and-rolls to run positions on the offensive end, but Luke defended a small-scale zone defense against the Supersonics' offensive habits in this game.

And it is also an area defense that can change defenses infinitely!
This defensive position is a bit similar to the defensive style of the later Lakers when they won the championship. With Anthony Davis as the core of the defense, others compress the opponent's shooting space through constant switching and rotation.

It's just that Anthony Davis of this Timberwolves has become a better defensive Kevin Garnett!

Facing the Timberwolves' mad dog defense like jellybeans, the Sonics couldn't get a chance on the offensive end. In the end, Ray Allen barely made a jumper from the mid-range position.

"boom!"

Following this emergency stop jump shot, Jerome James and Olowokandi started a fierce battle for positioning at the basket, but James' position is obviously much better than that of "Sugar Man".

Seeing the offensive rebound flying in his direction, Jerome James showed ecstasy on his face, but before Jerome James took off, he saw a pair of black hands stretched out from his head, and the rebound that fell to his mouth The ball was snatched abruptly!

Protecting the backcourt rebound, Garnett glanced at the frontcourt out of the corner of his eye, saw the madman's position without any hesitation, and threw a long pass directly to the frontcourt!
After receiving the pass, the Madman stuck to Daniels and went to the basket, attracting Daniels' defensive attention. Then, during the march, the Madman transferred the ball to Szczerbiak in the left corner in a wide range.

With an open shot opportunity, Szczerbiak lowered his center of gravity and looked up to aim at the basket, and decisively completed the shot with a non-standard shooting movement.

"Shu~"

At the beginning of the game, the Timberwolves used offensive and defensive transitions to score twice in a row, tearing the Sonics' defense to pieces, and they had an advantage on both offense and defense.

In the next period of time, the Sonics still fell into offensive troubles. On the offensive end, they were still unable to break through the Timberwolves' defense. Even though the Sonics had made a lot of off-ball pick-and-rolls, the Timberwolves' defense was like brown sugar that they couldn't get rid of.

The main reason is that the Timberwolves change every gear, so that the Supersonics cannot use the pick-and-roll to form a shooting space.

There were two times when Ridnour used the pick-and-roll to replace Garnett, but the two consecutive small hits and big Ridnor's inward breakthroughs were blocked by Garnett's chasing body, which made Ridnour start to shut himself up for a while. , eyes full of fear when looking at Garnett.

As a second-year rookie who performed well in the regular season, Ridnour's performance in the playoffs this year is really struggling.

With an average of 8 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists per game, plus a shooting percentage of less than 40%, this makes Ridnour appear submissive on the offensive end.

Now coupled with the fact that most of Garnett's small fights were blocked twice, Ridnour's mentality has gradually collapsed, and he has completely lost his confidence on the offensive end.

On the other hand, on the Timberwolves side, while the defensive end has a good limit on the Supersonics, the offensive Timberwolves also have an advantage.

Both Szczerbiak and Garnett can be called offensive strengths, especially Garnett playing Lewis in the paint is as easy as hitting his son!
Lewis is 98 meters tall, but weighs only [-] kilograms, and his bench press data is even worse than some defenders.

In the face of Garnett's strong play with the ball, all Lewis can do is to raise his hands as high as possible and tell the referee that I did not foul this ball!
As for Daniels, who is responsible for defending Szczerbiak in this game, his defensive ability is also poor. With a height of 1.9 meters and a weight of 88 kg, the opponent Szczerbiak looks like a devil with muscles strong.

Szczerbiak has a high basketball IQ, and he knows exactly what kind of offense to use against different types of defenders.

Against Daniels, Szczerbiak used his height and strength advantages. On the offensive end, Daniels was completely helpless with post-up singles.

As a role player, Daniels' offensive ability is good. In the first round of the series, he averaged 14.1 points, 3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game against King Daniels.

But it's a pity that Daniels, who has average shooting ability, basically has no offensive space in this round of the series. Now that the offense fails, the defense has become a loophole for the Sonics, which makes head coach McMillan really a headache.

At the end of the half, the Timberwolves led the SuperSonics by 61 points at home with 37:24 by virtue of their impeccable overall performance on both ends of the offense and defense.

Throughout the first half, no Supersonic player scored in double figures. The most scored was Ray Allen's 8 points, and these 8 points were barely exchanged by Ray Allen with 11 shots.

而上轮系列赛表现出色的杰罗姆詹姆斯则发挥十分惨淡，整个上半场杰罗姆詹姆斯7投仅有1中，加上2中1的罚球才只有3分4篮板的数据入账。

When the midfielder exited, James was a little irritable, and passed his teammates with his head down without saying a word.

Obviously, Jerome James knew very well that what he lost in the first half was not only the data, but also a lot of money that was about to be handed!

In stark contrast to this is the "parallel import champion" sugar man, the center who has been wearing the parallel import champion hat, surrendered 2 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks in the first half.

The statistics are not very outstanding, nor are they dazzling, but "Sugar Man" completed all his tasks. While preventing Jerome James from being inefficient, he also sent three blocks in the half, successfully setting up the Up the field of the Minnesota no-fly zone!
The two best players in the Timberwolves in the first half were Garnett and Szczerbiak.

其中加内特半场砍下16分7篮板3助攻2抢断以及1次封盖，打得“西雅图铁王”刘易斯苦不堪言，甚至曾一度主动要求教练将自己换到场下。

Szczerbiak also contributed 15 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist, and he had the upper hand in the matchup with Daniels.

If it weren't for Luke to protect Szczerbiak and let him go off the field early to rest, Szczerbiak would have scored more than 20 points in the half.

After all, there is a full 20 kg weight gap between Szczerbiak and Daniels.

I believe that McMillan will definitely make adjustments to the position of the small forward in the second half, otherwise nearly half of the players in the Supersonics will be depressed after this game.

Ridnour, Daniels, Lewis, Jerome James…

These are all players who were beaten to the brink of collapse by the Timberwolves in the first half.

It's hard to imagine that this turned out to be a matchup in the Western Conference semifinals!
Leading the Supersonics by 24 points at halftime, the morale of the Supersonics team was low. If nothing else, I am afraid that this round of the series has just begun and will be declared over!
　Ask for a monthly ticket, ask for a recommendation ticket, ask for support, thank you, third child!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)