play for it

Chapter 301 The Second Fight

On the evening of May 5, U.S. time, the Spurs at home once again ushered in the challenge of the Warriors.

Thirteen minutes before the start of the game, everyone in the Spurs, who finished their warm-up practice, returned to the waiting room at this moment, making the final preparations before the opening.

"Boys, the starting lineup of the Warriors has finally been submitted. Compared with the last game, there are some slight adjustments. The starting small forward has been replaced by our old friend, Richard Jefferson."

At this moment, Popovich opened the door and walked in, announcing a message to everyone.

According to current NBA regulations, teams must submit their game starting lineup no later than 10 minutes before the start of the game.

However, this provision is often cleverly used by the coaches of many teams, and it has become the most convenient smoke bomb in their hands. Among them, Popovich is the most frequent user of this method.

"That old fox Mark did a good trick!"

Popovich couldn't help but praise this change.

"Coach, I think our defensive strategy should be adjusted."

Because he was a teammate not long ago, Yang Ke was still impressed by Jefferson's technical characteristics, and this also made him realize that the team can no longer implement the originally planned defensive strategy.

"It needs to be adjusted."

In the original plan, due to Dorell White's obvious technical flaws, Popovich took the initiative to arrange for Yang Ke to misplace Dorell White.

It did the same for the first game, and it worked fine, but it definitely doesn't work now.

You must know that although due to the influence of age, Jefferson's ability to survive this season has declined in terms of breakthrough kills and fixed-point shooting, but it still has a certain degree of lethality after all.

Under such circumstances, it is natural that Yang Ke, who has a different height, can no longer take the initiative to mark him in a misplaced position. Isn't that pinning his hopes on Jefferson's abnormal performance?

"In this way, normal matchup defense."

The opening ceremony will be held soon, and time is running out, and Popovich can't come up with any good solution for a while, so he can only let the players play like this first.

As for how to adjust in the future, it depends on the game situation on the court at that time.

…………

Generally speaking, when the home DJ introduces the players of the visiting team, he will only introduce the starting five and the head coach.

As the fans of the home team, they will often boo them all over the sky.

However, today when former Spurs player Richard Jefferson played as a starter, the fans at the scene gave him cheers and applause.

"This discriminatory treatment is really real!"

Seeing this scene, Kenny Smith, wearing noise-cancelling headphones, smiled and shook his head.

"Indeed, but who made Richard play for the Spurs for a few years? Although he didn't perform well, he has been diligent."

Shrugging his shoulders, O'Neal was not surprised by this at all, but he quickly thought of another issue, speculating, "Speaking of which, the Warriors put Richard on the starting lineup today, and pressed the starting lineup to the deadline. Submitted before, could it be that Richard is their trump card?"

"Richard is not a player with that much influence."

Charles Barkley made a rare and serious analysis, and at the same time reminded, "Don't forget the first confrontation between the two sides. The Spurs adopted an active dislocation marking strategy. I think the reason why Coach Mark did this is to prevent it. This is the hand."

Smith also thought of this, and immediately couldn't help complaining: "I don't even know what Dorrell is doing, the small defense is big, he plays so outrageously. To be honest, even if I play now , are better than him."

"I agree with that."

"..."

When the three on-site commentators fiercely criticized Dorrell White, who had already been banned from the starting position, along with the electronic buzz of the start of the game, the starting players from both sides walked to the midfield position one after another.

The visiting Warriors start with point guard Curry, shooting guard Thompson, small forward Richard Jefferson, power forward David Lee, center Mitch Moore

The starting lineup for the home team Spurs is point guard Mills, shooting guard Yang Ke, small forward Leonard, power forward Diaw, and center Splitter.

While blowing his whistle, the referee threw the basketball into the air forcefully!

David Lee and Splitter jumped high at the same time. Like the first game, David Lee allocated the basketball in the air to his side, and the Warriors got the ball.

Curry dribbled the ball across the half court while waving his hands to signal his teammates to disperse and settle down.

"Crack! Crack!"

Stopping far outside the three-point line, looking at Mills in front of him, Curry was relieved.

At the same time, Yang Ke and Thompson faced each other in the bottom corner of the wing.

"Whoa, this sucks! It's Mills manning Curry!"

Seeing Mills' cautious look, Barkley couldn't help but let out an exclamation.

Smith, who had prepared a lot of information before the game, nodded and echoed: "It is true that although Mills is very active in defense, his judgment on the defensive end is not decisive and he makes frequent mistakes."

"It seems that Coach Mark's transformation has already taken the lead!"

Although he also felt that Mills couldn't defend himself, Curry wanted to play more safely, so he didn't play singles rashly, but raised his hand and waved.

David Lee on the inside line received the message, and immediately came out, and in view of David Lee's very gorgeous offensive methods, Dior, who was in charge of defending him, immediately followed.

"right gear"

Following David Lee's footsteps, Dio shouted at the same time.

Thanks to the reminder from his teammates, Mills was able to know the position of the wall while still focusing on Curry.

Mills quickly took a step forward, closing the distance between himself and Curry, and prepared to squeeze sideways through the wall in advance.

Facing a player with strong shooting ability like Curry, it is often the worst choice to go around and avoid the screener, because those will leave enough space for Curry to shoot, so Mills intends to quickly go around and squeeze past the screener.

Finally, at the moment when David Lee formed a human wall, Curry moved, he pulled the ball up, his center of gravity was suddenly pulled up, and he broke through the three-point line on the right with the ball.

Seeing this, Dior hurried up to block, and at the same time, Mills quickly accelerated to bypass the protective wall formed by David Lee, and Leonard on the flank also took a step back, shrinking his defense, ready to help defend at any time.

But Jefferson obviously didn't intend to make Leonard happy. He went straight to the bottom line and ran to the other side, forcing Leonard to follow.

Because once he doesn't keep up, Jefferson can go to the other side to help Thompson make an off-ball screen, allowing the latter to successfully get rid of Yang Ke's marking, thus obtaining an excellent gap.

In this way, after covering for Curry, David Lee, who turned and cut into the penalty area, had no pressure.

Curry passed a lob lightly, the height and arc were just right, David Lee caught the basketball very comfortably, and then took a big step sideways to hook the ball into the basket.

At this time, Splitter was being dragged into a high position by Mitch Moore, and it was too late to return to the defense.

(End of this chapter)