Start punching from this is slam dunk

Chapter 118 First preseason victory

The starting lineup for the Suns is point guard Cameron Payne, shooting guard Devin Booker, small forward Mikal Bridges, power forward Cameron Johnson, center DeAndre Ayton, and Jiang Bei will play as a backup shooting guard.

The Utah Jazz all adopted a big lineup this time. They chose Donovan Mitchell as the point guard. Mitchell has grown into a top scorer in the league. After renewing his contract with the Jazz with a maximum salary, Mitchell is facing more and more pressure.

The position of shooting guard is Joe Ingles, a swingman. In the 2019 season, Ingles has played 300 consecutive regular season games, ranking first among active players.However, as a veteran, this will be his last season. He has previously announced that he will choose to retire after the end of the 2021~2022 season. No matter what, we all need to show respect to a veteran who is about to leave.

The positions of small forward and power forward are Bojan Bogdanovic and Georges Niang respectively. Both of them are power forwards. Now let them play at the same time. The starting center Rudy Gobert, it seems that the Jazz will launch a fierce attack on the inside of the Suns today!
After the end of last season, Gobert's contract expired. If Gobert chooses to leave, the team's lineup will face a major reshuffle. In that case, the situation of the Jazz will be in danger.

At the start of the game, Gobert successfully jumped the ball.The Jazz's tactic today is to focus on the inside. Fortunately, the Suns' outside defense is not too bad, which makes the Jazz's pass to the inside a little troublesome, but in the end Mitchell's passing skills are better, and he still hangs the ball to the inside.

Gobert's continuous catching of the ball and scoring inside hooks may be the reason for the beginning of the season. Ayton and Johnson seem to be out of shape. Facing Gobert is a bit difficult, but it did not interfere with him.

The offense of the Suns was also somewhat stagnant. Most of the players played alone, completely throwing aside all the tactics of the previous team training. The uncoordinated offense and weak inside defense made their performance on the court very bad.

After the first quarter, the Suns 26:33 Jazz.The big lead made the Jazz fans at home hooked.Although it is only a preseason game, it is completely enough to see the team take a big lead.

"Jiangbei, warm up and get ready, start the second quarter!" Williams called Jiangbei.

It's finally my turn. Jiangbei has been itching for a long time on the sidelines. Since the World Youth Championship, Jiangbei has never played a regular game. They are all training games. Jiangbei has been holding back for a long time.

Jiang Bei led the Suns' full bench team onto the court.Williams deliberately arranged for Jiangbei to lead a group of substitutes on the field, and did not give them any tactics. They just wanted to see how Jiangbei's leadership ability was, so it was an experiment. It didn't matter if they lost. After all, this was just a preseason game, so it didn't matter.If Jiangbei can perform well, it will prove that he is right, and Jiangbei will be the absolute core of the Suns in the future.

"Oh, Jiangbei from China is on the field for our pick-up show this year!" Former Jazz forward Matt Harprin acted as the guest commentator for this game, and he was also curious about how this Chinese rookie would perform.

"Guys, the whole court is pressing!" Jiang Bei was very excited. Jiang Bei began to press the whole court as soon as he entered the court. He knew that the Jazz's bench lineup did not have a good ball-holding point.

Under the leadership of Jiang Bei, the Suns' bench lineup was full of defensive pressure. The Suns' backup point guard, Jevon Carter, kept attacking the ball holder. With his flexible movements and constant interference, it made it difficult for the Jazz's second point guard, Jordan Clarkson, to organize an effective offense.

Facing Jevon Carter's rogue defense, Clarkson had no choice but to hand the ball to shooting guard Elijah Hughes to organize, but this was probably the worst decision he made, Jiangbei's defense was better than Jevon Carter's.

Under Jiangbei's strong confrontation, Hughes was forced to make consecutive mistakes. Jiangbei took advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack and quickly approached the score.

Williams looked at Jiangbei on the field and nodded secretly in satisfaction, "Jiangbei's decision to press the whole court is the most correct decision. The most important thing is that their defense is good enough to capture the weakness of the opponent's lack of ability to hold the ball."

By the time Jiangbei and the others left the field, the Suns had already overtaken the score. Devin Booker was very upset to see Jiangbei's performance, so after he played, he frequently completed singles by himself, which can be regarded as getting a lot of points.

It's just that Devin Booker, who played too much singles, attracted the Jazz's target. Under the situation of being double-teamed, Devin Booker began to make consecutive mistakes and was called a defensive counterattack by the Jazz. In the third quarter, Devin Booker only scored 5 points, but his fouls and turnovers both reached three times.

Faced with this situation, Williams replaced Booker and replaced Jiangbei. After Jiangbei played, he continued to cooperate with Ayton on the inside and outside to help the team stabilize the situation again.

The Jazz were in a predicament due to both Jiangbei and Ayton's outbursts. Whenever they blocked Ayton, Jiangbei would signal to open singles. This game made NBA fans realize Jiangbei's singles ability for the first time.

The Phoenix Suns finally won the first preseason game. Although the first game was a bit difficult for both teams, with the running-in of this game, I believe it will become smoother in the future.

In this game, Jiangbei played 20 minutes and efficiently scored 19 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. He played tough and flexible defense and dunked after a counterattack.It also left a deep impression on the courtside audience at the Energy Solutions Arena, because he brought his team the first defeat.

Devin Booker, who competed with Jiangbei, only scored 24 points, 16 rebound, 1 assists, and 6 turnovers in 3 minutes. Compared with the two, Jiangbei's performance was highlighted, which made Devin Booker very unhappy.

But the others didn't think much of it. After all, it was just a game. It can only be said that Jiangbei played well in this game, but it can't be said that Booker is not as good as Jiangbei because of this game. The statistics of a game are too one-sided.

(End of this chapter)