i have a coaching book

Chapter 15 Fighting the Blazers

In the 02-03 season, Derek Anderson was injured in the Blazers' starting roster and could not play.

Scottie Pippen's contract expired and returned to the Chicago Bulls, the place where his fame and wrist dreams began, which can be regarded as a tour before retirement.

Head coach Maurice Cheeks bears the name of Allen Iverson's mentor, and his life in the Trail Blazers is not easy. He stopped the first round of the playoffs for two consecutive years, and his coaching ability was questioned.

In desperation, the starting lineup laid out, although it did not overthrow the Dallas Mavericks and staged a historic reversal of the next game, but this starting lineup made the Blazers up and down. Seeing hope, they will naturally send them on the field. run-in.

In the temporary tactical conference room, the atmosphere was a bit oppressive, and the faces of the Cavaliers players were a little heavy.

The Blazers were born to the death, and the posture of temporarily changing formations to fight desperately with the Dallas Mavericks is so impressive, it can even be said to be a daunting team.

Hitting the basket again and again, treating the basketball like a dynamite bag, rushing into the formation and killing, that kind of soul-stirring momentum fully expresses the temperament of the Portland Prison team.

Let the Cavaliers with the morale of two consecutive victories feel like a slap in the face, and even a little bit not indifferent.

This iron army is definitely a tough one!

"The Trail Blazers are a bit stingy. It is not easy to beat it. We have no advantage in the starting lineups of both sides. We must not let them play this kind of aggressive counterattack again. Otherwise, we will definitely lose."

The players nodded one after another. Comparing the lineups of the two sides, it is easy to see the strengths and weaknesses of each other.

At point guard, James VS Damon Stoudemire, the Cavaliers have the upper hand.

At shooting guard, Ricky Davis VS Bunch Wells, the Cavaliers have the upper hand.

At small forward, Darius Myers VS Zach Randolph, the Blazers have the upper hand.

At the power forward, Boozer VS Rasheed Wallace, the Blazers have the upper hand.

At the center, Ilgauskas VS Dale Davis, the Cavaliers have the upper hand.

In short, on the outside, the Cavaliers have a certain advantage, and on the inside, the Blazers also have the upper hand. Coupled with the home court factor, the starting lineups of the two sides can be said to be comparable, each with its own advantages.

However, if the Blazers play against the Mavericks, the Cavaliers will undoubtedly lose. To put it bluntly, the Blazers have been fighting in the playoffs over the years, and they have a certain degree of toughness.

Although the Cavaliers have greatly increased their strength due to the addition of James, they have always been at the bottom of the list over the years, and the team is a bit loose.

"So apart from the mental preparation, the key is the matchup of the bench lineup." James said calmly. In high school, he controlled the team's possession of the ball and played point guard. Not bad, so he frowned, looked at the head coach Paul Silas and asked, "Coach Paul, do you think the Cavaliers' substitute has the possibility to beat the opponent?"

"Yes, because our players are more united and more focused. Every time the team is in trouble, there will always be players who will explode, stand up and become the team's surprise soldiers. On the contrary, the Blazers players are not fully focused on the court. Both on and off the court, they have caused a lot of trouble, and now these troubles alone are enough to cause headaches for the Blazers." Paul Silas said indifferently.

If it is just the strength on paper, the Cavaliers really do not have the strength to compete with the Trail Blazers. After all, the Trail Blazers have been aiming at competing for the NBA championship in recent years. Although they have not achieved this step, However, the foundation of strength is still there.

However, their players were in trouble off the court, and the Blazers were known as the "Prison Trail Blazers."

First of all, the relationship between the head coach Maurice Cheeks and Damon Stoudemire has fallen to a freezing point. "Little Flying Mouse" has been on the bench for a year, can he not be angry with the head coach?
Then, in April 2003, Zach Randolph, the new core of the Trail Blazers inside, had a fight with his teammate Ruben Patterson in training just after he took the position, to establish his own status image. Afterwards, Randolph The husband was given a symbolic internal suspension of 4 game.

Then, Bunch Wells was dissatisfied with the coach's tactical arrangements, and mercilessly criticized Morris Cheeks for a big pass.

Then, Jeff McGinnis made trouble in the locker room from time to time, known as "locker room poison".

In order to reshape the team's image, general manager Bob Whithit stepped down, and the new general managers Steve Patterson and John Nash directly announced the "25 Guarantees" after taking office, requiring players to abide by .

Therefore, the current Blazers are panicking and jumping around, so they still have the mind to play on the basketball court?

"Next, let me talk about the offensive and defensive tactics that will be played tonight. On the offensive end, the ball holder has unlimited pick-and-rolls, specifically to attack the opponent's point guard Damon Stoudemire. If they double-team, they will divide the ball. Go up, interfere with the opponent's point guard, and the others retreat to the three-point line, let them shoot mid-range shots, and don't give the basket a chance." Paul Silas finished his tactics and encouraged the players by the way, thinking that they can easily beat the Blazers team, bringing a perfect three-game winning streak away.

After listening to Paul's tactical arrangement, Lin Bai thought in his heart that the game would be so simple.

On November 2003, 11, at 1 o'clock in the evening, the Trail Blazers played against the Cavaliers at home, and the game officially started.

After a simple warm-up, the starting lineups of both sides played.

Beep whistle!
As the basketball in the referee's hand was thrown high, the two teams officially began the duel.

It's just that before the halftime game was over, the face of Cavaliers head coach Paul Silas became gloomy, as if water was about to drip.

On the court, James' complexion was also very bad. Looking at the defensive players who were inseparable from him in front of him, he really wanted to curse in his heart.

On the offensive end, he was not only robbed of the ball by Ricky Davis, but could only play off the ball.

On defense, he was also marked by a center, nicknamed "Roaring God" Rasheed Wallace, who did not guard Boozer or Ilgauskas, but actually guarded him as a point guard .

Rasheed Wallace is a versatile player with light weight and fast mobility. The most important thing is that he is a typical academic player with excellent team awareness and doesn't care about his personal data at all.

Who would have thought that an All-Star player, the core leader of the team, only took three shots in the first quarter and scored two points.As a result, James was also in bad luck, and was only defended by two points.

In the first quarter, just as the Cavaliers analyzed before the game, the Blazers sent their strongest lineup.

The Trail Blazers' starting lineup, point guard Damon Stoudemire, shooting guard Bunch Wells, small forward Rasheed Wallace, power forward Zach Randolph, Center Dale Davis.

The Suns' starting five remains unchanged, point guard LeBron James, shooting guard Ricky Davis, small forward Darius Myers, power forward Carlos Boozer, center Zajunas - Ilgauskas.

The two teams played for a quarter, and the team's score was just tied, and no one could bear the opponent.

However, the process is a little different. According to the analysis of the schedule, the advantage of the Cavaliers is on the outside. In theory, it is to open the situation from the outside.

As a result, the Cavaliers really opened up the situation on the inside. After Ricky Davis held the ball with Boozer and Ilgauskas on the pick-and-roll, he hit Damon Stoudemire's defensive weakness. The advantages are too great.

Damon Stoudemire is 178cm tall. If he wants to defend the inside players, he can only hope that the opponent's shots are not good.

However, the Cavaliers' inside players have a good mid-range shooting percentage, and they can only stabilize by forcing other players in the Blazers to help defend.

The Trail Blazers, on the other hand, took advantage of their rebounding inside and played a combination of internal and external levels, and responded to the Cavaliers in the offense.

In the second quarter, the bench lineup that the Cavaliers placed their hopes on did not suppress the Blazers as analyzed, but was given the upper hand. The Blazers almost beat the Cavaliers with a score of 12 to 5.

In addition to the poor performance of the bench, the starting lineup is also not good.

On the offensive end, James continued to be frozen by Rasheed Wallace. He made 4 of 0 shots and scored a zero in one quarter.

Defensively, the Cavaliers are afraid of whatever they want. The Trail Blazers, led by Rasheed Wallace and Zach Randolph, forcibly rushed inside and directly defeated the Cavaliers' defense. The three centers of the Cavaliers, Iraq Ergoskas made two fouls, Desagana Diop made three fouls, veteran Gerani McCoy made three fouls, giving the Blazers a total of 3 free throw opportunities, while the Cavaliers only had 17 free throws.

With an aggressive style of play, pushing the inside line horizontally, the Blazers established a 15-point advantage in one quarter.

After halftime, the score of the two teams was 39 to 54.

The Cavaliers returned to the locker room with a 15-point disadvantage. Paul Silas finally embodied the simple truth. In the face of strong strength, any conspiracy will be wiped out.

On the court, the icing on the cake is okay, but if you want to win, you have to rely on the stars.

Paul naturally had a deep understanding. After thinking about it, he said solemnly: "After playing the Trail Blazers, we will return to Cleveland. There are fans who love us there. I think you don't want to bring back a failed score, do you?" ? So, I hope you don’t reserve your strength, try your best and work harder.”

Next, Paul Silas didn't arrange tactics, but directly played the main force.

The starting five tigers directly took it out and rushed. After thinking about it, the Suns rose under the leadership of D'Antoni, which is a seven-man rotation.

The Lakers dynasty created by Phil Jackson is also a deadly 'OK' combination, especially Kobe, who is used to death. Not everyone is Bo Povich. He used rotation to recuperate and won three or four championships.

If you want to achieve results, you have to give the players blood, play all the cards, and let them work hard.

Lin Bai realized that he had learned another trick.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the Cavaliers played with all their main force, just one word, fight!
Just want to narrow the gap in the score.

The Blazers also sent a full starting lineup, but after all, they are the leaders and have rich experience in the game, so they actually started to play rhythm.

In the second quarter, the Blazers went inside to fight and kill, and the outside line delivered ammunition.

The one who wants to fight, the one who plays rhythm, and the one who is desperate will naturally have some advantages.

67 is better than 76!

The Cavaliers narrowed the 6-point gap as they wished. Although they are still 9 points behind, they are still within 10 points and still have to play.

In the fourth quarter, Cavaliers head coach Paul Silas waved his hand and replaced the bench lineup to let the main players rest for a while. Lin Bai was lucky to get the chance to play.

However, in the next game, Lin Bai saw an incredible scene.

The situation on the field suddenly became one-sided. Jeff McGinnis made 3 of 3 shots and Quintelle Woods made 2 of 2 three-pointers. The Cavaliers had a small climax of 16 to 2, and the Cavaliers were directly killed by a wave.

In the meantime, Paul Silas quickly replaced James and Ilgauskas, but he still couldn't resist the Blazers' crazy offensive.

Off the court, the Trail Blazers started the five tigers, sitting on the bench, watching with relish the five knights who were trying to chase points on the court, but the score did not shrink, but grew bigger and bigger.

In the end, 89 to 108!

The Cavaliers tried their best, but still lost to the Trail Blazers by a big score of 19 points, ending their two-game winning streak.

In terms of data, the comparison of the bench lineup.

For the Blazers, the two scored in double figures.

杰夫-麦金尼斯8投6中，三分球1中0，罚球5中3，砍下15分3助攻5篮板，令人惊艳。

昆特尔-伍兹9投6中，三分球3中3，罚球1中1，砍下16分4篮板2助攻。

For the Cavaliers, no one scored in double figures. JR-Bremer made 8 of 4 shots and scored 9 points. Lin Bai scored 4 points on 2 of 5 shots.

The overall score was 41 to 16. The Cavaliers lost to the Trail Blazers off the bench, and the game was not wronged.

In terms of the main lineup, the gap is not much.

伊尔戈斯卡斯得分最多，13投8中，罚球5中5，砍下21分4篮板。

里基-戴维斯15投7中，3分球3中1，罚球1中1，得到16分7助攻8篮板，表现全面。

James has experienced a lot of ups and downs. In the last game, he got a triple-double. In this game, he was taught to be a man by "Roaring Tianzun". He made 12 of 3 shots, 3 of 3 three-pointers, and 0 of 2 free throws. He only scored 2 points 8 assists and 6 rebounds are really surprising.

For the Trail Blazers, Zach Randolph made 13 of 8 shots and 5 of 5 free throws. He scored 21 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists.

达蒙-斯塔德迈尔12投6中，三分球5中2，得到14分5助攻。

拉希德-华莱士主防小皇帝詹姆斯，11投4中，三分球3中1，罚球4中2，砍下11分4篮板2助攻。

Although the data is not obvious, it is an indispensable player for the Blazers.

(End of this chapter)