full court guidance

Chapter 165 The Unshakable Great Wall

In order to deal with the Suns, the Warriors coaching staff spent a lot of time and energy—according to past experience, when a team, including the core and main players, is traded out, the team will inevitably enter a relatively long period of reconstruction. The original plan of the Warriors' management was to slowly establish the core position of late in the team, and then look at late's performance to sign up.

As a result, the late performance was so good that it exploded. It brought alive a parallel importer and a Jordan successor who was about to retire due to injury. He actually led the team to attack the championship in the first season.

This led to a lack of adequate preparation by the Warriors' management, and the coaching staff did not have much time to study the Rockets' tactical flaws in order to pursue a better record.

However, the old Nelson and the coaching staff stayed up for two nights, which was not completely meaningless. At least they predicted the Rockets' starting lineup correctly and made targeted arrangements.

Thibodeau led the team to the Western Conference Finals in the first season, which made the Rockets management very satisfied, especially the boss Alexander, who felt like he had picked up a treasure.

The Rockets have revealed that they intend to formally sign Thibodeau next season and make him the real head coach of the team.

It's a pity that even so, Thibodeau is still cautious in employing people.

On May 5, the 22-2006 NBA Western Conference Finals kicked off at the Toyota Center in Houston. Thibodeau chose to believe in the team left to him by the Van Gundy era. He let the short center Hayes continue to sit on the bench. Yao Ming and David Lee form an inside partner.

Scoring is always easier to impress people than defending. David Lee can't play a role in the Rockets' defensive lineup, but he can often play brilliant statistics, making many fans think he is Yao Ming's best player. Partner, which made him a star player in his rookie period, coupled with his good appearance and enviable family background, David Lee can be said to be the most successful player in the 05 class.

The Rockets chose Prince as a small forward on the perimeter, and Billups as the team's starting point guard-their biggest weakness is shooting guard.

Streetball king Ralph Alston has excellent ball-handling skills, but his ability to sort out the team's offense is too far behind, which makes him far behind in the competition with Billups, the former FMVP.

But his height and shooting ability make him not very suitable to be the team's shooting guard, so Alstom's position in the Rockets is actually a bit embarrassing.

Thibodeau's choice was David Wesley. This veteran had already played for the Rockets when he joined the Rockets late. When he joined the Rockets late, he provided a lot of help.

It's a pity that after winning two championships, this one of the most successful non-draft players before he was late has completely lost his fighting spirit and seriously lacked self-discipline in his private life, which made him suffer another big decline this year.

The Warriors coaching staff fully anticipated the Rockets' starting lineup and made targeted adjustments.

They unexpectedly broke up the combination of Biedrins and Milicic who played well against the Suns. Biedrins returned to the bench and Al Harrington returned to the starting position.

When Biedrins played against the Suns, the effect was obvious, because the center Dior of the Suns was not tall enough, and he had no post-up ability. Biedrins was not strong in confrontation, but his athletic ability was not weak. , but not afraid of a "comprehensive" organizational center like Dior.

Milicic also fully demonstrated his talent when facing the Suns, but when facing Yao Ming, he was obviously far from enough.

In short, even if it is the same player, how well they perform on the court depends on their opponents.

Old Nelson did not make this arrangement for targeted improvement of defensive ability. He was just an attacking coach who instinctively noticed the biggest weakness of the Rockets—insufficient firepower.

Even after two days of research, the Warriors couldn't find a good way to deal with Yao Ming, so Nelson simply decided to fight the Rockets for offense.

Harrington's medium and long-range shooting ability, coupled with Milicic's athletic ability, will allow them to not suffer too much against the Rockets' insiders headed by Yao Ming.

By the way, he also brought Roy, who has stronger offensive power, back to the starting position, and Jackson will be responsible for improving the team's defensive strength during the bench time.

At the beginning of the game, Milicic won the jump ball with his excellent jumping ability.

Well, this is very Yao Ming.

Although he has the highest height in the league, Yao Ming's winning percentage in jump balls is really not that good.

The ball was allocated to Hill, who directly dribbled the ball across the half court, and Prince followed closely.

The two commentators of the Imperial TV broadcasting the game today immediately started a discussion, and Lao Sun said first: "Hey, the Rockets' defensive strategy is a bit unexpected. They actually used Prince, who has the strongest perimeter defensive ability, to guard the veteran Hill. Now, Billups is late to the defense, it's really different from other teams' tactics."

Mr. Reasonable continued: "Yes, generally speaking, when other teams play against the Warriors, whether it is a direct matchup or not, they will use the team's strongest defensive player to mark late arrivals, and if possible, they will Arrange for double-team defense. Although Billups' defensive ability is not top-notch, it is not weak, but I am still not optimistic about his ability to defend well late. As far as his three-point shooting percentage is concerned, most people really can't do anything about him .”

"Maybe Coach Thibodeau feels that Hill is the core of the Warriors' offense? Although he has shown his offensive ability with the ball late this season, he still prefers to play off the ball. When Hill is on the court At times, the Warriors will launch more offense from Hill. I think this will actually help to save energy for being late. Fans who often follow the NBA must have the impression of being late last season when they led the team with a single core. Back then it was a big physical problem to be late.”

As soon as the words fell, Lao Sun was slapped in the face.

Hill quickly passed the ball to Late, and Billups matched Late.

If you want to say that among the top guards in this league, who is the most late, it must be Billups.

When he was late and just joined the league, he reached the Finals with the Rockets and swept the Pistons that year. Even now, many media believe that that year was the year with the greatest gap in strength in NBA history. finals.

At that time, many people thought that being late was just a simple three-point shooter, and it was not difficult to limit him.

But on occasions like the finals, the late performance is still terribly stable. As the most direct competitor, Billups has the deepest experience.

At that time, the Pistons had the most perfect defensive lineup in the league. It was with this lineup that they could beat the Lakers with F4.

But the combination of late and Yao Ming completely destroyed the Pistons' defensive system from the inside out.

Billups is very clear that with his own defensive ability, there is no good way to limit lateness.

He couldn't stop the late arrival who only shot three-pointers in his rookie season, let alone the late arrival who has already mastered the league's most exciting European breakthrough?
When he first received this task, Billups actually refused in his heart. He only agreed to it after seeing Thibodeau's expectant eyes and Yao Ming's words.

Billups planned to play some tricks, such as using language to interfere with being late.

It's a pity that he doesn't talk trash when he usually plays, and he hates it when he spends time, so he had to say hello to Late first: "Hi, it's a pity that we didn't become teammates."

He didn't answer late, controlled the ball with his right hand, and beckoned to the inside line. Milicic pulled out to play the pick-and-roll.

Yao Ming hesitated for a moment, but did not choose to follow up.

Milicic's pick-and-roll level is not bad, he almost completely blocked Billups' defensive line, and immediately moved the ball to the right to break into the inside line when he was late.

Only at this time did Yao Ming choose to jump out to interfere. His late passing ability was developed, but it was not considered top-notch. He did not choose to pass the ball immediately, but tried to find opportunities to shoot by himself.

"Break through late, have a chance to score the ball, didn't give it, come by yourself..."

Yao Ming is like a moving Great Wall. In order to avoid Yao Ming's tall body, he shot the ball late in an awkward posture. The frightening thing is that he still can't escape Yao Ming's block.

Relying on his height advantage, Yao Ming doesn't jump at all, and just opening his hand is a block.

The gorilla beats the fly - oh no, the Great Wall refuses to invade.

David Lee picked up the ball and passed it to Billups.

Billups played very safely and never messed up. He knew exactly where the Rockets' advantages were, and slowly dribbled the ball across the half.

Yao Ming had already run halfway through the court, squeezed into the inside of the Warriors, leaned against Milicic with his back and opened his hands for the ball.

At his peak, Yao Ming was better at grounding his opponents due to his lack of athletic ability, and his ability to block positions was super strong. Even if he faced an opponent like Duncan, he would not be in vain.

Milicic has excellent athletic ability and strong ability to defend against ordinary centers, but when facing Yao Ming's huge body, he was inevitably suppressed.

The two entered the league only a year apart, but the circumstances were very different.

From the time Yao Ming first entered the Rockets, the then head coach Tomjanovich attached great importance to him, and soon made him the starting main center, which gave Yao Ming plenty of opportunities to exercise.With the late joining, he brought some good things, which made Yao Ming's experience increase faster than ordinary people, otherwise there would be no Great Wall of China that now dominates the alliance.

Milicic wasted three years in vain, so how could he be the opponent of the fast-growing Yao Ming?
He even found that he couldn't even take off. Yao Ming had completely suppressed him, making him unable to exert his strength well. This is the difference brought about by the experience gap between the two parties.

Billups is a true passing master, his passing is not enchanting, ugly, but very practical and timely.

The basketball was handed over to Yao Ming at the first time. Yao Ming dribbled twice with Milicic on his back, and suddenly turned around and made a small hook with his left hand. , for the Rockets to take the lead.

(End of this chapter)