full court guidance

Chapter 55

The Pistons have a strong defense, and the Rockets' defense is not weak. When the two teams played against each other in the regular season, their scores were very low.

The ratings will not be too high for a battle between defensive teams like this.

But this is not a problem for Mr. President at all. This year's NBA Finals has just started, and David Stern, who got the preliminary ratings estimate, is in a great mood.

The ratings in the United States are mediocre, but in China they are popular across the board. Chinese fans don’t care whether the two sides are fighting a defensive battle. They only care about how many points Yao Ming and Late can get. To win the championship, they only care about Yao Ming and late who can win the FMVP.

When the Chinese market is fully opened, it will bring huge economic benefits to the league. If the Rockets can win the championship, the stimulus to the league will undoubtedly be huge.

But David Stern does not intend to interfere in this finals. If the Rockets can win the championship, it proves that they have the strength to praise.

If the Pistons win the championship—Mr. President has already thought about it, and find a way to dismantle the Pistons' defensive lineup. Otherwise, it will be this kind of defensive battle every year, and the NBA ratings will end sooner or later.

Players don't care about ratings, they only care about the championship.

Yao Ming was persuaded by the lateness in the end, and he relaxed a lot on the defensive end to Ben Wallace.

The efficiency of both sides is good, the first quarter entered the official timeout, the score of the two sides was 18:14, and the Rockets led by four points.

Yao Ming played very efficiently against Ben Wallace in the interior singles. McGrady barely took a shot in the first half and got 2 assists.

The number of late shots is also very small, 2 of 1 scored 3 points, and the efficiency does not seem amazing at all.

Every time he gets a point inside, Yao Ming will stimulate Ben Wallace.

He doesn't talk trash like a Yankee, and he has a lot of four-character mantras.Chairman Yao is a fastidious person, and he can't hear half a word of swear words, but Ben Wallace clearly knows that he is doubting his own strength.

I am the best defensive player of Wallace four times, rebounding champion two times, you Yao Ming is just a third-year rookie, what right do you have to mock me here?Except for the best third team once, do you have any honors?

Ben Wallace was furious, especially after he found that Yao Ming had less defensive pressure on him, Big Ben chose to blew himself up—of course, in his own opinion, he chose a tougher counterattack.

He scored a goal by throwing a discus, and finally broke the scoring shortage, but he used 1 shots!
For a slow-paced team like the Pistons, three strikes are a serious price to pay.

But Ben Wallace didn't think there was anything wrong with him. Even Larry Brown felt very happy. He thought that Ben Wallace had finally transformed. Facing the pressure of the finals, he began to dare to take responsibility.

So during the official timeout, Larry Brown also specially arranged several inside offensive tactics for Ben Wallace.

What is Larry Brown's offensive tactics like?

The other players pull away, Ben Wallace singles!
That's what he did when he was in the 76ers. The real man of 183 used his strong strength to prove that a single-core team can reach the finals.

At the same time, the Pistons also changed their defensive strategy, switching to two-three defenses, shrinking to the basket, and double-teaming immediately when Yao Ming got the ball.

Seeing that the Pistons changed to zone defense, Yao Ming, who has been transformed by a learning machine, has a lot of experience. He immediately thought of how to deal with it. He no longer singles the ball inside, but throws the ball outside.

As we all know, the easiest and most effective way to deal with zone defense is to have a marksman on the outside.

Is there a rocket?

Of course there is!

Their outside line is not only a sharp shooter, but also a super big bug!

He played too few games in the regular season. In this year's playoffs alone, his late three-point shooting rate still maintained a 58% shooting rate. This is the playoffs, and this shooting rate is terrifying.

Yao Ming scored three consecutive inside shots and made two late hits, breaking the Pistons' zone defense in an instant.

Afraid of the late three-point shooting rate, the Pistons changed their defensive strategy again and changed to a three-two defense. This defensive lineup is relatively balanced, but the problem is that the defensive ability of the outside line is still not enough. It is late to make another 3-for-2 and cut again. Down 6 points.

The scoring efficiency of the Pistons was not high, and they hit consecutive three-pointers in a short period of time late, instantly opening up the point difference.

Larry Brown had a big head. He thought that the Pistons' defense was great, and restricting lateness and Yao Ming would not be a problem. He didn't expect Yao Ming to be so efficient in singles, and he even brought his lateness to life.

Larry Brown adjusted his lineup again, and the Pistons defended a four-zone defense. This zone defense is quite abnormal. It needs a super powerful center to guard the inside line, and the restriction on the outside line is very obvious.

Is Ben Wallace awesome?

As the four-time best defensive player and two-time rebounding champion, Ben Wallace should be awesome.

It's a pity that he met Yao Ming who is 229cm. The height difference between the two is 23cm. Ben Wallace has just reached Yao Ming's shoulder!

So Yao Ming once again showed his power inside, and Wallace hit 63% in singles!

Seeing that the zone defense was not effective, the Pistons switched back to man-to-man defense, but Yao Ming's touch had already been opened up, and Ben Wallace had no way to restrict it.

With 3 minutes left in the first quarter, the Rockets had already led by 12 points. Van Gundy replaced Yao Minghe late, leaving only McGrady on the court with a substitute.

The Pistons are still playing with the full main lineup, and they plan to take advantage of this time to catch up with some scores.

For the championship, McGrady is also fighting hard. He knows that the team does not need him to take the offensive responsibility at all. He puts almost all his energy on the defensive end. Gritting his teeth and doing his best, he put tremendous defensive pressure on the Pistons.

The Rockets' lineup has strong defensive ability and weak offensive ability, but they are also very clear about their mission, which is to limit the opponent's scoring as much as possible, even if the opponent can recover some points, they must not allow the opponent to score too many points.

After the first quarter, the Rockets led by 8 points and entered the second quarter.

After the start of the second quarter, McGrady was the substitute for the Rockets, and Yao Ming tried to rest as much as possible.

Van Gundy has already understood the physical problem of being late, and he will not be allowed to play more than 33 minutes unless it is a last resort.

The weakness of the Pistons' weak offensive ability was fully exposed at this time.

Facing the Rockets' bench lineup, they were slow to chase points. By the middle of the second quarter, the Pistons were still four points behind.

At this time, Van Gundy sent Yao Minghe to play late, and McGrady, who was physically strong, still stayed on the court and continued to play.

The Rockets insisted on the offensive tactics in the first quarter, and immediately approached Yao Ming on the line and asked him to play the big one in singles.

After Yao Ming came on the court, Daben began to blew himself up again, wanting to prove his scoring ability, so the difference between the two sides widened again.

Larry Brown was anxious off the court, facing the situation where the team was behind, he couldn't think of a proper solution for a while.

Shrink the inside, Yao Ming now has a very reliable teammate on the outside.

Let's expand the defense, and Yao Ming can easily single Wallace in the paint.

Except for the two Chinese players, one inside and one outside, Tracy McGrady lurks in the middle distance, ready to give the Pistons a fatal blow at any time, making the Pistons care about one thing and lose another.

After the first half, the Rockets had a clear advantage and led again by 12 points into the second half.

As I said before being late, the Rockets have a great advantage over the Pistons!
With the crazy outside scorer who is late, the Pistons, a team that relies on limiting opponents' shooting percentage and winning games on defense, has no way out.

This is why in the first and second rounds, the Rockets played seven games with the Mavericks and the Suns. Facing the obviously stronger Spurs, the Rockets easily eliminated their opponents.

Because being late is not afraid of teams with strong defensive capabilities, but those strong offensive teams that can play a wave of crazy.

Also because of the huge lead, both Yao Ming and Late can get enough rest, and their physical strength is not a problem at all.

In order to chase points on the Pistons side, several main players played almost all the time, and their defensive efficiency declined even more due to fatigue.

As the two sides came and went, the gap widened even wider.

By the end of the third quarter, the Rockets had led by 21 points, and the game had entered garbage time.

Larry Brown did not give up, and still sent the main players to try to chase points.

The Rockets' substitute players played very relaxed with almost no pressure. Scott Padgett hit consecutive three-pointers from the outside and gave the Pistons the final blow.

In the end, the first game of the finals came to an end. The Rockets beat the Pistons 93:74 by 19 points.

The Rockets have a high shooting percentage in this game. The reason why the scores of the two sides are not high is entirely because of the slow pace.

Yao Ming played 33 minutes and scored 34 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists efficiently.

McGrady played 40 minutes and scored a quasi-triple double with 11 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists.

He played 31 minutes late and also scored 30 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists efficiently.All of his two assists were given to Yao Ming, which just shows the Pistons' defense from the side. There is almost no way to connect him with Yao Ming inside and outside.

The Big Three of the Rockets jointly scored 75 points, and the role players only contributed 18 points in total.

However, the Rockets' bench players successfully completed their tasks, and the results were gratifying in limiting the scoring of the main players of the Pistons.

Ben Wallace took 14 shots in this game, hit 4 goals, scored 9 points, 13 rebounds and 1 assist, with impressive efficiency.

After the game, Larry Brown was still stubborn in the press conference, saying that Ben Wallace was just not in good shape today, and the team did not play a satisfactory tough defense. The Pistons will definitely win the next game.

But those with a little discernment can now see that the Pistons really can't do anything about the Rockets. The Rockets, the Big Three, are too powerful.

As long as the Big Three don't disband, don't suffer serious injuries, and give them some decent role players, they will be strong contenders for the championship.

Late's three-point shooting rate caused heated discussions again, and some people even booed, saying that Late should be pulled into the laboratory for dissection to see why he is so accurate in three-pointers.

(End of this chapter)