full court guidance

Chapter 71
No matter how much the media and fans ridicule, no matter how unavailable the Rockets are, the game must continue.

After the intermission, both sides made some fine-tuning of the lineup.

The Heat replaced Antoine Walker and let James Posey play as a small forward-in fact, in many games, Walker was a false starter, and James Posey was the team's real main small forward.

Walker's playing style requires possession of the ball, and it is good to let him play with a substitute during the substitute period. It is definitely not a good choice to let him partner with Wade all the time.

James Posey has a strong defensive ability, and he also has a three-pointer from the outside. Although he is not famous, his strength is not weak at all. record.

The Rockets also make a fuss about small forwards. Lonnie Baxter replaced Joan Barry on the field. He is a pure defensive player. There is only one reason why he traded from the Hornets-cheap!
His contract this year is only $75, which is only partially guaranteed. If the Rockets are not satisfied with his performance, they can lay him off at any time.

In fact, if it wasn't for McGrady's inability to play, Baxter wouldn't get a chance to play at all.

The Heat also replaced Jason Williams with Payton, but Payton's offensive ability is not too strong, especially in the season when he joined the Lakers to form F4, Payton changed from a ball-handling attacker to a spot-up shooter. His worst season yet.

This season, Payton's scoring ability has further degraded again, and his shooting percentage from beyond the three-point line is even less than 30%.

After the lineup adjustment, the Heat's offensive ability has been strengthened to a certain extent. Pat Riley tried to open the score at the beginning of the third quarter.

But his wishful thinking was in vain. He was late and fired repeatedly from outside the three-point line, and he was always efficient. James Posey on the Heat's side was not in good shape today, and he failed to score a few shots from the outside. obvious.

In the first half, he was late as the main offensive point, and his physical strength was staggering. It was already difficult to form an effective defense on the defensive end, but the Rockets could not replace him, otherwise the team's offensive firepower would not be guaranteed, and the Heat would be instantly defeated. Give flowers.

This is the longest game since he was late for such a long time. He only rested for 4 minutes in the second quarter and has played 20 minutes so far.

The Heat's tactics on the offensive end remain the same, just grabbing a late hammer.

The Rockets have made some adjustments on the defensive end. Van Gundy's skills in training defensive tactics are still quite strong. He quickly thought of protecting his lateness and requiring the Rockets players to switch defenses indefinitely to prevent him from being exposed to the Heat's attacks. Down.

This is also the reason why Lonnie Baxter can get the chance to play. He is 26 years old this year and is at the peak of his athlete career. His strong athletic ability allows him to fill his position as soon as possible on the defensive end.

Such a defensive tactic indeed protects lateness, so that he will not become a defensive loophole due to his lack of physical strength on the court for a long time, but the Rockets' defensive system inevitably has loopholes. The deterrence on the defensive end has declined.

One of the Heat's players stood up-Gary Payton, the veteran who was frustrated with the Lakers for the championship, was in hot form in this game. In the third quarter, he made consecutive three-pointers to save the Heat and the Rockets The difference made a lot of contributions.

The late hit rate is still high, but against the backdrop of Payton, it doesn't look so terrible.

In fact, although the late three-pointer is fatal, it is really impossible for him to dominate the game alone. Looking carefully at the data of each game, we can find that there must be one or two players in almost every game , The amazing shooting percentage in a single game has become the x factor for the team to win.

The terrible thing about being late is his consistency. No matter how desperate the situation is, it is almost impossible for him to shoot less than 50% of his three-pointers.

With the sudden emergence of Gary Payton, he played a role in offsetting the lateness, making late's efforts outside the three-point line useless.

Now the respective teams in the league have reached some consensus. If you can't restrain your lateness, then you can score against him and use higher scoring efficiency to blow up the Rockets.

If Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady are there, plus some defensive players, no one can guarantee that their team can use offense to blow up the Rockets.

But now that Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady are not here, the Rockets' players are obviously not strong enough to compete with other teams, and the possibility of attacking with Late has become higher.

Today's Heat are not only targeted tactically, but also have strong firepower. In the first three quarters, their shooting percentage from beyond the three-point line was astonishing, reaching 52%.

If it weren't for the number of shots being late, the Heat might have already opened the score.

Charles Barkley said in the TNT commentary: "Being late has done his best. We can see the second half of the third quarter. The energy of being late has been almost completely exhausted. He can only stand with his hips on his defense to recover. Physical strength, his teammates couldn’t give him enough support, coupled with the excellent state of the Heat today, his performance on the offensive end became a futile performance. The Rockets’ management should review, it is their stupidity that made the team pay the price .”

At the end of the third quarter, the Heat relied on their rebounding advantage to maintain the lead at about 5 points and enter the fourth quarter.

Late continued to start and showed a strong desire to win.

His first attack in the fourth quarter seemed unreasonable. Under Wade's defense, he was late and didn't even make fake moves. He just threw the ball out and the ball scored!
Wade responded immediately, breaking through to the basket and scoring.

When he was late, he received a pass from his teammates, completed the pick-and-roll with David Lee, used David Lee to cover the shot, and then hit a three-pointer.

Antoine Walker received a pass from Wade outside the three-point line and also hit a three-pointer.

The Rockets attack, the players move more actively, and the late cover is obviously increased, so that he can get better shot opportunities.

Being late this time failed the trust of his teammates, and hit an iron from outside the three-point line.

The Heat attacked again, O'Neal made a shot under the basket, Mutombo's confrontation was not very strong, but O'Neal accidentally missed.

David Lee grabbed a defensive rebound, the Rockets attacked in a position, late to a fake shot from outside the three-point line, Wade took off to block the block, and was late to throw the ball to David Lee.

CIC Liangzi made a beautiful shot and hit the free throw line.

In the fourth quarter, the two sides played more intensely, and the number of late shots increased significantly, but the physical exertion was too great, which made him almost completely useless on the defensive end. After finishing the shot, he could only slowly walk back to his own half. Completely unable to keep up with the rhythm of the Heat.

The other players of the Rockets are also relatively hard on the defensive end, and they have made some restrictions on the Heat's offense.

Both sides have consciously slowed down the pace, striving for a higher success rate.

This is undoubtedly good news for being late. Now that he has no physical strength, he can't run at all, and he can't even shoot.

In the last 3 minutes of the fourth quarter, the Heat still maintained the lead, 103:102, with a very small point difference.

If you just look at the fourth quarter, the late shooting rate has dropped to below 50%. Overall, the 44% shooting rate is not bad, but this undoubtedly proves that Zhuge Weiwei's guess is correct from the side. When his physical strength continues to drop to an extreme, his hit rate can no longer be guaranteed.

Pat Riley doesn't care too much about the outcome of this game. The Heat currently have an excellent record. As long as they enter the playoffs as the top three in the Eastern Conference, he cares more about their late performance.

He's been ordering the late stats from the assistant statistician, and Pat Riley was thrilled when he saw the late hit rate drop.

The Heat are attacking, and Wade still looks alive and well, holding the ball to find his teammates for pick-and-rolls, or trying to find this late point to play.

But being late was protected by the Rockets teammates and shrank near the free throw line, which did not give Wade a chance to single out.

Seeing that he couldn't force it, Sauway immediately changed his strategy and forced Lonny Baxter. With his excellent explosive speed, he easily got rid of Baxter and gave the ball to Payton outside the basket.

Payton's efficiency exploded in the third quarter, making 5 of 4 three-pointers, but this time he missed an open shot and hit the basket heavily. O'Neal picked up an offensive rebound and made a dunk.

The Rockets found Late again on the offensive end, and David Lee withdrew to the outside to follow Late's pick-and-roll to help Late get rid of Wade's defense.

By this time, I was already tired, my eyes were dim, and I felt that I couldn't even see the basket clearly. I could only rely on my mechanical muscle memory to throw the ball directly.

He didn't even have time to see if the ball was scored, so he turned around and walked back.

"Late! When the team was most desperate, he stood up again and hit a three-pointer for the Rockets to equalize. With 2:05 left, the Rockets are not without a chance."

The Heat hit back immediately, and James Posey received an assist from his teammate from the left corner and hit a three-pointer.

If the Rockets played again, they could only attack late. He was a bit reluctant to connect with the ball, and he didn't have the strength to make fake moves. He threw the ball directly in front of Wade.

Wade took off to block the block. The interference was given, but he missed the ball, and he was late and scored another three-pointer.

The Heat's players are physically strong, and their offensive efficiency is extremely high in the final period. O'Neal received the ball from the basket and got rid of Mutombo's defense and scored.

At this time, there are only 48 seconds left, and the Rockets must play a fast break.

Alston dribbled the ball across the half court, and immediately distributed the ball to Late, who caught the ball late and shot again. Wade took off and blocked the block without touching the ball-in fact, although he could still break through, Wade played for 42 minutes He was also physically troubled.

But Wade is confident that he will definitely not be able to score the goal late. He is obviously exhausted and even closed his eyes when shooting.

(End of this chapter)