Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

Although the Warriors are strong, their disadvantages are also obvious. Their inside line is not strong enough and their defense is not top-notch in the league.

To some extent, the Warriors and the Rockets are somewhat similar. Both shoot a lot of three-pointers and play a lot of "one big and four small" lineups.

So if it is the Rockets vs. Warriors, it will definitely be a battle of offense, and the final result will depend on who plays better on offense.

The Lakers are different.

The Lakers have an All-Star center in the interior and two super defensive players in the backcourt. Although they play with a "one big and four small" formation, they have avoided the disadvantages of "one big and four small" on the defensive end very well, so the Lakers' defense is very strong.

The Rockets are at a disadvantage in this regard.

Then there is the depth of the squad.

The Lakers' lineup is not as famous as the Warriors' Curry, Klay and Durant. If we really want to talk about "superstars", there is only Zhuang Yu. But their other players are all excellent, such as Lopez, Holiday, Korver, Anderson, Clarkson, etc.

In the playoffs, the Rockets basically rotate seven or eight players.

The Lakers, on the other hand, were able to rotate 10 players, and even some players who were capable of playing did not get a chance.

This not only allows the Lakers to ensure that there is always a core player on the court, but also ensures that their physical energy is not over-consumed.

After all, when the Lakers let a core player play rotation minutes, they are not relying solely on this core player, but also on Clarkson and other role players.

Defensive ability, lineup depth...these are the two points where the Rockets are inferior to the Lakers.

So what should I do?

For a moment, several assistant coaches looked at Coach D'Antoni.

Coach D'Antoni smiled bitterly in his heart. Whether it was defense or lineup depth, these were not things that could be changed in a short time, and it was difficult to make up for it with tactical coordination.

But he couldn't say that he had no solution. After pondering for a while, he said, "We still have to rely on offense. We have to play better on offense."

The underlying meaning of this statement is that we cannot beat the Lakers in terms of defense, nor can we beat the Lakers in terms of lineup depth, so we can only perform as well as possible under limited conditions.

This is actually a helpless move and not a solution.

Because it's not like you can perform well just because you want to. It depends on the situation of the game and the condition of the players.

Of course, this does not mean that the head coach has nothing to do and can only leave the game to the players.

How to arrange the troops, how to make good use of the combination of players, how to make the players play as well as possible, make the game more reasonable, control the details, control the players' playing time and physical distribution...

These are things a coach needs to do.

Afterwards, several people discussed these issues...

......

at the same time.

In the hotel, the Lakers coaching staff was also reviewing the game.

After reviewing and analyzing the situation, they all had smiles on their faces.

"The Rockets are indeed a better team than the Warriors."

"What should we do next time?"

"It's easy. We can further strengthen the defense against Harden, double-team him, and let other Rockets players score more points instead of giving Harden a chance. What if Paul scores 30 points, or Eric Gordon scores 20 points? As long as Harden can't play well and the Rockets don't get that many three-pointers, they will still lose."

"hehe......"

For the Lakers, it is not complicated to decide how to play the next game, after all, the Rockets still have many weaknesses.

For example, they rely too much on three-pointers. Although they introduced Paul this season, it is still a team consisting of Harden alone, and they still play with the ball as the core.

The disadvantage of this style of play is very obvious, which is that it relies too much on stars.

Once there is a problem with the performance of a star player, the entire team's offense will have problems.

Also, the defense of this kind of team is usually not very good, which has a lot to do with the team's core player who holds the ball.

As the team's ball-handling core, he needs to be able to score, rebound, and assist. Almost all of his energy is focused on the offensive end, so he naturally cannot devote more energy to the defensive end.

This is true for Westbrook of the Thunder and Harden of the Rockets.

Although they are excellent and comprehensive, and can even produce super statistics like 30+10+10, it is difficult for them to help the team win.

This is also why some fans always criticize this style of play.

It can be said that the Rockets have too many weaknesses.

So for the Lakers, in the next game they just need to focus on these weaknesses of the Rockets and make targeted arrangements.

Moreover, the Lakers also have the strength to target these weaknesses of the Rockets.

For example, further strengthening the defense against Harden.

If Zhuang Yu alone is not enough, then use team defense to limit him.

For example, to limit the Rockets' three-pointers, the Lakers can replace Korver with a more flexible player, such as Kuzma or Gerald Green, to better switch defense and not give the Rockets so many three-point opportunities...

Of course, the Rockets' three-point shots account for half of their average shots per game this season, and there is a reason for this. Their three-point shooting is indeed excellent.

But in a game like this, how stable can their three-point shooting be?

Especially those role players.

You know, the Rockets are not the Warriors after all. They don't have the Splash Brothers or Durant...

After a review and discussion, Coach Scott had a clear idea in his mind and said with a smile: "Let me summarize it in three points."

"One is the defense against Harden; two is the restriction on three-pointers; three is the rotation time."

"Let's discuss these three points now..."

Coach Scott's meaning is very clear. They are going to deal with the Rockets based on these three points. The next step is to discuss how to implement them specifically.

As long as you have a direction, these are easy to do.

......

The day after the Western Conference Finals ended, the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals began.

Irving withdrew from the first game due to injury, and later news came out that he would undergo surgery and be out for the season. This was naturally a huge blow to the Celtics, and even many fans began to predict the Celtics' future.

It is believed that the Celtics no longer have the strength to compete with the Cavaliers after losing Irving. Relying only on a few young players on the team and Al Horford, they are obviously no match for the Cavaliers. Even though the Cavaliers have struggled this season, the foundation is there after all.

In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron James' performance was average, but for a star at his level, you can't expect him to perform like this in every game.

What's more, there are Love and others.

What surprised people was that the Celtics still won the second game of the series without Irving.

James performed well in this game, scoring a super triple-double of 42 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. Love also played well, scoring 22 points and 15 rebounds.

Both stars played very well.

It's just that apart from them, the performance of others was a bit bad.

Among a group of role players, only Derrick Rose scored 13 points, while the other players scored in single digits.

On the other hand, the Celtics scored from multiple points.

Jaylen Brown scored 23 points and 6 rebounds, Terry Rozier scored 18 points and 6 rebounds, Al Horford scored 15 points and 10 rebounds, Marcus Morris scored 12 points, Jayson Tatum scored 11 points, and Marcus Smart also scored 11 points. Six players on the team scored in double digits, and the team finally defeated the Cavaliers 6:107, changing the series score to 104:2.

For a moment, the fans were a little confused.

I thought that in the absence of Irving, as long as James could perform normally in the second game of the series, the Cavaliers would have a great chance of winning the game.

哪知道詹姆斯都砍下40+10+10的三双数据了，乐福也轰下20+10的两双，骑士队却还是输给了凯尔特人。

This is indeed somewhat unexpected.

Now the tide has changed again.

With the Celtics leading 2:0, many people changed their views and began to favor the Celtics and pessimistic about the Cavaliers.

"Although Irving is injured, the Celtics still have a solid foundation. I underestimated them before. Especially young players like Tatum, Brown and Smart. I didn't expect that without Irving, they would play better."

"I'm not surprised. We saw it during the regular season. These young players are very talented, but because Irving took up too much of the ball, these young players didn't get enough opportunities. Now that Irving is injured, the ball has been released, and the talents of these young players have been revealed."

"Looking at this situation, I'm afraid it will be difficult for the Cavaliers to advance to the finals."

"Yeah, after all, we are 0:2 behind, and it is too difficult to make a comeback. It all depends on the next game. If we lose another game and the score becomes 0:3, then there will be no suspense."

"It's a pity that James and Love played so well, but they still lost in the end. The Cavaliers' current lineup does have big problems and can no longer be compared with the championship season..."

Many people had previously said that the Cavaliers would have the upper hand after Irving was injured, but after this game, all opinions changed.

Of course, the situation is indeed unfavorable to the Cavaliers at this time, but the series is not over yet.

The world is uncertain, everything is possible!

......

Soon, the second game of the Western Conference Finals arrived.

Still in Houston, Toyota Center.

The overall score in the Eastern Conference is already 2:0, while in the Western Conference it is 1:0, so this game is very crucial for the Rockets, as they don't want to end up like the Cavaliers.

In the evening, the competition is about to begin.

The auditorium was packed with Rockets fans, who were screaming and cheering, and booing loudly, almost drowning out the Lakers.

But it didn't work at all.

The louder the boos from the audience, the more excited Zhuang Yu became. He narrowed his eyes, but the corners of his mouth stretched into a smile.

A little cold!