NBA: This Center Is So Stable

The first time, the second time, the second time.

Chapter 184 Double-team? The ultimate defense!

April 18!

Game 1 between the Knicks and the Celtics!

Before letting the Knicks experience the devil’s home court, the Celtics first came to Madison Square Garden.

Facing this home court that is no less impressive than the North Shore Garden, the Celtics players still felt a little shocked even though they had been there twice in the regular season.

The relatively high ticket prices for the playoffs had no impact on New York fans at all.

On the contrary, the Knicks, who won 74 games, completely aroused the support of New York fans for the home team. When entering the game venue, the Celtics players had no doubt that the attendance rate of the stadium was as high as 100%, and even the blind spot at the top of the stadium was occupied.

Under such a grand occasion, even the worldly Paul Pierce couldn’t help but sigh before the game:

“Madison Garden will become the most popular stadium in this playoffs, no doubt! I have no doubt that their stadium capacity can still be filled even if it doubles. Their fans are really too crazy…”

At the end of his voice, Pierce wanted to express that he would conquer the Knicks fans, but the New York media was not interested in his words at all, and they directly cut off the latter part of his speech.

This is indeed the case.

The Celtics made a lot of preparations before the game, and the coaching team also paid a lot for it.

After they combined their previous game experience and reviewed the previous game videos, they decided not to let the Knicks’ inside core go.

A double-team strategy was developed for Wang Song, and the starting center Mark Blount was given absolute responsibility. Everything was centered on defending Wang Song, even if it cost him a painful foul.

That being said, Blount did not dare to make too big a move, given the Pistons’ previous experience.

Another thing is that the Chinese big man’s name is not Shaquille O’Neal. Mindless fouls that sent him to the free throw line would only continue to widen the score gap between the two teams.

This season, Wang Song ranked among the top centers with an 82% free throw rate. This data directly dispelled the idea of ​​”Hack-a-Shaq tactics” from other teams.

The Knicks at home did not give the Celtics any chance to prepare. As the opening game of the playoffs, Wang Song and others contributed the most eye-catching performance at the beginning to give back to the fans.

The Celtics’ double-team strategy did achieve certain results. When Wang Song could not touch the ball, he could only find a sense of existence through rebounds.

But basketball is a sport for five people. When the Celtics put too much energy on Wang Song, this running and gunning team, which had been tempered for a season, started firing from the outside.

5 consecutive three-pointers were hit, and they directly opened the game with a small climax of 15:4!

If you want the best effect of the double team defense, you can’t do without the tacit understanding between teammates; but once you want to break the double team defense, you only need absolute accuracy from the outside.

The Celtics and the Knicks have one thing in common, that is, both teams are among the best teams in the Eastern Conference that like to shoot three-pointers.

John Carroll knows how unstoppable a three-point shooting team is after shooting.

And they are facing the team with the highest three-point shooting rate in the league. The Knicks have an average of 24 shots per game with a shooting rate of 37.9%. As long as the Knicks have the rebounds in the restricted area, they have unlimited opportunities for secondary attacks.

Carroll dares to be sure that this Knicks will send the Celtics home with three-pointers!

But now the problem that the Celtics need to face is that no matter how they change their formation, whether it is a two-three zone defense or a three-two zone defense, the problem they cannot avoid is the protection of rebounds.

As long as the Celtics shrink their defense, they will definitely have to withstand the three-point fire from the Knicks’ outside line led by Nash and Houston, and there is also the threat of Wang Song’s offensive rebounds turning into secondary offense.

But once he rushes out to target the outside line, Blount, who loses his teammates’ defense, must withstand the test of Wang Song… This game is also a microcosm of the entire series between the Celtics and the Knicks.

The Celtics have only two ways to take the victory from the Knicks.

The first is to follow the Knicks, maximize their three-point advantage, and directly compete with the Knicks on the outside.

As for the second way, it is to directly give up targeted defense. Blount uses self-explosion to bite the Asian boy. As long as any game has a significant effect, the Celtics can get the possibility of winning.

The first one is not an easy thing for the Celtics. They have a regular season.

The average three-point shooting rate of 34.6% is three points lower than that of the Knicks.

The most important thing is their star player.

This season, Pierce’s three-point shooting rate has reached a new low in his career, less than 30%. It is more difficult to win when attacking in places where Paul Pierce is not good at.

Pierce’s offensive threat is more in the basket and free throw line area, which can be said to be somewhat contrary to the coaching philosophy of head coach Carroll.

The result is that Pierce, who occupies a high ball right, cannot perfectly implement the game strategy of the Celtics coaching staff.

In the inefficient offense and collapsed defense, the Celtics lost in G1.

90:110!

Pierce played his best in the first game, scoring 21 points and 10 rebounds in 24 shots, but apart from that, only two Celtics scored in double digits.

The problems exposed by the Green Army’s defeat were enough to make Carroll resign on the spot.

I believe that many teams that failed to enter the playoffs have the confidence to defeat the Celtics after watching this G1.

On the other side.

With the Celtics wavering, the Knicks team took 30 three-pointers and hit 15 of them. If you only look at the three-point scores on both sides, the 20-point gap between the two teams is a three-point gap.

But this is not the case!

Three-pointers are one of the reasons why the Celtics swallowed this defeat, but more importantly, they failed to make a difference in the penalty area.

Their protection of rebounds can be said to be terrible, which is one of the few items in the game that is larger than the three-point gap.

In the absence of Knicks starting power forward Kurt Thomas, the rebound gap between the two teams is still as high as 10.

10 rebounds means 10 offensive opportunities!

Among them, Wang Song alone got 15 rebounds, which was limited by Carroll’s insistence on double-teaming. With him attracting the attention of the Green Army’s twin towers, his teammates at positions 3 and 4 of the Knicks also got a lot of rebounds.

In addition to 15 rebounds, Wang Song also scored 25 points and 8 blocks, a near triple-double, under high-intensity double-teaming.

The moment Wang Song encountered double-teaming in this game, he changed his mind and understood his position in this game.

That is to shift the focus of the game to the defense of the Knicks’ restricted area!

After doing defense to the extreme, it can naturally affect the direction of the game.

After winning this game, the home fans fell into carnival and breathed a sigh of relief.

Fans who were originally worried about the Knicks’ playoff prospects put their minds at ease after witnessing this big win.

A non-complete Knicks team can get a 20-point lead, which is enough to prove that they continue their dominance in the regular season in the playoffs.

(End of this chapter)