NBA: I am a master dealer

Chapter 325 Who is more dominant?

The game officially begins.

Lopez was better at the jump ball, and the Knicks got the first attack.

Xue Liancheng advanced quickly with the ball, but Blatter still adopted the strategy of Irving leading the defense.

This made the NTN team who broadcast the live broadcast completely confused.

Barkley: "I don't know what Blatt thinks. Generally speaking, it is to let the player with the most advantageous defensive matchup lead the defense of the opposite star. This can contain the opponent as much as possible and consume as much energy as possible. Taking advantage of the opponent's physical fitness, and now letting Irving lead the defense against Xue Liancheng, what is this?"

O'Neal: "It's really puzzling. Last season's playoffs and even the two confrontations in the new season all proved that Irving's effectiveness in leading Xue Liancheng was not ideal, but Blatt went against the normal defensive strategy. It's really disappointing that they are following the path and are unwilling to revise their defensive strategy."

Everyone knows that Xue Liancheng is the brains of the team and the engine of the offense. Containing Xue Liancheng is the key to victory.

result.

Blatter tried again and again, but still couldn't figure out a good way to contain Xue Liancheng.

This is definitely the head coach's mistake.

Ernie Johnson smiled and said, "Is there a possibility that Xue Liancheng is so powerful that no one can contain him?"

As soon as this word comes out.

O'Neal and Barkley suddenly opened their eyes as big as copper bells.

After Barkley reacted, he blurted out, "I think he is not so strong that he cannot be contained. To be honest, he is not as strong as Jordan when he faced the Pistons. He had repeatedly hit the wall. If we hadn't double-teamed him in the finals that year, So determined, the championship is mine. James's physical talent is incredible. He is also helpless in the face of encirclement and suppression."

Ernie Johnson: "I'm not saying that his offense or scoring has evolved to the point where it's unstoppable. What I'm saying is that his style of play is unstoppable."

Barkley: "Playing style?"

O'Neal understood and interjected: "To put it simply and straightforwardly, Xue mainly passes the ball. If you use a double-team strategy on him, it will make him more comfortable. Even if you double-team him at a high position and prevent him from holding the ball, , he can still make you pay a heavy price by connecting with running positions and air cuts, but if you cut off his passing routes and insist on one-on-one defense, his offense can really kill you."

Barkley insisted, "It's not unstoppable. If the defense is in place, they can shut down the Knicks' offense. It's just that Blatt didn't do it."

This topic is inherently abstract and there is no standard answer.

Because after being double-teamed for the entire game, no matter how powerful the player is, even as strong as Jordan, it will be difficult for him to perform well.

of course.

Under normal circumstances, it is impossible to adopt a double-team strategy for the entire game.

After all, double-teaming all the time will expose another problem, that is, missing someone. If you don't guard against the leaked person, then you are seeking death.

and so……

This statement of containment is not a standard answer. What the public generally understands is that if the opponent is in poor condition, makes many mistakes, and has low shooting efficiency, then it is properly contained.

The style of play proposed by Ernie Johnson is extremely powerful, but it is even more abstract.

As Barkley said, any tactics and superb passing skills are just paper tigers in the face of seamless assist defense.

The reason is also simple.

As long as the five members of your team are actively switching defenses, making up for defense, and assisting in defense, and everyone can move in a tacit understanding, then if there is a leak, it can theoretically be filled.

What a 3-2 zone defense!
What unlimited defense changes!

And the five James that Riley mentioned!
Anyway, if such defensive tactics are implemented to the extreme, the opponent can really be helpless, especially in targeted situations.

At this time, the only hard way to solve it is to enter the superstar moment.

So what Barkley said is not unreasonable.

And what Ernie Johnson stated is also an ironclad fact.

Because of Xue Liancheng's style of play, it's really not easy for you to contain him.

Passing is the main thing and offense is the supplement. Passing is the foundation of Xue Liancheng's life, and offense can also kill you in minutes.

It can be used as a three-pointer, in the low post, can break through, can be off the ball, can be connected, and can be a shooter. The offensive methods are very comprehensive, and it is almost impossible to completely contain it.

Just when the three of them were arguing about these irrelevant things.

There have been several rounds of offense on the field, and neither side has been able to score.

O'Neal: "Guys, let's focus on the field first, shall we?"

Barkley: "I will discuss this issue with you after the game."

Ernie Johnson said nothing, just smiled.

And soon.

They understood Blatter's intention.

Because the Cavaliers did not put Shumpert in the starting lineup, the player with the best perimeter defense is undoubtedly LeBron James.

And Blatter arranged for James to lead the defense against Oladipo. After these rounds, the effect was surprisingly good.

This can be regarded as surviving with a broken arm, the next best thing.

No matter how hard we try to prevent Xue Liancheng, it doesn't work very well?

Okay then...

I mainly defend your number two, so that’s okay, right?
As the Knicks' end point, Oladipo's importance is self-evident and he is an indispensable part of the offense.

Fast breaks, defensive counterattacks, assault coordination, running around the frame, cutting into the air, pick-and-roll, etc. all require Oladipo's cooperation.

This coordination requires prerequisites, but not everyone can cooperate with Xue Liancheng. Will Barton is not so good, but Oladipo can.

What is this premise?
The league's top speed, athletic ability, passing awareness, and explosive power that can burst out with huge energy in an instant.

It's not that there aren't players who combine these talents, but they are definitely not many. Especially the passing awareness can exclude many people.

There are absolutely very few players who combine top-level running and jumping ability, explosive power, and super speed.

Oladipo counts as one.

Wade is the same one.

If James leads the defense, he can kill some of the above factors.

For example, when playing defensive counterattack or fast break, Oladipo, as an arrow, only needs to rush to the frontcourt desperately. With Oladipo's speed across the league, it is enough to complete this task.

But the problem now is that James, who is faster than Oladipo, has better athletic ability than Oladipo, and is more explosive than Oladipo, is following behind. You Oladipo no longer has it. The huge advantage creates enough space for the ball.

Taking a step back, Oladipo reacts quickly and is one position ahead of James. After arriving in the frontcourt, there is still room to catch the ball.

But, do you dare to go straight to the box?
James' flying hat is no joke.

If he also rushes forward, James will completely defeat everyone in the league, and Oladipo cannot be compared with James at all.

and so……

The advantages of fast break transition and defensive counterattack were directly eliminated.

Unless Xue Liancheng and Oladipo advance in tandem, such opportunities are rare.

In addition, Irving's speed is not slow. Xue Liancheng simply cannot leave Irving and go straight to the frontcourt.

It can be seen that Blatter's arrangement is quite clever.

What is important is to isolate Xue Liancheng and Oladipo's fast break cooperation, and suffocate the Knicks' fast break transition tactics on the spot.

Second, Xue Liancheng's effectiveness in cooperating with pick-and-rolls and assaults has also dropped significantly.

The main reason is that James' physical talent is much better than Oladipo.

James is known as a hexagonal warrior. His height, wingspan, speed, strength, jumping and explosive power may not be the best, but when combined, James is the strongest.

And so strong that it is unrivaled.

With such physical talent, he has a natural advantage when guarding Oladipo, squeezing Oladipo's running space or shooting space very much.

In addition, James' defensive ability and defensive awareness are not bad to begin with. As long as he does not stray or lose focus, guarding many players will have unexpected effects.

of course.

James may have put too much energy into the offensive end, so there are always some periods of time in every game when he is walking, at a loss, and looking around.

But in this game, James was highly focused and really tried his best to guard Oladipo, leaving Oladipo at a loss.

This resulted in a huge reduction in the effectiveness of the two people's cooperation.

As long as Oladipo is eliminated, the Knicks' tactical system will directly lose most of its power.

This is the dilemma the Knicks are currently facing.

This can be seen.

Blatter definitely did his homework to win this game.

O'Neal couldn't help but praise at this time, "It seems that we were all wrong. Blatter still made some preparations, and the effect was very good."

Buckley: "So...Xue Liancheng cannot be contained, which is obviously untenable."

Ernie Johnson: "Let's move on. I believe Tyronn Lue will be able to adjust. He knows the Cavaliers too well."

At this stage, both sides are fighting hand to hand.The referee's penalty scale was also very large. It seemed to be acknowledgment of the fact that both sides were fighting hard and everything was based on strength.

of course.

They will still call for obvious fouls.

Therefore, both sides felt bad in the middle of the first quarter.

The Knicks announced Lin, mainly because Oladipo was pinched.

The Cavaliers were unable to attack because both James and Irving were held back.

James still has the same problem, that is, he cannot rush forward and appears to lack confidence. Especially in this highly anticipated game, instead of becoming more powerful, his shots have become more cautious. This is a problem of mental endurance.

This is James' old problem.

In addition, PJ Tucker really has experience in defending James, relying on both hands and feet, and the referee's penalty scale is large, which makes it easier for PJ Tucker to transform into a beast.

In addition, Lopez's frame protection is also a shock to James, playing the role of Gasol last season.

The effect is not as good as Gasol's, but it can finally drive James out of the penalty area temporarily.

Irving was held down entirely because of Tyronn Lue.

As the head assistant coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers last season, he knows this team very well, and he also knows the players on this team very well.

Originally, according to the normal rhythm of the game, Crowder would be arranged to defend Irving, but Tyronn Lujian went to the side and let Oladipo guard.

of course.

Just main defense.

Because the Knicks have one player and four players, except for Lopez who is filling in the gaps and can move wherever he needs to, the others are making unlimited defensive changes.

But here's the beauty.

Oladipo mainly defended Irving, taking away Irving's offensive power in the first wave and destroying Irving's offensive rhythm.

After switching defenses, no matter who was guarding him, Irving seemed lost, missing shots no matter what.

And this is Irving's shortcoming.

That's right!

It’s the offensive rhythm.

As a well-known movement control ceiling in the league, Irving's absolute strength and absolute advantage is also the offensive rhythm.

Many times, you can't react at all and are passed by Irving.

The reason is that Irving uses extremely fast and dizzying rhythm to dismember your defensive judgment.

Once your judgment is wrong and your center of gravity shifts, being passed is the only thing you have to face.

Tyronn Lue believes that all it takes is a player with extremely fast reaction speed, excellent defensive awareness, and the ability to keep up with the lateral movement speed to specifically disrupt Irving's movement and control rhythm, and then Irving will most likely get lost, and this Man, Oladipo is undoubtedly the most suitable.

Xue Liancheng is good in other aspects, but his lateral movement speed is slow.

Crowder is not very good in any aspect, but he defends well against heavy tank players. Like Owen's light rhythm master, it is difficult for Crowder to keep up.

The specific operation is to face Irving upright, and then switch back and forth with both feet to replace the shift of the center of gravity. In this way, you can jump forward and back, and you can also move left and right in the middle to keep the same in response to changes.

It can be regarded as destroying the rhythm of Irving's offense.

of course.

It's just a small amount of damage. In fact, as long as Irving passes through the pick-and-roll, there is a high probability that he will not fall into such a trap.

But Tyronn Lue knows Irving too well.

Young and energetic, he will never give up until he knocks you down.

Irving is a very proud person. When he meets Kobe, he wants to challenge him. As a teammate with James, who absolutely controls the ball and the court, he dares to challenge. You can imagine how strong Irving's character is.

And this is another weakness of Irving.

Just in time to be caught by Tyronn Lue.

He just uses Oladipo to provoke you. If you don’t believe me, you won’t be fooled.

As it turns out, Irving was indeed fooled.

The two major offensive starting points failed to ignite the team's engine. Will the Cleveland Cavaliers stall?
And this period lasted until the end of halftime.

40:43
This is the score of the two teams.

The former is the Cavaliers and the latter is the Knicks. They only achieved a meager 3-point advantage.

And that's actually not the point.

The point is, they couldn't score more than 45 points.

This is a half-time score!

They didn't even score 45 points. You can imagine how bad the Knicks' offense was in the first half.

You know, since Xue Liancheng joined the Knicks, the half-time score has never been lower than 45 points, and sometimes the score in a quarter is 40+.

Now we only have this score, which is extremely shabby.

It also illustrates a problem from the side. There is a big problem with their offense.

The TNT team made a mid-time summary.

Buckley: "The two sides were involved in brutal hand-to-hand combat, and the fight was very ferocious. It felt a bit like my time."

O'Neal: "Xue Liancheng has never been able to find a breakthrough and lead the team in regular offense. It is very dangerous to continue like this!"

Ernie Johnson: "Indeed, if this continues, it will be difficult for them to maintain the score until the decisive moment."

Buckley suddenly teased: "Ernie, didn't you say that Xue Liancheng has reached an unstoppable point? What do you think now?"

Ernie Johnson: "Although the situation is not very optimistic, I always believe in Xue Liancheng's ability. This is only half a game and everything is still early."

It is already known to everyone that Xue Liancheng habitually explodes in the second half.

It was only halftime, but he still wanted to believe that Xue Liancheng could stand up.

After a pause, he added, "Looking back, among all the Knicks, Xue Liancheng's performance was the best, with 13 points, 3 assists and 6 rebounds. It can't be said that he was contained. He played in the low post. There are several Owens, the effect is very obvious, and they still have an unstoppable momentum."

Barkley: "Well... it's not bad, but he made 11 of 3 shots from the field, and his efficiency doesn't look very good. If he didn't make 6 free throws, his score wouldn't be 10."

Ernie Johnson: "Sneaking in in the low post, the Cavaliers have no way to stop him and can only foul. Is there a problem with getting to the free throw line?"

Barkley showed a pair of big white teeth: "The problem is, he hasn't reached the point of being unstoppable yet."

Ernie Johnson was speechless: "..."

There's really no way to refute this.

11 out of 3, if you want to say it's unstoppable, that's a bit unreasonable.

The fact is that Xue Liancheng's performance in this game was not good, it could even be said to be terrible.

Secondly, the scoring efficiency is low, mainly because he only has 3 assists!

You know, Xue Liancheng, a player who averages close to 13 assists per game, has only reached a fraction of the average after half a game.

This shows that Xue Liancheng had problems sorting out the offense, organizing the offense, and launching the offense.

As a top point guard, if he cannot mobilize his teammates and lead them to participate in the offensive rhythm, that is failure.

There is no reason to refute that Xue Liancheng is in poor condition.

O'Neal: "Sir Charles, I want to refute you on this point. With such an offensive rhythm and level of physical combat, no one's performance is outstanding, including James. They are all average. I think it is normal."

After a pause, "Besides, as Ernie said, Xue Liancheng's favorite time to explode is the third quarter or even the last moment of the fourth quarter. Don't draw any conclusions at this time."

Barkley had to admit it, and said with a smile: "It is indeed a bit arbitrary. After the game is over, I will discuss it with you to see if Xue Liancheng is really that dominant."

O'Neal also smiled: "For now, he dares to play better than James. Whether he can score or not is another matter."

That's right!

詹姆斯半场数据是7投2中，也十分磕碜，只得到了6分1助攻5篮板的数据。

In the first quarter, James took 5 shots.

In the second quarter, it just stalled.

James no longer even had the desire to take action.

no way.

Can't make a shot!

All kinds of rough actions still have a great impact on James, and he is not so easy to rush.

(End of this chapter)