Chapter 1148: Not Attacking, Forcing You to Attack

At the start of the game, the Suns' home court, the American West Arena, was filled with huge shouts of defending the title, which was like a tsunami.

Jump ball, Yao Ming beat O'Neal, and the Suns attacked.

Running to the left, Li Ba faced Nowitzki, rushed to the front court at the first time, and with his absolute speed, he threw Nowitzki away and cut into the paint area from the left wing three-point line.

At this time, Stoudemire retreated, and Ginobili also threw the ball in directly from the midline.

Stoudemire retreated to observe the height of the ball, but when he jumped, Li Ba, who had already cut under him, jumped first, surpassed his height with a faster bounce speed, and grabbed the ball with his longer arms.

Then, Li Ba glided forward, stretched his arm, and with a bang, the Mavericks' basket exploded.

0:2, the Suns led.

Barkley shook his head and sighed: "Stoudemire has lived up to his explosive quality. In the battle of the inside, he and the Hammer are not in the same league at all."

Kenny Smith laughed: "Mr. Colangelo chose the Hammer back then, so can he predict the future?"

Barkley laughed and said: "No, he just chose tradition. Offense and defense, he chose the latter. He made a great choice, he is a very courageous person."

Kenny Smith nodded and smiled: "But now Stoudemire is not bad, his shooting can be used, he performed well this season, played 23+8 data, 50% of the offense belongs to mid-range and long-range shots, and was selected as an All-Star. He is still a first-class star in the league and the absolute main force of the Mavericks inside."

Mavericks attack.

Nowitzki's shooting posture is too fucked up. Li Ba's defense is very strict. He took the approach of cutting off the passing line and method, directly defending on the line, and not giving him a chance to catch the ball.

Nowitzki's mobility is far inferior to Li Ba, so he can only take the opportunity of pick-and-roll to find opportunities to catch the ball.

But he didn't ask for a pick-and-roll, and just wandered around the three-point line on the right wing.

This is the Mavericks' tactical strategy.

General Johnson thought hard and thought that in order to limit Li Ba's defense, he could only abandon Nowitzki, the absolute core of the offense, and use him to contain Li Ba on the wing three-point line, away from the paint area.

So Nowitzki didn't want a pick-and-roll, because he was not the offensive point today.

Stoudemire took the ball in two steps at the 45-degree angle three-point line on the left wing. Facing the defense of Alian, he first turned around and played with his back, then suddenly turned right, made a breakthrough, shook off Alian, and stood up to shoot.

"Bang!" It missed.

O'Neal grabbed the rebound and wanted to dunk on Yao Ming's head, but was blocked by the latter. However, the ball was still picked up by O'Neal and he passed the ball to Stoudemire.

Stoudemire shot again, and Alian jumped up to block the shot, but he didn't block it. Looking back, the ball just passed the basket.

After Stoudemire scored a goal, he didn't make any excited moves, but immediately returned to defense.

He is no longer the same person he was back then, and he is no longer as high-spirited as he was back then.

The Suns attack.

A-Lin pulls out, Yao Ming pulls to the high post, and Li Ba is in the low post.

Li Ba scored the first goal, but did not attack the second goal. Instead, he attracted double-teaming in the low post and let others attack.

Nowitzki and Josh Howard double-teamed him in advance, but did not hold him tightly. They both adopted a front-interference defense to prevent him from receiving the ball under the basket.

Finally, Yao Ming singled out O'Neal in the high post and hit a mid-range shot.

Three minutes later, 6:8, the Suns led by 2 points.

Li Ba understood a little bit that the German in front of him was just a decoration. Today, he did not ask for the ball once, but took him around the perimeter on the offensive end. This was to wear him down!

Fortunately, the strength of the Suns is there. Even if he did not contribute on the defensive end, the Mavericks did not take advantage.

In the first few rounds, General Johnson also understood that doing this could contain Li Ba, but the Mavericks had no chance of winning.

He was very distressed and kept scratching his head. Should he let Dirk participate in the offense or continue like this?

When he did not make any changes, Li Ba took the lead in making changes on the court. He left Dirk three meters, or two steps of defensive distance.

Li Ba's defense has always pursued initiative. He wanted to force Nowitzki to attack.

With such a large space, Kidd could not help it. He passed the ball without paying attention to the tactical arrangement of the little general Johnson.

The moment Kidd passed the ball, Li Ba took the first step from the front and rushed to Nowitzki.

Of course, Nowitzki saw Li Ba's action. The moment he received the ball, he made a shooting action, jumped up, lifted his right leg, and leaned back to shoot.

But Li Ba was prepared and did not jump up to block the shot from the front. He staggered a position.

"Pop!"

The ball was blown away and flew to the front court of the Suns.

Li Ba landed, forced to start, and rushed to the front court. When Nowitzki landed and turned around, he had already rushed across the midline and grabbed the ball in his hands.

In the middle, Kidd returned to defense and saw Li Ba rushing from the left wing to the paint with the ball. He instinctively slowed down at the free throw line.

"Bang!"

Li Ba flew up and dunked the Mavericks' basket with one arm.

6:10, the Suns took the lead.

Looking back, the Mavericks attacked again, and Li Ba once again left Nowitzki three meters away.

If Nowitzki didn't want the ball, then Li Ba would have the opportunity to return to the basket. Even if the Mavericks didn't play inside, he could still grab the rebound.

So his leaving the ball open immediately forced the young general Johnson to change his tactical arrangement.

Next, the Mavericks called a timeout.

When the players of both teams returned to the bench, Barkley analyzed: "Comparatively speaking, the Suns still have an advantage in overall strength."

Kenny Smith said: "The Suns have the following two advantages: First, in interior offense, both Hammer and Yao can single out anyone in the low post. With such a strong low post, no team in the league is stronger than the Suns.

Of course, Hammer didn't play today, but Yi and Yao have the ability to empty the basket, which leaves a huge space for Ginobili's cut.

Second, in perimeter defense, Hammer froze the core of the Mavericks, Nowitzki, and Tony Allen also had a good defensive effect on Josh Howard."

Barkley nodded and said: "In the first few minutes of the game, The Mavericks adopted an unexpected tactic, using Nowitzki to pin the Hammer on the outside, so that the Hammer could not contribute on the defensive end. This is indeed a good tactic.

Kenny Smith said: "If the Mavericks can beat the Suns today, this is a good tactic. If not, it's just so-so. In competitive games, only victory and defeat are considered, and the winner is right. No matter how good the loser's tactics are, it is not a good tactic if he doesn't win.

Barkley said: "Now that the Hammer has left Nowitzki open, the Mavericks can no longer let Nowitzki be a spectator. If they continue like that, then the Hammer, who is not far from the paint area, will definitely return to defend the paint area, and the Mavericks will lose Nowitzki's offensive firepower for nothing. ”