Chapter 176 A Sports Car is Indispensable

Duncan asked for the ball in the low post on the left wing. After receiving the ball, he turned upwards and then turned around and slid down the floor. The rhythm was incredibly fast and very concise.

He Zhongqiu's defensive rhythm was half a beat slow. He was shaken by the opponent's turn and failed to block it in time. He could only use his body to get close to Duncan who had entered the penalty area, launch a strong confrontation, and push down hard.

Duncan's sneak attack was only half successful. After being stuck, without waiting for Wolverine to start the confrontation, he immediately grabbed the ball and jumped, hooking the ball towards the basket with his left hand.

He Zhongqiu was not prepared for Duncan's fast attack, so he jumped up to block the shot, but was a little slow.

It was really just a little bit slow. He jumped high and fast enough, but Duncan shot too quickly, and the tip of his finger missed by at most half a centimeter.

"brush!"

The basketball goes into the basket.

"Oh ho!"

The SBC Center Arena was filled with cheers from fans.

Michael Breen said: "The Wolverines' one-on-one defense skills are still not up to par. After all, they are only in their second year."

Tom Howard said: "Duncan's offense is very concise and his shots are fast, but I believe he will be blocked sooner or later."

Michael Brin laughed and nodded, "I don't doubt it either. After all, Tim Duncan is the king of blocked shots."

Tom Howard said: "Although Wolverine has only played two games with Duncan, his offensive skills are definitely borrowed from Duncan's skills, so he must know a lot about Duncan, which will help him defend Duncan better."

Popovich was ready to call a timeout, but when he saw this goal, he didn't call a timeout and decided to take a look first.

Next, Nash broke through on the right wing and took a quick stop jump shot, but missed, and Tim Duncan grabbed the rebound.

7:2, Spurs attack.

Duncan had a strong desire to attack and once again asked for the ball in the low post on the left wing.

"squeak!"

With the sharp sound of friction between sneakers, he immediately turned around and slid down after catching the ball.

He Zhongqiu had indeed watched Duncan's offensive highlights many times, but the more he understood them, the more difficult it was for him to make accurate judgments in an instant.

Duncan turns around and slides to the bottom, he can really slide to the bottom, cut directly to the bottom for a dunk or layup, and he can also shoot like he did just now after being blocked.

But it could also be a fake move, and then he would immediately turn around and hit the board at a 45-degree angle to the left waist.

Duncan's technical moves are too simple, and there is no way to predict in advance what his next technical move will be, so no matter how you judge it, there is a 50% chance of being right and 50% wrong.

This is the power of Duncan's offense with the ball near the basket. No matter how strong your defense is, you only have a 50% chance of making the correct judgment. Even if the judgment is correct, the defender's chance of successfully completing the defense will be discounted.

Therefore, the key to his defense against Duncan is not to judge whether it is successful, but whether he can use his excellent athletic ability in passive defense to keep up with the opponent's offensive rhythm when the defensive rhythm is half a beat slower.

Therefore, when Duncan performed technical moves, he was too lazy to make any judgments and just followed the rhythm with the fastest reaction.

This time, Duncan turned around and slipped to the bottom, and he immediately moved sideways to block Duncan's breakthrough in advance.

"squeak!"

The next moment, Duncan dribbled and turned around.

The connections between his movements were as smooth as flowing water, without any interruption, as if he had decided in advance to follow up the next turn with the next one.

But in fact, this was just a temporary measure on his part.

However, because He Zhongqiu successfully prevented Duncan's bottom breakthrough, he had a chance to predict the outcome in advance.

He believed that with his blocking ability, it was impossible for Duncan to force a shot when he was facing him. He would most likely turn around and make a 45-degree bank shot, which is what he is best at. Of course, he could also turn around and cut in for a dunk or layup.

So his next defensive reaction was very quick. When Duncan turned around, he immediately moved sideways one step upward and established a defensive position earlier than Duncan.

When Duncan completed his turn and raised the ball to face the basket, he slapped it.

"Snapped!"

The ball was knocked away, hit the floor, and then caught in his hands.

"Oh, Wolverine, Wolverine stole the ball from Duncan for the second time." Michael Breen shouted in surprise.

"Wolverine didn't give Duncan any chance to shoot, and he completed a beautiful cut as soon as he jumped up." Tom Howard said excitedly.

He Zhongqiu did not have the opportunity to pass the ball quickly. Duncan was too experienced and he immediately counterattacked on the spot and prevented his quick pass.

In the positional battle, Nash called for a pick-and-roll with Harrington on the right wing.

His tactical consideration was that Harrington was not good enough to get into the air. If he stayed near the paint area, it would only allow the Spurs' two inside players to double-team Wolverine in the restricted area, or even double-team him in advance. It would be better to let him come out to set a screen and take the opportunity to bring out Rasu.

This allows Wolverine to form a one-on-one situation in the restricted area, and also facilitates his own breakthrough with the ball.

Sure enough, after Harrington came out, LaSue had to follow him out, otherwise the Knicks would be in a two-on-one situation on the right wing.

Nash's tactical considerations were correct, but Bowen and Rasu did not listen to his command.

When the defense was broken up, LaSue switched defense directly without paying any attention to Harrington, and then Bowen double-teamed Nash from behind.

In this situation, Nash could only pass the ball to Harrington.

Harrington received the ball one step inside the 3-point line on the right wing, and Lasu rushed over again.

At this time, He Zhongqiu had already entered the basket and Duncan couldn't stop him at all, but Harrington was not Nash and chose to shoot in a hurry.

Under the basket, there were footsteps, and Duncan and He Zhongqiu were wrestling for position.

Both of them want to trap the other behind them, or push their opponent to the side, and both want to occupy the position on the front right side of the basket because there is the greatest chance of grabbing a rebound there.

The fierce confrontation began the moment Harrington made his move.

"Go away!"

He Zhongqiu groaned and exerted force, pushing Duncan away and occupying the most advantageous position.

"Bang!"

The basketball hit the rim and bounced back, and he jumped up quickly to catch it.

The moment he landed, he jumped up again with the ball in both hands, pulled his body back, and slammed the basketball fiercely into the basket.

Duncan was squeezed to the bottom near the backboard and could only jump from the wing to block the shot, but his jumping height could not compare with He Zhongqiu.

"boom!"

There was an extremely fierce sound of the basket being smashed.

"Pretty!"

Michael Brin shouted excitedly: "After Wolverine grabbed the offensive rebound, he dunked Tim Duncan with both hands. He played better than Duncan today." Tom Howard said with a smile: "Wolverine received a large amount of sponsorship fees. Now he doesn't smash the backboard anymore. He is really a slave to money."

"Haha."

Michael Breen couldn't help laughing.

"Kidding."

Tom Howard immediately clarified: "In fact, the backboard has been reinforced again. The quality of the buffer device between the basket and the backboard is better, so now even Wolverine will find it difficult to smash the backboard."

Michael Brin joked: "Although it is difficult for Wolverine to smash the backboard, Rick Sports Company's endorsement is not at a disadvantage. After all, behind Wolverine is the entire Chinese market, and Rick Company can sell backboards to China."

9:2, the Spurs served the ball and Popovich called a timeout.

The team's offense and defense were not good, but he didn't seem to get angry. Instead, after the players came down, he came to Duncan and asked softly, "Tim, how do you feel about the Wolverine now?"

“It’s more powerful.”

Duncan's first words surprised Popovich.

Last season, Wolverine's strength was the best in the league. No one could compete with him. Even Ben couldn't stand up to him. His strength has increased again. What kind of monster is this? Is he the next Shaq?
"His post-up attack is first-rate."

Duncan hesitated and added: "His post-up attack technique may be close to first-class, but his rebounding shot finishing technique is absolutely first-class, so his low-post post-up attack as a whole should have reached a first-class level."

"Progress is so fast!"

Popovich was surprised again.

In the last playoffs, Wolverine was still only threatening under the basket, but now, his threat has expanded to the entire restricted area.

"The defense is better." Duncan said again.

This time Popovich was not surprised. Duncan was intercepted twice in a row by the Wolverines, which allowed Duncan to only score once in three offensive attempts. This was enough to explain the problem.

With such a Wolverine, plus Nash and Alan Houston, who else can be the opponent in the East?

In other words, if the Knicks make it to the finals.

Of course, Tony Parker was not there tonight, the lineup was incomplete, and the Spurs were not in their best form on both offense and defense. Even if they lost this game, it would not explain the problem.

But since the Knicks have a chance to make it to the finals, he can't miss this game. He doesn't have to win, but he must find out the Knicks' cards through this game.

After the timeout ends, the game continues.

In order to perform well in front of his wife, Tim Duncan started to try his best, even at the cost of wasting his energy to squeeze into the deep paint area.

With his strength, once he opens fire at full strength, He Zhongqiu, who is only level 84 in defense, really can't defend against his attack and can't stop him from making a move.

But being unable to stop Duncan’s shot does not mean that He Zhongqiu’s defense has failed.

His physical fitness is really great, especially with the improvement of his jumping ability, his blocking ability has risen to level 90.

In fact, the height of his bounce only increased by less than ten centimeters. The biggest change in his jumping ability is actually the change in jumping speed caused by the increase in explosive power.

The change in bullet speed should be the main reason why his block was upgraded to level 90.

Relying on his strong blocking ability, he blocked Duncan three times in the first and second quarters, including one block that made Duncan's face turn green.

In addition to his strong strength, Duncan couldn't easily get to the deep position and couldn't shoot close to the basket. Most of his shots were in the two-point area outside the paint area, with a very low hit rate.

So even though they couldn't stop Duncan from shooting, they still made the opponent suffer and forced Duncan to play an inefficient game.

In the first half, only 10% of Duncan's offense took place at the basket, and only 20% of his shots were near the two-point area. The rest of his offense was outside the restricted area.

That is to say, Duncan, who made 67.4% of his offense in the restricted area last season, only made % of his offense in the restricted area tonight.

上半场打完，邓肯总共13投5中，命中率只有38.5%，加上4罚2中，砍下了12分6篮板2助攻1抢断1盖帽3失误1犯规的数据。

贺中秋自己上半场10投7中，5罚4中，拿到18分7篮板2助攻3抢断4盖帽1失误2犯规的数据。

Duncan strengthened the defense against him. Under this level of defense, his 86-level close shooting attack was still not good. He made only 3 of 1 shots, which was too inefficient.

But his main shot is still to use his powerful force to get close to the basket. 100% of his attacks occur in the restricted area, and 7% of his attacks occur under the basket. He made 6 of shots under the basket, so his overall hit rate is much higher than Duncan.

At the end of the first half, the score was 51:44, and the Knicks led by 7 points away from home.

At halftime, Michael Breen and Tom Howard, the commentators for this match, evaluated the performances of both teams in the first half.

Michael Breen said: "Although the Spurs' lineup was not complete, the outside combination of Bruce Bowen and Ginobili still effectively limited Nash's performance, making him only 10 of 3 shots in the first half, which was far lower than his average performance last season.

Especially Bowen, his defense gave Nash a headache. He often passed the ball and couldn't get it back.

Once he can't hold the ball, his contribution to the team is zero."

Tom Howard said: "But his passing was still good. He got five assists in the first half, three of which were assists to Wolverine."

Michael Breen nodded and said, “The Knicks’ trade of Kurt Thomas for Nash did solve the problem of passing the ball to the Wolverines.

This is also the main reason why the Wolverines performed better on the offensive end than Duncan under Duncan's defense. Nash's passing is really amazing.

On the other hand, the Spurs didn't have Tony Parker today, and Ginobili is an offensive guard, and organizing offense and passing are not his strengths. "

Tom Howard said: "Then there is no good way to defend Wolverine. It is difficult for Duncan to defend Wolverine alone."

Michael Breen said: "How should I put it? Wolverine's strength advantage is too obvious. He can force his way into the penalty area, but Duncan can't. This is the main reason for the difference in offensive quality between the two today.

Unable to hold Wolverine outside the restricted area, once Wolverine gets close to the basket, it becomes even more difficult to defend with Wolverine's super luxurious physical fitness. This is the reason why Duncan can't defend Wolverine, and it may even be the only reason. "

"Correct."

Tom Howard nodded and said, "Wolverine made the first of his two-point shots and missed the next two, which shows that Duncan can defend his two-point shots.

But Duncan really couldn't stand Wolverine's position in the restricted area and couldn't stop him from getting close to the basket. Once Wolverine got close to the basket, his dominance would skyrocket, even close to the level of the Big Shark. "

Michael Breen said: "So the Spurs are facing a problem, after David Robinson retired, there is a lack of strong players at the five position.

This is just like the second round of the Eastern Conference last season. The Pistons only had Ben Wallace inside and lacked an inside partner who could help defend the Wolverines, so after winning the first two games, the Knicks tied four games in a row. "

Tom Howard added: "But the Spurs also have a chance. After Tony Parker returns from the outside, he, Bowen and Ginobili will join forces to impose greater restrictions on Nash and Alan Houston. That is the Spurs' chance to win."

Michael Breen said: "This is indeed a chance for the Spurs to beat the Knicks. After the perimeter is restricted, Wolverine will not get enough support, so the Spurs must start with perimeter defense and cut off the connection between Nash and Wolverine first."

Tom Howard nodded and said, "Yes, the Spurs lack a strong player at the five position, and the same is true for the Knicks, the four position is not good.

Especially their defense at the No. 1 and No. 4 positions. As long as Tony Parker comes back, he can limit the Knicks' perimeter on the defensive end, and then take advantage of the Knicks' defensive weaknesses on the offensive end, and the Spurs will have a greater chance of winning. "

"Well, a sports car is indispensable," said Brin.

(End of this chapter)