Chapter 185 Wolverine, you fell into the high hit rate trap

Back in the locker room, Rick Carlisle took the opportunity of changing his jerseys to summarize the game.

He first praised Josh Howard, who started the game.

霍华德打了32分钟，9投4中，2罚1中，拿到了9分7篮板2助攻1抢断1盖帽，关键只有1次失误和2次犯规。

The shooting percentage was 44.4%. Facing Richard Jefferson's defense, as a rookie, this shooting percentage was still good.

In addition, the rookie also worked very hard on the defensive end, filling in the gaps of Nash and Alan Houston several times. These performances cannot be reflected in the data.

Although they beat the Nets, Rick Carlisle still saw the team's shortcomings on the defensive end.

Because Nash's defense is too bad and Alan Houston is not that good either, the Knicks' defensive system is not solid.

Many times, the opponent can tear the Knicks' defensive system into pieces or penetrate it with just a few runs and passes, or a sharp dribbling breakthrough.

Now the Knicks' defense depends entirely on He Zhongqiu to fill in the gaps on the outside, but the Wolverines' defense is not yet strong enough to form its own system. This is the Knicks' hidden danger and weakness.

But now rookie Josh Howard is playing very hard on defense, giving him hope.

He even had a lineup idea, putting the mid-range shooting king in the bench lineup, letting Josh Howard play as the main small forward and Bonzi Wells play as the main shooting guard.

These two defensive outside players will escort the defensive black hole Nash, plus the Wolverines' backup defense and Mutombo's protection of the basket, it should be enough.

After a few minutes of debriefing, the players went into the bathroom to take a shower.

When He Zhongqiu came out of the shower, Rick Carlisle pulled a chair and sat in front of him.

"Wolverine, let's continue the topic of that timeout in the first quarter," Rick Carlisle said.

"Okay, you say."

He said as he got dressed.

"You haven't answered my question yet. I gave you 25 or more shots per game in the series. Do you have the stamina to sustain it?" Rick Carlisle asked.

"It's difficult. Even if it's barely possible, I have to greatly reduce my investment on the defensive end." He shook his head.

"We're definitely going to lose. Without you to cover the gaps on the outside, our outside line will be shot like a sieve, and Steve will be targeted and beaten."

Rick Carlisle shook his head and said, "The premise of my question is not to reduce your investment in defense."

Nash was also standing nearby at this time. After hearing what the head coach said, he was not angry but nodded instead.

"No."

This time He Zhongqiu immediately shook his head.

Are you kidding? He is not an iron man. He has invested so much on the defensive end and has to make up for it on the three-point line. How is it possible that he can still average 25 shots per game?
Rick Carlisle nodded and said, “That means you can’t digest too many shots, and even if you are more efficient at the basket, you can’t help the team score more points.

Especially when other players can’t score and the defense is focused on the basket, you can’t do much more.”

"It seems like that." He Zhongqiu was a little depressed.

"So Wolverine, what do you think about shooting percentage? Do you think the higher it is, the better?" Rick Carlisle asked.

"Of course, is there a second answer?"

He Zhongqiu was a little confused about what the young head coach meant.

Rick Carlisle smiled and said, “Generally speaking, you’re right, our offense needs to be more efficient to win.

So what kind of situation is this? When your teammates are playing well offensively, you just need to do what you are supposed to do. This is the situation.

For example, if you average 25 points per game, maintain a 58% shooting percentage, 70% of your attacks are in the restricted area, more than half of your attacks are under the basket, and others also play well.

Then in most games you just need to do this to win the game, your physical fitness allows you to do this kind of play."

"Yes."

He Zhongqiu nodded, still not understanding what the head coach wanted to say.

Rick Carlisle said: "But when your teammates' offense is not very good, the defense is focused on the basket, which increases the difficulty of your offense under the basket and increases your physical consumption, but the team needs you to score more points...

You can't digest more shots, you can't contribute more points, this is a problem you have to solve now, because we are likely to face this situation. "

"What should we do then?" He Zhongqiu asked.

"If you want to maintain a high hit rate, you must increase your attacks under the basket. Every time you try to position yourself and attack under the basket, you will consume a lot of energy, right?"

"Yes."

"Why don't you reduce the rim attack and position, and add more mid-range or close shots? Because you will worry about the shooting percentage dropping."

"Yes."

Rick Carlisle spread his hands and said, "Look, Wolverine, you've fallen into the trap of high hit rate."

"A trap with a high hit rate?"

This was the first time He Zhongqiu heard this statement.

By this time the other players had also come to their feet, and Harrington had come out of the bathroom, still wandering around naked.

"Asshole, what is your bath towel for? Cover your thing. I estimate it weighs less than 200 grams. How dare you expose it outside?" He Zhongqiu cursed.

"No way, sir, it's definitely more than 300 grams," Harrington argued.

"Then cut it off and weigh it on a scale." He Zhongqiu said unhappily.

"What?"

Harrington quickly wrapped the towel around his waist.

"Haha..." The locker room burst into laughter.

"From now on, there will be one more rule in the locker room: no naked running." He Zhongqiu said.

After a while of joking, Rick Carlisle returned to the topic and said, "The so-called high hit rate trap refers to the situation I just mentioned...

In order to pursue a higher hit rate, players give up some shots with low hit rates but low physical exertion and choose more physically demanding offensive methods.

The end result is that when the team needs him to make more contributions, he is unable to digest more shots due to lack of physical strength. "

Hearing this, He Zhongqiu seemed to be thinking about something and began to understand what the head coach meant.

Rick Carlisle then said: "Let me give you an example. In the 94/95 season finals, the Mavericks played against the Magic. The Magic were swept and Shaquille O'Neal was humiliated out of that series."

"After Jordan retired, Dream led the Mavericks to win the 94 championship. In 95, the Shaq and Penny Dunk teamed up to make it to the finals." Alan Houston nodded.

Rick Carlisle said: “In Game 1, O’Neal shot 16 of 10, with a hit rate of 62.5%, and made 9 of 6 free throws. He was very lethal in the basket. Most of his offense was in the basket, and he scored 26 points.

His opponent, super center Olajuwon, made 26 of 13 shots, with a hit rate of only 50%, far worse than O'Neal, and made 7 of 5 free throws, and his lethality was not as good as O'Neal. He had a lot of mid-range shots, but he scored 31 points.

The score of that game was 120:118. The Mavericks defeated the Magic with a very small advantage of two points on the road." "Two points? The Sharks scored 26 points, the Dream scored 31 points, and 5 points?" He Zhongqiu's eyes froze.

Rick Carlisle was obviously prepared. He took out a piece of paper from his trouser pocket and said as he read it:

"The other players on both teams also played well. For the Mosaic team, Drexler scored 23 points each, Kenny Smith scored 19 points, Robert Horry scored 18 points, and Mario Elie scored points.

For the Magic, Hardaway also scored 26 points, Nick Anderson 22 points, Cobra Grant 15 points, and Scott 11 points. "

Nash said at this time: "If O'Neal had scored 3 more points, the Magic might have won at home and at least avoided being swept."

"Wolverine, what do you think?" Rick Carlisle asked He Zhongqiu.

He Zhongqiu thought as he said, "Coach, I understand what you mean. Being obsessed with high-hit-rate attacks under the basket consumes too much energy. Sometimes it's not necessarily right. This is the high-hit-rate trap."

Rick Carlisle nodded appreciatively and said, “Exactly, that’s it, that’s what I meant.

As the leader of the team and the first offensive point, high hit rate should not be your primary pursuit, especially when the strength of the two teams is evenly matched. "

At this point, he added: "In Game 2, Dream's shots were even crazier, he made 30 of 14 shots, his hit rate dropped to 46.7%, and he made 9 of 6 free throws, scoring 34 points.

He did not increase his higher-percentage shots at the basket, but instead increased his mid-range shots, which lowered his shooting percentage.

The Big Shark seemed to sense the danger and increased his shots, making 20 of 12 shots for a hit rate of 54.5%, and 14 of 9 free throws, scoring 33 points.

He tried his best to increase the offense under the basket, completely disregarding his physical strength. His 14 free throws showed that he had unlimited lethality under the basket, and even caused Dream to foul out 5 times.

However, the Magic still lost in Game 2, even more miserably, 117:106, losing by 11 points.”

"Are your teammates not performing well?" He Zhongqiu asked.

Rick Carlisle shook his head and said, "Penny Hardaway played just as well as he did in Game 1 with 26 points. In Game 2, he scored 33 points, the same as Shaq. He even shot 57.1% from the field, which is higher than Shaq."

"Then why did they lose? The scores of the Sharks and Dream were almost the same in this game." He Zhongqiu asked.

"I won't talk about why we lost. What I want to say is, why couldn't O'Neal take 30 shots like Dream? If he took 30 shots, maybe the result would be different," said Rick Carlisle.

"Or is it a high hit rate trap?" He Zhongqiu fell into deep thought.

Rick Carlisle added: “In Game 3, the Sharks shot 17-of-11 from the field, the highest percentage in the first three games, reaching 64.7%.

He continued to work hard in the basket offense, got 11 free throw opportunities, continued to maintain a high hit rate and high lethality, and scored 28 points.

Dream shot 30 of 14, further reducing the offense under the basket. He only had 5 free throws and scored 31 points.

Although he is not as efficient as the Big Shark, his physical energy consumption in offense is reduced. So although he is nine years older than the Big Shark, he consumes as many as 30 shots, while the Big Shark can only consume 17 shots.

Please note that it was not that Penny Hardaway did not pass the ball to the Shaq. He only took 10 shots in this game. It was that the Shaq ran out of energy at the end and could not handle more shots.

The final score was 103:106, the Magic lost by only 3 points, and Olajuwon scored 3 more points than O'Neal. "

"WC!"

He Zhongqiu cursed.

If this situation happened to you, you tried hard to attack under the basket with a very high offensive efficiency and were exhausted, but in the end the game was lost because of you, wouldn't you be depressed to death?
Rick Carlisle said at this time: "Wolverine, tell me, why does Dream want to increase his shots and mid-range shots even at the cost of lowering his hit rate?"

"More points." He Zhongqiu said.

Rick Carlisle shook his head and said: "This is just the final result. In fact, although Dream's hit rate is lower than O'Neal, we must see the essence through the phenomenon."

"Nature?"

No one in the locker room could understand, including assistant coaches like Thibodeau and Ewing.

"The essence is..."

Rick Carlisle said seriously: "The increased shots that Dream took, the extra shots that he absorbed, we can exclude these shots from Dream's calculation.

So if we remove these shots, Dream's hit rate can be equal to that of the Sharks, and this is his real shooting hit rate. "

"Then who will be held responsible for these losses?" Ewing asked puzzledly.

Rick Carlisle shook his head and said, "It doesn't count against anyone. I just want to tell you that as long as the hit rate of the extra shots taken by Dream is higher than that of his opponent, even if it is lower than O'Neal, it is still a profit, understand?"

Everyone looked at each other, some of them were confused.

He Zhongqiu understood, and said with sudden enlightenment: "Take Game 3 as an example. O'Neal can only take 17 shots, so the extra shots of the Magic team must be taken by other people.

The shooting percentages of these guys are definitely not as good as O'Neal's, so as long as the shooting percentage of the extra shots that Dream digests is higher than that of the Magic players, then he will make a profit."

"Snapped!"

Rick Carlisle slapped his thigh and nodded happily: "That's what I mean, this is a high hit rate trap."

Then he said: "In Game 4, O'Neal took 19 shots, Olajuwon still took 30 shots, and Mosaic won by 12 points.

Throughout the series, Dream averaged 29 of 14 shots, with a hit rate of 48.3%, while the Sharks averaged 18.5 shots, with a hit rate of 59.5%.

The Dream averages 10.5 more shots per game than the Shaq, which lowers his hit rate by a full ten percentage points.

But in the four-game series, the Magic did not have a single game in which their overall shooting percentage was higher than Dream's 48.3% average.

If the Magic eliminate O'Neal's shots, the remaining players' hit rates will be even lower.

In other words, the hit rate of Dream's 10.5 more shots per game is much higher than that of other players on the Magic, and this is the key reason why the Mosaic swept the Magic. "

He Zhongqiu truly understood that inside players should not blindly pursue high hit rates and beautiful and luxurious statistics, otherwise they will easily fall into the trap of high hit rates.

At this time Rick Carlisle said: "During the Lakers' three consecutive championships, in the three finals series, O'Neal learned his lesson and took 26.2, 22 and 21 shots respectively, all exceeding his first finals.

Coach Phil Jackson never asked him to only play in the basket, let alone pursue a super high hit rate. "

At this point, he said to He Zhongqiu: “Wolverine, I hope you understand that this is what I ask of you as well.

I need you to increase your mid-range and close-range shots from the regular season, and to be offensively threatening outside the restricted area, not just at the basket."

He Zhongqiu nodded without any resistance.

Rick Carlisle said: “The East is weak, we have a chance to get out of the East this season, and we have a good chance of facing the Lakers or Spurs in the finals.

Duncan of the Spurs is so good. His strength lies in his terrifying stability. He has won two championships. Although we just defeated them, that was because their lineup was incomplete.

The combination of the Lakers, the Sharks and the Mailman is even more terrifying. If you, Wolverine, continue to play only efficient offensive plays under the basket, the result will probably be a tragedy. We may end up like O'Neal did and get swept by the Lakers."

"I understand."

He Zhongqiu knew from Rick Carlisle's words that the head coach had already set his sights on the future finals and was starting to prepare for the finals now. Of course, he also had to keep up with the head coach's pace.

After the press conference, the Knicks, who had won eight consecutive games, returned to New York overnight.

(End of this chapter)