I just want to play healthy basketball

Chapter 256 Finals

The Bucks took the lead in entering the finals, but the West has not yet decided the winner so early.

Unlike the East, the Western Conference finals are in full swing at this time.

It is worth mentioning that the two teams in the Western Conference Finals are located in the same division, and they are the second of the top three in Texas-the Mavericks and the Spurs.

In the regular season this season, the Mavericks and Spurs are second and third in the Western Conference respectively.

Because the division champions are the top three seeded teams in the playoffs, even if the Spurs are third in the regular season, they will be the No. [-] team in the Western Conference in the final playoffs.

The Lakers, who were originally fourth in the regular season, became the third seeded team in the playoffs, facing the powerful Trail Blazers in the first round.

In the second round, they met the Mavericks, one of the best lineups in the league and good at running and bombing tactics.

This year is the first year of cooperation between Kobe and Garnett. The Lakers have two superstars. Limited by the lack of strength on the bench, they still lost to the calf troika who were all sprinting.

The Kings, who were expected to hit the Western Conference finals, met the hard-working Mosaic in the first round, and the team's core player Weber was injured. In the second round, they met Duncan, who had reached the peak of his personal strength. The Kings can be said to be defeated by Duncan alone.

Besides, in the Spurs team, there is a Men's Basketball World Championships MVP player, which also makes the Spurs' overall strength to a higher level.

Of course, even so, in the eyes of most people, the King was defeated 4-2 by the Spurs.

However, in the Western Conference finals, the Spurs and the Mavericks were evenly matched, and everyone realized that the Western Conference playoffs turned out to be so cruel.

It is not only the two teams in the Western Conference finals last year, the Kings and the Lakers, who have the strength to win the championship, but now there are also the Mavericks and the Spurs.

It has to be said that this has been a magical season.

In the Eastern Conference, Tracy McGrady is killing all sides in the regular season, and all kinds of high-level data emerge in endlessly, but due to the poor team lineup and limited coaching level, the playoffs are not enough.

In the west is Duncan. Duncan, who can't fly, played a big windmill in the regular season, but suddenly went berserk in the playoffs.

Although it still looks like a floor-flow style of play, Duncan can also keep up with the speed of running and bombing. With just one or two simple steps, he dunks with one hand and stuffed the ball into the basket.

This can't help but remind people of the FMVP who won the championship in the second year of the rookie a few years ago.

It was Duncan's outstanding performance. Even though the Spurs did not break the Mavericks' running and bombing tactics, the Spurs chased three-pointers in a row after losing two games first.

However, in the battle of Tianwangshan, the Spurs, who should have home court advantage, did not grasp it, but let Nowitzki explode completely.

西决G6诺维茨基出战46分钟，21投13中，三分8中6，罚球6中6，砍下了38分14篮板4助攻6盖帽3抢断的炸裂数据。

Because there are examples of how powerful it is, no one will say that Nowitzki's outside shooting style is soft.

In fact, judging from the block and steal data alone, Nowitzki has a great presence on the defensive end, and no one can underestimate him.

Not to mention this comprehensive scoring ability!
After Nowitzki pressed the button of the gods, he can not only run but also shoot, three-pointers, mid-range shots, short-range shots, baskets, everything that should be there.

Obviously Duncan has become the best power forward in the West in everyone's mind, but Nowitzki changed everyone's outlook in just one game.

It turns out that there is someone who can perform better than Duncan, and that is Nowitzki.

The game soon came to the last game of the Western Conference Finals. After winning the Tianwangshan battle, the tiebreaker will be more beneficial to the Mavericks.

Not to mention winning G6, the Mavericks' morale was greatly boosted. Just talking about returning to Dallas and having the advantage of home court, this gives the Mavericks more possibilities to win G7.

In fact, the Mavericks are more likely to be the team that emerges from the West.

After the first half of G7 in the Western Conference finals, the score was 47 to 54. The Mavericks beat the Spurs by 7 points by running and bombing, and they did a good job on the defensive end.

On the contrary, the Spurs, who started out defensively, couldn't limit the Mavericks' running and bombing.

Although the Spurs can also play transitions and emphasize passing the ball, they still focus on positional warfare after all.

A few years ago, the Spurs were dominated by the above generals. They could play fast breaks in the regular season, but they couldn't play in the playoffs.

Now that there is Duncan, he will definitely play Duncan more comfortably.

And it is precisely because the Spurs are familiar with the style of positional warfare and have achieved success with this tactic. Popovich, who is not considered sophisticated, can only point to the better performance of core players such as Duncan.

However, Duncan didn't make a shot, but Bowen did.

However, there was no damage to the Mavericks.

Even though Bowen clearly intended to step on Nowitzki, in the end he couldn't do it because Nowitzki's landing protection was in place.

Nowitzki's unique technique of golden rooster independence has not yet been developed, but he is also good at leaning back.

Since he's a power forward, he has pretty good mismatch opportunities on the outside and mid-range shots, so he doesn't need to jump too high to complete the shot.

Therefore, it is basically impossible for others to step up when Nowitzki makes a shot.

Just like Duncan's height, he took off and dunked under the basket, and he only jumped about [-] centimeters. It was difficult for defensive players to put their feet under Duncan's feet.

Not to mention, although Nowitzki has a lot of shots from the outside, he is also good at breaking into the basket for dunks or layups.

Over the years, Nowitzki has played very smartly and thoughtfully.

As the Mavericks took the lead in the tiebreaker, before the start of the second half, the Spurs had to readjust their tactics and strategies, trying to defend as much as possible in the second half and defend the Mavericks' main scoring points.

"The Spurs and the Bucks used to play the same defensive strategy.

It is to strangle other outside shooters and let the opponent's point guard shoot. If you shoot me to death, I will admit it.

But never expected that Steve Nash's shooting ability is so outstanding.

As a point guard, Steve Nash can also use tactics to quickly find opportunities and assist his teammates to score. This is the root cause of the Mavericks' lead. "

The Bucks emptied Kidd against the Nets, which is the same as the Spurs emptied against the Mavericks.

Human energy is limited. As a point guard, the main task is to control the ball and connect the team with assists.

For traditional point guards, pass assists are more important and meaningful than scoring.

And Nash, who scored 15+ in the regular season, was even worse than Kidd, but he didn't expect that he could score 20+ in the playoffs, but his assists did not drop much.

It has to be said that the run-and-bomb tactics were tailor-made for Nash.

Even if the Spurs have obvious loopholes on the defensive end based on Nash's lack of height, outside players will play Nash on the list.

But it doesn't matter, the Spurs outside player Nash succeeded in singles, the Mavericks directly played conversions and scored fast breaks.

In this round of the Western Conference finals, the Mavericks can learn from the Bucks and Nets' style of play. The overall experience is much more than that of the Spurs.

The Spurs have twin towers, but they can't really speed up like run-and-gun tactics.

And want to limit the Mavericks with defense, but have to face the beast-like Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, as well as Nash's elusive pass.

When the Mavericks have found the rhythm of playing against the Spurs through the first few games, it will be difficult for the Spurs to really use defense to limit the Mavericks with explosive athleticism.

In this case, Popovich didn't have too many targeted arrangements.

It can be said that the inexperienced Popovich was a little confused by the Mavericks.

However, in the face of the unfavorable result of the tie-break, Popovich can only be regarded as a living horse doctor.

A defensive player still appeared in front of Nash, and it was directly Bowen, a wing player with a black history.

Bowen didn't guard Nash strictly, but Nash still felt a little guilty when he saw Bowen.

In the shadow of a famous tree, Bowen came to guard against Nash, and Nash knew it very well.

Now is the critical time for the tiebreaker, so he can't go wrong.

So, simply don't rush to attack.

Nash chose to be himself and do the essential work of point guard.

Nash knew very well in his heart that as long as he didn't get injured and did a good job of connecting the teams, relying on his teammates' offensive talent and athletic ability in the second half, he had a great hope of winning.

The Mavericks relied on running and bombing tactics to reach the second place in the Western Conference and reached the Western Conference Finals, mainly because of Nash's running and bombing engine.

If Nash is not there, the Mavericks can only rely on Dirk Nowitzki and Finley to score points alone.

Whether it will be defended by the Spurs at that time is unknown.

But since this style of play can win now, why should Nash take unknown risks?
With Nash taking fewer shots and focusing more on possession and passing, the Spurs became more comfortable one-on-one defense.

Nash's pass is good, but with fewer shots and less scoring threat, the Spurs should focus on Nash's pass.

And this season, there is a zone defense. As long as the Mavericks are uncomfortable to catch the ball and shoot slowly, and the zone defense is in place, it is possible to prevent the Mavericks from attacking once.

After having it once, will the second time be far behind?
The game time in the second half was 24 minutes. As long as the Spurs defended a few more rounds than the first half, and slightly lowered the Mavericks' offensive efficiency, it was possible to make up for the 7-point difference.

In this way, the rest of the matter is left to Duncan to solve.

Although Duncan couldn't guard Nowitzki in today's game, why couldn't Nowitzki be unable to guard Duncan?
If Duncan in the second half focused on scoring, it is not impossible for Duncan to score 40+ points today!

I have to say that the Spurs were lucky and hit the right path.

As the Spurs gradually chased the score back, Nash's fast break advanced, and the passing route was somewhat predicted by the Spurs. Old Nelson saw that the situation was not good, and immediately called a timeout.

After the timeout, Nowitzki took up the banner of offense and kept running outside to play pick-and-rolls with Nash.

Although the Spurs have complementary defense and zone defense, it is difficult for the Mavericks to completely defend against two historical shooters who can shoot three-pointers when the Mavericks are playing pick-and-rolls.

After all, the three-pointer is one point more than the two-pointer. The Mavericks scored four consecutive three-pointers in the next step, which suddenly widened the game's point difference.

As for the Spurs, although they also noticed the importance of three-pointers early.

But at a critical moment like G7 in the Western Conference finals, outside players rushed to shoot three-pointers, but lost their original level, adding chaos to the Spurs' offense.

Fortunately, the general and Duncan are high inside, and the Spurs' grasp of rebounds is slightly higher than that of the Mavericks.

The Spurs have more ball possession, and it is not unacceptable to miss a few three-pointers.

But the Mavericks made a lot of three-pointers and hit consecutively.

The Spurs didn't have an effective way to respond to the Mavericks' pick-and-loss (German history) pick-and-roll.

No matter who is guarded, the other one seems to be able to put the ball in the basket, and it is in the form of a three-pointer.

This is also just like the name of their pick-and-roll combination. If there is a gain, there will be a loss. If one is defended, the other cannot be defended.

If it is Nash who is not defended, Nash is more likely to use the opportunity of the two to attract the Spurs' defense, pass the ball to other teammates, and take the opportunity to play easy ball.

After the third quarter, the difference between the two teams widened to 12 points.

Although the suspense of the game still exists, judging from this round of the series, the Mavericks are more likely to win.

After all, the Spurs do not have a practical defensive strategy against the Mavericks.

In this round of the series, the Spurs can win three games against the Mavericks. The main reason is that apart from Duncan's outstanding performance, the Mavericks rely on shooting, and the shooting in the playoffs is often more unstable.

I don't want to, Nowitzki and Nash are both playoff players born for big scenes, and they are historical superstars.

The front shot may be inaccurate, but in the tiebreaker of the Western Conference Finals, the two are in exceptionally good condition.

No way, the game entered the fourth quarter, and the Spurs had no choice but to play tricks with the Mavericks.

When Nash was running a pick-and-roll with Nowitzki, he was hit face-to-face by Charlie Ward, who was following up with a switch.

The two collided with their knees, but fortunately it was the latter, not Nash, who was lifted off.

Although Nash was also a little injured, his face was not very good.

But after returning to the locker room for a while, he played again.

After the tricks didn't work, the Spurs could only rely on Duncan's personal ability to turn the tide.

But it's not enough to rely on one person for a whole game.

The admiral wanted to share some of the effort for the second championship, and it happened that because of this, he became an undercover agent at a critical moment.

The Mavericks finally won the tiebreaker with a 6-point advantage and successfully entered the finals to join forces with the Bucks.

However, in the first game of the finals, the Bucks waited for work with ease, plus home court advantage.

The Mavericks, a tired team that had just entered the finals, were still untouched, and were beaten by the Bucks by 27 points.

In the second game, the Bucks once again relied on the indiscriminate fast break, making the Mavericks running up and down out of breath.

Although the Mavericks are also good at running and bombing, they still need to take a breather anyway.

However, the Bucks have a deep bench, and there are more than one lineup that can run and bomb. At this time, the advantage of the depth of the lineup is revealed.

Although the Mavericks have a good lineup, they still rely on the main force to run and bomb, and they mainly rely on Nash to launch the entire running and bombing tactics.

The Bucks have Kassel to help He Li for a while, and He Li doesn't need to play the whole game.

Nash on the Mavericks side seemed exhausted and sluggish because he needed him to play 40 minutes in two consecutive games.

In the end, the Bucks still defended their second home court advantage and won two consecutive Finals victories.

Next, the Bucks moved to Dallas to prepare for two consecutive away games.

In fact, for G3, the Bucks are still very relaxed.

Either sweep the opponent, or give the opponent a taste of the sweetness.

(End of this chapter)