am i proud?

Chapter 89 Who Is Tougher Than Who (Today's Second Update)

On the evening of May 5th, in his hotel room in Philadelphia, Riley and all members of the Heat's coaching staff watched the 20ers' Game 76 against the Raptors together.

After watching the game, Riley smiled and said, "The result is as I expected. Our opponent in the Eastern Conference Finals is still the 76ers! Everyone, please tell me, what do you think?"

Stan Van Gundy unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, wiped the sweat off his head, and said, "I think the key to who can win between us and the 76ers is to see whose defense is tougher!"

I have to say, Fatty loves to sweat!

Spoelstra said: "My opinion is a little different from Stan! Yes, we have to be tougher than anyone else, but not only defense, we must also play a more fluid offense!"

Riley ignored Spoelstra, turned to Van Gundy and asked, "Stan, in your opinion, how should we organize the team's defensive focus?"

Van Gundy smiled and began to talk eloquently: "Pat, don't you know what to ask? Against this 76ers team, everyone knows that the focus of defense should be on Allen, but I want to explain in detail how to defend against this 'answer'!"

After he finished speaking, he paused for a moment, and continued: "Everyone knows that Allen Iverson should be focused on. But which team really guarded him this season? So I want to say that it is impossible to really prevent him to death. What we have to do is to focus on other people as much as possible and let Allen play singles... As long as the connection between Allen and other people is cut off, no matter how good he is, it is impossible for him to feel overwhelmed every game, right?"

Riley couldn't help nodding and smiling after hearing the words: "Yes, Allen Iverson is really good, but his shooting percentage is not high. He alone can't kill us!"

Iverson averaged 31.1 points per game in the regular season this season, but his shooting percentage was only 42%. Since the playoffs, his shooting percentage has been even lower, less than 40%.

However, his number of assists in the playoffs has improved significantly compared to the regular season, and the current average has reached more than 6 times per game. This is what Riley pays more attention to.

Van Gundy can see this, and Riley is obviously very satisfied with him. He deserves to be the best expert in perimeter defense.Riley's defensive thinking coincides with Van Gundy's, that is, instead of going all out to mark Iverson, it is better to let him play singles and focus on other people. Anyway, his shooting percentage is not high, so he won't make a crit every game, right?
If the Heat are really so unlucky, just like the Bucks met Wang Dalin who was "cracking" before, then the Heat deserve to lose...

After affirming Van Gundy, Riley turned to look at Spoelstra and asked, "Eric, you said just now that we must play a smooth offense, can you talk about it specifically?"

Spoelstra said with a smile: "It's actually nothing complicated! After watching so many 76ers game videos, everyone should realize that Larry Brown's defensive system is actually a zone defense. He is just playing the league's edge ball. We might as well call this zone defense a 'false zone defense'!"

After a slight pause, he continued: "To break the zone defense, or this kind of 'false zone defense', as long as we can make shots from the mid-range, the 76ers' defense is nothing to be afraid of! And our team happens to have Darling Wang, a player who is very good at mid-range shots, and Eddie and Brian's mid-range shots are also good!"

Riley nodded with a smile and said, "That's right! But you didn't mention one more thing, the three-pointer is also very important to break the zone defense. Our team happens to be Darling King's three-pointer is very accurate, and Eddie's three-pointer is also quite good!"

In the regular season, Wang Dalin's three-point shooting rate was "only" 36.1%, but in the seven playoff games, his three-point shooting rate was as high as 7%, which is really terrifying!

And he's not the kind of shooter who only takes one or two shots from beyond the three-point line a game. Not only does he hit a high percentage, but he also makes a scary number of shots.

Wang Dalin made so many three-pointers in the playoffs, which really left a deep impression on Riley... Not only Riley, but everyone now probably regards him as the league's number one three-pointer expert.

Coupled with Eddie Jones, a powerful scorer with a 43.8% three-point shooting rate in the playoffs, if the 76ers continue to resort to their usual defensive tactics, Riley is very confident that he can smash the "tortoise shell" created by Brown.

In Riley's view, he admitted that the defensive system built by Brown is indeed very powerful, but the Heat's iron-blooded defense is not weak.The 76ers' offense can only rely on Iverson alone, and the Heat's offensive firepower is much stronger.

If Wang Dalin had the same kind of performance against the Bucks once or twice, let alone the 76ers, what if everyone recognizes the Lakers as the number one in the league now?Why don't you still throw yourself to death?
Of course, Riley also knew that this was unrealistic, and Wang Dalin's performance in those few games was almost impossible to repeat.

But even Wang Dalin, who is in a "regular state", currently in Riley's mind, his offensive firepower has surpassed that of Mason who is still recovering from his injuries.

On May 5, the G21 game between the Lakers and the Spurs started.

这场比赛一开始双方就打出了非同一般的防守强度，不过邓肯第一节依旧8投4中得到8分2篮板2助攻，表现非常沉稳。

马刺这边丹尼尔斯更是5投3中，其中三分球2投2中，外加罚球2投2中，第一节就拿下10分。

湖人这边科比不甘示弱，他面对丹尼尔斯的防守6投4中拿到8分1篮板1盖帽。

Without Bruce Bowen, a great outside defender, the old thief Popo really has nothing to do with this "Black Mamba".

Kobe's performance was quite good, but O'Neal on the Lakers' side was a bit hip-stretching in the first quarter. He only scored 5 points, 1 rebounds and 2 assist on 4 of 1 shots.

In the second quarter, the Spurs' offensive firepower did not decrease but increased. Duncan alone scored 10 points and 8 rebounds on 17 of 6 shots, completely blowing up the inside of the Lakers.

而首节比赛表现优异的科比这一节手感变凉，6投2中只拿到5分。奥尼尔第二节依旧表现低迷，只有4投1中。

At the end of the first half, the Lakers trailed the Spurs by 38 points at 46:8.

Maybe it was stimulated by someone's words during the intermission, or maybe he was panicked by his own performance. At the beginning of the second half, O'Neal finally recovered his touch.

他在第三节7投4中拿下9分4篮板3助攻1抢断，表现全面得就像森林狼的那个21号……

Don't wonder why Lao Wang always uses Garnett as a metaphor. The "Wolf King" during this period is indeed the most comprehensive big man in the NBA.

他本赛季场均可以得到22分11.4篮板5助攻，是联盟唯一可以场均拿下“20+10+5”的球员……难道还不能说明他的全面吗？
O'Neal recovered, but Duncan was still steady. In the third quarter, he made 2 of 1 shots and 6 of 6 free throws to get 8 points.

第三节科比5投2中拿下6分4篮板3助攻1抢断，表现也非常全面。

After the three quarters, the score between the two sides came to 66:67, and the Lakers were only 1 point behind.

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers' defensive strength suddenly increased, and they caught the Spurs by surprise. Even a solid player like Duncan struggled very hard, only making 6 of 2 shots.

马刺队其他球员在第四节里的表现更是不堪，“海军上将”3投1中，丹尼尔斯2投0中，特里.伯特3投0中，丹尼.费里1投0中……

湖人这边奥尼尔虽然命中率也不高，只有5投2中拿到5分，不过他还贡献了4篮板2助攻1盖帽，表现还算正常。

At the critical moment, Kobe was tough enough. He scored 7 points on 3 of 9 shots in the fourth quarter, continuing the offensive firepower of the Lakers.

In this game, the Lakers finally defeated the Spurs 88:81. The Spurs' two home games all ended in failure, and the hope of advancing to the finals is almost zero.

真正杀死比赛的并非砍下28分7篮板6助攻的“黑曼巴”，也不是拿到19分14篮板4助攻的“大鲨鱼”，而是福克斯和霍里这俩角色球员。

They each contributed 2 steals in the fourth quarter, giving the Spurs the heaviest blow.

As the saying goes, "Offense wins the regular season, defense wins the championship." In this Western Conference Finals, Fox and Horry proved the correctness of this sentence with 4 steals.

Sometimes defense... can kill the game too...

(End of this chapter)