From today on is the king

Chapter 1502 1501. System duel (seeking monthly ticket)

The system is still not perfect!
As an "outsider", Popovich saw Liu Mang's movement and judgment on the defensive end, and felt that his own system had not yet reached a perfect level.

However, this also means that there is still room for improvement and pressure. Popovich is happy about this. What he wants is not just a team history record of nine consecutive victories at the beginning of the regular season.

In the original time and space, it took three years for the Spurs system to go from the start of the 10-11 season to the 12-13 season when it reached its peak.

Although the Spurs were amazing in the 10-11 season, they were blacked out in the first round of the playoffs.

What makes the current Spurs stronger than the original 10-11 season in time and space is that the three chariots are at their peak. However, from the point of view of team offense, the system is not perfect but just taking shape.

Of course, the troika is still at its peak, which is the key to the Spurs' ability to make up for the imperfect system.

But the troika is at its peak, and the lineup of the strongest opponent in Popovich's mind still gives him a headache, especially that kid...

Popovich looked at Liu Mang, who was high-fiving with his teammates, and felt a headache. A first-defense perimeter...Popovich didn't care much. His headache was that Liu Mang was completely different from other first-defense perimeters. Kobe was also a first-defense.

I don't know how to describe Popovich's choice of Liu Mang's defensive focus. This guy is definitely a non-mainstream defensive champion!

Seeing Liu Mang and Kwame Brown exchanging defenses after the celebration, Popovich thought to himself: "The defense of these two guys under the basket is really a perfect match! If Tony and Bruce were used decisively to trade rookie Ace, Ace and Tim partnered..."

Thinking of this, Popovich is very annoyed. Although Liu Mang was amazing at the beginning of his rookie year, if he uses Bowen and Parker as bargaining chips to trade Liu Mang before the trade deadline of the first season, the Eagles management has a high probability of agreeing.

But at that time Popovich was really reluctant to give away the best defensive player at the small forward position in the league at the time and Parker, a potential stock. After Liu Mang finished his rookie season and led the Eastern Conference Finals, the two of them together would not be able to replace Liu Mang, unless he was willing to send Duncan or a large number of draft picks.

Popovich was not the only one who regretted it in the league management. Eagles owner Price responded to the offers from various teams at the time by wanting a defensive champion with core talent and a guard or guard star in his prime.

Now Liu Mang has become a superstar that a powerful team like the Bulls is willing to trade the entire starting lineup for, regretting it is useless.

Popovich put aside this matter that can be regarded as heartbroken at this stage, and there is no way to do it now, and he began to make personnel adjustments.

The system must be persisted in order to make progress. Popovich does not intend to switch back to the previous star style of play, just like the Eagles sometimes insist on tactical adjustments based on the inside when the situation is unfavorable. Popovich still made personnel adjustments to the Spurs system, replacing Oberto with Matt Bonner.

Liu Mang has been paying attention to the Spurs' substitutions. Seeing Bonner taking off his training uniform, Liu Mang immediately looked at Bonner's ability evaluation.

"Matt Bonner, ability rating is 73, offense is 70, defense is 79... 40.00% shooting at the basket, 40.00% shooting from the mid-range, 40.00% shooting from the three-point range, 0.2 goals per game in the three-second zone, 1.1 three-pointers and 1.5 mid-range shots per game? The Spurs are so weird!" Looking at Bonner's ability evaluation and season-by-season data, Liu Mang wanted to complain.

"Smart defense, no loss in confrontation, strong offensive movement, accurate open shots, poor rebounding...a player with such obvious shortcomings can earn 5 million in five years with the Spurs..."

This is Liu Mang's analysis of Bonner.

"Let's attack first!"

Liu Mang came to the bottom line and waited for the referee to serve.

The Eagles did not make any substitutions. In terms of the previous two defenses and one offense, the Eagles currently have the advantage.

After the timeout, the referee blew the whistle to continue the game and sent the ball to Liu Mang.

Liu Mang sent the ball to Rondo, and Rondo moved forward.

Bonner is not a defensive black hole. It is true that Bonner is a defensive black hole in appearance, but Liu Mang remembers that this guy is really good at defense and has a good sense. Liu Mang and Marion's pick-and-roll failed to get rid of the defense. Bonner and Battier left Marion in the middle distance to pinch Liu Mang.

Rondo continued to pass the ball to McGrady for singles. Unfortunately, McGrady missed a mid-range jumper for the second time. Bowen's defense was really useless. He didn't dare to use too much force to stick up too tightly, and he didn't dare to use black feet to give him a threat other than technology.

After all, it is a mid-range shot, and the mid-range performance of 2 of 1 shots is still very good. McGrady missed, Duncan defended the defensive rebound, and Kwame Brown directed his teammates to retreat quickly.

The Spurs insisted on the defensive strategy of oppressing from outside the three-point line and Duncan sticking to the basket. The Eagles' offense depends on the stability of the distance.

For the Eagles, Liu Mang and Tracy McGrady’s mid-range singles on the offensive end have generally maintained a shooting percentage between 40.00% and 50.00%. After the Spurs’ substitution, they have not broken through 50.00%.

And the offense on the Spurs side...

A little floating!
Bonner does not have Oberto's pick-and-roll ability and the ability to eat cakes at the basket, but he is too good at outside shooting. He does not have the slightest strong shooting ability, but the open space is accurate, and the effect of opening up space is very strong. The game has changed from 5V5 to 4V4, and the Spurs' offense has become simpler and more effective!

but……

The two teams seem to have three three-pointers on the court, but the core strategy of the Spurs is to score at the basket, and the core strategy of the Eagles is to score from mid-range and the impact of offensive rebounds. The role of three-pointers is to make it easier to score in other positions!

Scola, O'Neal, and Jason Terry on the Eagles also played alternately for a long time, insisting on mid-range shots. The Spurs focused on three-point threats and Duncan's mid-range and short-range containment.

The two teams threw the outside line whenever they had a chance, very decisively, so that the opponent dare not let go...

Throughout the first half, the two teams made a fuss about player rotation, and no one could do anything about the other.

At the end of the half, the Eagles trailed the Spurs by two points 59 to 61 and entered the intermission.

Originally, the Eagles were leading by 10 point with 1 seconds left. Who knew that Duncan could make a three-pointer at the buzzer, but there was no way. The Eagles blocked the other four and Duncan came to the outside.

But... the more Liu Mang fights, the more wonderful he feels!

It's a very special feeling. Playing against the Spurs, mainly against the current Spurs, makes Liu Mang feel very good!

It feels so cool to be evenly matched!

Besides, Liu Mang also had a strange feeling.

Liu Mang felt that although the Spurs ranked ninth in the league in average three-pointers per game, it seemed that the Spurs did not regard three-pointers as their main offensive weapon like him, but as a secondary weapon!
Why are three-pointers with outside passes more and more popular in the future?

Liu Mang believes there are three reasons.

The most important thing is the change of the rules. After Adam Silva came to power in 2014, he changed the rules for outside fouls in the summer of 2014. When the offensive player takes off, the penalty scale for the defensive player’s physical contact with the offensive player has become particularly small. The offensive player’s outside movement has received additional care.

The main driving point that makes the three-pointer more and more popular is Stephen Curry's three-pointer ability that breaks common sense, making every team want to cultivate that kind of three-pointer. Although no team has succeeded, there are still a lot of relatively good three-pointers.

But the foundation is that the overall shooting ability of the league is getting stronger and stronger!
In the decade of the early 21st century, most of the players who entered the NBA were born in the 80s. At that time, the NBA did not make money. Even in the United States, there were not many parents who supported their children to develop in basketball, and more in football, unless they had a particularly good basketball talent.

The environment and atmosphere are also very important. Basketball fans born in the 80s grew up watching basketball in the iron-blooded defensive era in the 90s and the first five years of the new century. The iron-blooded defensive era requires players to have more comprehensive skills. If they are comprehensive, naturally there are not many people who are particularly proficient in a certain skill. Those who are comprehensive and have several proficient skills that are effective in the NBA are at least All-Stars.

"Now there should not be so many accurate role players for the Spurs. Popovich has a clever plan, but after all, it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice..."

Thinking of this, Liu Mang figured out a lot. The Spurs averaged 25 three-pointers per game, which means that 104 six points per game were three-pointers, but the Spurs averaged [-] points per game, which means most of the points were not three-pointers.

As a result, Liu Mang felt that there were some problems with his defensive strategy, and he was going to have a good chat with Van Gundy about his findings after the game.

As far as Van Gundy's on-the-spot command ability was concerned, Liu Wei didn't even think about how to defend against the Spurs system when he saw Van Gundy rubbing up the small note. He felt that it was useless to tell Van Gundy about his discovery now. This guy actually had to plan for a long time to come up with a good idea.

Liu Mang thinks it is impossible to formulate a complete defensive system to restrain a certain team like Van Gundy did. What he is good at is providing some ideas he already knows to the defensive assistants.

But a little trick... Liu Mang is the best at it. After looking around at the Spurs players, Liu Mang's gaze was fixed on No. 21 who finally walked into the Spurs player tunnel...

"It's him!"

(End of this chapter)