Coach, I don't want to retire yet

Chapter 612: All in one throw, this is a all in one throw!
Game 6, which decided the championship between the Bobcats and the Lakers, started extremely well.

No one expected that in this game, Yao Ming and Thabeet would dominate the offense from the start.

Yao Ming and Thabeet's offense was beyond the limit and it was really amazing to watch.

Of course, in contrast, the two teams’ performances on the defensive end were equally impressive.

Without such an outstanding defensive comparison, it would be impossible to show the offensive strength of the two teams.

After Thabeet made an extremely difficult shot under the double-team of Antetokounmpo and Ebanks, Yao Ming looked at Thabeet deeply, thinking that he was indeed amazing.

He is so tall, so flexible, and his shots are so quick. More importantly, he is so accurate at such a critical moment, and he is also so brave to take action and take responsibility.

It is hard to imagine that such a player was once one of the most famous bust second picks in the NBA. No one can imagine what this former bust second pick has experienced in the Charlotte Bobcats this year.

It often takes only one year for a true genius to go from a beginner to a strong player. For geniuses like Duncan, Larry Bird, Olajuwon, etc., it may only take them one year from the time they started playing basketball to becoming powerful superstars.

Obviously, Thabeet is indeed a true genius, but he has not been able to find the right path for himself like Duncan and Olajuwon.

And now, he has indeed found the path that suits him best, a 2-meter player with a center height and the playing style of a guard!

A player who didn't even lose his luster under his pressure.

Under his oppression, the players on the court, Jordan, O'Neal, Duncan, these Goat-level players, were actually a little dim.

And Tabit was able to break through his shackles, which was really amazing.

But that's what makes it fun, isn't it?

Coach Xiao Du has really trained another amazing player!
In fact, at this moment, it is not only Yao Ming who praises Thabeet. Many NBA executives on the sidelines are now thinking about how to get Thabeet after the end of this season.

Thabeet will definitely leave the Bobcats after this season. According to Thabeet's contribution in this season's finals, Coach D will definitely not set up any obstacles. As long as Thabeet wants to leave, he can go to whichever team he wants.

Moreover, Thabeet's contract is a low-priced contract with two years left and a player option for the third year. That is to say, they can use Thabeet for almost a year for free. Even super strong teams have the space and opportunity to get Thabeet.

Therefore, many experts say that all 28 NBA teams are madly pursuing Thabeet. Except for the Lakers and Bobcats, every team has a very high demand for Thabeet.

And now, there is no doubt that the demand has increased again.

A player who can shine when Yao Ming is dominating everyone!

There is no problem in saying that he is the second best player in the NBA!

Amid the cheers of the Bobcats fans for Thabeet, the Lakers started their attack again.

"The Bobcats' defense is still very strong. Now it depends on how long they can maintain this level of defense!"

"I'm curious, will the Bobcats give up this extremely intense defense first, or will Yao Ming give up his own strong attack first!"

The Bobcats simply didn't give the Lakers any chance to attack.

Yao Ming just wants to force the attack without any chance.

The two sides seemed to be at odds.

In fact, the two sides did start to argue.

Both sides knew that as their physical strength declined, they would not be able to hold on until the end of the game.

But neither side wants to give up first, because giving up first means admitting defeat, which will definitely make them lose momentum.

At the beginning of the game, Yao Ming faced two top defenses from Duncan and was hit twice. After a series of cooperation, his teammates from the Lakers passed the ball to Yao Ming.

The last person to cooperate was Kobe. He wanted to use Yao Ming's screen to shoot a long three-pointer behind Yao Ming.

Even so, the Bobcats didn't even give Kobe a chance!

Jordan and Duncan let Yao Ming go again and double-teamed Kobe, almost causing him to make a mistake.

In this game, the Bobcats used a lot of double-teaming when defending Yao Ming and other Lakers teammates' pick-and-rolls.

Because the Bobcats' defensive players are tall enough and their defense is good enough, it is not easy for other Lakers players to pass the ball after being double-teamed, which gives other Bobcats' defensive players the opportunity to rotate and switch defense.

When they passed the ball to Yao Ming again, Duncan returned to Yao Ming. In the end, the Lakers found that they had gone around in a circle but ended up alone.

Time is running out, which adds to the difficulty for Yao Ming.

The core of the Bobcats' defense against the Lakers in this game is to prevent their strongest organizing center Yao Ming from leading the Lakers' offense. Yao Ming can play one-on-one, even unlimitedly, but he must only play one-on-one against Duncan!

"In the NBA, the only head coach who dares to let Yao play solo is Coach D! This is not only because Coach D is bold enough, but also because of his unparalleled confidence in Tim Duncan!"

The whole world knows that defending Yao Ming alone is no different from giving away points.

When the team played against the Bulls, they basically focused on Jordan and let other Bulls players go. This is called the Jordan Rule.

This is actually the way most teams in the league defend Yao Ming.

It should be said that the Jordan Rule is the NBA's recognition of the strongest player of his era.

No matter you are outside or inside, Jordan or Yao Ming, if you are the strongest player in the NBA, then your opponent will treat you as the strongest player in the NBA.

Jordan was indeed made very embarrassed and miserable by the Jordan Law. It was not until Pippen grew up and met Phil Jackson that he cracked the Jordan Law.

As for Yao Ming, he didn't need to wait for anyone to grow up, nor did he need to meet any head coach. From the very beginning, Yao Ming was very comfortable when facing Jordan's rules.

However, other teams still use the Jordan Rule against Yao Ming. Even though Yao Ming has defeated the Jordan Rule, other teams still use the Jordan Rule against Yao Ming and allow Yao Ming's teammates to attack. This is actually very telling.

You know, after Jordan had Pippen and Phil Jackson to defeat the Jordan Rule, most teams actually stopped using the Jordan Rule against Jordan most of the time, allowing Jordan to play one-on-one more often.

I can only say that, in the eyes of most NBA teams, Yao Ming's one-on-one threat is indeed much greater than Jordan's. When facing Jordan one-on-one, Jordan's hit rate is only 55%-60%, which is very impressive. But, damn, as long as you give Yao Ming a one-on-one opportunity, Yao Ming can raise his hit rate to over 80%!

O'Neal was once the strongest. At his strongest, one-on-one defense could only defend him about 80%. All of O'Neal's offense was under the basket, while Yao Ming's offense included shots from beyond the three-point line and many mid-range shots. So if we calculate the real efficiency, Yao Ming can score over 2 points. Basically, giving him one-on-one means giving Yao Ming points in every round.

If you let O'Neal play one-on-one under the basket, O'Neal can basically score 1.6 points per round.

If you let Yao Ming play one-on-one, he can basically score 2 points in each round.

If you let Jordan play one-on-one, he can basically score 1.1-1.2 points per round.

Even though Jordan's score was the lowest, in fact, everyone thinks that Jordan is better than O'Neal in singles, because O'Neal seems to have 1.6 points per round in singles under the basket. In fact, there are limitations. Who would give O'Neal unlimited singles under the basket? It would be very good for O'Neal to have 10 singles under the basket in a game. Therefore, O'Neal's shooting percentage in each game is not 80%, but about 60%. Therefore, O'Neal's scoring output is not too high. When the sample is sufficient, his peak period was less than 30 points per game.

As for Jordan, there are no restrictions on his one-on-one play. He does not need to play under the basket, but throughout the court and all areas. Therefore, Jordan can take a large number of shots in every game. Even with such a large number of shots, Jordan's hit rate can still be maintained at 50-55%, and his average score is more than 30 points. At that time, coaches and players even said that a game would be a success if they could keep Jordan's defense score below 30 points. This shows that Jordan was indeed the best player of that era.

And Yao Ming...

There are no restrictions on his singles on the court. It can be played all over the court and in all areas.

Jordan's speed was 1.1-1.2 which was already so awesome, but Yao Ming's speed was 2. If you were the head coach of the NBA, would you allow Yao Ming to play one-on-one like Jordan?

Even if the entire NBA used the Jordan Rule on Yao Ming for the entire season, Yao Ming's statistics this season were extremely terrifying, averaging 24 points per game, 65% shooting percentage, 45% three-point shooting percentage, and 90% free throw shooting percentage. Yao Ming averaged 14 shots per game in the regular season this season, and scored 24 points per game. If you count two free throws as one shot, Yao Ming averaged about 2 shots per game per game, averaging 16 points per game, 24 points per round. These are the statistics that Jordan achieved when the Jordan Rule was used on Yao Ming.

In fact, if Yao Ming had not been concerned about teammates like McGrady and Kobe, and if his playing time was not limited and he had to share time with young teammates like Jokic, there would actually be no problem with his production.

He averaged just 28 minutes per game during the regular season.

Averaged 28 minutes per game and 24 points per game…

He is so arrogant, but he still holds back.

If you were the coach, what would you choose?

Of course, they would rather let Kobe and McGrady shoot three-pointers in open space outside than give Yao Ming a one-on-one opportunity!
In this game, Coach D's defense was very obvious. He was trying to strangle other Lakers players and give Yao Ming plenty of opportunities to play one-on-one with Duncan!

Then, in the first two rounds, Yao Ming scored 2 points with 5 shots, 2.5 points per round, which was really explosive.

Most head coaches would have been so frightened at the sight of Yao Ming's explosive one-on-one ability that their legs would have gone weak and they would have immediately changed their defensive strategy.

And what about Coach D?
He still insisted on letting Duncan defend Yao Ming one-on-one.

As for the others, Kobe, McGrady, Ebanks, and Antetokounmpo, don't even think about getting easy chances to shoot. There is no chance. Kobe can attack if he wants to, but he can do so against the defense of Jordan and Duncan!
Even if Kobe is the Goat, his wit tells him that he can't do this at this time. It's not that he is afraid. If he is needed to face five Jordans and five Duncans at the critical moment, he will dare to throw the ball as long as the team needs him to do so. However, it is obvious that the team does not need him to do this at this moment, and doing so will only hurt the team.

"Coach D is using the entire team's energy to wear down Yao Ming!"

Putting the offensive pressure of the entire Lakers team on Yao Ming alone is like using the entire Bobcats to consume Yao Ming!
“Is it really worth it?”

In the stands, old Nelson frowned. He didn't know whether Coach D's choice was the right one.

As a head coach, you always need to decide the fate of the team at critical moments.

Coach D chose to use the entire team to consume Yao Ming.

Popovich chose to consume Yao Ming in exchange for the team's early and large lead.

These are the different choices made by Coach D and Popovich when facing critical moments in coaching. Moreover, the choices made by the two are almost diametrically opposed.

This also reflects the coaching philosophy of the two people.

In Coach D’s opinion, even if the five starting players are completely exhausted, his players can still stand up one by one!

And what about Bobo?

Although he likes to use role players and can use role players, his team always needs a backbone.

In Coach D's team, everyone can be the backbone.

"Missed!!! Yao's mid-range fadeaway jumper missed!!! Oh my god, Yao finally missed!!! Yao used five shots and only scored 9 points in singles!!!"

Old Neil was even a little confused for a moment as he listened to the Bobcats DJ's excited shouting.

5 shots and 9 points, can this be called just?

However, after thinking about it for a while, old Nelson understood.

A large expert organization has done statistics, and Yao Ming scored 2 points per round in one-on-one plays this season!
Five shots can earn 2 points!
Yao Ming played conservatively in the regular season.

And Yao Ming knows that he is better in the playoffs than the regular season, and the finals than the ordinary playoffs.

More importantly, Yao Ming's physical strength has not declined significantly, but his singles efficiency has begun to decline!!!

"Tim...Duncan!"

Looking at Duncan, who was defending diligently and firmly on the court regardless of whether Yao Ming scored or not, old Nelson was in a trance again.

Tim Duncan has never won the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year award.

However, if he can really complete the task assigned by Coach D in this game, then there is no doubt that he is the undisputed best defensive player in the NBA, the uncrowned king.

At this point, the game was getting more and more heated.

Popovich on the sidelines was becoming more and more nervous.

Du Kang still had his arms crossed over his chest with an expressionless face.

On the court, Yao Ming's energy consumption is increasing.

On the court, the Lakers were leading, but their lead seemed precarious.

It seems that without Yao Ming, the Lakers' lead will immediately disappear.

"Thabit, Tim Duncan!!!"

During the entire first quarter, the two teams' two starting ten players all played!

The final score is 28 to 22!

The Lakers lead by 6 points!
The team was leading by 8 points, but in the last round, Jordan drove straight to the basket and made a layup at the buzzer.

"Yao's pace has begun to slow down!!!"

"But, except for Jordan, the five starters of the Bobcats are also slow!!!"

Is it worth it to trade Yao Ming for five starters and a lead in the score for the Bobcats?

Popovich gritted his teeth.

does it worth?
He is making a decision!

"Go for broke! Since you're risking everything, don't even think about retreating!"

In the end, Popovich's choice was...

"Oh my god!!! In the second quarter, Yao continues to be on the court!!!"

"In the second quarter, Coach D's Bobcats, except for Grant Hill replacing O'Neal, all other starting lineups remain unchanged!!!"

"Crazy! Crazy!!! Popovich and Coach D are crazy!!!"

(End of this chapter)