NBA: Duncan feels uneasy coaching Warriors

Chapter 238 The New Captain

beep!
Looking at the 10-3 score on the field, Rivers couldn't sit still and immediately called a timeout.

Rivers was a little panicked at this time.

As a chicken soup type coach, although his on-the-spot level is good, it is unstable.

After the plan formulated before the game did not work, Rivers' adjustment was a bit messy.

Rivers' tactical system not only relies on the star players in the team, but also relies on the assistant coaching team.

But after being kicked out by the Clippers, he did not take the assistant coach away from the Clippers. Instead, he used the Timberwolves assistant coach team.

The Timberwolves' assistant coaching team sounds very powerful, after all, it is the assistant coaching team of the championship, but in fact only the Timberwolves themselves know it.

Su Chen relied very little on the assistant coaching team. He basically assigned tasks and asked the assistant coaches to help the players train.

At least the offensive and defensive tactics systems were all created by Su Chen himself.

It’s just that the outside world doesn’t think so.

What the outside world thinks is that the Timberwolves' success does not depend on coach Su Chen, but on the entire coaching team.

Rivers thinks so too.

He felt that no matter how great Su Chen was, he would not be able to bring the Timberwolves from a team outside the playoffs to a championship level all by himself.

The coach Suchen took away from the Timberwolves was Milosevic.

Coach Rivers understands that although he is the chief assistant, he is actually just a training assistant and not someone related to the Timberwolves' offensive and defensive tactics system.

Rivers feels that among the Timberwolves' assistant coaching staff, there might be someone with great talent.

Su Chen relied on that person to win the championship. What Su Chen can do, he can do too!
But throughout the season, Rivers was helplessly aware that the Timberwolves' assistant coaching team was quite mediocre.

Not even as good as what he did himself.

There is no assistant team to help him, and the Timberwolves' stars are not that reliable.

Although Butler integrates offense and defense, in terms of pure offense, he is not considered to be at the top level and the efficiency of carrying the ball is not that high.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom Rivers was originally looking forward to, directly performed in a regressed season and became even more unreliable.

Iguodala, the FMVP last season, only focused on supporting, and he was not as good as Butler in carrying the ball.

"Using three-pointers to target Jokic's defense is one way, but the Timberwolves are the least suitable team in the playoffs to use three-pointers to attack, right?"

Kenny Smith said helplessly.

"There were a lot of possessions where Jokic was just sitting back, but the Timberwolves didn't hit those three-pointers."

Barkley commented.

The commentators also know what the Clippers' weaknesses are.

Jokic has shown his free will dominance on the offensive end. He scores when he wants to score, and his teammates score when he wants his teammates to score.

Jokic relies on his huge size and full strength to give him unparalleled performance on the offensive end.

On the contrary, his huge size allows him to do whatever he wants on the offensive end, but on the defensive end, an athlete of this size cannot be required to switch to the outside.

Jokic's frame protection is acceptable, but he can hardly switch defenses. This is also a disadvantage brought by Jokic's advantage.

However, the Clippers' rotation is too fast. It is still difficult for ordinary teams to punish Jokic with three-pointers.

Just like the Timberwolves now.

Obviously he is not good at three-pointers, but he still uses three-pointers to target him, which makes the whole team not know how to play.

"Even if you want to punish the Clippers with three points, you should go to Middleton."

Johnson said at this time.

Although Middleton has not yet reached the level of an elite shooter this season, he is already an above-average shooter.

But Rivers just didn't have to.

But this was not surprising to Su Chen opposite.

What Rivers can do in the 76ers is that the team obviously lacks defense, but does not give Milton Thybulle too much playing time.

Now it is normal to think that the team needs three-pointers, but Middleton is not good at three-pointers.

beep!
The pause ends at this time.

Originally thought that Rivers would let Middleton, who has a better three-pointer, play.

But after returning from the timeout, I found that the Timberwolves' lineup even replaced Iguodala, who was considered the best three-pointer on the field, and replaced him with Josh Smith.

Josh Smith's three-pointer was simply outrageous.

This is too Rivers.

The game continues.

Rivers asked Josh Smith to play purely because he felt that Jokic's offense was unstoppable, so he asked Josh Smith to defend Jokic.

But after Josh came on the court, his defensive effect was worse than that of Giannis Antetokounmpo.

And with Josh and Giannis Antetokounmpo, two guys with a three-point gap, the Timberwolves' offense becomes even more difficult.

For the rest of the first quarter, Rivers called another timeout to make adjustments.

But with Rivers' ability to adjust, he obviously can't come up with any solution to the current situation.

The first quarter is over.

Clippers 32:19 Timberwolves.

They didn't even score more than 20 points in a single quarter. You can imagine how bad the Timberwolves' offense was.

On the contrary, the Clippers' offense is very smooth.

Rivers' defense against Jokic was very chaotic, sometimes defending alone, sometimes assisting, and sometimes double-teaming.

Maybe Rivers wants to disrupt Jokic's offensive rhythm with these chaotic and complex defensive methods.

But Jokic's golf IQ is very good at dealing with such scenes. Whether he scores by himself or finds an opening to pass the ball, he is able to do so with ease.

On the contrary, it was because of frequent defensive changes that the Timberwolves' defense became messy.

Even Su Chen on the opposite side couldn't help but shake his head when he saw the Timberwolves' defense.

Why did the Timberwolves win the championship last season?
In fact, it is defense.

The Timberwolves' offense is not strong even with the support of his system, but their defense is among the first in the league.

But facing Jokic's core play style, the Timberwolves' defense was in chaos.

In the next game, Rivers still didn't make any effective adjustments.

The score difference between the two sides has been maintained at around [-] points.

The Clippers are all about attacking.

The Timberwolves finally worked hard to score points, and the Clippers were able to catch up immediately.

Jokic's point, coupled with the skill of [low-position heavy weapon], already has some flavor of peak Jokic.

Although Giannis Antetokounmpo is also at MVP level, he seems to have played one more season than Jokic.

But now one is a true rookie, and the other is already close to his prime.

In the dialogue between the two MVPs, Jokic entered his peak state early, leaving Giannis Antetokounmpo unable to defend at all.

Lillard and George are in their prime, and both in terms of athletic ability and competitive status, they are close to their prime.

Although these two people face high-intensity defense, it is difficult for them to assume the core role of the team, or in other words, the upper limit is not high with them as the core.

But now that Jokic has attracted the focus of defense, the talents of these two people on the offensive end have been explosively displayed.

Lillard is like getting a Curry experience card. Whether it is using Jokic's screen pick-and-roll, or attracting the defense and then running without the ball to catch the three-pointer, he has shot very efficiently.

When the team was slightly stagnant, George made a few pull-ups from outside the three-point line at this time, taking away excessive ball rights.George's three-pointers with the ball are not accurate, but that is when he is being defended by the opponent. With Jokic and Lillard attracting a large number of defenders, his offense will be much easier.

It can be regarded as being able to hold this part of the ball.

At the same time, on the bench, Rondo led the bench to organize the offense in an orderly manner.

This is very different from the chaos of the Timberwolves substitutes.

This allowed the two teams to maintain a point difference of more than 20 points until the last few minutes of the quarter.

"The Timberwolves lost like this. It looked a little different from what they showed before the game."

Johnson said helplessly.

Originally, the battle between these two teams was still very attractive. After all, for the coaches of both sides, the other team was their former club.

This game should be much more intense.

But judging from the performance on the field, the Clippers have even been able to play with the Timberwolves with some spare strength.

It's really like playing.

As long as the Timberwolves exerted their strength to catch up, the Clippers also exerted their strength at the same time, making it impossible for the Timberwolves to catch up.

"Is this the defending champion team? This doesn't seem as big as the pressure the Spurs put on the Clippers."

Buckley laughed.

At least judging from the current perception, the Timberwolves are indeed not as strong as the Spurs.

"It's hard to imagine that this team that was invincible last season has become like this just because Luol Deng is missing and a new head coach is changed?"

Kenny Smith shook his head.

Luol Deng is actually just a 3D player who can handle the ball a little bit. He is on the verge of an All-Star level. Even if he is weakened, it is not that much.

Looking at it this way, there is a big gap between the two sides after exchanging coaches.

"Jokic is such a smart guy. It's a joy to watch him play!"

O'Neal has already expressed his appreciation for Jokic.

Because O'Neal has always felt that he is the same technical center as Jokic.

As the game entered garbage time, both sides also replaced their main players.

beep!
The game is over.

Clippers 115:93 Timberwolves.

This much-anticipated game ended with a resounding victory for the Clippers.

At the same time, the big score between the two sides became: Clippers 1-0 Timberwolves.

Although it is only a one-game lead, after watching this game, the Clippers' dominance is simply not on the same level as the Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves went from a championship team to an ordinary playoff team in one season.

This allowed people to appreciate Su Chen's super ability once again.

And tonight is also a battle of proof for Jokic!

Whether it is from Jokic's appearance before the game to the C position.

From the beginning of the first quarter, Jokic's super core style of play was formulated.

Jokic turned these ball rights and tactical positions into scores and assists.

In this game, Jokic scored a super triple-double of 32 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists. As a rookie, this is really outrageous.

This makes some fans of Lillard and George have to accept this data.

Jokic seems to be more suitable to be the boss of this team.

Moreover, Lillard and George seem to be more suitable to be deputy rather than team boss.

Fans of George and Lillard actually know the shortcomings of their favorite stars.

But with Jokic, their shortcomings were covered up and they were in their most comfortable state.

Winning can cover up a lot of problems.

Now the Clippers players don't think about who is the boss of the team. Everyone is cheering because of the victory.

Looking at the scene of the Clippers cheering, Butler looked at the opposite side with a somewhat complicated mood.

He still remembered that they were the ones cheering like that last season.

"Is it just because of the coaching gap?"

Butler was obviously unwilling.

The other Timberwolves players were in a similar mood at this time.

Rivers glanced at Su Chen's position bitterly, and then walked out of the player tunnel.

The next day.

News about the match between the Timberwolves and the Clippers has successfully become a hot topic in the news.

The Warriors' victory over the Rockets was relatively unremarkable.

It's almost impossible for a Rockets team led by Harden to compete with the Splash Brothers.

The outcome of the Warriors and Rockets is not that suspenseful in the first place.

According to past record.

The Clippers are a new super team, while the Timberwolves are the defending champions, and the two teams have swapped coaches.

This was supposed to be a series with minimal suspense.

But judging from the G1 game, the gap between the Timberwolves and the Clippers is even wider than the gap between the Rockets and the Warriors.

"The Clippers defeated the Timberwolves, Su Chen proved that he is the best coach!" 》

"The defending champion made a dismal exit. What is the difference between the Timberwolves and last season? Rivers' level is questionable. 》

"The decline of the Timberwolves, Su Chen or Luol Deng?" 》

For the media, it is a matter of following the wind to generate traffic.

The Timberwolves lost like this, and they are still a small team, so naturally they want to be as black as they want.

The Clippers are performing too strongly now. As a big market, there will naturally be no shortage of traffic.

Whether it's the Clippers' own big market or Su Chen's fame, the Clippers are generally praised by the media.

Especially Jokic, this super star has risen in a big market like the Clippers, and his popularity and worth have skyrocketed.

That is to say, Jokic is an inside man, and if Jokic is an outside man with a powerful playing style, then Jokic's popularity will immediately increase.

Even if they are just insiders, they are now given some random titles by the media.

What is the big dream of the new era, the future No. [-] center in the league, an inside magician, etc.

Jokic's popularity is so high that the league is even interested in Jokic and wants to praise the Clippers' new captain.

But now the league has no real plans to promote Jokic.

In other words, even if you want to praise it, you don’t want to praise it now.

Even though Jokic has now become the boss of the Clippers, Jokic does not have a very showy style of play after all, and his personality is not that flamboyant.

The league's method of promoting stars is very simple, and that is to whistle for the superstars.

The focus of the league now is actually Curry. This super player in the small ball era has already won the FMVP.

And after Curry, there is James, the top player of the old era, and this must be the first consideration by the league.

(End of this chapter)