Grab Curry at the start

Chapter 35 Targeting Adjustments
Thabeet is the second-best insider of the two teams, and Milicic is extraordinarily good because of the emergence of several big names in that class. In fact, he is the same as the previous top picks in parallel imports.

The Grizzlies had no choice but to keep both Gasol and Randolph on the court.

Teams with weak substitutes will suffer so much if they want to win, and the main players will have to fight from the beginning to the end.

The main players of the Grizzlies are still relatively strong. Conley and Mayo maintained their previous state and temporarily suppressed the backcourt combination of Curry and DeRozan.

The Grizzlies' three players in the backcourt are indeed good. Both Conley and Gay are players who will be strong in the league for more than ten years. Mayo has not messed up at this time, and he is still a talented teenager.

The problem with their backcourt may be that apart from Conley, the other two players are not playing as a team, and it is difficult to fully utilize the talents of the three.

In the second quarter, the Grizzlies had a slight advantage on the perimeter, but overall the Timberwolves stabilized their advantage.

At the end of the first half, they had almost reached a 10-point lead.

During the intermission, the locker room was also full of laughter.

The players were a little embarrassed, and Zhang Sixin didn't mind. Young people are like this, so there is no need to be too depressed.

Of course, the premise is that it can be stabilized. If it affects the performance on the court, he will point it out seriously.

In the third quarter, Zhang Sixin was a little worried.

That's when Gay started to explode. Gay is a player with excellent physical fitness, a high jump shot, and basically difficult to limit when he feels good.

Playing alone is actually not very threatening, but at this time the Grizzlies' outside line Conley has always maintained his state, and the inside line Gasol is also working hard.

Players like Conley and Gasol don't usually focus on attacking, but when they attack, they are generally more stable. They belong to the kind of relatively stable team players.

After the adjustment of the intermission, the Grizzlies began to counterattack.

However, there was a problem with the Timberwolves' offense. Curry, who had a normal touch in the first half, adjusted, but those who had a good touch in the first half lost their sense, and the players' states were not connected.

The Grizzlies exerted their strength, but the Timberwolves had problems, and the lead disappeared quickly.

This is the case with young players, not stable enough. It is actually relatively rare for them to be steady against the Nuggets before.

Winning is afraid of halftime, this time it is the Timberwolves' turn.

Zhang Sixin has no choice but to remind the players to concentrate and must be encouraged.

When a young player has a problem, he scolds him, and he is likely to die directly.

Things to reflect on will wait until after the game, and now Zhang Sixin needs to find a way to reverse the situation.

The first is to start with defense, Milicic replaced Jefferson to limit Gasol Jr.

If the Grizzlies' inside line is restricted, their outside line will not be so confident. The combination of inside and outside is not empty talk, and the performance of players on the court is related.

DeRozan, who also fluctuated in his touch, was also replaced, and Belinelli added a three-point threat.

Players fluctuate, some can stay on the court to adjust, but most need to come down and calm down first.

The effect of the adjustment is relatively immediate, the most obvious is that laughing at Gasol is no longer possible.

Gasol Jr. is not a very aggressive inside line. As long as the Timberwolves have a little bit of defense inside, he will be restricted.

Outside, Gay's shooting percentage also began to decline.

Gay was originally the type of player whose style of play was simple and whose shooting percentage could not always be stable.

Therefore, when the Grizzlies regard him as the core, it is difficult to further improve their performance, and they can only send him away in the end.

Let's say he can't do it. In fact, his statistics are always good. In fact, Gay is the one who is more powerful in the quasi-All-Star level, but he is just a little bit worse.

However, when the Timberwolves stabilized the situation, the Grizzlies had already caught up with the score, and the two teams returned to the same starting line.

In the second half, rotation players such as Frye and Brewer for the Timberwolves did not perform well.

They all have their own characteristics, but their weak links are also relatively obvious, and it is difficult to perform every time.

Fortunately, the Grizzlies' rotation is not strong, and the two sides can be said to take advantage of this time to slow down.

When the main players play in the last quarter, it's time for a decisive victory.

At the end of the third quarter, Zhang Sixin reminded the players again.

Defensively, they must limit the opponent's three-pointers, and at the same time limit the opponent's two insiders.

This seems a bit contradictory at first glance, but it can be done within the limited time of the last quarter.

They want to force the Grizzlies to use individual singles to solve the problem, not the individual singles inside, but the pull-ups of Gay and Mayo on the outside against defensive players.

That style of play is unstable, and the rest of the Timberwolves can use offense to solve it.

Basketball is a game in which the offensive side has an advantage, and it is impossible for them to completely limit the opponent.

What they have to do is to make the Grizzlies' offense more difficult and less efficient, and then they can win the game with better offensive efficiency than their opponents.

Since the final goal is to fight for offense, wouldn't it be better to just fight for offense?
That is also an option, but even for the best offensive team in the league, it is difficult to maintain high efficiency all the time. Good defense can reduce the difficulty of fighting offense. This is the secret of winning.

Both offense and defense plus stars are the only magic weapon in the NBA.

The final lineup of the Grizzlies is very clear, that is, the starting lineup.

But the Timberwolves still need to fine-tune according to the situation. In order to limit the Grizzlies' two insiders, Randolph and Gasol Jr., Jefferson will share the fifth position with Milicic.

In the collision at the critical moment, the Timberwolves were even stronger.

After a few minutes of rest, Love adjusted well and hit a three-pointer when he came up.

Love didn't have a touch in the third quarter, which made it a bit difficult for the Timberwolves to attack.

Now that he's adjusted, things are different.

After all, the Grizzlies are not easy to mess with inside. The probability of Jefferson's success in the low post is really low, and Love's situation is much better when he pulls to the outside.

And on the defensive end, Love is slightly better than Jefferson.

The reason why Love is favored by the management is because his comprehensive ability is really good, he can use a little bit of everything, and he can use various tactics.

No matter whether you are good or not, it is easier to use than the average player.

After Love teamed up with Curry to show strength, the Timberwolves once again became the dominant side.

On the Grizzlies side, because the Timberwolves block the inside line, Gasol can only pull out to support, and Randolph has to pull out to shoot if he wants to play, so the efficiency is much lower.

At this time, they have to rely on outside players to hold a lot of balls, and Conley's playing is more reasonable. Just as Zhang Sixin expected, the Grizzlies' offense is more concentrated on Mayo and Gay.

But Mayo and Gay, the two buddies, belong to the type of self-confidence and no compulsion.

(End of this chapter)