The strongest champion puzzle

Chapter 298
On March 3, the Cavaliers played against the Nets who came to challenge at home.

The Nets are also working hard for the playoffs. Lopez is still healthy during this time, and the team's performance is a little better.

But even if they can enter the playoffs, the Nets are just old wolves with broken teeth, and they can only scare people.

After trading Garnett for Thaddeus Young, the Nets can be regarded as one big and four small.

The Nets played well in the first quarter, and Thaddeus Young played well.

But after the Cavaliers fine-tuned their defense, the Nets fell apart.

This time the Cavaliers played real team basketball. The main players didn't play for too long, and eight of the team scored in double figures.

David Blatt is extremely happy, although he knows this is not the norm for the Cavaliers.

On March 3, the Cavaliers played at home against the Pacers, who were somewhat incompatible with them.

The Pacers, like the Nets, are also marginal players in the playoffs. Without Paul George, it will not be easy for them to achieve this result.

The Pacers have won against the Cavaliers before, although the lineup is incomplete.

In this game, they also made up their minds to fight hard, and they came up to strictly guard against death.

To be honest, their defense is really good. If it is not for the ruthless players who can score goals at critical moments, their record in the Eastern Conference will not even be difficult for the top eight.

Both Love and Irving were guarded very hard, and several shots were hit with iron.

Irving is better, because he still has the ball because of his position, but Love basically has no chance to shoot. This is why Love is upset. He has less and less ball rights in the Cavaliers.

The Pacers' main offensive method is still inside. Hibbert is just like the last two seasons. The team that meets James is extra excited.

Even the backup Luis Scola also played well, the Cavaliers' interior defense is still somewhat insufficient.

The other is the No. [-] position. Irving's problem is really helpless. He is too talented in offense. It is not a day or two that defense is ignored, and it is even more difficult to adjust in a season.

The Pacers' defense is definitely at the playoff level, and the Cavaliers also hope to adapt to high-intensity games in advance.

However, the main players can play a little less time, and the quality of the substitute players can be seen under high intensity.

It’s just that the Cavaliers’ substitute players have more distinctive characteristics. JR Smith is unstable, Tristan Thompson can grab rebounds but lacks single defense and defense, Shumpert can defend but the offense is too poor, Dellavedova Desperate enough, but the strength is average.

In the first half of the game, the Cavaliers' bench still did not play as well as the Pacers.

However, relying on the performance of the main players, they still lead the opponent by 4 points. After all, it is impossible to defeat a top team in the league only by relying on high-intensity defense.

But what they didn't expect was that there was another problem at the No. [-] position in the third quarter.

Irving shot less than [-]% from the field in the first half and took the most shots. As a result, he hit the iron at the beginning of the second half and was blown up by George Hill. The Pacers took the opportunity to overtake the score.

The rest of the team was also speechless. During the period when the team had a good record, James was already very satisfied with this little brother. Unexpectedly, the playoffs were about to start, and Irving was a little bit old again.

Head coach David Blatt is also a little upset. Irving's style can be described as love-hate.

The way for the Cavaliers is to switch defenses with Zhang Xiaotian. After all, George Hill is not an All-Star scorer, so it should be better with Zhang Xiaotian's restrictions.

In fact, if Irving hadn't played an important role on the team's offensive end, he would have been replaced long ago. A defensive guard like Shumpert is still available at any time.

There is also a good side to the situation. I have encountered several teams that are desperate for the playoffs one after another, and the Cavaliers also regard them as training targets.

But after Irving and Zhang Xiaotian went down, James led the bench to equalize the score again.

When James is on the bench, other players just need to wait for the ball to be shot. This simple style of play can sometimes be more efficient.

But it definitely can't be the main attack method, because when things go wrong, you can't score at all. If you don't score for a period of time in the playoffs, the team will be cold.

In the fourth quarter, Irving didn't have much possession of the ball. Basically, James and Zhang Xiaotian exchanged it.

At this time, you can feel that Hibbert's strength has dropped a lot, and James' help defense to kill him inside is not working at all.

In fact, the Pacers' team defense is really good. Neither James nor Zhang Xiaotian can play too high efficiency, but they themselves are too weak on the offensive end.

Not to mention that there is no Paul George, even if Paul George is there, the Pacers' offense will not work.

The concept of basketball is offense. A few years ago, only the Heat were good at switching offense and defense. Now many teams have learned this skill. The Pacers are obviously still relatively old-fashioned.

Once the Cavaliers shrink their defense, there are not many methods they can use.

Although the Pacers hit a few three-pointers in the end, it didn't affect the overall situation. After strangling their inside line, the Cavaliers directly knocked out their opponents by relying on James and Zhang Xiaotian.

There are only a dozen games left in the regular season, and the Cavaliers are still second in the East, but no one dares to underestimate them.

There have been some changes in the east and west this season, and the rise of new forces is also exciting.

The Cavaliers' upcoming schedule is not so tiring, which will also help them prepare for the playoffs.

The topic of the outside world has gradually changed to the playoffs.

Even if we talk about the regular season, we are also discussing how many desperate teams will be eliminated, what will be the final ranking of the East and West, which team has the potential to become a dark horse, and which team is the most championship-looking team.

Some questions Zhang Xiaotian has been asked many times by reporters, of course he is very confident.

Originally, he could only be regarded as an important supporting role when he came to the Cavaliers, but after almost a season of performance, he has become one of the protagonists of the team.

On March 3, the Cavaliers went to Milwaukee.

The situation of the Bucks is slightly better than that of the teams they encountered before, but they are now ranked in the playoffs and may encounter the Cavaliers. Both sides must attach great importance to this collision.

In addition to training players, the Cavaliers are also trying to adjust the distribution of players' playing time, but this matter may not be used at all in the playoffs.

When it comes to the playoffs, it is winning, and the main force is second.

No matter how reasonable the tactics are, they may not be as good as a few star balls by then.

Therefore, on the other hand, the adjustment is also to protect several important players and prevent them from doing anything wrong.

The Bucks traded for McAway in the second half of the season. 76 gave up on McAway as the core in a short period of time. The Bucks wanted him to come over to make the ball run more reasonably.

Unexpectedly, after coming here, Kidd was not very satisfied. He was playing the first position. He thought that McAway was a bit like him, but it turned out to be an illusion.

(End of this chapter)