Soul of the Golden State

Chapter 844 Still Defense
On the 12th, the Warriors successfully avenged the Heat, but this victory did not make the Warriors as happy as they imagined. For no other reason, this Heat is not the real Heat.

Due to the absence of Mourning due to injury, and starters such as Billy Owens and Rex Chapman also failed to play, the Heat's lineup tonight is completely off the bench. Among the starting five, except for Veteran Kevin Willis, almost no one else has heard of it.

Under such circumstances, it is almost impossible for the Heat to win. They only scored 16 points in the first quarter and fell behind the Warriors by 11 points. This basically set the tone of the game.

In the end, by the end of the game, the Warriors defeated the Heat 105:80 at home, completing the team's three-game winning streak.

On the 15th, the Warriors went to Seattle in the northwest, preparing to challenge the temporarily No. [-] Sonics team in the West as a challenger.

The performance of the Sonics this season is amazing. The Sonics had been tepid until last season. After the start of this season, after losing to the Jazz in the opening game, they actually won a wave of seven consecutive victories. With 17 wins and 4 losses, it ranks first in the Western Conference and third in the league.

For some reason, after the start of this season, the competition between strong teams has become extremely fierce. In previous years, such results could have ranked first in the league, but this year, they can only be ranked third, and even behind the Spurs and Rockets. It is also just around the corner, and if you are not careful, you will be surpassed.

Of course, the main reason for this is that the strength of each team has increased. Either a big deal was made during the offseason, new players were introduced, or the young stars in the team have made great progress. , In this way, the defending champion Warriors, whose strength has declined, has been firmly left behind.

The reason why the Supersonics have improved so fast is naturally inseparable from the operation of their management in the summer.

After determining that the core of the team is Gary Payton and Sean Kemp, the Sonics need to find a suitable championship puzzle for them.

First of all, the Sonics found the old Warriors general Detref Schramf.

After leaving the Warriors, the elevated turret who had been intensively trained in the Warriors training class, Schramf was not particularly comfortable playing in the Pacers, because he originally wanted to start before leaving the Warriors, but he came to the Pacers After that, he still played the starter.

Therefore, after communicating with the Sonics, he finally made up his mind to come to the Sonics. Obviously, his three-point ability will bring great help to the Sonics.

Jose Hawkins was also recruited by the Sonics because of his three-point ability.

After leaving the 76ers, Hawkins stayed in the Hornets for two years. In the past two years, his statistics have declined in an all-round way. He used to average 20 points per game, but now he can only average 14 points per game.

You know, Hawkins is a well-known iron man in the league. Since entering the league in 88, Hawkins has only missed 7 games in total.

Therefore, after excluding the injury problem, the biggest reason for the decline in Hawkins' data is naturally the reason for the mismatch of tactics.

In the Hornets, due to Boggs' short stature, he needs to devote more energy to defense, which makes his scoring average in offense decline.

Therefore, in order to change this situation, Hawkins resolutely gave up the Hornets and came to the Sonics, even in one step, forming a backcourt partner with the league's most defensive point guard.

With the addition of these two outstanding three-pointers, the Sonics have an extremely large offensive space on the court, and there are space-type insiders like Sam Perkins. It can be said that Kemp wants to hit the opponent's basket , It is easier than crossing the road in the early morning.

Of course, in tonight's starting lineup, Sam Perkins did not appear as a starter. At the center position, the Sonics sent Irving Johnson.

That's right, it's the sad Johnson with the same name as the magician.

However, everyone knows that his starter is actually a fake starter, mainly to mention Perkins' damage resistance, and the real output has to be Perkins.

The younger and stronger Johnson successfully jumped to the ball. After the game started, the Sonics got the first wave of offensive opportunities.

Since Johnson does not have the opportunity to open up space like Perkins, he immediately fell into position after the Supersonic fast break opportunity failed, and the offense was initiated by Kemp and Payton playing a pick-and-roll.

Although the pick-and-roll between Payton and Kemp is not as threatening as the pick-and-roll between Stockton and Malone, Kemp's impact is by no means comparable to that of Malone.

After the two picked and rolled, Kemp easily helped Payton block Li Weisi. At the same time, Payton immediately dribbled the ball inside, but naturally encountered a blockade by Rodman.

However, Payton did not intend to directly attack the basket, but directly chose to pass the ball back to Kemp. At this time, Kemp, who was chasing and defending by Li Weisi, could not be blocked.

After getting the ball, he dribbled a step, kicked the ground with one foot, and the whole person rose up like a rocket, as if trying to break free from gravity, and headed for the basket.

When Kemp took off at his peak, it was difficult for the entire league to find another person to stop him, and even if there was that person, he was not in the Warriors.

Therefore, I saw Kemp flying to the basket and smashing the ball into the basket hard. At the beginning, as Payton threaded the needle, Kemp forcefully smashed Huashan, and the Supersonics led the Warriors 2:0.

After scoring the goal, George Karl, the supersonic coach on the sidelines, didn't have the slightest joy on his face, and shouted at the players on the field: "Retreat, retreat! Find your defender quickly, don't make mistakes !"

Coach Carl's coaching style tends to be calm and confident, but when he directs on the spot, he often prefers to coach with roaring and scolding.

In later generations, due to age and physical problems, his passionate coaching style was restrained, but now, his coaching style is definitely a beautiful landscape in the league.

Although Coach Carl is stealing the spotlight, he has to say that his reminder was very timely, because just after the Supersonics scored, the Warriors had already completed the baseline serve and seemed to want to push back immediately.

However, due to Carl's roar on the sidelines, Payton immediately approached Li Weisi and defended Li Weisi.

It is almost impossible for Payton to break the ball directly from Li Weisi's hands at any time, unless the time and place are right and all are gathered.

But Payton's defense greatly reduced Li Weisi's speed, and at the same time forced Li Weisi not to make long passes easily. As a result, the Warriors' fast break was forced to stop before it even started.

Obviously, don't look at the Sonics' offensive start, but their real killing weapon is defense!
(End of this chapter)