unfinished glory

Chapter 39 Finals preview ([-])

In the first game in December 2004, the Spurs once again faced the Philadelphia 12ers.

The 76ers team in the away game lost even worse than last time. 72:105, they lost to the Spurs by 33 points.

In the last few minutes of the game, Popovich even rarely let Li Chongxiao sit on the bench to save his energy.

The next game, billed as a preview of the Finals, saw the Spurs host the Detroit Pistons.

This game is the first game of the Pistons' core Ben Wallace's comeback.The two-time All-Defensive All-NBA was suspended for six games for the brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Ben Wallace, nicknamed "Gig Ben", is a very inspirational player.As an undrafted pick in 1996, he has gradually grown into a core member of the championship team through his own efforts.

Although last season's finals MVP was given to Chauncey Billups, everyone knows that the biggest contribution of the Pistons is Big Ben.

In the sport of basketball, offensive players will always take advantage.

Warming up before the game, Li Chongxiao saw Daben on the court and found that the center was not as tall as the [-] meters he claimed, but in fact he was about the same height as Li Chongxiao, about [-] meters.

It's no wonder that after losing the draft in 96, the Celtics allowed Big Ben to participate in the summer league, giving him a position on the field as a guard.

Of course, if hair is added during the draft, Daben will be almost two meters one.

Li Chongxiao found that NBA players like to falsely report their height, and generally add 2 to 3 centimeters, and they also call it the height of sneakers.

There are not many people who are as honest as Li Chongxiao. He upholds the tradition of Chinese people's modesty. During the training camp, he honestly reported his real height, which is 1.9 meters eight without shoes.

The two teams jumped the ball, Big Ben faced Nesterovic, the jump ball was successful, and the Pistons attacked.

Rasheed Wallace made a single turnover and was intercepted by Duncan.Looking back, Jean blocked Ginobili's layup again.

Back in the Pistons' frontcourt, Tayshaun Prince's fast break layup was interfered by Ginobili, but he grabbed the offensive rebound again and passed it to the running up Billups to reorganize and, by reason Chad Hamilton made a dunk.

The game between the Spurs and the Pistons is the least favorite of the audience. The theme of the two teams' confrontation will always be defense.

As the two teams with the top two defensive efficiency in the league, appearing on the field is like two giants colliding with shields.

The Spurs or Pistons fans at home are a little better. After so many years, they get used to it.For the audience in front of the TV, this style of play is particularly unfriendly.

The slow offensive rhythm of positional warfare. In most cases, the offense is timed to more than ten or 20 seconds, and then singles inside, pick-and-rolls go in for layups, or run shots.It is difficult to have any exciting scenes, such as one-on-one singles by outside players, one-stop dunks in fast breaks, and so on.

What is even more speechless is that the two coaches on the sidelines both emphasized the discipline of the team.After a game, low shooting percentage can be forgiven, but mistakes are never allowed.

During the game, the two teams will do their best to defend, pay attention to rotation without losing position, interfere with shooting as much as possible, and ensure backcourt rebounds.

Therefore, the situation on the court is often that this side is single-handed, and the other side takes the backcourt rebounds, finally runs out of position, and misses the shot under the interference of the defensive side.

If you are a new fan, after watching the games of some other teams in the NBA, and then watch the games of these two teams, you may think that these two weak teams are "pecking each other".

Huaxia fans felt even more bitter. They finally produced two NBA-level players, but they were both on defensive teams.

Yao Ming is still the core at any rate, and he often has opportunities to perform.And he is big, so he is particularly conspicuous as long as he is on the court.

Li Chongxiao is not the case, most of the time he is on defense, and the audience doesn't make a special effort to distinguish him, so they don't notice him at all.Sometimes in a blink of an eye, people disappear and are pulled out of the screen.

But at this moment, he is really not on the court.The game was only in the 6th minute, which was not his time yet.

After a month of running-in, Popovich formed his own set of substitutions.Generally, Ginobili will be replaced in the first quarter for more than six minutes, giving him ample rest time.He is usually replaced by Barry to ensure the continuation of firepower on the court.

Nesterovic also sometimes gets replaced by Malik Rose at this point, and then comes on for Duncan with just over two minutes left in the first quarter.Or replace Rose, come up from Horry, and replace Duncan.

At the same time Ginobili played again, replacing Parker.Li Chongxiao came on and replaced Bo Wen.

When Li Chongxiao was replaced, the score was 18:11, with the Spurs leading.He continued Bowen's work, defending Hamilton.

Bowen was a little out of breath during the break, which shows that this defensive job is not easy to do.

Hamilton is like a perpetual motion machine, as long as he is on the court, he will keep running.Bowen has no good way to take him, so he can only follow him firmly at all costs.

When Li Chongxiao was learning how to run, he watched Hamilton's videotape.He knows that defensive players will have a headache when facing this type of offensive player.

When a defensive player faces Hamilton, in addition to knowing some experience and skills in anti-running positions, he also has to work hard.If you don't pay attention, Hamilton can run out of position, and the catch is a shot.

On the other hand, defending Hamilton requires sufficient physical strength to keep up with his pace.

Li Chongxiao's physical strength is good, and his script is fast enough, but he still seems a little powerless in the face of Hamilton.

The lack of experience was caught, and Hamilton easily ran out of two opportunities, one was a sudden turn-back run, and the other was to use his teammates to cover.Fortunately, his hand feeling is not good today, and he failed to hit.

Going back to the Spurs' offensive half, Hamilton's defense is also top-notch, preventing Li Chongxiao from being able to catch the ball, so naturally he has no way to play.

At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Prince came on to replace Hamilton, but he was not defended by Li Chongxiao.

Ginobili and Prince match up against each other, and lefties will get to know each other.

Li Chongxiao is facing Ginobili's fellow Carlos Delfino, who was selected last year but only signed with the Pistons this year.

Li Chongxiao quickly showed suppression. Not only did he prevent Delfino from getting a shot in defense, he also used Malik Rose's blocker in offense to run out of open space and hit a three-pointer.

During the regular substitution time, Delfino was not replaced, and Popovich also left Li Chongxiao on the court.

After Billups came up, he assisted Antonio McDyess and hit two points.

McDyess used to be considered a top power forward, and he was also an All-Star at his peak.During this year's offseason, I once volunteered to join the Rockets and create a big scene together.It's a pity that the Rockets didn't know what the idea was, and ultimately failed to sign this titan.

Now that McDyess is the sixth man in the Pistons, the news is not friendly to the Spurs.

Although the Rockets, also a team in the Southwest Division, are powerful, they are not yet the main competitor of the Spurs.The Pistons are different. Last season's championship, after getting McDyess, has a lot more firepower.

Just at this moment, he scored a goal against Duncan and made another goal through the pick-and-roll to help the Pistons stabilize the situation, otherwise the point difference would have come to 10 points.

By the time the game progressed to more than six minutes into the second quarter, the main players of both sides had changed back.

The defense of the two teams still maintains a high-intensity state, making every goal of the opponent extremely difficult.

In terms of offense, the Pistons broke out first and chased the score to 33:34, only one point away.

Then the Spurs made a sudden effort and hit a 12:4 spurt, leading by 9 points to end the first half.

(End of this chapter)