unfinished glory

Chapter 51

At the beginning of the second quarter, Stoudemire and Richardson were on the court with substitutes for the Suns, while the Spurs still used the lineup at the end of the first quarter.

After resting for a while, Stoudemire performed fiercely. In just over two minutes, while scoring 6 points, he also caused a foul each by Nesterovic and Malik Rose.

In his rookie season, Stoudemire's offensive methods were mostly secondary offenses of "eating cakes" and grabbing offensive rebounds.After two offseasons of intensive training, Stoudemire's face-to-face attack ability has been very strong this season.

He himself has a heaven-defying physical fitness, his speed, bounce and bounce speed are amazing, and he can often perform dunks from others.

Now that his mid-range shot has been fully developed, the offensive area is no longer limited to the three-second zone, and the mid-range shot after Nash's pick-and-roll is also his regular offensive method.

At the same time, his face-to-face footsteps have also reached the level of a first-class insider. He can often use footsteps and fake moves in one-on-one offense to get rid of defensive players and attack the basket.

With these offensive skills, Stoudemire can choose to pull outside when dealing with a center like Nesterovic. If the opponent does not come out to defend, a mid-range shot can solve the battle.If the opponent follows, Stoudemire can use his footwork, speed and flexibility to cut into the inside lane.

In response to the situation on the court, Popovich made a substitution in advance.Duncan and Horry came on the field and took down the two insiders on the field.

Facing Duncan, Stoudemire can no longer do what he wants on offense, and can only use the pick-and-roll to steal points.

At the same time, on offense, Duncan faced Marion's defense.For him, nothing is better than nothing. He succeeded in consecutive one-on-one singles and hit two goals to move back to the situation.

The Spurs recovered 2 points and were 5 points behind the Suns.

By 9 minutes, Manu Ginobili, Parker and Bowen all appeared on the stage, and the Suns also replaced the main lineup, leaving only Richardson to rest.

The Spurs want to see how good their opponents have been overpowering them so far in the regular season.

The Suns also wanted to measure the distance to the mountain in front of them. They played very actively in the away game.

After the Spurs completed the offensive round, the Suns players always rushed to the frontcourt as soon as possible, and kept running, looking for offensive opportunities.When given the opportunity to make a move, they did not hesitate to make the move directly.Then two or three people rushed up, ready to grab an offensive rebound.

This style of play did cause some trouble for the unprepared Spurs. The Suns scored in four consecutive rounds, grabbed two offensive rebounds, and caused a foul by Duncan.

After Popovich called a timeout, the Spurs quickly adjusted and stepped up their efforts to delay the Suns and grab rebounds.

The Suns' fast break is difficult to play, Stoudemire and Nash's pick-and-roll have also been taken care of, and Duncan is also taking care of Stoudemire himself.

The Spurs slowed down the opponent's offense, so it became difficult for the Suns to score goals. After a few rounds, the ball could not be scored and the offensive rebound could not be grabbed.

But the Spurs are used to playing in this rhythm, and their offense has not been affected at all, and they still maintain a high success rate.

Parker was very active in this quarter, consecutively passing Nash to score jump shots and hit a three-pointer.

Coupled with Duncan's goal, the balance on the field gradually tilted towards the Spurs, and soon they evened the score and overtook it.

After several rounds of change, at the end of the half, the Spurs led the Suns by 7 points, with a score of 61:54.

After a halftime contest, Popovich roughly saw the reality of the Suns. This is a pure offensive team, which is the opposite of another powerful opponent, the Pistons.

The two cores of the Suns, Nash and Stoudemire are both offensively strong and defensively weak players.

Nash was helpless against Parker's offense, allowing the opponent to score 13 points in a single quarter.In D'Antoni's formation, Stoudemire never faced Duncan on defense.

The Suns' offense is still relatively dependent on rhythm. Once the rhythm is destroyed, the offense will stagnate a little.This is related to the personal abilities of their players. They have no shortage of singles players, but these singles are not enough for the Spurs.

Nash's shot is accurate, but he is not an attacking player.Maybe he can score 40 points in a certain game, but this explosive offensive state cannot last.By the next game, he may be back in the teens.

And Nash's physical condition also determines that he does not have the ability to rely on offense to kill the game.Once the opponent targets him and strengthens the defense against his personal offense, it will be difficult for Nash to score.

This game is like this, under the Spurs' defensive system, Nash only made 11 of 4 shots.

On the contrary, his pass is hard to defend, which is the key to the Suns' victory.

But Nash only joined the new team this season. In just two months, the tacit understanding with his teammates has not yet reached a very high level.

If you cut off the cooperation between him and his teammates, it is equivalent to disrupting the rhythm of the Suns and making it difficult for the ball to move.The Spurs have spotted this, and Nash only got 3 assists this time.

Stoudemire's face-to-frame offensive ability has improved significantly this season, and he has performed very well against most of the insiders in the league, but Duncan is standing in front of him-he has been a member of the defensive lineup since his rookie season, and he has 5 in his seven-year career. One defense and two second defenses.

At this time, Stoudemire's offense is still a little immature, and his growth has not reached the level of breaking away from the team system and relying on personal ability to kill, so he is easily restricted.

He scored 16 points on an efficient offense against Nesterovic, but only scored four points when Duncan defended him.

Among the other Suns players, Marion and Richardson's independent offensive ability is average, but Joe Johnson is a point that Popovich pays more attention to, because his singles ability is relatively good, and the Spurs are very annoyed by this kind of player.

So Bowen has always been defending Joe Johnson. Maybe he can grow up in the future, but this will be restrained to death.

In the locker room, D'Antoni didn't have a good solution, but encouraged the players to move more and move, because fast is the rhythm of the Suns.

Slow is the rhythm of the Spurs.The core of Popovich's tactical arrangement is to slow down, slow down the opponent's rhythm to his own level, and then defeat him with rich experience.

This is the Spurs' way to win, and it is completely enough to deal with most teams in the league, except for the Lakers who encounter the OK combination.

The Lakers play too roguely, no matter what rhythm you bring, you don't care about it, and they are crushed purely by strength.When two historical singles players were in the team, most of the time, you can solve the problem with one ball and one ball.

The overall shooting percentage of a team is about 45%.This season, a defensive team like the Pistons is shooting 44.5 percent and the Spurs are shooting 45.2 percent.The Suns' shooting percentage is only 47.8%, which is not much higher.

This kind of hit rate is about the same as that of a superstar.

Therefore, in theory, if a super giant is physically strong enough, it is very likely that he can beat a team by himself in a game.

That's what Olajuwon thought back then. He said: "Just give me the ball during the offense. I have a high shooting percentage!" The team can only let him.

But this kind of thing won't happen to the Spurs, and it won't happen to Popovich's team to be precise.David Robinson's deeds are difficult to replicate in the Spurs.

(End of this chapter)