Versatile Point Forward

Chapter 413 Christmas Battle
The Christmas game that the league would rather make concessions on the labor agreement to keep is actually not worth seeing. For fans, the three games that are worth looking forward to are the Trail Blazers VS Heat, Bulls VS Lakers and Thunder VS Magic.One is a replica of the Finals, one is Rose challenging Kobe, and the other is a duel between an established strong team and an emerging force. Others, such as the Celtics VS Knicks, Warriors VS Clippers, are nothing to watch, or they are pecking at each other. , or forcefully crushed.

The game against the Heat is the Blazers' first home game this season, and it naturally attracted countless fans to watch the game.What excites them most but makes the Heat players feel uncomfortable is that the championship ring should be awarded before the game starts.The entire Heat team began to scold the official NBA staff in charge of the schedule. What kind of replica finals are they doing in the opening game?You must know that the Trail Blazers won the championship only after defeating us. There is no such thing as rubbing salt into the wound.

This year's offseason, the Heat's main lineup changes are smaller than that of the Trail Blazers. They only focused on strengthening their bench lineup.They cut the veteran Bibby, put Chalmers on the starting lineup, and after the draft, they exchanged Norris Cole, the 28th pick in the first round of this year, another point guard , it is obvious that the Heat intend to further improve the vitality of the backcourt.

Of course, their most important signings are Battier and Turiaf. The former can well complete the task of substituting small forwards behind James, and sometimes even swing to the fourth position to serve as a power forward in a small lineup. It is undeniable that although Battier is 33 years old, neither the three-pointers nor the perimeter defense show signs of significant decline, and his basketball IQ seems to have further improved, which is what the Heat management likes to see.

The intention of introducing Turiaf is even more obvious. Joel Anthony is not enough to support the Heat's inside rotation. With Spoelstra preferring to let Bosh and Haslem start together, Turiaf Riaf's toughness is something that the Heat's rotation lacks, and they believe that the Frenchman will help the team in the new season.

However, the core lineups of both sides have not changed much. The Heat are still the Big Three, and the Blazers are also a combination of Ye Feng + Matthews + Aldridge.McMillan does not intend to start Roy and Oden at the beginning of the season. It is better to let these two people in the rotation lineup to see the effect, so this time he still ranked the most commonly used starting lineup last season. But let Felton replace Miller.

This is an adjustment made by McMillan after seeing the opponent's starting lineup. Although Miller has rich experience, he is not as athletic as Chalmers at all, and may become a loophole in the team's starting lineup. The 27-year-old Felton played, and he was also the Knicks' starting point guard before he was traded to the Nuggets. He still has a certain advantage against young players like Chalmers, and he doesn't have to be afraid of not being able to keep up with the speed.

Ye Feng continued to uphold his point of view. Occasionally, one or two regular season games would not have much impact on the team's record in a season, so he did not ask for possession of the ball, but let Felton, who had just arrived, control the ball, hoping to be able to Complete the running-in of the team as soon as possible.

There is no need for the Heat to run in. It is not the first time that Chalmers has appeared with the Big Three, but he served as Bibby's substitute for most of last season. He didn't come back to his senses, but he has long been familiar with the cooperation with the Big Three.

Coupled with the awarding ceremony of the championship ring before the start of the game, the Heat's combat power has been greatly increased, and they suppressed the Blazers who were still looking for a tacit understanding.In fact, this is also due to the fact that the league has been shut down for too long. It has not been long since the labor agreement was reached to the start of the regular season. Felton is still trying to integrate into the team's tactical system. Although it has achieved some results, it cannot remain unchanged from the main lineup for the time being. to compete with the heat.

But Felton is very smart. As long as you have watched the finals of last season, you should know who the core of the Blazers' tactics is. Continue to familiarize yourself with the team's tactical moves during the game.

Seeing the Heat start 15-7, Ye Feng unceremoniously began to perform the duties of point forward. For him, this is no different from last season, except that Miller was replaced by Felton.However, Felton is also a guy with a good golf quotient. He appeared in a very threatening position for several runs and hit a three-pointer.Although he looks short and stocky, he is not slow, which also makes the rest of the Blazers look at him with admiration.

Originally, Spoelstra thought that the team's reinforcement was relatively successful, but after the two sides sent out a rotation lineup, he soon began to regret why he didn't continue to put one or even two of the Big Three on the court. .Kerr, Jones, Battier, Turiaf and Mike Miller are the main rotation players for the Heat, looking good?But their scoring ability is too weak. Apart from Cole's breakthrough and Jones' three-pointer, they actually have no other scoring methods.

On the contrary, the Blazers' bench lineup played well, especially the new aid Crawford, as the league's famous super sixth man, his presence added a ball-holding point to the Blazers' bench lineup, and he also has a strong firepower.Only 2 minutes later, the Blazers evened out the point difference from the starting lineup, and it seems that there is still a tendency to overtake.Spoelstra quickly replaced Wade, but the Heat still trailed by 32 points 35 to 3 at the end of the first quarter.

This makes the Heat's management feel sad. Why does it seem that the reinforcements during the offseason have no effect at all?Still being beaten like a dog by the Blazers.In fact, this is also Spoelstra's command error. He originally only wanted to see the strength of the substitutes, but he forgot that with the huge salary of the Big Three, the team's substitutes are either veterans or rookies, and there must be stars. Take them on the court to play together, so that they can play a role.

But it was too late when Spoelstra thought of this. The Blazers' starting lineup had gradually cultivated their tacit understanding. McMillan would release Crawford from time to time to charge for a while, disturbing the Heat's defense. People are on their backs.In the end, the Blazers beat the Heat 101 to 92 at their home court without any risk and got a good start to the new season. The Heat's players were naturally even more depressed.

(End of this chapter)