basketball hero

Chapter 372 Outstanding Off-the-Ball Ability

Jeff Van Gundy never imagined that the Raptors, one of the worst teams last season, would become so different after joining Yingxiong this season.In his opinion, Ying Xiong is not a special character, not the kind of star who can change a team, but at most a young player with certain strength and potential.

But the facts have proved that his view is wrong. Judging from the performance from the beginning of the season to the present, Ying Xiong not only "has certain strength and potential", but has super personal ability.Ying Xiong is using his outstanding performance to refresh the outside world's perception of himself over and over again, and is correcting everyone's prejudice against him.

Back from the timeout, the Magic did not make any substitutions, and the game continued.

The Magic are attacking, and they still play Howard.In fact, using the team's strongest offensive point, Warcraft, to goug the opposing center like Bargnani, this is something that does not need to be considered too much.With Bargnani's inside defense, let alone a monster, even an ordinary blue-collar center may not be able to defend.

The Raptors' defensive strategy is to use Bargnani one-on-one for most of Warcraft's offense, and only choose to flank when he dribbles and kills to the deep position of the basket.If Warcraft distributes the ball to the outside line, it will make up for it through rotation, and try not to give the opponent a good outside line shot opportunity as much as possible.

This time, the opportunity was on Richardson, but DeRozan's supplementary defense was almost in place.Richardson missed a 3-pointer-Warcraft grabbed an offensive rebound, elbowed Bargnani when he got up again, and was caught by the referee.

——Offensive foul!
Calderon dribbles over and continues to pass the ball to Yingxiong.

Bargnani continued to come out to pick and roll Ying Xiong, trying to force the opponent to make a choice. Should he switch defenses or delay?

The Magic began to pinch Ying Xiong and went online to test the pressure, preventing Ying Xiong from easily overpowering Ryan Anderson one-on-one.They are not afraid of being "backdoored" by the Raptors in doing so based on their absolute trust in Warcraft's defense.With Warcraft inside, with his defensive coverage, it is enough to top two.

In the perimeter rotation defense, the Magic began to consciously release DeRozan's 3-pointers, and the interior completely ignored Amir Johnson.

Ying Xiong played the ball quickly, but when DeRozan got a chance at the 3-point line and hesitated, the opponent's defense was in place.At this time, any hesitation will lose an excellent offensive opportunity.

DeRozan's 3-pointers not only took fewer shots, but also had a low shooting percentage.Sometimes he doesn't shoot 3s for an entire game.For him who played the main No. 2 position before, this can be regarded as a "feature".With the current trend of paying more and more attention to 3-pointers in the league, his existence is "retro" at best, but at worst he cannot keep up with the trend.Even Jordan back then was not as extreme as him, almost never shooting 3-pointers.

This defensive change of the Magic team forced the Raptors to almost 24 seconds. In the end, Calderon made a hasty shot and made a three-point shot.

Magic home fans gloated and laughed, but Calderon wasn't affected at all.

However, the magic suddenly lost power on the outside line, and there was no shot, which caused the two sides to start an "iron fight".

At this moment, coach Casey suddenly called a timeout.

After the timeout, the Raptors did not make personnel adjustments.

Calderon dribbles over, Amir Johnson comes up to pick and roll, and Bargnani doesn't even enter the penalty area.Ying Xiong didn't respond, but kept running without the ball with DeRozan.

As a result, the Magic cannot put pressure on the line, because Ying Xiong and DeRozan have strong single-player offensive capabilities, and they dare not let go of any of them.And Amir Johnson came out to pick and roll, and Bargnani stood outside the 3-point line, forcing Howard to expand his defense.Otherwise, teammates will defend 4 against 5, and opponents will easily get outside opportunities.

Calderon picks and rolls and splits Ying Xiong in an air cut.After Ying Xiong got the ball, he didn't shoot directly, but took the ball to the basket to kill.When he did this, Howard and Ryan Anderson quickly recovered the basket to protect the basket in desperation.

For any team in the NBA, the defense at the basket is always the most important. Letting the opponent lay on an empty basket is no different from no defense.

Ying Xiong broke into a deeper position and took off instantly, attracting the two major insiders of the Magic to jump together to block the shot.At this time, he suddenly exerted force on his waist and abdomen in the air, and after twisting his body, he smashed a pass to Bargnani with both hands.

Bargnani was in an open position at this time. Under the somewhat fearful eyes of the fans at the scene, he adjusted and steadily shot 3 points into the net bag.

Da Fan was gnashing his teeth angrily on the sidelines. Of course he knew that if Howard and Ying Xiong were to help defend Ying Xiong at this time, they would inevitably miss Bargnani and others on the outside line, but what he didn't expect was that Ying Xiong would think in that situation. And still be so clear and pass that precise ball.

Nelson was blocked by Calderon for the Magic, and the ball hit Nelson and went out of bounds...

Calderon dribbled over and continued to empty the inside line for outside cooperation.

Suddenly, Ying Xiong threw Turkoglu away and cut in. Calderon threw the ball into the air...

Ying Xiong took off with one foot, caught the ball with one hand in the air, and then dunked the ball hard into the basket—“bang——”

The fans at the scene were stunned. It was hard for them to imagine that a player from China had such excellent physical fitness.In their impression, Yi Jianlian is already the most physically fit Chinese player.But now it seems that Ying Xiong is much better than Yi Jianlian in terms of physical condition.

In the first quarter of the contest between the starting teams of the two teams, because the Magic did not perform as they should on the offensive end, and the state of Warcraft was not at its best, they fell behind in the score.Both sides quickly replaced players from the second team, and the game entered a transitional stage.

In the contest between the two sides' second teams, JJ Redick of the Magic team showed great power, felt hot, hit consecutive hits, and gradually caught up with the lagging point difference.

When the main players of both sides returned, the two sides returned to the same starting line again.For this situation, Raptors coach Casey is not surprised.After all, the Magic is a strong team, and it is difficult to defeat them easily. This is a tug-of-war, and whoever is in better condition will win the final victory.

Back in the second quarter, Ying Xiong's hand feeling declined, but DeRozan stood up, making frequent mid-range shots and breaking through to score points.Compared with him, Richardson feels very old, not to mention the slow movement speed, and the touch on the outside seems to be gone forever.If Warcraft hadn't started to exert its strength, the score might be opened by the Raptors again.

At the end of halftime, the Raptors lead their opponents by 5 points.

(End of this chapter)