full court guidance

Chapter 102
Is D'Antoni a good coach?
of course!
But no one is without shortcomings, and D'Antoni's shortcomings are very obvious-the main force!
Especially when the team fell behind, and at the super important time of the playoffs, D'Antoni didn't dare to be careless at all, which made him even more intensified.

Only in garbage time, D'Antoni will give substitute players a chance to play. Once the points difference between the two sides is not big, the Suns' eight or even seven rotations are the norm.

Even for a veteran like Eddie House, D'Antoni hardly gave him playing time, which shows how ruthless D'Antoni is to the main force.

In the second half of the first quarter, the Rockets made substitutions and adjustments. Yao Ming took a rest. Late, who had been playing soy sauce on the court almost all the time, stayed on the court to lead the team with Tracy McGrady.

Now that the team is behind, D'Antoni doesn't dare to let the main players go off the court. If the Suns want to chase points, they have to take advantage of the time when the Rockets' role players are on the court-this is currently recognized by the entire league.

The Rockets replaced the veteran Mutombo, and the short center Hayes, who was only 198cm tall, replaced David Lee as the team's power forward. Van Gundy thought he could not limit Dior on the defensive end, but he replaced David Lee. Can improve the team's defensive strength.

David Lee played together with Yao Ming. It was a tactic that was studied lately and was affirmed by Van Gundy.

David Lee's defensive ability is poor, but Yao Ming can wipe his ass in the interior, which can greatly make up for David Lee's weakness. At the same time, on the offensive end, David Lee can help Yao Ming open the interior with his excellent mid-range shooting ability. The defensive space allows him to get easier singles opportunities.

The combination of these two insiders is full of offensive power, and their defensive ability is not too weak. However, they are a little weak in defending against pick-and-rolls.

The reason why the Suns were able to play continuously and efficiently in the opening stage was because David Lee's ability to defend against pick-and-rolls was not enough.

But after changing Mutombo and Hayes, the Rockets' ability to switch defenses and pick-and-rolls has improved a lot. The only problem is that Mutombo is old and his moving speed is slower than Yao Ming. Sometimes, some can't keep up with the rhythm.

The Suns used their offensive power to the extreme, and the Suns players are in good condition today. Lagabel took three shots from the baseline and hit two goals.Marion is 2 for 2 in the middle distance, that is, 2 for 0 outside the three-point line, which is not enough.

With McGrady and Late leading the team, the Suns' road to chasing points was not smooth. Whenever they just started, Late would use a deadly three-pointer to shatter their hopes.

McGrady also performed bravely. Relying on his excellent starting speed, he staged wonderful breakthroughs many times, helping his teammates attract the defense and then score the ball, driving the team's rhythm.

After the first quarter, the Rockets led by 32 points at 28:4.

Although D'Antoni said he was the main force, he didn't give the main players a rest time. At the beginning of the second quarter, he replaced the Brazilian Lightning Barbosa and James Jones, giving Lagabel and Nash a little rest time.

The Rockets came off the field late, and McGrady stayed on the field alone to lead the team.

Barbosa is a rookie in the 03 Super Platinum class. He was selected by the Suns with the 28th overall pick in the first round and was trained by the team as Nash's successor.

But Barbosa is obviously not a passing master like Nash, he only has one thought when he gets the ball-chug!

It is said that Barbosa's 10-meter speed is 52 seconds, faster than Flash Wade!

Wade's advantage lies in his fast first step, big steps, and good combination of man and ball.But in terms of the speed of advancing with the ball and counterattacking, Barbosa is really like a bolt of lightning.

However, speed is not the key to victory on the basketball court. As a point guard, even with Nash's experience and guidance, Barbosa has no way to sort out the team's offense.

His upper limit is not high, and the most suitable position for him is to play the sixth man to grab points.

After Barbosa came on the court today, he still broke through wildly, but the timing of the ball was not very good, which caused the Suns' offense to appear a little chaotic.

On the Rockets side, McGrady is in charge of the ball, Hayes is the center, Juwan Howard is the power forward, plus David Wesley and Keith Bogans. And so on.

Having said that, due to the decline in the strength of some of the main players, coupled with the team's management, the Rockets' role players are recognized by the league as bad, but they trained Van Gundy.

It turns out that Van Gundy also belongs to the head coach with an 8-man rotation, but now the Rockets often have 10 or even 12 players who all have to play.

This imperceptibly drives up the atmosphere of the team, especially after entering the playoffs, the physical stamina accumulated by the veteran in the regular season can be fully exploded in a short period of time.

Veterans like Juwan Howard and David Wesley, who have declined significantly, paddled in the regular season, but they can work hard on the defensive end in the playoffs.

They have been unable to help the team on the offensive end, but they can play an advantage in experience on the defensive end.

With McGrady leading the team alone, the Suns only had two substitutes, but they still couldn't beat the Rockets' role players, and finally recovered only 3 points.

In the middle of the second quarter, the Rockets made another substitution. Yao Ming played to lead the team, and the Rockets continued to focus on the inside.

D'Antoni replaced Diaw and used Tim Thomas as a guest center, but the effect was not obvious. Yao Ming continued to play a dominant role, getting what he wanted at the basket.

The Suns had to start double-teaming, hoping to limit Yao Ming's performance. David Lee stepped forward at this time, received many points from Yao Ming, and gave the Suns a fatal blow in the middle distance.

After the first half, the Rockets' offensive efficiency declined, but they still entered the second half with a score of 54:53.

Late in the third quarter, he started to lead the team with a single core, and he was still able to fight the Suns. He played only 8 minutes in the first half, and he was very energetic. He ran tirelessly on the court, and Alston controlled the ball. Right distribution, quickly brushed out eight assists.

There was also an episode in the middle. Nash and Diaw played a pick-and-roll on the outside, but they were late and quickly circled the defense, which interfered with Nash's three-point shooting.

At that time, Nash was already out of breath from exhaustion, propped his hands on his knees, looked at him late with curious eyes, and asked after a long while: "Have you grown taller?"

When he was late and entered the league, his physical measurement data was 186.7cm, and the team reported to the league was 191cm. Later, he was late and never measured his height, but his speed has greatly improved after a period of professional training. progress.

Now his 11-meter test time is 05 seconds, which is not top-notch in the NBA, but it is enough to cooperate with his off-ball running position. You must know that the 12-meter time he tested before entering the league was [-] seconds!
Nash was blocked late shot, like a microcosm of the game.

The scores between the two sides seem to be close, but the Rockets have always taken the initiative. In the first three quarters, almost half of the time was led by the Rockets' Big Three.

When Yao Ming led the team, the inside combination of him and David Lee had extremely high offensive efficiency and not weak defensive ability.

When McGrady led the team, the Rockets' defensive ability was extremely strong. Even if the team's offensive ability was slightly worse, at least the Suns would not easily catch up with the score.

When leading the team late, his defensive ability is also not weak, and his scoring ability can be called explosive. If the Suns are not paying attention, they may be thrown to death by a late three-pointer.

Fans with a little discernment can see it. Don't look at how powerful the Suns are now. When they are playing against the Rockets, as long as the two sides play normally, the Suns actually have no chance at all, unless they perform at a super level. ——But as long as the Rockets allow the Big Three to spend a little more time together, the Suns still have no chance.

In the fourth quarter, the Big Three of the Rockets finally joined hands to dominate the game again and easily opened up the point difference. With 3:20 left in the fourth quarter, the Rockets led by 126 points at 105:21 in the away game. D'Antoni replaced all the main players and announced his surrender.

In the third quarter, the point difference between the two sides was not too big, and at the most time it did not exceed double digits. As a result, the Rockets' Big Three showed their true strength in the fourth quarter, scoring 8 points in only 30 minutes. The sun was bewildered.

The Suns have nothing to do with Yao Ming, allowing him to score 33 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists in this game - you must know that Yao Ming only played 30 minutes, and this efficiency can only be suppressed by the bug of being late up.

McGrady didn't score much today, but he sorted out the team's offense very well, scoring a triple-double of 14 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists. At least 11 of these 5 rebounds must be attributed to Yao Ming. Stay in position and let McGrady easily pick up the defensive rebound.

This also reflects Diaw's disadvantage in height from the side, which caused the Suns to suffer too much in rebound control.

He played 24 minutes late and scored 20 points, 13 rebound and 39 assist in 1 of 1. His scoring was mainly concentrated in the fourth quarter. Except for the time when the single-core team led the team in the first three quarters, he was almost always playing soy sauce late.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, Late sent consecutive fatal three-pointers, which completely broke the Suns' fighting spirit.

Several main players of the Suns played a long time. Nash played 41 minutes, Diaw played 40 minutes, and Marion also played 40 minutes.

If you only look at the playing time, people who don't know may think that the Suns are no one available, but the Rockets. As long as the players on the roster are all on the field, it feels like everyone is a soldier.

The best performer of the Suns was Marion. The Hackers made 23 of 15 shots and scored 35 points. Unfortunately, he only scored 3 of 1 outside shots. Obviously, such a shooting percentage was not up to standard against the Rockets.

After this game, no one is optimistic that the Suns can overthrow the Rockets. Some media even called out the Rockets championship in advance. In the defensive battle between the Heat and the Pistons in the East, almost no other fans watched. The whole world knows that they are facing the Rockets. Sometimes, defense alone is useless.

(End of this chapter)