full court guidance

Chapter 151 The Warriors Kneel and Lick

"Boss?"

Duncan glanced suspiciously at Late who was directing his teammates to run.

indeed.

This is a perfect candidate for the boss. He has a super scoring ability and an IQ that surpasses almost everyone in the league. Apart from his lack of strong desire to win and his lack of physical fitness, he actually has no shortcomings.

If such a person can be in our Spurs, we don't have to worry about it for the next 20 years!
His style of play does not require high physical fitness. Even at the age of 40, he is likely to still be one of the most powerful players in the league.

Could it be that Milicic's short-term transformation was brought about by him?

The rise of Milicic has brought about fluctuations in the internal strength of both sides.

Elson can no longer limit Milicic's offense alone. Duncan must always pay attention to him and be ready to help defend.

If it is said that Duncan only needed to play 100% of his strength to guard the inside with the help of Elson, then now he must be [-]% focused.

Don’t forget that the Warriors also have Al Harrington with a strong scoring ability inside, and this guy also likes to shoot three-pointers from the outside. During the regular season this year, Harrington’s three-pointers hit more than 43% .

Of course, there is no way to compare this with being late, but it is definitely not something that can be freed at will.

At his peak, Duncan flew into the sky, was fast, and could easily defend from the basket to beyond the three-point line.

But now he has lost this athletic ability. When Milicic cannot be restricted by Elson alone, Duncan has to make adjustments.

Should Milicic be allowed to score points inside, or should he keep up with Harrington so that he can't shoot outside?
As an inside player's instinct, he chose to continue to sit at the basket. As for letting Elson go out to defend Harrington, Duncan didn't dare to think so.

Because Elson's movement is too slow and his ability to defend against pick-and-rolls is too poor, Harrington can easily get misplaced opportunities as long as he plays a pick-and-roll with any other Warriors player.

I have to say that Duncan's choice is not necessarily wrong, he is just playing according to ten years of professional basketball experience.

Milicic's transformation did not allow him to stir up trouble in the interior immediately, but it greatly attracted the Spurs' attention to the interior defense.

This caused a problem with the Spurs' tight perimeter defense rotation. Duncan selectively gave up the defense against Harrington, which meant that the Warriors had an outside chance!

Harrington is playing very honestly now, and he is not greedy for credit. As long as there is a defender in front of him, he will basically not mess around and pass the ball to his teammates immediately.

Just like Milicic, like a fanatic, firmly believes that being late can bring them victory, Harrington actually does the same in his heart.

It's just that Milicic was self-guided, and Harrington was defeated!
This season, he colluded with Jackson and wanted to grab the team leader's position from Late, but found that he and Jackson could not lead the team to win at all. Instead, they often gave away the lead that Late played.

At that time, Harrington had already agreed in his heart that he was late, at least he agreed with his scoring ability, which was definitely not comparable to someone like himself.

This is why Jackson said at the time that he would disclose the matter of the locker room to the media. This kind of obviously taboo thing, Harrington actually chose to accept it in the end.

Because Harrington actually thought in his heart that being late must be the ultimate winner.

Now everything is developing just as he guessed, Late has firmly controlled the team's locker room, and no one dares to jump out and stab again.

Although the Warriors' locker room is not monolithic, there are still several small groups, such as the diehard faction headed by Hill and Roy, the neutral faction headed by Azubuike and other substitute players, and the group headed by Harrington. And the former opposition headed by people like Jackson.

But at least all players on the Warriors admit that lateness is the undisputed boss of this team.

Even Harrington and Jackson, who had taken the lead in making troubles, admitted this.

Fight for boss?

Now Harrington can't even think about it.

Milicic got two endorsement contracts from Chinese companies, which made other players in the locker room envious. Later, Hill also got an endorsement from a Chinese company, which greatly stimulated the players.

No one will struggle with money, let alone the easiest way to earn endorsement fees.

Jackson is almost crazy about getting an endorsement now, but unfortunately, because of past problems, Chinese companies are obviously still considering it.

As a result, Jackson often kneels and licks late in public, and what he says is so nasty that Harrington can't listen to it.

But Jackson did the calculations for him. China has a population of 13 billion. Even if the fans are only 1/10, that is 1.3 million. What kind of huge influence is this (well, how taken for granted)?

There are a lot of players like Harrington in the NBA, and there are very few companies in the United States looking for endorsement contracts with ordinary players like them.

In the ecological chain of the NBA league, player salaries are nothing to those real top superstars. Endorsement and sponsorship contracts are their main economic income.

And players like Harrington, who will almost never get an endorsement contract, can only count on the big contract offered by the team.

There is a best opportunity in front of you now, shouldn't you seize it?
Maybe Chinese companies are still hesitating, but Harrington firmly believes that as long as he can perform well, the Chinese will definitely forgive him.

Well, our Mr. Harrington is still a bit reserved, and he will not behave like Jackson, but Mr. Harrington bowed his head in front of the almighty money.

An assist may be one step closer to getting an endorsement contract.

A three-pointer may be one step closer to getting an endorsement contract.

Every time he made a difference on the court, Harrington encouraged himself to persevere.

The desire for money has long been the driving force driving him to train hard.

There was a problem with the Spurs' rotation defense. The Warriors transferred the ball several times from the outside, but the Spurs still stuck to the point of being late and resolutely double-teamed.

Michael Finley is now in a dilemma. Neither Duncan nor Elson came out of the basket. How could he guard three people by himself?
So Hill suddenly dribbled the ball inside to kill from the outside, and Finley simply gave up chasing and defending, since Duncan was still inside anyway.

Doesn't Hill know?
Of course he knew, he just wanted to divert Duncan's defensive attention, and then pass the ball to the outside again.

Harrington was completely emptied in the right corner, and there was no one within three meters around him.

Harrington took a deep breath and told himself silently that the endorsement contract was waving to him.

He glanced at the basket, and without any interference, his hand shape was perfect, and the basketball easily slipped into the Spurs' net!

"Al Harrington, he scored another three-pointer for the Warriors, and the two sides tied the score!" Van Gundy was too excited, and Scottie Pippen next to him couldn't help panting: "This ball is just luck, the Spurs The team made a mistake while defending. They emptied Harrington. This is obviously a rare and serious mistake for the Spurs. Victory in this game."

Van Gundy immediately pretended to turn over the technical statistics table: "I found a very interesting thing. The game has been going on for almost 5 minutes, and I didn't make a shot even when I was late."

"It seems that the Spurs are still very successful in defending him. If Michael..."

Pippen went on the bullshit again, pulling out Michael Jordan for comparisons to being late, and then dismissing being late as worthless.

Compared to Pippen's ease, Popovich's brows on the sidelines were tightly locked.

He didn't take a single shot when he was late, but chose to attract the defense and bring up the offensive rhythm of his teammates. Isn't he afraid of a repeat of the last game?
In the entire Warriors, his scoring efficiency is the highest, and his shooting percentage is terrifying.

Why doesn't he score it himself?

Why should he insist on trusting his teammates?

Popovich couldn't figure out the idea of ​​being late, and felt that it was unreasonable to be late!

If he plays under his own hands, he will definitely let him shoot with all his strength, even if he wants Tim to be a blue-collar rebounder!

But the problem now is that Popovich can't think of a way to crack the Warriors' offense for the time being.

Milicic is like taking drugs today, super vigorous at the basket!
As if he was not afraid of getting hurt, sometimes he even deliberately went to Duncan for a physical collision.

This is bullying that Duncan is already 30 years old and "old", and wants to rely on his youth to beat him down!

Regardless of the fact that Parker and Ginobili have grown into the two indispensable giants of the Spurs, the real core of the Spurs is always Duncan. Without his support in the interior, Parker and Ginobili will definitely not be able to perform. at the level.

When he was thinking about countermeasures, the Spurs failed to attack. Milicic pestered Duncan like a lunatic, making him unable to get the ball inside. Ginobili's serpentine breakthrough was also double-teamed by other Warriors players .

The Warriors immediately launched a counterattack. Parker remembered Popovich's teachings and deliberately slowed down to keep up with being late!

Even if it is to let someone else score, never let the late catch the ball.

The price the Spurs paid was painful. Roy received a pass from Hill, easily entered the Spurs half, and completed a civilian layup without marking!
You read that right, it's a civilian layup!
At the beginning of the regular season, Roy often made some big changes in direction. His style of play was so explosive that some people even compared him to Kobe.

But after being late and knocking his head several times, Roy has now learned how to keep healthy.

If you can layup, you will never dunk, if you can shoot, you will never break through!
It is such a Buddha!
(End of this chapter)