Chapter 440: Iverson's Way
Doc Rivers just said that, but Kevin Garnett did it immediately and quickly ordered Rajon Rondo to defend Douglas on the court later. He must control the Knicks' running and gunning from the source.
Sure enough, at the beginning of the second quarter, Rajon Rondo took back all the defensive attention that was originally on Yang Mo, and started chasing Douglas from half court. Douglas was pressed so hard that his speed dropped rapidly. As a ball handler, his speed dropped, and the efficiency of his fast break was directly broken, and he was completely useless. Even if the other four people quickly ran to the front court, but the ball didn't pass, it was still in vain.
When the Knicks' lineup was unable to start the fast attack mode, it naturally fell into paralysis and could only watch the Celtics have their way. After two attacks failed to increase the speed, Yang Mo decisively changed the lineup, letting Milicic and Turiaf play, and also put Chandler and Larry Hughes on the court.
Hughes and Chandler came up to strengthen the breakthrough, while Turiaf and Milicic protected the rebounds. As for Yang Mo, he still attracted the attention of the Celtics' defense.
Chandler and Hughes also performed well. When Yang Mo used off-ball running to attract most of the defense's attention, their breakthroughs caused great damage. In this way, the Knicks quickly saved the situation and maintained their lead.
The tense situation between the two sides lasted until the end of the halftime. The Celtics never changed their tactics. Their defensive focus seemed to always be on Yang Mo. Doc Rivers's on-the-spot reaction ability seemed to be suddenly frozen. He just relied on those three tricks to keep fighting with the Knicks. If the Celtics' players were not strong enough, they would have collapsed long ago.
In the third quarter, the Celtics still focused on defending Yang Mo, but Yang Mo still did not participate in the offense. He just kept adjusting tactics, habitually moving up and down, using a variety of lineups to gain tactical advantages. In other words, he was using the constant to cope with the ever-changing situation. When he was not as strong as others, he could only do this.
This situation continued until the fourth quarter, in fact, it continued until there were only 8 minutes left in the game. Doug Rivers, who had been thinking about the whole game, looked up by chance and found that the Knicks had unknowingly led by 13 points. He suddenly woke up and realized that he had been sleepwalking throughout the game. Super Yang had no trap at all. He had been passive all the time.
He quickly walked to the technical desk and took a real-time data sheet. After a careful look, he found that six Knicks players scored in double figures, but Yang Mo only scored 7 points. In this situation, they shouldn't double-team at all. They should disperse their defensive energy and wait until Super Yang really explodes before defending. Moreover, when dealing with a single-star team, they should let the star shoot and block the connection between him and other players. Just like dealing with Iverson back then, cutting off his connection with other teammates, even if he can score more points, he can't win.
drop!
Doug Rivers quickly requested a timeout and called his players down: "Guys, we've been fooled. We went in the wrong direction from the beginning. We should have given up on defending Super Yang, cut off his connection with other players, and made him a lone man. Even if he scored more points, he couldn't save the Knicks."
Doug Rivers said as he quickly made careful deployment of the defense. Generally speaking, he strengthened the defense against other players and strategically gave up the defense against Yang Mo.
Yang Mo obviously didn't expect that Doug Rivers would suddenly give up at the last minute after guarding him for almost the entire game. So, during the timeout, he kept encouraging his teammates to attack and let them take over the battle.
Soon, the whistle sounded and the game continued.
When the game resumed, the defending champion Celtics quickly played a wonderful cooperation. Rajon Rondo used Garnett's pick-and-roll to break into the restricted area, and suddenly passed the ball to Pierce at the top of the arc. Pierce took the ball and quickly attracted two players to double-team him. At this time, he used a hidden behind-the-back pass to Ray Allen in the bottom corner. Ray Allen took the ball and shot... Swish! A beautiful three-pointer.
This cooperation is too easy for the Celtics. They have long been accustomed to each other's existence. They can play more than ten or twenty such cooperations in a game. These old guys play basketball so smartly. They know better than anyone how to use more economical power to score the most effective points.
Ray Allen's goal successfully narrowed the score to ten points, which is a dangerous lead. There are more than seven minutes left in the game. This score difference cannot make the Knicks sit back and relax, after all, the opponent is the defending champion.
Coming to the frontcourt, Tracy McGrady received the ball and quickly got ready. Just as he was about to play one-on-one, Pierce and Rondo double-teamed him at lightning speed and snatched the ball away from him in the first possible moment.
Rondo grabbed the basketball and was about to launch a fast break, but he saw a black shadow flash before his eyes. Looking closely, he saw that Yang Mo had already run across half the court. At this time, it was almost impossible for him to make a fast break, and he could only slowly slow down the tempo.
Rondo slowed down his pace and arrived at the front court. He immediately organized his teammates to move in an orderly manner. When the Celtics players were running, he suddenly threw the ball into the air. Seeing this, Yang Mo secretly cried out that it was not good and hurried to the penalty area. Unexpectedly, he was blocked by Rasheed Wallace as soon as he started running. When he bypassed Wallace, Garnett had already made an alley-oop.
There's no way, these old hands are really too smart, every ball they play is so reasonable, although the rhythm of the game is dull and slow, they hardly make mistakes, and this is where the danger lies.
Back in the frontcourt, Chandler tried to single out Rasheed Wallace, but as soon as he got the ball, Pierce, who was supposed to defend Yang Mo, gave up on Yang Mo and double-teamed him. Chandler's body was stronger than Tracy McGrady's, and in the face of the double-team, he quickly threw the ball out, which was caught by Douglas. Douglas caught the ball and broke through quickly, but he was double-teamed again just as he started.
When Yang Mo saw this, he immediately understood and quickly shouted, "Give me the ball!"
When Douglas heard this, he wanted to pass the ball, but it was too late. Rajon Rondo had already grabbed the ball with his long gibbon-like arms and swung it to the frontcourt. Ray Allen, who was waiting on the side, rushed over quickly. Yang Mo hurriedly chased after him, but when he was about to catch up, Ray Allen had already shot a three-pointer in a weird posture...Swish!
The basketball went into the net!
In an instant, the score difference was narrowed to five points.
drop!
Yang Mo decisively requested a timeout.
The Celtics recovered eight points in just one minute. If they didn't take a timeout, they would have been swept away by a wave of attacks.
"The Celtics suddenly changed their defensive strategy. Were they trying to paralyze the Knicks before? Or were they deliberately letting the Knicks win?" TNT commentator Collins said unhappily.
"I suspect they are working with Kevin Durant to play a prank on Super Yang. You see, they have been double-teaming Yang before, trying to make Yang take fewer shots and score less, so as to achieve Kevin Durant's goal of surpassing Super Yang in the scoring list. Now, Kevin Durant has scored 50 points, so they think there is no need to double-team Super Yang, so they started to let go of their defense against Super Yang." Barkley speculated with disdain, "I didn't expect the Celtics to be so insidious."
"Maybe it's just a coincidence. There's no reason for Doc Rivers to help Kevin Durant," said Kenny Smith.
"Anyway, Super Yang is not so easy to surpass. I can guarantee that Super Yang will be able to surpass him within three games." Charles Barkley said confidently. He was full of confidence in Yang Mo.
"The game over there is over now. Kevin Durant's final score is 55 points. If Yang doesn't reach 36 points in this game, then Kevin Durant will temporarily take the second place on the scoring list. With only seven minutes left in the game, is it possible for Yang to score 29 points in the next game? That's obviously unrealistic." Collins said calmly. He believed that Kevin Durant surpassing Yang Mo was a foregone conclusion. There was no chance of change.
"It's not completely hopeless, he's Super Yang!" Barkley obviously lacked confidence, 29 points in seven minutes was indeed a bit outrageous. Even Chamberlain couldn't do this.
At the same time, Yang Mo had already made targeted : "The Celtics must be trying to cut off your connection with me now. Since they want to do this, we might as well cut ourselves off. Milicic, Turiaf, Jeffries and Tony Allen, follow me. Turiaf, your task on the offensive end is to screen for me. Tony, your task is to cover the rear for me and be ready to receive my pass at any time. Jeffries, you are responsible for running around, and you have to create the illusion that you really want to score. Milicic, you be ready to receive my ball and dunk at any time. This is what everyone needs to do on the offensive end. As for the defensive end, I won't say much, we all have a tacit understanding."
When Yang Mo made this substitution, Stein next to him whispered, "Yang, are you planning to finish the game the way LeBron James did?"
"No, use Iverson's method." Yang Mo smiled slightly and said with great confidence.
Iverson's way ?
Stein was a little confused, then suddenly realized that it was indeed Iverson's way. Speaking of which, he and Larry Brown are still a master and disciple. Larry Brown did have a similar lineup for Iverson, but the 76ers' point guard was McGee and the center was Mutombo. Although the center and point guard positions were not as good as those of the 76ers, Stein thought that they were not inferior to the 76ers in terms of defense.
The 76ers were the only team that could beat the Lakers.
