Heat 106-98 Celtics!
The Heat's first winning streak after four straight losses + infighting, if the last big win over the Kings didn't tell too much, it was important for them to win the Green Army.
The Celtics have won two straight losses since Lowe's injury, and if you have to find some positive meaning in it, it is that they only lost 11 points in both games, both of which are a pity.
The two sides have drawn 9 times, the maximum lead is only about 10 points, and the total score is only in the early 200s, which is enough to see the theme of this game: defense, confrontation, tearing, hanging. Typical Eastern style.
First, the Green Army's defense and Lowry's 6 three-pointers
Lowe was injured, and Gwen took the lead in his place. But Lowe's height of 206 centimeters, 228 centimeters of arm span, Gwei is only 198 centimeters, he obviously can not completely replace Lowe.
The Heat scored 25 points in the first quarter and scored 12 points on the inside, half of the total. Lowry was eager to give Adebayor every ball an empty pick-up, and Butler's four points all came from the impact of the basket.
That's the difference between having Rowe help defending the sweep in the penalty area.
The Green Army had no choice but to shrink the protective zone and gamble on the Heat's three-point shot.
They did squeeze the Heat's inside scores, only allowing the Heat to score 22 points on the inside in the last three quarters, and their own interior scores 48-34 to overtake the Heat.
But the Heat's three-point shooting percentage of 37.4 percent is the league's first; averaging 13.3 three-pointers per game, the league's seventh. The Heat scored four three-pointers in the first quarter, of which Strus was the absolute firepower point, and judging from the performance of this season, Coach Spoo should have let him replace Dunroe first.
In addition, in order to block Lori's breakthrough, the Green Army did not actively change the cover to change the defense, and even chose to bypass from the rear, which inevitably looked down on Lori.
So Lowry today scored 6-of-12 three-pointers, scoring the team's 23 points after Butler, and Lowry's six three-pointers allowed the Heat's often offensive power outage problem to be covered up.
Second, the Heat's defense and persistence
Before today, Tatum's March average was 33.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists, shooting 53.9%/46.6%/91% from three fields!
Friends familiar with Tatum may have become accustomed to the fact that every year after the All-Star, the stats and performance will go to a higher level.
There is no doubt that Tatum is the absolute offensive core of the Green Army now. If you want to defend the Green Army, the first question is how to defend Tatum.
Tatum's abilities are already perfect, especially in terms of scoring, and there are almost no dead ends. If you must choose a short board among Tatum's various techniques, it is his passing, although he has improved in the past two years, but Tatum is still a scorer in his bones.
So Coach Spoo used a lot of upline pinches and backline defenses throughout the game, and as long as Tatum was holding the ball, there were at least two people in front of him, sometimes even three people.
As long as Tatum passes the ball out, the back line is 4 to 3, at this time it depends on whether the Heat defense rotates fast or the Green Army passes faster.
The Heat's defensive rotation is indeed in place, but it is difficult to be faster than the operation of the ball, and the Green Army may have to pass the ball many times, but in the end it can find an empty position, depending on whether the teammates can shoot in.
That's why, Tatum mingming felt good on 9-of-17 shooting, but Brown and Smart shot 37 shots together, and it was also the reason why he had 6 assists, or the reason why the Green Army had 5 players assisted 3 times.
In fact, the green army once cracked very well in the middle, the most typical is the wave of 13-0 in the middle of the third quarter, Brown and Smart successively received teammates to assist and hit three points. At this time, the choice facing the Heat is, change or not?
Whatever changes, it is a gamble. The Heat are probably one of the most defensive teams in the league, and even if they are overtaken, they still haven't given Tatum too many individual heads-ups.
Their persistence paid off in the final quarter, and Tatum, who had been caught in the entire game, reached the fourth quarter and still couldn't come up with the unmatched offensive status of March.
He made just three shots in the entire fourth quarter, scoring just one athletic goal and scoring just two points.
This is the purpose of the Heat: force Tatum to pass the ball, do not let him find a personal offensive state, the athlete is not a machine, press the button state to switch, the first three quarters are passing, the last quarter wants to take over, which is so easy? Not even if you're Tatum.
Third, the last 5 minutes of mutual harm
In the fourth quarter, at 5 minutes and 10 seconds, Brown forced Jiba to cause a foul, two free throws and one shot, and the two sides were tied at 93. The gap between the free throws broke through, Xiao Bai came on the field to replace Pritchard, and the two sides entered the final showdown.
The Heat are Lowry, Hiro, Strus, Jiba and Adebayor, while the Greens are Smart, White, Brown, Tatum and Horford.
At this time, the two sides entered a situation of "mutual harm", that is, they both went to find the weakest attack in defense.
The Heat are looking for Horford:
In 5 minutes, Lori hanged Adebayo causing a foul;
At 4:37, Jiba counter-attacked and faced Horford and scored a mid-range shot. Even if Jiba can't shoot three points, he must get the feel of the middle shot back, which is important for the Heat in the playoffs.
At 3:34, Lowry used the block to lift Adebayo to create a foul;
The last 1 minute and 15 seconds of that round was the most interesting, Lowry arced the ball, Horford defended Jiba, Jiba wanted to go up to give Lowry cover, but the Green Army found out, immediately made a change of defense, followed by the nearest Smart. It's a test of the team's tacit understanding on the defensive end.
Jiba ran halfway to find that it was Smart who was following, and ran back, signaling Hiro, who had been replaced by Horford, to go up and receive the ball. At this time, the heat's intention to hit Horford was already Sima Zhao's heart.
The Green Army was looking for Strus, a pitcher, and being bullied by Brown in the first half didn't look like a problem.
At 4:25, Tatum and Horford launched a block breakout, Strous recovered the basket, and White was released to hit a three-pointer;
At 2 minutes and 58 seconds, Tatum used cover to hit Strus, but pressed him all the way to the box, the Heat five recovered, and finally Tatum was blocked by Strus under interference;
At 2 minutes and 23 seconds, Tatum faced Strus at 45 degrees left, Jiba came to pinch, Tatum crossed Brown in the bottom right corner, and Brown's breakthrough layup was stopped by Lowry;
At 1 minute and 44 seconds, the Heat continued to pinch Tatum, and Brown became the final pick-up point, breaking through to the basket and finally being blocked by Strus. The Heat used this to fight back and basically lock in the victory.
In the final mutual damage game, the Heat won both ends of the attack and defense. In addition to the offensive problems shown by Tatum's pinch, it also reflects the importance of Lowe.
The Heat's final roster was noticeably smaller, and Jiba had gone to the fourth position, so the problem of Horford's foot movement was exposed.
Assuming that Lowe is still there, it is entirely possible to replace Horford, so that the Green Army can completely change defenses, and it is still taller than the Heat, and the Heat's attack will not be so easy.
The good news is that, according to ESPN, Lowe successfully underwent meniscus repair surgery and was able to come back after 4-6 weeks at the earliest.
The bad news is that the bull's ball brother is expected to be absent for 6-8 weeks after surgery, but it is almost 9 weeks now, and the return date of the ball brother is still undecided.
The Heat are 49-28 and the Eastern Conference is the first to lock up the playoffs; the Celtics are 47-30 and fourth in the East.
Thanks for reading it all!