Using a series to judge a player is mostly inappropriate, because the sample of actual performance and statistics is relatively small, and there will be certain accidental factors, just as Durant cannot be said to be invincible because he played well in the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals, nor can he be cheap because he played poorly in the first round of 2022.
Don't label players with a series, but Adu's performance this time is indeed a fact, averaging 22 points per game is already the worst offensive output in a single season of his career, shooting 36.5% from the field and averaging 5.7 turnovers per game.
How can Durant play like this, isn't he the Grim Reaper Scythe, isn't he the League's first head-to-head master, where are those skill packs going?
The Celtics' precise and fierce defense is the main reason for Durant's offense to fall into the abyss, and Uduka's defensive principle is that when Adu holds the ball outside, Tatum defends alone, and when KD dribbles into the three-point line, it is clamped, and makes full use of the body advantage to give the foot body confrontation.
Four years ago in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics were almost so defensive of James, the old Jan's response is not to call the demolition, directly one-on-one, take the ball to attack hard, if the Green Shirts pile defensive forces on him, transfer the ball to the empty teammates.
James's style of play is an understatement, but in fact, the only person in the whole league who can crack the defense in this way is probably the peak Zhan alone, which needs to be strong enough to hang people to rush forward, and the ability to drive teammates to watch the six ears and listen to the eight directions, Durant is almost interesting in both aspects.
Durant's strength is to pull up and hit a jumper above the defender's head, while the Celtics' defensive goal is to lock the ball as hard as they can, and they are not even willing to give Durant a comfortable starting position, and Adu scores a goal in this series.
Nash is not without a way, he uses the big man to cover Durant, use the small lineup to pull the space, but the Celtics' defensive basic set is not at all moved, you cover me to pinch, you put five small lineups I would rather give other people the space to shoot, rather than put Durant this point, the assistant defense will not hesitate, if it is shot by Curry Jr., Mills or Brown, I admit it.
The Celtics' defense also has a way to crack, that is, Durant plays without the ball, when he reaches the right shooting point, his teammates feed the ball over, and Adu can't pull the ball out of time to hit the clip.
That's how the Nets played against the Celtics in the first round of the season, durant scored 62% of assists in that series, and this time against the Greenshirts, Adu's goal assist rate was 42%, 20 percentage points lower than a year ago.
What's the difference? Durant had Harden by his side a year ago, and now he doesn't.
In the first round of 2021 against the Celtics, Ha averaged 27.8 points and 10.6 assists, and could play and pass. Harden is responsible for organizing the offense, and Durant and Irving only need to catch the ball to complete the finish, which is very labor-saving and efficient.
For example, this ball, Harden arc top card, Durant followed up to catch the dribble one step and directly pulled.
Looking at this ball again, Harden held the ball outside the right three-point line to attract the defense, and when the players defending Durant had a slight sign of bagging Harden, the "bearded" immediately fed the ball to Adu, and it was another dry pull to break the net.
Passing, like shooting, requires a certain talent to reach a high level, you have to have the vision to discover teammates, you have to have a pass in place, it is not easy to have these conditions, Harden is the rocket to play point guard to take the assist king, his pass is underestimated.
Of course, it's not that Harden can win this Celtics if he is still in the Nets, the GreenShirts missed Jaylen Brown when they played the playoffs last season, and the overall level of defense is not as good as it is now, but Harden can at least bring more solutions to the Nets, he can let Durant attack at the dessert position, rather than dribbling hard against the Celtics' copper wall.
The nets used to be the most ideal game mode is Harden organization, Duou attack, Dengge can provide tandem, but also when needed to single, remove Harden, the Nets are left with one-on-one this road, and the infinite single encounter with the green shirt army's infinite change of defense combined with accurate bag clips hit the wall again and again.
This series is not over in theory, but in fact there is no suspense, maybe Durant or Irving can avoid being swept away with a big explosion that ignores defense, but the final ending may be difficult to rewrite.
Objectively speaking, if Duo can win four games in a row with singles, they will not be 3-0 behind, and the team that ranked first in the championship odds list before the start of the season has fallen into such a field, and the summer of 2022 will be very long for them.
What exactly caused Harden to leave, the Nets may need to liquidate.
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