On April 25, Beijing time, in an NBA playoff game that ended today, the Heat defeated the Hawks 110-86, and with the victory of this game, the Heat are currently leading 3-1, just one step away from promotion. Many fans of this game gave applause and praise to Heat star Jimmy Butler, and he really deserved the praise. But the Heat also have a tough player in the series, and the toughness shown in this series is no less than Butler.
That's Heat forward PJ Tucker, who played 28 minutes in this game, shooting 5-of-7 and finishing with 14 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. It can be said that the efficiency is very high. In fact, throughout the playoffs so far, Tucker's contribution to both ends of the offensive and defensive ends is very large, first of all, the offensive end, with an average of 61.5% of the three-point shooting rate per game, averaging 2 three-pointers per game, averaging 11 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, a very comprehensive performance.
Secondly, on the defensive end, Tucker continued his previous tough defensive performance, showing the defense of Durant in the playoffs last season, and the best 3D role played in the Finals, so far in the playoffs, Tucker's defensive efficiency ranked 9th in the league, and it was the Heat's uncompromising defensive iron gate, and even the Heat head coach Spollstra praised him.
In a post-match interview, talk about how to define Tucker? Eric Spollstra said: "It's really hard, let me sum it up, he's a winner. We had to find a different way to win, in large part because of our tough defense and comprehensiveness. ”
As for his energy in the playoffs, Tucker said: "This is the playoffs, I have worked hard for this for so many years, trying to win the championship, defense is very important. "You'll find that Tucker always wants to be aggressive in the playoffs, dare to challenge any star, whether it's Durant last year, or Trae Young this year, and even in today's interview, Tucker said that after the third game, he told Eric Spollstra that he wanted to play Trae Young more low.
From last year's Finals' best-of-breed 3D to this year's Heat's defensive toughster, Tucker has completely proven himself to be the NBA's first-class tough guy in just 2 years. But perhaps many people forget that when people talked about Tucker in the early years, they always thought he was a paper tiger. Especially in the 2016-2017 season, the Raptors began to hoard the inside line in order to be able to cross the mountain of James and the Cavaliers, and thus introduced Tucker, who expected Tucker to become a secret weapon to limit James, and Tucker himself wanted to challenge James.
But the result is known to everyone, whether it is the Raptors or Tucker, in those years in the face of James, basically only the share of being blown up, even if Tucker turned to the Sun later, when facing James, it was also seen once by James, over time, people began to laugh at Tucker, thinking that his toughness is pretended, in fact, he is very soft, defense is bluff.
But now, perhaps people should be able to understand, not that Tucker in those years was too soft and the defense was not good, but that The James of those years was too strong, let alone Tucker, and the whole league could not find a player who could guarantee that he could limit James. Tucker's highlight moments now, like a microcosm of the Two Years in the East, are starting to prove their prowess after getting rid of James' shadow and monopoly.