Five minutes and 33 seconds before the end of the fourth quarter, Luka Doncic carried the ball into the box. Looking at Hassan Whiteside, who was 2 meters 13 tall, Doncic was not afraid, he forgot his weight and leg injuries, and jumped up to split the Whiteside tomahawk.
Whiteside could bear this contempt, and he was strong enough to knock Doncic to the ground, triggering a massive conflict between the two sides. Eventually, Whiteside and Bullock, who headed for Doncic, were expelled, and Dorian Finney Smith received a technical foul.
This round is a show of the contrast of mentalities between the two sides, the Jazz who are behind the big score have lost the sharp eye, and the Lone Ranger has already played Hi. In the end, the Lone Ranger won 102-77 against the Jazz in the Battle of Tennoyama, leading 3-2 and winning the match point.
In this campaign, the Lone Ranger completely blocked the Jazz's regular season league number one offense, limiting the Jazz to 77 points. The last time the Jazz failed to score more than 77 points in the playoffs was in 2008, when they scored just 69 points against the Rockets. Doncic and Brunson's double point guard drive is indeed horsepower, but the biggest contributor to the Lone Ranger's victory is coach Jason Kidd.
In the regular season, the Jazz's offensive efficiency was as high as 116.2 points, beating the Eagles and Bucks to rank first in the league. After the collapse of that peak Rocket, the Jazz became the latest spokesperson for the "magic ball", and they all had as many as 40.3 three-point shots per game, second in the league after the Timberwolves. They concentrated their offensive firepower under the basket and beyond the three-point line, relying on this extreme efficiency-seeking style of play to play the league's fiercest offensive firepower.
However, the "magic ball" itself has drawbacks, otherwise the rocket had already won the championship by relying on advanced thinking, and even the rocket that interpreted the "magic ball" to the extreme did not win the championship, not to mention the jazz whose lineup itself was flawed and the playing style was too single. Against the Jazz, Kidd developed an impeccable strategy at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.
On the offensive end, Kidd almost copied the strategy of the Clippers and other teams against the Jazz. Although the Jazz's starting center is Dwight Powell, Powell's tactical status this round is not high. In a way, Powell is just a fake starter, and the lone ranger's real advantage is the rotation time when Powell is off the field.
After entering the rotation time, the Lone Ranger will focus on the "5-Out" tactic, sending "High Artillery Battery" Collebel and Bertans. Coupled with Bullock, Finney Smith, Dinwiddie, Brunson and other outside fire points, the Lone Ranger suddenly became the league's most admired three-point shooting team, they averaged more than 41 three-point shots per game, shooting 38%, both of which were greatly improved compared to the regular season.
Kidd's tactics directly cut the value of Rudy Gobert on the defensive end, and as we all know, Gobert is capable of guarding the basket, but the Jazz don't like to let him change defenses, and his priority on the defensive end is always to shrink the basket. The Lone Ranger relied on the offensive end to create a large number of interference-free outside shooting opportunities against Gobert.
After losing two of their first three games, the Jazz also made adjustments, Gobert's defense expanded a bit, and Collebel, Bertans and others got less easy three-point shooting opportunities. But pressing the gourd to float the scoop, Gobert defended the position outside, and the Lone Ranger was given the opportunity to attack the penalty area. Especially after doncic's return, Doncic, who has a strong offensive ability to block and dismantle the ball, can break through the basket and can throw, the lone ranger's attack on the box has increased, and he scored 46 points in the penalty area today.
Kidd's tactics captured Gobert's defensive weaknesses and the Jazz's lack of backhand after Gobert was targeted. The Jazz tried to play the fifth position in the small-ball lineup with Pascal and Rudy Guy in the regular season, but the experiment failed, and Coach Snyder did not trust this style of play.
Defensively, Kidd's targeting of the Jazz also starts with Gobert. Since the playoffs, there has been a lot of discussion about the Jazz's outside line not passing to Gobert, but is the root of the problem really that the Jazz outside line is unwilling to pass to Gobert? When Gobert receives the ball under the basket and turns around and passes the ball out, when Gobert rushes into the basket to face a small defensive shot but is ridiculous, unless Gobert gets a very good opportunity to empty the position, who will want to pass the ball to him?
Since Gobert did not have the ability to punish misalignment, the Lone Ranger boldly took a change of defense, which forced the Jazz to fall into a single fight, minimizing their three-point shots. In the first five games of the first round, the Jazz averaged only 28.6 three-point shots per game, and the shooting rate barely exceeded 31%, and the two statistics fell seriously compared with the regular season. In the Battle of Tenno-san, the Jazz only shot 3 of 30 from three-point range, shooting just 10 percent from the field.
Of course, the Jazz can't break the change of defense and can't all rely on Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Jordan Clarkson, Bogdanovic also have to take responsibility. The Jazz's 4 main outside fire points, Mitchell is the key to the Jazz to crack the change of defense, but his performance in this round has been disappointing. He averaged 26 points per game, but shot just 37.9 percent from the field and less than 20 percent from three-point range, completely missing the playoff style of the past two years. Mitchell can't open this point, and the Lone Ranger can change his defenses unscrupulously.
"Our goal is to limit their three-point shots to less than 30, which is difficult, but we believe that as long as we do that, we have a chance to win."
In the past, Kidd's performance in charge of the Nets and Bucks did not meet expectations, but after coming to the Lone Ranger, Kidd won the trust of all his disciples. Josh Green said: "We really believe everything the coach tells us and we trust the game plan that the coach has made. ”
The Lone Ranger was able to win 2-1 without Doncic in the first three games, and won 1-1 after Doncic's comeback to win the match point, and Kidd's coaching staff was instrumental. Overall, the Lone Ranger has many details to make adjustments compared to the regular season, and these adjustments are extremely targeted and hit the opponent's sore spot. Tim Kato, who once questioned the Lone Rangers' choice of Kidd as manager, said Kidd and his coaching staff deserved praise.
Of course, although the Lone Ranger holds the match point, there is no guarantee that he will be able to eliminate the Jazz and enter the second round. In last year's playoffs, the Lone Ranger once led the Clippers 3-2, but eventually lost two consecutive first-round exits, and the Lone Ranger certainly did not want to repeat the same mistakes. Doncic is looking forward to making his first round for the first time in his career, and the Lone Ranger is looking forward to making it out for the first time since 2011.
Kidd has said his mission to Dallas is to help Doncic win the championship. Winning another game to eliminate the Jazz is the first step for the pair to rush to the championship.