In the first playoff game of 2023, the Philadelphia 76ers won the Brooklyn Nets without surprise but with emotional ups and downs.
There is a passage in Gulong's "Amorous Swordsman Heartless Sword": Guo Songyang and Jing Wulife's life fight sword, self-division will die, revealing flaws, let Jing Wuhen stab him more than twenty swords, in order to let Li Xunhuan read Jing Wulife's sword technique according to the sword marks on his corpse.
Today's Brooklyn Net, probably comparable to Guo Songyang: they adopted an unconventional approach, revealing countless flaws, "I know I can't win, but try to do this, what will be the mood of Philadelphia?" ——You can also see Philadelphia's swordsmanship from the scars on my body. ”
The net method is: from start to finish to hit the scoring king Embiid.
The reason why it is unconventional is because Philadelphia's three-point rate in the regular season is 39%, the first in the NBA. Pinching Embiid is tantamount to asking Philadelphia's group of shooters to throw themselves to death.
Normal teams will find a balance between pinch Embiid and interfering with the three-point group, and the net says there is no need for balance: just pinch the shot, how! Come on, come on, cast me!
As a result, Philadelphia made a team-record 21 three-pointers and grabbed 14 frontcourt rebounds.
But the process is fun.
The first goal of the net's opening game was to change defense + take the initiative to pinch Embiid and force him into a dead corner and fall to the ground. Embiid shot 1 of 4 in the first nine minutes.
The Nets' offensive highlight is only Bridges. The child born in Philadelphia, the child who was selected by Philadelphia and then sent away, scored 23 points in the first half today. Philadelphia's three-point line + box defense is more than enough against Dinwiddie, but can't stop Bridges' mid-range power:
After all, he was a child who, according to his own words, had studied Booker and Paul in the Sun and had liked Maddie since childhood.
Coach Rivers began to make adjustments, and in the middle of the first quarter, he arranged for Embiid to delay to the three-point line; In the last four minutes of the first half, Embiid even went to the three-point line to change Bridges - can force Philadelphia's change of defense, Bridges really played well.
Of course, Bridges was not brave enough to win the game, but he was able to keep the net score behind Philadelphia in the first half; So it can be seen that under the net's mental defense, the reaction of the Philadelphia generals:
- Maxi was a little frizzy, and missed a two-point shot in the whole game; Two layups that were too anxious to slow down and missed; One throw did not go in.
- Harris was once used by Rivers coaches when Ray Allen and Redick were awkward.
- Tucker diligently does all the right work, but not necessarily in the open seat.
- Embiid wrestled with Claxton every time he entered the front court, knowing that he would be caught in the pinch as soon as he got the ball, and he looked unhappy.
Philadelphia's mood has not fluctuated, and it seems that only Harden is suspected.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Harden gave three assists in a row to stop the Net, and then assisted Niang; However, Niang was restless, jumped more than once, and then missed.
Every time Harden tries to run a tactic, Niang tries to be surprised, and the result is often this:
Daddy Harden: Listen to me, just do it...
Nionne: No, I've grown up, I want to try my own - (comes back in disgrace) The ball is for you, Daddy, what are we going to do?
Daddy Harden looked at him with a gentle, caring expression: "You gave me back the ball, but 24 seconds is only 7 seconds!" ”
Philadelphia had a chance to settle the game early in the second quarter: Harden made three consecutive three-pointers to open the score, but Bridges bravely chased the score back into single digits. The net shot 62 percent from the field and Philadelphia 45 percent in the first half, but Philadelphia led by nine points — mostly from three-pointers and frontcourt rebounds.
Embiid was pinched in the first half, scoring 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting.
Harden shot 4 of 5 from three-pointers but 1 of 8 from two-pointers — eating three blocks.
The situation is clear:
Embiid can play, but the net won't let him play.
Harden knows how to play and can shoot three-pointers, but his explosiveness is difficult to finish efficiently.
In the third quarter, Embiid played ball with ignition. He knew the net would still clip him, so as soon as he received the ball, he turned and attacked, hit a 2+1, and then missed once. At 7 and a half points in the third quarter, Philadelphia rebounded in front court, Embiid vented his anger and broke through the dunk, was fouled by DFS directly, and fainted for a moment.
After that, Embiid missed a strong shot, but was hit by Dinwiddie, and the difference narrowed to 7 points; Harden Town Field, first find Harris who counterattacked, and then hang a ball for Embiid to appease.
Embiid hit a jumper from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to give Philadelphia a 103-89 lead, still pulling his face during the timeout; In the next round, he was accused of defensive Bridges foul and yelled at the referee.
In fact, the game was over at that time, and the Nets were changing substitutes. But for Embiid: being caught in the whole game, unhappiness is to write on the face.
And so it went: The Nets pinched Embiid at all costs, still allowing him to score 26 points on 7-of-15 shooting, giving Philadelphia 14 frontcourt rebounds and 21 three-pointers.
Tactically, this pinch was not a success, but it was clear in the process:
——Under the mental defense, Maxi is easy to find the rhythm.
- Embiid gets emotional when he is caught in a pinch, gets angry after being forced to deal with a clip pass again and again, and attacks once or twice when it is clear that his teammates have space, "Really think the pinch can prevent me?" ”
——As mentioned above, the only person in Philadelphia who has a good head on the field, knows the situation on the court, and can take advantage of opponents' flaws to break is Harden. Today he had 23 points and 13 assists, as well as a team-high +20. Of the 21 three-pointers made by Philadelphia, he assisted five and hit seven of his own.
But he shot 1 of 8 from two-point range today and ate three caps.
Before the end of the first half, the Net's last attack, Harden commanded his teammates to defend the position, and suddenly participated in the upper line pinch, destroying the Nets' offensive intention; In the fourth quarter, Harden fought back with a chase, shot a short three-point shot and returned to defense, completely unable to get off the waist; In the next round, he cleverly assisted Reid, and then got excited on the sidelines:
It was the only emotional exposure he had in the audience.
These rounds are especially clear:
In terms of overall awareness and emotional control, he is the most reliable commander in Philadelphia; When encountering the unconventional defense of the net, Embiid will be unhappy, Maxi will be unstable, Harden can find teammates in a steady way, find the rhythm of the full court, find the most reasonable routine at any time, and teach the net how to properly hang passes (today's nets' hanging passes seem to have a feud with rebounding) - he is smart, he is accurate, he is flexible, but when it comes to fighting, his legs and feet may not necessarily support his ideas.
That's the lesson the net learned today:
If there is a team trying to beat Philadelphia this season, presumably, Embiid's emotional ups and downs, Maxi's rhythm grasp and Harden's leg and foot explosiveness can make a fuss.
——Although this task, the net is quite difficult to complete.
After all, Philadelphia began to do the opposite in the second half, and when Bridges forced him to make only 2 shots in the half, the Nets showed that they lacked a dispatcher like Harden.
The Kings beat the Warriors just two weeks after their last playoff victory.
Coincidentally, the Kings were also playing the defending champions at the time, when they still had two meat hammers on the team — Ci Shiping and Wells — plus Bibby, Miller and Thomas to carry the defending champion Spurs.
Coach Mike Brown was the first year of his career as head coach that year, taking LeBron to the first series — Coach Brown's own, LeBron's own — in the first series. Curry had just decided to attend Davidson University.
Back to today: the king's victory came brightly:
The Warriors had a chance to steal the first win on the road, but the Kings played better.
The King's regular-season play, the top indicators of the two leagues:
- Sabonis was fifth in the league in assists all season, including first in the league with 305 three-pointers.
- Assists → three-point combinations in the top three in the NBA this season: Haliburton → Hield; Sabonis → Huert; Sabonis → Murray.
- Second non-assist two-pointers this season, Fox.
Sabonis is the league's chief three-point picker, especially good at feeding Hult and Murray.
Fox's singles are fantastic.
Today the Warriors blocked the King's sword: Sabonis had 2 assists in the game and only fed Mitchell a three-pointer; Murray and Hult combined to shoot 0 of 8 from three-pointers — the league's chief three-point counter-conductor Sabonis, took it.
But the King's other sword, the Warriors can't deal with: Fox's ball-carrying attack.
Coach Brown also added a plus: Monk's ball-carrying attack.
The Warriors showed in the opening game that they wanted to get Sabonis: Curry attacked Sabonis on the first shot in the opening game, took advantage of Murray's shot, and distributed the ball to DiVincenzo to shoot from distance; Defensively, the Warriors blocked and restricted Sabonis' passes.
The Warriors opened the defense with a blocking ball, and the King tried Sabonis a few times, but could not open; So Fox did not wait for Sabonis to take the position, broke through DiVincenzo for a layup to win his first goal of the game; Hult understood it and broke through two rounds in a row. The second team of Monk and Ryan also targeted the Warriors' expansion and hit the basket in a row.
By the third quarter, the Kings simply entered the Fox takeover time early - originally the regular season, Fox habitually broke out in the fourth quarter, but he knew today that time was running out, and he scored 14 points in the third quarter.
The timing of his Fox offensive was extremely interesting.
The decisive moment of the game was the last two minutes of the third quarter.
The Warriors led 86-78, Curry was replaced, and Chase Dream was not on the court.
Fox sped up and found Lyles to chase a three-pointer, making his first assist of the game - at which point Looney and Poole had a communication error.
Looney switched defenses and Lyles added a frontcourt rebound.
Fox chased a 3-pointer. Fox Tupour attracted a pinch shot and gave Lyles a three-pointer on the weak side - the second assist of the game.
Payton Jr. went to post Fox, Monk Tuwiggins, Poole a delay miss, Monk up to the inside to score.
Curry played two minutes down, and the Kings went 13-4 to go up by one point. The momentum is turning.
By the time Curry returned in the fourth quarter, the Warriors were trailing by four points.
Since then, the warriors have been completely passive.
The game was summed up simply as "the Warriors controlled Sabonis' three-point move, but couldn't stop Fox and Monk's offense."
But think about it again...
Many media fans were bullish on the Warriors before the game: Indeed, it's playoffs, it's Warriors time.
But the so-called playoff state is not a light switch, as soon as the playoffs click and button, it enters the playoffs:
Rotation, mood, rhythm, playing style, all have to be matched.
The playoffs fight is your back and forth move - which point is targeted, decisively put down; The rotation shrinks shorter and shorter, and the trump card fights longer and longer. Stop loss in time and adapt to emergencies.
Or: the fight is ruthless.
Today's Warriors opening game limited Sabonis's strategy, and the Kings immediately broke through heavily + carried the ball, and then Fox and Monk went into bombardment mode early.
This is the king's strain: I caught your move.
I make a move, are you prepared?
Coach Cole was not too ruthless today.
For example, DiVincenzo has excellent lubricant for offense, but the defense is clearly not on the right side of Fox, but Cole still let him try and error for a while.
For example, an attack at the end of the first quarter could have allowed Poole to send an out-of-bounds ball to Curry, but Poole made a mistake with the ball himself, and also paid for Clay's second foul, allowing Fox to hit the free throw - a small detail like this soup leak, more than once in the game.
For example, Wiggins was in excellent condition when he first appeared, but after that, he still showed the problem of not playing for a long time, and his physical strength was not successful, but Cole probably did not prepare a plan; Similar problems, Cray late in the third and fourth quarters, apparently physical problems defensive rotation slowed down, but Cole did not make adjustments.
The most direct point:
Curry's usual playoff games were a 12-6-12-6 rotation — playing the full quarter and six minutes into the next quarter. Today, it is still rotated on a regular basis.
As mentioned above, when Curry led by eight points in the third quarter, the Kings counterattacked, and the Warriors started the fourth quarter from behind.
In contrast, Coach Mike Brown let Fox play 17 minutes in the first half and Curry 18 minutes. That's fine.
Curry played 19 minutes in the second half, while Fox took a break of just 1 minute and 14 seconds.
And we saw it: it was in the short moments when Curry left the court that Fox led the team to pull back the score.
Obviously, Coach Brown knows very well: when Curry rests, it is the decisive moment, the gas pedal is stepped on to the end, the lead is in one breath, and the Warriors are not given a chance to breathe back.
So today's final loss of the Warriors reflects the problems that already exist in the regular season: the top of the arc can't prevent people, the three-point rotation, and the bad play when Curry is not there - or rather:
Coach Mike Brown is ready to play the playoffs, and he has prepared more than one hand, and he is decisive when it is time to be ruthless.
And Coach Cole, and his rotation record, are not yet fully playoff.
When the Celtics led 54-29 in the second quarter against the Hawks today, the old ESPN ones said, "They're playing perfect basketball."
At halftime, he sighed: "The Celtics are playing Game 1 or Game 7 when they're serious? ”
The so-called has entered the playoffs, which is probably it.