Butler is back, and the Heat are playing the most hearty victory of the series.
Spoh's alignment adjustment
After the run-in of G1 and the temptation of G2, Spoh finally adjusted the most comfortable set of alignment in G3.
In the first game of the series, Spall followed the regular season alignment concept, Randle was absent, in order to pinch Brunson as the starting point, the Heat accepted Vincent Barrett, a very disadvantageous match, so Thibodeau was not polite, Barrett played an average of 14 minutes in the first half, and G1 worked 20 minutes in the two quarters.
The G2 Heat lost Jimmy, and although Martin played a playoff masterpiece, he didn't give Spall the opportunity to experiment with alignment changes until G3, and the opportunity came.
In the opening game, the biggest change in the Heat - Butler went to Barrett, so Barrett - the ball was pulled low, the impact was held down, and one of the Knicks' arrows went off.
But the risk of this set of adjustments is that Brunson may blast Vincent at any time, although today's single-point Vincent effect is not satisfactory, but this belongs to the harvest part of the big head to eat, you can't guarantee that G4 sees G2 or G3 cloth, but on the other hand, the Heat as a whole is under control, and Brunson's defense is very hard.
Take how Miami defends Brunson's blocking.
Since Adebayo is going to target Randle, I have to say that Miami's configuration is magically against the Knicks' trident, and the defensive treatment that can be given is quite good, so as long as Brunson does not hold the ball to find Randle to block, theoretically the Heat will be very uncomfortable, and it is difficult for Love and Strus to keep up with Brunson.
But the Heat's defense has integrity, take the opening round as an example.
Love's big delay came up very early, almost before Miró's blocking posture came out, Love had already raised and grabbed Brunson's right hand, resulting in Brunson's blocking, and finally turned into a paint area against Vincent's throw, extending to the entire G3, a strategy that was tried and tested.
If the Knicks want to do something here, such as making good use of the fleeting space when Miró goes down, it is unrealistic to rely on Brunson himself's direct plug, from the following round, the setter played by Randle as a relay station needs to make good use of space, and they are the anchors needed to further develop the offense.
By the way, throughout the playoffs, from Russell to Brunson, the left-handed players in the east and west will always encounter more or less right-hand problems when holding the ball, if the first ball to Brunson to the left hand to play, Miró's down he should not let go, this kind of blocking the left side, the most affected is precisely the left-handed master - James Harden.
The Knicks' offensive development issues
As I mentioned in the replay at the end of G2, the Knicks may not be able to find a stable pitcher in the first round of the Cavaliers, so after matching the inside, they can unscrupulously pinch Mitchell.
So actually, without this natural advantage, it's good that they can limit the Heat's scoring to around 100 points, Miami has extended the patient second-handed hand-to-hand in the first round while adding a lot of semi-conversions, and the Knicks are currently doing a good job with this kind of retreat, and their bigger problem is offensive development.
The second section of G3 is a clear example.
When the Heat were on the side, Lowry was playing Hatten's sinking, giving Zeller a chance to go down, and even played a very co-operation, with Highsmith playing the shooter in the bottom corner.
On the Knicks' side, Brunson can't play the full 48 minutes, so they have one less guard in their rotation who combines passing and control, and they score in the middle of the second quarter, Grimes/Hart countered and rushed to hit three points, Quackley converted two three-pointers, Brunson singled out Butler's long two points, almost completely converted, and they struggled in position.
While Thibodeau's team shouldn't talk too much about attack, at least they have two or three ways to solve problems a little bit in the position.
First, appropriately increase the proportion of Randall's blocking and demolition
It's not that Randle is a better initiator than Brunson, the main thing is that Brunson can't solve the problem of big delays, and the Heat took the initiative to put Adebayo in front of Randall, and they naturally won't accept the little man brought over to delay Randall.
For example, in the following round, it makes no sense for Lowry to delay Randle, because it directly forms a misalignment, and finally it will become a pinch-hit situation, with the ball side defense compressed, the weak side can naturally export some chances.
However, there is an important premise that Randle has to be willing to carry the ball, and this time he has spent most of his time against Adebayo, his desire to attack has dropped so much that he even has a feeling of "me and Reba watching you play four".
Second, make more arrangements before dismantling
For example, Randle ran a hand first, Brunson was able to initiate a block in a high position, this distance, Love did not have time to come out to do delays, so that the logical chain was formed - blocking, impacting Love, Heat contraction, bottom corner opportunity.
brief summary
It is foreseeable that Spall will continue to use the Butler-Barrett match, so if the Knicks want to make some more fame in the series, it may be necessary for Brunson to face Vincent, play a dominant game in personal output, shake Spor's determination, and relieve the Knicks from this point.
And the Heat, although they have a lot of grabbing and hand-to-hand difficult three-pointers, finally pulled the shooting percentage back to the "regular season" level, but fortunately the Knicks are not known for three-pointers, but the Miamins now have the qualifications to start thinking that when they encounter the other two teams in the other half, they either need to improve the quality and consistency of three-point shots, or, play a few more games that Butler can recharge.
Finally, outside of the competition, these two groups in the East District, after carefully watching the video, gave people a peculiar sense of commonality.
The Heat and the Green Army, two teams that conduct the ball into the blood, are supplemented by absolute stars at key moments, while the Knicks and Philadelphia, two groups of teams that are highly dependent on the initiation of the dominant point, so the theme of this year's East Zone--- Team + Stars vs Stars + Stars?