"Others laugh at me too crazy, I laugh at others can't see through" --- given to Tatum today
Mazura boldly used a change before the game, but Lowe's starting is not a new move, last year's Finals was Uduka's usual team, I still feel that if it wasn't for Cole to use Porter to start, plus Curry contributed an efficient ball-carrying long shot almost the entire series, this team will be the best last season.
But many people are skeptical of this change, and in some ways, the skepticism is justified.
Lowe as a natural space black hole, this pie-eating interior line, in the blocking to the side effect of the average ball holding double probe flower, will it liberate Embiid and make the Celtics' offense mudder than G5? And defensively, will there be an additional weakness in blocking and dismantling, giving Harden and Maxi more room to operate?
We analyze them one by one in combination with the competition.
First of all, the first offense of Philadelphia in the opening game is a good example of the dismantling response of both sides after the change of formation.
Philadelphia's core idea is still to give Harden to get rid of Brown, and then create a blocking environment, so while Maxi cut, Harden gave Embiid a cover, Embiid popped up, and then hung a back cover for Harris to cut away from Brown, so that Harden and Embiid have a lot of space to play on the strong side.
Then the Celtics' change of formation took effect.
We can recall the replay of G4, in the first attack, although Embiid cut in from a different direction, but also cleared the side, the Green Army was defending Smart at that time, and now Robert Williams.
This is also why the G6 blocking effect is very poor, and the G5 Green Army has suffered from Embiid's disassembly, because no matter who is chasing Harden, Horford will always be involved downward, and naturally cannot take care of Embiid at the free throw line and above.
G6 With Lowe, he can fully take advantage of the defensive value that Tucker gave him, just like this offensive continuation, he briefly completed the task of defending Harden and Tucker in the box, while Horford took care of Embiid.
Philadelphia's second attack began to think of a way, what they wanted to replicate was the effect of Maxi holding the ball and hitting Lowe's crouch at the end of the first quarter of G5, but another benefit of changing formations came:
In the starting period, Smart is a defender who can squeeze cover more than White, and Tucker and Embiid's double cover failed to hang Smart,
It is very surprising that all the Green Army defenders in today's opening game, even Horford, are very exaggerated in the execution and efficiency of the squeeze cover, and the first fully successful cover I saw was at 6 minutes and 11 seconds, Melton as a shooter to Harden to take Brown.
So here, we can summarize some characteristics of the Twin Towers period, this is a team that has a serious blocking inhibition for Philadelphia, excellent box protection, Smart + Brown on the line moves fast enough, squeezes cover very strongly, and after Tatum returns to the third position, Harris' size advantage no longer exists.
So does Philadelphia have any possible ideas for dealing with the twin towers?
I flipped through all the time periods of the G6 Green Army swinging twin towers and came up with my own shallow two points.
First, use Tucker carefully, his 7 long shots may not be a good sign
G5 Green Army respectively with Brown/Tatum and others against Tucker, like I said, did not dig up enough defensive value, the source of deterrence caused by this Lowe in the box is that Tucker's gravity in the bottom corner is not enough, the series is here, do not pin hopes on the ethereal long shooting feeling, then find a way to pry the box, you have to think of bringing Lowe out, Niang may be a good choice, but from this point of view, Rivers' first choice is Melton.
But I would say that in fact it doesn't matter who this person is.
That's my second point--- the position of the twin towers has to be more detailed, and I think the two legs in the first half of the fourth quarter are very informative.
The first round was Embiid's misalignment to Brogdon, and why there was still this misalignment in the Twin Towers period was mainly because the half-conversion Horford faced Maxi (the root cause was Tatum's mistake, I guess many people were still thanking Tutu at the time), and the opposite bottom corner Lowe faced Harris, which was Embiid's most comfortable heads-up in the whole court.
Therefore, Philadelphia has to catch some of the difference in position, the twin towers of the Green Army have strict alignment requirements, they cannot accept the misplacement by the big man to pinch this behavior, not so much that these invisible fast attack resources are used too poorly, but rather that Philadelphia has not been a team known for grasping details, hoping to change its view slightly in the G7 game.
The second round is more worth thinking about than the first.
Let's be clear, why did Brogdon take the initiative to switch defenses with Lowe in high and low positions?
Because of all the Celtics' twin tower periods, Lowe can hardly mention the high post, he needs to provide the bottom line of the box defense, so even if the bottom corner is Maxi, Lowe still has to fall back to the low post, Embiid and Harden launched a block in the middle, Lowe recovered, which gave Maxi the opportunity to play speed and space advantage.
This is the best round I've seen in the whole game, and if I start with this line of thinking, I don't think it's complicated for G7 to solve the Twin Towers, and now I can only hope that this is not a flash of light.
The third point may be contrary to many people, and I think that in the case of unclear implementation of the second point, we should play less and give Embiid more low positions.
Because combined with the above, Lowe is responsible for nothing more than protecting the penalty area, providing a certain containment near the bottom line, and the real continuous sliding step is still Smart and Brown, so as long as Embiid's low position does not turn down, Philadelphia faces no difference from Horford's single tower, in this case, as long as the space point on Embiid's side provides stable output, then Philadelphia can completely bypass Lowe.
Back to the second big question, why does Lowe not seem to hurt the attack?
Because Mazura not only set up a recreation of last year's finals, but also finally remembered the "roll call" offensively.
Before Lowe dragged the attack, because the single-tower time period (except G1), either someone always thought of going to him to block and face Embiid after the dismantling - it is you Tatum, or Philadelphia defended for a few minutes, and every time you can encounter Lowe, all kinds of magical factors come together, resulting in Lowe's thin offensive presence, G6 is not the same.
First of all, and Lowe blocked to Lowe Pass Global, many times it was Smart's work, this game once again refreshed my understanding of his passing technique, and Tatum's positive contribution in all the positions he made in the opening game was almost all about Maxim, and the opening was like this, Harris did not dare to put this set of positions, but he squeezed cover too slowly, and finally let Smart get an empty position.
Secondly, since the playoffs, the Celtics have won all the games, the average assist is 26, G6 only 21, their individual offense has increased, Philadelphia does not have a corresponding defense master in Lowe, as long as the Green Army maintains a reasonable singles - don't rush Embiid, the problem of Lowe dragging space will be hidden.
The question of changing formations is a little more detailed, but there is another big question that needs to be answered:
The final kick, Philadelphia actually did not lose in the Twin Towers, although we said above a lot of trouble with the Twin Towers, and Lowe also got a plus-minus of +18 in the whole game, but Mazura took the closing lineup in 5 minutes and 24 seconds, or Philadelphia's familiar Horford + Tatum with three guards, what happened to the "dark five minutes"?
Let me conclude first, and I think the core problem is that Philadelphia has not figured out where its strengths lie and how to use them.
The series between Philadelphia and the Celtics, from beginning to end, only Embiid has a stable strong point, whether it is a catch in the high post or an attack in the low post, only he can really make the Celtics change formation.
But in these five minutes, excluding Melton's time-to-time catcher, Philadelphia had a total of 9 chances in the position, Harden and Maxi took 7 times, Tucker and Embiid took one each, and it was clear that Embiid's words after the game were not completely unreasonable, and he did not receive the ball at the end.
Here I want to focus on Smart to analyze, this dude is too exaggerated, almost every choice of defense is right.
For the first time, recycle and block Harden, because the strong side has been cleared, if he does not block this, Horford will face the choice of two defenses and one defense, but he made up for Maxi at the moment of Harden's pass, sent Maxi into the box, and then rotated the bottom corner Niang;
The second and third times, Embiid put Tucker, and I must say that the only person who clearly implemented this strategy and was in the defensive position every time in the entire series was Smart.
That's one reason Embiid can't catch the ball, and another reason is Philadelphia's own confusion and lack of understanding.
G4 Although Embiid was out of par against Horford, it was also the result of some pinch harassment, and in the five minutes of the fourth quarter, almost all the blocks launched from the top of the arc, Embiid was all a cover.
I take the ATO that came back in more than 3 minutes as an example, without Tucker, Philadelphia's way to break the game is that since Smart assists in defense, Tucker and Maxi will definitely have a two-on-one opportunity in the bottom left corner, so Harden's stop position is actually looking for Maxi who Tucker covers, but Maxi's position and blocking position are very awkward, so in the end the tactic failed.
When this kind of playoff is strong, you should let Embiid finish taking the ball, no matter high or low, observe the Celtics' defensive changes, instead of the other side giving you Tucker, you have to go to Tucker, if not, then what is the meaning of Embiid? Like I said in the first round, can't Dedmon do this?
On the other hand, Embiid is a pretense, and Philadelphia must block and tear down, so why not give Harden enough misalignment space sooner rather than later? Anyway, Embiid + Harden, the final offensive end should not bet on the bottom corner.
summary
The failure of the G6 to win the series was a very bad thing for Philadelphia, but the G7 was not without chance;
The 76ers have forced Mazura to play the last card, he won G6 with the twin towers and seven-man rotation, which also means that G7 will be completely "naked", Tatum Although he has completed redemption, he has not got rid of the meaning in the last paragraph of my G5 review, he is still looking for a long-pitch response, anyway, he really responds to understand, the probability is to spend...
But Philadelphia now needs to think about what to do with the Twin Towers and how to get the ball to Harden and Embiid in a possible final game of the season.
Success and defeat, in the end, that's it.