No one is a prophet, and neither am I, but basketball must have its eternal rules, just as no one can stop the arrival of the New Year in 2024, just like you can't be happy when you lose, and just like a man always has to be patient in the face of a woman's little willfulness. Violating the law of time means the destruction of the universe, violating the law of emotion, means splitting personality, violating the law of love, and means that your once exclusive moon shy flower will become someone else's Wushan clouds and rain......
Then, violating the laws of basketball, although it may not necessarily fail, it must mean that some aspects of offense and defense are inefficient, but sometimes, other aspects are covered up, and we often refuse to reflect because of victory. The game of basketball involves many aspects, covering a myriad of major and minor rules, and the game is more than the degree to which these laws are grasped.
I've said more than once in previous articles: "One day, Xinjiang will be remembered for the 3 points, and if it has to happen, I'd rather it happen in the regular season than in the playoffs." "Predicting this moment is not the hindsight of me, but the law of basketball.
Isn't losing to Fujian unforgettable? You can comfortably say that victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, and there are always ups and downs in the state. Moreover, Fujian is a weak team, especially the defense is very poor, and Xinjiang won by 16 points when they met 20 days ago, and this one is the last day of 2023, this encounter has a different meaning.
Well, I can only speak for myself, and I think it's quite memorable because this loss exposed some problems. Failure should not be exaggerated, but objective facts should not be ignored either, praise when you win, and look for problems when you lose.
What laws are violated?
1. Attack in the way you are best at, and the hit rate will be higher;
2. The hit rate of empty positions is higher than that of non-empty positions.
Xinjiang is not good at 3-pointers, but in this game, he shot 40 3-pointers from the outside, much higher than the season average, and more than the league's favorite 3-point thrower Tianjin. And more importantly, many of them are forced to shoot when the opponent's defense is not out of position.
There are a lot of issues involved. Why can't the ball go into the paint? Why do all the chances come from the outside? Why do you force a 3-pointer?
Xinjiang's offensive "three-board axe", two of which are in the paint area, Xinjiang's offensive mainly relies on these two boards to maintain firepower, and during the period when Zhao Rui was injured, it was either Abdu or Jones who solved the problem at the critical moment. In this battle, Jones only made 6 shots, far below the season average, in addition to a small part of the reason Jones's personal desire to attack is not strong, more importantly, Fujian's defense is targeted, although there is no joint defense, but the purpose of shrinking the defense is obvious, and the paint area is basically full of people.
Jones is a smart guy, you should rarely see him attacking, even if he sometimes breaks through to the paint after a single hit, he will not rush to shoot, and after a few feints, if he really doesn't have a chance, he will take the initiative to pass to his teammates. In addition, in the face of Jones's blocking, Fujian's strategy is to combine weak delays with pinching, and the cooperation between the defenders at the No. 15 position is very tacit, resulting in Jones having no chance to take advantage of, and thick eyebrows or Wu Guanxi have no chance to go down. Or, even if the center has a downturn, the defenders on the weak side of Fujian will always let go of Yu Dehao or Sirzati to block the basket.
(Siege Jones, let go of Dehao)
(Jones did not pass Zhu Xuhang, after the breakthrough, Fujian contracted its defense, passed to Yu Dehao, Yu Dehao did not throw)
(Flanking Jones)
(Flanking Telles)
Abdul made 20 shots, plus 4 free throws, the highest round possession rate in the team, the lowest true shooting rate, nearly half of the 20 shots were 3 points, a few sporadic counterattacks, and the rest were all low-level frames or backs - a total of 8 in 1, the height, speed and strength of Li Zhanglin, Zou Yang and Wang Huadong in the opposite position are basically the same, and at the same time, there are Thorne Meike or Li Yueru's ex-boyfriend under the basket.
In addition, when Abu was playing alone within the 3-point line, the other four did not cooperate with back insertion, air cutting or covering, which seemed a bit abnormal. Of course, this is not the main thing.
Therefore, the answer is: Fujian's strategy of shrinking the defense and the thickness of Fujian's No. 4 position make Xinjiang have to look for opportunities more on the outside.
(Qi Lin, who made a strong investment, reminded Zhu Xuhang, who was forced to invest, not to force a vote)
The only way to punish Fujian's targeted defense is to shoot 3 points, but one of the problems that Xinjiang has created a lot of outside opportunities is the lack of some bursts and a combination of inside and outside.
Jones led the team's 3 points, the big lineup played 14 blocks and dismantled outside bombs or Wu Guanxi blocked and dismantled without the ball, and the small lineup played 15 blocks and dismantled outside bombs or chases. The 3 points led by Telles, the big lineup is no different from the Jones led team, and the small lineup adds 3 points to the single block.
These ways, in fact, it is not easy to get a good vacancy opportunity when encountering fast steps, Fujian usually defends in general, but this battle is like playing chicken blood, all of them have become Yu Dehao, and as a result, Xinjiang is almost interfered with every shot. Xinjiang made 10 of 40 3-pointers in this game, with a shooting rate of only 25%, which may actually be even worse, because Qi Lin and Zhu Xuhang each hit an obvious top shot.
How did the 3 points on the opposite side come about? Tearing the defense line, entering the penalty area, attracting the help defense, and breaking through the ball, all rely on Jermain alone, in fact, there are no different ways for Xinjiang to create 3-point opportunities, but this is precisely the best way - to compress the defense to the greatest extent and create the vacancy to the greatest extent, which is precisely the way that Xinjiang lacks, I said before that Xinjiang does not lack vacancy, but if the vacancy is refined, Xinjiang does not lack only a small vacancy, and what is lacking is a big vacancy - of course, except for Yu Dehao.
As a result, Qi Lin was 2 of 11 on the outside, Zhu Xuhang was 1 of 9, and Abdu was 2 of 9.
If there is no breakthrough, is it because Jones and Telles don't have the ability to break through? Or are they worse than Jermain?
This brings us to the question of defense.
In this game, it is Yu Dehao and Sirzati who are responsible for the consumption of Jermain, in contrast, Sirzati's defensive success rate is low, and Jerzat frequently breaks through the ceiling, not that Sirzat does not work hard or cannot keep up with the speed, an important problem is that his defense lacks some experience.
In this campaign, no matter which position it is in, when Jermain holds the ball, Silzati is a close defense that does not leave an inch, so it is generally no problem to defend the local defenders, but the explosiveness of Xiaowai is very strong, the defense is tight, it seems to be very tight, in fact, it is easy to be passed in one step, Silzati is almost always broken through in this way, and the same problem as when he played Shanghai Defensive Bacon before.
Yu Dehao's approach is worth learning Xi from Sirzati, keeping a distance of two or three steps before halftime, and a distance of about one or two steps in positional battles (the specific distance needs to be judged on the spot, according to the speed of the opponent and his own speed, everyone is different), so that even if Jermain kicks out the first step, Yu Dehao has time to react.
(Silzati sticks too tightly)
(Yu Dehao's distance is very good)
Secondly, Xinjiang's pinch attack on Jermain came a little late, before hitting Shanghai, and the pinch attack on Bacon occurred about 4 minutes in the third quarter, which was very timely. This time, the pinch attack on Jermain had reached about 7 minutes of the final quarter, and it was not decisive and sustained enough. At 6:04, Jermain broke through Silzati and then scored a basket with a four-on-one. 2 points and 18 points, the pinch shot was not decisive enough and the defense was distracted, Jermain suddenly assisted Zou Yang, who hit a 3-point to kill the game.
(Germain 1-4)
(Jermain assists Zou Yang for key 3 points)
Xinjiang rarely strikes on the opponent's small outside, or in other words, it is not a last resort, generally will not be sandwiched, more is to trust the individual defensive ability of the backfield, now it is necessary to add some pinching for this kind of scoring explosive Xiaowai, just like Fujian did to Jones and Telles, at the same time, it is also necessary to keep an eye on the shooter (Li Jianghuai) after the pinch, in the case of less defense and more.
Aside from the defense of Xiaowai, a whole game Qiu Gui actually took a lot of measures to limit Fujian's offense, the second quarter of the joint defense effect is very good, some rounds of 131 joint defense and 23 joint defense back and forth, from the running position sliding step is very skilled tacit understanding, it is obvious that the traces of training can be seen, Fujian's offense did have some basic mistakes, attacking odd joint defense (131/122/32), using odd formation (should be an even formation), attacking even joint defense (23/ 212), using an even-numbered formation (an odd-numbered formation should be used), relying on defense in the second quarter, Xinjiang once went from behind to a lead of about 7 points, and won by 15 points in the second quarter.
(131 and 23 transformed, in the end, Zhu Xuhang over-assisted, this position should be Jones to make up the defense, and the basket has actually leaked)
But Zhu Xuhang's defense needs to be said, in fact, the style of both offensive and defensive ends is very in line with his character - up, aggressive, if the offensive end of the strong 3-point can be praised as his unique style, then, the defensive end of the offensive is also considered to be considered to be too much? Looking back at the video, there are too many attempts to break the ball or make up for the defense too fiercely, which eventually leads to leakage.
(Zhu Xuhang's defense is too aggressive)
Finally, on the offensive end, how to increase the combination of inside and outside 3 points, in fact, it is still a cliché, after 15 blocks, increase the center's handling of the ball, similar to the last 5 minutes or so of Fujian's cooperation, Xinjiang has never had. To play a good 15-block pick-and-roll, the center's downward shun is only one of them, the center's downward transfer is a higher order, and then the higher-level point, after transferring to the outside line, immediately stuffed back to the basket (especially when the outside line is not sure).
In addition, for the 15-block split, the opponent took the initiative to let Yu Dehao empty, and the solution was that Yu Dehao took the initiative to cover the shooter without the ball.
(Moving the ball from the center is not a high-level skill)
In short, the extension and change of 15 blocks, the combination of inside and outside, the end of the inside line, the empty cut of the winger, the frame protection in the face of the strong inside, the defensive strategy of the super small outside and the defense of individual players, etc., these problems are all problems that Xinjiang needs to solve as soon as possible in the New Year, and dialectically, problems and setbacks are all good things. It's more important to see if it can be solved, or if it can be solved more quickly.
Postscript.
It's finally finished, and it's been a long wait for concerned fans. Probably because of the New Year's Eve, the fireworks after zero o'clock make people upset, I was going to get up and continue to finish the draft, but I couldn't sleep in bed, whether you believe it or not, my brain is words and ideas (about this article), and I didn't sleep all night, and I finally finished the draft with my eyes drooping. At the same time, I wrote some questions, which made everyone disappointed during the New Year, so please forgive me.
Finally, I wish you all a happy new year and all your wishes come true.