"The one who controls the rebound can control the whole game!"
The famous words made by Japanese high school celebrity Tsuyoshi Akagi more than 20 years ago are still deafening today, and even today, on the first day of the playoffs, the small ball era is a great consummation, and it can't wait to be fulfilled in four games at the same time.
The Cavaliers led the Magic by 14 rebounds, and Mobley and Allen alone grabbed 29 boards, more than the Magic's starting five. The Timberwolves, who are proud of their twin towers on the inside, are even more exaggerated, with a 10-point lead in front boards and a 24-point lead in total rebounds, and Gobert alone grabbed six front boards, which is a full double that of the entire Suns team.
In contrast, the Lakers were blown up by the Nuggets with 10 front boards almost became a fixed plot, and Jokic dressed up as the image of Gru in "Despicable Me" before the game, as if he had really become the evil boss of the Minions, and the gap between the two teams was indeed as big as the Minions and Gru. James bluntly said: "They have a very tall lineup, the front line players are very tall and strong, and we have to do a good job of protecting the backcourt rebounds with the whole team, and we have to be ready for physical confrontations. ”
The Lakers lost 25 rebounds to the Nuggets in three regular season games, and they certainly know the importance of rebounds. But the gap between the lineups and hard power of the two teams is like a trench, and after the whole game, the Lakers still lost to the Nuggets by 9 boards, as always.
Behind the rebounding gap is the difference in size and strength between the two teams. In the playoff arena, where the scale is more confrontational, the taller Nuggets are better at rushing to the front board (especially the long rebounds that collapse after a three-point shot, and the short rebounds that don't score in the frame, the two teams don't have that big a gap), and they also have more opportunities for mismatch punishment.
The worst thing is that Aaron Gordon, who is opposite the defensive end of the ball, grabbed as many offensive rebounds as the entire Lakers team - because the Lakers can't prevent Murray and Jokic from the outside, once Murray bursts in, the thick eyebrows are bound to press forward to protect the frame, and then Gordon can be in the back.
After the game, the thick eyebrows said, "If necessary, I will defend Jokic all the time in the next game." But if this happens, the Lakers' rebounds may fall more, Jokic will pull the most defensible and most board-grabbing thick eyebrows out of the restricted area, use the sexiest arc top cards to tease the defensive level of the remaining 4 Lakers players, and by the way, sit the thick eyebrows all the way back to the interior from the high position, the picture is too beautiful, I dare not watch it.
If the Lakers were blown up by the Nuggets, it was not rebounds, but all-round strength gaps. The 76ers were completely robbed by the Knicks - the Knicks' shooting rate was only 40%, and Brunson, the outside core, was 8 of 26 irons out of the sky, but with a height of 1.88 meters, he grabbed 5 front boards, more than Embiid. The Knicks, who dominated the offensive rebounds in the regular season, played full of chicken blood in the playoffs, grabbing a full 23 offensive rebounds, 14 more than the 76ers. The total rebounds were 55 to 33, and he won the game completely by grabbing the boards.
It seems that this is the way Thibodeau has been planning to win for a long time: first paralyze the opponent's nerves with crazy iron, and then use his rich experience to blow up the opponent's mentality. Lowry, who is also good at stealing boards, felt helpless: "It was a tough game, the opponent crushed us in terms of rebounding, they played well and executed the pre-game plan well. ”
Brunson almost entered the room, but his strong burst still attracted multiple opponents, and Robinson's front board came more easily. This is also the reason why Kobe Bryant "helped the board" a lot back then - opponents were staring at him, and naturally no one paid attention to the Lakers who slipped under the basket.
But the 76ers' problem is purer than the Lakers', and they simply can't beat the Knicks. In this round, Hart and Bojan took turns to play three-point iron, but for the first time, Robinson grabbed the front board with his height and keen intuition, and after giving Bojan a shot, Hart accurately judged the landing point and grabbed the second offensive board in the card position - at the moment when Bojan shot, the Knicks had three people rushing to the basket at the same time.
Hattenstein and Mitchell Robinson play gorillas to dominate the basket, and Hart incarnates Sakuragi Hanamichi, using his infinite physical strength to fill in the position and grab the board, completely becoming Thibodeau's white moonlight: "He's a beast, grabbing rebounds everywhere, fighting for the ball, and making key shots, that's his tough trait." ”
This is not all of the Knicks' ability to grab the boards, not counting Randle, who was reimbursed for the season, and they still have Achiuwa, a rebounding maniac who "can predict the landing point as soon as he shoots". There is reason to suspect that Thibodeau has set up a special course for Achiuwa and Hart to teach the team the secrets of scrambling.
Grabbing rebounds is indeed the duty of the inside, but in these years, team battles are emphasized, and strong insiders like thick eyebrows and the emperor still can't withstand the bite of the wolves. Not to mention that more three-point shots lead to more long rebounds, with 12 of the Knicks' 23 frontboards coming from the outside, and half of the Timberwolves and Cavaliers' frontboards coming from the outside.
On the other hand, after several years of small-ball baptism, NBA teams seem to have found a balance between height and athleticism. Today's playoff teams don't have the traditional slow, tall center, and even Gobert can handle a forward shooter of Royce O'Neal's calibre. The forward-oriented and tall lineup can not only balance frame protection and defense, but also take into account confrontation, misalignment and board grabbing.
This kind of extravagant "want and want" has become a reality, and the offensive key controlled by the guard has begun to be taken over by the front line and the interior lineman, and the Cavaliers and Timberwolves have played the twin towers, and the Knicks have been more confident in frantically accumulating forward resources.
This may be another connotation of "dominating the rebound to dominate the game": before the three-point era, the tall twin-tower lineup almost monopolized the restricted area; under the three-point wave, the position gradually blurred, but the importance of the whole people grabbing the board is more significant; and the interior players who have not been eliminated by the three-point era can dominate the range is not only the restricted area.
The teams that won rebounds were mostly similar, while the teams that lost rebounds were different. Behind the lost rebounds are often torn defensive lines, targeted alignments, unmissable shots, and physical exhaustion by cards. All kinds of hidden worries and external troubles, under the targeting of opponents, are exposed in the form of losing points and boards, and what they lose is not only rebounds.
When Bushy Eyebrows was grabbed by Gordon, I wonder if he will think of the Lakers four years ago, that team had Howard, McGee, and Danny Green, Caruso and Pope on the outside. Their defensive efficiency is third in the league, and their opponents are always unable to win rebounds.
After all 16 teams played their first game
With the ball, Bing can't make a mistake in predicting it now