Chapter 1502 1501. System Showdown (Asking for Monthly Votes)

The system is still not perfect!

As an "outsider", Popovich saw Liu Mang's movements and judgments on the defensive end, and felt that his system had not yet reached a level of perfection.

However, this also means that there is still room for improvement and pressure, and Popovich is happy about this. He wants more than just a team record of nine consecutive wins at the start of the regular season.

In the original time and space, it took three years for the Spurs system to go from the beginning of the 10-11 season to the 12-13 season when it reached its peak.

Although the Spurs were amazing in the 10-11 season, they were defeated in the first round of the playoffs.

The current Spurs team is stronger than the original 10-11 season in that the three players are at their peak. However, in terms of team offense, the system is not perfect but is just beginning to take shape. The problem remains. They have won nine consecutive games before and are strong. When playing as a team, we need to rely more on the personal abilities of the three major stars.

Of course, the troika is still at its peak, which is the key for the Spurs to make up for the lack of perfection in the system.

However, the Troika is at its peak, and the lineup of Popovich's strongest opponent still gives him a headache, especially that kid...

Popovich looked at Liu Mang, who was celebrating with his teammates by high-fiving, and had a headache. One defensive perimeter... Popovich didn't care much. What bothered him was that Liu Mang was completely different from other first-defense perimeters, and so was Kobe. On first defense, Kobe is very strong in mid-range defense and pressure defense against thin perimeters. He is a standard first defense perimeter type; while Liu Mang... was selected for first defense based on defense at the basket!

I don’t know how to describe Popovich’s choice of Liu Mang’s defensive focus. This guy is truly a non-mainstream defensive champion!

Seeing Liu Mang and Kwame Brown exchanging defense after the celebration, Popovich thought to himself: "The defense of these two guys at the basket is really a perfect match! If only Tony and Bruce had been more decisive in trading rookie Ai Si, Ace and Tim team up..."

Popovich is very upset when he thinks about this. Although Liu Mang was amazing at the beginning of his rookie year, before the trade deadline of the first season, if he used Bowen and Parker as bargaining chips to trade Liu Mang, The probability that the Eagles management will agree is extremely high.

But at that time, Popovich was really reluctant to give away the best defensive player in the league at the small forward position and Parker, a potential stock. After Liu Mang finished his rookie season and led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals, these two combined could not replace Liu Mang. Reckless, unless he is willing to give away Duncan or a large number of draft picks.

Popovich is not the only one who regrets it among the league management. Hawks owner Price responded to the offers from each team by asking for a defensive champion in his prime and a guard with core talents or a guard. Guard star, at that time, which team was willing to spend so much money to get back a second-round pick who was probably short-lived?

Now Liu Mang has become a superstar that even powerful teams like the Bulls are willing to trade the entire starting lineup. There is no use regretting it.

Popovich put aside this matter that could be regarded as heartbreaking at this stage. There was nothing he could do about it at this point, and he began to make personnel adjustments.

The system must persist in order to make progress. Popovich does not intend to change back to the previous star style of play. Just like the Hawks insist on making tactical adjustments based on the inside line when the situation is unfavorable, Popovich still Made personnel adjustments to the Spurs system and replaced Oberto with Matt Bonner.

Liu Mang had been paying attention to the Spurs' substitutions. When he saw Bonner taking off his training uniform, Liu Mang immediately took a look at Bonner's ability evaluation.

"Matt Bonner, his ability rating is 73, his offense is 70, his defense is 79... he shot 40% at the basket, 41% from the field, and 42% from the three-point range? Averaging 0.2 goals per game in the three-second zone, 1.1 three-pointers and 1.5 mid-range shots per game? What kind of weird things are these for the Spurs?" Liu Mang wondered when he looked at Bonner's ability evaluation and season-by-season statistics. Make complaints.

"Smart defense, no disadvantage in confrontations, strong offensive movement, accurate open shots, poor rebounding... A player with such obvious shortcomings can earn 15 million in 5 years with the Spurs."

This is Liu Mang’s analysis of Bonner.

"Attack first!"

Liu Mang came outside the baseline and waited for the referee to serve.

There are no substitutions on the Eagles' side. As far as the previous two defenses and one offense are concerned, the Eagles currently have the advantage.

After the timeout, the referee blew the whistle to continue the game and handed the ball to Liu Mang.

Liu Mang sent the ball to Rondo, who advanced towards the frontcourt.

Bonner is not a defensive black hole. It is true that Bonner is a defensive black hole based on his appearance, but Liu Mang remembers that this guy is really good at defense and has good awareness. Liu Mang and Marion failed to get rid of the defense in the pick-and-roll. Bonner Na and Battier left Marion in the mid-range to flank Liu Mang. By the time Marion returned to the bottom corner, Bonner had already defended him.

Rondo continued to pass the ball to McGrady for a single. Unfortunately, McGrady failed to hit his second mid-range jump shot. Bowen's defense was indeed useless. He didn't dare to exert force and stick too close, and he didn't dare to make a black kick. The threat was there, but his consciousness was there, and the defense prevented it this time.

After all, it was a mid-range shot, and his mid-range performance of 1 of 2 was still very good. McGrady missed, Duncan guarded the defensive rebounds, and Kwame Brown directed his teammates to retreat quickly.

The Spurs adhere to the defensive strategy of pressing outside the three-point line and Duncan holding on to the basket. The Hawks' offense depends on whether the mid-range is stable.

For the Hawks, the offensive end depends on the mid-range singles between Liu Mang and Tracy McGrady. The overall shooting rate is between 40% and 50%. After the substitution from the Spurs, they have not exceeded 100%. The shooting percentage was 50%, but McGrady relied on his height, Liu Mang relied on his accuracy, and combined with Marion, Kwame Brown, and Rondo's rebounding ability, they managed to keep the team's shooting percentage at 100%. Over forty.

And the Spurs' offense...

A bit floating!

Bonner does not have Oberto's pick-and-roll ability and ability to eat at the basket, but his outside shooting is so good. He does not have any strong shooting ability, but he can hit the open space accurately and has a strong effect on opening up the space. The game has changed from 5V5 to 4V4, and the Spurs' offense has become simpler and more effective!

but……

Both teams seem to have three three-pointers on the court, but the Spurs' core strategy is to score under the basket, and the Hawks' core strategy is to score from mid-range and attack with offensive rebounds. The role of the three-pointers is to let Scoring is easier in other positions!

Scola, O'Neal Jr., and Jason Terry also played alternately for a long time on the Hawks' side, insisting on a mid-range shooting style. The Spurs' side focused on the three-point threat and Duncan's mid-range and short-range containment. , Parker, Oberto, Persson, and Ginobili took turns to attack the basket.

The two teams were very decisive in throwing when they had the opportunity, so that the other team did not dare to let go...

Throughout the first half, both teams struggled with player rotation, and neither team could do anything about the other.

At the end of halftime, the Hawks trailed the Spurs by two points, 59 to 61, and entered the halftime break.

Originally, the Eagles were leading by 1 point with 10 seconds left. Who knew that Duncan could actually hit a three-pointer at the buzzer? There was nothing they could do. The Eagles blocked the other four players and allowed Duncan to come to the outside. If he could make the shot, Liu Mang could only say that Duncan stepped on dog poop on the way from the hotel to the arena.

But...the more Liu Mang played, the more wonderful he felt!

It's a very special feeling. Playing against the Spurs, mainly against the current Spurs, makes Liu Mang feel great!

It feels so good to be evenly matched!

In addition, Liu Mang also had a strange feeling.

Liu Mang feels that although the Spurs rank ninth in the league in three-pointers per game, it seems that the Spurs do not use three-pointers as their main offensive weapon like him, but as an auxiliary weapon!

Why will three-pointers from outside passes become more and more popular in the future?

Liu Mang believes there are three reasons.

The most important thing is the change in the rules. After Adam Silva took office in 2014, the rules for outside fouls were changed in the summer of 2014. The scale of the penalty for physical contact between defensive players and offensive players when offensive players take off became particularly small. Offensive players receive extra care for their perimeter movement, which is key to allowing shooters to easily make shooting moves.

The main driving point that makes three-pointers more and more popular is Stephen Curry's three-point ability that breaks common sense, which makes every team want to cultivate such three-pointers. Although no team has succeeded, There are still a lot of relatively good three-pointers. The development of three-pointers is promoted by Stephen Curry, just like Liu Mang now makes the Spurs and Jazz pay attention to three-pointers.

But the foundation is that the league's overall shooting ability is getting stronger and stronger!

In the decade at the beginning of the 21st century, players who entered the NBA were basically born in the 1980s. At that time, the NBA was not making money. Even in the United States, there were not many parents of children who supported their children's development in basketball. Develop in the direction of football, unless you have particularly good basketball talent.

Environment and atmosphere are also very important. Basketball enthusiasts born in the 1980s grew up watching basketball in the 1990s and the first five years of the new century in the iron-blooded defensive era. The iron-blooded defensive era requires players to have more comprehensive skills. , comprehensive, naturally there are not many people who are particularly proficient in a certain technology. Those who are comprehensive and have several proficient skills that are effective in the NBA are at least All-Stars.

"There shouldn't be so many accurate role players for the Spurs to use now. Popovich has a clever idea, but it's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without straw..."

Thinking of this, Liu Mang figured out a lot. The Spurs averaged eight or a few three-pointers per game, which means that 25 or 6 points in each game are three-pointers, but the Spurs averaged 104 points per game, which is Most of the points were not three points.

As a result, Liu Mang felt that there were some problems with his defensive strategy, and planned to have a chat with Van Gundy about his findings after the game.

Regarding Van Gundy's on-the-spot command ability, Liu Mang saw Van Gundy crumbling the little note and didn't even think about how to defend the Spurs system. He felt that it was useless to tell Van Gundy about his discovery now. This guy actually grew Only with timely planning can you come up with good ideas. Liu Mang knew that he had to rely on himself.

Liu Mang thinks he can't develop a complete defensive system like Van Gundy did to restrain a certain team. What he is good at is providing some of his known ideas to defensive assistants.

But it's a little trick... Liu Mang is the best at it. After looking around the Spurs players, Liu Mang's eyes were fixed on No. 21, who finally walked into the Spurs player tunnel...

"It's him!"