The Wizards controlled the rhythm of the game from the start, especially Li Kaiming, who was very involved in today's game. In just one quarter of the game, he scored 9 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal.
It seems that he didn't score much, but the impact of the game was no less than the day he scored 60+ points. Mainly because under his leadership, the Wizards were full of intensity on both offense and defense.
At the end of the first quarter, the Wizards led the Heat by 4 points 28-24.
Li Kaiming still didn't end the game in the second quarter. Sanders changed to the five-out lineup, preparing to turn on the offensive firepower in the second quarter.
As for the Heat, Coach Spoelstra also put on the Heat's version of the five-outside lineup.
Chalmers plays point guard, shooting guard is Ray Allen, small forward is Sean Battier, James swings to the 4th position, and center is Li Kaiming's old friend Bosh.
When the game came back, the Heat attacked first.
Without Wade as the ball-handling point, the Heat's rotation has James as the absolute core.
Chalmers took possession of the ball past halftime and handed it to James, who chose to call Battier to cover.
The Wizards' fifth-place lineup has Rashard Lewis at No. 4. Of course, Sanders can't directly let him guard James alone. This is almost like a dish delivered to the door.
So on the defensive end, Sanders made a small adjustment, asking Leonard to guard James and Lewis to face Heat shooter Battier. It happened that these two buddies had no ability to hold the ball, so they stayed in the corner together and chatted. OK
But some things cannot be avoided. James certainly would not choose to rush to the basket with the paralysis in front of him. There are better choices on the court.
Lewis and Leonard chose to delay, and James took a step back to create distance, and then passed the ball to Battier who was outside the three-point line. The latter caught the ball and shot, making a three-pointer.
Li Kaiming on the inside picked off the rebound and handed it to Hinrich to dribble to the frontcourt.
The Wizards set up a triangle offensive formation. Two people on the same side of Li Kaiming connected on the outside to form a triangle, and the other two shooters opened up space on the other side.
Hinrich passed the ball in, and the Heat's double-team arrived quickly, but Leonard, who was on the same side of Li Kaiming, decisively chose to cut inside. Li Kaiming passed the ball to Leonard who rushed into the penalty area without looking at anyone. The player made a layup without any defense!
30 to 24, the Wizards scored the first point in the second quarter.
The Heat dribbled the ball past half-court. James called a timeout and started faster this time. Lewis was still a little slower in grabbing the ball, but James caught the opportunity and passed by in one step.
Rushing to the basket and encountering Li Kaiming's frame protection, James twisted his body in the air and shot, his legs spread in the air into an ugly shape, like fresh fish just fished out of Yangcheng Lake.
Li Kaiming maintained his position fairly well, but the referee at the bottom line still called him a defensive foul.
After these few games, the Wizards players have been tortured by such whistles and have lost their temper.
Of course, this lack of temper does not mean that they have given up resistance, but that they basically no longer argue with the referees in an excited manner. Anyway, they will find it back in the Heat players...
James went to the free throw line and made two free throws to help the Heat stabilize the point difference.
26 to 30, the Wizards served to the frontcourt, and the triangle offensive tactics started to work again. Li Kaiming ran along the three-point line without the ball, came to the top of the key, and handed over to Hinrich holding the ball. The Heat reached the line two Everyone decisively came up to double-team him, but Hinrich took advantage of the opportunity and got in!
Li Kaiming found the gap between Bosh and Chalmers, and hit the ball to Hinrich who rushed to the free throw line. When the latter caught the ball, James under the basket was already in place to help defend, but outside the three-point line It was Leonard who was shorted.
Hinrich made his choice in an instant and hit the target directly from mid-range!
The Heat's current defense mainly focuses on the Wizards' three-pointers and the basket. It is not so strict on the mid-range. In other words, it is good to be able to guard two of the three. Very few teams can guard three. Both.
The score came to 32 to 26, and the Wizards led by 6 points.
The Heat attacked, and James used a ball-free screen, forcing Lewis and Leonard to switch defenses. Then he caught the ball in the waist position, and a turning ball protector pushed past Lewis and rushed to the basket!
Lewis is indeed an experienced veteran. In this case, he knows that he must not cause trouble to the team's core Li Kaiming, let alone let the latter fall into a foul crisis!
So Lewis slapped James and pushed him over the line!
beep!
The referee immediately called Lewis a foul. James emerged from a group of cameramen, spread his hands and complained: "Isn't this a deliberate push? Shouldn't a flagrant foul be called?"
Facing the much-discussed son of America, the referee did not dare to show any slightness and quickly explained to James.
Seeing that the referee had such a good attitude, the gloominess on James's face lightened slightly, but as he listened, he realized something was wrong.
According to this referee, tonight is the home court of the Wizards and they have to give some face...
what's the situation? Didn’t we say before that the alliance would guarantee our promotion?
James keenly felt the meaning of the referee's words, and his brows wrinkled.
Is the alliance going to give up on me?
Braving the disapproval of the world, they formed the top three giants. Unfortunately, even in the third year, nothing has been accomplished. James is naturally very anxious.
If he didn't come to the Heat, with the Cavaliers' operation and the media's publicity and favoritism, it would be possible to get a regular season mVp in the past three years...
On the contrary, Li Kaiming has been the mVp in the regular season for two consecutive years. Last season, he led the team to win the championship. He has a tendency to succeed the league's first player...
Hearing the referee's words, James couldn't help but think of the worst outcome: the league was going to give up on him, and then fully support Li Kaiming as the new talker...
However, James really thought too much. The referee's meaning was actually superficial and had no deeper meaning at all.
If we must emphasize the deeper meaning, it is that the league does not want to make this tiebreaker too ugly. If it still wants to let the Wizards play six fouls at the Heat's home court before, it will definitely cause a drop in ratings!
Ratings are the lifeline for NBA!
Although James is now the darling of the league, he still needs to make concessions for ratings.
No one noticed that as he stood on the free throw line, a confused and confused James had a rare flash of confusion and panic in his eyes.
In such a mental state, James missed both of his serves, which made Albert, the groom in the commentary box, very puzzled!
"What is LeBron doing? This is a tiebreaker. Why can't you seize this kind of scoring opportunity?"
No one can answer Albert's question, or in other words, this is also the question on many people's minds.
Li Kaiming protected the rebound and passed it to Hinrich in the frontcourt. Because the Heat returned to defense very quickly and Hinrich was not good at breaking through the basket, he could only brake outside the three-point line and wait for Li Kaiming to pass. halftime.
After arriving in the frontcourt, Li Kaiming and Lewis made a double screen for Hinrich. Naturally, the Heat focused most of their attention on Li Kaiming.
Hinrich successfully threw the ball to Lewis who was cutting into the penalty area.
Lewis made a lame layup after receiving the ball, but was interfered by Bosh rushing from behind, and Battier protected the rebound.
James quickly charged with the ball. After reaching the frontcourt, he hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and headed towards the basket!
Leonard's choice was very smart. He used his body to block it, and then kept interfering with James' line of sight with his other hand, never cutting or stealing the ball.
After rushing to the inside, James found that the speed had dropped, making it difficult to challenge Li Kaiming, so he jumped up in the air and wanted to pass the ball to Ray Allen in the bottom corner.
At this time, Li Kaiming, who was under the basket, suddenly jumped out like lightning, his long arms like a ghost in James's passing path. Then the pass deviated from the direction, and was turned around by Thompson at a 45-degree angle on the other side to get it. .
Seeing that the ball had been transferred, Li Kaiming immediately exerted force with his feet, and his powerful explosive power instantly led his body to rush out from the basket in the backcourt and sprint towards the frontcourt.
The Heat did not expect that the ball would be stolen, so Li Kaiming broke through the Heat's wall that had not yet had time to form with lightning speed. After reaching the frontcourt, he received a pass from Thompson and glided in the air. One-arm dunk!
This dunk lit up the mcI center and became the turning point of the second quarter.
In the subsequent games, James has been immersed in the referee's words and self-doubt, and he behaves like a completely different person on the court.
The offense was hesitant, not knowing when to play and when to pass.
On the defensive end, he was distracted at every turn, making Spoelstra jump on the sidelines.
Even the free throw opportunities that come to the goal are not grasped. Basically, it takes two free throws to score one...
Wade, who was sitting on the bench, and Spoelstra, who was standing next to him, both had a bad feeling in their hearts after seeing the familiar James...
Yes, this is the James in the 2011 Finals. When he fell into this state, the damage to the team was huge.
If you can't attack or defend, you'll make mistakes when you look back.
With James like this leading the team, the Heat are not far away from going fishing!
Fortunately, Spoelstra is a very flexible coach. Taking advantage of a dead ball, he immediately replaced James and let Wade come on to lead the team.
As the "soul" of the Heat, Haslem began to perform another of his functions, which was to provide psychological massage and counseling to James.
This behavior may seem a bit funny, but most teams really need such a mascot-like figure.
Without the threat of James' sudden points, the Wizards, led by Li Kaiming, came out firing in the second quarter, leading the Heat by 9 points 57-48 at halftime!
Li Kaiming played 22 minutes in the half and scored 18 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 blocks and 3 steals!
This statistic made Barkley in the commentary box unable to bear it any longer, "Lee isn't going to get a quadruple-double or anything like that in this game..."
