In the game between the Lakers and Timberwolves, the five players who played were:
Eddie Jones at No. 3, center Eldon Campbell at No. 5, Nick Van Exel at No. 1, Rick Fox at No. 2/3, and Ronaldo at the swing position No. 3/4. Porter Horry (206cm/100kg, 11th overall pick in the first round of 1992).
Among these players, they are basically old acquaintances of martial arts. Except for Robert Horry, who is a little unfamiliar with him, the other players have an impression of martial arts.
For the Timberwolves, in addition to the four fixed combinations of Tom, Wu Dao, Garnett and Marbury, the other starting player is young Ben Wallace.
Coach Philip also dares to use new players. Cherokee Parks and Stanley Roberts, two players that the team originally relied on, have now had their playing time reduced by Ben Wallace, which is more or less emotional. of.
It's a pity that their performance has always been mediocre, and they may not be doing well in the market. Therefore, the two of them can only discuss in their hearts about Coach Philip's approach.
The NBA is such a place. A new generation replaces an old one. If you want to avoid being easily eliminated by the team, you need to perform well, perform a performance that no one can ignore, and use your personal strength to gain recognition from the fans.
For players, the fan base can sometimes sway the team management's decision-making.
"Beep——"
As the whistle blew, the basketball was thrown into the air by the referee. The Timberwolves, Wallace and the Lakers' Eldon Campbell jumped up and reached out to slap the basketball.
Although Elden Campbell is 211cm tall, this is not an absolute advantage compared to Wallace.
This time, Wallace came from behind for the jump ball. The moment Eldon Campbell clicked on the basketball, his hand quickly moved under the basketball.
The basketball was spinning and falling above the heads of Elden Campbell and Wallace, with no obvious tendency.
Wallace is slightly shorter and has outstanding physical talent. He quickly takes off with a second bounce and points the ball toward the backcourt.
Marbury caught the basketball and glanced at Wallace in surprise. He didn't expect that Wallace actually jumped for the ball while competing with Eldon Campbell.
In Marbury's eyes, Wallace is a rookie player who can't do anything. Except for the fact that defense can make him look twice, any other ability is not worth mentioning.
However, after Marbury got the ball, he just glanced at Wallace, and then quickly advanced towards the frontcourt with the ball.
In NBA games, the victory or defeat of the jump ball is critical, but it is not critical either.
Everyone is the starter in both quarters. Apart from affecting the team's momentum, the jump ball actually has no more impact.
And for a mature team like the Lakers, want to influence the opponent's momentum by jumping? That's really overthinking.
The Lakers players quickly returned to the court to defend. Their defense stood firm and adopted a 1 inside and 4 outside defensive position. On the right side of the court, which is the side where Wu Dao ran, the Lakers had two players. , respectively Robert Horry and Rick Fox.
The one standing in front of Wu Dao is Robert Horry, who is of outstanding height. Rick Fox, who is slightly shorter in height, is positioned closer to the inside, standing on the extension line to the side of the free throw line, and Wu Dao. Robert Horry in front of him was only a few steps away.
It can be seen that when Wu Dao rushes forward with the ball, Rick Fox, who is slightly behind, can use his mobility to defend immediately and slow down Wu Dao's offensive rhythm.
On the other side, Eddie Jones is guarding the Timberwolves' Tom alone, while the Lakers' inside line is guarded only by Elden Campbell.
As the Timberwolves play more and more games this season, more and more Western Conference teams have paid more attention to the Timberwolves and have carefully analyzed the Timberwolves as a team.
Regarding the Timberwolves' technical and tactical aspects, they have obviously improved compared to before.
The Timberwolves' interior offensive firepower has always been a relatively big problem.
It's true that Garnett is an excellent inside player. Over time, he can even become a "superstar" in the league. In fact, if it hadn't been for the emergence of martial arts, Garnett would have received a slightly lower contract than O'Neal in this era, becoming a topical player that triggered the league's shutdown.
But Garnett, the giant inside, is a little different from most of the giants in the inside. His inside offensive power is actually not so-called dominance.
Whether compared with the top four centers in this era, or compared with O'Neal who is entering his prime, even Garnett in his prime is not as good as these people in terms of offense.
Even in the future, if Garnett is compared with Yao Ming or Nowitzki, Garnett's performance on the offensive end always seems to lack some kind of iconic and unsolvable offensive skills that can make the difference.
O'Neal's strength is combined with his innate jumping; Yao Ming's height and tonnage are combined with a small hook and fadeaway; Nowitzki's precise shooting is combined with his iconic Golden Rooster independence.
On the offensive end, these players are often able to digest a large number of shots near the basket and in the mid-range.
But Garnett is not very good, or in other words, Garnett performs in the low post and does not have terrifying dominance.
The Lakers' current defense against the Timberwolves also focuses on martial arts on the outside. Garnett on the inside is actually a breakthrough in the Lakers' skills and tactics.
Martial arts are different from Garnett's. His offense can really kill people!
"Snapped!!"
On the court, Marbury noticed a gap in the Lakers' defense. He passed the ball to the low post and passed it to Garnett. He made a feint to the left, then quickly turned around, held the ball with his right hand and sent the ball to the basket.
His flexible steps around the basket are quite eye-catching.
However, as soon as the basketball was released, Elden Campbell, who was guarding him, quickly jumped back and pointed directly at the basketball. The basketball flying toward the basket also hit the edge of the basket and bounced back. The flying basketball was quickly caught by Elden Campbell, and then quickly thrown to the basket who was going to return to the basket to help grab the board and defend. Eddie Jones.
The offense failed, and the Timberwolves began to retreat quickly. After several passes, the basketball was also in the hands of Nick Van Exel. This Lakers guard who entered the league in 1993 can now be called a veteran, carrying the ball steadily. The ball crossed the center line.
Entering the frontcourt, Eddie Jones immediately turned around without the ball, passed over Tom who was guarding him, and quickly cut inside. Nick Van Exel also noticed the actions of his teammates, and sent the ball to the empty space with both hands. Cut in the hands of Eddie Jones.
The latter caught the ball near the baseline, quickly got to the basket, passed Wallace after a beat, and then sent the ball into the basket with a reverse basket.
Eddie Jones' outstanding ability to attack the basket allowed the Lakers to score the first two points.
After scoring the goal, Eddie Jones started to return to defense expressionlessly, looking like a cold-faced killer. Wallace went to the baseline to serve without saying a word, and then quickly passed Marbury and ran towards the frontcourt. go.
In the Timberwolves' second attack, Marbury did not pass the ball to his teammates. Instead, he used his body at the top of the arc to break through Nick Van Exel's defense. After breaking through Nick Van Exel's defense, Marbury grabbed the ball with one hand, stepped forward and scored easily.
The Lakers' interior is very open. Once players can successfully break into the interior, there will be a relatively large space for them to play.
After the alternation of offense and defense, the Lakers found Eddie Jones again on the offensive end. This time, although Eddie Jones failed to score the ball after getting rid of the defensive player's emergency stop jumper, Elden Campbell under the basket But it hit the rebound, giving Eddie Jones a second chance to take a shot.
After Eddie Jones activated Tom with a fake move, he quickly dribbled the ball into the basket. He avoided Garnett's defense with a pull rod and sent the ball into the basket.
The Lakers' two offenses have obvious biases. Without O'Neal, the offensive end of the Lakers is led by Eddie Jones.
After the Lakers scored, the Timberwolves quickly launched a counterattack.
Marbury felt that Wu Dao was too compressed. "It is well known" that he is a very "reasonable" person in playing basketball and would not give up "reasonableness" just because Wu Dao has the title of "team boss".
He felt that his chances with other teammates were better than those of martial arts, so after asking Garnett to come up for the pick-and-roll, Marbury quickly dropped the ball and rushed forward. After realizing that Elden Campbell was actually chasing him, he passed the ball behind his back. Gave it to the high-ranking Garnett.
Facing Nick Van Exel, who was about 185cm tall, Garnett took a strong shot against Nick Van Exel's defense.
"Dang~~~"
As the sound of basketball hammering sounded, the rebound was picked off by Elden Campbell.
In the next few rounds, Wu Dao actually couldn't get the ball at all. Marbury used sudden points and screens to rush forward, fully mobilizing Tom and Garnett.
These three players actually formed the Timberwolves' offensive triangle, playing team basketball with a tacit understanding.
As for martial arts, at this moment, he was actually outside the team's offensive system.
In this regard, Wu Dao didn't say anything. His teammates played pretty well. Although there were occasional struggles, it has to be admitted that Marbury's connection made the Timberwolves' basketball run smoother.
Whether it is Marbury, Tom or Garnett, when the three of them take action, they can all be counted as opportunities. In terms of creating scoring opportunities, Marbury has no problem at all.
The three players did not play hard, and there was no difficult-looking goal that looked gorgeous, but it was this kind of attack that showed the basic skills of the players.
As for the Lakers, Eddie Jones relies on his personal abilities to help the team score points frequently. Similarly, Rick Fox often takes shots.
Wallace didn't force Rick Fox's shooting very tightly. He focused more on protecting the rim and filling in for Tom.
Eddie Jones has made great progress compared to the first time the Lakers met him. Tom couldn't prevent the opponent's sudden advance when facing him. Tom's pace obviously slowed down.
I don't know if it's because he's out of shape today or because he's been slacking off and playing a little crazy these days. The Timberwolves have performed well this season, and the players' mentality will inevitably become different.
Tom himself is not a peaceful person, or in other words, there are not many peaceful players in the NBA. During the regular season, the team does not have any high-intensity training at all. Things like staying in shape require players to be conscious.
Players like Jordan and Rodman who played wildly the day before and did not affect their performance the next day are, after all, very few.
After the first quarter, Wu Dao only had three shooting opportunities and scored 5 points.
As for the Timberwolves, they tied with the opponent at 24:24.
Garnett, Tom, Marbury and others all scored, and Ben Wallace, as expected, scored 0 points again. He seemed to be quite "firm" in his positioning and did not respond to changes in the situation on the field. And changes occur.
Even if he catches the ball, as long as Campbell on the Lakers side shows signs of blocking shots, Wallace will choose to release the ball.
The game situation is not a disadvantage, and overall, Coach Philip can accept it.
The Timberwolves' offensive rhythm was actually quite smooth, but Tom and the others were a little less efficient and wasted some shots.
However, players' competitive status will have ups and downs, which is normal. Naturally, Philip will not say much on this issue. He just asks the players to adjust as much as possible when taking action.
Regarding Wu Dao, who had few chances to make a move, Philip also enthusiastically patted Wu Dao on the back, said some nice words, and flattered Wu Dao: "Wu Dao, you didn't get the ball many times in the first quarter, don't worry about it."
"The Lakers put their defense on you."
"It is because of your brilliance that the other players have enough space to play."
"Marbury's breakthrough points are actually very good, I think you can see that."
"They just throw less in these games, and the feeling is better if they throw more."
Wu Dao didn't care about the behavior of weakening his own ball rights. He smiled and said:
"Coach, you know me."
"I actually don't care about my personal data at all, I just want to win."
When it comes to martial arts, Phillip actually doesn't believe a word of it. He doesn't know about others, so how can he not know about martial arts? He had been exposed to martial arts during the ABCD training camp.
The sentence that he remembers most about martial arts is "If the team's victory is not because of my existence, it will be meaningless!"
Of course, that’s what he thought in his heart, but on his face, Phillip still nodded and said with a smile:
"Yeah! I understand you."
"Don't take Michael's words to heart."
"If the opportunity is right, Marbury will not ignore you!"
(End of chapter)
