Curry missed most of the season due to unexpected surgery, casting a shadow over the Clippers' prospects this season.
Even though Curry is only in his second year, his position in the team's tactics is already very important.
Last season, it was Curry's outstanding performance at the point guard position that allowed the Clippers to catch up with the last train of the playoffs.
On the night Curry completed his surgery and immediately signed a new contract, the Clippers played against the Dallas Mavericks at home.
The Mavericks can be said to be strong this season. In addition to renewing Dirk Nowitzki in the summer, Cuban reinforced Tyson Chandler at the center position, traded for Caron Butler at the third position, and added Stephenson at the second position.
In addition, Kidd, Haywood, Jason Terry and other good players are still on the team, and the Mavericks' overall strength has reached a higher level.
The Clippers, who lacked Curry, changed their starting lineup. Kirk Hinrich replaced Curry in the starting lineup and partnered with Baron Davis in the backcourt.
Without Curry, the Clippers' offensive style changed and completely slowed down.
Start making a fuss around the two inside points of Randolph and Gasol.
Attack in the low post, cooperate with the high and low posts, score and hit, and look for open shots.
Fans discovered at this time that the Clippers with Curry and the Clippers without Curry are completely different teams.
None of the other Clippers players have such a big impact, and without anyone, the change won't be particularly big.
Even if it's Zach Randolph, even without Randolph, Garfield can still be a pivot in the low post.
Without Gasgoo, Milicic can step up. Although his support is not very good, he can cover well.
Only Curry is unique and irreplaceable. He is a combination of Hamilton + Arenas on the court, which can inject a lot of vitality into the Clippers' offense and bring many possibilities.
The Clippers are missing an important piece, and some of the team's fundamental issues have yet to be resolved.
Regarding defensive issues, the Clippers still have insufficient response to small guards like Jason Terry and Chris Paul.
Not to mention Nowitzki, the 33-year-old is in excellent form as always this year and is difficult to limit.
Moreover, the Mavericks used Nowitzki's high pick-and-roll a lot in this game.
Repeated pick-and-rolls create opportunities for players like Terry, Kidd, and Butler on the outside who are good shooters.
This is different from the Portland Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers are similar to the Pistons in this game. They take the traditional approach of containing the inside and creating space for the outside.
The Mavericks made less use of Nowitzki's low-post containment power, but instead took advantage of Nowitzki's range and used a lot of pick-and-rolls.
Compared with the traditional rigid combination of inside and outside, this tactical routine of a large number of pick-and-roll combinations is more diverse and flexible.
Terry, Kidd, and even Barea coming off the bench can all control the ball independently after the pick-and-roll to make offensive choices.
Min Congda only watched half of the game on the sidelines and had a refreshing feeling. The Mavericks' offense has changed a lot compared to last season.
"Such an offense is really difficult to defend. It is difficult to crack tactically. If you really want to crack it, you can only crack it hard and rely on the players' personal strength to suppress it, or..."
After getting rid of Curry's worries, Min Congda became much calmer and less emotional when watching the game.
After all, the Mavericks had firmly suppressed the Clippers from the first quarter, leading the Clippers by 11 points at halftime.
It seems to be similar to the first game, but looking at the scene, you can tell that it is different from the game against the Trail Blazers.
Sure enough, in the third quarter, the counterattack that Clippers fans expected did not appear.
James Harden came off the bench to lead the second team's counterattack.
But facing the Mavericks' tacit zone defense, the Clippers really don't have many options.
The NBA has allowed zone defense for less than 10 years, and it has not been used many times in games.
Because zone defense requires a high degree of tacit understanding among players, and the NBA has three seconds of defense, which greatly weakens the power of zone defense.
NBA teams have a relatively high turnover of personnel, and it is very troublesome to practice zone defense during training.
The Mavericks' core lineup has been maintained for several years, and they are all experienced veterans.
So once the zone defense is used, the Clippers will have a hard time.
Mike Dunleavy missed Curry very much at this time.
If Curry is here, the Mavericks will suffer big losses if they use zone defense for such a long time.
Sure enough, you only know how important and valuable it is when you lose it.
Although Harden has very good organizational skills, breaking the zone defense requires a lot of experience and a very tacit cooperation with his teammates.
These two points are far from enough for the young Harden. In addition, without Curry as a partner, Harden always feels that something is missing.
When he was with the Thunder, Harden and Westbrook partnered up. It didn't really make much difference whether they had this partner or not.
Different from Curry, both of them are young people with high intelligence and smart game. They will learn from each other on the court, discuss with each other, and even compete with each other on some small details.
This kind of fun disappeared after just one and a half games, which made Harden very disappointed.
By the third quarter, the Clippers were already 15 points behind, and Harden had decided to find a Los Angeles heroine with a big butt to spar after the game to resolve the discomfort on the court.
The core players were absent and others were demoralized. In the end, the Clippers lost the game at home 100:91 with a 9-point disadvantage without much suspense.
Two consecutive losses this season.
After the game, the atmosphere in the Clippers' locker room was somber.
We lost and everyone was not very happy.
Dunleavy frowned and held an emergency meeting with the coaching staff.
They need to rearrange the team's tactics and personnel rotation.
According to Dunleavy's idea, they need to shorten the rotation appropriately.
Return to the interior-focused tactical strategy, strengthen defense, and improve team stability.
At this time, Min Congda came out and forced himself into the coaching staff meeting.
Min Congda asked Dunleavy: "Mike, let me ask you, what is the purpose of our team's game?"
Lao Deng still had to think about it, and Kim Hughes responded: "Everyone has a ball to play with!"
Min Congda pointed at Lao Jin, meaning that he was right and he would answer quickly.
"Although we lost Curry, we still have to stick to the strategy of everyone having the ball to play! Let more players come on the court and let more tactics come into play. Train our newcomers and truly make everyone have the ball to play. , to create a harmonious playing environment.”
The so-called lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.
Since last season, Min Congda has often emphasized the principle that everyone has the ball to play.
The coaching staff went from being disdainful at the beginning, to being skeptical, to later feeling that it made sense.
Now, Min Congda knows that if he mentions it, everyone's thinking will return to "everyone has a ball to play".
Even Dunleavy, who was the clearest in mind, nodded and said: "Smart, you are right. We still have to stick to the previous strategy and continue to develop new players so that everyone has a chance to play."
Min Congda smiled and said: "Old Deng, you have finally enlightened and can understand my thoughts."
(End of chapter)
