After defeating the Warriors with a defensive choke, the Clippers got a valuable 3 days of rest.
Four games in five days makes the Clippers, who have plenty of personnel rotation, equally exhausted. The Clippers are constrained by sharing the Staples Center with the Lakers, so they often suffer in terms of schedule.
There are always back-to-back away games, consecutive back-to-back games, and long road trips.
After all, there is only one arena, which is shared by several professional teams in Los Angeles. It also holds boxing matches, concerts and various activities. It is quite good to be able to arrange the schedule. This is a technical job.
Under this circumstance, the Clippers' new Huawei Center is particularly important and valuable. Once the center is completed, the Clippers will have their own independent competition venue.
The schedule can be more relaxed, giving players more even time to rest and adjust. There is no need to play crazy games for a period of time, and then take a break for several days in between.
But for Mike Malone, these three days are a good opportunity to spend a large amount of time continuously participating in team training and tactical research.
The potential of the Clippers' lineup makes Mike Malone eager to get started. This guy is a workaholic. He locks himself in the video analysis room of the training center and ponders over the Clippers' games this season, especially paying attention to observing the players. The details of their defense.
If offense relies on talent, imagination, flashes of inspiration and superior skills, then defense relies on finding the devil in the details.
In a top basketball game with high-speed confrontation like the NBA, a 0.1-second flash in the defense may cause your defense to be out of position, unable to keep up with the opponent's offensive pace, and then cause the entire defense to collapse.
Therefore, excellent offensive coaches often have wild and extroverted personalities.
And good defensive coaches are mostly obsessive-compulsive and have a strong obsession with details.
A defensive maniac like Larry Brown uses a ruler to measure the distance and movement of players on the field, and he is very meticulous about it.
Mike Malone also has this habit of pursuing details. He used video to find problems in the team's defense bit by bit and recorded them.
In just two days, Mike Malone has written two entire notebooks, edited more than ten hours of video, and then given it to Tyronn Lue for viewing.
Tyronn Lue briefly looked through it and said without saying anything more: "The team's defense will be left to you. I will squeeze enough training session time for you."
Director Lu is well versed in Min Congda’s management methods and leaves professional matters to professionals!
As the team's head coach, he mainly plays a role in stabilizing military morale and coordinating distribution.
Cole left, and Malone came again. One was responsible for offense and the other was responsible for defense.
And I, Tyronn Lue, am the team’s spiritual pump!
Mr. Smart is really far-sighted and arranges everything perfectly. He is worthy of being the best general manager in the league and the god of NBA management!
Tyronn Lue has already praised Min Congda to the sky in his heart, but Min Congda does not know that further evolution is taking place within the Clippers.
Instead, he pays more attention to the situation of other teams, such as the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Miami Heat.
After Cole went to the Cavaliers, unlike Malone when he came to the Clippers, his role in the Cavaliers was immediate.
In a short period of time, the Cavaliers' combat effectiveness was immediately liberated, and the Cavaliers' team style also changed from the previous defensive side to the offensive side.
The biggest change came from LeBron James. After Cole complained endlessly about tormenting him by asking him to play the fifth position, James finally accepted to become the Cavaliers' starting No. 4 position.
He reduced his ball-holding offense and changed from a ball-holding first passer to a setter + terminator role.
Such a change is of course painful. It has been 10 years since James entered the league in 2003.
He has not been baptized in college basketball because his physical fitness is too good and his vision is outstanding. He has always played with the ball and one passer.
When he first entered the league, the Cavaliers took him in their hands and let him play the No. 1 position. With him as the absolute core, he was given the ball.
The advantage of playing this way is that James has quickly gained ground in the areas he is good at, and his experience and skills have rapidly improved.
When you look at the entire NBA history, that moment when you hold the ball and break through for a layup is top-notch, with an extremely high success rate.
The disadvantage is that in those areas where he is not very good at, there is almost no progress. It is okay to stay at the same place, and maybe even regress.
Although in the NBA you can achieve success all over the world with one move, but if you want to win the championship and become the best in history, you must be different from ordinary players and have higher requirements.
Steve Kerr put forward higher demands on James. He was a little unconvinced at first, but Kerr is a tough and skillful man.
He is not Mike Brown. He will only pamper James and let James stay and play in his comfort zone.
And Cole also has a very strong backing, that is Min Congda.
During December, James would call Min Congda from time to time to complain.
He said that after Cole came, he had to work harder to play and always had to do things he was not good at.
Not to mention the waste of physical energy, his statistics will continue to decline, his shooting percentage will decline, and even the high-level statistics that he has been dominating the league have begun to decline.
Min Congda asked him at that time, do you want data or a championship?
James hesitated for a while and said he wanted both.
Min Congda angrily scolded James on the phone.
After this scolding, coupled with the Cavaliers' better and better record, James gradually accepted this setting.
Steve Kerr also uses several methods. You want him to play the fourth position, don't you? Then you might as well play the fifth position.
The fifth position is more strenuous than the fourth position, so playing the fourth position makes it much more comfortable.
Steve Kerr usually compares Jordan to James.
It is said that when Phil Jackson came to the Bulls, he asked Jordan the same way.
Let Jordan hold the ball less and learn to share the ball more with his teammates.
James said I share the ball. I have a lot of assists every game.
Cole refuted him, sharing the ball and assisting are two different things.
In short, mentioning Jordan still works.
Because James has had his eyes on Jordan since he entered the league.
Not only is he staring at Jordan, but the Nike company behind him is also staring at Jordan.
Nike very much hopes that there will be a second Michael Jordan to continue the legend of Nike.
As Cole gradually took the initiative with the Cavaliers and readjusted tactics and play styles according to his own ideas, the Cavaliers played a very good record in December and January, soaring from the previous fourth and fifth positions in the Eastern Conference. , came to second place in the Eastern Conference.
The first place in the Eastern Conference is currently firmly controlled by the star-studded Miami Heat.
The South Coast Galaxy Battleship's state at the beginning of the season was not what people imagined. It was directly devastating and invincible in the league.
They lost some games, especially to some mid-range teams, which dimmed the Heat's star a lot.
It can also be seen from the Heat's performance that it is never easy for superstars to successfully team up.
Thinking back to the beginning, the Lakers' F4 failed, Payton did not integrate into the team from beginning to end, and Malone's injury had a huge impact.
The Celtics' Big Three have achieved unprecedented success because the three of them are a perfect match and the Celtics' tactical system is well constructed.
Further away, Barkley joined the Rockets. Although he failed in the championship, he mainly lost due to injuries.
In the 1996-1997 season, before Charles Barkley was absent due to injury, the Houston Rockets had a record of 21 wins and 2 losses in the first two months, which could be said to be sweeping the league.
The problems faced by the Heat may be more complicated than those of the Lakers and Rockets.
Nash and Howard are two very special players. One is only offensive but not defensive, and the other is very defensive and lame in offense.
Fortunately, Nash is the point guard and Howard is the center. If the point guard is not good at defense, others can make up for it; if the center is not good at offense, it does not matter in this era.
At the same time, one of Nash and Howard is older, and the other has lost weight due to back injuries. The Heat's Galaxy Battleship is far from being as luxurious as it looks. Instead, it is riddled with holes. Coaches need to recombine these flawed but talented parts. stand up.
The outside world has always expected Pat Riley to return to the coaching staff and use his qualifications, iron blood and wisdom to knead this star-studded lineup like he did in the 2006 season.
But after two months of playing this season, Riley has never made any moves or thoughts in this regard. On the contrary, when the Heat had a poor record at the beginning of the season, he stood up several times to support Spoelskola.
The pressure on Spoelscola's shoulders is of course very, very heavy. Riley's support for him is both support and a spur. He must find a way out for this Heat.
As one of the fans of NBA-Batman, Spoelscola has quietly absorbed a lot of nutrition from NBA-Batman's blog during this period.
Perhaps because the composition of the Heat's Galaxy Battleship attracted a large portion of public opinion traffic, there were many articles about the Heat on blogs in November and December.
Professional coaches like Spoelstra basically don't read some analysis and commentary online. After all, the level is not very good. Only NBA-Batman is a must-see.
In fact, not only Spoelstra, but also all coaches in the league, who are younger and still working hard to learn and improve, all read the NBA-Batman commentary column.
Previously, NBA-Batman started by posting news in advance and posting various gossips, attracting many ordinary fans.
Later people realized that the football commentary blog associated with it was the essence, and each article had very in-depth insights.
These opinions are not superficial comments like a running account, or just an analysis of player performance. After reading it, it will be the same as not watching it.
These articles will accurately poke at some of the team's key issues and put forward some very thoughtful ideas, and even some thinking that leads the trend of the times.
Some people say that the two articles on NBA-Batman ushered in the offensive pick-and-roll era in the NBA. The overall thinking of the league later was to reform and game around "space-ball rights".
People have different opinions about the people behind NBA-Batman, and most of them agree that there is actually a team behind NBA-Batman.
It is most likely a sports think tank with a group of relevant experts, video analysts, and data analysts to conduct relevant research and influence the direction of the entire league.
The investigation team cooperating with the alliance and the FBI has also been conducting investigations. Unfortunately, there has been no clue and it has gradually been forgotten.
Spoelstra continuously absorbed nutrients from these articles, looked for inspiration, and then experimented in the game, and finally found a system suitable for the current Heat.
A dual-core system with Wade Howard as the defensive core and Nash + Bosh as the offensive core.
The specific tactics are numerous and complex, but the basic ideas are as follows:
First, reduce Howard's role in the offense.
This is the biggest and most important decision that Spoelstra has made after studying, practicing, and discussing with the coaching staff and Riley.
Stars like Howard want to build themselves into low-post monsters. Only in this way can they occupy a place in the ranking of historical super centers.
Unfortunately, no matter from the perspective of personal ability or current trends, letting Howard play alone in the low post is a practice that is harmful to the offense.
Spoelstra withstood the pressure and persuaded Howard together with Riley to devote all his energy to defense. In offense, he was only responsible for piecemeal play, eating cakes, grabbing offensive rebounds, and doing pick-and-rolls.
Second, design the high-post pick-and-roll cooperation between Nash and Bosh as the team's core tactic to further enhance Bosh's tactical status.
Third, Wade has gradually shifted from the core position of offense and defense to the position of all-rounder and attacker at critical moments, weakening his ball rights.
Fourth, Ray Allen is no longer simply a substitute sixth man, but the team's key outside three-point tactical point. Many offensive tactics are designed around Ray Allen.
Fifth, abandon the high-energy-consuming extreme perimeter pressure defense and make good use of Howard's rim-protecting deterrent to reduce the pressure on perimeter defenders and make the team's defense more balanced inside and outside.
A series of integrations and changes in the team have gradually brought the Heat to life, and starting in December, when the Clippers ended their unbeaten run, the Heat started their winning streak.
Through 15 games in December, the Miami Heat went 14-1, including a 10-game winning streak, replacing the Clippers, which made the entire league tremble and made people feel unbeatable for a while.
Spoelstra saw that the team's record was getting better and better, and the system was gradually stabilizing, and he was naturally relieved, but he also knew that this season had just begun.
The NBA regular season is too long. November and December are just appetizers, with only one third of it having passed.
Time has arrived in 2013, the season is gradually entering the middle period, and various tests will follow, especially injuries, which are the fatal injury to many superstar teams.
Spoelstra must strike a balance between record and injuries at this time. The Heat are a team that trains hard, which is a great test for the players' bodies.
For this reason, Spoelstra took the initiative to leave a message on NBA-Batman's blog, hoping to get some advice. If the other person was an individual, he would like to invite this person to be an assistant coach with the Heat.
Spoelstra isn't the first to do this, nor will he be the last, nor will he be the only one to go without a response.
Because how would they know that behind NBA-Batman is Clippers general manager Min Congda?
(End of chapter)
