The match between the two sides is about to begin.
Steve Kerr took a deep breath, sat on the sidelines, took a glass of water from the assistant coach's hand and took a sip.
He wasn't thirsty, but he felt like he needed some water to calm his nerves.
The reason why Cole was nervous was because he knew Min Congda's strength, his tactical acumen and his ability to make surprise moves.
Looking at the league, Kerr thinks he can compete strategically with any head coach, including his teachers Popovich and Phil Jackson.
Only Min Congda, who had worked with him for two and a half years, knew how deep the water was and how terrifying it was to confront such a person.
But Cole also comforted himself in his heart, "It's a good thing to have a head-on confrontation with Smart. Since I don't know how deep he is, I can just test his depth and clear the fog on him."
Cole believes that although Min Congda is great, he is a bit confused. After all, his real coaching experience is very short.
Moreover, anyone who has been a coach knows that the coach is not so decisive for a team, especially on the spot. The main thing is to look at the players and the lineup.
No matter how sophisticated your tactics are, if the players don't execute them or execute them poorly, or if they execute them and fail to make a shot when the last opportunity comes, the coach can't do anything about it.
Is it possible that you can take off your suit and put it on yourself?
With such random thoughts in my mind, players from both sides have already appeared on the stage. Anthony Davis and Bogut are standing in the center of the hoop to jump the ball.
Davis, who is tall and long-armed and young with amazing bounce, touched the ball first and passed it to Leonard, giving the Clippers the first right to attack.
In a game, the first attack must be tactical, because a good tactical cooperation can quickly gather the morale of the whole team and find a sense of teamwork.
Everyone on the Warriors coaching staff looked at the situation on the court with wide eyes, especially Cole, who wanted to see what kind of tactics the Clippers would use at the start.
From his understanding, the Clippers mainly have two systems this season: the passing system and the mismatched offense.
The two systems represent two different styles of tactical thinking. Passing and cutting rely on screening, passing, and backdoors.
The fundamental purpose of mismatch is to produce mismatched singles. The Clippers are really awesome at combining these two sets of tactical ideas.
It can only be said that the Clippers have many talented people, and the player mobility is very low. Everyone works together all year round and can switch between various routines freely.
Leonard did not hand the ball to Curry or Harden. Instead, he controlled the ball for half the court and then handed the ball to Gasol at 45 degrees who was asking for the ball in the low post.
Cole frowned and thought, what is this? The center wants the ball in the low post for a single? Is this extremely ancient opening tactic the Clippers' appetizer today?
Gasol used his back to attack Bogut alone in the low post. To be honest, Gasol did not have an absolute advantage against Bogut. It was no problem for Gasol to defend Gasol one-on-one.
However, in this ball, Gasol was not deep in the position. It seemed that the isolation was fake and the support was real.
Curry and Harden on the outside are ready to move on the weak side, and Lillard and Thompson are keeping a close eye on them.
At this time, Gasol suddenly dropped the ball, pushed Bogut with his back, squeezed in two steps, turned around, walked to the baseline, and shot with a hook.
Bogut's chassis was very solid, and Gasol did not squeeze out enough space to take the shot. His hook shot was not at the level of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Duncan, and the shot failed to hit.
But under the basket, Green did not get stuck in position. Anthony Davis made a tip-in and the second attack was successful. The Clippers led 2:0 at the beginning.
The Clippers started with a somewhat lucky second attack and scored the first point of the game.
It seems that this offensive strategy is somewhat incompatible with the smart, fast, and invincible Clippers offense.
Cole thought to himself, "Is this the strategy of Smart as the new coach? Or..."
In the current league, the Twin Towers have basically been eliminated, and the first team to eliminate the Twin Towers was the Clippers.
But just when other teams are using one senior and four juniors, other teams may have forgotten that the Clippers' starting lineup has always been a pair of powerful inside players.
From Gasol + Randolph before, to Gasol + Anthony Davis now, there will be Jokic + Anthony Davis in the future...
In fact, the Clippers' main tactical style has always been biased towards the outside, towards shooting, towards three-pointers and speed, but they have never relaxed their construction of the inside.
Because the basic law of basketball has never changed: the closer to the basket, the easier it is to score.
The Clippers have relied on inside players to save the situation at critical moments over the years, such as Zach Randolph, who turned the tide in the 2012 Finals.
Now that he is on the bench, he can still contribute stable low-post scoring when needed.
Thinking of this, Cole didn't dare to be careless. He thought Min Congda's arrangement would never be that simple.
The Warriors' offense fully implemented Cole's tactical intentions, passing and cutting, a lot of screens, and completely emptying the inside.
It's just that Durant is absent tonight due to injury, so the high-ranking player changes from James to Green.
The Warriors' opening tactic was a hand-to-hand screen between Green and Lillard, with Thompson slipping through the baseline and James cutting into the basket from the center before coming out to take away the defense.
At this time, the Clippers basket was empty. The high threat of Thompson and James in the offense forced the defender to follow suit.
Then Bogut came out to set a pick-and-roll screen for Lillard. Lillard accelerated and used Bogut's solid pick-and-roll to go straight to the basket from the center for a layup!
This was a very simple empty basket opportunity, but just when Lillard thought he could easily make a layup, a shadow came from behind...
Anthony Davis blocked Lillard's layup with a big block from behind!
Leonard grabbed the ball and handed it to Harden, and the Clippers launched a counterattack.
Harden passed a long pass to Curry. Curry caught the ball and went straight to the basket. He switched hands for a layup to avoid James' block, and hit the board!
The Warriors wanted to play a quick answer-ball. Green served quickly. James quickly rushed forward with the ball, but was blocked by Leonard and slowed down.
James carried Leonard and Gasol to the basket, but the throw was blocked again by Anthony Davis who came to help defend!
James fell heavily to the ground, stood up and spread his hands towards the referee, indicating that the Clippers' defense had committed a foul.
However, the referee did not blow the whistle, and although the scene was booed, the Clippers still had the right to attack.
The ball was still given to Leonard, who handed the ball to Gasol in the low post at 45 degrees.
It's really weird. The Clippers started the game by using the most traditional low-post center as a vanguard tactic.
But what tactics you use is not the most important. Whether you can score or not is the first priority.
This time the Clippers made continuous interspersed runs. Anthony Davis pretended to come out to cover Curry, but suddenly turned around and cut to the basket.
Gasol made a pass inside, and Anthony Davis caught the ball and made a layup!
The Clippers beat the Warriors 6-0 at the beginning. Cole stood up and sat down again. He wanted to call a timeout, but he felt that if he paused so quickly, wouldn't it mean that his skills were inferior to others?
"Smart focused on the inside at the beginning. This was a routine used by Randolph when he started in the past. It has been used less in the past two years. According to common sense, they start hard in the inside, and they will speed up soon after opening the game. Use players' personal abilities to achieve high efficiency. Except for our Warriors, no team in the league can match the offensive efficiency of the Clippers, and we will not be afraid of you."
Based on previous experience and two meetings with the Clippers this season, Cole believes that this situation will not last long.
The Clippers will soon make tactical adjustments, playing one big and four small, with Curry and Harden as the core of the offense. Then the Warriors' defense will be able to play its role.
With the entire league moving toward smaller and faster teams, the Warriors' perimeter defensive resources are extremely overflowing, even stronger than the Clippers' three-quarter forward.
Especially after Green's point was activated by Steve Kerr, the Warriors' perimeter defensive hardness and critical moment defensive intensity have reached the top of the league, and can withstand the Clippers' terrifying perimeter firepower.
Then, with support from the high post, he made a beautiful pass without looking at anyone, and passed it directly to Klay Thompson. Thompson caught the ball and made a throw over Harden, and the Warriors scored the first point.
The Clippers immediately chased the Warriors, passing three and two passes to Curry in the frontcourt. Curry caught the ball and faced Lillard, took one step outside the three-point line and threw it!
Accurate three-pointer!
The Clippers' offensive efficiency at the start was astonishingly high.
At this time, Cole couldn't sit still. He had to admit that even if he didn't admit it, the opening arrangement was suppressed!
The Warriors called a timeout and the players returned to the bench.
"We played too loosely and aggressively at the beginning, we need some aggression!"
Kerr thought the players were playing loose, but James didn't think so.
"It's not a matter of looseness. Our strategy was wrong. Their defense was very tight!"
"They played differently than they did in previous games."
“The rhythm is different, and I feel that way too.”
Other players also spoke out, which is a big difference between Cole and Mark Jackson.
Under Mark Jackson, everyone has to listen to Jackson, and the coach is the only brains.
And Cole pays more attention to the players' ideas. He allows the players to express their opinions and opinions every time out.
After all, the players are playing on the court and the experience is more intuitive.
Sometimes when people off the court watch, they always think, "Why not play like this?" and "Why can't this kind of shot go in?"
Only by actually playing on the court and facing the opponent's strategy can you know why this is the case.
Sometimes the coach may not always understand. He needs to review the game after the game, watch the video, and discuss it after the game to know the reason.
Some complaints from the Warriors players made Cole feel that he must have fallen into a trap set by the Clippers.
It is obvious from the few attacks just now that when the Clippers were in a positional battle, the ball almost never passed the hands of Curry and Harden. This is very abnormal.
Harden and Curry actually consume a lot of the Warriors' defensive resources, especially Curry. Lillard can't guard him one-on-one, and everyone else has to distract their attention from Curry.
But Curry didn't even catch the ball in the opening position battle. In the second half, Leonard dribbled the ball. After passing it to Gasol, Curry ran without the ball, and the finisher was Gasol or Davis.
Curry and Harden really participate in the offense in quick counterattacks, attacking the basket and shooting three-pointers from the outside.
To put it simply, this is using Leonard as a point guard and Curry and Harden as forwards. The rhythm is definitely different from the past.
It's just that Cole didn't know that this was the Clippers' special strategy at the start? Or is it a strategy that will be used throughout the game?
Cole suddenly felt like he couldn't see through Smart. He really couldn't see through him. He was a little panicked for a moment.
The timeout was almost over, but Cole still didn't make any directional adjustments. He just reminded the players to concentrate and slow down to increase their success rate.
This timeout is basically for players to take a break, drink water and take a breath.
After the players reappeared, Cole cursed in his mind: "What's going on? Why are you so panicked? Calm down and think about how to deal with it..."
(End of chapter)
