full court guidance

Chapter 157 Rocket vs. Jazz
Everyone knows that Jerry Sloan is a veteran coach, but presumably many people don't know that his own career is actually quite successful.

Although he played only 11 seasons, Sloan was selected to 2 All-Stars and 4 All-Defensive First Teams. His No. 4 jersey was retired by the Bulls.

Three years after retiring, he became the head coach of the Bulls and led the team to the playoffs in his second season.

In 1986, Sloan began to coach the Utah Jazz. He carefully studied the pick-and-roll tactics, thoroughly activated Karl Malone and John Stockton, and led the team to the NBA playoffs for 17 consecutive years and the winning percentage of the NBA regular season for 18 consecutive years. More than [-]%.

It can be said that he has studied the simplest pick-and-roll tactics to an unprecedented level, but this also greatly limits his coaching style.

Even after he announced his retirement from the coaching position, as long as his name is mentioned, the word "pick and roll" will inevitably come to the fans' minds.

After Karl Malone and Stockton retired, the Jazz briefly sank for a while, and Sloan quickly found the best candidate to continue his pick-and-roll tactics-Carlos Boozer, a second-round pick from the Cavaliers. Hall, and Deron Williams, who showed extraordinary strength in college.

Under his careful training, Deron and Boozer completed the run-in in just one season, and led the team to a good record of 50 wins this season.

Looking at the Rockets, after winning two championships, Yao Ming's strength has reached its peak, and the speed of improvement has begun to slow down. The teams in the league have also begun to conduct detailed research on him.

After all, he is the most dominant super center after O'Neal, and no one dares to ignore his influence on the court.

Just as everyone quickly learned about O'Neal's weakness in free throws, Yao Ming's weakness has also been thoroughly studied. His physical strength is not good enough, and his slow moving speed has become his biggest shortcoming.

However, there are not many teams that can make tactical arrangements for his shortcoming. The Rockets are also a strong defensive team, and it is impossible to allow opponents to attack their core inside.

Both Billups and Prince from the Pistons can form the first line of defense on the outside to help Yao Ming reduce the pressure on the inside.

Only the Jazz's pick-and-roll tactics are the most restrained against the Rockets.

The two sides played against each other in the regular season, and the Rockets were at a disadvantage with 1 win and 3 losses.

Jazz center Mehmet Okur is also a big man who likes to float outside and shoot. Coupled with the classic pick and roll of Carlos Boozer and Deron, Yao Ming has to leave the basket more, which makes him more vulnerable to small players. The impact of a small player is greatly reduced on the defensive end.

Sloan took advantage of the team's ability to restrain the Rockets and kept playing pick-and-roll tactics. Although Yao Ming had worked very hard, he still lost two games in a row in the away game.

In the first two games, Boozer's data was very impressive, averaging 28 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists per game, very comprehensive.

Yao Ming's statistics are actually not much inferior, but who made Boozer black and hard?

Of course the American media is going to blow Boozer.

As a yellow-skinned Chinese player, Yao Ming did not perform well on the court. Not only the domestic media raged, but the American media also fueled the flames, publicizing that Yao Ming is seriously overrated, and he won the championship twice.

Because the Pistons led by Tracy McGrady were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, it is difficult for the media to say that Tracy McGrady is the real thigh of the Rockets.

But they seem to have forgotten that almost at the same time, they were also saying that they were too late to take responsibility, that they couldn't lead the Warriors to win, and that they won the championship twice because they hugged Yao Ming's thigh.

Hehe, it's really a double standard that seriously slapped me in the face.

When Van Gundy was explaining the game between the Rockets and the Jazz, his position was completely on the side of the Rockets, and he explained all the adjustment strategies he could think of while explaining.

Then he regrettably found that he didn't have any good way to break the Jazz's pick-and-roll.

Can a strong team that can play 50 wins by relying on pick-and-roll tactics be so easy to deal with?

Rockets coach Tom Thibodeau's deadly manipulative way of employing people is indeed worthy of criticism, but his level is not low.

The reason why the Rockets can't beat the Jazz is entirely because of their star power forward David Lee!This guy's defense is still so bad, almost no improvement at all.

It's not that David Lee doesn't work hard, but God seems to have taken away his defensive talent. He often misses people inexplicably. It seems that he has formed a mutual explosion with Boozer in terms of statistics, but because Boozer I will interact more with my teammates, so the Jazz have more choices in offensive tactics and are more proactive.

After all, Thibodeau is just a rookie head coach, and he was a little undecided, so he asked Yao Ming to discuss it.

Yao Ming was also contemplating how to deal with the Jazz. When Late was in the Rockets, it was not his turn to think about such things, and Late would soon come up with a solution.

Hearing that Thibodeau wanted to win David Lee and put him on the bench, Yao Ming was really undecided.

After all, in the two games against the Jazz, David Lee's statistics were outstanding, averaging 25 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists per game, not much inferior to Boozer.

But after experiencing the experience of the finals, Yao Ming's ambition is not limited to leading the team to the playoffs, he also wants to taste the taste of the championship again and create an unprecedented dynasty for the Rockets.

In the end, Yao Ming decided to support Thibodeau, let the poor defensive David Lee lead the bench, and the short center Chuck Hayes cameo as a power forward.

Hayes has almost no offensive ability. Once he leaves the basket, he has no threat on the offensive end.

However, he has strength, movement speed, and a good defensive attitude. Although he is slightly shorter than Boozer, the impact is not great.

And letting him play can also share the pressure of Yao Ming, let Yao Ming put more energy on the basket, and let Hayes take care of the defensive end-in short, let Hayes do the dirty work.

This adjustment works very well. Boozer has weight and strength, but he is not a player who likes to confront. Hayes desperately entangled him, which greatly reduced his offensive power.

Yao Ming was able to concentrate on the offensive end, which allowed him to cut explosive data in the third game. He was in excellent form in this game, taking 24 shots, hitting 21 goals, and blasting 51 With monster-level data of 16 rebounds and 4 assists, he completely dominated the basket.

Although Okur's "soft guy" center play style that pulls out to shoot makes Yao Ming uncomfortable, he really can't effectively interfere with Yao Ming on the defensive end.

Yao Ming's dominant performance made the Jazz very afraid. In the fourth game, they chose to shrink the defense line, double-team Yao Ming and empty Chuck Hayes.

The second-year rookie Monta Ellis, who was acquired from the Warriors when the trade was late this year, made a sudden breakthrough in this game. He also felt hot, shot from inside and outside, and scored a career-record 41 points to help the Rockets. win.

In the battle of Tianwangshan, the Jazz players felt bad, and the effect of the pick-and-roll tactics was greatly reduced, and they were pulled by the Rockets in three games.

Then the Jazz defeated the Rockets and entered the series into the tiebreaker. They also enjoyed home court advantage-this made the Rockets fans very upset. Why didn't the damn zone protection rules be cancelled? Obviously, the Rockets should have the home court advantage.

The tie-break match between the two sides was very anxious, and when the point difference did not exceed 6 points, in order to ensure the offensive efficiency, the rhythm of both sides was very slow, and a classic defensive battle was staged, which made those who always complained that the current defensive quality of the league is not as good Former fans were hooked.

With only 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter of the game, the Jazz maintained a 3-point advantage and the Rockets fell into a tug-of-war.

At the last moment, Yao Ming showed a dream dance, tricked Okur's defense, and scored 2 points. Okur's action was quite rough, which was an obvious two plus one, but the referee didn't call it.

Then Yao Ming slapped the layup of Deron Williams who broke through with a big cap on the defensive end. The Rockets counterattacked quickly in the last 4 seconds. Billups, who had always been very low-key, showed his big heart. Finally The lore three-pointer at all times helped the Rockets successfully break into the second round of the playoffs.

Yao Ming was very dominant in this series, averaging 36 points and 14 rebounds per game, which can be called a monster.

Billups didn't show off the mountains and didn't leak water. He actually got a large double-double with an average of 20+10 per game, which was also quite unexpected.

Rookie Monta Ellis is not very stable. Sometimes he behaves very violently, like a superstar, and sometimes he is a super pitiful.

He doesn't seem to be happy to pass the ball, and often makes some [-]v[-] or even [-]v[-] moves.

The series between the Lakers and the Suns also reached a tie-break. This is a classic series in which a superstar challenges a whole team.

Kobe reduced the number of shots during the regular season and worked with Pau Gasol. After entering the playoffs, he started the full scoring mode. However, Pau Gasol did not have any advantage when facing Stoudemire. He was even suppressed by Stoudemire.

D'Antoni also didn't pay much attention to defense, which led to Kobe's violent performance in the series. He averaged 38 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists per game, but in the end the Suns relied on more balanced teamwork and Stoudemire and Nash The tacit understanding between them had the last laugh.

Kobe, who was eliminated in the first round, was very upset, but the media gave him a high evaluation, saying that he had tried his best, but his teammates were all CBA, otherwise this year's championship would not be known.

Of course, there are also discordant voices here. The famous Kohei commentator Taylor Wilcox listed a series of data to prove that Kobe’s ball possession rate in this series is super crazy, almost close to 50%. The biggest cancer that caused the Lakers to lose, if he is willing to trust his teammates like he was late, maybe the Lakers may have the possibility of defeating the Suns.

Anyway, after arguably the most intense first-round contest ever, the Western Conference playoff semifinal matchup list is out.

The Suns are against the Warriors, and the Rockets will be waiting for the challenge of the Nuggets who staged a miracle of black eight.

(End of this chapter)