Junior Basketball says

Chapter 388 Starting From Inside

After arriving in Minnesota, the entire Heat team did not start training immediately, but went to the hotel to rest.In their view, defeating the Timberwolves is an easy task. With their strength, they should be crushable. At this time, training is not important, as long as they can ensure that they can enter the finals in the best physical condition.

In the hotel room, Heat head coach Spoelstra looked very relaxed. If it was the Spurs, he might be a little nervous, but now their opponent is the Timberwolves. Can the so-called dark horse stop the continuous impact of the Big Three?
In Spoelstra's view, the Timberwolves, a dark polo team, have nothing to fear. Anyway, they have James, Wade and Bosh. After passing the Celtics, he does not believe that there are still others in the league. What team can stop them. A 4-0 sweep may not be shown, but 4-1 or 4-2 is entirely possible, which is a manifestation of strength.

Time soon came to the day of the game, and the Target Center was packed with people. Almost all fans turned their attention to this arena. Everyone wanted to know whether the Heat, with the Big Three, was stronger, or the young Timberwolves. The newborn calves of the Wei army are not afraid of tigers.Of course, 80.00% of those who come here to watch the game are die-hard Timberwolves supporters.

For them, the Heat are strong, but as a native of Minnesota, supporting the Timberwolves is something that does not need to be considered at all.The Big Three of the Heat are of course very famous, but in the target center, no one will applaud and cheer for them. There are a lot of deafening boos, especially James who gets the most, and his already dark face has become even darker. .

But the booing was nothing to the long-battled Heat Big Three, and soon their faces returned to normal.In this game, Spoelstra did not plan to change the team's starting lineup. Chalmers and Wade were still paired in the backcourt. James played small forward. Haslem sits under the basket.

Originally, Bosh should be allowed to play the starting center, but Spoelstra prefers to let the Big Three appear at the same time to complete the fit at the critical moment, and Bosh's main task in the first three quarters is to lead the bench.Compared with Bosh, Haslem has a better ability to protect the basket. From this aspect, he is the inside player that the Heat's starting lineup needs most.

However, the Heat's lineup is strong and strong, but the average height is too short.Their starting power forward Battier swings upwards from the third position. He is only 2.03 meters tall. Haslem is even a pocket-sized insider. His height is also 2.03 meters. The root cause of interest.As for the Timberwolves' starting inside combination, Love is 2.08 meters tall and Jordan is 2.11 meters tall, which can be said to be completely overwhelming in terms of height.

Seeing the Heat's starting lineup, McHale's eyes lit up. Taking advantage of a few minutes before the start of the game, he called everyone to his side and said loudly: "We have an absolute height advantage in the interior, so I ask the interior players to If you want to catch more balls, start from the basket first, and open up the situation through pick-and-roll attacks and offenses with the ball, do you understand?"

"Understood!" Everyone in the Timberwolves shouted loudly, and they also saw the flaws in the Heat's starting lineup.Now that the head coach has put forward a clear request, they can implement it. Anyway, they all have confidence in the team's inside core Love.

Love is also very excited. In the last round against the Spurs, his brilliance was completely overshadowed by Xu Hao. Except for the last two games where his data reached a normal level, the other few games basically focused on the inside and Duncan. Melee.But now, the opportunity to perform meritorious deeds has fallen on his head, as long as there are no moths, isn't it easy to catch?
At the beginning of the game, Jordan helped the Timberwolves win the first wave of offensive possession by virtue of his absolute height advantage.Originally, Xu Hao wanted to repeat the old tricks and caught the Heat by surprise. He didn't expect the opponent's retreat speed to be very fast, so he could only play positional warfare.He simply handed the ball to Rubio to organize, and he ran straight to the Heat's half, preparing to open up space.

With Rubio, Xu Hao and Korver three shooters on the perimeter, the Heat didn't dare to shrink the line of defense.Rubio is lucky to say that Xu Hao and Korver are ruthless people who shoot three-pointers without blinking. If you shrink to protect the basket, they will teach you to be a man every minute.What else can I do?We can only defend according to man-to-man first, which gives Love a chance.

With Haslem stuck behind him, Love occupied a good position and Rubio easily lobbed the ball into his hands.It is undeniable that Haslem's defense is very tough, but this does not mean that he can guard Love.After getting the ball, Love kept shaking his back, turned around and passed Haslem, and easily succeeded in a layup with two points.

Facing the shorter Haslem, Love can be said to have whatever he wants. Rubio and Xu Hao kept giving him the ball, and he kept bullying his opponent inside with the ball.Battier wants to come up to help, so it's even easier. Love can either directly forcefully eat alone, or hand it over to Jordan after attracting the defense, and then he jumps and dunks on the spot and it's over.

The Timberwolves have an absolute advantage in the paint, while the Heat's James and Wade can score, but their efficiency is obviously not as high as Love's and others' troubles in the paint. The Heat are unexpectedly at a disadvantage.Spoelstra called a timeout just over 3 minutes into the first quarter. If he didn't timeout, the Heat's inside line would be completely destroyed.

The best way is of course substitutions, Spoelstra did not hesitate to replace Battier with Bosh, Haslem changed to power forward, so the inside looks much more reasonable.In fact, he didn't want to use Bosh so early, but the situation forced him to do so. If he still insisted on the previous rotation node, he didn't know how the Heat died in the end.

However, after Bosh came on the court, the Heat's inside line did not change significantly. After all, he is not a player who is good at defense, and he is not as strong as James, and he seems to be more than a lap thinner than Love.When encountering him defending Love's singles, he was directly run over. It is nothing new to be knocked out of the bottom line during the confrontation.

Spoelstra's face has turned black into the bottom of the pot. Why does Bosh go to the basket and fight with others when he has nothing to do?His strength lies in his mid-range and long-range shooting!But you can't make him completely invisible on the defensive end, so be it...

(End of this chapter)