The Whip of the God of Basketball

The Rockets just had a defensive battle with the Spurs in the same state yesterday. Yao Ming played 39 minutes. After four quarters of fierce battle, they lost to the strong rival Spurs 84:90 with a 6-point disadvantage. The score was stalemate for both sides throughout the game, and the winner was decided at the last moment of the fourth quarter. The Rockets lost to their old rival because they were unable to hold the ball and score at the critical moment because they did not have Tracy McGrady.

Playing back-to-back games with the Suns today, Yao Ming's physical strength was obviously affected. He didn't feel good at the start. He rested on the bench for most of the quarter. When he came on in the middle and late part of the second quarter, he still couldn't find the offensive feeling. In the matchup with Stoudemire, Yao Ming rarely suffered a big loss in the first half. In fact, in the previous games between the two sides, regardless of the team's victory or defeat, Yao Ming still had an advantage against Stoudemire.

Any player who wants to rely on impact and brute force to do whatever he wants on Yao Ming will have a hard time taking advantage in the end, and the same is true for Stoudemire. He is a fierce player, and even Duncan was once knocked to pieces by his powerful face-to-basket attack and was in a state of disarray. Almost all insiders in the league have been ravaged by Stoudemire's impact, but Yao Ming can be regarded as the highest wall in the league, and it is still the kind of wall that cannot be easily flown over.

Therefore, it is common for Stoudemire to get slapped under Yao Ming. Therefore, every time he meets Yao Ming, he gets excited and wants to do something on Yao Ming's head. It's just that Stoudemire seemed a lot calmer tonight. Under Leon's arrangement, Stoudemire increased mid-range jump shots and pick-and-roll cooperation on the offensive end, and reduced one-on-one singles facing the basket. Moreover, he actively moved, participated in quick counterattacks, mobilized Yao Ming's defense, and attacked his shortcomings of small movement range and weak mobility.

This allowed Stoudemire to play extremely efficiently in the first half. He made 4 of 4 shots and 4 of 4 free throws. He scored 12 points with a 100% shooting rate, helping the Suns to beat the Rockets again in the final stage of the first half. widened the gap. If not for Luis Scola's miraculous performance, the Rockets would have entered the second half with a double-digit deficit.

At halftime, Stoudemire, who played well in the first half, seemed very excited in the locker room, but Leon reminded him not to be happy too early, but to maintain this performance and "play smarter." This is Leon's warning to Stoudemire. As a high school player, Stoudemire is sometimes not very smart or too reckless on the court, which is a shortcoming of Stoudemire. This makes his influence on the court far less powerful than Nash.

This season, Leon has trained Stoudemire as a team leader. Stoudemire should not only be the team's scoring machine, but also the tactical core and leader on the court. Only in this way can the Suns have the qualifications and ability to compete with the best in the league. Strong teams arm-wrestle. Otherwise, they will just be the backdrop for the finals or championship team like they did in previous years.

Regarding Leon's cold response, Stoudemire took note of it. He calmed himself down and listened carefully to Leon's tactics for the second half. Throughout the first half, Leon didn't call many timeouts. The players played well and they were satisfied. Because of the addition of Hill, their offense is indeed getting better and better, and the small lineup operates more freely.

However, they still have many problems on the defensive end. Leon does not expect the Suns to become a strong defensive team. He hopes to use offense to win the championship. But he also can't tolerate the team making too many low-level mistakes on the defensive end. For him, making no mistakes on the defensive end means victory. So at halftime, he used his amazing memory to review every defensive mistake the Suns made in the first half and told the players who made the mistake not to make the same mistake again.

The person who got scolded the most was not Nash or Stoudemire, but Diaw. On the offensive end, Diaw played well today and sent 4 assists, but on the defensive end, he was pressed to the ground and rubbed by Luis Scola a hundred times. Diaw is not good at defense. Recently, he has always been pulled inside to defend the opponent's center and power forward, especially heavy inside players like Yao Ming and O'Neal, which makes him miserable.

I think back in the 2006 season, there were still low-post defensive experts like Kurt Thomas on the team, but now Diaw himself is regarded as a low-post defender, which makes him very uncomfortable. During halftime, he was scolded by Leon again. Anyway, he had been scolded by Leon a lot when he was in Boston, so he was somewhat used to it. It's just that he is no longer the same person he was when he was young. He once played his value in the Suns, and after leaving the Celtics, he proved that he can also stand alone.

If the person who scolded him in the locker room was not Fox-Leon but some other coach, Diaw would definitely be embarrassed by his temper, but he would not dare to do it in front of Leon. First of all, this was what he did when he first entered the NBA. Coach, the awe of him is deeply imprinted in my heart; secondly, Leon's fists are not vegetarian.

Holding back his anger, Diaw still started in the second half and continued to compete against Yao Ming at the center position. Yao Ming stood there, and when he asked for the ball in the low post, Diaw was behind him, as if there was no one there. Sure enough, as soon as the second half started, the Rockets took advantage of Yao Ming's low post offense to score consecutive points. Yao Ming's touch is somewhat back.

When he has the touch, the difference between guarding or not guarding is not big. Watching Diaw's consecutive defensive failures and losing points, Leon couldn't sit still on the sidelines. I should have scolded him during the intermission, but scolding him again will have little effect. He doesn't want to replace Diaw from the field for the time being, because he still plays a very important role in the positional offense.

Leon knows that this kid has a lazy personality and does not have the competitive spirit of many stars. He is very talented, but sometimes he just has to muddle along. If he wants him to work hard on the defensive end, he has to whip him from behind with a whip. This is what he did at Celtic, but at Celtic Leon would whip everyone with a whip, so it was natural for Diaw to be whipped twice. But in the Suns, Leon changed his coaching policy and used a more tolerant defense to get along with the players. If Dio was caught at this time, his mentality would inevitably be shattered.

Leon decided to find an opportunity to give Diaw some special training. I think that young people like Reid, Arenas, and Joe Johnson were trained by Leon one by one. . Diaw is actually very important in the Suns' current system. After many games, he is the team's barometer. If Diaw plays well, the Suns will definitely win easily and happily. If Diaw plays poorly, the team will definitely have a hard time.

The game continued in the third quarter. After Yao Ming resumed his offensive state, he helped the Rockets get closer to the score. But at this time, Steve Nash, who had been dormant in the first half without much outstanding performance, showed his sharp fangs and attacked Ralph Alston twice on the offensive end. He hit a three-point shot at a 45-degree angle from the side. He once used continuous steps to dodge Alston and get into the paint. Facing Yao Ming's defense, a master's floater hit the net, helping the Suns to re-expand their lead.

Nash's role as the team's voltage stabilizer is becoming more and more prominent. As long as the Suns survive the third quarter, in the fourth quarter, without McGrady, the Rockets, who have always collapsed in four quarters, what can they use to fight the Suns?