warrior godfather

Chapter 294 Gloomy (7000 words)
Dallas, Texas, 1:23 a.m.

Carlisle sat in the study, looking at the computer screen in front of him.

The room is very quiet, the sound insulation effect of the study is very good, the family will not disturb his work, the light of the desk lamp is slightly dim, dyeing the area illuminated by a layer of deep yellow, only the rustling sound of the tip of the pen sliding across the paper from time to time It rang, intertwined with the slight hum of the cooling fan of the computer mainframe, creating a quiet atmosphere.

On the computer screen is the video of the just-concluded G6 game between the Warriors and the Grizzlies. Before the Mavericks' video room had time to fine-tune it, Carlisle couldn't wait to study the replay of the game that ESPN had just uploaded to the website.

Five years later, the Mavericks entered the Western Conference Finals again. Nowitzki is in excellent form. This is the team's best chance to compete for the championship.

Carlisle knows that the team's good condition is all based on the desire for a championship. A group of veterans at the end of their peaks can give everything for the O'Brien Cup. Nowitzki played the hardest performance, wanting to completely Wash off the "soft guy" name that has accompanied his entire career. If he returns home with hatred this year, the Mavericks' window to win the championship may be completely closed.

No one knows if Nowitzki can play like this again.

Under such circumstances, Carlisle has always had a strong sense of urgency in his heart, driving him to put all his energy and time on his work. He dare not be idle, and does not want to wake up from this beautiful dream.

So as soon as the game between the Grizzlies and the Warriors was over, Carlisle immediately began to study the Warriors' game tape.

As the progress bar progressed a little bit, Carlisle also turned over page after page in his notebook, constantly recording the main points, which will be the basis for his speech at the coaching staff meeting tomorrow.

Finally, the progress bar came to an end, and Carlisle looked forward at the contents of the notebook, with a thoughtful expression on his face, sliding the mouse, backtracking to several nodes in the video, and watching it repeatedly.

Then, he called up the Warriors and Grizzlies series data compiled by the Mavericks scouting department, and stared at Curry's singles data column. That averaged 14.3 singles per game, accounting for 47.6% of all offensive choices. Scoring 1.15 points and an effective shooting percentage of 53.4%, he nodded slightly, and then looked at the poor offensive efficiency of other Warriors players.

Carlisle rubbed his chin with his right hand, narrowed his eyes, hesitated for a while, picked up a ballpoint pen and wrote in the notebook:
"Given Stephen Curry's extremely high iso scoring rate, and the reality of the Warriors' lack of offensive prowess among the rest of the Warriors, here's what to do..."

……

After the end of the series against the Grizzlies, the Warriors did not fly back to Oakland immediately, but rested overnight in Memphis, and took a special plane back to the Bay Area calmly the next day.

After the pressure of the intensive schedule is gone, no one wants to fly overnight.

After coming out of Oakland International Airport, Zhang Yu immediately announced a one-day holiday, and the entire Warriors team cheered. This may make them happier than defeating the Grizzlies.

Unlike playing against the Thunder, the Grizzlies advocate physical confrontation, and the intensity of the game is very high. Playing against them consumes a lot of energy, especially Curry.

In this round of the series, Curry's possession rate was as high as 38.6%, and he initiated almost every offense of the Warriors.

With greater defensive intensity, Curry handed over the same data as the first round. He averaged 42.6 minutes per game, was able to get 35.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists, which was a huge waste.

After winning yesterday, Curry even fell asleep on the bus back to the hotel. If he played another G7, Zhang Yu had no idea what kind of performance Curry could play.

But Zhang Yu had to use him again. Without Curry, the Warriors' offense would be impossible to see. The team's offensive resources are too scarce. Curry must let go. Whether the Warriors can win depends on how well he swings. .

Fortunately, the Warriors won G6 and had three days to rest. The first game against the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals will be held on May 3, so there is enough time for Curry to rest.

But the players can rest, but the coach can't. After getting off the plane, the players go back to their respective homes, and the coaching staff gathers in the conference room of the Oracle Center for a meeting.

Looking at the fine-cut clips of the Mavericks and Lakers series on the projection screen, the meeting room was very quiet, and everyone frowned.

The Mavericks' offense is really brutal. Except for the incomprehensible Nowitzki, Terry and Peja's three-point shooting percentages are as high as 68.4% and 52.4%. There is space for singles, otherwise Nowitzki alone will not completely destroy the Lakers.

Now, this problem is placed in front of the Warriors.

Silas kept silent, defense has never been his strong point, Ron Adams said:

"Ronan, we must pay attention to the defense of Peja and Terry. Their three-pointers in the first two rounds were very accurate, and they were very threatening from the outside."

Zhang Yu tapped the table with the index finger of his right hand, and did not speak immediately. The other three looked at him, waiting for his answer.

After a while, Zhang Yu said slowly:
"Okay, just follow what you said, defend normally in the first game, see the effect, and then make plans."

Zhang Yu knows better than anyone how good Dirk Nowitzki is in this year's playoffs, but he can't ignore the threat of the Mavericks shooters. Nowitzki and outside shooters are two bottles of poison, and he always chooses to drink one. , Terry and Peja are so accurate, the Warriors can no longer shrink like they did when they played the Thunder and Grizzlies.

In his plan, the series with the Mavericks is very different from the previous two rounds, and it will be a round of confrontation.

……

Three days later, on May 5, Dallas, American Airlines Center Arena.

Zhang Yu stood on the sidelines, with his hands in his pockets, clenched into fists where no one else could see, staring at the ongoing game on the field, his expression extremely ugly.

"Yeah!!!"

Suddenly, the Mavericks in blue T-shirts erupted into loud cheers, and soon, the big screen in midair played a wonderful clip that caused the noise——Nowitzki turned his back inside the three-point line Holding the ball, playing singles against Chandler, the signature Golden Rooster independent fadeaway jumper hit, Chandler can only look at the ball and sigh, there is nothing he can do.

Zhang Yu looked up at the data column, this is the 32nd point that Nowitzki scored tonight.

At this time, G1 between the Warriors and the Mavericks has reached 8 minutes in the fourth quarter, the score is 76:95, and the Warriors are 19 points behind the Mavericks.

Zhang Yu withdrew his gaze, met the Warriors players eagerly looking at him, barely restrained his irritability, pointed to Curry, and signaled him to launch the attack.

Curry saw Zhang Yu's actions, but he was not as excited as usual. He just nodded, took the baseline ball from Butler, dribbled the ball across the half court, looked around, and observed the running positions of his teammates and opponents.

The Warriors lineup is Curry, Jeremy Lin, Butler, Kirilenko and Chandler, while the Mavericks are Dirk Nowitzki, Terry, Kidd, Marion and Bogut.

Just after Curry passed halftime, Terry clung to him. He protected the ball and came to the top of the arc. The other Warriors players spread out to create space for him to play singles.

But before Curry could do something, Kidd quickly surrounded him and flanked Curry.

A look of helplessness flashed across Curry's face, and he quickly threw the ball to Jeremy Lin. This was not because he reacted quickly, but because this scene had happened countless times tonight, and he was used to the Mavericks double-teaming him.

After Jeremy Lin received the ball, there was no defense in front of him, but he hesitated, and instead of shooting a three-pointer, he dribbled the ball inside.

Previously, Jeremy Lin shot 5 three-pointers, but only hit 1, which made him very uncertain about his shooting, so he simply stopped shooting.

But as soon as he entered the three-point line, Marion approached him from the side, a pair of long arms stretched out, blocking his breakthrough path.

Jeremy Lin did not challenge Marion's defense. He tried several times before, but all ended in failure.

He passed the ball to Butler, and Marion moved quickly, and immediately returned to stop in front of Butler.

Butler did not get an easy offensive opportunity either. He observed his teammates' running positions and found that the Mavericks' defense was impeccable. Terry was always close to Curry. He could only take two steps back. The Warriors' offensive round Can only start from scratch.

On the sidelines, Zhang Yu watched the Warriors' offense stagnate, took a deep breath, suppressed his growing irritability, and quickly moved closer to the center line, saying loudly:
"Don't worry, take your time!"

But that's all he could say. After shouting this sentence, Zhang Yu stood with folded arms and watched the players pass the ball around the perimeter, but they couldn't hit the ball inside the Mavericks, and Curry only needed one catch. The Mavericks immediately double-teamed him and forced him to play the ball.

In the end, Butler made a difficult three-pointer against Marion's long arm, which naturally ended with a strike.

After Bogut struggled with Chandler at the basket, he firmly protected the rebound and passed it to Kidd. Hanging to Dirk Nowitzki, who was an important position inside, Novitzki received the ball and singled Chandler in the frame. After three threats, he broke through to the penalty area and dunked successfully with both hands, which once again ignited the atmosphere of the American Airlines Center.

At 76:97, the Warriors fell behind by 21 points. This is a huge gap almost like a natural moat, which almost declared the Warriors' failure.

Zhang Yu sighed softly, and he didn't react too violently, because his frustration, surprise, annoyance and other emotions had been wiped out by Nowitzki's first 30 points.

At the beginning of this game, the Warriors followed the tactics discussed by the coaching staff before the game. The defensive end was still a conventional defense. They focused on single defense against Nowitzki. The opportunity to play small and big and feed the inside, supplemented by off-ball offense and Butler's personal singles.

This was the same as the tactics used in the first two rounds. After playing for so long in the playoffs, Zhang Yu didn't have any extra cards to use.

But the Warriors' tactics encountered setbacks shortly after the opening. The Mavericks were very resolute in double-teaming Curry.

This is also acceptable to Zhang Yu. Four-on-three is also a good opportunity, but he soon discovered that the remaining three of the Mavericks have done a good job in zone defense, which just restrains the Warriors' weakness of lack of shooters. Difficult to score.

And Green had no power to parry in front of Nowitzki, allowing Nowitzki to score 10 points in one quarter. The Warriors trailed the Mavericks by 16 points at 22:6 in the first quarter.

The house leak happened to be raining all night, and the Warriors and the Mavericks couldn't fight each other in the second quarter, and the point difference was widened to 10 points.

Zhang Yu returned to the starting lineup in 8 minutes, adjusted his tactics, no longer cared about Curry's physical consumption, let him blast Terry's defense with a single point, and let Chandler face Nowitzki on the defensive end.

But what caught Zhang Yu off guard was that Carlisle didn't give Curry a chance to play singles at all. Even if he stopped playing pick-and-rolls, he would double-team Curry, and he didn't hesitate to pay the price of a scattered defensive formation.

You must know that double-teaming when the opponent plays a pick-and-roll is still a partial two-defense and two-defense, but the defensive attention is on the ball holder, and double-teaming when Curry is playing singles is a complete three-defense and four-defense.

Moreover, Carlisle's defensive strategy is very aggressive. Even if Curry retreats one step beyond the three-point line, the Mavericks will not hesitate to attack him, which gives the Warriors a lot of offensive space.

It's just that the space is there, but the Warriors may not be able to grasp it. Carlisle is not a mindless flanker. He makes full use of the Warriors' disadvantage of having two non-space points on the field. At the same time, the defensive positions of the other three were well chosen. Bogut squatted on the inside, Nowitzki and Marion expanded to the outside to defend against shooters, completely emptying Green.

With Green's spirit, facing this kind of humiliating defense, he naturally couldn't bear it. After receiving Curry's pass, he responded with a three-pointer.

But the embarrassing thing is that he shot very resolutely and struck the iron very neatly. In the second quarter, he made 3 of 1 three-pointers. Instead, the Mavericks picked up two long rebounds and took the opportunity to fight back.

Seeing this, Zhang Yu immediately stopped Green's impetuosity and asked Butler to take on the main offensive task after Curry was double-teamed.

It's just that Carlisle also has a deep understanding of the Warriors. He knows that Butler is the only ball-holding point in the Warriors' starting lineup other than Curry, and arranges for Marion to keep him under strict supervision.

In the face of sophisticated hackers, Butler's offensive skills are very immature, not to mention fouling Marion's confrontation, and his scoring efficiency is extremely low.

Without Butler and Curry's possession of the ball, the Warriors' offense immediately fell into a quagmire. They could only pass from the outside to the inside, and they couldn't get into the inside. .

In contrast to the Mavericks, Nowitzki was relentless against Chandler and succeeded again and again, and after Chandler was called out of the inside by Nowitzki, the Warriors' frame protection immediately dropped a notch. Kidd and Bogut fought The pick-and-roll was also very successful. After the first half, the score became 54:40. The Mavericks led the Warriors by 14 points.

Facing the crisis, Zhang Yu made drastic changes during the intermission. He asked Jeremy Lin to replace Clay to add a ball-holding point, and replaced Green with Kirilenko to make up for the shortcomings in the frame. This is to deal with the tactics of the Mavericks.

After the start of the second half, Zhang Yu's adjustment had a certain effect. Carlisle obviously did not prepare for Jeremy Lin and asked Kidd to defend Jeremy Lin.

This was in Zhang Yu's arms. Jeremy Lin used his speed to break through to the inside, scored two goals, helped the Warriors recover 4 points, and sent 2 assists. When Curry was double-teamed, he handled the four-on-three very well. .

But Carlisle quickly reacted. In response to Jeremy Lin's weakness in shooting, he emptied his shots and strictly guarded against his breakthrough. Jeremy Lin couldn't grasp the open three-pointer and couldn't break through.

And Kirilenko's frame protection effect is not as significant as Zhang Yu expected. His defense is far from as strong as it was at the peak. Attacking two, Kirilenko has a great disadvantage in strength, and there are not many restrictions on him.

At the same time, Nowitzki was able to score steadily in singles against Chandler, quietly widening the point difference.

Zhang Yu didn't wait for the situation to continue to deteriorate, and immediately called a timeout for adjustment, decisively double-teamed Nowitzki, and activated a backup defensive plan.

This is Zhang Yu's last effort. He can only hope that the Mavericks' role players will not be able to make open three-pointers after being restricted for most of the court.

Unfortunately, Terry, Kidd and others did not waste Nowitzki's points, and the open three-pointers were extremely sure, which severely punished the Warriors' defensive strategy. In 3 minutes, the score was stretched to more than 20 points.

Zhang Yu could only change back to the original defensive strategy and stop attacking Nowitzki to stabilize the impending collapse. But even so, the Mavericks extended their lead to 19 points at the end of the third quarter. .

In the fourth quarter, Zhang Yu completely shortened the rotation, and only allowed the main players to rest for 2 minutes before returning to the court to chase points. The four couplets completely locked Curry.

While the Warriors struggled to score, the defense couldn't stop the Mavericks from a group of veterans who burned themselves. The score hovered around 20 points until Nowitzki dunked the basketball and Zhang Yu completely gave up.

He waited another minute. With only 1 minutes left in the game, the Warriors were still 5 points behind the Mavericks. Zhang Yu stopped struggling, called a timeout, replaced all the starters, and conceded the loss.

Carlisle's attitude was very cautious. After the Warriors replaced all the substitutes, he still let the starters play for 2 minutes. It was not until the Warriors had no hope of making a comeback that he replaced the substitute lineup and Mingjin retreated.

In the end, the Mavericks beat the Warriors by 109 points 90:19, making a good start to the Western Conference Finals.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 36 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block, Terry scored 16 points and scored 4 three-pointers, Kidd scored 13 points, 11 assists and 8 rebounds, and won a triple-double. Jia scored 12 points, and the five members of the team scored in double figures, realizing the perfect combination of superstar basketball and team basketball.

On the Warriors' side, Curry was severely limited by the Mavericks, scoring only 18 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 turnovers.

Curry's assists can be in double figures, purely because the Mavericks double-teamed him too frantically, and there will always be mistakes, giving Curry a chance to feed the cake, but overall it does not hinder the overall situation, making Curry's personal score Totally restricted.

The Mavericks will focus most of their defensive attention on Curry, and will inevitably relax the restrictions on the rest of the Warriors. Butler has 16 points, Jeremy Lin has 13 points and 5 assists, Chandler has 10 points, and Clay has 10 points. Five scored in double figures.

But their scoring efficiency is very low. Butler made 16 of 6 shots, Jeremy Lin made 10 of 4 shots, and Clay made 12 of 5 shots. They are completely different from the efficiency of the Mavericks' role players, and they cannot fill the gap left by Curry. The score is blank, it can't match Nowitzki's offensive firepower, and it can't recover the huge point difference.

After the game, the excitement of the Warriors players reaching the Western Conference Finals completely disappeared, but Zhang Yu quickly adjusted his emotions and returned to normal.

He may be the only one who knows how strong the Mavericks are, and he was prepared for the loss. What surprised him in this game was Carlisle's defensive strategy against Curry.

He came to the technical stage, shook hands with Carlisle, and complained:

"Rick, I didn't expect you to value Stephen so much. To be honest, I didn't expect this at all. You are making a big fuss, right? He is just a second-year rookie, and you don't need to double-team him."

Carlisle laughed and said:

"The second-year rookie? The scoring leader and superstar in the second grade, right? Ronan, don't give me the ecstasy soup. I won't follow the Grizzlies and Thunder, and the Mavericks won't stumble over the Warriors again." , this year is our best chance, and I am determined to win the championship!"

There was a decisiveness in Carlisle's voice, Zhang Yu was speechless and could only shake his head with a wry smile.

He knew that he couldn't influence Carlisle's decision. Carlisle was cautious enough, and the lion fought the rabbit with all his strength, and he would never relax his defense against Curry.

He saw through the Warriors' greatest weakness, and he also regarded Curry as a superstar at the same level as Nowitzki.

In fact, Curry has not yet reached that level. He was able to win the scoring champion + a team and lead the team to the Western Conference Finals. The main reason is to eat the "era bonus", using modern basketball style, under the afterglow of the traditional era Played a shocking performance.

If placed in the era of three-pointers, Curry would never have a chance to play singles easily. In a sense, he also took advantage of the "information gap" before. Only Zhang Yu knew that Curry's three-pointers were epoch-making. He may be limited by single defense, but other coaches lack this kind of awareness, or Curry has not yet established a strong three-point deterrence, and other teams have not really paid attention to Curry's defense.

But as the playoffs gradually deepened, the Warriors began to be studied under the microscope by their opponents, especially in the series against the Grizzlies. The Warriors' poor offense and low-quality shooters were fully exposed. Carlisle, who wanted to win the championship, Finally took the first step to frantically pinch Curry.

Unfortunately, this issue has not been resolved for the time being.

After finishing G1, the Warriors took a day off and played G5 against the Mavericks on May 19.

In this game, Zhang Yu made adjustments again and boldly set up a three-guard lineup of Curry, Clay, Jeremy Lin, Butler and Chandler.

Green's defense was useless against the Mavericks, and his offensive effect was almost zero. Zhang Yu directly put him on the bench.

Just like in the third quarter of G1, Zhang Yu's adjustments have achieved certain results. The Warriors' space has been improved, and the offensive end has played a lot better. After the start, they quickly established a 5-point advantage.

But Carlisle then made a response, let Nowitzki call Chandler out of the inside, and the others rushed into the Warriors penalty zone frantically, and fought against the Warriors, which achieved very significant results and quickly overtook the score , and expanded the point difference to 7 points, and there is a trend of gradual expansion.

Zhang Yu's change failed, and he switched back to the regular lineup to strengthen the protection of the penalty area, and the Mavericks' impact on the Warriors' basket was contained.

But in this way, it returned to the old road of G1. The Warriors could not attack or defend, and the point difference was getting wider and wider.

Naturally, Zhang Yu couldn't sit still, and made adjustments again. He set up a lineup of one star and four defenses. He wanted to replicate the success of the Grizzlies, bring the Mavericks' offense to the same level as the Warriors, and then fight again.

It's a pity that this trick didn't work for the Mavericks.

Nowitzki has experienced so many years of failures. He has perfectly combined the low back body and the high face frame. The unique skill of the Golden Rooster independent backward jumper is unsolvable. No one in the Warriors can limit him with single defense, and even lower him The scoring efficiency is very difficult, I can only pray that he doesn't feel good.

The role players of the Mavericks are not comparable to the Grizzlies. Terry, Kidd, Marion, Bogut, Peja and others are not called stars now, but they are all very high-quality role players. With tacit cooperation and strong strength, when the Warriors double-team Nowitzki, they can give him the most powerful help, so that the Warriors' double-teaming will not have the slightest effect.

Zhang Yu changed and changed, and used all the players he could play, including Danny Green, Yi Jianlian, Whiteside, etc., but it was useless.

With their strength, it is not enough to help the team in this level of confrontation.

In the end, Zhang Yu stopped going to the doctor in a hurry, returned to the most orthodox lineup, and stopped double-teaming Nowitzki. He hoped that the Warriors would rely on tactical execution and take advantage of the Mavericks' possible mistakes to turn the tide of the battle—that is, resign themselves to fate.

Obviously, this kind of thinking is just Zhang Yu's vague hope. The Mavericks did not give the Warriors a chance to comeback, and kept the lead until the last minute of the game, defeating the Warriors 1:113, leading by 103:2.

The Warriors' counterattack still had a certain effect, but it could not reverse the overall situation.

Nowitzki is the biggest reliance for the Mavericks to win. He made 22 of 14 shots, 4 of 2 three-pointers, 4 of 4 free throws, scored 34 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. He used epic shots Crushed the Warriors' defense.

In addition, Terry scored 21 points, Marion had 10 points, Kidd had 11 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds, and Bogut had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Together.

For the Warriors, Curry scored 22 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds. His performance was slightly better than the previous game, but it was very limited. He adapted to the Mavericks' attack and increased his off-ball ratio, but the cooperation between his teammates and him was still not tacit enough. , Curry can't use off the ball to make up for the lack of production with the ball.

This is the limitation of not having the ball. Holding the ball depends on one's own ability to hold the ball and the opponent's defense, while without the ball, the variable of teammates' passing ability is added on this basis, which is more restricted.

Except for Curry, only two Warriors scored in double figures. Butler scored 17 points and Clay scored 13 points. The Mavericks' defense is still worse than that of the Grizzlies, but their discipline is not bad at all. Clay and Clay scored [-] points. Butler can still rely on his personal ability to score points, but others can't.

And Clay and Butler's scoring efficiency is not high. After G1, the Mavericks' defense against the two is also more targeted. It is very difficult for them to score every point.

It is foreseeable that this situation will become more and more common, and the Warriors' prospects for the Western Conference Finals are bleak.

　A piece of yesterday and today has been updated.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)