So I am the god of basketball?

During the Lakers' offensive round, the person defending Meng Lang was naturally not Allen Iverson, but an old acquaintance:
George Lynch!

Back then, Meng Lang became famous by standing on his shoulders.

This was the first time he met this guy on the finals stage.

But now everything has changed.

Meng Lang has become the face of this alliance.

As for George Lynch, he eventually grew up quite well. He played for three teams and at least he was a stable starter.

This is actually not easy.

After all, he was once so hit by Meng Lang that he lost his self-confidence.

Now that we met again, there was actually a hint of sharpness in his eyes.

Soon, Meng Lang knew where the sharpness in his eyes came from...

When he broke through with the ball and approached the free throw line, Tim Duncan immediately stepped forward and surrounded him.

Seeing this, Meng Lang passed the ball from between the two people to Big Ben under the basket.

Just as Big Ben was about to shoot, Duncan quickly returned to defense, compressing his shooting space under the basket.

Ben Wallace's roughness on the offensive end was clearly revealed at this moment.

The ball was nearly intercepted and returned to Meng Lang's hands.

At this time, Meng Lang's eyes met Kobe's, so he passed the ball to him.

Kobe couldn't wait to play one-on-one against Allen Iverson, so he attacked as soon as he got the ball.

He couldn't defend Allen Iverson. In fact, Allen Iverson had a hard time defending him. And Iverson's defensive habits were particularly bad. He failed to steal the ball out of position, leaving a large space in front of Kobe.

This should be a good opportunity for a direct shot.

But Kobe chose to "meet the man head-on" and attempted to conquer the "mountain" of Philadelphia with his physical fitness.

With this choice, you really can't say...

"Snapped!"

Then Mutombo blocked his shot so hard that he felt dizzy.

The ball was caught by Allen Iverson, who directly launched a fast break counterattack.

Meng Lang's speed and explosiveness are already top-notch in the NBA, but in terms of absolute speed, he still lags behind Allen Iverson. Anyway, he didn't catch up with the running "Answer".

I could only watch him score.

Chuck Daly frowned slightly.

As the head coach, he saw clearly that Shaquille O'Neal couldn't penetrate the Philadelphia 76ers' inside line, and now it would be difficult for the Lakers to penetrate it either.

Tim Duncan's defensive assist ability and Mutombo's rim protection ability are really...

If this problem cannot be solved, it means that the Lakers will fall into a situation similar to that of the Heat before.

If we can solve this situation...

Meng Lang gave an answer.

He faced George Lynch and made a "turnaround jump shot" before Tim Duncan came up. The ball fell into the basket and the Lakers finally scored the first goal of this finals.

Allen Iverson's breakthrough failed to immediately get rid of Kobe.

At this time, the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers shouted anxiously, and the ball passed from his hands to Tim Duncan in the high position.

Ben Wallace was behind him but had little effect on him.

Tim Duncan turned 45 degrees and shot the ball easily.

Ben Wallace was scratching his head.

Meng Lang also remembered at this time, aren’t Ben’s three “nemesis” Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and Yao Ming?

The three of them completely exposed Ben Wallace's lack of size.

This has nothing to do with the players' abilities anymore, and more to do with their talents.

Just like Deron Williams later "eats, sleeps and plays Paul". It's not that his ability is much better than Paul, but his type is just the right type to restrain Chris Paul.

Ben Wallace is the same now, scratching his head when he meets Tim Duncan.

At the end of the game, the Philadelphia 76ers clearly took the initiative.

There was no advantage in the interior, so Meng Lang had to start his personal scoring mode early.

But the Philadelphia 76ers executed his defensive tactics very simply. As long as you didn't come in and shoot from the outside, you could shoot as you pleased.

And if you go to the basket, Tim Duncan will come to defend.

Ben Wallace's scoring ability under the basket is enough for Tim Duncan to defend with confidence.

Meng Lang tried to pass the ball to Divac for a strong shot under the basket.

The "European tank" was still aggressive enough against other players, but he was not good enough against Mutombo, the "Defensive Player of the Season".

Trying to open up the situation by breaking through and passing the ball to the inside is completely hopeless.

Meng Lang did not sit still and wait for death. He started to cross-run with Kobe outside the three-point line, allowing him to face Allen Iverson and undoubtedly shoot three-pointers with ease.

This trick worked a few times at first, but after that, when Kobe and Meng Lang crossed positions, it was not Allen Iverson who followed, but their No. 1 Aaron McGee. This 96-meter-tall shooting guard is a standard "team puzzle".

But his height allows him to keep up with Meng Lang better.

It's not like Allen Iverson who couldn't cause any interference at all.

Meng Lang can still continue to score, but the tactical significance of cross-running with Kobe is no longer that great.

George Lynch is not that fast and Aaron McGee is not that big, so they each have shortcomings that can be exploited, but they also have their own strengths.

As for giving the ball to Fox, let him single out Allen Iverson.

Although his height is a circle larger than Allen Iverson.

However, his goal scoring efficiency against "The Answer" is quite different from Meng Lang's efficiency in singles. If he plays, he will be worse than Meng Lang playing alone.

In short, after several attempts by the Lakers, Meng Lang discovered that his one-on-one play was the most efficient way for the Lakers.

Other strengths were either limited by the Philadelphia 76ers or no longer strong points when facing the Philadelphia 76ers.

On the Philadelphia 76ers side, Tim Duncan's one-on-one play after getting the ball in the high post was almost unstoppable. Neither Ben Wallace nor Divac could limit him alone.

Double-teaming him was equivalent to letting Tim Duncan destroy the original defensive formation. In addition, facing the Philadelphia 76ers, Ben and Divac could not have the rebounding advantage as before.

No rebounds means no "second offense", which also means that the Lakers must use more people to protect the rebounds, which makes them actively give up defensive counterattacks.

On the contrary, the Philadelphia 76ers successfully launched several counterattacks.

It can also be seen from the data...

The Philadelphia 76ers' defensive counterattack scored 20 points, while the Lakers only scored 10 points.

Due to the rebounding disadvantage and lack of offensive means, the Lakers eventually lost to the Philadelphia 92ers by 104 points, 12 to 76.

In the first game of the finals, the 76ers had the last laugh.

蒂姆-邓肯拿到了24分14篮板5助攻2抢断2盖帽的“大号两双”；穆托姆博拿到了12分10篮板的“两双”；阿伦-艾弗森砍下了28分4篮板7助攻2抢断；

Lakers:
Meng Lang scored 42 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists.

His rebounding and assists data can actually show the performance of other Lakers players in this game:

科比17分4篮板5助攻；福克斯8分；大本仅仅3分，连篮板球也只保护下了8个；迪瓦茨倒是拿到了14分10篮板的“两双”，但他5次失误3个助攻同样说明了他打得极其不适应。

Chuck Daly looked solemn after the game. The Los Angeles media had not seen him with this expression for a long time. He only said one sentence: "There are many problems we need to solve..."

On the Philadelphia 76ers side, Tim Duncan said: "This is only the first game of the finals. Winning this game doesn't mean anything. We are facing Dream, who is currently the most powerful guy in the league. We still need to face tough battles!"

Allen Iverson also said: "The Lakers are not that easy to deal with!"

Such an attitude of Philadelphia's two core players is undoubtedly a sharp knife for Lakers fans, stabbing them in the heart.

Isn't this too cautious?

Are all newlyweds so cautious nowadays?

They said it and did it. A reporter took pictures of the Philadelphia 76ers entering intensive training early the next morning, without any relaxation after winning the game.

The head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers said, we won one game, but if we lose the second game, then our advantage in winning the first game will be gone.

After all, the format of the finals is here. After playing the first two home games, the Philadelphia 76ers will face three consecutive away games.

If they lose one of the home games, the subsequent situation will be very unfavorable for them, so they must also win the second home game.

This will ensure that they can return to their home ground.

From this perspective, it is not difficult to understand the caution of Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan.

After a day of rest, the second game of the finals arrived as scheduled.

There was no change in the start of either side.

The Philadelphia 76ers continued to play to their advantage, starting with a 7-2 lead.

But at this time, Chuck Daly suddenly replaced Divac, moved Ben Wallace to the five position, and put Horry on the court.

Philadelphia didn't react at first.

When the game resumed, Meng Lang broke through and passed the ball, and Horry hit a three-pointer, changing the score to 5-7. They realized that this was to contain Tim Duncan from the three-point line and prevent him from making up for the defense as he wished.

The effect was evident from the first round.

In the next attack, Tim Duncan was afraid of Horry's shooting and didn't dare to save the ball.

Meng Lang faced George Lynch's continuous breakthroughs and shots, which directly caused the Philadelphia 76ers head coach to call a timeout.

The problem that the Heat spent an entire series trying to solve was solved by Chuck Daly with just a slight change in the lineup.

The key points:
Horry's three-pointer!

Again, basketball tactics are constantly evolving.

What made basketball more advanced in the 20s than in the 00s was all the teams’ understanding of shooting.

What kind of move is the best option?

Needless to say…

Of course, shoot in an open position!
So how can you get an open shot opportunity?
Open up space, utilize every inch of the court, open up as much space as possible so that the opponent's defensive formation cannot take care of both ends.

So you see, in the past 20 years, there is no more "Princeton" or "triangle tactics". All teams either play on the personal abilities of their stars or pass and cut. It's not that these tactics no longer exist, but that all teams are the same, with the goal of opening up space and mixing all tactics together.

Often, after a team has played an entire game, you can see the shadows of several sets of tactics.

When it comes to creating as much space as possible, the three-pointer is irreplaceable.

It's just that the head coaches of this period all thought that three-pointers were inefficient and too dependent on the feel of the shot, so they often didn't pay much attention to them. Their thinking had not yet linked the three-point line with the maximum space.

Chuck Daly is an exception. Although Meng Lang did not say it explicitly, he has been watching how Meng Lang uses three-pointers to open up the situation since he started coaching Meng Lang in 93.

So from his perspective, he is not so averse to three-pointers.

He even understands the role of three-pointers in the entire system.

In the first game of the finals, he actually realized that if he wanted to open up space in the paint, he had to put a guy who could shoot from beyond the three-point line at the power forward position.

There are guys like this in the team.

The effect was pretty good when Horry came on the court.

But judging from the subsequent results, using Divac as Horry can only provide limited space, and the speed and mobility cannot be improved.

This time he tried to use Ben Wallace and Horry to increase the speed of movement, with the aim of mobilizing the Philadelphia 76ers' inside line to the greatest extent and making the two duo less comfortable in their comfort zone.

After all, if they really continue to play like this and let them stay in the inside, then it is estimated that no team's inside duo can beat them this season.

Their comfort zone must be broken.

The three-point shot is the breakthrough point.

Chuck Daly's change of formation is not just that. For the Philadelphia 76ers' inside duo, due to their insufficient height, the Lakers shrunk the entire formation very tightly. The purpose is to disrupt Tim Duncan's receiving the ball in the low post. On the other hand, it is to not give Mutombo the opportunity to find loopholes and reduce the number of times he "eats cakes".

At the same time, it is also to limit Allen Iverson's breakthrough, use more backup defense, help Kobe, reduce his burden on the defensive end, and allow him to focus more on the offensive end.

Kobe did not play very well in the first game of the finals, in large part because he spent too much energy on the defensive end.

With the Lakers' shooting points being restricted in many ways, apart from Meng Lang, Kobe is the only one they can rely on.

Chuck Daly must ensure the firepower of the "double guns".

This is the only confidence that the Lakers can compete with the Philadelphia 76ers.

In fact, in terms of style, even Chuck Daly had to admit that the Philadelphia 76ers, to a certain extent, were very restrained against the Lakers. The suppression in the interior was equivalent to cutting off half of the Lakers' body.

The Lakers have very high requirements for the coordination between the inside and outside lines this season. (End of this chapter)