Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 352: Han Sen kills by patting his head
After the timeout, Kerr was finally forced to compromise and replaced Iguodala to start the death lineup.

When Malone saw the Warriors' actions after returning from the timeout, he secretly clenched his fists in excitement.

Kerr's judgment was actually correct. Malone was forcing the Warriors to play a war of attrition with a small lineup.

Just like when the Grizzlies played the Heat, the Cavaliers, with Wade on the bench, had lineup depth, which was their only advantage in the finals besides Hansen.

It can only be said that although Jokic is not yet a superstar, his performance tonight is the key to the implementation of Malone's strategy.

However, Green's impact was immediate after he came on the court.

It's not easy for second-year Jokic to play against Green.

This is difficult to fight for many reasons.

Jokic's physique is not in optimal condition. Although he has a height advantage over Green, a flexible inside player with strong confrontation ability and wingspan, he cannot crush him with his weight, and his shots in the low post are easily disturbed.

Of course, compared to the low post, what is more difficult for him is not being able to reach the low post.

Green would not let Jokic receive the ball comfortably in the low post like he did at the beginning of the game. His excellent arm span made his forward movement very lethal, and when Jokic went back and forth, he would use Jokic's movement to push Jokic away from the restricted area little by little.

All I can say is that although Green is a big talker, he was indeed strong enough to defend against guys who make a living during his peak period.

Seeing this, Malone quickly adjusted his tactics. Instead of letting Jokic continue to play in the low post, he let Hansen and Jokic start to play pick-and-roll cooperation.

The Warriors' defensive strategy against Hansen tonight is to insist on double-teaming, which will allow Jokic to handle the ball after the pick-and-roll, which will allow him to play a greater role.

After all, compared to his low-post attack, Jokic's stronger strength is his historical passing talent.

Seeing this, Kerr also responded with a James-Ku pick-and-roll.

With 10 minutes left in the game, the score was 32 to 28, with the Cavaliers leading.

Both sides have also started to rotate their lineups.

The lineup at this time is: Cavaliers: Deron, Wade, Korver, Covington, TT;

Warriors: Livingston, McCaw, Thompson, James, West.

Compared with the regular season matchups, both teams made some adjustments to their rotations.

On the Cavaliers side, Malone deeply bound Covington and James. After all, the Cavaliers have enough depth in the lineup and can afford this kind of consumption;
The Warriors have tied Thompson and James together. They have Livingston, a point guard who can't shoot three-pointers, in their rotation lineup, and they need more space on the court.

The Cavaliers attacked first, Deron and TT set a pick-and-roll, then passed the ball to Wade who was cutting to the weak side.

McCaw has height and confrontation ability, but as a rookie he lacks defensive experience and was left behind by Wade's counter-run.

West rushed out, Wade directly European-stepped over him, and then faced James who was helping defend and performed a reverse layup.

The basketball hit the backboard and fell into the net. Wade was in pretty good shape.

But in retrospect, James also broke through Covington and got to the inside.

Covington is still the James terminator, but his physical exhaustion has reduced his defensive effectiveness.

After breaking into the paint, James faced TT's help defense and used his elbow to push him away, followed by a fake shot and successfully caused TT to commit a defensive foul.

TT signaled to the referee that James had just used his elbow, but the referee ignored it.

It is obvious that the penalty standards since this year's playoffs have been to encourage confrontation.

Jokic benefits from this, and naturally others can too.

James made one of two free throws steadily, so TT's foul was not a loss.

TT secured the defensive rebound.

The Cavaliers quickly launched a fast break. Wade received a pass from Deron and performed a difficult turnaround jump shot facing James.

This shot is very difficult because it is the most difficult to control the trajectory of the shot when it is shot with inertia.

But after drifting in the air, the basketball fell straight into the net as if it was equipped with a cruise control.

Wade scored 4 points in a row after coming off the bench!
In fact, Wade's performance has been getting better and better since he entered the bench, especially since entering the playoffs. He averaged 17.5 points per game with a hit rate of nearly 50%, a true bench bandit.

In other words, the strength of the Cavaliers' bench lies in Wade. Although he is already considered a veteran, his strength is much stronger than Garnett when he first came to the Cavaliers.

James used the same trick again, but this time, before James could make a layup, TT grabbed his arm and pulled him down from the air.

TT is not a good-tempered person. Although he knew Malone's tactical intention, he was in a bad mood after being demoted from a starter to a substitute. James' elbow just now hit him right in the face.

The smell of gunpowder began to appear on the field.

James was furious when he landed, but when he saw TT's physique, he turned around angrily and roared at the referee.

The referee finally called a technical foul on TT.

Malone looked unhappy. He had another consideration in letting TT play as a substitute, which was to increase the team's inside depth.

After all, Nene is old. Although he is still capable of confrontation, he is not as effective as TT in defending James.

As a result, TT committed two consecutive fouls within one minute, and also received a technical foul.

He had no choice but to let Nene come on to replace TT.

TT was still unhappy when he came off the court, so Lu quickly called him aside to comfort him.

The Cavaliers are in a good situation now. If TT gets angry at this time, he will be asking for trouble.

James made a technical foul.

The Warriors continued to have the ball. This time James' breakthrough attracted Korver's help defense, and then he passed the ball to Thompson on the outside.

Thompson did not stand still, but took advantage of the off-ball screen to run out of opportunities when James broke through.

However, James' pass was a bit low, and when he bent down to pick up the ball, Wade had already swooped over to interfere with him.

His three-point shot failed to hit.

Thompson's open shots were always stable at his peak, but his strong shots depended on his touch. Once he found the touch, he had great explosiveness. But from the start tonight, we could see that his touch was average, and when his touch was average, he would not make the shot.

However, this ball was a long rebound and was grabbed by James, who then took the opportunity to attack the basket again.

Nene couldn't keep up with James in terms of speed, and was directly dunked by James.

After the dunk, James excitedly celebrated by beating his chest and roaring towards the sidelines.

His performance in the previous starting period was as struggling as it was in the regular season. After all, it was a pick-and-roll between James and Curry, but before the pick-and-roll, Covington, who was in full physical form, defended him, and after the pick-and-roll, Hansen defended him, so he was basically just helping Curry.

But it was when he came on as a substitute that he truly reached his home court.

Especially since TT is in a bad mood on the Cavaliers side, he shouldn't be too comfortable.

Wade's long-range three-pointer missed, and at the end of the first quarter, the score on the field was fixed at 36 to 32.

As the game entered the second quarter, both sides further rotated their lineups, with the Warriors replacing Thompson with Pachulia.

On the Cavaliers side, Covington was also replaced by Cunningham and rested.

But in addition to this, Nene was also replaced, and the person who replaced him was not TT, but Dedmon.

Every player has his own stage to perform. In the previous game against the Bulls, Nene played very well against Howard, but just as Malone expected, his aging legs obviously couldn't keep up with James in assisting defense.

TT is in a bad mood tonight, so using Dedmon is also an attempt.

This is also a warning to TT that the Cavaliers do not need him.

Dedmon was more excited than ever at this moment. What he said to Hansen before was true. Even Nene didn't have many opportunities to play in Malone's tactical system, let alone him. He hadn't even appeared in the playoffs so far.

Who would have thought that his first playoff appearance would be on the stage of the finals!
For a moment, he even thought that Hansen must know something, which was why he asked him to practice with Jokic before.

In particular, when Ma Long called him to play, Han Sen also came over and said to him: "You must seize this only opportunity."

Han Sen is not Zhuge Liang, so of course he couldn't have predicted that TT would be in a bad mood tonight, but what he said to Dedmon was the truth.

Most fringe players in the NBA, unless they are Bronny, only get one chance in the NBA.

If you seize it, there will be next chance. If you are not prepared, there will be no next time.

In the final analysis, the reason why marginal players are called marginal players is because there are so many people who can replace them. In the second quarter, the Warriors attacked first.

After seeing an unfamiliar player on the Cavaliers side, James called on Pachulia to start a pick-and-roll.

After the dislocation occurred, he also accelerated and sprinted inside.

After reaching the basket, he pulled the ball high and dunked directly over Dedmon.

This is completely not treating the other person as a human being.

However, the ball was ultimately missed.

Dedmon stood firm under the basket and was not knocked away by James, and his outstretched long arms interfered with James.

He has a strong body, and his physical talent is there at a height of 2 meters and 13 meters. James obviously underestimated his opponent in this game.

There was a commotion at the scene, as James's shot was somewhat embarrassing.

James spread his hands and looked at the referee, trying to get a face-saving whistle from the referee.

But unfortunately, the referee ignored him.

The league is no longer the Nike League, so the Chosen One is naturally no longer the Chosen One.

Looking back, Wade broke through and attracted Pachulia's help defense in the interior, and then assisted Dedmon under the basket.

Dedmon took the ball and tried to dunk, but his speed was a bit slow, and James seized the opportunity and slapped him out of the court.

The scene was instantly filled with the cheers of fans.

The live camera was given to Ma Long, as if trying to find a hint of panic in his eyes.

But Malone seemed very calm at this time.

He put Dedmon on the court for defense. If he could score on offense, he wouldn't be sitting on the bench on the Cavaliers.

So far, Dedmon is performing in line with his expectations.

The ball was still in the Cavaliers' hands. Wade defuses the bomb, breaks into the paint, stops, turns around, and makes a layup, dodging James' block and sending the ball into the basket.

There was a commotion in the place.

Wade has made all of his shots tonight except for an unwise buzzer-beating long-range three-pointer.

He is in really good shape.

Moreover, he really understands James' defensive habits. This is the second time he has scored in front of James tonight.

James's face didn't look very good.

Especially, when he was out of position against Dedmon on the offensive end, and signaled to sprint to the basket, his shot was once again interfered by Dedmon and went out of the basket, and he also failed to grab the rebound from Dedmon, he looked like he wanted to stab someone in the face.

Dedmon's strength has been underestimated. If he were to change to another team, he could at least be a rotation player based on his defensive ability.

Malone nodded with satisfaction at this time. Dedmon's performance tonight was somewhat beyond his expectations.

Deron and Dedmon played a pick-and-roll, and once again passed the ball to Wade who cut in.

Wade's presence was at its best tonight both with and without the ball.

Wade took a step past Pachulia and made another layup with a pull-up shot facing James' help defense.

But at this moment, James seemed to have lost control of his body and knocked Wade out of the baseline.

Wade collided with the photographers at the baseline.

The referee blew the whistle, indicating that James had committed a defensive foul.

However, at this moment, James walked towards Wade and stretched out his hand to him.

Wade, who was originally frowning, saw James's actions, hesitated for a moment, but still reached out his hand and was pulled up from the ground by James.

After Wade stood up, James reached out and patted him on the buttocks as a friendly gesture.

James fans can’t help but sigh at the brotherhood after seeing this scene.

Wade's frown instantly shifted to Hansen.

If it weren't for what happened before the regular season, Han Sen would have really believed in the brotherhood between James and Wade.

But now it seems that James has obviously changed his approach after being cyber-bullied by fans last time.

However, Han Sen frowned not because of James, but because of Wade.

When someone knocked you down, he would reach out and pull you up. Wade actually accepted this kind of slap in the face and then give you a candy.

As expected, personality is something that never changes. Wade is a "good guy" who is bullied at heart.

Han Sen relaxed his frown and stood up.

When Wade was shooting free throws, Hansen came on to replace Deron.

This substitution came a little early.

Seeing this, Kerr replaced McCaw with Thompson.

Wade made one of two free throws. The fall just now was quite serious and it still had an impact on him.

The Warriors advanced to the frontcourt, and Hansen was defending James.

Han Sen had it written all over his face that "I'm here to target you."

James started directing traffic directly at the top of the arc.

Thompson ran without the ball, received a pass from James, and his shot was blocked and missed the basket again.

Thompson is the most suitable off-ball shooter for James, but James is not the most suitable ball-handling core for Thompson.

Because the interaction between the shooter and the core player with the ball is mutual. If the core player with the ball does not pose an offensive threat and just directs traffic, it will be difficult for the shooter to create a good opportunity by running hard.

Green's traffic control can be successful because the Splash Brothers are on the court. They run at the same time to distract the defense, so one of them always has a chance to run.

The rebound was protected by Dedmon, Hansen advanced to the frontcourt with the ball, and then signaled Cunningham to set a screen for him.

It has been a long time since he last caught up with James.

Holding the ball with one hand, starting with a drop step, and dribbling with an extremely low center of gravity, Hansen almost used his speed to break through with James.

James is also trying his best this time. Although he doesn't dare to hit Han Sen on the offensive end, he still dares to defend Han Sen after losing weight.

The two rushed to the basket one after the other, but Han Sen's next move was something no one expected.

Han Sen stopped suddenly under the basket, then raised his elbow and hit James directly in the head!
James was caught off guard and was knocked to the ground.

The referee's whistle sounded quickly, indicating that Han Sen had committed an offensive foul.

Just when everyone thought a conflict was about to occur, Han Sen's next move was once again unexpected.

He reached out his hand to the fallen James.

The scene was agitated.

Han Sen was simply doing to Wade exactly what James had just done to him.

James' choice instantly became eye-catching.

You can definitely see his struggle from the look in his eyes.

But in the end, he still reached out his hand.

After all, he had just helped Wade up before. If he were to do the opposite now, it would make him appear narrow-minded, which would be detrimental to his personality.

Moreover, the referee had already called an offensive foul on Han Sen, and it was impossible for his rage to escalate into a flagrant foul, so from a smart person's perspective, he should accept Han Sen's "Seal of Reconciliation".

However, Han Sen's next move was what truly shocked the entire audience, especially Wade.

Because at the moment when James stretched out his hand, Hansen retracted his hand, touched his hair, and then turned and left!
(End of this chapter)