Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 411 Everyone has his own destiny
The Golden One Arena was packed for G3.

Despite falling behind 0-2 and looking like they were going to be swept, Kings fans did not lose hope.

Because they have Han Sen.

If this alliance has someone who can create miracles, then the most likely person is Han Sen.

Han Sen has accomplished too many seemingly impossible things.

Not to mention the distant past, just talking about the last round against the Pelicans, it would have been impossible for anyone other than Hansen to complete the reversal when they were trailing 1-2.

所以别说0比2，就算是0比3落后，他们也会和当初的湖人球迷那样，相信国王队会4比3翻盘。

In fact, not only the fans, but also the newcomers of the Kings are eager to try tonight.

Lu’s chicken soup level is not to be underestimated, but beyond that is their desire to create miracles.

The so-called newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger. This is the kind of recklessness that only young people have.

Not to mention that they were all more or less influenced by Han Sen.

Of course, the Warriors players didn't know all this.

They were in a relaxed state before the game, and Green couldn't hide the pride on his face.

Although he did not behave as blatantly as James, he knew that defeating Hansen in this way was actually an unfair victory.

But how could he not want to beat Han Sen!
After all, if you don’t win now, you may never have such an opportunity again in the future.

Just like when O'Neal took advantage of Jordan's poor condition during his first comeback and defeated him, that was also recorded in history.

And if he could defeat Hansen and win the championship, completing the Green formula, the thought of it would make him laugh in his sleep.

After the opening ceremony, the starting lineups of both sides were announced one after another.

Warriors: Curry, Thompson, George, Green, Rooney

Kings: Mitchell, Hield, Hansen, Tatum, Gasol

Lu made a lineup change in this game, replacing Sabonis with Gasol Jr. as the starter.

However, Kerr looked calm, and he should have anticipated the Kings' adjustment.

However, when the game really started, the Kings' playing style was completely beyond his expectations.

Gasol Jr. did not go to the low post to use his body size to overpower Rooney, but stood outside the three-point line at a 45-degree angle on the right. Instead, Hansen was in the low post with his back to George.

The Warriors were caught off guard by the Kings' tactical change. Kerr was offline on the spot, and Hansen did not encounter any double-teaming when playing against George. He turned around and made a fade away shot.

After scoring the goal, Han Sen nodded.

The quality of his touch will determine whether he uses shooting or breakthroughs to finish. Now it seems that he can use more shooting, which will consume much less physical energy.

However, the Warriors played a good positional battle at the beginning, and Curry made a three-pointer from the outside facing Mitchell's defense.

Although Curry is one year older than Hansen, he is at the prime of his career at the age of 31 and is not so easy to restrict.

Especially after Lue made the tactical adjustment, in order to prevent Hansen from over-exerting himself on the defensive end, he did not let Hansen guard Curry like he did in G2.

Fortunately, Hansen turned around and faked a fade away after playing against George, then took steps up and down to squeeze George out and score a layup.

Hansen's consecutive scores ignited the emotions of the fans on the scene and boosted the morale of the Kings players on the field.

Curry didn't have a chance to catch the ball when he was running again, and Thompson's shot after receiving the pass from Green was interfered by Hansen at the right time and deflected.

Kerr doesn't like centers. Essentially, his tactical philosophy comes from the run-and-gun Suns, which is to play fast. In a fast offense and defense system, the role of the center will be infinitely weakened.

However, the inherent disadvantage of this style of play is that once being dragged into a positional battle, the offensive confidence will be greatly reduced.

The Cavaliers and the Warriors faced each other twice in the finals, so Lu was well aware of this.

Then, Han Sen turned around and continued to play singles in the low post.

Kerr was still idle, and Green hesitated for a moment and let Tatum come over to assist in defense.

But Hansen's attack was very determined. He turned to the baseline, knocked George away and put the ball into the basket.

Again and again.

Han Sen's three consecutive singles successes made the Golden No. 1 Arena boil over with excitement.

"Many people have forgotten that Han Ke is the strongest outside low-post singles player since Michael." Barkley helped the audience recall the past in the commentary booth.

Hansen’s low-post play became famous during his time with the Grizzlies, and now he has perfected it.

Of course, what Barkley didn't know was that after Hansen's height and wingspan were improved, he even had the advantage over George in terms of size, which made it even more difficult for George, who was already at a disadvantage, to start.

Kerr finally came on the court at this time, but he did not make any demands on the team's defense. Instead, he asked Curry to speed up the pace of the game.

The Warriors began to speed up, and after reaching the frontcourt, they began to target Gasol Jr.

At this stage of basketball evolution, mismatched one-on-ones have become the norm. Whether it is Gasol Jr. or Sabonis, they are destined to be trained, especially when facing a team like the Warriors.

This time Thompson seized the opportunity and made a three-pointer facing Gasol Jr.

Even Gasol in his prime didn't have much to do with this kind of military training, let alone Gasol at this time.

The Warriors' touch tonight was also not bad at all.

Kerr never double-teamed Hansen, and the Warriors had a good touch. After the two sides played for about five minutes, the score was 12 to 14, and the Kings were still behind.

Obviously, if the Warriors continue to shoot three-pointers from the outside, even if Hansen has a very high success rate in low-post singles, it still won't be enough.

Lou then turned and called out to Guy.

When Gay came on to replace Gasol, Kenny Smith in the commentary booth was shocked: "What kind of lineup is this?"

Cole was also visibly stunned.

As the developer of the Death Five lineup, he is already considered a person with relatively extreme basketball philosophy. Who would have thought that he would now meet someone who is even more extreme than him!
When the five-outside tactic is adopted, the challenge faced by the Warriors does not come from the defensive end, because they have been using a consumption-type rotation system against Hansen. At this time, it doesn't make much difference whether you use one big and four small players or five outside players.

The challenge they face comes on the offensive end.

With Gasol leaving the court, the Warriors had no one to train with and could only rely on positional warfare tactics to create running opportunities.

Although Curry and Thompson have excellent off-ball abilities, the five outside defenders rotated very quickly. The chances the Warriors got in the end were obviously not as good as before, and their scoring efficiency also declined rapidly.

At this time, the difference between George and Durant was revealed. No matter how good George's condition was, he could not have the kind of indiscriminate hard-hitting ability of Durant in positional warfare.

However, Han Sen started to play indiscriminately in the low post.

Kerr didn't want to double-team Hansen, so he kept changing players to defend Hansen in the low post. If George wasn't good enough, he would switch to Green, and if Green wasn't good enough, he would switch to Thompson. But Barkley's reminder was proven to be on point, just like no one could limit Jordan in the low post, and now no one can limit Hansen.

The situation changed fundamentally after Lu used a five-outfield lineup. After being unable to train in positional warfare, the Warriors' scoring efficiency could no longer catch up with the Kings.

Han Sen's low-post singles are as stable as a machine.

After the first quarter, the Kings came from behind and overtook the score 34 to 30. Hansen scored 23 points in a single quarter and had his way in the low post.

By the second quarter, Kerr finally gave up his stubbornness.

Having fought with Han Sen so many times, he knew that if he gave Han Sen a glimmer of hope, the situation would most likely be reversed.

Even though the Kings used five defenders, he began to double-team Hansen.

Then fans saw another version of Han Sen.

In other words, if Hansen in the first quarter was more like he was in the Grizzlies, then he was like he was in the Cavaliers in the second quarter.

This five-outside lineup is essentially a one-star-less version of the Cavaliers.

Other Kings players began to get opportunities on the perimeter.

At the beginning, Gay and Mitchell missed the ball one after another.

Their shooting stability is still far behind that of the Splash Brothers, which made Kerr regret not double-teaming Hansen earlier.

But he soon had no regrets because Tatum and Hield started to make three-pointers in succession.

From the Spurs to the Pelicans, the increasing defensive intensity is a constant baptism for the Kings' newcomers, and now they are tested.

Some of them may not have a good touch, but you can hardly expect them to have a bad touch at the same time.

And more importantly, the five-out lineup is too mobile.

When Mitchell and Gay are not in good form, they will make more cuts to the weak side, which will not only increase the difficulty of the Warriors' defense, but also create better shooting opportunities for Tatum and Hield who are in good form.

At the end of the first half, the Kings led the Warriors 62-48.

韩森半场得到了32分5板7助攻，国王队半场投进了7个三分，其中6个是在第二节投进的。

There is no doubt that Lu's five-outside tactics were successful.

Just as Lu expected, this tactic is ineffective against other teams, such as the Bucks, Celtics, and even the Pelicans, because the super inside players of those teams can penetrate the inside of the five-outside lineup.

But the Warriors can't do it. Not to mention a super inside player, they don't even have a decent big man.

Kerr's obsession with his own tactical philosophy ultimately exposed the Warriors' biggest flaw.

In other words, if the Kings had changed their head coach and did not have these five tactics, the situation would not suddenly become like this.

Some Warriors fans have already scolded Kerr on social media because Howard was interested in the Warriors last summer, but Kerr simply looked down on him.

Of course, Kerr didn't see those comments. His choice in the second half was the death lineup, which was the only thing he could do.

This adjustment did suppress the performance of other Kings players, but without a center to protect the rim, the Warriors could not limit Hansen's performance in the low post even if they double-teamed him.

Lu's five-out-of-the-box tactics are strong. In addition to the extreme tactics themselves, another important reason is Han Sen.

In a game where there is no center protecting the frame, Hansen's low-post lethality is magnified to the extreme.

If you play center, you can't defend against the five outside players; if you don't play center, you can't defend against Han Sen.

The dilemma the Warriors are facing now is almost exactly the same as the one their opponents faced when they used the death lineup.

The Warriors demonstrated the saying "You will pay for what you have done sooner or later" to the fullest tonight.

As the game progressed, the score gap on the field became larger and larger, and the emotions of the Kings fans at the scene became more and more excited.

By the end of the third quarter, the Kings had extended their lead to 20 points.

A team that was trailing 0-2 actually ruined the game in just three quarters of Game 3. No one would believe this if I told them.

But this kind of thing is not uncommon in history.

Without talking about the distant past, let’s just talk about this year’s “history”. The Bucks led the Raptors 2-0, and the Raptors relied on Leonard to switch defense on Antetokounmpo to win four games in a row and eliminate their opponent 4-2.

It is not easy to find the opponent's weak spot, but if you do, the situation of the entire series will be reversed.

128 to 113, the Kings finally defeated the Warriors at home and changed the score to 1 to 2.

And unlike accidental events like "Han Sen's scoring explosion" or "The Kings' hot hand", this is a reversal at the tactical level.

This change in the situation is no less effective than the effect brought about by Antetokounmpo's tripping over Irving.

A week later, the Eastern and Western Conference finals were all over.

The Bucks eliminated the Celtics 4-2.

After Irving was injured, the Celtics' mentality changed dramatically, and Horford even tried to replace Antetokounmpo in G4.

But Antetokounmpo had a strong sense of prevention in this regard. Not only was he not blocked, he also successfully angered Horford, causing the latter to be ejected from the game, which also made the Celtics completely out of control.

From this perspective, Antetokounmpo is indeed very similar to James. Their playing styles are similar only in form, but their ways of pursuing winning are the same in spirit.

If the Bucks can win the final championship, Antetokounmpo can definitely wear the championship ring on his feet.

In comparison, the Western Conference Finals was much more thrilling, with the Kings defeating the Warriors 4-3 after seven games.

Although Lu caught the Warriors' weak spot, the Kings' performance was not that stable, and the Warriors' mentality was much better than that of the Celtics.

For example, in Game 4, the rookies of the Kings performed poorly. If it weren't for Hansen's 60-point performance in a single game, the Kings would have fallen behind 1 to 3.

For example, in Game 5, the Warriors team exploded and won the decisive battle.

Fortunately, in the next two crucial games, the Kings' newcomers did not perform poorly collectively and they successfully completed the reversal.

This result can be said to be completely unexpected by the outside world. You must know that in the previous survey, almost everyone believed that this year would be a contest between the Celtics and the Warriors.

In that case, if the Celtics win, it will be Durant's dream come true after all the hard work;

If the Warriors win, it will be the perfect closing loop of Green's formula.

Who could have imagined that Antetokounmpo ended Durant's dream with one kick, and Lue's five-out tactics made the Warriors lose in frustration and helplessness.

Perhaps it’s just like what Han Sen said to James, everyone has their own destiny.

(End of this chapter)