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Chapter 114 That Damn Gamble (9800 words per day, begging for monthly subscription!)
The Warriors ended their New Year's January campaign with a record of 39 wins and 11 losses.

This is an extremely tough race.

But during the period when Davis and other main players were absent due to injuries, Mike Malone fully demonstrated his coaching talent.

By adjusting personnel rotation, tactical optimization, and the "what is important" battle plan formulated before the start of the regular season.
After a period of time when many fans thought the Warriors were likely to fall behind, the Warriors successfully stayed in the upper half of the Western Conference.

Moreover, the Warriors are only two wins away from the Phoenix Suns, who are currently ranked first in the Western Conference.

What is more important? This is the code name Qin Yue gave to the battle plan based on Ma Long's labeling of different games before the start of the regular season. He determined early on which games the Warriors would devote their full attention to and which games they could be passive and lazy.

In addition, it must be stated that
Although the Warriors will selectively slow down in some games, it does not mean that the Warriors will deliberately lose in these games.

The labels Malone put on them in advance only determined the Warriors' level of commitment on different nights.

And, on some nights when the Warriors get mad.
These pre-labeled labels will also be invalidated if the Warriors players on the court become angry.

For example, the Warriors' game against the Spurs on January 1.

After the first three quarters, as the Warriors were already 19 points behind the Spurs, Mike Malone had already begun thinking about tactics for the next game.

But during an interview during the intermission, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich suddenly said: "As long as the penalty scale is normal, our defense can fully cope with the Warriors' offense."

This sentence completely angered every championship player on the Warriors.

Thus, a classic "fire and juice" took place at Oracle Arena.

In the fourth quarter, under the leadership of Qin Yue, the extremely crazy Warriors completed a total of 17 shots from the outside and hit 10 of them.

10 three-pointers in a single quarter.

In the face of these unreasonable and even illogical three-pointers, how could the Spurs' proud iron defense hold up?
The final score was 104 to 112.

Qin Yue, who led the Warriors to a comeback in the final quarter, said in an interview after the game: "As long as the penalty scale is normal, our offense can completely crush all defenses!"

Popovich was very dissatisfied with this.

Popovich's dissatisfaction stems from the fact that the Warriors made too many unscientific three-pointers in the fourth quarter that they shouldn't have made.

In the new season, as the average three-point shots per game of each team have increased
As teams are becoming more accepting of the three-point shot, they are also gradually realizing that in the current era, the reasonable number of three-point shots should be around twenty to twenty-five times per game.

Too few three-point shots cannot relieve the pressure on the offense when breaking the iron bucket formation.

But too many three-point shots
That's purely a gamble with your life.

Especially this season, in order to maintain a certain level of competitiveness, the league tacitly allows teams to use aggressive defensive strategies in some games.

Unless you have a shooter who can shoot at will against the defender and can steadily shoot the basketball into the basket with a three-point shooting percentage of more than 35%, otherwise, blindly increasing the number of three-point shots will most likely only backfire.

As a person who has experienced this, Qin Yue knows very well that there are still too few high-quality shooters in the current era.

When the three-point line was first invented, the NBA had experienced the 1980s, when the game was played for the sake of offense and without any defense at all.

But even in that era when teams were averaging more than 110 points per game, the three-pointer was seen as just a juggling skill.

As for the reason?

Of course it’s because, when the three-point line was first invented, how many people in the NBA at that time could guarantee that they could shoot the basketball into the basket from a long distance with a relatively stable hit rate?

Just like basketball tactics will never go out of style, they just need to meet the right person.

It wasn't until the mid-1990s that more and more quality shooters began to emerge.
Especially after the Houston Rockets won the championship with an astonishing average of 22 three-point shots per game①, people gradually realized that the three-point shot is a key skill that can be used as a magic weapon to help a team win.

(① In the 94/95 playoffs, the Rockets averaged 22 three-point attempts per game with a hit rate of 39.1%)

You know, compared to the roaring 1980s, the NBA in the mid-1990s was a time when iron-blooded basketball was dominant.

There is no doubt that it was the Houston Rockets, the team that advocated “don’t underestimate the heart of a champion”, that led the first wave of the three-point shooting trend.

At the beginning of the 21st century, with the introduction of zone defense in the NBA, in order to break the extremely torturous iron bucket formation of each team, the current NBA has reached an era in need of reform.

Since the Warriors have used more three-point shots to prove that the three-pointer is the key to breaking the iron bucket formation, other teams will naturally follow suit.

But, the tactics followed.
There is another problem in the NBA now:
Too few quality shooters.

In the free agent market, three-point shooters who can shoot with a high hit rate under the current level of competition have already been snapped up by various teams.

This shortage of supply fully demonstrates how much the NBA needs quality shooters today.

The Warriors this season are the best example.

As the only team in the 06/07 season that averaged more than three-point shots per game, it was able to rank in the top five in the league in terms of overall record.
Because the Warriors have a group of shooters who meet the standards, they can naturally make more three-point attempts when breaking the iron bucket formation.

Although Qin Yue admitted that their comeback against the Spurs was a result of a certain amount of luck.

But such luck is also related to the fact that the Warriors are more confident in three-point shooting than other teams.

However, under the current level of confrontation allowed by the NBA
It's impossible for the Warriors to gamble their lives every night.

Qin Yue knew very well that even in the small ball era of the future, as long as the NBA allowed the use of more aggressive defensive strategies, unless everyone was Stephen Curry, the average number of three-point shots per game of each team would definitely drop to around thirty times.

As for whether Curry himself can adapt to such an aggressive defensive strategy?

Qin Yue believes that Curry's three-point shooting percentage may decrease due to the intensity of defense on some nights, but since Reggie Miller has set an example, Curry will definitely find a way to deal with high-intensity defense.

After all, what really influences the changes of the times is never tactics, but people.

On February 2, the Warriors, welcoming Murphy's return, used Phil Jackson's proud triangle offense on the road to destroy the Orlando Magic, who had Dwight Howard in the interior.

As the starting center for this year's Eastern Conference All-Star Game, Howard's defensive area and his sweeping ability have already begun to show their potential.

Therefore, in order to better establish inside-outside connections in this game against the Magic, Mike Malone decided to start from the Magic's restricted area.

Before the game, Malone's idea was simple: as long as Howard was forced to not dare to come out, the Warriors would definitely get more opportunities on the outside.

But as the game began, Malone quickly realized how naive his ideas were.

On the court, the Warriors' offensive round.

After once again deceiving Howard's center of gravity through rhythm in a back-to-the-basket shot, Qin Yue immediately turned around and easily cut into the basket to add two more points for the Warriors.

In the game, facing the Warriors' triangle offense, Magic head coach Brian Hill didn't even think about double-teaming Qin Yue.

Because in his eyes, Howard's low-post defense is trustworthy, and the Magic have no need to invest more manpower to encircle Qin Yue.

then
Howard was taught a lesson by Qin Yue.

Since Howard's lower body is not stable enough and his strength is basically concentrated in his upper limbs, Qin Yue can always use various methods in the game to play tricks on this monster in low-post back shots.
Why do the Warriors need firepower from other players on the outside?
"I was so naive to think Dwight Howard could guard our Messiah."

After the game, Mike Malone reviewed it this way.

全场比赛，21投15中，没有一次三分出手，罚球13罚11中的秦岳，总计为勇士砍下了41分20篮板6助攻3封盖1抢断。

Howard, who fouled out in the fourth quarter, completely entered autistic mode with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

In fact, if the Magic had double-teamed Qin Yue a few more times during the game, Qin Yue would not have turned this game into a one-sided beating.

Unfortunately, Brian Hill is an old-school coach.

In his eyes, super inside players should have fair and just one-on-one matches with other super inside players.

However, this old-school coach who led the Magic to the finals in the 94/95 season apparently forgot
Howard is not the Shaquille O'Neal of the past, and Qin Yue and Olajuwon have two completely different playing styles.

Even if Howard could cheat and see through Qin Yue's low-post back-to-the-basket attack in the game, he still had to swallow another bottle of poison called outside shooting.

For Howard, who still needs time to level up.
Brian Hill chose to let him face Qin Yue alone in the game. What's the difference between that and making things difficult for Fat Tiger?
On the 4th and 5th, the Warriors, who were in high spirits after Murphy recovered from injury, unexpectedly suffered two consecutive losses.

The two teams that defeated the Warriors were the Jazz and the Nuggets.

In the Salt Lake City plateau and the Denver plateau, the Warriors' outside shooters failed to find their touch for two consecutive games.

A game in which he shot 29-for-7 from beyond the arc.

He took 33 three-point shots in one game and only made 8 of them, with a hit rate of 24%.

However, compared with the losses in these two games
What made Qin Yue most upset was the way his brothers treated him after the game.

In Salt Lake City, Paul, who scored 22 points and 12 assists by bullying Jack, said to Qin Yue after the game: "It's not difficult to defeat you. You are definitely overestimated."

In Denver, Anthony, who scored 31 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists for the Nuggets, showed Qin Yue his signature smile: "Before the trade deadline, 'Melo' welcomes you to join the Nuggets at any time."

Although from the extremely ugly faces of Paul and Anthony after the game, Qin Yue felt that he had made the wrong friends.
But Qin Yue, who has always been magnanimous, doesn't mind his brothers giving him a hard time after they occasionally defeat him.

Moreover, since the two games between the Nuggets and the Jazz at Oracle Arena in the second half of the regular season have already been labeled "all-out" by Mike Malone,
Then Qin Yue naturally had to teach Paul and Anthony a lesson in those two games.

Yes, Qin Yue never minded his brothers giving him a bad face.

Only afterwards
Brothers, you can't mind his revenge, which is always impartial. (Gnashing teeth)

……

In order to maintain the ranking in the upper half of the Western Conference and retain the opportunity to compete for the first place in the Western Conference.
Before the All-Star Weekend, Mike Malone had changed the label of the Warriors' remaining five games to "must win."

On February 2, while visiting the TNT studio, Scottie Pippen once again talked about the bet he made with Charles Barkley before the start of the regular season.

It was a bet that Qin Yue had to help Barkley win in order to complete the mission [Charles Barkley's Gift 2].

The content of the bet is whether Qin Yue can score a "50+ triple-double" in a regular season game before the All-Star Weekend.

Originally, as Qin Yue scored triple-doubles again and again in the 06/07 season, Barkley thought he was on the verge of victory.

But with nearly two-thirds of the regular season over, Barkley found
He obviously underestimated the difficulty of a "50+ triple-double".

Since entering the league, Qin Yue has been closest to completing the "50+ triple-double" two nights, one was the first "Good Night, Los Angeles" night.

That night, Qin Yue was only 2 points away from becoming the fourth player after Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Jabbar to record a "50+ triple-double" in the NBA.

The second one was the Christmas Eve when Qin Yue did not choose to play in the fourth quarter.

At that time, many people believed that as long as Qin Yue could learn from his good brother and shamelessly brush up his stats during garbage time, he would definitely be able to get a "50+ triple-double".

All in all, "50+triple-double" is not an impossible task for Qin Yue at the moment.

But it also has its difficulties.

First of all, judging from the Warriors' winning statistics this season, on the nights when Qin Yue had a "30+ triple-double", he would basically be forced to clock out after three quarters.

This season, the only exception was the Christmas game between the Warriors and the SuperSonics.

Qin Yue, who scored a total of 36 points, 18 rebounds and 14 assists for the Warriors at the time, got playing time in the fourth quarter, which was extremely rare.

Except for supersonic speed.
As long as Qin Yue scores a "30+ triple-double" in the game, he is considered to be clocking out after three quarters.

Because the better Qin Yue, the ball-handling core, performs on the court, the easier it will be for the Warriors to win the game.

Secondly, there is another difficulty in achieving a “50+triple-double”.

That is, Qin Yue must consume more ball possession in the game, especially more shots, to achieve this achievement.

Judging from Qin Yue's current status in the Warriors,
This difficulty should not have been a problem for Qin Yue to score a "50+ triple-double" on a certain night.

But right now, in order to ensure that the Warriors can compete for the first place in the Western Conference, Qin Yue has to make winning the team his priority in the game.

So only on those nights when Qin Yue thought he had an excellent hand, he would increase the number of firings.

But Qin Yue's playing style determined
He is the kind of player who can suddenly deal a wave of high critical damage within a certain period of time and take the opponent away directly.

So this goes back to the first question.

That is to say.
How can Qin Yue, who has an excellent touch, get a chance to play in the fourth quarter?

This season, among the games in which Qin Yue scored 40+ recently, only the previous game against the Magic did Qin Yue get about 4 minutes of playing time in the fourth quarter.

But in that game, the high efficiency Qin Yue gained through high-frequency back-to-the-basket shots also made it difficult for him to have as much physical energy as usual.

So, after some calm thinking,
Barkley discovered that there was a good chance he would lose his bet with Pippen.

Because Qin Yue wanted to achieve the "50+ triple-double" achievement.
It depends on his own condition, but also on the opponent's expression.

And now, with the Star Weekend approaching.
Barkley admitted that he did panic.

Although the bet he made with Pippen was that whoever lost would have to wear a maid costume and kiss the other's butt.
but.
No!

If he loses, how will Barkley face people in the future?

On the evening of the 6th, after finishing the TNT TV program "NBA Talk", Barkley immediately took out his cell phone and dialed Qin Yue's number.

On the phone, Barkley, who is always impatient, directly stated his purpose: "You have to think of a way! Isn't it just a '50+ triple-double'? Can you try a little harder? I am very disappointed with your recent performance, you know? You are the new GOAT of the NBA, why don't you care about the data at all? Don't care about the feelings of those damn teammates, just play a game for me!"

……

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(End of this chapter)