LeBron James, your house got robbed.

Chapter 57, 2.11: The Pivot

Miami Beach, Miami, Florida

Chen Shuo lay leisurely on the beach chair, gazing at the boundless blue sea, the soft white sand, the tropical palm trees, and the Latin mixed-race man wearing only a piece of cloth.

The generosity and enthusiasm of Latina beauties allow them to sway their bodies as they walk, showcasing the perfect curves of their bodies. They boldly look over, meeting gazes, and some even approach them to strike up a conversation.

Even though Amy stayed by Chen Shuo's side the whole time, helping him apply essential oils and massage to relax him.

No wonder this place is called the white man's morgue.

When Chen Shuo arrived here, he became lethargic, unwilling to move or think, and found happiness in it.

During the two-day holiday, apart from exercising with Amy to vent his frustrations, Chen Shuo spent most of his time on the private beach enclosed by the hotel.

Quiet, sunny, pleasant, relaxing, with no worries on my mind.

Such a peaceful and happy life is hard to come by.

On February 28th, the first game day after the All-Star Game, the Cavaliers gathered in Miami to face the Heat's Big Three.

This is also why Chen Shuo chose to vacation in Miami.

During the previous All-Star Weekend, Kyrie Irving scored 34 points and 6 assists to win the All-Star Rising Stars Challenge MVP, while the trio of Irving, Tommy, and Kawhi Leonard returned to the spotlight, with fans hoping to see them reunite someday.

In the Three-Point Contest, Thompson emerged victorious with 26 points, beating Kevin Love to win the championship and becoming the only rookie to win the Three-Point Contest.

In the All-Star Game, Kobe Bryant was crowned the All-Star Game scoring champion.

However, the combination of Paul and Howard gave them a significant advantage in the first half of the Eastern Conference semifinals, and they ultimately won the game without much trouble.

However, despite Howard's outstanding performance as the host, he failed to win the All-Star MVP award, which angered the home fans.

Chen Shuo looked up at the fans who were still entering the stadium. The fans in Miami were truly passionate, but they were also genuinely lazy.

This game was seen as a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals, with the Cavaliers considered the biggest obstacle on the Heat's path to the championship. The game was also scheduled to be broadcast live across the United States early on, which shows its importance and popularity.

However, the starting lineups had already been announced, and a large number of fans were still arriving at the stadium just before the deadline.

The starting lineups for both teams remained unchanged.

Spoelstra did not put the newly acquired CBA player JR Smith into the starting lineup, but instead kept him on the bench.

In theory, the Heat could have JR Smith play small forward, LeBron James play power forward, and Chris Bosh play center.

For a team that prefers one big man and four small men, this lineup is not unusual, but Spoelstra clearly has his own plans.

At the start of the game, Chandler played steadily, winning possession of the ball and passing it to Paul.

Chen Shuo noticed that Wade was standing in front of Paul, and although James was moving with Kawhi Leonard, his eyes were always scanning Paul.

The Heat's strategic intention is clear: to use the double-team of James and Wade to remove Paul from the offensive system.

Despite Paul's excellent ball handling, which allows him to make passes with almost no mistakes even when double-teamed by James and Wade, he still manages to overcome the odds.

But they also almost lost the opportunity to participate in the attack.

Chen Shuo glanced at Riley; the Heat must have studied a lot of Cavaliers' videos over the past half-season.

Paul's pick-and-roll is the starting point for all of the Cavaliers' offenses.

The match on the field unfolded exactly as Chen Shuo had imagined.

Paul is always double-teamed whenever he gets the ball.

In the first possession, Paul calmly passed the ball to Leonard.

The latter took a decisive shot when he was open, the ball hit the rim, and the Heat quickly launched a counterattack, with Wade making a long pass to James for a powerful dunk.

In the Cavaliers' second possession, the same double-teaming occurred, and this time Paul passed the ball to Thompson.

But Chalmers squeezed through the screen and got back to his defensive position before Thompson could shoot.

Chen Shuo frowned slightly. The double-teaming still affected the quality of Paul's pass. Under normal circumstances, Thompson could shoot directly after receiving the ball from Paul without needing to adjust.

Seeing no opportunity to shoot, Thompson dribbled down two steps and then turned his back to the basket, continuing to push down the court.

He took a mid-range shot with his back to the basket, but the basketball bounced off the rim again.

The ball had indeed entered Thompson's back-to-the-basket offensive zone. Chalmers, with his small frame, was good at chasing off-the-ball, but it was still a bit of a struggle to go head-to-head with Thompson's size.

With the offense and defense reversed, the Cavaliers quickly retreated on defense, thwarting another fast break from the Heat.

James stopped to reorganize, and he and Wade set a pick-and-roll against Thompson, also starting with a back-to-the-basket move.

The moment James dribbled the ball, his back muscles engaged, while Thompson, though not completely still, did not move noticeably.

Thompson's low-post defense has always been underestimated.

James bumped into the ball twice more, creating a sliver of space, and then turned and delivered a mid-range jumper.

The move wasn't very pretty, but the basketball went in cleanly.

James' face lit up with joy; he could try a few more back-to-the-basket mid-range shots this game.

Chen Shuo witnessed the goal just now and understood that this was the result of James' summer efforts.

Although he didn't learn Hakeem Olajuwon's footwork, he did learn the fluidity of the turnaround jump shot, which finally gave LeBron James other moves after he was locked down in front of the basket.

Turning back, Tyronn Lue surprisingly called a timeout.

Even Chen Shuo was taken aback until he saw Nass setting up tactics, and then he realized that the timeout was what Nass wanted to call.

Coach Lue's skill in personnel management is a major advantage, especially with Chen Shuo's guidance, which has given Nurse, Cole, and Longabadi considerable influence within the team.

Tyronn Lue was not unhappy about this; on the contrary, he was happy to see this situation.

This guy understands.

No matter how much work the assistant coaches do, the final honor will still go to the head coach. Fans won't delve into the coaching staff's situation, and most likely won't even know the assistant coaches' names.

After making some adjustments, the Cavaliers launched another attack.

Faced with a double-team from James and Wade, the Cavaliers no longer had Leonard and Thompson receive the ball directly. Instead, they had Garnett move up to above the free-throw line, near the top of the key, to receive the ball.

Garnett has the best vision position, which allows him to easily spot opportunities on the court and pass them to players who cut or bounce off the rim, and occasionally he can pass them to Chandler for a direct alley-oop.

Of course, the most important thing is that Garnett can hand the ball to Paul to restart the offense.

The most typical example is when Paul is double-teamed and passes the ball to Garnett.

James quickly rotated back to his assigned player.

During this process, Paul drives directly to Garnett, receives the handoff pass and attacks directly, or initiates a pick-and-roll with Garnett.

Garnett, as the fulcrum, or rather, a 2.11 fulcrum, brought the Cavaliers' entire game to life.

This change of direction actually increased Thompson's role in handling the ball.

Facing the Cavaliers' three-layer defense against James, the Heat gave Wade more freedom.

The latter's scoring ability in confined spaces is indeed quite effective in breaking through the defensive wall formation.

However, Chen Shuo noticed that Wade was already panting and leaning on his knees in the first quarter, and that forcibly breaking through the iron wall of defense came at the cost of his physical strength.

Both sides went all out from the start, but the score remained neck and neck, with the score fluctuating back and forth.

At the end of the second official timeout, Heat's new addition JR Smith entered the game amidst enthusiastic cheers from the American Airlines Center fans.

Spoelstra once again fielded a lineup with one big man and four small men, with Haslem at center and James at power forward.

The other three are DeShawn Stevens, James Jones, and JR Smith, all forwards with three-point shooting ability. JR Smith, in particular, has good driving and ball-handling skills.

Compared to the opening game between the two teams, the Heat's lineup during the transition period was more luxurious and well-balanced.

But the Knights weren't idle either.

Garnett and his mad dog squad also took to the court.

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