Chapter 724 [No Strength to Fight Back]
The Nets attacked, DeLong and Humphries blocked and broke down the right side.
Zhou Xuan let go of Humphries' pursuit and wrapped up DeLong with Scola while Lopez ran to the middle and pulled out of the basket. This move is exactly the same as the Knicks' offense just now. The difference was that Chandler followed, and instead of letting López go, he relaxed his defense against Humphries.
Zhou Xuan caught up with DeLong, and Scola withdrew to the basket to defend Humphries. DeLong hesitated a little in passing, and the change of defense was in place. With star teammates around him, Delon didn't shoot as hard as he used to, and he passed to Joe Johnson on the perimeter, who in turn gave it to Anthony. Melon singles, pull-up jump shot missed.
Accustomed to playing high blocking, Delong's organizational ability to withdraw from the two is seriously overestimated. Although he is often compared to Paul, Zhou Xuan, and Nash, he does not have the passing awareness of those three. In the Jazz system, he knows where his teammates are used to being and where they are dangerous when receiving the ball, so he assists a lot. Now that there are fewer tactics, he is not able to create chances, and he is not as good as Kidd at the peak.
In 2002, Kidd's first year with the Nets, leading the Nets to the Finals with a 26-56 record last season, and in 2011, Deron led the Nets out of the regular season.
Although Kidd was questioned about his shooting, he didn't complain about a bad team and a group of rookies from his teammates. DeLong has Rachid Wallace and Lopez by his side, and he was still complaining about not having a helper last season. That's the gap. Now that the helper is here, he doesn't cooperate well and starts complaining about the coach again.
The Knicks attacked, Zhou Xuan passed to Leonard in the frontcourt, and he ran to the weak side, Chandler took advantage of the situation to cut into the air, and Humphries switched to defend Zhou Xuan.
This made Zhou Xuan easily catch the ball and get a heads-up opportunity. The teammates pulled away. Zhou Xuan dribbled the ball under his crotch and handed it to his left hand, took a small step to the left, dribbled the ball under his crotch to his right hand, shook his right shoulder lightly, and pretended to break through the bottom line. Humphries moved sideways one step to block the breakthrough route, and Zhou Xuan changed direction again to his left hand, taking the ball and quickly moving sideways to make a quick stop jump shot.
This feint shook out of space, Humphries turned slowly and couldn't block it, and the 60-degree jumper went in! 7 to 0. In this position, Zhou Xuan is nine out of ten.
The Nets made a couple of passes and Joe Johnson hung to Lopez. Low-post singles are also a big offensive weapon for the Nets. Lopez leaned on Chandler and dribbled twice, then turned around and hooked his hands in the middle. His skills are solid, some say he is White Duncan, but he is more like the shorter Yao Ming because of his slow movement speed.
Chandler judged the feint to be accurate, and while maintaining his body confrontation, he jumped up and interfered, and the ball bounced out of the frame. Chandler turned around and got the rebound.
The Knicks attacked, and the players all pulled away, and Zhou Xuan singled out Delon at the top of the arc.
Zhou Xuan continued to dribble under the crotch, took a step to the right, dribbled behind the back from the crotch to the left hand, attracting Delong to move horizontally, and then dribbled under the crotch to the right hand, changing direction to the right. Delong's attention was highly focused and kept up with this action, but Zhou Xuan was not finished, the two of them pulled the ball up at the same time, strode against Delong's body and turned around, and the right horn position stopped and jumped to shoot the ball. López was slow to make up for it. 9 to 0.
Avery Johnson was a little anxious on the sidelines, and Delon couldn't prevent Zhou Xuan one-on-one. And this time the two showed a big gap, and they were no longer as evenly matched as they were back then. In the opening Knicks, the offense was launched from Zhou Xuan, but DeLong was sleepwalking.
The Nets attacked, DeLong wanted to return the color, he relied on Humphries's cover to break through, and Zhou Xuan chased the defense again to form a trap and stuck him on the periphery. Scola did a very good job of anticipating. DeLong passed Humphries, who did not dare to throw in the middle, and found a teammate when he was let go, and gave it to Anthony who cut in the air.
Anthony got rid of Leonard, and Chandler made up to block the breakaway. Anthony passes the ball to the low post, Scola has dropped back to fend off Lopez, Lopes turns from the left side to the middle to hook up, Chandler shrinks again.
The mobile interior always has an advantage in defense, although Lopez can shoot, but the speed is too slow, and he is interfered with again, Humphries wants to rush to grab the rebound, squeeze inside, Zhou Xuan is stuck in position, and he pushes it.
As soon as he felt Humphries's move, Zhou Xuan immediately fell to the ground, and the referee's whistle sounded, pushing people to foul.
Humphries' eyes were glazed, his hands were spread out, and he looked innocent, but the referee would not change the sentence. Last season he had a double-double, which was extremely powerful, but now he is playing a mess. His stats have dropped badly this season, and the energy that burst out when he divorced Kim Kardashian has been exhausted. In other words, Humphries was really unlucky, not only did he not get the property, but Kardashian also said that he had a venereal disease, which made him very shameless. He wanted to get the benefits from Kardashian by dreaming, that girl was not a fuel-efficient lamp.
The Knicks attacked, Zhou Xuan organized at the top of the arc, and Scola blocked and dismantled in the middle. At the same time, Matthews got rid of Joe Johnson in the bottom corner and Chandler screened off the ball and ran into the bottom right corner.
López didn't go out, and Zhou Xuan quickly passed the ball to the bottom corner. Matthews picked up the ball and spun around and made a jumper before Joe Johnson could catch up, and the ball hollowed into the net. 12 to 0.
Coach Johnson called a timeout. The new Nets played against the Knicks on their home court, and they were beaten defenseless at the beginning. This is something that the management, the coaching staff, and the Nets fans did not expect.
Su Qun said: "Zhou Xuan said in an interview that he was not optimistic about the Nets, although he had put together the lineup of the Big Four. The Nets don't have good chemistry between their stars, and they can't beat the Knicks. ”
Yang Jian said: "It's good that the Nets can pass the Heat this season, and I'm not optimistic about them. Anthony's stats have also dropped this season, and Joe Johnson has even become a role player, completely lacking the style of the Hawks. More stars is not necessarily a good thing, how many of these people are willing to work hard to defend? Last season, Wallace struggled at least defensively. ”
ESPN, on the other hand, is making a similar argument. Van Gundy said: "Lopes can only block under the basket, and the Nets don't protect the outside line enough. And Lopez's rebounding is not good, and Humphries is actually more suitable to stay inside. But let López defend it, his speed is too slow, and he can't keep up with the defenders. ”
"Magic" Johnson said: "The one who can play well in any system is a super player, and if the Nets want to compete for a championship, they need to trade, at least Deron and Anthony are not suitable partners, they both need to carry the ball. Joe Johnson is actually a player who needs to carry the ball, he can do anything, and he has also shown playmaking talent with the Eagles. It's better to replace Delon with a guard who can shoot three-pointers consistently without breaking through. ”
Van Gundy said: "Since the start of the season, the Nets have not faced many strong teams, but they have beaten the Heat, and today I have a feeling of being in full shape against the Knicks. ”
Johnson didn't make a substitution, instructed Humphries to strengthen the defense of the guard break, and instructed wing Anthony to shrink as well, so that Leonard could shoot better than Zhou Xuan.
The Knicks didn't make any substitutions, and the defense was still man-to-man. Deron passed to Joe Johnson, who got rid of Matthews with a pick-and-roll, pulled the ball to the perimeter to draw Scola into a switch and gave the ball to Lopes in the low post.
Lopes received the ball and crossed Humphries, who cut in the middle, and Matthews followed closely, keeping his body in contact, but he was half a head shorter.
Humphries took the ball and attacked, and Chandler turned and let go of Lopez in front of him. At this time, Humphries's weakness is undoubtedly revealed, he is a blue-collar worker with strong athletic ability, and his poor ability to cope is pitiful. Obviously his teammates were empty, he didn't pass the ball, took a big step with the ball and jumped, chose to go hard, and was actually ready to dunk through Chandler.
The idea was domineering enough, but Chandler was outside the reasonable collision zone, and the two fell to the ground after colliding, and the referee blew the whistle and hit people with the ball. Humphries was another foul.
The Knicks attacked, Delon was entangled in the frontcourt, after Zhou Xuan got rid of it by covering, Humphries defended it, Zhou Xuan passed the ball to Leonard who received it, and he relied on Chandler's off-ball cover to rush to the bottom corner.
At this time, Matthews went to the bottom right corner again, opening up the space. Leonard took advantage of the situation to divide the ball, and Zhou Xuan faced Lopez's lateral defense on the left side to open the distance, and took three strong steps, and the distance was far away, and the left hand was low to pick up the basket.
His left hand didn't feel as good as his right hand and his shot was missed, but Scola got to the basket first, grabbed the rebound and immediately got on the go. Anthony was quick enough to get the ball down with a big hat. This domineering cap has finally boosted some morale. Joe Johnson was about to go down, but Delon picked up the basketball but didn't pass it and fell into position.
The chemistry of several people is really bad, and Delon belongs to the kind of person who fights in a positional battle with one board and one eye, and doesn't like to play fast breaks. Lopes is here, and he feels that the success rate of the fast break is not high. Although his teammates are famous, he is not optimistic about Joe Johnson's success in single-handedly beating Matthews. Both of them are not bad in strength. But once he fell into position, Chandler's defensive role was able to be brought into full play.
In the next round, the Nets passed the ball several times, but they still couldn't find a good opportunity, so they could only play single. Anthony received the ball in the low post on the right side, dribbled twice with his back, squeezed Leonard away with his body, and turned sharply to the baseline. Chandler made up again. Anthony pulled the lever in the air and forced a layup, the two had physical contact in the air, Anthony threw the board with an irregular movement, the ball fell into the basket, and the referee's whistle blew.
Anthony clenched his fists and celebrated the 2+1 game, but there was nothing to be happy about, it was too hard, and he hit the penalty as well. 12 to 3.
The Nets requested a substitution, and Reggie Evans came on for Humphries, who had already committed two fouls in the opening period.
Evans also held back his strength against the Knicks, when the Knicks poached him into the team and didn't give him a chance, he gave him almost nothing to the Magic in the middle of the game, which made him very unhappy. He's a very efficient blue-collar worker, and he's more efficient at grabbing rebounds than Humphries.
Of course, Ervin is also a blue-collar worker, lacking shooting ability, and can only defend and grab rebounds. The Nets have weaknesses at the power forward position. Just like the Rockets back then lacked the ability to evacuate.
At the beginning of the game, the Nets were completely at a disadvantage.