Chapter Twenty-Three: On the Spur of Tai Chi
Liu Han's 50+ points in two consecutive games have put him in the media spotlight again, and since he and Jordan left the NBA one after another, there have been few players in the league who have led teams to victory and scored high points on their own. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info
In addition, a game like Liu Han, who scored 50+ points and obtained a triple-double, has never appeared in the history of the league. Although McGrady also played a super stat of 46 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists last season, such data is still a little bit compared with Liu Han.
Although the Mavericks are advancing all the way under the leadership of Liu Han, there are also some people who smear the Mavericks for various reasons, such as the Mavericks' defense is sparse, and the offense is all dependent on Liu Han's singles, and the Mavericks are the league's third-rate teams without Liu Han. In fact, this malice comes down to the rival teams from the Mavericks, who don't want to see an overly tough team take the glory they deserve, so even if it doesn't affect the Mavericks, it's good to be disgusted.
However, the Mavericks' next opponent is not the weak team in the mouth of some media, the Spurs are the champions of last season, although the Spurs have performed average since the beginning of this season, and the results of three wins and three losses so far are really not impressive, but everyone knows that the Spurs have a habit of slow heating.
And the Mavericks are still playing away, they have experienced two consecutive away games, which is undoubtedly a test of the players' physical strength, after all, the Mavericks' "shelling" tactics are quite physically demanding.
The Spurs are now one of the representatives of defensive teams in the league, Popovich studied under Larry Brown, but his current tactical system is a sublimation of the defensive system emphasized by Larry Brown, if the Pistons coached by Larry Brown emphasize confrontation and pay attention to the team's "American style", then Popovich's Spurs team is very "Tai Chi" flavor.
Chinese probably know that Tai Chi pays attention to "internal strength", and the core idea is "static braking", which is very consistent with the performance of the Spurs now.
In addition to Tim Duncan and Ginobili, who are now the stars of the league, almost all other players on the Spurs team are low-pick or even second-round picks, and even non-draft players, typical of which is Bruce Bowen.
In the style of Tai Chi, this seemingly slow boxing method actually has some ruthless tricks, not to mention "flirting with yin feet", there is also a trick called "skimming and beating", which is specifically a ruthless trick to go to people's lower body, and Bruce Bowen is the "skimming and beating" in the Spurs team.
The non-draft player initially failed to find a suitable job in the NBA or even the NBDL and had to travel to Europe to find opportunities, but then Popovich introduced him to the Spurs, and he quickly became the team's one-on-one defensive leader, and his all-encompassing defensive strategy made him a number of enemies in the league, such as Vinson Carter, who has always had a good temper, and threatened to kill Bowen.
Popovich is very good at spotting the brilliance of his players, and under his tutelage, these low-pick or second-round picks can become suitable "bricks" for the Spurs to use, and after the game, these "bricks" may not be able to build tall buildings all at once, but at least they are suitable for smashing people.
If these are the "internal strengths" of the Spurs, then the slow-paced style of the Spurs is the embodiment of "static braking".
Last season, the Spurs averaged just 95.3 points per game, their highest in recent seasons, but they conceded just 90.4 points.
The Spurs rarely play fast break in the game, they always end the offense with positional battles, and they also drag the opponent into slow positional battles, where the Spurs' strengths begin to show, whether it is teamwork or individual singles by Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker, which can only be used in positional battles.
The collision of such a Spurs team against the lightning-fast Mavericks, two teams with different styles but belonging to the same state and the Western Conference is undoubtedly very attractive to fans.
So this game between the Spurs and Mavericks got the opportunity to be broadcast live across the United States.
Liu Han, who came to the AT&T Center in San Antonio, felt the frenetic atmosphere here, compared to when he came here a few years ago, the fans here are now more confident, but also a little more wild, this atmosphere does not match the style of the Spurs, but it also shows how popular the Spurs are in the local hand.
"Liu, I'm so happy to see you again, haha, Elto also said when he would go to Spain to watch your game, but now he has to fly across the Atlantic to see you again."
During the warm-up, Tony Parker first walked to Liu Han's side to greet him.
Tony Parker is full of admiration for Liu Han and his fervent gratitude, and if Liu Han hadn't brought him to the United States to go to college, he wouldn't have been able to gain Popovich's trust and stay with the Spurs.
"I'm glad to see you, Tony, is that Elto guy still working on his sporting goods store? Maybe he can be a store for my brand. ”
For that lad in Lille, Elto? Parker, Liu Han also misses a little, it was there that he first came into contact with football.
"Seriously, I'm really looking forward to playing against you, but you have to be careful in the game, some of the guys on our team aren't that open."
Parker kindly reminded Liu Han that everyone knew who they should pay attention to.
"Thank you, Tony, don't worry, I'll pay attention, it's not the first time we've fought each other, is it."
Liu Han "educated" Bruce Bowen when he was still on the Lakers, so he knew Bowen's methods very well.
In fact, Liu Han is looking forward to playing with Tim Duncan in this game, in the season before he left the NBA, he saw the power of this big man who was born as the top pick in the draft, and now the other party has won his championship, I believe there has been a huge improvement, and now Liu Han is eager to see the progress of this big man with a somewhat "sluggish" face.
Nowitzki is also full of fighting spirit in this game, after all, in the Western team, the big forward position can compete with him for the All-Star starter is Tim Duncan, and he hopes to use this game to prove his strength.