Chapter 155: The First Generation of the Heat Triumvirate

The Miami Heat are a real powerhouse in the East, a team that is very good on both ends of the floor, and they are currently third in the East with 25 wins and 9 losses. Second only to Jordan led by Flyer Michael Jordan and Pistons led by Grant Hill.

Miami has all the details you would expect from a top team, stars, coaches, records, markets.

The Heat have all these things, and as a team that only joined the MLS in 1988, the Heat's team building efficiency is much higher than that of other teams that entered the league during the same period. And all thanks to one man - the God Operator.

In September 1995, Pat Riley came from the Knicks and was appointed head coach and president by the Heat. With both trade and tactical powers in hand, Riley took over a drastic restructuring of the team, trading All-Star center tough guy Alonzo Mourning from the Hornets and All-Star point guard Tim Hardaway from the Warriors.

Two all-stars in perfectly matched positions, all-stars with perfectly complementary styles, and the chemistry they burst out with was amazing. Tim Hardaway changed his title as a defensive colander for the Warriors and reassured himself to hand over the defense to Mourning. And Mourning finally doesn't have to compete with Larry Johnson for the position of the team's boss, in the Heat, he is the absolute offensive and defensive core.

The classic combination of point guard and center keeps them soaring. The two players have achieved each other and played the best of their careers this season.

And the tactical set-up of the god operator Pat Riley was the catalyst for the team, and he combined iron-blooded defense with superstars. While allowing the stars to play very freely and comfortably to the best of their ability, the team's defense is among the best in the league. And under him, there are very few contradictions among the players, because Pat Riley is a very strong coach.

The Heat are not Mourning's team, nor are they Tim Hardaway's team.

The Heat are the team of God Operator Pat Riley.

From the team owner management level to the players, there is no one up and down the Heat who does not admire this perennial white man with a big back. He gives people an aura like the underworld boss in The Godfather, revealing majesty in mystery.

Speaking of which, this legendary coach is also a legend of the Lakers. Riley spent five seasons as a player in Los Angeles, including a 1971-72 season with an NBA-record 33-game winning streak and a 69-13 regular-season record (a record that was rewritten by the Chicago Bulls in 1995-96). In the playoffs that season, the Lakers also went all the way, and finally defeated the Knicks 4:1 to win the championship.

AFTER RETIRING FROM THE GAME, RILEY TOOK OVER THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS, AND HE LED THE LAKERS TO CREATE THE "SHOWTIME" ERA IN THE 80S, AND IS STILL TALKED ABOUT CREATING THE LAKERS DYNASTY, AND WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOUR TIMES IN 82, 85, 87, 88.

With the end of SHOWTIME's two core players, Abdul-Jabbar and Magic, Pat Riley went to New York to coach the Knicks, and led the Fish Belly Knicks into the Iron Knicks. It was only a number of defeats to Jordan, and Ewing's aging and management turmoil made him choose to leave New York for the warmth of Miami Beach.

The big black man who drove the Mourning and Hardaway trade is now eyeing the Mavericks who are being dismantled and rebuilt. The last remaining small forward in the Mavericks 3J combination, Jamal Mashburn, is highly regarded by him, and the two teams are said to be close to completing a trade.

If the deal is successful, the Big 3 will be born with three All-Star levels and perfectly matched positional features. The Heat will go from a playoff powerhouse to a championship contender.

The Big Three will always be Pat Riley's team-building ideas, and in the SHOWTIME era he had Magic, Sky Hook, and James Worthy. Now he wants to imitate this idea and build a dynasty again.

Although there are many strong teams in the East, there is only one championship-level team in the East, the Bulls. The single-core Pistons and the Heat, lacking role players, are just playoff-caliber powerhouses, and if the Marshburn trade is completed, the Heat will have the capital to challenge the Bulls.

The Heat's lack of role players is due to the trade between Mourning and Hardaway, and Pat Riley has been trying to figure out how to solve it. But this time Bowen was snatched away by Kobe.

Even so, Riley used some unremarkable players to form a striker. The shooting guard was the No. 19 pick in 2 rounds in '94, 1.93 meters of Wozen Leonard. The player, who spent 11 years in the league and averaged 11.9 points per game in his career, can shoot 2.5 threes on 41.4 percent shooting this season, is a top-notch spot shooter and a civilian player that Riley has scouted.

Although he was accurate on three, his defense was not very good.

At the small forward position, Rye uses Dan Marley, the 1.98-meter No. 14 pick in '88, who is also a three-point shooter and averages 5.6 three-pointers per game. That's a lot of sales in the league.

Similarly, white small forwards, not very tall and powerful. The defense is still sparse.

That's the Heat's malaise, point guards, point guards, and small forwards are not good at defense, and they are even defensive colanders. Although Patrley's use of the interior defense formed by PJ Brown and Mourning still made the team's defense look great in the regular season, the god operator knew that when it came to the critical moment, the team's outside defense would inevitably collapse.

That's why Riley is desperate for Mashburn.

Pat Riley left New York to build a team to beat the Bulls, and now he's on his way to his goal.

Before this game, the Heat and the Bulls had played three games this season, one win and two losses, and the Heat locked up the Bulls at 83:80 in that game on December 7, when Jordan scored 37 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists on 16-of-30 shooting.

But the Bulls' overall shooting rate is only 41.8%, the interior defense composed of Mourning and PJ Brown is too good, and the Bulls' offense is mostly lethal inside, which is like a surging river with a reef, so that it can't be broken. The game gave the Bulls their second loss of the season.

Pat Riley knows that with a win on Mashburn, the Heat can go one step further, both offensively and defensively, and that having a forward with both physical and offensive skills is what he can only dream of.

He even asked the price of Rant Hill several times, and he believed that as long as he gave him a Hill, he would be able to build the SHOWTIME dynasty again! He could ruin Jordan's championship dream!

He wants to be ashamed and return all the losses he suffered in New York to Jordan.

The Heat have a decent win rate against Western Conference teams, having previously won back-to-back victories over Houston and the Trail Blazers. Pat Riley is convinced the Lakers will be the next team they beat.

Pat Riley was ready for this game, and his defensive strategy was to use PJ Brown, an interior blue-collar player, to hold off O'Neal and then Mourning to help defend. At 26 years old, the young Mourning moved very fast, and PJ Brown was full of power to block O'Neal's first move. In Pat Riley's view, lock up O'Neal, and the Lakers will lose this game!