"Kevin, tonight you're defending against James, remember, you don't need to go hard with him, use your height to defend his projection, even if his projection ability is not strong, you have to defend with your heart."

Richard gave Durant the job of defending James directly.

This season is Durant's third season in the league, and compared with the previous two seasons, Durant has become much stronger, and his physical fitness has improved in all aspects.

This also makes Durant's defensive ability strengthen a lot.

The first two seasons of his career, that is, on the offensive end, can be seen in other aspects, but since the third season, Durant has completely exploded.

Although Durant has not yet reached his peak, his strength should not be underestimated, at least the small forwards ranked within the top five in the league have no problems.

"Huh? Coach, James is good at breaking, why don't I prevent his breakaway? "Durant is a little tangled.

"That's right, you just have to follow him until the basket, and we'll take care of the rest." Richard said with a smile.

……

At this point in time, most of the tactics used by various teams to deal with James are to let him shoot, not give a break, and stick to the basket.

For example, the Spurs have beaten James several times, which is the strategy used.

But Richard is a ruthless man, not only defending the basket, but also not even giving James a chance to shoot.

In terms of defensive projection, a player like Durant is simply a must, and Richard can't think of anyone who can match Durant in this regard.

Durant nodded, although he was looking forward to one-on-one with James, but now that Richard had arranged it, he could only accept it.

"Others gave me desperate shots tonight, and I'm going to teach the Cavaliers a deep lesson in this game."

……

Players from both sides began to enter, and because it was the home court of the Pirates, the entry of the Cavaliers players caused a wave of boos from the audience.

The Cavaliers are not very interested, if the lineup is neat, they still want to have a good fight with the Pirates, after all, the lineup they have formed, that is, they are rushing to win the championship, and if they want to win the championship in the East, they must pass the Pirates first.

But now with O'Neal, Jamison and Vallejo being "rested", the difference in strength between the two sides in this game has become even wider.

……

"Doot toot!" The referee blew the whistle for the start of the match.

At the beginning, Curry directly tried a three-pointer, but the iron missed.

On the contrary, his point guard in the position did not pass, and in the offensive round of the Cavaliers, he directly hit the first three-pointer of the opening game.

Although Mo Buchuan is a point guard, he is also a two-way guard type of player, who shot 43.6% from three-point range with the Cavaliers last season, and his three-point firepower is quite sufficient.

In terms of ball style, it is more similar to the little yellow hair Schroder who played for the Hawks and then the Thunder in later generations, of course, Mo Buchuan must be a lot stronger than the little yellow hair, not to mention anything else, at least the basket is not comparable to Schroder.

……

The goal that Mo Bu passed just now was to receive James's pass, and with the help of Anthony Parker's block, the goal was completed.

Then came the Pirates' offensive round, and this time Curry didn't rush to make a move, and he also knew that Richard took this game very seriously tonight.

After passing the ball to Roy's hands, Roy tossed and turned, straight to the basket, and now there is only one big Z in the Cavaliers' restricted area, and Roy did not encounter any too strong defense to complete the layup directly.

The current big Z is actually not young, as a player of the 96 golden generation, he is in a similar situation to Iverson at the moment, and he is also at the age of twilight of heroes, if Richard remembers correctly, after this season, Big Z was abandoned by the Cavaliers and joined the Heat on a one-year contract.

After playing this year, Big Z announced his retirement, and in recognition of the player who dedicated all his youth to the Cavaliers, the Cavaliers also retired Big Z's jersey.

The defense of the big Z at the peak is actually quite good, especially the one-on-one defense of the pile under the basket, which is even better than Yao Ming under normal circumstances.

It's just that now that he's really old, Roy's layup is also powerless, so he can only watch Roy score the ball.

……

When it comes to the Cavaliers' offensive round, although James has played the point guard position at the beginning of his career, even if he plays small forward at the moment, he is actually no different from a point guard, anyway, the team's ball must be in his hands, and he will dominate the ball.

This is also a helpless move, mainly because James does not even have the slightest ability without the ball at the moment......

It's not an exaggeration at all, James' off-ball ability is basically a little better than that of an interior player.

Of course, if you really say that there is nothing at all, it is definitely unrealistic, after all, even if ordinary people put it on the court, it can play without the ball, as for whether it can score, it is difficult to say.

James held the ball to the frontcourt, and Durant immediately pressed forward to not give James space to shoot.

Durant is the kind of player who is more obedient, and he can basically perform the work arranged by the coach.

What's more, it is the work that Richard has arranged for him at the moment, and he must be quite attentive.

Anti-projection, not anti-breakout, Durant kept it in mind, so he didn't take a step like normal defense against James, but got as close to James as possible and didn't give James space to jump and shoot.

……

James was also speechless, it was the first time he had enjoyed this kind of defense......

In the first offensive round that just ended, because Durant pressed himself defensively, he could use his strength to easily squeeze Durant away and get a chance to break through.

But after getting to the basket, Jordan Jr. and Milicic joined hands to strangle, and he had no choice but to divide the ball.

Although the goal went in in the end and he got the assist, it also made him feel that the situation was a little bad.

Under normal circumstances, playing this kind of team with strong interior defense, James has his own routine.

Even if the basket is not accurate, it is not that you can't shoot, the shooting rate is low, and if you find a few opportunities to break the fast attack, the shooting rate can be pulled back, so that when the game is over, the data is still quite glamorous.

But now the pirates are so ruthless that they don't even give him a chance to shoot, which makes him quite uncomfortable......

It's certainly okay to shoot, but when a player with a seven-foot arm and an excellent acceleration bounce is in front of him, shooting is definitely not a smart choice.

……

Roy unknowingly scored 8 points in a row at the beginning, while the Cavaliers were quite tangled.

Except for Mo Buchuan's opening hit to score in an athletic battle, in the next four or five minutes, the Cavaliers didn't even score a single athletic battle.

The Pirates are quite tough defensively, and it stands to reason that this intensity of defense should be prone to friction.

But the knights on the court are quite restrained, even if they sometimes suffer losses from the Pirate players, they can only swallow their anger.

No way, this is the home of the Pirates.

They knew very well that if they dared to make trouble under Richard's nose, their Cavaliers players would definitely suffer a big loss tonight.

Just endure it on the field, they don't expect to win this game anyway.

From time to time, Richard takes a key player and replaces him on the bench to keep the lineup competitive on the field.

Because there are also a lot of strong players on the bench, the lineup on the Pirates has always been quite luxurious throughout the game.

To the surprise of Pirate fans, Richard selected Matthews with the 30th pick in the second round this time was really a baby bump.

After debuting, I don't know if it was because of the bursting hand, or if I had such strength, and hit three three-pointers in a few rounds, which directly made the game enter garbage time.

The 30th pick in the second round was basically no different from losing the draft, but Richard still selected such a high-quality forward player.

The reason why Richard put Matthews on the court in tonight's game is actually mainly for the follow-up trade plan.