Ramsey looked at the stats table in his hand, which is the record of the team's statisticians in the first half of the statisticians on both sides, which provides reference for the coach's decision-making.

Ramsey doesn't care about shooting percentage, rebounds, assists, etc., he cares most about turnovers.

In the "turnovers" column, the Denver Nuggets had as many as 12 turnovers in the first half, nine of which came in the second quarter.

By comparison, the Trail Blazers had just six turnovers, three in the first quarter and three in the second.

In such a comparison of mistakes, the Nuggets are only 1 point behind the Trail Blazers, the main reason is that the Nuggets' shooting percentage is really very high, and their strongest scorer Inglish scored 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting and 4-of-4 free throws in the first half.

The Nuggets have a shooting percentage of 51 percent, which is 4 percentage points higher than the Trail Blazers, so although the Nuggets have many mistakes, they can rely on high shots to maintain the score gap.

But the many turnovers highlight a problem for the Nuggets, you know, the Nuggets, as a team with high scores and more offensive rounds, his average number of turnovers per game is lower than the league average, which shows that the Nuggets are a team that works very well together and has a very good offensive operation.

And tonight against the Trail Blazers, who did not have a lot of defensive intensity, the rhythm of the game was also the fast offensive and defensive transition rhythm they were familiar with, and there was only one reason for so many mistakes - there was a problem with their physical strength.

Before the game on the 30th, on the 28th, the Nuggets had just finished the fifth game of life and death against the Spurs, and they only had a day of rest before starting the semifinals with the Trail Blazers.

If the Nuggets are still very physical at such a shooting percentage, then their turnovers will be controlled at about 7, and their score will definitely soar to more than 70 points.

Ramsey seized the possible loophole of the Nuggets and launched a confrontation with the Nuggets in the first half, knowing that such a continuous and rapid offensive and defensive transition is very demanding for the physical strength of the players, and it is not easier than slowing down the positional battle to play confrontation.

At the same time, Ramsey asked Gan Guoyang to only play at the beginning and end of each quarter, because the beginning is often the acceleration period, and the end is the closing period, and the rhythm will be slower, Gan Guoyang can play more roles on the court, and the middle section is generally when both sides are spread out, and it is really a waste to let Gan Guoyang do switchback and run on both sides.

However, the third quarter was different, and Ramsey decided to break the Nuggets in the third quarter.

"The halftime period is over, the players on both sides are back on the court, the score of the first half is 67:66, a high-scoring game, let's see how both sides will play in the second half, the Nuggets take the lead."

The Nuggets' point guard is a veteran of the Trail Blazers, a long-time underrated player — Fat-Leaf.

The 6-foot-3-inch small man has been playing as a substitute for Valentin when he was with the Trail Blazers, and his performance on the court is also mediocre, averaging 10 points and 5 assists per game is no problem, and he can be said to be a very qualified rotation player.

But after coming to the Denver Nuggets, in this system that advocates offense and unrestrained freedom, some of his buried talents began to be discovered.

This season, as the starting point guard of the Nuggets, he played a full 82 regular season games, and the increase in statistics is inevitable, he averaged 12.8 points per game, 7.5 assists per game, and even more amazingly, he also averaged 5 rebounds per game! Last season, it was 2.7.

In the 80s, it had not yet fully entered the era of national rebounding, and the rebounds of small players were not so much called grabbing as picking up, and Leaf was able to "pick up" five rebounds per game, which has to be said to be very remarkable.

His performances have also drawn attention to his versatility, and Leaf has naturally begun to build the confidence of a starter and even a star player.

At this point, he is facing the Trail Blazers' starting point guard, Daniel Valentine, who has been weighing on him for the past two years.

"Leaf is on the ball, the former Trail Blazers point guard is doing well with the Nuggets at the moment, and his former 'top boss' Valentin is defending him, and I think they've done that countless times in practice in the past...... Leaf passes Valentine and breaks through from the middle lane! ”

Leaf is taller than Valentine in height and has an advantage in weight, so Leaf dribbled sideways to Valentine, then squeezed with his body, and then turned around and ran Valentin inside, leaving Valentin behind, Valentin's defense was obviously out of position.

If it was the defense of the Trail Blazers in the first half, no one stepped forward to make up for the defense, and Leaf could directly make a pull-up jump shot, and with his mid-range shooting percentage, there was a good chance that the ball would easily go into the net.

But the defense of the Trail Blazers in the second half was different from the first half!

"Gan stepped forward to make up for it, he surrounded Leaf, Valentine followed from behind, he pulled out Leaf's ball!"

Gan Guoyang's supplementary defense led to Leaf's mistake.

In Ramsey's eyes, Gan Guoyang's supplementary defense is the best in the entire NBA, because Gan Guoyang's supplementary defense is never "making up for the dead", but "taking precautions", he can always shoot in advance and be ready to make a remedial response for his teammates' defensive loopholes, instead of waiting until the opponent has rushed in from the loopholes and went straight to the basket.

However, it is not a good thing to be too active in supplementing defense, at the beginning of the season, Ramsey even asked Gan Guoyang not to be so active in supplementing defense, because the NBA is not NCAA, there is no area defense, and the consequence of Gan Guoyang going to supplement defense is often a clean leak under the basket.

Now, after a season of tempering, Gan Guoyang's supplementary defense has achieved "fast, ruthless, and accurate", which can not only quickly predict, but also act fiercely when making up the defense without giving the opponent room for it, and most importantly, he has begun to know when to make up and when not to make up.

Leaf's ball, the Nuggets' interior line is still on the line at all, and Gan Guoyang is not too worried that Wayne Cooper can directly receive the ball and dunk from outside the three-second zone.

So he didn't hesitate to press with a ferocious supplemental defense, which led to a mistake by Leaf and the Trail Blazers launched a fast attack.

"Glider, rush to the basket! Successful layup! It also caused a foul on Inglish! There is a chance to hit three points! Drexler's fast break was as unstoppable as ever, and at the beginning of the second half, the Trail Blazers' offense and defense made the atmosphere of the Memorial Stadium explode instantly.

"Penalty hit! At 70:66, the Trail Blazers showed a different defensive attitude in the second half, perhaps they were scolded by Ramsey at halftime. Of course, Shaunley didn't know that the Trail Blazers' change in the second half was actually arranged by Ramsey.

One offense and defense doesn't seem to mean anything, the Nuggets still continue their shooting offensive tactics, constantly moving the ball on the strong and weak sides to pull the Trail Blazers' defensive formation, and Inglish, Knight, Isele and Leaf are also looking for holes in the Trail Blazers' defense, ready to shoot at any time.

The scary thing about the Nuggets is that every one of their players has a very good autobiographical offensive ability, and Wayne Cooper is a little inferior, but his playmaking ability is not bad, and he is just providing cover for the other four.

Therefore, when the Nuggets' pitchers find that the opponent's defense is loose after getting the ball, they will make a decisive move.

However, in the second half, the Nuggets felt that the defensive holes of the Trail Blazers seemed to be much smaller all of a sudden, everyone's stickers were in place, the change of defense was quite active, and Gan Guoyang's tinker's defense was also in place.

Gan Guoyang was like a spider with a big web weaving, and began to sweep around the three-second zone.

This is Gan Guoyang's most common defensive responsibility in college - the box sweeper, and now Ramsey has also begun to explore Gan Guoyang's ability in this area, coupled with the Nuggets' weak interior line, Gan Guoyang began to attack unscrupulously.

"Knight breaks with the ball! Suddenly in the three-second zone, he was encircled, and he couldn't move! Turned and passed to Wayne Cooper on the other side, and Cooper made a layup...... The ball was slapped off by Gan and controlled by Karl again, and the Nuggets missed again. ”

Knight wanted to use his speed to directly hit the inside, but Gan Guoyang's timely defense made Knight unable to get up in the three-second zone at all, and he could only choose to pass the ball to Cooper.

If Cooper is an interior player with strong scoring ability, then Gan Guoyang would not dare to make up for defense everywhere like this, but Ramsey knows that this former player under him is just an interior blue-collar who averages less than 10 points per game.

On the inside, he can't afford to make any waves, and it's great to let him score two open shots, which is a completely acceptable loss for blocking the Nuggets' outside passing routes and offensive points.

And now, Gan Guoyang didn't even give Cooper a chance to score a layup in an empty position, turned around and cut off the ball in Cooper's hand with a knife, clean and without any foul action.

Now that the Trail Blazers are working the defensive end, they will be able to get more easy scoring opportunities on the offensive end.

After Carl took the ball, he handed the ball to Valentin, who advanced from the left side and watched the Trail Blazers players move.

After Drexler replaced Paxson as the starter, the Trail Blazers' fast break has changed somewhat.

In addition to Drexler's often single-handedness, the fast break of Paxson Vanderwicki's spread on both wings and followed quickly on the inside was lost because of Drexler's poor shooting level.

Instead, there's a more open-ended fast-break mode, with Van der Veric free-wheeling his flank lane, while Drexler is adamantly driven in the middle, with the two interior linemen also having their own fast-break lanes.

At this time, Vanderwich and Valentin were in a relatively more inward position on the left side, Valentin decisively passed the ball to Van Dewicki, and Vanderwig jumped up with his back to the basket to receive the ball, and then he passed the ball to the middle with a ground pass, at this time Gan Guoyang had run to the middle three-second zone!

"Gan receives a pass from Vanderwicki, catches the ball and lays up! Nice aggro fits! ”

At the beginning of the third quarter, the Trail Blazers beat the Nuggets a little confused with their tenacious defense, and the game was moving in favor of the Trail Blazers.

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