Riley, the old fox, felt right, and saw O'Neal being targeted at the beginning of the first quarter, so he replaced O'Neal in the first half of the first quarter and replaced him with Alonzo Mourning.

Then, the Heat began to slow down, using Davis's personal ability, fighting with Haslem's aggressive basket, scoring consecutive points under the basket, and slowly closing the difference.

Because the Suns did not have Xiao Si, their offense was naturally prone to become unstable, and they rushed at the beginning, and when they came back from a pause, they missed three shots, and the two sides went back and forth to play iron consumption, and by the middle of the first quarter, the score became 15:11, and the Suns led the Heat by 4 points.

The Heat's offense wasn't much higher, and at this time, with a foul by Mourning on the inside defense sending Marion to the free throw line, both the Heat and the Suns began to make substitutions.

Riley replaced O'Neal on the court, and the Suns' Leon unsurprisingly replaced the five-man lineup, this time he still used Brent Barry, obviously Dudley's performance in the first two games did not satisfy him, and he would rather use the thin and fast Barry than the young and strong Dudley.

Because the most important thing in the five-small lineup is the offense, as long as the offense can play efficiently, then the defense doesn't matter even if it's a little worse.

But when there's an O'Neill on the opposite side of the line, and you still use five, then it's a bit of a problem, and Boris Dior, as the team's center forward, has to defend O'Neal.

After Marion hit one of the two free throws, it was the Heat's turn to attack, O'Neal, who had rested on the bench for a while, was full of energy, and asked for the ball in the ribs, he opened his arms and pouted, and Dior was completely blocked by O'Neal.

O'Neal took the ball and pushed it back, Dio wanted to withdraw the stool, but O'Neill was experienced and didn't fall for it at all. O'Neal still hung up on the basket for a while, and when he came down, he took two overlord steps, and he was almost the last dragon in the league.

And the Suns, who were replaced with a small lineup, completely opened up the offensive formation, and there was no one in the three-second zone, which made O'Neal very uncomfortable, Dio took the ball and pulled it out, until it was outside the three-point line, and then Marion cut into the basket from the wing, Dio made a high pass, and Marion wanted to come to an aerial relay.

But Haslem disagreed, and he and Marion jumped at the same time, and the confrontation in the air caused Marion to be unable to complete the air catch, but he just picked the ball, turned and hooked again, and missed. O'Neal turned around and grabbed the backcourt rebound, and the Heat fought back.

It's still O'Neal, he cut in the middle of the counterattack, and directly hit the basket to carry Dior, white chocolate is a straight stopper, O'Neal turned around and hit an easy hook hand, scoring 4 points in a row!

At 15:16, the margin was narrowed to only 1 point by the Heat.

After that, the two sides exchanged offense and defense, and the Heat also took advantage, and the Heat ended the first quarter with a one-point lead over the Suns at 31:30.

This makes Leon's small lineup look a little useless, three games in a row, as long as the small lineup loses points, as long as Turiaf can control the situation, if it is replaced by other coaches, he would have smoked his mouth and changed back to normal play. But Leon clearly doesn't see it that way, and he thinks the players haven't found the right way to play when they're at a height disadvantage.

The sense of rhythm, self-confidence, and tacit understanding all need to be played slowly. He strongly believes in his own philosophy and ideas, so for most of the second quarter, the Suns still dominated the small lineup. Nash stepped up again and scored individually when the team needed it. This season, Nash has played more Kobe-like, and thankfully, he's really in pretty good shape.

At the end of the first half, the Suns tied the Heat 59-59, Nash scored a team-high 15 points in the half, and Shaquille O'Neal scored 18 points on the opposite side, which made people feel refreshed.

At half-time, Dan D'Antoni and the rest of the assistant coaches complained to Leon why he was using this obviously leaky little lineup, and where was his power? Also, is it against his style to continue to let Nash fight like this?

Leon didn't give a positive answer to this, he just said, "I trust my teammates, they will find the best feeling to play this lineup." ”

In fact, in the recent training, Leon has given careful guidance, including some tactical details, but the players will inevitably play according to their old habits when they really get on the field.

For example, sometimes too much passing the ball, or hesitation in the choice of breakthrough or shot, and habit problems when blocking and picking, this cannot be corrected in two or three sentences.

Steve Nash is the only player who has truly grasped and implemented Leon's intentions, and he is turning himself into a scorer, assist-assist killer, delegating part of the organization's tasks to make himself more flexible and aggressive on the offensive end. Others are slowly adapting to the change in their attacking roles in the five-small state.

In the locker room, Leon constantly emphasized that in the case of a small lineup, he must play more flexibly, take advantage of mismatch and space advantage, and give full play to his aggression.

"Everybody has to be an attacker, take the initiative to attack, not wait for Steve to feed you the ball!"

This is what Leon has said the most in the past few days, the Suns' players are used to being fed by Nash, and the result is that in the playoffs, the pressure on Nash's shoulders has increased dramatically, and once Nash can't hold on, others can't stand up.

At the same time, Dio was scolded by Leon again, in the three games when Xiao Si was away, Dio played average as the main interior line on the field, and did not reach the height of the French magician in 06. Changed Sean Marion to play the center position, changed Dio to the number four position, and the main area of activity was raised from the lower back to the top of the arc, further improving his passing ability and long-range shooting ability from the outside.

After making this adjustment, the Suns' offense was more fluid in the second half, because the players played more aggressively, played on their own, and made fewer turnovers. Although not every offense worked, the whole team was very active in rebounding in the frontcourt, creating more offensive opportunities.

On the Heat side, they still focus on the interior line and use O'Neal to drive the team's offense. But O'Neal was getting older and lacking in energy to begin to show, and he took a little too many shots in the first half, and in the second half it was Marion who defended him. Although Marion still couldn't withstand O'Neal, O'Neal, who had a declining physical strength, began to miss consecutive attacks.

Once you don't score, you have to be counterattacked by the Suns, and in the counterattack, Jascovitius's three-point shot came extremely fast, hitting three points in two consecutive fast breaks, and the score was pulled away at once. It was the only two three-pointers he hit in the game, but they were the two three-pointers that changed the game.

At this time, because the Heat did not have Wade, their chasing points began to become difficult, and Riley had to press O'Neal to the bench to rest more, and without O'Neal, the Heat's offensive system was messed up and became a piecemeal game that relied on the individual ability of the players and relied on small cooperation. An undersized power forward like Haslem has almost no role on the offensive end if he doesn't have the containment of a super center on the inside.

Once O'Neal is off the court, the Suns have an innocent five-small lineup, playing the Heat with Mourning as the center, and the Suns players easily do not break through inside, but constantly use the blocking and dismantling to find misplaced opportunities, and then launch one-on-one attacks on the baseline, the horn position and the middle. Mourning didn't do anything other than protect the backcourt rebounds, and the Suns defensive rebounds on the offensive end were well protected in the second half, and the Heat didn't have any chances.

Leon watched the Suns' performance from the sidelines, and he knew that the players were finally playing to the point. As for the Heat, O'Neal sits on the bench sweating profusely, he is 35 years old this year, his weight is still around 300 pounds, and there is a trend of further upward movement, he will definitely not become that peak monster again.

In the NBA, the Behemoth grows old and is defeated by new Behemoths, but now it looks like there will be no new real Behemoths.