Leon's idea is very good, and the Suns are also undefeated in the opening season after taking the Bobcats, and they are at the top of the Western Conference.

A day later, though, they arrived in Atlanta, and against the Atlanta Hawks, it wasn't as good as it was against the Bobcats.

In the Hawks' lineup, there is Leon's old acquaintance Joe Johnson, and this year's Hawks have also formed a lineup with Joe Johnson as the core, with Assi Law, Al Horford, Josh Smith, and Marvin Williams as the starters. Among them, Al Horford and Asilao were the No. 11 show this year, and they quickly took the starting position of the team.

Now, Atlantans have high expectations for these two newcomers, and with the addition of a few other starters, the Hawks feel like they're going to shed their past status as a strong playoff team in the East.

Of course, the season has just begun, everything is still being adjusted, and a Western powerhouse like the Suns is undoubtedly a good litmus test.

Before the start of the game, Leon and Joe Johnson had a hug, the Celtics and the Suns are his old clubs, but in front of the championship and money, he must have chosen money, after all, no one will refuse a big contract of tens of millions, for Johnson, his championship dream has come true in Boston.

In the face of the old master and mentor, Joe Johnson showed no mercy, they played very strongly in the first quarter, their head coach Mike Woodson is not a general, this old black man who looks a little demented, has been an assistant coach in various teams for a long time, so his pre-game tactical preparation is quite homely, and he is a very meticulous coach.

In response to the current emptiness of the Phoenix Suns' interior line, Fox Leon is still thinking about the strategy of playing a small lineup, and Woodson's coping strategy is very simple, which is to let the forward line impact the Suns' interior line.

The Hawks started with Josh Smith and Marvin Williams, two 6-foot-9 tall forwards, and a Childliers on the bench, three 6-foot-9 or so, running and jumping forwards, who frantically attacked the Suns interior from the beginning of the first quarter of the game, fighting for frontcourt rebounds.

Originally, the Suns only had one Turyaf, and in the middle of the first quarter, Leon also replaced Turyaf with Brent Barry to continue experimenting with his five-small lineup, and as a result, the Suns continued to lose rebounds in the backcourt. Although Marion and Dio fought hard, in the face of three beast-type forwards, it was indeed difficult to withstand their impact without a tall inside topper.

At the end of the first quarter, the Suns trailed the Hawks by four points at 27-31, which was undoubtedly a bad start, and the first quarter was important for an offensive team like the Suns, a period that set the tone for the whole game. In the first quarter, they undoubtedly didn't set the tone, and they dropped several rebounds in the frontcourt, resulting in them not being able to play a continuous and quick counterattack, and Nash had to rely more on his individual ability to score.

Without Stoudemire, the ability to attack positional battles is much worse when the ball is conceded, and without the rotation of personnel brought about by quick counter-attacks, Marion and Dio will have much less attacking opportunities.

In the second quarter, Leon made adjustments to increase Turiaf's playing time, and at the same time, when playing a five-man lineup in the second half of the second quarter, he replaced Bale with Dudley and replaced Turiaf with Barry, so that the team has four forwards on the court, hoping that even a small lineup can add a little height.

However, Leon's adjustment didn't work, as Barry was so old that he could contribute passes and three-pointers on the offensive end, but he couldn't keep up at all on the defensive end and was toyed with by Joe Johnson. There is a Nash on the outside, and there are holes in the defense, and without Bell, there is really no need to worry about people grabbing frontcourt rebounds, because people shoot the ball directly.

This wrong substitution strategy led to the Suns not only not recovering the difference in the second quarter, but being further stretched apart, and Leon realized this mistake and immediately replaced Barry to let Bale re-enter the game. At this time, Leon especially hopes to have Grant Hill on the bench, and if he is there, the Suns' bench can be more fleshed out.

Compared with the chaos on the Suns' side, the Hawks are playing more and more smoothly at home, and their flying forward group is playing more and more hard, because the Suns do not have an inside line to top them. Childres, who came off the bench, grabbed rebounds in a row, and in the second half, he instigated the team's fast break to help the Hawks maintain their advantage.

The best performance on the Suns' side is still Nash, and the Phoenix has to rely on the 33-year-old white veteran, Nash was very efficient tonight, scoring and assisting a lot. The Suns' offense is actually good, but it's still not enough, their offense is completely insufficient.

Only Sean Marion played at a high level in the starters, and several others, including the bench players, played very average, and the Suns fell into a disadvantage in the offensive competition between the two sides. In the closing stages of the fourth quarter, Nash almost had a chance to turn things around with his three-pointers, but after hitting two three-pointers in a row to cut the deficit to one, the Hawks played a beautiful offensive match, and they missed Horford under the basket and let Horford go blue over the basket.

Then, the Hawks wrapped up Nash in advance, Nash gave the ball to Bell, Bell missed a three-point shot, Josh Smith got the rebound, and the Suns had to foul Smith to send Smith to the free throw line. Smith hit one of two free throws, Leon called a timeout and arranged a two-point strategy, which was successful, but there was no time, Joe Johnson played steadily at the free throw line, hit both free throws, and finally Nash missed a futile three-point shot, and the score was fixed at 110:106, and the Suns lost the game against the Hawks on the road.

This was the first game the Suns lost this season, and Nash scored a game-high 35 points and dished out 11 assists. But on the Hawks' side, three players scored 20s, Childreis had five rebounds and Josh Smith grabbed four. This gave the Hawks a lot of secondary offensive opportunities, and at the same time, it also caused the Suns to be unable to counterattack, and the offensive efficiency dropped significantly.

Efficiency, at the end of the game, Leon had this word in his mind, for the Phoenix Suns, their speed has reached the limit, and the 7-second offense is no longer possible. So if they want to get better on offense, they have to be more efficient, make every round more valuable, and make every shot option the best option.

That's why he's experimenting with smaller lineups, and it seems that there's still a long way to go. Back in the locker room, Leon did not make too many summaries, and briefly accepted an interview with reporters, and he was the only one to attend the post-game press conference, which ended hastily. After that, Leon called Cole: "It's better tomorrow, get Hill's contract done." ”