At the end of the first quarter, the two sides were tied at 24-26, and the Jazz still led the Suns by two points. After the Suns sent a small lineup in the second half, they didn't get a bargain in the hands of the Jazz, because the Jazz is also a small lineup, and under Sloan's tutelage, the Jazz's defensive toughness is very good, and there is no problem with single defense and supplementary defense. And the rhythm on the court was good, and it didn't let the Suns play a quick offense, so the Suns' small lineup rarely didn't play to their advantages.

You must know that in the last two weeks of games, the Suns almost relied on this unexpectedly small lineup to pull points on the court, you get two points, I get three points, you shoot one, I shoot two, the Suns' starters are already powerful, and the rotation lineup is so powerful, some weak teams are indeed unbearable.

And this one, Sloan showed the whole league how to deal with the small lineup, not to use the big one to chisel the Suns' interior line, but to use the big one to cut the inside line of the Suns, but to keep the small one against the small one, keep up with the speed, continue the offense, and maintain the suppression of the opponent. To that end, Sloan has increased his rotation, expanding his rotation to 11 players, giving every player on the court plenty of stamina and mobility to put the Suns under pressure defensively.

After the start of the second quarter, Leon still pressed Dior on the court, and after playing for about two minutes, the Jazz played more and more smoothly, and Halprin scored consecutive points under the basket to help the Jazz expand the difference to 6 points. As a result, Leon called a short timeout, and when facing a coach like Jerry Sloan, he couldn't be a hands-off shopkeeper on the sidelines, because he could really be targeted.

They had already been targeted by Pat Riley in the last game, and he didn't want to accept a losing streak, and during the timeout, Leon made a substitution, and he replaced Nash. In previous games, Leon's strategy was very different from D'Antoni's, where he would have Nash take off the court in the middle of the first quarter, then put him on the court at the end of the first quarter and play until midway through the second quarter.

Because the Suns are now much less dependent on Nash's organization, and Nash is 34 years old this year, a proper veteran, Leon must rationalize the use of Nash. Today, Leon slightly changed the rotation order to let Nash go down early to rest, because he needs to play a few minutes to the middle of the second quarter, and he needs to work hard to try to turn the advantage back to the Suns at the end of the first half.

At this time, Leon patted Dio on the shoulder and let Dio play. In this way, the Suns have a rather strange lineup of no point guards, with Turiaf, Smalls, Marion, Dio and a Hill on the court. This is the opposite of the previous small lineup, which belongs to the big team of the Suns, and because there is no point guard, the responsibility of the team's organization undoubtedly comes to Dio's head.

On the other hand, Sloan also sent Jason Collins as an inside lineman, and he seemed to have a premonition of what tricks Leon was going to use. Indeed, if you look at the lineup configuration, the Suns today are really similar to the Utah Jazz at the peak of the 90s, with point guards and power forwards dominating the offense, no talent at the center position, a few excellent sapper forwards on the front line, and then an all-around third point.

The third point of the Jazz was Hornacek, and now Leon wants Dior to do this third point, this third point is undoubtedly very important, maybe his data is not obvious, maybe he can't score points on his own, but from the trend of the whole game, such a third point player can provide great help to the team in the transition period, in the transition period, and at critical moments.

In the past, the Boston Celtics didn't need this third point because they had so many people who could play, but now the Suns are different, and their talent is not that high. In the past, D'Antoni asked Marion to do this third point, but unfortunately Marion's data was enough, but in the playoffs, his technical characteristics determined that he could not do such a third point.

Jascovy Hughes also has the ability to do this third point in Leon's opinion, but after comprehensive consideration, he thinks that Dio is more suitable, because the Suns don't have Duncan on the inside, they only have Stoudemire, and they already have Nash on the outside. Of course, Jasco Vysius will not give up on this point, because their goal is not just the Spurs.

After replacing Dior, the Suns instantly became a big lineup, and the Jazz also stuffed Collins and Boozer on the inside, and the score was still Jazz leading. At this time, Xiao Si began to exert his strength, he and Dio did a blocking and pick-and-roll cooperation, after receiving a pass from Dio, he stepped past Boozer and made a left-handed layup.

The Jazz just made a substitution, and the defensive rotation has not been done well, so this ball should not be defended by Boozer, but the Suns have a lot of insiders, and as soon as they squeeze and change, it will become Xiaosi and Boozer in the opposite position.

Turning around, Boozer received a pass from a teammate on the outside, took a step inside the three-point line on the right, and hit a mortar shot to catch the Suns off guard. Boozer's feel is okay today. After the goal, Boozer also yelled at Dio, and after changing to a big lineup, the Suns did not let Turyaf defend Boozer, but continued to let Dior and Boozer die.

At this time, Dio played point guard on the court, and at this time his height advantage was revealed, holding the ball in the high post and having a wide field of vision. Hill started running non-stop on the pitch, and the 35-year-old looked tireless on the pitch. Xiao Si came out to cover Dior, and the two looked like they were going to block again, but Dio suddenly threw a high pass to the inside, and Turiaf jumped up and scored directly in the air!

The Suns played a variant of UCLA tactics, in which the No. 1 position was supposed to hand the ball to the interior after the pick-and-roll, then cut into the air himself, the wing was pulled apart, and the outside receiving the ball was then stuffed high to the inside to assist his teammates to score. But after Dio played the No. 1 position, he would not cut in the air, the people on the flanks cut in the air, and after Xiao Si pulled out, Dio directly passed the ball to the inside.

This kind of coordination is more concise, and it also tests the player's ability to play the ball in an instant, this is the first assist of Dio in this game, Turyaf scored after the two high-fived, Dio felt that his muscles were suddenly much easier.

Then, the Jazz also played a UCLA match, but because the Suns had a lot of insiders, Xiao Si directly fanned Collins' layup with a cap, and Dior got the ball and slowly pushed back. He pouted his ass as soon as he passed the half, and the person who defended him was Haplin, at this time he saw Xiao Si who cut in from the middle, and Dior would hesitate in the first quarter, but now he no longer hesitates, a one-handed pass, Xiao Si jumped up to get the ball, and jumped up and directly split the dunk, and scored two more points!

Two beautiful passes in a row gave Dio confidence and he was also strong on the defensive end, no longer passively defending, but taking the initiative to attack, sticking his body to harass Boozer before he could catch the ball.

In this way, Boozer became very uncomfortable all of a sudden because of his relatively weak lateral movement ability, slow attack movements, long attack lead time, and relatively high requirements for feeding the ball. It is impossible for Xiao Si to defend Boozer like this, and Turiaf will suffer in footwork, and it is only then that people realize that it is actually a good choice for Dio to defend Boozer.

In the absence of a big man, it would be wise to use a more flexible counterpoint of the same height to deal with Boozer.

Under the harassment of Dio, Boozer couldn't get the ball, Boozer didn't touch the ball in three consecutive rounds, Dior's defensive intensity rose to the playoff level, and his offense was getting smoother and smoother, when his passing threat increased greatly, his offensive space was pulled out, and he hit a three-pointer from the outside, which directly helped the Suns overtake the score.

Dio dominated the Suns' offense and defense for a short period of time, successfully helping the Suns turn the situation around, Jerry Sloan had to call a timeout, he was going to change the main lineup again, Boozer was on the court, no matter how well the system disguised it, his defense was flawed after all. He didn't expect that after Leon discovered this flaw, he used a Dior to expand the loophole.

This kid really has a hand in targeted employment. He didn't know that Leon was also relieved, fortunately, Dio played well and succeeded in his own fight, otherwise this big lineup would not play well and would have died miserably on the field.