At halftime, the Heat led the Wizards by five points at home. In the matchup of the main lineup, the Miamians still had the upper hand, and Wall wanted to drive the team's offensive intensity through his own impact, but he was not very efficient under Addison's entanglement.

And Otto, who had a good performance in the last game. Potter & Marsin. Gortat also returned to mediocrity this time, and the Polish center forward was heavily defended by Whiteside, who had regained his confidence and self-knowledge, and could only rely on the advantage of experience to occasionally sneak up and score. And Otto. Graham Potter was in Ennis and Ruhr. Deng's rotational defense was badly lost, and his offensive skills were far from those of Pierce, and he couldn't even find space to shoot under high-intensity pressing.

After a halftime break, the Wizards wanted to make a comeback in the third quarter, but the Heat also maintained their excellent form. The two sides were tied at 25:25 in the third quarter, and neither was able to take advantage of it. In the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, the Heat had a certain advantage in the competition of the rotating lineup. Granger's big three-pointer with Shabazz. Napier's foul on the inside extended the home team's lead to 10 points.

"There are about eight minutes to go, a 10-point difference. Judging by the defensive intensity that the Heat showed in this game, if the Wizards can't find a better way to attack, this 10-point gap will be difficult to erase. Drexler watched as the main players of both teams came on, "The explosive scoring of core players is the easiest way to chase points in the playoffs, but I can't find a player with explosive scoring status on the current Wizards." ”

"John. Wall made 5-of-13 shooting, Bradley. Beal made 4-of-10 shooting, Otto. Porter made 2 of 7 shots...... It's a surprise that they're only 10 points behind now. "Bill. Wharton's eyes swept over the shooting efficiency of several outside players on the Wizards' record, "The highest shooting percentage is actually Paul. Pierce shot 7-of-13 from the field, which was a testament to how tough the Wizards' perimeter offense was.

"When we talk about the Heat this season, we tend to focus on their counter-attacking and pick-and-roll offense, and even subjectively think that this is a team that lives on offense. In fact, if we look closely at the Heat's stats, they have the lowest offensive rounds per game of any team in the league, and the offensive tempo is not fast. This is a team that is very good at counter-attacking, and their real foothold is defence, which can be called a blocking defence.

"The most important part of the counter-attack is to defend, to force the opponent to make mistakes as much as possible on the defensive end, and to create opportunities for counter-attacks. The Heat have been able to limit opponents to 97.1 points per game this season, making them one of only a handful of teams in the league to limit opponents to less than 100 points. You must know that when the Heat's restricted area defense was so weak at the beginning of the season, they can still suppress the opponent's average points per game to 99.4 points, that is, less than 100 points, which is a lever to measure whether the team's defense is good or not. Ruhr. Deng, Wade, Addison and even Ennis all have great defensive qualities, as well as excellent mutual understanding with each other, and the addition of Whiteside in the second half of the season perfectly fills the final piece of the puzzle in the Heat's defensive system. If such a lineup is 100% mentally and desperately defensive, it will be extremely difficult for anyone to challenge it. ”

The legendary center's remarks sounded like he was subjectively biased towards the Heat, and many Wizards fans couldn't help but curse when they heard this. Bill. Wharton said as if the Wizards had lost hope of a comeback in this game, and now there is still more than half a quarter to go until the end of the game.

If the field of John. When Wall heard this, he might agree with Bill. Wharton's words. Because he is now feeling a feeling of powerlessness that is extremely difficult and extremely difficult to rise in his heart, and this negative emotion makes his body more flexible......

Since the start of the season against the Heat, he has not seemed to play well enough against the Miamis, especially as his offensive efficiency is much lower than usual. Wall and Chris. Paul, Jason. Unlike point guards like Kidd, his big-picture vision and playmaking skills are indeed excellent, but he needs to rush up and use his impact to create offensive opportunities for himself and his teammates, rather than using deep passes to dispatch the team's offense. Once Wall's ball-handling impact is limited as much as possible, the Wizards' offensive intensity will drop significantly.

And the Heat's roster and defensive system just happened to be very restrained. Wall, a point guard who can keep up with him and is good at steals, a wing with excellent defensive ability and awareness, and an interior who is very good at blocking and pick-and-roll...... It's simply specifically designed to limit John. Wall designed. The Washington Wizards are averaging just 98.2 points per game this season, and their offensive lethality isn't particularly good. The Heat, who entered the playoffs, went to a higher level of defensive intensity, which made it even more difficult for the Wizards team with Wall as the absolute core to deal with. Just like the last one in Marsin. Gortat broke out, and they still lost to the Heat by as many as 12 points.

It's not that the Heat are much better than their opponents, it's that they happen to be very restrained by the Wizards' offensive characteristics.

***

"Offense!! Offensive!!! Heat fans in white home T-shirts filled every corner of the American Airlines Center, and the shouts merged into a converging and fierce cheer, rushing into the eardrums of every player in the arena.

John. Wall tried his best to keep himself out of the way of the shout, keeping an eye on Addison as he dribbled to cover him. The Chinese point guard's performance tonight is not eye-catching, and he has only scored 9 points, 6 assists and 2 rebounds so far, which is very mediocre among the main players. But the Heat, with his organization, were able to keep their offense relatively fluid, which was not easy in the playoffs.

But Wall never believed that Addison would be content with his performance in this game, and he had already learned the cunning of this rookie. At the critical stage of the game, if Addison, who had been inconspicuous before, suddenly broke out, the Wizards would probably be directly hit to the bottom. So Wall's instincts told him that the Chinese in front of him would definitely want to do something in the last 8 minutes, and Wall had to stop the other party's action.

Addison made a clear gesture to signal the wing to land near the corner, then let Whiteside cover before moving to the three-point line. It seemed that this was a regular pick-and-roll tactic, and Wall did not dare to let his guard down, and prepared in advance to go around the rear to chase Addison, who was moving through the cover. However, the Heat point guard just took a step to the left side of the dribble, and then slammed the basketball from the back to the right side of his body, and the speed with which the center of gravity twisted was staggering! The direction of the breakthrough changed to the right side again, and Addison, who was racing at high speed, quickly flashed into the three-point line!

——F*CK！ I knew it wasn't that easy!!

John. Wall cursed in his heart, but thanks to his explosive power, he turned and completed a retreat in the blink of an eye, blocking in the direction that Addison must break through. Addison saw that Wall was not thrown away, but reacted as quickly as he could, and he did not panic, his breakthrough steps suddenly stopped, his shoulders shook twice rapidly, and at the same time, he slapped the basketball twice in a row from behind him to in front of his body with both hands.

Addison's man-ball combination is one of the league's, if not second to none, and a few swings from his shoulders make it difficult for Wall to predict. Suddenly, his right hand holding the ball pulled the basketball back towards his waist, and his left hand also retracted, and the center of gravity pulled back was slightly raised, as if he wanted to force a jump shot.

Wall instinctively lifted his center of gravity and took a half-step forward with his left leg to block his opponent's jumper. But he didn't wait for Addison to jump, but there was another muffled sound of a basketball hitting the floor, and the figure in the white jersey in front of him suddenly turned into a shadow and wiped past him!

"Damn !!" The Wizards core muttered in his mouth, but his body didn't have time to adjust, and he was successfully broken through by Addison!

The cheers at the American Airlines Center were more than twice as loud as the one just now, and Addison, who had broken through his opponent sideways, jumped up from a step in the paint area and gently threw the basketball out with his right hand! The spinning basketball crossed Gortat's blocked palm and plunged headlong into the white net!

“HOO！！！ hat a great Fake Hesitation!! "Bill. Wharton roared loudly, the gray hair on his head seemed to be slightly messy from excitement, "This ball can be selected as the top five balls tonight!" Wall was completely deceived by Addison's feints!! ”

The players on the Heat bench all jumped out of their seats laughing loudly, waving their towels at the sensational breakaway score. The cheers in the stadium continued for a long time, and the scene that had just caught the eye was replayed over and over again on the big screen.

"With this goal, Addison's scoring tonight has finally reached double digits." Drexler watched the replay before smiling and saying, "If he gets into scoring in the final stretch, that's probably the last thing the Wizards want to see." ”

The difference between the two sides has widened to 12 points, which makes Randy . Fine sweat began to ooze from Whitman's forehead.

"Pay attention to the success rate of each round! Share the ball, guys, share the ball!! The head coach anxiously instructed the attacking players that the team's poor outside play tonight made him a little skeptical that the players would be able to get back into shape in the final minutes.

Wall watched his teammates run, Gortat, **, Porter, Beal and himself, and the court was already the strongest and most dynamic lineup the Wizards could come up with. Although they are playing away from home, if they lose two games in a row, everyone knows how difficult their situation will be when they return to Washington.

The expressionless indifference of Addison in front of him made him very irritated, and he was already 12 points ahead, but Wall could not find even the slightest look of joy and excitement on the face of this Chinese. Analyzing the psychology of opponents is a must for every point guard, but Wall can't see any emotions in Addison right now, let alone make predictions on both ends of the floor.

Unpredictable adversaries......

Near-targeted and rigid defense......

Score difference of 10 points or more......

The anxiety and frustration in Wall's heart burned more and more like a burning fire......