"All here?"

The 2014 NBA Finals, the day before the first game starts.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

76ers Team Center.

“1、2、3、4…… 13, 14, 15......" Stephen Curry stretched out his hand, nodded his head one by one, and finally nodded with satisfaction: "It's all here, coach!" ”

"Hmm......" Coach Rick Carlisle also nodded, looked at the players in front of him, and didn't speak for a long time.

What is the coach doing?

The players are a little bit confused, and tomorrow, about 28 hours to be exact, the first game of the finals will be played.

At this time, as is customary, it will be the last time the players gather to watch the footage of the opponent's last game together.

This Philadelphia 76ers team is too experienced, and to say that they have experienced a hundred battles is to say that it is too little.

Five years ago, when Chen Mu and his Philadelphia 76ers broke into the NBA Finals for the first time, his core teammates were Iguodala, Korver, Lowry, Iverson and others.

The Philadelphia 76ers are a typical defensive counter-attacking team.

With the terrifying forward blockade composed of Chen Mu and Iguodala as the core of the defense, point guard Lowry seized every opportunity to push a high-speed counterattack, relying on Chen Mu and Iguodala's double-line impact, as well as the range threat of Korver on the outside, to open up space and create efficient scoring opportunities.

Judging from that era, the championship trophy was finally snatched from the Lakers, Philadelphia, and there was a little bit of luck.

After all, it was the beginning of the golden age of small ball, and it was also the last glorious years when traditional interior and exterior superstars cooperated and triangle offenses were popular.

The Philadelphia 76ers, who are sandwiched in it, use a similar way to the Pistons Five Tigers to kill the Lakers F4 back then, starting from defense, focusing on the superstar card on the offensive end, and letting Chen Mu carry the whole court alone and fight with Kobe.

In the end, Philadelphia won, taking the first championship trophy of the Chen Mu era.

This also started the road of Philadelphia 76ers' dominance for four consecutive years.

However, one thing that few people notice is that Philadelphia's path to dominance seems to be the same every year: regular season hanging, the best record in the league, the top spot in the East to the playoffs, taking out strong Eastern Conference opponents all the way to the Finals, and then dealing a fatal blow to the opposing opponent.

And from the perspective of personnel composition, Chen Mu, Iguodala, and Korver have never changed, and it seems that the core is very stable, just a slight increase or decrease on this basis, and some sewing and mending work.

But in fact, the Philadelphia 76ers are also under the leadership of the creative Rick Carlisle, and every year, they are constantly evolving.

A year later, in 2011, the western powerhouses were turned on their backs by an old but magical calf.

In the East, the Philadelphia 76ers have entered the most powerful and terrifying moment of their reign in history.

Chen Mu is the main player on the inside, and although Lowry was lost on the outside, the young Curry began to take the lead and became a qualified starting point guard. Korver and Iguodala are still young and play quick counterattacks, and the Philadelphia 76ers are still invincible.

But due to the weakening of the perimeter defense, Carlisle made some moves that now seem quite unconventional. Putting aside the super counterattack speed of the lone martial arts, Carlisle transformed the Philadelphia 76ers into a positional team in this year's time.

Almost every ball is given to the inside, just like the Spurs of the year, while Chen Mu's strength has reached its peak, the offensive and defensive speed of the Philadelphia 76ers has also been suppressed to the lowest point in recent years.

Why? Take a look at Philadelphia's roster of players, and the reasons are self-explanatory:

Yao.

With Da Yao, the sixth man at the BUG level, the Philadelphia 76ers have the capital, and in the 48 minutes of the game, they have always maintained at least one offensive point on the court that has no solution inside. In order to maximize the power of internal and external combined positional warfare, most of Philadelphia's reinforcement targets this year were also locked on those veterans who had one-handed projection ability.

At that time, the alliance had gradually been swept away by the wave of fast attack. LeBron James, who switched to Miami, and his two brothers formed a strong triumvirate lineup. In order to contain the terrifying impact of LeBron James, countless teams have lightened and transformed their lineups and accelerated them in an all-round way to adapt to the new league storm. The only two strong teams that hold their ground and fight are the Chicago Bulls, and the other is the fastest team to play a year ago - the Philadelphia 76ers.

Going against the tide of the league, the Philadelphia 76ers are still unparalleled. Chen Mu's back, Yao Ming's back, plus Iguodala's fast offense and defense, Korver's outside long-range shot, and the peerless elegance of the demon Curry. Philadelphia's game has absolute superstars, super shooters, muscle collisions in the penalty area, and wonderful breakthroughs that make everyone riotous, and it is very good-looking.

After defeating the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals and undoubtedly entering the Finals, the Philadelphia 76ers still won the championship in the face of the decisiveness of the aging Mavericks.

Another year later, 2012, Philadelphia, changed again.

Yao Ming's retirement caused the thickness of Philadelphia's interior line to decline sharply. For several years in a row, only a low-pick draft qualification has prevented Philadelphia from acquiring high-potential rookie players.

At this time, the league has completely become a world of fast-break storms, and almost all teams are speeding up. If you want to stick to positional warfare without Yao Ming, it is obviously an impossible task.

Fortunately, at the draft before the start of that season, the visionary Philadelphia 76ers used a draft pick that had gone through multiple trades to get a young black man with poor Jordan facial features.

Jimmy Butler.

After a season of baptism, playing next to a superstar like Chen Mu, Jimmy Butler has made rapid progress.

Carlisle, who was keen, realized in the second half of the season that with Butler and Iguodala as the outside defensive combination, he was extremely strong in suppressing the opponent's forward line.

This year, Curry also transformed and became an All-Star player who broke the league's all-time record for three-point shooting in a single season. Combined with all these changes, the Philadelphia 76ers have once again ushered in a sea change under the leadership of Carlisle.

The center of gravity of the game is tilted, and Curry is more in control of the ball. On the second, third and fourth positions, the defense line composed of Butler, Iguodala and Chen Mu is impregnable, even if LeBron James and Kevin Durant see it, they will be frightened.

The backbone of the iron-blooded defense was once again injected into the body of the Philadelphia 76ers. The thirst for defense in the depths of the blood led Philadelphia to play the most terrifying defensive performance during the championship streak. In almost every game, the opponent's score is controlled to less than 100 points.

And back then, the only team that could score more than 100 points in Philadelphia's defense and still win with difficulty was the Sacramento Kings.

With the move of bringing Korver to the bench to play the sixth, Carlisle turned the Philadelphia 76ers into the most terrifying meat grinder team in the league. After killing LeBron in the Eastern Conference Finals again, facing the Thunder who were desperate for blood in the Finals, Philadelphia understated it and completely locked up the Thunder's three young offenses.

Three consecutive championships, this is it.

"And then it was last year."

Looking at the players' increasingly serious expressions, Carlisle continued: "Honestly, last year was our toughest year. There is great resistance to recruitment, and the old players have all retired and chose to retire, and without strong reinforcements, our squad has become quite thin. ”

"But it was also last year that our starting lineup got the strongest evolution, Stephen and Jimmy, they are already generals, and they are gradually climbing to their highest point at both offensive and defensive ends." As he spoke, Carlisle glanced at the backcourt combination of Curry and Butler: "For the sake of physical fitness, we began to selectively accumulate explosives. The first and third quarters are the key time periods for our outbreak. As long as you play at a level at these two points in time, the game will basically be spent. ”

The players nodded as they reminisced about that year.

"It's a desperate move." Carlisle continued: "We didn't have enough depth to keep our fitness at the top for 48 minutes, 82 games, dozens of playoff games. We have to be purposeful and put our precious physical energy to good use. This may seem like a bad thing, but in reality, it's a great thing. ”

The corners of Chen Mu's mouth raised a smile, and he understood what the coach meant.

"It's because we play at key moments, on the one hand, we have all the players in the squad who have the opportunity to work. Everyone knows that when our main team is resting, we have to maintain the score gap as much as possible, learn to control the field, and learn to suppress the rhythm. ”

Carlisle continued: "On the other hand, our main players can also burst out with the most powerful offensive fires in the shortest possible time, and their performance per unit of time is a career high. And this style of play also coincides with Stephen Gao's explosive 'mage-type' play, and Stephen played a career masterpiece. ”

So, in the Eastern Conference finals last year, Philadelphia once again defeated the Heat, and faced the rejuvenated Spurs in the finals, returning triumphantly again, winning four consecutive championships.

"And then there's this year."

Carlisle said: "The depth of our squad has dropped again, but like last year, the strength of our main players is the highest in their careers. ”

It's a double-edged sword, and the strength of the main players hides the weakness of the bench to a certain extent. The Philadelphia 76ers, who basically rely on six people to fight the world, can already pass all the way through the main players just by relying on the performance of the main players and break into the finals for the fifth consecutive year.

But this is also the only time that Philadelphia's tactical system, in two years, has not changed at all.

"It's good to be solid, to prove that the opponents we were able to take out last year will still be cut down by us this year." Carlisle said: "But consistency is also a bad thing, proving that the team we couldn't beat last year will still be our sufferer this year. ”

King.

This team full of magical explosiveness has always been the bitter master of Philadelphia.

Will the results be different this year?

"There's not much we can do and we don't know what they're going to do in the finals against this unknown opponent. So there won't be any special adjustments to my tactical system, everything depends on you. ”

Carlisle took a deep breath and said, "That's it. ”

Philadelphia, the drums of war rumble.

At the same time, the away team hotel.

"Hehe, it's all here?"

Phil Jackson also called his favorite generals together: "Then, let's start talking about tactics." Starting today, I want to really teach you what a 'triangle offensive' ...... is! ”