Chapter 31: Defense! Defend! (Medium)
Zhang Zifeng's pull-up jump shot made Popovich frown.
It can be seen that Zhang Zifeng is a little excited today, and Popovich has carefully studied this Chinese game.
Once this guy gets his hands on it, he's simply an unstoppable super scorer.
It's like that guy in Curry, how unreasonable three-pointers can be scored.
Popovich saw that Green was struggling to defend the other side, turned his head to look at Jonathan Simmons and others sitting on the bench, and wondered how to lay out the tactics later.
Duncan, as the boss of the team, saw that his younger brother was deflated in front of Zhang Zifeng, and he naturally wanted to stand up and return one.
Switching offense and defense, Duncan ran into the inside card owner Noll, raised his right hand, and motioned for his teammates to pass the ball.
After receiving the ball, Duncan turned to face Noll.
Looking at Knoll's defense, Duncan suddenly lifted the basketball.
Noll hurried forward to block the block, and Duncan had an excellent mid-range shot. He didn't want his mistakes to allow Duncan to find a shot.
Seeing Knoll step forward, Duncan immediately put down the ball and dribbled to the inside.
Knoll hurried to keep up, Duncan, as the No. 1 forward in history, is that he has very good interior offensive skills, dribbling to cut two steps inside, suddenly turning, changing hands to dribble, into the restricted area, one-handed want to dunk the ball into the basket.
As soon as he jumped up, Zhang Zifeng suddenly killed from behind, and his big hand slashed the sky to cover Duncan's ball.
It's a pity that it was a second slower, and Zhang Zifeng hit Duncan's hand.
Duncan takes a blow with his left hand and dunks the ball away.
Penalty kick!
After landing, Duncan Yuan glared at Zhang Zifeng. Even the stone Buddha has the posture of angry eyes!
Zhang Zifeng loosened his shoulders and said, "Do you think we will let you dunk easily?" ”
Duncan stands at the free throw line and makes free throws.
Well, Duncan's interior offense is top-notch, and if there's one downside, it's probably his free throws.
It's much better than O'Neal, but Duncan's free-throw shooting percentage is only about 75 percent of his career.
So sometimes in the final moments of the game, Popovich will replace him in order to prevent the opponent from fouling Duncan.
The first free throw missed, and the second free throw Duncan adjusted and scored.
The 76ers serve, and McConnell dribbles the ball to the frontcourt. Seeing that Green was following the defense tightly, McConnell did not pass the ball to Zhang Zifeng.
Knoll ran to the three-point point to make a cover for McConnell, and McConnell used Knoll's cover to shake off Parker, who was marked, and rushed directly to the inside.
Duncan is keeping up, and as point guards, the best thing for other positions is their ball handling skills.
McConnell made a sharp stop in front of Duncan, then shook his body continuously, then changed direction, accelerated past Duncan, and rushed directly to the basket for a layup.
Just when McConnell thought he had the ball, he completely underestimated Duncan's strength.
Although he was shaken by McConnell, Duncan kept his feet on his heels.
When McConnell jumped up for the layup, Duncan's big hand appeared above the basketball.
In McConnell's stunned eyes, Duncan's right hand slapped the basketball.
Just as the Spurs fans were about to stand up and cheer, Zhang Zifeng suddenly rushed to the penalty area and jumped up to grab the basketball that Duncan had slapped down.
landed and dribbled forward, Zhang Zifeng jumped up in the penalty area.
Duncan is really old, at this time he wants to stop it again, and his knee can't let him jump continuously to block Zhang Zifeng.
Roar!
Zhang Zifeng let out a low roar and dunked the ball into the basket with one hand.
After landing on the ground, Zhang Zifeng angrily hammered his chest towards Duncan. It's a demonstration, but it's also an encouragement.
Tell your teammates that your opponent is like this, and encourage them not to be afraid and fight bravely
originally thought that he was going to be humiliated, but in an instant, Zhang Zifeng helped him find the field.
McConnell excitedly ran over to high-five Zhang Zifeng and shouted, "Thank you, Jack!" ”
"It's okay, go back to defense, quickly return to defense!" After high-fived McConnell, Zhang Zifeng shouted to the other teammates.
The dunk sparked morale among the 76ers, who quickly ran back into the halfcourt to prepare for the Spurs' challenge.
Parker receives serve and advances to the frontcourt.
Green started to run, Zhang Zifeng wouldn't give him a chance, and immediately followed closely.
Green couldn't get rid of Zhang Zifeng after running continuously, he was a little anxious, sped up his run, and then suddenly changed direction, and ran back one by one.
Although he was thrown away by Green, Zhang Zifeng braked suddenly, the basketball squeaked against the floor, and the entire upper was twisted to the point that it seemed to break at any time.
With the help of this friction, Zhang Zifeng twisted his body to keep up with Green.
As soon as Green received Parker's pass, Zhang Zifeng posted it.
Green shoots accurately, but his offensive ability with the ball is average.
Without the first catch and shot, Green lost a valuable opportunity.
Seeing that there was no chance, Green held the ball and wanted to pass the ball to Duncan, but Noll hurriedly went around the front defense and used his physical advantage to consume Duncan.
Green looked at it and busily inspected his teammates.
Parker was being guarded by McConnell and Anderson was being guarded by Grant. None of them have an advantage, and the power forward position is now the weakest position for the 76ers and the strongest point for the Spurs.
Green can only pin his hopes on Aldridge.
When the Rockets and the Trail Blazers met in the playoffs that year, Adridge alone completely blew up the Rockets' interior line, and two consecutive 40+ games, whether it was Asik, Jones or Capela to defend, they couldn't limit this guy.
The Spurs value his strong interior offensive skills, and Duncan is about to retire, so they spent a lot of money to recruit him into the team.
But so far this season, Ade has still not integrated into the Spurs' system.
Ade honed his individual skills with the Trail Blazers, but he looked out of place in the team-oriented Spurs.
With Ade, the Spurs can't play the once smooth coordination either defensively or offensively.
Ade held the ball in front of Holmes and habitually wanted to single Holmes, completely forgetting the team's tactics and Popovich's arrangement.
Ade hit Holmes with his back in succession, and advanced towards the penalty area step by step.
When Ade faced Holmes' non-stop dribble, Grant already knew that Ade was going to play his own.
He immediately ran over to wrap up Ade.
Grant's bag, Ard could no longer continue to dribble with his back, he hurriedly grabbed the ball, and then passed the ball to Anderson who was open on the outside.
Anderson catches the ball and jumps up to shoot.
Zhang Zifeng rushed over to fill Grant's vacancy as soon as possible, Zhang Zifeng jumped up and flew in the air like an eagle, spreading his wings to cover the sky and the sun.
Zhang Zifeng's block gave Anderson a big distraction.
As expected, the ball hit the inside edge of the basket and bounced out.
Looking at the popping basketball, Duncan jumped at the basketball, but he was stuck behind by Noll.
Noll jumped up against the basketball, grabbed the basketball with his right hand, and after landing, Noel threw the ball vigorously to the front court as soon as he landed.
Seeing Noll grab the rebound, Zhang Zifeng ran to the front court as soon as possible.
Green hurried after him.
But if you slower your opponent, you lose your chance.
Zhang Zifeng received a pass and made an easy layup.
Running back to the half, Zhang Zifeng high-fived Grant, Knoll and others in celebration, clapped his hands and shouted loudly, "Good play, that's what you do!" Go on, keep it up!"
Looking at Zhang Zifeng on the field, many Spurs fans showed envy and jealousy in their eyes.
Looking at Ade, who still couldn't integrate into the team on the field, many fans sighed in their hearts.
Aldridge, you can't say that he doesn't work hard, and you can't say that he doesn't have strength. But for a team like Spurs that is disciplined and pays attention to the whole, he is really a bit tasteless and a pity to abandon it!
Seeing that the team's proud defense is not as good as the bad team 76ers.
Popovich was furious, and he yelled at his teammates, "Didn't you eat?" Fortify your defense, or you'll all get out of here!" ”
The game continued, and the Spurs strengthened their defense, especially against Zhang Zifeng, amid Popovich's roar.
Every time Green found Zhang Zifeng, it was a fierce competition.
Every ball is up for grabs, even for every position.
Green was determined not to let Zhang Zifeng receive the ball, and took care of Zhang Zifeng meticulously.
Zhang Zifeng was harassed by Green for a while and was unable to attack.
The 76ers' offense has also fallen into individual ability.
Fortunately, Leonard was not there in this game, and the Spurs were missing an important offensive point.
Duncan Parker is not young and can't stay on the court for too long, and Green is busy keeping an eye on Zhang Zifeng and doesn't care about anything else.
The Spurs could only rely on Ade, and then their teammates all pulled away and gave him space to play alone.
With the 76ers also desperately defending, Ade's shooting percentage is not high.
40:42。
When the first half ended, when the 76ers who saw the away game only trail by a narrow two points, it fell into the eyes of many people.
And Zhang Zifeng was undoubtedly the best performance in the first half with 4 of 6 shots, including two three-point shots, with 10 points and 4 assists.