Soon, players from both teams entered.

The Heat's starting five are still Tim Hardaway, Dan Marley, Jamal Mashburn, PJ Brown, and Alonzo Mourning.

The Knicks' starting lineup has not changed, and it is the same five players from the previous game: Charlie Ward, Alan Houston, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, and Da Yao.

As soon as the game started, the Knicks put on the same frame as they did on the court, breaking through violently, as if they wanted to score points from the paint area!

The Heat team is ready for battle, iron-blooded defense, and the smell of gunpowder quickly spreads!

Li Wei quietly watched the situation on the field and did not say a word.

He knew that there was no whistle in this game, so the main tactic was actually based on shooting, and the opening rush was just to create an illusion, lest the Heat think that the Knicks would not dare to break through.

Pat Riley wasn't fooled, the Heat's defensive system is still dominated by defensive outside shooting, and once the Knicks' players want to break through, they will use ferocious defense to stop them!

The referee in this game, as Riley expected, did not blow the Heat foul, but blew the Knicks a few times with the ball!

Li Wei reasoned with the referee, and then ate a technical foul!

Under the iron-blooded defense of the Heat, the success rate of the Knicks' tactics is very low, and it becomes a player's individual singles at every turn, and the situation has also taken a sharp turn!

Li Wei had no choice but to let the whole team use shooting-based tactics earlier and not confront the opponent head-on.

Pat Riley saw that the Knicks began to float and play, and a faint smile appeared on his face, everything was expected by him!

Eric Reed said: "The Knicks changed their tactics and didn't dare to break through to the inside, and we defended well!" ”

Jack Ramsey said: "This season's Knicks don't have an inside scoring point, and Coach Lee can't play too many tricks even if his tactics are changeable. ”

Eric Reed said: "Big Z was traded, and the blow to them was fatal, and I remember last year's fifth game, Big Z alone blew up our whole team in it, which was amazing. The Knicks actually traded him for a German soft egg who only knew how to float outside, and he didn't know what he thought. ”

Jack Ramsey said: "The Knicks actually didn't suffer, Big Z has serious injury risks, and the old injury recurred when it came to the 76ers this year." Although the Germans in front of him are a little worse, they can finally play on the field! ”

Eric Reed said: "What's the use of him being able to play, ouch, missing another one!" ”

Li Wei frowned from the sidelines.

The Heat's defensive strategy today is to defend outside shots, especially to strangle Garnett and Houston at all costs. Riley thinks that other people's scores are nothing, or they can't die, just abolish the two worst Knicks!

Garnett was caught as soon as he got the ball, and was dealt with by the Heat with various traps, and Alan Houston was also taking care of two players at every turn!

The two stars of the team are defended to death, and at this time, the actual players need to open up the situation and force the opponent to change their tactics.

But Nowitzki has missed 4 shots in a row, and the Knicks are quite passive!

Pat Riley was of course happier and happier when he saw such a scene, and kept shouting on the sidelines: "Guard against Garnett and Houston, stop them!" ”

"Hateful! If it weren't for my Maddie's injury, you wouldn't be allowed to do this! Li Wei secretly stomped his feet.

Yes, if Maddie is not injured, Li Wei firmly believes that he can break the deadlock on the court, but unfortunately Maddie was not selected for the 12-man playoff squad at all due to injury.

"Let's bring Dedecker off, we need to strengthen our defense or open things up with Stephen Jackson." Chuck Daly reminded softly.

"Hmm." Li Wei nodded and replaced Nowitzki with Bo Outlaw.

In fact, in the second and third games of the series, rookie Nowitzki was very iron, and his abnormal play was also the main reason why the Knicks suffered two defeats.

After being a head coach for so long, Li Wei has become more and more aware of why Larry Brown hates newcomers.

The newcomer is indeed unstable, and if it weren't for the fact that Nowitzki could grow into a superstar, Li Wei would definitely not trust him so much. Bo Outlaw, who can't score, but has an unusually strong defense, is obviously more consistent and can also bring more help to the team.

After Dabo came on the court, he really played very passionately, and the momentum of the Knicks was good for a while, but unfortunately the team's offensive end still couldn't open the situation, plus the referee's whistle was very biased, and the Knicks' several chasing points were beaten down!

In the middle of the second quarter, the score was 35:50, the Knicks fell behind by a full 15 points, Garnett rose up in time, singled the best defensive player Mourning 3 with his back, and relied on the iron-blooded jumper to score 6 points in a row, chasing the difference to within 10 points!

Then, the Heat played a few exquisite combinations to widen the gap to 14 points again!

In the last minute of the first half, Alan Houston got the ball, Marley defended closely, and Charlie Ward came to make a cover, but unfortunately the quality was not high and he couldn't block the defender!

To make matters worse, Tim Hardaway took the opportunity to surround Houston and formed a 2-1 situation with Marley!

"Houston is being caught again!" Eric Reed shouted.

Jack Ramsey said: "Alain's goal is going to be lost!" ”

However, as soon as Jack Ramsay's words fell, Alan Houston threw the ball against Marley's face!

Bang!

A three-pointer into the basket!

At 48:59, the Knicks trailed by 11 points!

Eric Reed said: "Ouch, shoot in the face of our defender and go in, it's unreasonable!" ”

Jack Ramsey said: "The Knicks can rely on Alan Houston's individual ability to score some points, but they can't rely on this style of play to win!" ”

Eric Reed said: "That's right, Mashburn is back beaten and entered!" It's great, now the score is 48:61 and we're back up 13 points! ”

Jack Ramsey said: "With 5 seconds left in the first half, the Knicks served in the backcourt, Charlie Ward dribbled, and he passed to Houston!" ”

At this time, Houston was still defended by Marley, and after receiving the ball, he didn't even think about it, and he raised his hand to shoot!

Marley jumped up and blocked it, but unfortunately it didn't get it!

Then the red light on the timer comes on and the ball falls into the basket in the sight of the fans in the audience!

3 points!

Eric Reed sighed: "Houston scored another three-pointer, or a three-pointer at the buzzer, the Knicks are so lucky!" ”

Jack Ramsey said: "Houston's shooting is really accurate, and he always makes this kind of unreasonable goal!" ”

Eric Reid said: "It's okay, we're still ahead, I don't believe his luck could have been so good in the second half! ”

With Garnett and Houston's overperformance, the Knicks trailed by 10 points heading into the second half.

At the beginning of the second half, Li Wei sent Nash, hoping that he could help Garnett and Houston on the offensive end.

Pat Riley saw Nash on the court and immediately sent in Terry Porter.

Terry Porter, the all-time assist leader of the Trail Blazers, is a very experienced veteran who has formed a super backcourt with Glider Drexler and reached the Finals twice. This is also a big-hearted player, and his playoff performance is generally better than the regular season.

Encountering Nash, who has poor physical confrontation ability, Potter decisively looked for confrontation everywhere, and from the backcourt he faced Nash all the way, bumped into Nash, and hit him all the way to the frontcourt.