Chapter 192: The Last Battle
After losing to the Rockets, the Warriors have won back-to-back games over the Mavericks, Trail Blazers, Kings and Timberwolves, and the Warriors are still sixth in the West. The failure to win the Rockets put the Warriors' plan of fifth place in the West to a halt.
In the final game of the regular season, the Warriors' opponent was the Jazz, which was the last chance for the Warriors to enter the fifth place in the West, but the Jazz will definitely not give up easily, their current record is 48-33, if they win this game, the record will surpass the Hornets and get the final playoff spot.
On the 15th, the Warriors hosted the Jazz as the last game of the regular season, facing the national live broadcast. The cheers at Oracle Center shook the sky, and the Jazz have repeatedly beaten the Warriors this season, and fans will want to see revenge in the final game.
The Warriors starters are: O'Neal, Milicic, Barnes, Rich, Jackson.
Nelson continued to play a lineup of one big and four small, the difference was that Gerard Green was replaced by Barnes, who had a stronger single defense, and he could go to the top of the third to defend Kirilenko, and let Lee go to the Jazz's shooting guard CJ Myers.
The Jazz starting lineup is: Memetoku, Boozer, Kirilenko, CJ Myers, Deron Williams.
After the game began, O'Neal jumped to possession and Warriors Jackson possessed the ball across half court. When he got to the high post, Jackson changed hands and passed the ball to Li Zhi, and Kirilenko took the initiative to defend Li Zhi.
In the first three games, Kirilenko caused trouble for Li Zhi many times, he is the type with a thin body, and he can limit Li Zhi very well.
Li Zhi knew in his heart that he did not single Kirilenko, and when Barnes came to block and dismantle, Li Zhi took the opportunity to break through and let Barnes take Kirilenko away, and Li Zhi faced CJ Myers.
Miles is 198cm' tall and an athletic left-handed shooter with decent physique, which gives him the ability to defend against swing men. But Li Zhi didn't care about him, CJ Miles' physical fitness was worse than that of Super Saiyan.
Li Zhi controlled the ball on the right side, and after a few tentative hits, Li Zhi dribbled the ball behind his back, and J Miles followed Li Zhi, and jumped hard when Li Zhi made a layup, trying to block, but Li Zhi was one step ahead of him, threw the basketball to the rebound in advance, and made physical contact with Miles at the same time.
"Dididi!"
The referee's whistle blows, 2+1
Li Zhijia hit a free throw, 3:0
The Jazz attacked, Delon hit Jackson and chose to break through, Jackson used a routine, and gave Delon no defense. It's a trap, past Jackson, Barnes waits for Deron on the breakout route, and Delon doesn't stop and crashes straight into Barnes.
Hitting people with the ball, Delon looked like an atmosphere, and the Warriors' defense was too rogue to do so. Layer after layer, like a maze, this is a 23-in-1 defense, and the last game caused a lot of trouble to Delong.
Jazz head coach Sloan was a grumpy, and when he saw that the situation was opened by the Warriors with two fouls, he quickly called a timeout to reschedule. After the timeout, the Jazz switched to Korver at the shooting guard position.
Sloan didn't think Korver could do better defensively than Miles, and he brought on Korver just to create better space for DeLong. Jazz defense, Kirilenko opted for co-defense.
O'Neal reached the top of the arc to hold the ball, and Li Zhi ran into position. O'Neal is also a good passer, and when Richie gets rid of Korver with Milicic's block, O'Neal's pass arrives.
Li Zhi received the ball, did not hesitate, and made a three-point shot.
6:0
Warriors fans are excited, this season, they have become accustomed to the team pressing others to play, in their opinion, the Warriors' basketball is the best in the league. The Warriors are different from the positional battles between the Celtics and the Spurs, and also different from the Lakers' singles.
The Jazz attacked, and Delon relied on Oku's blocking, shook off Jackson, and broke through to the interior. Milicic stepped up and Deron passed to Boozer, who scored two points from mid-range shot.
6:2
Jackson dribbled the ball across the halfcourt, and when he dribbled behind his back to avoid Deron's interference, he made a mistake, the basketball didn't bounce, and Delon picked up the ball and broke fast.
6:4
Jackson's dribbling skills are still good, he is very depressed, this ball is obviously bad luck, I wanted to dribble past Delon behind my back, but I didn't expect to be slapped in the face. Li Zhi patted him on the shoulder and told him to serve from the baseline.
In the Warriors' offensive round, the Warriors still used a double-block tactic to block Korver and Kirilenko, and Li Zhi took the opportunity to break through with the ball and shoot a jump shot one step away from the restricted area.
The stop-and-go jump shot is not Li Zhi's skill, this ball Li Zhi is completely based on feeling, but he is lucky to hit the board and throw.
8:4
Jazz head coach Sloan was dissatisfied with the Jazz's defense, and shouted at the Jazz players when they were attacking, asking Kirilenko to prevent Li Zhi.
Kirilenko's face was serious, and the commander Sir raised the defensive intensity.
At the Jazz, the core now is Deron and Kirilenko, with one main offense and one main defense. Carlos Boozer's position as the boss is not guaranteed, he is going to become a free agent this year, the Jazz can't offer him a bigger contract, and Boozer's defense has been disliked by Sloan, and the Jazz management does not plan to keep him.
But this season, Sloan had to use him, Sloan's best is blocking and pick-and-roll tactics, Boozer has poor defense, but the offense is in line with Sloan's system.
The Jazz attacked, Delon did not borrow the pick-and-roll, directly passed Jackson, Barnes made up the defense, and Delon distributed the ball to Boozer, who hit a jumper in one step inside the three-point line.
8:6
The Warriors attacked, Li Zhi received the ball to play alone, Kirilenko targeted defense Li Zhi broke through, Li Zhi passed the ball to O'Neal, O'Neal received the ball and was fouled by Oku, and he didn't score two free throws.
Boozer grabbed the rebound and passed the ball to Deron, who pushed forward quickly, and by the time he reached the halfway line, Korver was near the three-point line. Barnes went inside, defended Delon for a layup, Delon distributed the ball to Korver, and scored a three-pointer.
8:9, Jazz overtake.
The Warriors were very intense defensively, but overly nervous. Barnes subconsciously thought that Delon would break through, but ignored Korver, and when Richie arrived, Korver had already made a move.
Li Zhi took the ball to the front court and handed the ball to O'Neill in the high post. O'Neal has his back to the ball, and behind him is Oku. Li Zhi ran out of position, and with the cover of Milicic, he shook off Kirilenko and came behind O'Neill.
The two passed the ball hand-to-hand, Li Zhi took a step and broke through from O'Neal's left, Kirilenko interfered, and the basketball still fell into the basket.
10:9
Kirilenko likes to defend technical players like Kobe and Maddy, and uses big long arms to interfere when defending, but Li Zhi is physically strong and completely sticks to Kirilenko for layups.
Kirilenko's form is no longer at its peak, although he is still the core of the Jazz defense, but his individual defense ability has deteriorated. This season, the Jazz's poor record has a lot to do with Kirilenko's regression.
Mr. Sloan tried to get Kirilenko to play as a substitute for a while, but it didn't work well. It even sparked a farce. Kirilenko denounced the injustice of the old coach in front of the media, and threatened: "I'd rather go back to Russia than play for Sloan again." ”
Jazz management tried to trade Kirilenko in the middle of the season, but Kirilenko's situation was the same as Boozer's, the contract was too big, his form was declining, and no one wanted to be a pick-up.
In this game, AK47 was depressed, and Kirilenko had limited Li Zhi well in the previous games, but Li Zhi's playing style changed in this game. He wouldn't have thought that Richie's breakthrough was replaced by Iverson's, not Kobe.