Chapter 431: Defending the Home Field
Spoelstra had a headache, he didn't think about the Trail Blazers' strong bench lineup, but he thought that the opponent had only one Hickson available, and he didn't need to care about it at all, but he didn't expect Roy's sudden outburst to make his face feel hot and painful. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info
In fact, this is also McMillan's strategy to take precautions. Although he didn't give Roy more playing time before, mainly to protect him, he also had the intention of setting up the opponent, and now Roy has really become a surprise soldier in his hands, and he caught the Heat off guard.
As Roy's opposing defender, Wade was naturally very unhappy, and he thought that it was all his responsibility, so he began to defend Roy even harder. But know that Roy himself is not known for his physicality, he is a high-IQ player who plays with his brain, which means that every decision he makes on the court will weigh the pros and cons. It was not a good choice for him to face Wade head-on, and he could better reach his goal by avoiding the fight.
Although Spoelstra stepped up his defense against Roy, McMillan judged the situation and put Ye Feng and Matthews on the court in time, which instantly reduced the pressure on Roy and greatly enhanced the team's outside firepower. Spoelstra smiled bitterly, originally Ye Feng and Matthews were enough to give him a headache, plus a full Roy, how to play on the outside? Chalmers is going to be blown up!
The Trail Blazers scored a staggering 41 points in the entire second quarter while limiting the Heat's single-quarter scoring to 29, which gave them a nearly 10-point lead. Although it may not seem like a huge advantage, the Trail Blazers have built up their morale, and the fans are excitedly chanting slogans from their positions, waving all sorts of slogans, cheering on the home team and hoping that they will beat their opponents in one go.
In the second half, McMillan continued to maintain the outside configuration of Roy + Matthews + Ye Feng, and also replaced Aldridge with Hickson as the team's starting power forward. His intention was clear, which was to get the perimeter players to attack at full strength, with two big men with a lot of momentum, Hickson and Oden, vying for rebounds on the inside.
In this way, Battier's defense was cracked, because neither Hickson nor Oden did not hold the ball, and the most common way they used to score was to block and dunk and grab offensive rebounds to complete the second offense, and Battier was still limited by his height and could not stop Hickson from attacking the basket at all.
And in the face of the Trail Blazers' accurate outside projection, James and Wade have nothing to do, even if they prevent two of them, the rest of the face of Chalmers has an absolute advantage, whether it is a breakthrough or shooting, Chalmers is powerless to block.
Although the two superstars James and Wade combined for 55 points, Roy scored 21 points and three rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting from the bench, and Ye Feng and Matthews combined for 52 points to give the Trail Blazers a 111-99 victory. Originally, Spoelstra's performance as a backhand Bosh was average, but under Hixon's entanglement, he only got 8 points and 10 rebounds, and he did not have the demeanor of the third big man at all, which was one of the reasons for the failure of the Heat.
Despite losing Game 1 of the Finals, the Heat were not discouraged, but Spoelstra made a change and promoted Bosh to the starting line, while Haslem returned to the bench. He thought very clearly, since the Heat can't compete with the Trail Blazers in terms of rotating the lineup, then give the starters more playing time, after all, except for Battier, the other four have the physical strength to play more than 40 minutes in a game.
This was completely unexpected. In the first quarter of Game 2, with three and a half minutes remaining, McMillan brought on a rotation led by Roy and Hickson as planned, but to his surprise, the Heat's starters only took a few sips of sports drinks during the timeout and returned to the court after the timeout. Originally, the Trail Blazers held a certain lead in the first nine minutes, but their rotation lineup could not do the Heat's starters, and in the end, the opponent played a small climax of 13-3 in the last three and a half minutes, and became the lagging side at the end of the first quarter.
It didn't take long for McMillan to find out that Spoelstra wasn't without substitutions, but he only made one or two substitutions at a time, and he reverted back to the starting line-up shortly after he came on the pitch. This is a big burden on the physical strength of the Heat's five starters, but McMillan has to admit that the effect is good, after all, with their starting lineup, a slight change of one or two people will not affect the offensive and defensive system at all, and the Trail Blazers often make large-scale substitutions, and it is reasonable that the Heat can't do it.
However, this has aroused the arrogance of the whole Trail Blazers team, you must know that they are the younger team, and now that the Heat are forcing the starters to play more time, they are making a large rotation, isn't it a slap in the face?
So McMillan took the simplest and roughest countermeasure, that is, to let his starters play longer, after all, everyone is at the peak of their careers, not even before the peak, physical strength is completely guaranteed, although the pace is fast but not very hard.
This time it was Spoelstra's turn to be confused, he didn't expect the opponent to copy his strategy so "shamelessly", but judging from the age comparison between the two sides, the Trail Blazers did have a better advantage than the Heat. Although both sides hurried to recover at halftime, before the third quarter was halfway through, the Heat's players began to gradually show fatigue, and their shooting percentage also dropped significantly, relying solely on James and Wade to help the team score.
The Trail Blazers players are still in good shape, and they haven't even dropped much in speed on the court, of course, the only thing that needs special care from McMillan is Felton who has already shown signs of fortune, but fortunately, with Roy and Miller as supplements, it hasn't dragged too many feet.
James and Wade did have the existence of God blocking God and Buddha in the playoffs back then, but this time they seem to be a little sluggish, and it is not accurate to say that they are sluggish, at least not as explosive as when they led the team alone. Facing the Trail Blazers, who can play both superstar basketball and team offense, the Heat are back on the underdog, the opposite of the first quarter.
In the end, the Trail Blazers got their second home court, and they defeated the Heat 105-92 to take a 2-0 lead in the Finals.