Chapter 413: The Christmas War
The Christmas game, in which the league would rather concede on the collective bargaining agreement than keep it, is actually nothing to look forward to, and for fans it is nothing more than the Trail Blazers vs Heat, Bulls vs Lakers and Thunder vs Magic. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info one is a copy of the finals, one is Rose challenging Kobe, the other is the showdown between the old strong team and the emerging forces, others like the Celtics VS Knicks, Warriors VS Clippers are not much to watch, either rookies peck each other, or crush strongly.
The game against the Heat was the first home game of the season for the Trail Blazers, and naturally attracted countless fans to watch the game. What excites them the most, but makes the Heat players unhappy, is that championship rings are given out before the game begins. The whole Heat team began to secretly curse the NBA official staff in charge of the schedule, what kind of remake of the Finals in the opening game? You know, the Trail Blazers' championship was won by beating us, and they didn't rub salt into the wound like that.
This offseason, the Heat's main lineup changes are smaller than those of the Trail Blazers, and they only focus on strengthening their bench lineup, and the scene of the Trail Blazers' bench rotation time last season is still vivid. They cut veteran Bibby, put Chalmers in the starting lineup, and traded for Norris Kerr, the 28th pick in the first round of the year, after the draft, who is another point guard, and it is clear that the Heat are looking to further improve the energy of the backcourt.
Of course, their most important reinforcements are Battier and Turyaf, the former can do a good job of benching small forward behind James, and even sometimes swing to the No. 4 position as a big forward for a small lineup, it is undeniable that although Battier is 33 years old, there is no obvious sign of decline in either three-point shooting or outside defense, and his basketball IQ seems to have further improved, which is what the Heat management likes to see.
The intention to bring in Turyaf is even more obvious, Joel Anthony is not enough to support the Heat's interior rotation, and with Spoelstra preferring to start Bosh and Haslem together, Turyaf's toughness is lacking in the Heat's rotation lineup, and they believe the Frenchman will help the team in the new season.
However, the core lineups of both sides have not changed much, the Heat are still the Big Three, and the Trail Blazers are also a combination of Ye Feng + Matthews + Aldridge. McMillan didn't plan to start Roy and Oden at the start of the season, and it would be better to let these two start the rotation first, so this time he still lined up the starting lineup that he used most often last season, except that Felton replaced Miller.
This is an adjustment made by McMillan after seeing the opponent's starting lineup, although Miller is experienced, he is completely inferior to Chalmers in terms of athleticism, and may become a loophole in the team's starting lineup, it is better to let the 27-year-old Felton play, how to say that he was also the starting point guard of the Knicks before he was traded to the Nuggets, and he still has a certain advantage in the face of young players like Chalmers, and there is no need to be afraid of not being able to keep up.
Ye Feng continued to uphold his point of view, and occasionally one or two regular season games did not have much impact on the team's record in a season, so he did not ask for possession, but let the newcomer Felton control the ball, hoping to complete the team's run-in as soon as possible.
There is no need for the Heat to run in, and it is not the first time that Chalmers has appeared with the Big Three, but he was used as Bibby's substitute for most of last season, and he has not yet recovered from the change of his identity for a while, but he has long been familiar with the cooperation with the Big Three.
Coupled with the championship ring awarding ceremony before the start of the game, the Heat's combat power has been greatly increased, and they suppressed the Trailblazers who were still looking for tacit understanding as soon as they came up. In fact, this is also to blame for the long period of time in the league, not long from the collective bargaining agreement to the start of the regular season, Felton is still trying to integrate into the team's tactical system, although some results but for the time being, it cannot compete with the Heat, whose main lineup remains unchanged.
But Felton is very smart, as long as you have watched last season's finals, you should know who the tactical core of the Trail Blazers is, he generously handed over the ball to Ye Feng, and bluntly said that he can play without the ball, and by the way, he will continue to be familiar with the team's tactical movement in the game.
Seeing the Heat start the game 15-7, Ye Feng also unceremoniously began to exercise the duties of a point forward, which was no different for him than last season, except that Miller was replaced by Felton. However, Felton is also a guy with a lot of ball intelligence, and he appeared in a very dangerous position on several runs, and also hit a three-pointer. Although he looks short and strong, he is not slow, which also makes the rest of the Trail Blazers look at him with admiration.
Originally, Spoelstra thought that the team's reinforcements would be relatively successful, but after the two sides sent out a rotation lineup, he quickly began to regret why he didn't continue to put one or even two of the big three on the field. Kerr, Jones, Battier, Turyaf and Mike Miller are the Heat's main rotation players and look good? But their scoring ability is so weak that they have no other means of scoring other than Kerr's breakaway and Jones' three-pointer.
On the contrary, the Trail Blazers' bench lineup played well, especially the new signing Crawford, as the league's famous super sixth man, his presence added a ball point to the Trail Blazers' bench lineup, and he also had strong firepower. Just two minutes later, the Trail Blazers erased the margin of the starting lineup, and it looked like there was a tendency to overtake. Spoelstra quickly replaced Wade, but the Heat still trailed by three points at 32-35 at the end of the first quarter.
This makes the Heat's management sad, how can it seem that the offseason reinforcements have no effect at all? Still beaten like a dog by the Trailblazers. In fact, this is also a command mistake by Spoelstra, he originally only wanted to see the strength of the substitutes, but he forgot that with the huge salary of the Big Three, the team's substitutes are either veterans or newcomers, and there must be stars on the field to play with them, so that they can play a role.
But by the time Spoelstra thought about it, it was too late, and the Trail Blazers' starting lineup had gradually cultivated their chemistry, and McMillan also released Crawford from time to time to rush for a while, stirring up the Heat's defense. In the end, the Trail Blazers won the Heat 101-92 on their home court and made a good start to the new season, and the Heat's players were naturally even more depressed.