Chapter 423: Breaking the Shackles
To say that Ye Feng is also relatively unlucky, except for the Nuggets in the first round who did not have any strong small forwards, he has faced Durant and Leonard in these two rounds. Forget about Durant www.biquge.info pen & fun & pavilion, after all, people are known for their offensive firepower, Ye Feng only needs to bombard him, but Leonard is different.
It can be said that so far, Popovich has built Leonard according to the standards of the outside gate, and even hired the retired Bowen to guide Leonard's defense. I have to say that Leonard's talent on the defensive end is indeed terrifying, although Bowen is his teacher, he has been better than the blue, and there are no Bowen's small actions when defending, every move is very clean, and the one-on-one defense on the outside is a must.
Many people think that Ye Feng can get Durant on the offensive end, but he may not be able to get Leonard, and their basis is that when the Trail Blazers and Spurs played each other in the regular season this season, Ye Feng was killed by Leonard, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he did nothing in the whole game.
But some people believe that Leonard can't stop Ye Feng, the reason is very simple, no matter how Leonard is also a rookie who just entered the industry last year, although Ye Feng has not played for a few seasons, he is now a member of the championship plus the MVP of the Finals, and his experience is not comparable to Leonard.
Ye Feng turned a deaf ear to the comments of the outside world, and he just continued to carry out recovery training step by step. However, he is full of fighting spirit against Leonard, and as some have said, he was undoubtedly at the bottom of the regular season meeting, and now is a good time to get back on the field. And Ye Feng didn't think there was anything wrong with this, judging from Leonard's performance, he was an iron man type of player, and it didn't matter if he played seven games and then competed with himself.
Of course, with Ye Feng's current status, he undoubtedly belongs to the challenged side, but he doesn't care about this, fighting with masters is what he is most willing to do, and now he has put Leonard on the same level as himself, at least it will not be too different.
However, the game against the Spurs is also a huge test for the Trail Blazers' interior line, not to mention Duncan, and the group of Dior, Blair, Split and Bonner are not easy to dismiss. Especially Dior, the sixth man who performed well in the Suns back then, has now turned into the most coquettish uncle on the Spurs' inside, and he has made opponents unguardable with a high position. With a range far beyond the three-point line, he has much more experience than Aldridge.
Of course, McMillan also has to make some arrangements, and he can't be too careful in the face of a fierce opponent like Spurs. Although the Grizzlies have already helped the Trail Blazers drain a lot of Spurs' physical strength, who knows what else Popovich has not come up with? You must know that he can already be called the top head coach in the history of the league, and the Spurs have always been an evergreen tree in the league under his tutelage, and no one dares to take it lightly.
But Ye Feng is still McMillan's biggest reliance, although he lost once in the regular season, McMillan is still full of confidence in Ye Feng, he doesn't believe that Ye Feng can't handle a Leonard. You must know that now Ye Feng is faintly a top small forward at the same level as James and Durant, Leonard is just a rookie, and Ye Feng will not lose to his opponent on a key occasion such as the Western Conference Finals.
In order to keep the basket under the siege of the Spurs inside, this time McMillan is ready to reduce Camby's playing time, mainly using Aldridge, Oden and Hickson to rotate, which is also to ensure the impact of the interior at any time, as for who starts and who is on the bench still needs to be carefully considered.
The first game of the Western Conference Finals was held at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, which was the only thing the Spurs were happy about, after all, the last game of the series against the Grizzlies was also on their home court.
To most people's surprise, at the beginning of the game, the most fierce collision between the two sides was not the small forward, but the interior line. In order to deal with the starting interior combination of Duncan + Dior, McMillan sent a lineup of Aldridge + Oden, Oden was responsible for resisting Duncan on the inside, and Aldridge went to the high post to follow Dior.
In fact, this is also the interior combination that the Trail Blazers wanted to form at the beginning, but because Oden played and stopped, the two rarely got the opportunity to play at the same time.
However, McMillan's hand was still effective, and although he took advantage of the veteran interior combination of Duncan and Dior, he definitely didn't suffer. Oden tops Duncan on the inside, and although he is inexperienced, he has more than enough physical fitness; Aldridge is still staring more at Dio's passing, after all, Dio has never been the best choice for Spurs to shoot from the outside, and Popovich values his pass the most.
In this way, Aldridge's defensive pressure is much less, after all, there are teammates who can help him, so that Dior will not often pass the ball to the gap. Although Ginobili was coquettish in the run, this time McMillan asked Matthews to defend him, leaving Green to Felton and completely hiding the weakness of the outside defense. This is just taking advantage of Popovich's lack of daring to let Parker start, and if GDP is present at the same time, Felton will most likely become a breakthrough.
But what fans prefer to see is the duel between Ye Feng and Leonard, although Leonard's status in the team is still below GDP, and his offense is still a little bit interesting, but to see him compete with Ye Feng on the defensive end, Spurs fans feel that it is worth the ticket price.
Looking at the attendance and ratings of this game, the league executives couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, fortunately, there are still many teams in the West that love offense, and the dreary and lethargic series of the Spurs and Grizzlies has passed, and now the Trail Blazers have undoubtedly helped the league recover a lot of losses. If you do it again, the Spurs VS Grizzlies cheat daddy routine, then Stern basically has nowhere to cry, everyone likes to watch the attack, what does it mean for you to let a group of black and hard people bump around on the court?
In fact, the Spurs are a very balanced team, thanks to the good team atmosphere created by Popovich, they can play both fluid offense and airtight defense, the previous game with the Grizzlies was so dull largely because of Popovich's old man's idea, he hopes that the team can compete with the opponent on the defensive end, so now facing the Trail Blazers, in his opinion, is the time to test the team's offense.