With 3:25 left in the first quarter, Calderon was substituted and D'Antoni brought on the faster Felton. Felton and Iverson are both 183cm tall and have no loss in their reach.

The Timberwolves' offense made the Bobcats suffer. Iverson is a well-known iron god in the league, but when he found his touch, it was very scary, D'Antoni arranged Wallace to help defend, but the Timberwolves immediately replaced Posey with Grant Hill, who had more offensive ability, and Wallace did not dare to withdraw easily.

Joan Barry said: "The double reversal is very intense, the Timberwolves have four people to defend, and Iverson is one person to fire infinitely. The Bobcats now rely heavily on Hayes offensively, with the Timberwolves tightly wrapping him up, and Hayes struggling every time he catches the ball. Bobcats need other players to step up and score at this point. ”

Johnson also said: "I didn't expect the veteran players of the Timberwolves to change positions so quickly, and the Bobcats couldn't find availability. This season, the Timberwolves rank first in the league in limiting opponents to scoring. Today they did a good job of limiting the Bobcats' interior attack, which is not easy to do. ”

18 to 26. The Bobcats trailed by 8 points. Playing the underdog Bobcats for a few rounds can tie up the eight-point gap, but unlike the Timberwolves, their defense is solid, and they have found a way to deal with the Bobcats. That's the compression defense, with four occupying four corners of the three-second zone, with only Iverson alone.

If Hayes pulls outside the three-point line, Posey or Hill adopts a strategy of following out, preventing breakouts and interfering with shots. If Hayes gets the ball on either side of the box, he will be caught and it will be difficult to dribble. Hayes also had two turnovers when he passed from the outside, and was tackled by Iverson and McCantz.

D'Antoni called a timeout, but there was no good solution, and the lack of shooters on the outside prevented the players from pulling away to create a single opportunity for Hayes. Azubuke and Wallace were inconsistent in their three-point shooting, especially Wallace, who shot only 31% from three-point range, which was very unreliable, and his mid-range shot inside the three-point line gave the Timberwolves time to switch points to interfere with the shot. Calderon's open three-pointer was more accurate, but Iverson entangled him on the outside, so he couldn't play, shooting 0-of-3 in the first quarter and scoring no points.

Who said Iverson defended black holes? Isn't that? Hayes has seen a lot of defensive evaluations about Iverson, and experts generally agree that Iverson's defense is poor and easy to blow up. However, the ease of being blown up means that Iverson suffers physically when he encounters power star guards such as Marbury, Byron Davis, and Delon, and then it becomes a hole when he changes points guards. But a point guard who is not good at attacking with the ball in one-on-one defense, Iverson is more than enough. In the first quarter, Iverson contributed two steals.

The Timberwolves' offense is always like that, but the Bobcats can't crack it. Garnett responded high and covered Iverson, who broke through and drew the Hayes defense back to Garnett. After the switch, the man who defended Garnett became Felton. Garnett just pretended that there was no one in front of him, and hit a solid jumper. 18 to 28.

The Bobcats position attack was handed over to Hayes. Hayes drew two packs and passed to the outside of Azubuuk. Azubuuk misses a three-point shot. The Bobcats attacked several times to no avail, and Hayes was going crazy.

For the first time after the All-Star break, the Bobcats fell into a helpless situation, unable to defend themselves, and the offense was also chaotic, and they played the first quarter with difficulty under Hayes's solo play. The Bobcats trailed by 13 points 21-34.

Azubuuk's offense is not very stable, and this time he has become a man of iron in the N-shot. The newcomers of the Bobcats have a more serious problem, they are in a good mood when they play the weak team, they feel good, they meet the strong team, once the score is behind, they lack a big heart, they dare not throw or take the ball, and try to send it to Hayes.

Only Wallace stepped up and hit a few, and unfortunately, he wasn't as efficient as well, shooting 3-of-7. Garnett and McDice completely dominated the box. Biedrins' scrappy nature on the offensive side is on display.

Hayes scored nine points in the first quarter. Each attack is done under the bag of at least two players of the opposing team.

No, we have to find a way to break down their defense, otherwise I can't beat the Timberwolves no matter how many points I score alone. The way Hayes can think of to break the defense is to attract the bag and put three points on the outside. But the Bobcat's outside line is always a little bit off. Teammates rely on excellent athleticism, fast break can also score, and once they fall into a positional battle, it is completely a decoration. Hayes looked at D'Antoni and hoped the coach would figure out a way to crack the Timberwolves' tactics.

"In the second quarter, Van (Weaver) came on, Raymond (Felton) stepped up the break, Gerrard paid attention to the baseline and cut to the baseline, Karl (Landry) pulled up to the high screen, and Massin (Gortat) controlled the rebound. The defense continued to defend the joint defense. D'Antoni said.

Only Wallace remained on the court of the Bobcats' main players, and the rest were substituted off the pitch.

Hayes sat next to Van Gundy and D'Antoni and asked: "Coach, is there any way to break down their joint defense?" ”

"They're on the inside, compressing the space, we're short on pitchers, so when you come back on the floor, you try to play point guard, right? Shoot from the outside after the screen. D'Antoni said.

"But that way, we're weaker on the inside, and it's hard for Andris (Bidrins) and Carl to control the rebounds. If the Timberwolves have the rebounding advantage, it's going to be harder for us to play. Hayes said.

"Or you and Karl play inside, give up the inside height, and both of them pull out and let Van and Raymond strengthen the break. But in this way, we are at a height disadvantage when defending......" D'Antoni thought of another method, but it was still not perfect.

At this point, the second quarter of the game began. The Timberwolves replaced McDyce, Garnett, McKenzie, Iverson, Mutombo, Brandon Buss, Aaron Afararo, and Marco Jarridge. It's the same four up and four down. Grant Hill stays on the court.

Hayes isn't particularly anxious right now, as the Bobcats' role players are outstanding and should be able to compete against the Timberwolves' bench players. But he soon discovered that it wasn't that easy.

Landry covered rookie Afararo, Weaver broke through with the ball, and Marco Jarric on the weak side quickly made up for the defense, released Felton, and blocked Weaver, who was about to make a pull-up jumper. Jarric, a point guard, has average physical fitness, average passing awareness, breakthrough ability, and scoring ability. But he has one characteristic, a height of 201cm, and his ability to fight is not bad, which allows him to defend three positions in defense.

Weaver tried to use his speed to break through Jarich, only to be caught in front and back by Buzz and Jarich. Weaver passed the ball back to the high post, Landry received it, and it was Afararo who defended after the misplacement. In addition to his shooting ability, another reason why this rookie can be favored by the Timberwolves is his height and confrontation ability, which can also play a role when the defense is misaligned. Landry's high jumper was disturbed by Afara [***] and missed.

Mutombo couldn't jump, but he relied on good positioning and excellent reach to grab the rebound, holding the ball with both hands, elbows back and forth. Gortat not only failed to grab the rebound in the frontcourt, but also nearly died.

The Timberwolves attacked, Wallace defended well in the first quarter, Posey scored only two points, and Hill didn't score a point. Now his mission is to ban the old star of the Timberwolves. Mutombola went to the high post to cover Hill, who bypassed Wallace and entered the interior from the left. Landry followed.

I've got to guard against it, like Chuck. The Timberwolves don't have a consistent offensive point now, and if they can't recover the score in this situation, I don't have the face to see Chuck. Landry stood in the way of Hill.

Just when Landry thought he was blocking Hill's breakaway, Bass somehow pulled on the outside and screened Jaric off the ball, who dodged Weaver and ran towards the baseline. Hill was a versatile player as a youngster, playing forward and averaging more than five assists this season. Now he is not as good as before, but the passing awareness is still there, and the wide range is transferred to Jaric in the bottom corner of the other side.

Jaric was empty, Gortat was a step late to make up for it, and the tall Serb hit an empty three-pointer. 21 to 37.

Hayes, D'Antoni, and Van Gundy all had dark faces, like pincushions!

"That's not good. The Timberwolves' bench play reasonably well. Raymond's height disadvantage is too obvious. Even if Van goes to defend Jaric, Afararo has 196cm, and both of them can shoot from the outside. Hayes said, looking at the pitch.

Equally bad is the attack of the Bobcats.

The Timberwolves defended Weaver tightly. They saw that Weaver was the Bobcats' scoring striker off the bench, with Alfararo in the main defense, and if Weaver broke through, weak-side players Hill or Jaric would make up for it, freeing up two players who couldn't shoot from the outside. If Weaver breaks through, he'll be trapped. This time Weaver gave the ball to Wallace. Wallace hits a mid-range shot from the top of the post. 23 to 37.

The ball is just barely passing, Weaver is good at breaking and shooting, not very good in other aspects, how do you crack it? Don't think that only Van Gundy in the league will defend. Timberwolves head coach Randy Whitman sat on the sidelines, very proud. He feels he is underrated and should have a chance of getting the best coach this season. Now he's built the Timberwolves into a team that can be superbly defensive. Against any team, as long as he relies on changing players, he can be sure to limit the opponent with joint defense.

When the Timberwolves changed to the bench lineup, there was no obvious routine, that is, the interior players blocked and dismantled, and the outside players were misplaced and fought chaotically. Bobcats' two interior players also wanted to prevent them from coming out on the inside, but they couldn't. The opposing two tall guards can shoot in front of Felton after being misplaced. Felton couldn't block the opposition, but Jarric's shot didn't go in.

The two sides began a battle of iron within two minutes.

It was the Timberwolves who opened the game first. Afararo singled Felton on a jumper missed, and as soon as the players on the Bobcats bench breathed a sigh of relief, Mutombo stuck in position and grabbed the rebound. The second attack did not score, but it caused a foul on Gortat.

Mutombo made 1 of 2 free throws. 23 to 38. The Bobcats are still 15 points behind.

The Bobcats offense changed tactics, Gortat covered Wallace's baseline, Wallace broke through with the ball on the left, and Bass blocked Wallace on the three-second line.

Let me also show you my footsteps, Wallace learned the basket technique from Hayes, took a step with his right foot with the ball in the face frame, suddenly pulled the ball up with his left hand and turned around in the middle, turned to the basket and took the ball for a right-handed half-hook shot.

It's not that easy! Mutombo let go of Landry and got in front of Wallace and slapped the ball out. Hill picked up the basketball and was very experienced in holding the ball in his arms. The Timberwolves' current roster can't play fast-break. Mutombo covered Wallace and shook his finger triumphantly under the basket.

The defensive ability of the Timberwolves' bench lineup, although it is worse than the main team, but against the opponent's bench lineup, especially those who are not good at outside shooting, this lineup defense is also very powerful. Mutombo is old and strong, and his interior defense is even better than Yao Ming.

"Coach, let me play early. Look at the situation. It's also hard to take advantage of our bench lineup, and the Timberwolves' defense is too difficult to break down. Hayes suggested.

The Timberwolves' benches have taken control of the situation, and Jiang is still old and spicy!

(To be continued)