Chapter 70: Rivers' Response
In the fourth game between the Magic and the Wizards, neither coach made any changes to the main lineup. It's just that the Wizards have changed the roster of those who played last game, Nesby and Haywood were put on the watch list, and the team's 12-man roster has a new name, Bobby? Simmons.
A name that Rivers didn't understand and didn't really care about.
Maddie is still like the last game, holding the ball at the beginning to face Gerrard's attack, or using the breakthrough he is good at, don't break Gerrard, don't want it, but Maddie in this game does not give people a bloodthirsty feeling, just use his full strength to play.
The Wizards' response to this was just to play their offense very well, not panic at all, and rely on Kwamei to step forward and block with Gong Feng to gain space for breakthroughs and offense.
The Magic team does not have a very good way to this offensive mode, the Magic team still has weaknesses in the interior defense, only Cott's co-defense is in place, and the other interior players are either slow, short, not good at defense, or too old to be at their peak.
Seeing that the Wizards were still following the back of the Magic team unhurriedly like in the last game, Rivers, who frowned, still made a substitution, letting Ewing come on the court to replace Garriti, mainly defending Kwame.
It's a big gamble, but looking at Ewing's performance in the last game, as Ewing's former teammate, Rivers is willing to believe in King Kong for once.
After Ewing came on the court, the Magic immediately turned into a high-post defense, emptying the interior posture, and Kort and Maddy constantly interfered with the Wizards' shooting options on both sides of the 45-degree angle, which was also a problem for the Wizards at the beginning.
This tactic has not been used before this game, and in the last game, seeing that the Wizards were powerless, and seeing that the Wizards were still very calm at the beginning, Rivers used it in this game.
Gong Feng frowned and looked at the situation on the court, the outside line may be caught at any time, and it becomes very difficult to pass, Cotter and Maddy's super ability to block space is undoubtedly revealed in this system, that is, when Darrell defends Gong Feng, he is mainly to prevent Gong Feng's shooting, although he can still dry out jump shots outside the three-point line, but Gong Feng knows his own pounds.
But looking at Kwamei on the inside, Gong Feng sneered, and when he thought of doing it, he passed the ball directly to Kwamei.
"Thought it was really easy for Kurt to defend Kwame? If it weren't for Kwame's dedication to defense, how could it be possible for Kurt to really defend, that's it, Kwame also made Kurt have no way to do anything else, that's it, Rivers, you guys are underestimating Kwame! ”
After receiving the pass from Gong Feng, Kwame sat down against Ewing without making any adjustments, stretched out his long arm, hooked his hand, and scored the ball.
Kurt defense Kwame can't stop Kwamei who has already stood in a good position, when defending Kwamei, he uses his body to entangle Kwamei, and now Ewing doesn't have the athleticism of Cote, Kwame is easy to get rid of Ewing, plus there is no interference from other players, and Gong Feng's pass is also abnormally in place, and this goal is very normal.
Rivers was stunned for a moment when he saw such a Kwame, but he didn't make any further adjustments, he believed in Ewing's strength.
There was a problem with his own side's defense, as did the offense, and after Ewing came on, Collins replaced Jordan with Hamilton.
The task of defending Houston seemed to be in the hands of Gong Feng, and Houston still began to run without the ball as in the past, receiving a pass at a 45-degree angle, and quickly shooting, but this time it did not follow.
In the eyes of many people, this ball is just a matter of feel, but Houston glanced at Gong Feng after landing, because Gong Feng's blocking this time did not block Houston's eyes, nor did he follow closely to defend the position of the basketball, but blocked the route where Houston might shoot, which is very different from Gong Feng's defense in the previous games.
Turning back to attack the bow peak, seeing that his teammates had already stood in a good position, and passed the ball to the inside line, after Kwamei received the ball, it was not as fast and comfortable as the last time, but after receiving the ball, he quickly changed his back to the face frame, quickly interspersed a step, after Ewing followed himself, he collided with Ewing with his shoulder, raised his hands high, squeezed out a little space, and played cricket.
Seeing this, Rivers frowned, but immediately stood up, called Maddie over, and whispered something in his ear.
When Gong Feng saw this, he immediately came to Gerrard's side and said: "Pay attention to Maddie's help defense, and pay attention to protect the route of Kwamei's pass." ”
Gerard nodded when he heard this, Collins looked at Gong Feng's performance, and said jokingly to Jordan next to him: "You definitely couldn't catch up with Gong Feng at this point back then!" ”
"Ha, that's when I didn't run into another Jordan and Collins!" Jordan replied without showing any weakness.
Collins smiled at this and didn't say anything more, at this time, Gong Feng was the captain of the field, and what was even more surprising was that the other young people were also very convinced of him, but looking at everyone's current data, they naturally knew what Gong Feng's prestige was.
After Gerrard came to the Wizards, his scoring rose from 3 points to 12 points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and time on the court all increased.
Although Hamilton is now a substitute player, his scoring efficiency on the court has increased by more than two percent compared to before, plus Wang Zhizhi, Leitner, and Kwame, these people are all beneficiaries under Gong Feng.
Of course, there are proud, there must be frustrations, Tyrone Lue's playing time has been less after Hubert's return, his height is still his hard injury, and other people who have no outstanding points have completely become fringe players.
Looking at the game on the field, Collins unconsciously remembered these things, watching the situation on the field continue to tilt towards his side little by little, and unconsciously smiled.
After Ewing came on the court, Kwamei has scored 10 points in a row, with a shooting rate of more than 80 percent, and Maddie's breakthrough, in the case of Gerrard and Kwame's continuous blocking, is not as brave as the last game, Maddie in order to win will not shoot hard under the basket in this situation, and other players also have mid-range shots, but to Maddie's disappointment, the efficiency of others is not as efficient as his own against the two people.
Rivers didn't call a timeout, just waited for the official timeout time before starting his own arrangement, not that the Magic team has no problems, but that there are a lot of problems, and even some concentration, Rivers wants to see where the most critical point is.
But just looking at Kwame's performance at the moment, Rivers couldn't sit still, but let him replace Ewing immediately now, it is absolutely impossible, once the breath in a veteran's heart is removed, it is unlikely that he wants him to contribute to you again, especially as a teammate of Ewing in the past, Rivers really knows the pride in the veteran's heart too well!
And Rivers doesn't think that Cotter can defend Kwame who is hot today, since he thinks that no one can defend it, then Rivers will use the joint defense that has just been left behind this year, which was originally a trick prepared for O'Neal, who knows that the Wizards will taste a first.
"Cott, after you get on the court, you have to expand your defensive range, just expand the defensive range to the three-point line, and give everyone except Gong Feng a chance to shoot three-pointers!"
"Yes!"
"Maddie, Houston, you two deliberately want to compress the middle line, but also to deliberately lead your defender to the area of Cotter's defense, I want you to form a two-on-one advantage in a certain area, once you find that Kwame receives the ball and quickly forms a package with Ewing, cut off his passing route, don't give him the space to pass the ball for the first time, let him make a few mistakes as much as possible, once there is a mistake, his competitive state is a big problem!"
"Yes!" Maddie and Houston looked at each other and replied in the affirmative.
"Darrell, you are the only defender with three points from the outside, you have to put enough pressure on Gong Feng, and the breakthrough is up to him, but the three points must be defended for me!"
"Yes!"
"Ewing, I don't believe you're the only one you have, give that high school student a little color to see, what about your tricks at pressing the bottom of the box? Don't tell me you've forgotten! ”
"Don't worry, this high school student can rest assured to leave it to me!"