"The Timberwolves are injured, I'm afraid the season will be reimbursed!" 》

An accidental injury to Love has put the low-key Timberwolves back in the spotlight. Timberwolves fans fell into a wail after learning the news, not because they immediately looked down on the Timberwolves' playoff journey like online experts, but because they felt sorry for the Timberwolves for losing such a huge amount of power.

How strong is Lefou? In the Timberwolves' system, he's only the third offensive option, but he still contributes about 15 points and grabs about 12 rebounds every night. Offensively, his increasingly excellent three-point shooting ability has opened up space for Zheng Ke well, and his coquettish ability has also been affirmed by many people. Defensively, he has always been able to protect the Timberwolves' backcourt rebounds, and this season, the Timberwolves have the league's highest backcourt rebounding protection rate, and Lefu has contributed a lot.

The injury of such an important piece of the puzzle has cast a shadow over the Timberwolves' championship prospects.

However, when Zheng Ke faced the media interview, he was very confident: "I know that we are currently encountering a little difficulty. Kevin is one of the most important players in our team, but that doesn't mean we're no longer competitive. The Timberwolves still have a lot of great players, our morale is still strong, and whether it's the regular season or the playoffs, we're going to keep moving forward with a strong belief. ”

Zheng Ke didn't say this casually, in fact, the Timberwolves did it.

April 1.

The Timberwolves host the Kings.

Gibson started the game, and the Timberwolves took on the challenger in a strong manner. People were surprised to find out. The Timberwolves, who have undergone major changes, have a more resilient temperament. Gibson, who replaced Lefou, was full of energy, completely without the restraint and nervousness of his first start, but repeatedly staged violent dunks in the game.

113 to 98. The Timberwolves beat the Kings at home.

A hearty victory made the noisy Timberwolves in the outside world stop for a while

San Antonio.

Spurs' AT Center Arena.

"The Timberwolves are damaged inside, and the rebounding protection has obviously been greatly affected." Popovich convened the Spurs' all-hands meeting.

Popovich handed out the materials to each player and said solemnly: "I reckon our playoff opponent is likely to be the Timberwolves, and even if it isn't, we need to be prepared." After all, the Timberwolves were last year's champions, and their strength should not be underestimated. ”

Duncan held the data in his hand, which was a statistic of all the Timberwolves' player skills this season. This is the most basic piece of information.

Popovich turned on the projector and motioned for the assistant coach to operate the computer. The assistant coach nodded, moving the mouse quickly

"The Timberwolves tactics are composed of three parts, one of which is the air-cut and running tactics of positional warfare." Popovich didn't know where he had found a teaching rod. Point to the Timberwolves tactical map on the screen. Slowly explaining to the Spurs players: "In this part of the strategy, Chauncey Billups usually starts the offense, and he plays the most important role here as the first commander of the Timberwolves team. ”

"In this big set of tactics of the Timberwolves, it combines the Hawks, Princeton and some miscellaneous tactics, and Zheng Ke exists as the most reluctant. This season's stats show that Zheng Ke is 11.5 percentage points more likely to cut in from the right than from the left. And his probability of cutting to the 45-degree three-point line on the right side is the highest of the five points on the court."

"In the Timberwolves' set of tactics, Love is usually the coverer. Whenever Zheng is caught in the bag, he and Billups are the most likely to be let go, at the top of the arc and around 45 degrees from the three-point line on the left and right sides, respectively. After Lefou's injury, Gibson didn't have the ability to shoot three-pointers, which greatly diminished, but Gibson also had a good mid-range jumper, and his impact was even more powerful than LeFou. ”

Popovich is an excellent head coach, and his coaching staff is among the best in the NBA. The Timberwolves' injury gave him an opportunity for the Spurs to beat the Timberwolves in this year's playoffs. It's not just like the media pundits shouting empty slogans, he really included this in the Spurs' training plan during this time, and for this reason, he rushed out this series of tactical system breakdowns overnight.

Popovich's basketball philosophy is very different from Phil Jackson's. He relied on the superstar's ability and at the same time relied on the system's strength to firmly grasp the superstar. No player can rise above Popovich's system, including Duncan. And Jordan and Kobe Bryant are the kind of people who can not only integrate into the team to form a perfect triangle offense, but also have great independent offensive power at any time. Popovich always believed that the Timberwolves could definitely defeat by analyzing and analyzing the Timberwolves' tactical system and then allowing each Spurs player to perform their respective tasks perfectly.

Especially after Love was injured, he saw a weakened link in the Timberwolves, and together with his team, he keenly identified the holes in the Timberwolves' tactical system.

"We at Spurs have had a lot of injuries this year, but our players are all fit when the playoffs are heading up. The Timberwolves, the Lakers are the biggest enemies we think we've had in the playoffs this year, and if we want to regain the O'Brien Cup, we're going to have to win those two opponents. “

Popovich's words were filled with excitement that he couldn't even perceive, and when he explained the Timberwolves' tactics, what came to mind was that the Spurs relied on the tactical movement of the enemy first, and every time the attack and defense of the main Timberwolves were killed, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly

At the beginning of April, in addition to the NBA's usual games, the major awards selected in the season also appeared to be crowded in the media's speculation.

There are not a few people who support Zheng Ke's MVP, after all, his score of 33.2 points per night is really amazing. The Timberwolves also have a top-three record this season, and in the words of Zheng Ke fans. It was Kobe Bryant the year before last, James last year, and this year it will be my Zheng Ke's turn.

On April 4, the Timberwolves host the Heat.

The Heat are among the top five teams in the East, and in Zheng's eyes, they are even tougher than the Hawks, who are third in the East. Because there's one guy on the team called Dwyane Wade.

Wade looks to be recovering very well, and after a season, his body is back to his peak form. It was clear from the All-Star Game that he was in good shape, and after more than a month, Wade seemed to be in even better shape.

Beasley and Richardson are all excellent players for the Heat, and there are bench gangsters like Haslem on the bench. The game was played a little anxiously.

Wade came up and showed his strong desire to attack, and the Timberwolves rushed left and right in the formation, scoring 10 points in the middle of the first quarter. In comparison, Zheng Ke's hand was not so good, he missed two shots from outside the three-point line, and relied on free throws and layups to score 8 points in the first quarter.

Wade came back on the bench after a three-minute break in the second quarter, and against Afflalo's defense, he used his skillful ability to change direction and Joel Anthony's excellent pick-and-roll ability to pass Afflaro several times. And today he was pretty accurate with his mid-range shooting, hitting two shots in a row from the left side of the free throw zone.

Seeing this, Whitman replaced him with a scorching Zheng Ke.

Seeing Wade so brave, Zheng Ke's heart also aroused the enthusiasm for fighting, and after he went into battle, he immediately sent a shocking chase block, and covered Richardson's dunk behind!

After the block, Zheng Ke picked up the rebound and rushed to the front court like a fly.

In the face of Wade and Arroyo's encirclement and interception, Zheng Ke dribbled the ball behind his back to the other side, and then changed direction in front of Arroyo twice quickly, passing between the two in the blink of an eye.

This pass was more gorgeous than the block just now, like crossing a wooden stake, and Zheng Ke provoked the most enthusiastic cheers from the crowd since the start of the game.

The Heat have a loose roster and an empty hinterland. After Zheng Ke came in, he attracted Haslem's reinforcement and passed the ball from behind to Afflaro, who was ambushed in the bottom corner. Avlaro understood, received the ball and shot straight away, hitting a three-pointer. It's like the most successful end to this gorgeous performance!

Zheng Ke and Afflaro collided their chests to celebrate, confident that this goal would definitely score the top 10 goals.

The momentum of the Timberwolves was high under the leadership of Zheng Ke after the second quarter, and the secret competition between Zheng Ke and Wade was seen by everyone, and fans felt that such a superstar matchup was the main theme of the NBA.

In the third quarter, Wade scored 10 points again, and by this time he had scored 31 points in the third quarter, while Zheng Ke had just reached 20 points after the third quarter.

The real difference came in the fourth quarter, when Zheng hit two three-pointers in a row at a crucial moment in the fifth minute, his only two goals since the start of the game, after hitting zero of four from beyond the three-point line.

But these two three-pointers were very fatal, and together, the Timberwolves instantly stretched the difference to 8 points, and the Heat was immediately at a disadvantage.

The coach's timeout did not have much effect, and the Timberwolves became more and more courageous after that, Zheng Ke turned over and threw a step-back jumper 1 minute and 13 seconds before the end, and the Heat fell behind by as many as 10 points, and finally reluctantly chose to give up the game.

Zheng scored 12 points in the final quarter, shooting 12-of-25 from the field, 2-of-6 from three-point range and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line. With 32 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists, he was rightfully the MVP of the game, while Wade scored 39 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, but the Heat lost the game regrettably.

After the Timberwolves won the Heat, they unexpectedly won a wave of five consecutive wins, and Zheng Ke also became the Western Conference Player of the Year last week, which is the eighth time he has been named the Weekly Player this season, and it feels as if he has been nominated and elected all along. This is also one of the huge guarantees for Zheng Ke to be elected MVP, of course, James in the East also won a lot of weekly awards, and the two belong to the middle of the best. (To be continued......)