Anthony Davis rewarded the Warriors with two more hot pots in the second quarter.

In the first half, he had 4 blocks, and he was an insurmountable barrier on the inside.

The Clippers' leaning defense certainly gave the Warriors a chance to shoot from the outside, and Klay Thompson hit three three-pointers in the second quarter with a fast and accurate shot.

However, the Clippers still relied on very high offensive efficiency and always maintained a lead of more than 5 points in the second quarter and firmly suppressed the Warriors.

When the confrontation comes to the level of the Clippers and Warriors, the battle between the two sides is no longer a simple technical and tactical duel, but more of a competition of strategy and ideas.

In terms of individual ability, both sides are very strong, even if the Warriors have one less Kevin Durant and the Clippers have one less Paul George, the lineup is still crushing other teams.

Playing other weak teams, both sides don't need to talk about any ideas, play normally, rely on the players' personal ability and normal tactical running, and they can beat the opponent.

But the master has made a move, the personal ability is comparable, and the state is also very good, the tactics and lineup are not restrained or not, so it depends on the way of thinking, looking at the strategy, whether the players can play more comfortably, whether they can better target, and overwhelm the opponent in the efficiency of the whole offense and defense, rather than just focusing on the victory or defeat of a few rounds.

Min Congda persuaded his boss Shelly Sterling to buy sports technology company WSC a few months ago not simply to make money on investment, but also because Min knew that this kind of neural network AI technology had a promising future and would have a significant impact on many industries, including the sports industry.

WSC's software can accurately capture the movements of players in the game video, identify, classify, and count, and if it is written to a certain extent, it can also perform a very accurate analysis of the offensive and defensive situations of the whole game.

For example, where a player is in which position and in what position he shoots, the success rate of scoring is the highest.

Or a certain player of the opponent, in a certain position, what kind of pace does he habitually attack, what is the percentage of shots, what is the proportion of breakthroughs, etc.

In the American sports league, data analysis into professional games first started in baseball, and the effect is very good, because there are many types of baseball statistics, and the game is relatively static and isolated, and tends to be a turn-based game, like chess, which will be very useful for analysis.

Basketball is more dynamic, and the statistics of a round alone have different calibers and different methods, and ordinary data analysis cannot show the whole picture of the game.

Only by introducing artificial intelligence and assisting in analysis can the game be dismantled and restored to a more microscopic and detailed form.

Min Congda has been preparing for the Clippers since before he became head coach of the Clippers, spending a lot of time studying the game with the WSC staff, focusing on the Clippers themselves and the Warriors.

Among them, the algorithm of game analysis, the weight allocation of some data, is Min Congda personally participated in the debugging, different games, different teams, he will give different algorithm weights, different analysis, which makes several founders of WSC very amazing, this person's understanding of basketball is really profound.

And the shift that this analysis brings about is a major change in coaching philosophy that Steve Kerr, and other coaches on NBA teams, may not have felt yet.

In the middle of the second quarter, Min Congda replaced Anthony Davis, this kid was tired enough today, he didn't rest for a minute in the first quarter, and he didn't come down until the middle of the second quarter, and he played for almost 20 minutes in one breath.

Seeing Anthony Davis sweating profusely, Min Congda encouraged him: "You have rested long enough, fight more, and be worthy of your salary." ”

Gasol Jr. was replaced, Randolph also reappeared, and on the outside, the Clippers used Livingston, Butler and Harden, which is obviously a slower lineup.

Min Congda called Harden to the sidelines, signaling him to hold down the rhythm, grind with the Warriors, make more fouls, and don't give the opponent a chance to counterattack.

Harden nodded to understand that all of this was arranged before the game, and the Clippers as a whole had to play in a rhythmic state of slow-fast-slow-fast, from the first quarter to the fourth.

As for how the Warriors play, it is the Warriors' business, Min Congda will definitely not be led by the nose by Kerr and the Warriors, it is better not to play against the wind, or not to play against the wind.

Harden listened to Min Congda's arrangement, and he, who had been playing more than a quarter without the ball, began to slow down the tempo, put the ball in his hands, block and dismantle, break through, block and dismantle, break through, if you collect it, I will throw a three-pointer from the outside.

If Curry is the cornerstone of the Clippers' tactics, then Harden is a strange independent of the Clippers' tactics, and once he gets up on offense, he plays a team by himself.

With him, the Clippers can maintain a very high offensive efficiency during the tactical exhaustion period or the chaotic battle stage, whether it is 1 point, 2 points or 3 points, this little fat man is good at it.

The Warriors tried to pick up the tempo and use defensive counter-attacks to chase the score, and Kerr also stepped up the speed and intensity of the defensive rotation in an attempt to tie the score before halftime.

However, the Clippers are still fierce in the frontcourt rebounding scramble, Randolph, Gasol Jr. and Harden all fight for the frontcourt board, even if they don't grab it, they have to foul and interfere with the Warriors' counterattack.

The Warriors were forced to drag into positional warfare, positional warfare, the Clippers insisted on one-on-one single defense in tonight's game, without the super offensive point of Durant, the Warriors' offense seemed "I have a lot of methods, but none of them seem to be of any use".

James and Lillard can rely on their individual ability to score points, but you score 2 points, the Clippers score 4 points, you score a 3-point, and the Clippers also score a 3-pointer.

The Warriors' offense has never been smooth, the Clippers have been firmly guarding the basket and not giving the Warriors a chance to score easily, as for the three-point shot, you shoot normally, I won't target you.

Without Durant, relying only on Klay Thompson and Lillard, the Clippers were not afraid, and at halftime, the Clippers were 71-64, leading the Warriors by seven points.

The Warriors were able to face the Clippers defense and score 64 points in the half, but the Clippers' offensive efficiency was even more terrifying, with 71 points in the half and 32 points in the second quarter.

The two sides went back to the locker room to rest, and Steve Kerr had a feeling that throughout the first half, they were stuck in the water with their heads pressed by the Clippers, and they were never able to get out of the water and catch their breath.

Of course, this feeling is terrible, just like playing football, being kicked 0:1 by someone at the beginning, you will always have a sense of urgency to fall behind, want to score and at the same time worry about being countered by the opponent and break again, this feeling of headwind is very uncomfortable.

The Clippers seem to have a tailwind, but in fact, the players just played according to Min Congda's pre-game arrangement and went through the process.

At halftime in the locker room, Min Congda summarized the first half and set up the second half on the whiteboard.

Min Congda is not a chicken soup coach, and he has no interest in giving chicken blood to the players.

Besides, tonight's game, the Clippers players don't need to mobilize at all, they all want to beat the Warriors.

"We did a good job in the first half, guarding the basket very well, and without Durant, the Warriors' three-point shooting wouldn't be a big problem, but getting Klay Thompson to shoot too smoothly was a problem. In the third quarter, Leonard you go to defend Thompson, Harden, you go to deal with James, just let him shoot. In the third quarter, our thinking remained the same, the inside line, the tactics of the twin towers, continued to suppress the opponent in terms of efficiency. Remember, the basket is our lifeline, and in the absence of Kevin Durant, fighting for the three-second zone is the winner and loser, and everyone keeps that in mind. Everything else is carried out according to the established plan. ”

Min further emphasised the importance of the inside, something that Tyronn Lue had overlooked in the previous two games.

The coaching staff focused too much on the battle between the front line and the guard line, ignoring the absolute dominance of the Clippers' interior and the decisive impact that the interior offensive and defensive superiority can have on the game.

Of course, Min Congda is not only based on intuition and experience, but also adds pre-match video AI analysis and big data analysis.

In the past, NBA coaches relied on experience, intuition, and a lot of knowledge to develop tactics and strategies.

For coaches, the game of basketball is like playing chess and cards, with both sides playing cards against each other, moving pieces and targeting each other.

The game was therefore divided into pieces, a certain team had the advantage at the beginning, called a timeout, the inferior team changed strategies, and the two sides continued to compete, you chased me, one after another.

It's like attacking a city, fighting for each specific area, sending different players against each other.

However, with the introduction of big data analysis and AI image analysis, the view of the game is more macro and holistic.

I no longer care about the gains and losses of one city and one place with you, what I value is the overall efficiency, and the final score of gains and losses.

I can give you 120 points, but I can get 123 points, 125 points.

One, two, 3 or 5 points difference can feel like a problem with the player's form.

But if every time you play against an opponent like this, you lose by 5 points, 3 points, that feeling is different.

It's like an AI playing Go, and he wins you by 1 or half a game in a game, and you will feel that you are not much behind the level of the AI.

But if you play a hundred games, a thousand games, and you find that you still lose 1 or half a game every time, then you will understand that the gap between the two sides is incalculable.

Because he doesn't need to win you 5 or 10 eyes at all, he can win you 1 or half a goal steadily.

Of course, Min Congda is far from leading the team to this level, he is not an AI, and basketball is not Go.

The technical and tactical ability and form of the players are still decisive in the outcome of the game.

Therefore, Min Congda repeatedly emphasized that tonight's game "without Kevin Durant", if Durant is here, it will be a completely different situation.

It's just that in terms of tactical formulation, Min Congda no longer engages in any targeting, see the moves, no matter what moves you make, I will give a firm established strategy based on the overall analysis, and use different systems and tactics to play throughout the field around this strategy.

No matter how strong your warriors are, it's impossible to immediately add a top-level interior player at night to improve your three-second zone offensive and defensive capabilities, right?

And "main inside" is not a simple sentence, after all, the strategy on the field is either the main inside line or the main outside line, and the key is a series of details that match the strategy.

Many teams will choose to play the inside line at the beginning, let the center play a few more, run the tactics, not only score goals, but also let the whole team tactics warm up, and then play the center to blue-collar, and then run back or only defend.

The Clippers are different, in order to achieve the suppression of the Warriors on the inside, they have prepared before the game in terms of rotation, interior player positioning, offensive selection, and rebounding details.

For example, at the beginning of the game, Gasol Jr. was shallow in ribs, Leonard controlled the ball, Harden and Curry were without the ball, and Davis rushed to grab the rebound in the frontcourt, all of which were arranged in advance.

After that, every time Randolph and Davis held the ball with their backs, landed, fed the ball, and other people ran and stuck positions, as well as whether they returned to defense or rushed to the frontcourt to rebound, they all went through careful decisions before the game.

The basis of the decision-making is Min Congda's intuition and experience, and the second is the data results after the analysis of a large number of videos to ensure that the strategic goals can be achieved.

This decision-making mechanism, coupled with the Clippers' high execution, Steve Kerr is not easy to target, and Kerr didn't think about how to deal with it throughout halftime.

Kerr couldn't help but feel a little numb in his scalp, if this is the playoffs and the Warriors have explained this time, then the next game will have to watch the video, and the post-game meeting will discuss and find out how to deal with it.

Of course, there is still half a game time, whether to explain or not, it also depends on the player's on-the-spot performance.

Besides, the Warriors still have Durant on the bench, which is Kerr's biggest inner reliance and safety island.

"Even if we lose, we have one less scorer after all, and he will be back soon."

Cole thought so, comforting himself inwardly.

After the start of the third quarter, the intensity of confrontation between the two sides was further increased, the defensive intensity increased, and the speed and rhythm of the game suddenly increased by a notch.

The average team facing strong teams like the Clippers and Warriors may collapse in the third quarter in the face of high-intensity offense and defense.

And the strong confrontation, instantaneous sparks fly.

James came up and smashed into the basket with a single block, and this dunk that was avoided by the gods made the Oracle Arena boil.

While James has changed his role on the court this year to become an all-around support, his powerful breakaway scoring ability hasn't been lost.

His breakthrough is also to create damage and increase the defensive consumption of the Clippers' interior line.

The Clippers started from the low post as usual in the third quarter, with Gasol Jr. and Anthony Davis taking turns to take the position, and Curry Harden on the outside opened up space and waited for an opportunity.

The Warriors' response plan is to shrink, once the ball is handed to Gasol Jr. or Davis, the man in the middle immediately goes to the pinch, but it is just a fake bag, slightly disrupts the rhythm, and then retreats to defend his opponent.

As a result, after only two rounds, he was shot by Harden and Curry, and he immediately didn't dare to fake the bag, so he could only let Gasol Jr. and Anthony Davis dominate on the inside.

Bogut is very good one-on-one defense, rebounding protection in the backcourt, and his ability to protect the basket is enough to deal with most situations, he can deal with a little Gasol, but with Anthony Davis, he is a little unbearable, and then let him face Harden, Curry and Leonard's rotation to kill the interior, Bogut is even more difficult to support.

Playing other teams, one Bogut plus one Green, it can be said that it is more than enough, plus James, it is already overmatched.

But playing the Clippers, when the Clippers are determined to play traditional play with you, play twin-tower tactics, and play inside, the Warriors' supermatch has become a simple match.

In the third quarter, the Clippers took advantage of the inside advantage and quietly opened up a small score gap, 81:72, and the advantage was extended to 9 points.

Neither team on either side can play an offensive shockwave, pull away or close all at once, after all, the individual ability of the players is too strong.

But the Clippers just rely on more efficiency, and after four or five rounds, I score two more points than you, and after four or five rounds, I still score two more points than you.

This slowly accumulated, the Warriors were always very tired, and the point difference was still expanding little by little, and Kerr could only call a timeout and make substitutions.

As a last resort, Kerr tried to use a traditional center + power forward combination like Bogut + Speights.

As a result, the defensive end did not improve much, but the offensive end came to a standstill, and was firmly nailed to death by the Clippers' defense.

After the timeout, the Clippers went 5:0 and further stretched the gap to 14 points, which was the biggest gap in the game.

Kerr, who had just called a timeout for the substitution, could only call another timeout, replace Bogut, and put Green back on the court.

With this poor on-the-spot command and scheduling, it was clear that Kerr was in a panic when faced with the Clippers' surprise play.

Or rather, when he faced Min Congda, he lost some self-confidence, and his substitutions and tactical deployment were messy.

James complained at Kerr at the timeout: "We should play our own way of thinking and not be led by Smart!" Have you been led by his nose for less? ”

Cole knew that what James said made sense, and James himself knew that if it wasn't for that conversation in 10 years, why would he have fallen to this point and be a super assistant?

In other games, Kerr performed very well, and the Warriors were invincible and invincible, but this time he was distracted.

He's trying to make adjustments, calm the players, there's still a lot of game time and plenty of opportunities to turn things around.

At this point, the Clippers followed the flow, with Anthony Davis on the court and PJ Tucker on the floor, and they began to enter the fast-paced phase of one big four and small small.

Instead of using a big rotation tonight, Min Congda used a nine-man rotation, Randolph, Tucker, Butler plus Livingston.

Dragic, Jokic and other players were pressed to the bench by DNP, because the opponent is the Warriors, and it is necessary to maintain the compactness of the rotation and the continuity of the player's condition.

You can play multiple lineups and multiple tactics against other teams, but playing like this against the Warriors will only lead to a dead end.

The Warriors quickly set off a wave of counterattacks in the third quarter, with James breaking through consecutive points to assist Thompson and Lillard hitting three-point shots.

The Clippers' defense is already in place, but Lillard and Thompson's outstanding three-point ability still shoots the ball head-on, which is purely individual ability.

The Clippers' offense fell into a small slump, probably because the players who were ahead too much relaxed, resulting in the Clippers' offense losing its center of gravity for a few rounds.

At one point, the Warriors narrowed the gap to seven points, and Min Congda called a timeout, which was the first time he took the initiative to call a long timeout to make adjustments in this game.

During the timeout, Min Congda handed over the offensive burden at the end of the third quarter to Leonard, allowing Leonard to hold the ball and launch an offense, attacking the Warriors from long, mid, and near distances.

Harden and Curry have become ambushes again, anyway, just ambush outside, and stand with their waists crossed.

After several seasons of training, Leonard has gradually gone from a robot with stiff dribbling and shooting to a little bit of a top guard swingman offense.

Eat alone with his back, shoot directly after blocking and dismantling, break through to the basket, and shoot backwards for a jumper, a rusty version of Jordan throughout his life.

It doesn't matter if it's rusty or not, it's good to be able to score goals.

The Clippers had an offensive center of gravity, and Leonard immediately pulled away from the right side, or burst or shot, and Leonard's Green had no way to defend one-on-one.

At the end of the third quarter, the Clippers reopened the gap and entered the fourth quarter with a 10-point advantage at 95:85.

Curry and Harden acted as ambushes for most of the half, containing a large number of defensive forces of the Warriors, allowing the Clippers interior and Leonard to have more room to play.

This strategic move is quite clever, and in the fourth quarter, the Warriors are even more afraid to let go of Harden and Curry, who are full of energy.

Cole clenched his fists, knowing that he had fallen into a complete defeat in the battle with Min Congda.

Now, he has one last hole card to play, and maybe he can turn the game around in the fourth quarter.

But do you want to use it? Cole was hesitant.

(End of chapter)