Chapter 9: Three Points
The Cavaliers finally called a timeout, even though Larry. No matter how incompetent Brown is, he knows that if he doesn't call a timeout, this game really doesn't need to be played again.
The Cavaliers' offensive options after the pause were much safer than before, and James also recovered his senses from the impulsive state just now.
The Cavaliers attacked, James broke through with the ball, attracted the Suns defenders and chose to pass the ball out. Gooden received the ball at the free throw line and jumped out and scored the ball.
The Suns formed a fast break, Marion ran without the ball and cut to the basket, and Nash's pass followed, and the latter received the pass and scored an easy layup.
……
In the next few minutes, both teams maintained a relatively efficient offensive efficiency, and the score continued to rise, while the clock passed by the minute.
Before you know it, there are less than 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter, when the score is 110-111, and the Cavaliers' lead is only one point, but the ball belongs to the Cavaliers.
James slowly dribbled to suppress the time at the top arc position, and waited until there were only 6 seconds left in the offensive time before suddenly starting to break through and hit the basket, and the Suns immediately carried out a package tactic, but the speed of James was difficult to stop, and finally the whistle blew, and the Suns defended the foul.
James, who walked to the free throw line, made everyone's hearts hang.
The next two free throws will be crucial.
If James makes two free throws, the margin will return to three points, and the Suns will have to fight for a 3-pointer to tie the game and drag the game into overtime.
But if they hit 1 of 2 free throws or all of them, the Suns have a chance to kill the game.
James's free throws, you can always believe that the three-point shooting is more accurate than the free throws at critical moments is not groundless.
James, who walked to the free throw line, missed the first free throw, and then hit the second free throw.
110:112, a two-point difference, with 18 seconds left in the game.
D'Antoni immediately called a timeout to set up the final attack, and his decision was to go for a three-point kill.
While it's safer to score a two-pointer and play overtime, the Suns won't necessarily win the game even in overtime.
Today's overall performance of the team is still too poor, if it weren't for the sudden sideways killing of Wang Chao in the fourth quarter of the game, the score difference of the game would have been so big that it lost suspense.
Therefore, D'Antoni decided to take a gamble and use the last attack to end the game directly, and there has always been a combination of risk and opportunity.
It is precisely because of this that Wang Chao, the team's absolute bench substitute, was able to continue to stay on the field.
D'Antoni assigned Wang Chao the same task as in the previous minutes, standing in the bottom corner, attracting the attention of opposing defenders and helping Nash and others to pull space for offense.
Although Wang Chao has a blast in this game, currently shooting 4 of 4 three-pointers, and has scored 12 points in the fourth quarter of the game, D'Antoni still trusts his most powerful disciple Nash more in this most critical moment.
It's just that although D'Antoni's arrangement is like this, Wang Chao is obviously not willing to watch the opportunity to complete the system task missed.
D'Antoni believes in Nash, and Wang Chao also believes in Nash, and if he finds an opportunity in the last attack, the ball-handling master will definitely choose to pass the ball to himself!
The timeout ended, and players from both sides came on.
Dieng looked at Wang Chao who was walking towards the court, and involuntarily clenched his fists.
"Wang Chao, come on! Whether or not you can enter the team's rotation lineup depends on this last attack! ”
Dieng, who is also a fringe figure on the team, would like to see Wang Chao take the opportunity to make it to the team's rotation, even if he and Wang Chao are actually rivals.
Because if Wang Chao can do it, it means that players at the bottom of the league like them really have a chance to counterattack!
……
After coming on the court, Wang Chao ran directly to the bottom corner of the three-point line on the right side of the court.
Pavlovic immediately followed closely, although during the timeout, head coach Brown analyzed that the Suns' last offense would most likely be handed over to Nash, if not, it would be Marion, because the two are currently the most offensive players on the team.
As for Wang Chao, who led the Suns to launch a counterattack and chased back the 20-point difference, Brown believes that he will not be arranged as the last person to shoot.
But even so, Wang Chao can't be easily released, Pavlovich's task is to stare Wang Chao to death in the last 18 seconds!
Nash stood at the top of the three-point line and slowly dribbled the ball, waiting for the game time to pass by minute by second, and they must suppress the offense until the last second and not give the Cavaliers any chance to fight back.
Eighteen seconds of attacking time flew by, and the attention of all 10 players on the field was at its peak.
Suddenly, Marion moved!
Not only Marion, but Barbosa, who was lurking on the other side of the baseline, also moved, Marion pulled out the outside line for Nash to block and dismantle, and Barbosa pulled out the outside line from the other direction to help Nash pull up space.
With Marion's pick-and-roll cover, Nash quickly burst to the basket.
For a moment, everyone's attention was on Nash, who was already in Nash's offensive range, and he had too many ways to get the ball to the basket!
"It's not a three-point strategy, but you want to play two points to tie the game and continue overtime?"
The cold light in James's eyes flickered, and the lightning suddenly shot out from one side, and the whole person ejected and took off, covering the sky and the sun like a big peng, covering almost all the sky over Nash, not giving Nash any room to shoot.
"In that case, there's nothing they can do, right?"
Pavlovich, who was standing on the bottom line, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he watched this scene.
But at this moment, Pavlovich was stunned, because he suddenly found that Wang Chao, who was originally in front of him, was gone!
Turning his head to look, Pavlovich was shocked to find that Wang Chao didn't know when he sneaked from the three-point position in the bottom corner to the 45-degree angle.
"Damn! Careless! Did I sneak away just now when I was paying attention to Nash's movements? ”
Pavlovich secretly said that it was not good, and hurriedly tried to catch up, but it was already too late.
"Steve!"
Wang, who was standing at a 45-degree angle, shouted.
Nash, who had already sensed Wang Chao's movements in advance, did not hesitate at all, and immediately passed the ball from behind and sent the basketball to Wang Chao with great accuracy.
"Oops!"
When Wang Chao received Nash's pass in the vacant seat, everyone's hearts on the court hung in the air.
The Cavaliers remembered Wang Chao's unreasonable 4 three-pointers before.
The Suns, on the other hand, are worried that Nash will hand the final shot to a bench bench.
Wang Chao, who received Nash's pass, felt as if time had stopped at this moment, the noisy noise on the field disappeared, and all he could hear was his own heartbeat.
Take a deep breath, bend your knees, jump, and shoot!
Wang Chao's whole set of actions was done in one go, and he naturally moved the basketball to the direction of the basket.