By this time, the players of both sides had already entered.

At this time, Eric Spoelstra also walked in the direction of the technical table.

Before coming over, Eric Spoelstra was actually watching life Su Chen, and the defeat he suffered under Su Chen last season still made him remember it vividly.

Su Chen and Eric Spoelstra briefly shook hands, and then each returned to their respective camps.

Eric Spoelstra's expression was also more serious today, obviously not wanting to lose to him, which made Su Chen frown slightly.

It seems that it is not very realistic to expect the opponent to let go.

However, Su Chen was not afraid, his face was still calm as usual.

Competitive sports are meant to be won by yourself, and the victory that you see on the faces of others is also a shameful victory for the other party.

The player from both sides was also in position.

Timberwolves starting lineup: Giannis Antetokounmpo (C), Lore Deng (PF), Andre Iguodala (SF), Robert Covington (SG), Jimmy Butler (PG)

Heat starting lineup: Chris Bosh (C), Sean Battier (PF), LeBron James (SF), Dwyane Wade (SG), Mario Moneymos (PG)

For the layout of this lineup, Su Chen has thought about it.

The strength of the Heat this season has actually dropped a lot, Haslem and Birdman Anderson are too old, and they have declined significantly since the beginning of the new season.

This has made it difficult for Eric Spoelstra to field a lineup with an orthodox center, and according to the original statistics, Battier has been the team's starting power forward in 56 of his 73 games this season.

The impact of the Heat's role players getting older on the Heat is really not a joke, it should affect the Heat's normal lineup.

Bosh's tactical position is not high, and it is not a disadvantage to defend against Bosh with Giannis Antetokounmpo's defense.

And the lineup sent by Su Chen is not a man-to-man defense.

Covington and Antetokounmpo, two top co-defenders, could perfectly support any Timberwolves defensive system.

As for Goebel McCollum, who was going to brush the data, Su Chen didn't care about them this time.

McCollum has a defensive colander, and the team struggles to help him defend, especially a super offensive team like the Heat.

As for Gobert, although he has a certain ability to protect the frame, if he goes to Gobert, he probably has to defend the joint defense and let Gobert guard the basket.

The joint defense is betting on the opposite three points, and today is a key 20-game winning streak lottery opportunity, Su Chen doesn't want to bet.

The Heat have projections across the team, including James and Wade, who can shoot as well.

James's three-point accuracy is still very scary, because it is impossible for James to defend against James, and if James's three-point is opened, it is basically impossible to defend.

Although Wade's three-point shooting rate is relatively low, Wade's mid-range is very accurate, and Gobert dares to use mid-range shooting to educate Gobert without coming out of the basket.

At the same time, the Heat also has the presence of Ray Allen, a key shooter, on the bench, and Gobert is still pinned.

In this game, Su Chen just wants to fight with defense, don't want to play if the defense is poor, and it will not affect the game where the chips are not chips.

That's when Giannis Antetokounmpo jumped to the ball.

The ball was in Butler's hands, and the Timberwolves didn't have a tradition of letting the team boss pick one at the beginning, and the first ball was a bull corner tactic.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Iguodala Butler came to execute this bullhorn tactic.

After blocking and running, Giannis Antetokounmpo cut straight to the inside, but the Heat's block quickly stopped Giannis Antetokounmpo directly at the free throw line.

Seeing this, Giannis Antetokounmpo directly distributed the ball to Iguodala, who was three points from a 45° angle on the right.

Iguodala made a three-point shot in the open position, but the hand was a little poor and he didn't score.

The chance was out, but it didn't go in.

It seems that Iguodala, who has just returned from injury, has not yet entered the state so quickly.

Su Chen was not as calm as usual today.

"Retreat, retreat!"

When Iguodala was thrown, Su Chen was already on the sidelines, shouting loudly into the court.

This made Eric Spoelstra, who was on the sidelines, startled, he originally wanted to shout some tactics, but was stunned by Su Chen's voice.

Eric Spoelstra looked at Su Chen a little strangely, even when he played in the finals, Su Chen didn't look so crazy at that time.

How to play this regular season, Su Chen's state is like playing in the finals to tie seven?

It was already clear that this was the main retreat defense, so there were no Timberwolves players to scramble for frontcourt rebounds.

The Heat's rebounding ability is relatively poor now, because there is no problem with big centers, so Eric Spoelstra has to get more players involved in the defense of defensive rebounds.

Originally, the Heat was a team that played defensive counter-attacks, but with the aging of role players, now the Heat also have to make a balance before rebounding and fast breaking.

The Heat's current fast break is not so fast, and the Timberwolves are also going all out to defend and don't look at the rebounds at all.

So the Heat didn't find a chance to break quickly.

The Timberwolves don't have the habit of letting the team boss pick one off the bat, but the Heat do.

Although Eric Spoelstra has already said that it is better to play tactics first in the opening game and then give James the ball to play on his own.

But now with the Heat, Eric Spoelstra doesn't have much to say, and most of the Heat's role players act on James' orders.

So this ball is also one of James' opening shots.

Defending James is Andre Iguodala.

As a player who relied on defending James to get the FMVP, Iguodala's FMVP accolade has always been in question.

Iguodala and James have averaged 30.7 points, 11.6 rebounds and 8.6 assists while shooting 47.3 percent from the field in the 25 playoff games combined.

Then look at James's stats in Iguodala's FMVP season, averaging 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game, while shooting 39.8% from the field.

Just looking at James's Finals stats, it seems that there is indeed an illusion that Iguodala can guard against James, but looking at the two career playoffs, you can feel that it is not like that.

In fact, defending James does not rely on a certain person, but on the consumption of James' wheels, including Green and others, who have taken turns to consume James.

It's just that most of the time, Iguodala is leading the defense, and as the main body of this defensive strategy, he won the FMVP award.

It's no wonder that some people later referred to this award as the Iguodala Award.

But for Su Chen.

Iguodala is still the focus of leading the defense of James, and as for other defenses that drain James' resources, the Timberwolves are also right.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Lore Deng, Josh, Butler, Covington and the rest of the group can all consume James.

There is a gap between Covington and Butler's tonnage, but they mainly wear James down when they pass by.

It mainly relies on Giannis Antetokounmpo and Josh, two of the right sizes, to mainly defend.

Covington is ready to help.

The Timberwolves' defensive resources can be said to be far behind the Warriors, and the Warriors can limit James with that strategy, so the Timberwolves will only cause more trouble for James with this same strategy.

The ball James dribbled twice from beyond the three-point line.

Seeing that Iguodala didn't plan to let him shoot, James directly accelerated and rushed inside.

Iguodala remembered Su Chen's words, even if James was allowed to score, he would have to be consumed by James.

Iguodala also carried James with his body, and at the same time dragged James with his arm, giving James the biggest confrontation.

James is also physically explosive, carrying Iguodala and still being able to rush in.

Covington also defended quickly at this time.

James was already going to get up at this time, and Covington's assistant defense allowed James to get deep enough to make James have no time to react and did not pinch in advance.

The timing of Covington's defense made James feel a little uncomfortable.

It's like it's about to be deducted, but someone tells you that it's not allowed, and James doesn't care so much and forcibly deducts.

Iguodala and Covington both gave James a confrontation, and even if James was strong enough, Iguodala was not weak.

It is still very difficult to forcibly detain the two people under such circumstances.

James switched to a dunk for a layup.

Under the sandwich of the two, James still scored the ball.

Timberwolves 0:2 Heat.

After scoring the goal, James didn't do anything to show off his muscles or other celebratory gestures, but patted his arm and signaled to the referee that Iguodal had pulled his arm just now.

This means that this should be a 2+1!

But the referee ignored James' complaints.

If it was placed before Xiao Hua took office, when James was still the darling of the league, this layup would have been whistled because he was James even if the referee's angle was not very clear.

Speaking of which, there is such a deed.

"I didn't see that ball just now, but I believe what you say, because you're LeBron."

This is what the old referee said to James.

But that's no longer the case.

It was last season, after Su Chen let the Warriors win the championship in advance, the wind direction has changed after Xiao Hua took office this season.

James's whistle is there or there, after all, he is a superstar-level influence.

But the level of the whistle has declined.

"It looks like the whistle is loose in this game."

After Su Chen, who was on the sidelines, saw that James's complaint was ineffective, he also saw the referee's blowing scale clearly.

Doing some tough defensive actions is what Su Chen requested, this is to understand the referee's blowing scale at the beginning.

If the whistle is looser, you can do some big defensive moves, which will be beneficial to stop James.

Timberwolves offensive round.

In the last round, there was a vacancy in the bull corner, and Su Chen did not let the team change and continued to do the cow corner.

This ball Heat has learned from the defensive experience just now, plus the size of the coach on the sidelines, this time the Heat did not leak Iguodala's vacancy.

When Iguodala received the ball, the defense had switched back early.

But at this time, Iguodala immediately made a hit pass.

Butler, who went down, received a pass from Iguodala and scored the ball directly against Wade's defense.

Timberwolves 2:2 Heat.

Butler was also suspected of being fouled, but the referee didn't blow it.

Obviously, they didn't blow the foul on James's action just now, so they didn't blow the foul on Butler.

This game is broadcast live in the United States, and it can be blown loose or tight, but it cannot be double-standard.

Heat offensive round.

James, who had just hit Iguodala one, kept asking for the ball, he was going to keep playing Iguodala.

Iguodala naturally continued to play against James.

James didn't care so much, puffed up his muscles and rushed inside, and Iguodala's foul action was bigger than the previous round.

Covington pretended to be a helper, but he lied to James and didn't really help.

But Covington miscalculated, James has to carry the ball, even if he goes to help defend.

Iguodala directly grabbed James's arm, making James' hand for the layup suddenly weak, and the ball was not scored.

There was no whistle.

James wanted to go wild, and the whole Heat team was very dissatisfied.

Honk!

But at this moment, the referee blew the whistle.

It was only after this whistle that the Heat's anger calmed down.

"It's actually a late whistle, is this also done in advance?"

Su Chen was very familiar with what this operation was.

Later, the league would often perform late whistle operations, and the whistle would blow very late, and the whistle would not be blown until the round was played.

In fact, it was the referee who was looking to see if the goal would go in.

The whistle is not sounded when the ball is in, and the whistle is sounded when the ball is not scored.

That's why there is a late whistle.

"Looks like he has some ideas ahead of time."

Su Chen said secretly in his heart.

What is the purpose of doing this, Su Chen has no evidence to talk nonsense, anyway, this kind of thing is guessed by himself.

Overall, though, the scale of the game is loose.

The late whistle proves that if James had scored the ball just now, the whistle would not have been blown.

Iguodala was obviously fouled just now, even if Su Chen and Iguodala were on the same team, they had to admit that Iguodala did foul and it was an obvious foul.

Maybe it was the foul just now that was more ruthless, which made James a little out of rhythm.

Free throws are just one of two.

Timberwolves 2:3 Heat.

Timberwolves offensive round.

Because the Heat had a little countermeasure against the corner of the cow, Su Chen did not have a tactical attack.

Butler and Giannis Antetokounmpo made a high pick-and-roll, and then formed a misalignment that allowed Giannis Antetokounmpo to face Wade.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Wade's size gap rushed directly inside.

The Heat saw this alignment and were forced to retract inside.

At this time, Giannis Antetokounmpo found an open spot on the outside of Lore Deng and passed it directly.

The Timberwolves didn't waste this empty opportunity.

Three-pointer scored!

Timberwolves 5:3 Heat.

(End of chapter)