The Wizards also have a setup for the Heat.

Using Larry Hughes on the perimeter to defend Wade would allow Arenas to focus on his individual offense.

Larry Hughes is averaging 22 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game this season, a career high.

But that's not the most important statistic, his most important stat is his steals per game, which is a whopping 2.9!

He is the league's "steal king" this season.

A lot of the media thought it would be unfair not to see his name in this year's "Best Defensive Team".

Other people's steals don't mean that the defense is good, but Larry Hughes's steals can play this role, because many of his steals are close to the body, and the strong defense is the biggest impression he gives to the outside world this season.

The only thing the Washington media feared, or rather dissatisfied, about him was:

This is his contract year, and he's going to sign his next contract after this season.

And the owner of the Wizards, after experiencing the failure of Jordan's comeback, has not been thinking about investing in building the team in the past two years.

On top of that, they believe Larry Hughes and Arenas will give the Wizards a better future.

In fact, they did it, and it was the first time in the 21st century that they reached the second round of the playoffs!

Woody jumped the ball and gave it to Alstom.

The "King of Streetball" took the ball to the backcourt, and the Heat's first offense of the night went to Wade.

As soon as Wade got the ball, Hughes took the initiative to come up and give enough confrontation.

Wade's confrontation this season is also his highlight, so he did not rush to get off the ball, but wanted to use the "three threats" to force Hughes to take the initiative to give up an offensive position, who knows that Hughes's strength is not weak compared to him in the confrontation.

Instead, he stumbled, took a step back, and was forced to get off the ball.

Larry Hughes was unforgiving, Wade was a little messy, but fortunately Gerard Wallace came over to block him, and Wade turned the corner. Rush to the basket and stuff the ball into Woody's hand.

Woody raised his hand and it was a violent buckle.

Jeffries is 2.11 meters tall, but the confrontation is too bad, Woody easily pushed him away, and his body didn't shake, and he completed the one-handed split.

The scene was filled with cheers.

When it was the Wizards' turn to attack, Arenas faced Alston and rushed to the free throw line with the first step of the outburst, and then made a quick stop jump shot, and the ball fell into the basket steadily.

Relaxed!

Alston didn't have the face to look at Stan Van Gundy, and he was sure that the latter was now gritting his teeth at him.

These two goals also became the basic situation of the two times in the next five minutes.

Originally, many media thought that the Wizards team could definitely win steadily, but unexpectedly made the Heat feel tricky.

The reason is that Wade will be locked by Larry Hughes, and on the offensive end of the Wizards, no matter who is against Alston, the three people on the outside can complete the offense well and not effortlessly.

That forced Woody and Gerard Wallace to make timely pounces.

But the Wizards' outside three, including Jamison, are averaging 2.3 assists per game......

They're not people who can't pass the ball!

When Woody is out, the only thing Shaq O'Neal can do is make the interior space crowded, and there is no hope for movement and footwork.

Haywood and Jeffries completed the rim one after the other.

At the end of the first quarter, the Heat fell behind by 1 point at 26-27!

The Wizards look like they're in full swing!

The team that took the lead in changing the lineup was actually the Heat, which was something that people didn't expect before the start of this game.

Jones was put in the main lineup.

Alston's sparse defense, Stan Van Gundy really can't stand it.

In fact, the score is scorching, and the Wizards have no good way to limit the Heat's scoring, and if they continue to play, no one knows what the result will be.

The Wizards just expected it to be good, not that they really played to suppress the Heat, which is still far from that.

Stan Van Gundy wasn't as anxious as he seemed, and he changed formations so quickly just to find some quick way to limit the Wizards.

It's the first game of the series, and with at least three games to go, he wants to play a little easier in the next few games.

If it can quickly enter the next round, it will definitely be a very lucky thing for the Heat.

With the momentum of the Pistons and Pacers not giving in, one thing is for sure, they will never be able to easily separate the winners.

The more likely scenario is:

Both teams have played 7 games again!

If the series can be ended earlier than them, then no matter who eliminated the opponent and reached the Eastern Conference Finals, the two teams will continue to play the Eastern Conference Finals with their tired bodies without any respite.

In such a situation, the Heat have a greater chance of winning the opponent!

The playoffs are to take advantage of the "right time and place", and any aspect may become the key to victory, which is why the playoffs are exciting.

When Jones came up, the height went up all at once.

Although he no longer has the defensive ability of his prime, he will not be overwhelmed in the opposite position like Alstom, which can make the quality of Woody and Gerald Wallace's defense higher.

In this way, it is not easy for them to pass the ball to the inside.

The Wizards' strategy is actually very simple, because Larry Hughes's projection is not very consistent, and Jamison is not a very good scorer off the ball.

The style of play is dominated by sudden points.

As the Heat's defense becomes timely, there is only one way for them to solve the problem, and that is the individual ability of the star to solve the problem, which is also one way, but playing like this is undoubtedly a huge physical drain on the star.

Many single-core led "supergiants" have no results in the playoffs, and they are often dragged down like this!

No matter how physically fit a person is, it is impossible for him to do 7 games alone.

The Heat gradually curbed the momentum of the Wizards, although the opponent was still biting the score, and at halftime, they only led the Wizards by 4 points.

But the consumption of the main players on both sides is not the same.

The game entered the fourth quarter, which was very obvious, and when it came to the crucial tiebreaker, Woody and Shaq O'Neal stepped up one after another, and helped the team continue to score with strong shots under the basket.

On the other hand, on the Wizards' side, the three outside who played very steadily in front of them missed shots one after another.

The point difference was also completely opened at this time, and finally the game ended, and the Heat beat the Wizards by 101-90, 11 points.

The Wizards' play is actually quite good:

Arenas had 25 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists; Larry Hughes had 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals; Antoine Jamison also scored about the same 18 points as he did in the regular season.

All three of them have played their strengths, and it is said that such a game can basically be won by the Wizards in the past, but they lost tonight.

The reason is that the physical strength of these three people is completely insufficient by the fourth quarter.

The Wizards are relying on their individual play more than ever.

Regardless of the time of day, the star singles are the most physically exhausting way.

Especially in the playoffs, in order to prevent the supergiant from taking over the game at a critical moment, many teams' records are forcing him to play singles, allowing him to take away all the points he should get in the early part of the game.

In the more critical fourth quarter, he didn't have the physical strength to do more.

Tonight's Heat team did a good job of executing this defensive philosophy and played well.

On the Heat side, after Alston went off the court, the entire space was actually relatively narrow, whether it was Wade or Gerald Wallace, they did not have a good ability to catch the ball and shoot three-pointers.

The Wizards' head coach only noticed this when he flipped through the stats after the game.

Previously, he focused too much on how to improve the Wizards' more variations on the offensive end. So much so that he didn't think about using defense to limit the Heat and let them fall into the star's singles.

It's not too late, though.

It's only 1-0 now, the series has just begun, and in the second game, they can do that.

With Alston off the court and Caron Butler's departure, the Heat's UCLA strategy of using Wade as the outside to hold the ball is actually non-existent to a certain extent.

Moreover, Larry Hughes was also very effective for Wade's defense, and two of the three steals in the first game were steals by Wade.

Wade made him very uncomfortable, and at one point he missed three consecutive singles.

The head coach of the Wizards started with this situation and arranged defensive tactics for Game 2.

Trying to get the Heat's side into the star's singles as well......

The program was still a success......

When Wade was limited by Larry Hughes, the ball-handler became Woody.

But Woody doesn't have very good organizational skills, don't look at how many assists he averages per game, these assists are very simple, burst in to find Shaq, let him score, or pass out, Wade and Gerard Wallace's air cuts, can complete the subsequent finish.

In short, when he holds the ball outside the three-point line, to a certain extent, it is equivalent to letting him play alone.

Stan Van Gundy also understood the Wizards' head coach's thoughts at this time, and he immediately called a timeout and decided to do the following:

Since you want us to get stuck in singles, let's go singles!

The Wizards' perimeter defense is good, especially Larry Hughes.

But Wade is not the only one who can hold the ball and play alone on the outside of the Heat.

Of course, he wasn't referring to Woody pulling outside the three-point line for a single shot.

But......

Gerard Wallace!

He also has the ability to hold the ball alone!

As a result, the Wizards' perimeter defense is not enough.

Arenas and Jamison, one of them has to face the other two.

Not to mention Arenas' defense, he is at the peak of his team's honor, even if he is not good at defense, but it will not be a point to be broken.

But Jamison is a typical "strong offense and weak defense", which is a typical example of how many points can be scored and how many points can be sent.

Stan Van Gundy's setup is nothing else, or to let Woody, Wade, and Wallace have the ball on the outside, and whoever is in the opposite position with Jamison will let him single-handedly play him.

The results are outstanding!

Jamison became a visible hole in the Wizards' defense.

At the end of the first half, the Heat also led by eight points, 50-42.

The Wizards didn't open up on the offensive end today, scoring just 42 points at halftime, and the main reason for that was that Larry Hughes focused more on the defensive end.

However, this result can be accepted by the head coach of the Wizards, because the Heat only scored 50 points in the half!

He's now waiting for the Heat's players to have fitness issues.

It was only soon that he realized that something was wrong......

When 4 of the 5 players on a team can hold the ball and play alone, including the other player who also has a certain ability to hold the ball......

It's hard to see why the opponent is going to be physically fit because of the singles.

In fact, the Wizards' three offensive points with the ball, supposedly, should not have all physical problems. But the problem is that Larry Hughes is too tired, he has to expend energy on the defensive end, and he has to help with the fire on the offensive end.

The Heat's defense itself is very suppressive, and Woody and Gerard Wallace's defensive ability is too outstanding.

Jamison can't fight hard again, at this time, Danzi is on Arenas, it's strange if he is not tired!

The Heat team is different, not to mention the rest, at critical moments, they have a total of two points that can be trusted, one is Woody and the other is Shaq, they can take turns to take over the game, there is no need for one person to carry the team forward, under the pressure sharing, this physical fitness will naturally not be a problem.

The Wizards lost the game again 89-105.

This time it's a bit of a rout.

So when the Wizards players left the court, they all drooped their heads, and when the game was played in the back, they had fallen into complete passivity.

And this passivity they don't think they can eliminate when they return to their home stadium.

"But they've played better than the Nets, at least they've resisted, and they've been deadlocked for a while." That's how Barkley applies.

After all, the Nets didn't even have a stalemate, and the "shark slashing" tactic was used, but every game was a big rout.

Stan Van Gundy is getting more and more sure as he spotted another big win advantage for the Heat in Game 2.

That is, the Wizards did not stock enough blue-collar players on the inside, and when Haywood and Jeffries were gone, the quality of their interior defense would slip a bit, and this decline would not only benefit Woody and Shaq O'Neal, but also benefit the outside breakaway.

It was also from that time that the collapse began.

So in the third game, it came to the home court of the Wizards, and Stan Van Gundy caught the opposing interior ferocious offense from the beginning.

For the first time in his life, the head coach of the Wizards will miss Kwame Brown immensely!

(End of chapter)