Basketball Legends: Strikers Are King

"Has someone been replaced?"

Carlisle smiled slightly when he saw that Vogel had indeed requested a substitution.

Carlisle is a standard academic head coach, but after being able to serve as a head coach for 11 seasons, he has a rigorous academic thinking and definitely does not have the shortcomings of "rigid dogma" that fans think:

As early as the year Artest left, he was forced to use 31 completely different lineups due to injuries, including a full 14 players.

Just yesterday, the Mavericks had made defensive preparations against the Pacers' starting lineup:

George and Granger are highly similar in type, but when Granger is present, he will definitely pass to Granger first;

Granger's technical characteristics of being good at shooting made it difficult for him to punish the slow-footed driver Carter's Mavericks forward;

Collison is average, West is a problem, but Hibbert is easy to deal with.

Carlisle believes that if Granger is present in the Pacers' starting lineup, the first choice is definitely to be defensive, allowing Granger to focus on the offense and try to offset the driver's offense.

"But if Nowitzki's offense was so easily neutralized, he wouldn't be Nowitzki."

Carlisle smiled confidently, but when he saw Granger high-fiving the person he replaced, his expression was dull.

"What's going on?"

When they saw clearly who Granger had replaced, the fans who came to support the Pacers in the away game were in an uproar.

Vogel did not replace Qi Tian, ​​but chose to replace West, who performed well and scored 6 points on 3-of-3 shooting!

"Is he crazy?"

Carlisle couldn't help but smile and turned to look at Vogel.

Nowitzki has always played power forward in his career, but this is not because he is not tall enough, it is simply because Carlisle does not want to use his driver to touch the tough centers of other teams to reduce wear and tear.

But the Pacers actually thought that the driver was easy to bully, so they put the 203cm Granger at the power forward to defend the 213cm Nowitzki?!

"Even if you want to target the driver's defense, don't you have to accept the consequences of letting the driver penetrate the inside line?"

It's not like Carlisle has never encountered the Heat's smaller lineup, and he quickly understood his opponent's plan.

Wade and James, who were watching the game on the plane, also looked at each other. Wade asked tentatively:

"The Pacers want to play, one big and four small?"

James nodded uncertainly.

What many fans don't know is that in the 2010-11 playoffs, the Heat's deciding lineup was still the normal lineup of Chalmers, Wade, James, Bosh and Haslem.

James plays power forward, playing one senior and four small players, which is the lineup that Spoelstra put forward in the 2011-12 regular season.

James spent a season gaining weight to deal with the powerful power forward position, and then used James Wade's outside defensive pressure to counterattack, using his speed to wear down the opponent's big center.

"I thought this lineup was unique to us, but I didn't expect..."

Watching Granger head up to the Pacers at power forward, James showed strong interest in his eyes.

I originally thought I was in the exploratory stage, but now someone is planning to give it a try. Watching the Pacers is also a way for the Heat to increase their experience.

"I'm afraid Danny can't withstand Dirk's attack, right?"

Hearing Wade's question, James chuckled and replied:

"You don't have to be overwhelmed. It's also a way to wear down Dirk's stamina so that he can't play for too long in the fourth quarter."

That's exactly what the Pacers did.

After Carter hit two points and widened the point difference, the Pacers, led by Collison, rushed towards the Mavericks half court.

Qi Tian, ​​George and Granger kept running around, clearly showing their desire to consume the veterans' physical strength.

George found an opportunity, got rid of Terry's defense, rushed to the basket, caught the ball and shot for a layup.

But Mahinmi on the inside came over to defend and jumped up to block the shot.

"Handsome!"

The Mavericks fans on the sidelines immediately cheered.

But Granger quickly ran over and picked off the rebound.

"Chance!"

Qi Tian looked at Carter in front of him who was turning his head to look at the basket. He didn't care about himself and immediately started running along the three-point line from the bottom corner to the top of the key.

"seven!"

Granger directly threw it over and handed it to Qi Tian.

"What, it's terrible!"

Carter was stunned, and when he saw Qi Tian in the direction of the ball, he knew something was wrong and immediately turned around to pursue him.

But Qi Tian didn't plan to wait for him to reach his position. He directly jumped high after receiving the ball and threw the basketball with a standard three-point jump shot.

"Whoosh!"

Three-pointer hit again!

"41-44."

Carlisle and Wade James, who were watching the game, opened their eyes wide and understood the difficulty of the Pacers' lineup.

The current NBA does not attach as much importance to three-pointers as it did after 2015. The disadvantage of attaching importance to two-pointers is that the scoring data is very low. It is normal for the whole game to score around 100 points, and individual scores are mostly only one or two per team.

More than 20 points.

It is enough for every team to have one three-point shooter. The Celtics' Ray Allen is an example. For the Pacers who have poor shooting ability, it is indeed enough to have Qi Tian who can open up the space.

The shooter can open up space for his teammates. The Pacers also have Granger who is good at mid-range and George who specializes in breakthroughs. In addition, Hibbert inside and Collison, the ball handler, the Pacers are now an offensive team.

A very layered team.

Don't forget, they are still a strong defensive team built defensively.

"Even, even if Granger rests, there's West who can provide mid-range shots,"

James murmured to himself,

"On the front line, George, Granger, West, and even Hansbrough can switch seamlessly..."

High replaceability means that they do not need to rely too much on any one person.

Wade quickly understood the meaning of his words and said:

"This is a young team that has the potential to become a strong team both offensively and defensively. It may be our strong enemy in the future."

Carlisle on the sidelines had the same idea, but the strength of his opponent was not good news for him. He immediately shouted to the players on the court:

"Hit success rate!"

Now that you know your opponent is difficult to deal with, you have to be extra careful.

Fortunately, when their strengths are similar, they have to compete with the quality of the stars, and Carlisle believes that Nowitzki is definitely better than Granger.

Nowitzki nodded, got into position, asked for the ball, and prepared for singles.

Of course, the Pacers would not let the 203-centimeter Granger defend the driver alone. Hibbert immediately let go of Mahinmi, intending to double-team.

Nowitzki feinted a shot and pretended to pass it to Mahinmi inside. As expected, Qi Tian next to him fell for the trick and rushed to the basket to prepare for defense.

"Too tender."

Carter smiled slightly, opened the distance between him and Qi Tian, ​​and when he got to the mid-range, he actually received the pass and made a pull-up jump shot.

"41-46."