basketball scientist

Due to injuries, the Rockets had a disastrous start to the season, with a disappointing 9-14 record.

It just so happened that the Eagles signed Key Yan as their head coach and their record took off. In order not to cause trouble to the people across the country, CCTV continued to increase the number of Eagles games in its broadcast plan. This also helped the Eagles attract a large number of fans in China.

There is a tendency to become "China's second home team".

Ke Yan did not disappoint his hometown folks. In the weekend morning live broadcast, he defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 125:102. The direct dialogue between the No. 1 pick and the No. 2 pick once again ended with Paul's victory (17-8).

Compared with the past rule of "the top pick and the second pick must be good", this season's Bodog and Paul are pretty good, they have performed well in their respective teams, and they have nothing to do with the word "parallel import".

Although Bodog is not dominant on the offensive end and is good at everything but has no killer moves, on the defensive end he does a good job of stabilizing the penalty area, top defense, and assisting defense. Considering that the Bucks are really short of people inside, choosing Bodog is indeed

Very stable and worth it.

But even so, the Bucks' No. 1 pick is still defined as an "unsuccessful" draft because Paul is so good.

In his rookie season, he averaged 209 per game, which is close to the big double-double in 2010. Almost no rookie can achieve this level. Although the team mainly focuses on run-and-gun tactics, it is easier for Paul to produce good data, which can be regarded as a buff bonus. But Paul is stable.

His style of play, excellent organization and coordination, coupled with the first-class defensive level among point guards, all fans who watch the game have a deep understanding of this.

Facing doubts from the outside world, Bucks general manager Vandeweghe was also helpless. The position he was in at the time was that choosing Bodog was the general trend and the will of the people. If you choose the right one, you will have merit, and if you choose the wrong one, there will be no fault; but if you choose

Paul, if Reid doesn't renew his contract and Paul is not as good as he thought, he will take the blame.

They are all workers, who would make fun of their own jobs?

Moreover, Bodog is still good now. With the overall decline of the Eastern Conference, the Bucks' inside level is definitely above the standard.

In a sense, the timing of the rise of Ke Yan and the Hawks was just right. It happened to be the year when the Rockets "crashed" due to injuries and the preference of Chinese fans had nowhere to rely on.

It was after this game that the Hawks put forward a test to the Rockets for the first time and negotiated for the Rockets' first-round pick in the 2006 draft.

"Larry, are you kidding me? You know how many serious injuries we have suffered this season! It's not polite to talk to me about draft picks at this time~" Carroll Dawson said after receiving Larry Sand

After the phone call, he replied very "angry".

"Carroll, if the Rockets are determined to give up this season, then forgive me for interrupting." After Larry Sander finished speaking, he paused for a while, and then said, without waiting for Dawson's reply, "In fact, you also

You know, the Rockets are not completely hopeless, and Jeff and the players are not willing to waste a year, are they?"

Last season, the Rockets also started with 6 wins and 11 losses, and finally reached the fifth position in the Western Conference. Although the start of this season is a little more difficult, neither the management nor the players have decided to give up this season. If they can

Make appropriate reinforcements to improve the team's possibility of hitting the playoffs. The team is willing to improve the team's strength.

The Hawks wanted to "take advantage of the situation" and got the Rockets' lottery pick that currently seems destined to be a "lottery". The Rockets also had "ulterior motives" in that they hoped to sell this pick at a higher value. At the same time, the team

After strengthening the lineup, coupled with the comeback of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, they can rush into the playoffs and devalue the draft picks. In this way, this deal is their masterstroke!

"Josh Smith, is it possible?" Dawson asked tentatively.

"Carroll, do you know how destructive Yao Ming, Maddie and Josh Smith's lineup can be?" Larry Sander asked.

After a long time, Dawson finally said: "Then I'll discuss it with the coach. In fact, you don't have very good players."

Dawson's words are not to say that the Hawks' lineup is poor, but that there are not many players that meet the Rockets' needs.

Paul and Joe Johnson are definitely not possible, Diaw is not a favorite of the Rockets, and Josh Smith was also rejected. Other players on the Hawks have more distinctive characteristics, and Van Gundy may not necessarily like them.

After hanging up the phone, Larry Sander made a "playful" expression to Ke Yan.

"What kind of chips do you think we have to pay?"

"It's hard to say, Van Gundy values ​​defense. I think they might like James Posey; if they want to balance the deal, we might have to take Juwan Howard's junk contract." Ke Yan frowned, losing Posey.

Chips, this price is a bit too high!

"This is hard for me to accept~" Larissade admonished.

No one thinks it's worthwhile to make such a trade for a draft pick with average prospects.

"Let's see how they react. It's really not possible to have three parties. We try to keep Posey, and if we have to, we have to recruit a wing. Matt and Kerry alone can't last a season." Ke Yan's thinking is very clear.

, he is willing to "get what he needs" with the Rockets, and even let the Rockets "take advantage", but only at the expense of his own strength.

He still needs some results to solidify his position in the Eagles!

...

On December 19, the Hawks traveled to the Northwest to challenge the powerful Denver Nuggets and suffered a 98:106 defeat.

There are a total of 30 NBA teams. The Lakers and Clippers share the Staples Center and there are 29 arenas. Among them, the Denver Nuggets’ Pepsi Center has the most obvious home court advantage. Denver’s altitude is as high as 1,606 meters. Pepsi

Center Arena is the highest altitude arena in the league.

The home team players live in Denver in daily life and don’t feel much. When the visiting team comes to play in such a place, the players will inevitably have some physiological reactions and their competitive status will decline significantly. This is why the Pepsi Center Arena is called the "Devil's Home Stadium"

reason.

The Hawks, who were dominated by young players, were in trouble. After the opening game, they were in no competitive condition. No matter how hard they shot, the Nuggets started with a 23:6 start and entered an official timeout.

During the timeout, Ke Yan made some tactical adjustments, but the players were out of shape and as if they were wilted. All tactical arrangements were in vain. The score difference between the two teams once reached 21 points.

It was not until the end of the first quarter that the players gradually adapted to the atmosphere of the plateau home court, played some content, and narrowed the point difference to 18 points. (36:18)

Relying on the advantage established in the first quarter, the Nuggets slowed down the pace of the game in the subsequent games. The offensive end focused on Anthony, relying on Melo's excellent singles to overpower Posey; it was easy not to play fast breaks, but there were opportunities to impact

Standing up, a group of birds and beasts can fly into the sky and escape from the ground, and their athletic ability is not inferior to that of the Eagles.

Double pick-and-roll in the high post, V-shaped offense, 2-3 high post offense, Ke Yan made great use of the tactics on the offensive end, but still failed to turn the situation over. George Karl remained unchanged in response to all changes, relying on Anthony's outstanding performance,

Defeat the Eagles abruptly (17-9)

Two days later, on December 21, the Hawks suffered their biggest upset, losing to the Utah Jazz 91-93 away from home (17-10).

The Hawks led by 15 points in the first half, but were reversed by their opponents in the second half. Especially in the fourth quarter, the players seemed to be possessed by evil spirits and couldn't make any shots!

Facing his lifelong enemy Deron Williams, Paul was "unsurprisingly" completely beaten. He made 6 of 18 in the game, 1 of 3 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 15 points and 5 assists;

Joe Johnson also performed inefficiently, shooting 7 of 21, 1 of 4 three-pointers, 5 of 6 free throws, and scored 20 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists.

The Jazz won because of the home buzzer, but the bigger problem was the poor performance of the Eagles themselves. The synergy between Deron and Boozer in Utah has not yet taken shape, and it is not that powerful. The Eagles completely lost to themselves.

!

The loss to the Nuggets was within Ke Yan's acceptance range, and the upset loss to the Jazz was part of the NBA's ecosystem. No team could only "defeat the strong with the weak" and never overturned.

On the plane back to Atlanta, Ke Yan found Paul and Dior who were not doing well and gave them eye drops.

...

On December 23, the last game before Christmas, the Eagles returned home and faced the challenge of the Indiana Pacers.

Not long ago, the Pacers just made adjustments to the team's lineup, trading Artest for Stojakovic of the Kings.

Although it cleared up a "thorn" in the team, Artest was replaced by Peja, who was in decline, and the Pacers' strength declined somewhat. Peja's outside shooting threat is greater, but whether it is singles with the ball or outside defense

, are obviously not as good as Artest. After the trade, the Pacers relied more on O'Neal to initiate offensive positions.

O'Neal won the jump ball and the Pacers took the lead.

Tinsley steadily controlled the ball and came to the frontcourt. Jeff Foster and O'Neal Jr. provided a double screen for Stephen Jackson on the strong side.

Joe Johnson refused to give an inch and stayed close to Jackson, preventing Jackson from finding a chance to attack in a misplaced position. After Wu Sheng received the ball, he did not choose to force the ball himself, but handed the ball to O'Neal who was not in a good position.

Instead of catching the ball in a comfortable position, O'Neal Jr. turned his back to catch the ball, glanced at Diaw, turned around and faced the frame to attack.

Shooting fake, dribbling, elbowing, pushing away Diaw, and hitting the board lightly into the basket.

In addition to being soft, hard, and stupid, O'Neal is basically the strongest power forward in the league. Even compared to Stoudemire, who has more gorgeous statistics, Ke Yan feels that O'Neal's abilities are more comprehensive, and the defensive end is even different.

.

The Eagles attacked, Paul held the ball, and Tinsley defended steadily. The moment Diola came out for the pick-and-roll, Paul was ready to break through with the ball as usual. O'Neal Jr. firmly blocked Paul and did a full job against Paul.

Delay.

O'Neal Jr. switches defense, Tinsley pursues and attacks, and Diaw is in an unguarded position.

Paul tried to put as much distance between himself and Diaw as possible, and then passed the ball back to Diaw. Diaw did not have an open shot in the first shot and took a step inside. Foster's defense immediately rotated around.

Diaw took advantage of the situation and handed the ball to the open Josh Smith. O'Neal had already retreated to the penalty area to protect him. Josh Smith "struck his bow", knocked away O'Neal and scored the ball, causing the opponent to foul!

"Beautiful!" Snyder and Hornacek stood up to celebrate at the same time, but Ke Yan was as "calm" as ever.

Putting aside Josh Smith's tough 21 at the end, the Pacers' defense has done a very good job, or in other words, Carlisle has found a way to limit the Eagles' offense in the positional battle!

After the pick-and-roll, double-team Paul, release Diaw outside the three-point line, and bet on Diaw's three-pointer; if Diaw chooses to break inside, the big man inside will come up to cover, and the big man who double-checks Paul quickly returns to the penalty area to protect the frame...

..

When deploying this defensive strategy, Carlisle made two points. First, O'Neal's mobility can ensure that he can complete the task of "delaying Paul---advertising the penalty area to protect the frame" and ensuring that he does not lose his position.

The second is that Diaw's three-pointers are unstable, which is not to say that they are not at all, but it is worth trying to put the Eagles' extremely powerful offense on Diaw's three-pointers. This kind of defense is worth trying!

"Whoa!" Josh Smith hit the extra free throw, 3:2.

The Pacers continue to focus on O'Neal, passing the ball high and low, allowing O'Neal to catch the ball in the low post.

Josh Smith and Diaw formed a double attack at the right time and blocked O'Neal's inbound pass. O'Neal passed the ball to Stephen Jackson who was cutting in. The latter received the ball without stopping and directly hit the ground to Jeff Foster.

.

But that’s it!

Paul appeared ghostly in Stephen Jackson's passing line, intercepted the ball, and quickly ran down the ball with the ball.

Josh Smith, who was flanking O'Neal just now, accelerated forward from the right side. The Eagles fast-breaked the frontcourt with a two-on-one. Wu Sheng, who immediately returned to defense, seemed to be "concerned with one thing and not the other", and neither side could take care of it.

After weighing the two factors, Jackson simply choked Josh Smith, opened the center goal wide, and watched Paul drive straight in and score a layup.

This time, the fans who wanted to see a wonderful dunk were a little disappointed.

But the best is yet to come.

The Pacers attacked. Tinsley and O'Neal Jr. played a pick-and-roll. After a successful breakthrough, Paul took the ball away from behind. The Eagles once again found a fast break opportunity. This time the situation was even more exaggerated. Paul, Joe Johnson, and Josh Smith's

In the third-line fast break, the Pacers only have one Stephen Jackson in the backcourt.

For two consecutive rounds, he became the background of the Eagles' fast break. I don't know whether to praise Jackson for his good defensive awareness or to say that he is a bit unlucky?

With one against three, in this situation, Jackson was destined to be unable to stop the Hawks from wreaking havoc on the basket, and simply gave up resistance. Josh Smith rushed to the basket, pulled a windmill with both hands, and dunked the ball hard.

Basket.(7:2)

Josh Smith's physical hardware talent is as good as James's, but his ball feel and football intelligence are much different. Therefore, Ke Yan trained him like Marion, using his strengths and avoiding weaknesses, sprinting back and forth without the ball more, and finding the right time to cut in in positional battles.

At the basket, the defensive end actively helped to cover up positions, holding the ball less, and did not let him practice mid-range shooting, lest he turn into a "mid-range handsome boy."

He made precise arrangements for the Eagles' offense, but was beaten 7-0 by the Eagles. Carlisle became a little anxious. In the next round of offense, the team's core O'Neal asked for the ball in the low post, facing Diaw and Josh Smith.

The two men's defense stepped up, causing Josh Smith to foul, and then made two free throws. (7:4)

As the team leader, O'Neal Jr. is quite responsible and dares to carry the team on his shoulders when life is in danger.

The Hawks continued to play the pick-and-roll, Diaw followed Tinsley down, and Paul singled out O'Neal. Through the change of rhythm, he shook off the opponent and continued to penetrate into the penalty area. Before Foster came up to help defend, he succeeded in a high-arc throw to help.

Eagles score in position battle (9:4)

In the blink of an eye, Diaw found a way to deal with the Pacers' defensive thinking. He was indeed inaccurate inside the three-point line, but when he went down to the free throw line, the threat doubled. Tinsley could not turn a blind eye. In this way,

Gave Paul the opportunity to "militarily train" O'Neal Jr.

The Pacers attacked, and this time Tinsley used O'Neal Jr.'s pick-and-roll to break through to the inside. However, during the breakthrough process, he used the space provided by O'Neal Jr. to pull the ball and pass the ball to Stephen Jackson's hands at a 45-degree angle on the left.

The latter started to act the moment he caught the ball, forcefully pushed away Joe Johnson and went straight to the basket.

"Boom!"

Josh Smith failed to make up for the defense and had no choice but to become the backdrop for Stephen Jackson to deduct points!

"Roar!"

A roar came from his mouth, as if Stephen Jackson wanted to use this dunk to vent his anger at being almost dunked by Josh Smith just now.

A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. The Pacers have been in trouble frequently in recent years. The team legend Miller even retired after the end of last season. However, they do have a lot of blood and can compete head-on with the Hawks without losing.

The Hawks relied on a 7:0 spurt in the beginning to establish a slight advantage. Under Carlisle's dispatch, the Pacers relied on a very competitive lineup to hold on to the score.

Like Ke Yan, Carlisle is also a representative of the academic coaches in the league. He has extremely high tactical literacy and has always been stable in leading the team. The two sides battled with wits and remained stalemate until the end of the first quarter, with the Eagles leading by 4 points at 28:24.

The turning point of the game came in the second quarter. After O'Neal Jr. took a rest, the Pacers lacked a main offensive starting point and started attacking around Peja and Danny Granger on the outside. Their efficiency dropped significantly.

Although he was the second-leading scorer in the league last season, Peja is really just a shooter, an extremely accurate shooter. A player like him plays a huge role in a suitable system, but entering a new environment

, it is really difficult to immediately show strong combat effectiveness.

The key point is that Granger is not a player who can hold the ball in isolation. He is also good at catching the ball and shaking it at most before taking a quick shot. The playing styles and positioning between the two wing players overlapped, and there was no good relationship.

tacit agreement.

For the Hawks, Joe Johnson and David Lee use pick-and-roll tactics to score points. Facing Harrison, David Lee has obvious footwork advantages. He can face the frame and use his steps to break into the basket for layups, and he can also make mid-range jumpers.

The joining of Milicic unexpectedly activated David Lee. Not only was he liberated on the defensive end, he did not need to defend the opponent's strongest inside line. On the offensive end, Milicic and Milicic could also be separated into high and low positions to complete some tasks.

Cooperate.

This is also the reason why Milicic replaced Mickey Moore and got more playing time. He can provide the team with more changes on the court.

The Eagles worked hard and opened the point difference to 12 points. The main lineups of both sides returned, and Milicic stayed on the court, paired with Diaw, and restricted O'Neal, and the effect was pretty good.

Compared with before, when encountering All-Star insiders, he could only surrender on the defensive end and rack his brains to speed up the pace on the offensive end and wear down the opponent; now, Ke Yan has one more choice. Milicic's performance in the "blue collar" positioning

Not bad, which makes Ke Yan secretly proud that he did not pay too much to get a qualified inside substitute, who happens to be the type that the team desperately needs.

At halftime, the Eagles led 54:43.

In the second half of the game, the Pacers mainly used O'Neal to launch the offense, and led the role players to perform, once narrowing the point difference to only 4 points. However, at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter, O'Neal came off the court to rest.

At that time, the score difference was immediately widened to double digits by the Eagles.

After several twists and turns, the Eagles finally held on to the victory and won the game 110:97, ending their two-game losing streak and allowing Eagles fans to enjoy the Christmas holiday in a good mood. (18-10)

"Rick Carlisle is the best tactician in the league, and every game we play against him is extremely difficult. Fortunately, the Eagles won the game today, and I am also very happy that I can make Eagles fans hum.

Cheerful songs left the Phillips Center." In the post-game interview, Ke Yan expressed his respect for Carlisle.

Carlisle is not inferior to Ke Yan in terms of tactical attainments, but may just lack some flexibility. In addition, Ke Yan has more players with "high golf IQ" and will be more self-regulated on the court. Compared with the Pacers players,

, should have the upper hand.

"After you win, what kind of Christmas gift are you going to give yourself?" the reporter asked with concern.

"I hope Santa Claus will bring my girlfriend back from Los Angeles." The question was mentioned in a general way, and Ke Yan already showed a wry smile and answered immediately.

90% of the head coaches in the league are already married. There are very few people like Ke Yan who are only 25 years old and are not married. However, he has a persona of "coming to her city for love", so the media is naturally willing to do so.

Follow the wave.

"I think your wish will come true."

"Thank you~"