The Whip of the God of Basketball

On November 6th, at 7 pm Eastern Time, at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena in Charlotte (no big company is even willing to name their arena but can only use the team’s name), the Suns regular season The fourth game begins here.

Before the game, the Suns announced the news, confirming that Amare Stoudemire would miss two weeks due to a knee contusion. At the same time, Kerr stated that the team is currently close to signing Grant Hill. Very soon, he is expected to join the team in Miami at the earliest to participate in games between the team and the Heat.

When Leon was asked about the team's life lineup and tactics to make up for Stoudemire's absence, Leon officially stated that the team must have someone to step up and that the Suns are experienced and prepared for this.

But only he knew in his heart that in this game, the team would conduct another bold experiment. However, at the beginning of the game, no one could see that Leon replaced Stoudemire with Turiaf and continued to play. The team's starting lineup consists of one freshman and four juniors.

Compared with the Suns' lack of generals, the opposite Bobcats have a complete lineup. Their starters are Gerald Wallace, Raymond Felton, Emeka Okafor, Primoz Blazek and Jay Richardson, it should be said that this is a good lineup. As the second overall pick in 2005, Okafor is very capable. Wallace, Felton, and Richardson all have very good personal abilities. Only Primoz Brezek is a loser.

But it seems that this point may become a strong point tonight, at least some teams and experts think so. Primoz Brezek is 7 feet 2, and no one in the Suns can match it. In 05 and 06 In 2000, Primoz Brezek was an important inside point for the Bobcats. However, last season his condition declined significantly and his scoring dropped off a cliff. His condition in the first few games of this season was equally worrying.

Some local media in Charlotte made predictions before the game, hoping that Primoz Brezek would perform well against Solar in this game to boost his confidence. After all, in the last game the Suns played against the Cavaliers, Gooden and Big Z scored 40 points together. The Suns were overwhelming inside, but Stoudemire was absent again this time.

After the opening ceremony, Leon shook hands with Bobcats coach Sam Vincent. He played in the NBA in the 1980s and 1990s and played for many teams. He was considered a qualified role player. Last season, he He worked as an assistant coach in the Mavericks and helped Johnson. As a result, the Mavericks created the best record in history and then were hacked. The Mavericks coaching staff was disbanded, and he was poached to the Bobcats as the head coach.

As a head coach, he was unknown, so he felt a little guilty when shaking hands with Leon. He didn't know what strategy the Suns would use in this game.

After the game started, the Bobcats took the lead in gaining the ball. Raymond Felton held the ball through half the court and began to organize the Bobcats' first attack. Compared with the Suns, the Bobcats are a typical offensively constipated team. They average less than 100 points per game. There are two reasons. One is the slow offensive pace, and the other is the team's poor outside shooting level.

Whether it is Gerald Wallace, Felton or Richardson, they all have shooting ability, but they are not stable enough, especially Felton and Wallace, point guard and small forward. The ability to score points was insufficient, so Leon made a clear arrangement before the game. He would play a zone defense at the beginning and let the Bobcats play outside for a while.

Sure enough, the Bobcats were a little unprepared for the Suns' zone defense in the opening game. The ball bounced around outside for a while, but they couldn't find a chance to break through. Finally, Gerald Wallace took the ball in the right corner and headed toward it. He stepped on the three-point line and shot a large two-point ball.

"Bang!"

The ball hit the basket and was deflected as soon as it was released. Shawn Marion struggled to grab the backboard and handed it to Nash. The Suns launched a counterattack.

After Stoudemire was absent, the Suns returned to their past fast-paced whirlwind offensively. Nash advanced quickly with the ball, Marion and Diaw went down quickly, and Bell delayed to respond. After some observation and selection, Nash made a mental decision. The pass was passed to Turiaf who came in from the end. Turiaf took the ball and took two long strides, went to the basket from the middle and dunked!

When Turiaf succeeded in dunking, Primoz Brezek had just rushed back, got the ball that fell from the basket, and just went to the baseline to serve.

The 7-foot-2-inch Primoz Brezek couldn't keep up with his speed. Although Turiaf had no offensive ability, he had an advantage in speed, and the Suns took the lead at the start.

Tonight at the home court of the Bobcats, the number of fans is still sparse. The Bobcats have only been in the league for a few years and their results are poor. They have improved slightly in the past two seasons and have begun to build their own core lineup. They have several capable players, but they have not. A superstar of your own. None of the starting players can attract young fans to watch the game, so there are many players wearing Suns Nash and Stoudemire jerseys swaying in the stands.

The Bobcats attacked. The tactics they arranged before the game were to focus on the inside. However, facing the Suns' zone defense, it was difficult to pass the ball inside. They could only operate on the outside. After passing for a long time, Richardson finally made a strong pass from outside the three-point line. I pulled one out and the ball hit the neck of the basket, but still missed. Marion got another backcourt rebound and Nash counterattacked with the ball. The Bobcats retreated quickly enough and they failed to attack quickly.

Nash gave the ball to Diaw, who stepped in. Diaw caught the ball in the corner. Then he found Bell in the bottom corner with his wide vision, and passed the ball to Bell in the left corner. Bell caught the ball and pretended to shoot, then swung away. Richardson cut into the basket from the baseline and Okafor came over to defend. If Stoudemire was there, Bell hit the ground and Stoudemire caught the ball and dunked again.

But Turiaf obviously couldn't do it. Bell passed the ball to him, and Okafor was still able to turn around and defend. Turiaf did not have the ability to attack the basket. Unable to get up in the three-second zone, he could only pass the ball. The pass came back and Nash reorganized the offense.

After continuously dribbling at the hip, Nash used Diaw's screen to cut inside, then used the rhythm to get rid of Felton, and made a difficult underhand throw with his right hand, avoiding Primoz Brezek's block. Wiping the board into the basket, the Suns scored two more points.

It can be seen from the first three games that Nash's desire to attack is much stronger than before. People think this is the failure of Leon's offensive training, but Nash and Leon firmly believe that this will be an important reason for their success.

The Suns got a good start, but the Bobcats fell into the quagmire of the Suns' zone defense. They once again tried to take a shot from outside the three-point line. This time, it was Raymond Felton who made a three-pointer from the top of the arc, but still missed. , the ball bounced far away, a long rebound, Diaw directly got the rebound at the top of the arc, and Marion had already rushed far away, Diaw directly made a long pass from a long distance, Marion received the ball in the frontcourt and directly used his hands Successful dunk.

At the 6:0 start, the Bobcats had to call a timeout. Obviously their coach was not prepared enough before the game. He did not expect that the Suns' zone defense would be so resolute and thorough. The players could not make long shots. Once the three-pointer was missed, there would be a long shot. Rebounds are a good opportunity for the Suns to break fast. If the ball comes in a few rounds like this, the Bobcats may be defeated in the first quarter.

Vincent made adjustments to the Bobcats' lineup. Instead of using the big man Primoz Brezek, he replaced him with guard Jeff McGinnis to enhance outside shooting and ball control. In order to improve their rotation ability, the Suns did not make any substitutions. Continuing with this lineup, Leon was prepared to open up the score a bit and then use his experimental lineup. In fact, he did not have enough confidence in his heart.

The game continued, and the Suns continued to attack the Bobcats according to their fast pace. The Bobcats' offense really improved a lot after McGinnis. They moved the ball faster from the outside, and they began to hit outside shots. Let the Suns change their defensive strategy and return to routine.

At the end of the first quarter, the Suns led the Bobcats by 9 points 30:21. At the beginning of the second quarter, the Suns hit another 7:0 spurt, widening the point difference to 16 points and laying the foundation for a relatively large victory. Advantage, so after a timeout, Leon began to make substitutions. He replaced Turiaf with newcomer Dudley, so the Suns sent a lineup without a true center.

Leon began this lineup experiment that was known as "digging his own grave."