So ti ago, he really would have passed it, but now, he first sees Pierce and Horford’s tendency to double-team Zhang Yang!
Woodson’s defensive formation is not inferior to Thibodeau! The four coaches who have been most praised for defense this season—Mike Brown, Van Gundy, Thibodeau, and Woodson.
Felton protected the ball, cautiously advanced to the top arc, used Okafor’s screen to break through, only to be blocked outside the elbow area, and passed to Millsap.
Millsap didn’t have a good opportunity when he got the ball, Pierce switched defense in place, but instead of imdiately looking for Zhang Yang as before, he turned sideways and forcefully attacked against Pierce!
He reached the inside and encountered Pachulia’s double-team, the passing opportunity was bad, Millsap chose to force a shot amidst the confrontation, a floater... missed!
Horford grabbed the defensive rebound!
The Bobcats’ end-choice surprised the Hawks’ head coach Mike Woodson.
But he imdiately guessed the opponent’s intention...
As soon as Joe Johnson reached the three-point line, he was t with Zhang Yang’s physically intense defense!
Woodson: Hey, before we even go for a physical battle against your guy Zhang San, your guy Zhang San is already bruising our contemporary Jordan?
Following closely into the three-point line, Pierce and Horford were also t with physical defense from Pietrus and Millsap.
Only Pachulia and Bibby were not t with physical play, the forr because it was unnecessary, the latter because the physical defense wasn’t effective; Felton didn’t want to waste stamina doing sothing futile.
That White Devil with muscles bulging fiercely, back in the day strength freak Little Mouse, muscle man Little Fish couldn’t effectively defend against the White Devil even during the Western Conference Finals wheel battle, Bibby had a 44.5% shooting rate in 7 gas, averaging 22.7 points, beating down the two great guards of the class of ’96, even Webber didn’t play as well as Bibby in that series; if it weren’t for Peja, who averaged 21 per ga in the regular season only shooting a ridiculous 30.4% and averaging just 6.7 points, the Kings might not have needed to play G6 with the Lakers.
Bibby singled out Felton, dribbled left to break through, avoiding Zhang Yang’s direction, drew Millsap to help, passed to Horford, Horford retreated to the baseline, shot a mid-range... clank!
Zhang Yang collected the defensive rebound in the middle lane, was tracked closely by Bibby, Felton took over the advance, was blocked by Pierce, couldn’t speed up, the Hawks successfully dragged the Bobcats into a positional battle.
Woodson breathed a sigh of relief, then felt a bit envious... when the team offense is off, primarily focusing on defense, letting the role players with a recent slump try to score! Is this the confidence of a super team with both offense and defense in the top ten of the league?
Just one round, and Woodson saw through Carlisle’s intent.
Woodson may lack real-ti command ability, but his pre-ga preparation is very thorough, a typical Larry Brown-style coach; in the first 12 years of his head coaching career, Popovich was the sa style. Of course, Popovich’s in-ga command ability is far superior to Woodson’s; his only obvious flaws in in-ga command are ineffective handling of adverse situations and lack of key play tactics, relying mostly on Duncan and Ginobili, here it speaks to pre-ga prep being stronger than in-ga command ability.
To have such strong pre-ga preparation, powerful analytical skills are a must, Woodson just isn’t good at quickly devising targeted strategies on the fly.
Woodson intended to replicate the Rockets’ victory tonight, having made improvents on the successful defensive foundation with the Rockets... Now it seems achieving his ideal goal is impossible, he couldn’t think of a change of approach, but this did not cause him to lose his cool.
Having accepted his limitations on in-ga command, facing this situation, he simplified things—just a battle of defenses, right? Their Hawks are sixth, Bobcats are seventh, who’s afraid of whom!
Leave the offensive adaptations during the ga to Bibby!
A coach with limited abilities but self-awareness is a great quality, at least he won’t hold back capable players... This Hawks team has been proving that all season.
In the following ti, both teams switched into defensive brawl mode.
On the Hawks’ side, Bibby, Pierce, and Horford dominated the offense, Woodson directed the defense; on the Bobcats’ side, Zhang Yang, Okafor, and substitutes Perkins and Hill took charge of the defense, Carlisle managed team offensive adjustnts.
At the end of the first quarter, the Hawks led the Bobcats 21 to 18 by 3 points!
Woodson’s confidence was not unfounded, among the top seven defensive teams, except for the Cavaliers leading by a wide margin, the other six teams’ defensive abilities are quite even.
The Bobcats were forcing team offense when role players were out of form, increasing the shot attempts from players besides the Big Three, leading to very low offensive efficiency.
But Carlisle chose to persist!
Since finishing the back-to-back against the Magic team, their offensive efficiency has been continuously declining, and the best way to adjust is, regardless of how the offense is going, to continue playing in harmony.
But during that ti, they were in a winning streak, couldn’t stick to it, if the openings weren’t enough, they’d instinctively pass to Zhang Yang...
Now, at the juncture of two consecutive losses, Carlisle wants to seize this opportunity to make adjustnts, he doesn’t want to wait.
Zhang Yang also chose to support Carlisle, leaving the ga up to his teammates, emphasizing Felton and Millsap’s dual-core tactics during the starting phase, switching to Brad Miller and Mike Miller’s dual facilitating style during rotation.
He only had two standard isolations in the first quarter, plus two instances where he took on shots when teammates had no chance, notably, his reduced shot count led to a good shooting percentage, with 2 out of 4 challenging shots made, plus one fast break that drew a foul for two successful free throws, playing 9 minutes for 6 points.
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