Chapter 840: 362. The Prelude to the New Era
Fans who watch gas regularly will notice sothing quite counterintuitive.
When top-tier teams play against ordinary teams, the subtlety of tactics is hard to manifest. The adaptability of the coach and players in real-ti doesn’t seem that important, especially during crucial monts of tightly contested gas, where it’s often more effective for a star to just take the ball and swing.
However, when top-tier teams go against each other, the significance of tactics and real-ti adaptability becos more pronounced. If there is a significant and good change on one side, it often crushes the opponent.
The recent gas of the Bobcats are like this.
The Wizards are just an ordinary playoff team, but when they encountered the Bobcats, who had made significant adjustnts to their offensive system, their performance was no different from their previous three encounters. They couldn’t defend against the Bobcats, whether the Bobcats changed their strategy or not. The Wizards simply couldn’t defend them, and they almost pulled off an upset.
Yet the Pistons and the Bulls, facing the Bobcats for the first ti, found it very tough and were unable to defend, getting blitzed at the start by the Bobcats.
Tonight, the Magic Team, like the Pistons and the Bulls, had done plenty of defensive preparation, and their defensive strategy was executed very well. However, the more prepared and precise the execution, the worse their defense beca.
The gap between the Magic Team and the Pistons, Bulls also beca evident at this ti. Those two teams could hold onto the score through real-ti adaptability and individual capabilities of their players.
The Pistons, even though they lost the first battle against the Bobcats in a back-to-back, kept the score tight until the end.
The Bulls also held on for three quarters. If it hadn’t been for Zhang Yang and Felton’s 9-0 run in 58 seconds that directly collapsed the Bulls, if the Bulls had held the score during Yao Ming’s rest period and dragged it into the crucial monts, having Hinrich and Yao Ming, the Bobcats might not have been able to safeguard victory.
The Magic Team…
Big Van Gundy, compared to Little Van Gundy, has a very outstanding advantage—he’s not complicated.
In the original tiline, when the Magic Team first rose and faced the Cavaliers, they were thoroughly penetrated by Jas in the first two matches. Jas scored 49 points on 30-of-20 shooting in the first ga and 35 points on 24-of-13 shooting in the second. After analyzing and summarizing after two away gas, Big Van Gundy ca up with the defense strategy of Nelson guarding up, Turkoglu cutting off Jas from the other flank, and Howard defending solo under the basket, and decisively executed it. In the third ga, Jas’ shooting percentage plumted to 39.1%, and the Magic Team ultimately overturned with a 4-2 win.
This decisiveness is sothing Little Van Gundy lacks.
But when it cos to in-ga adaptability… Little Van Gundy is already poor at it, and Big Van Gundy is even worse!
Big Van Gundy’s only advantage in in-ga adaptability is his emotional personality. If the Magic Team plays smoothly, he can always help his team play better, but when they don’t play well…
Tonight, in the first half of the first quarter, Big Van Gundy called a tiout, but instead of turning the team’s downturn, it directly made the disadvantage even bigger.
Compared to the Pistons and Bulls, the current Magic Team is clearly a notch weaker overall. The coach’s real-ti adaptability lags far behind, and they don’t have players like Billups or Yao Ming who have outstanding personal capabilities.
Howard is strong, undoubtedly the number one of the new generation of inside players, but when he needs to stand up and score to solve problems, he can barely fight a couple of tis. The team looks domineering when the wind is favorable, but when trailing, he struggles like a trapped beast.
After the official tiout, the Magic Team still couldn’t reverse the downturn, and the Bobcats gradually widened the gap…
By the end of the first quarter, the Magic Team scored 28 points, a bit higher than their season’s first-quarter average of 26.2 points, making their offense quite good. However, the Bobcats scored 45 points, setting a new single-quarter scoring record in team history!
Zhang Yang made 7 out of 10 shots in the first quarter, including 2 out of 2 three-pointers and 2 out of 2 free throws, scoring 18 points, along with 4 rebounds and 2 assists, leading the Bobcats to win the quarter by 17 points over the Magic Team. This single-quarter point difference also set a new record in Bobcats team history!
The Bobcats players got more and more excited as they played.
The Magic Team players were truly bewildered. During the intermission, no one spoke for a while, only Big Van Gundy was roaring.
A coach’s impact on a team is always multi-dinsional. When trailing by a large score, Big Van Gundy’s impatient personality makes players feel more uncomfortable. However, at the sa ti as feeling uncomfortable, the players also developed a desire not to give up.
After the intermission, the Magic Team players maintained their montum.
Due to the large deficit, the Magic Team players played more freely, ignoring the defensive plans and following their instincts. When it’s ti to double-team, they double-team; when it’s ti to block, they block, showing less hesitation and resulting in better defensive outcos.
On the offensive end, they kept trying to shoot threes. When trailing by so much, only a rain of threes could quickly close the gap.
But in this area, the Bobcats were prepared. The Magic Team is the number one three-point team in the league, leading in both attempts and successful shots. The Bobcats’ coaching staff and players anticipated that the Magic Team players would definitely increase their three-point output, and they intensified their three-point defense.
Moreover, even though the Magic Team players actively increased their three-point attempts, they were not that confident because they could not secure offensive rebounds tonight!
Howard’s offensive rebounding is a very important part of the Magic Team’s offense. His offensive rebounding ability is among the best in the league, but the team’s overall offensive rebounding is among the worst in the league.
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