RNP Chapter 153
Chapter 153
Chang Tiancheng nodded, since Popovich did not continue to pursue in this matter, it was naturally best for him.
Subsequently, Popovich made the next tactical arrangements, since Wembanyama has gone to the infirmary for treatment, there is naturally no need to continue to put Collins on the field to form a "twin tower" with him.
Popovich decisively sent McDermott and Vassell, and the intention was already very obvious, naturally wanting Chang Tiancheng to take last season's starting lineup and rely on the "seven-second fast break" system to help the team maintain offensive dominance during Wembanyama's absence.
At the end of the timeout, the Kings did not make any substitutions, but they should have noticed that Wembanyama was no longer on the floor, which meant that Sabonis Jr. on their side could regain the initiative on the inside.
The Kings attacked, Fox took the ball to the Spurs' half, observed the situation on the court a little, and passed the ball to Sabonis Jr. on the inside without hesitation.
If Sabonis Jr. was a little jealous of Wembanyama's influence on the inside defensive end, then now in the face of an interior combination like Keldon + Sochan, he naturally began to push behind his back unceremoniously.
There is a huge physical gap between Sabonis Jr. and Sochan, and Sochan naturally can't stop Sabonis Jr.'s back single, but the Spurs didn't plan to let Sochan go to Sabonis Jr. in the first place.
Just as Sabonis Jr. was about to push Sochan into the penalty area, McDermott, who was standing in the bottom corner to defend the opposing Barnes, suddenly moved sideways and reached out to steal Sabonis Jr.
Sabonis Jr. certainly thought about the possibility of being caught in the bag, so he behaved quite naturally, stopping his back play the moment McDermott rushed over, and at the same time lifted the ball high and passed it to Barnes in the bottom corner with both hands.
Barnes originally wanted to dribble to the middle range and shoot again, but McDermott immediately turned around when Barnes received the ball, directly blocking Barnes's breakthrough route, forcing Barnes to shoot a three-pointer in the bottom corner.
The Spurs have also studied the Kings' perimeter players before, and their common feature is that although they all have the ability to shoot three-pointers, their crosshairs are not too high. Especially the Barnes, who is shooting now, often fails to score consecutive three-pointers, causing the team's offense to lose power.
The reason why the previous Warriors lost to the James-led Cavaliers in 2016 was that Barnes was definitely the Warriors' number one criminal in terms of off-court performance regardless of off-court performance.
And now the Spurs' defensive strategy against Barnes is also very simple, they can allow Barnes to shoot some easy three-pointers, but they won't let him break inside.
This is actually the requirement for the team's defense in the "seven-second offense" system, that is, to force the opponent to shoot some shots as much as possible, and resolutely defend the team's basket, so as to improve the probability of getting defensive rebounds. And the offense of this system starts with backcourt rebounding.
It's just that for Barnes, the Spurs give him more shooting space, on the one hand, too frequent "inside wrap-outside defense" will consume a lot of the physical strength of his players, and on the other hand, he also wants Barnes to have more confidence to shoot, so that he will have a high probability of becoming an "offensive black hole" in the team.
Barnes' three-point shot was as out of the basket as the Spurs expected, and it was at a weird angle.
This gives Sabonis Jr. a chance to scramble for a rebound in the frontcourt, but there is nothing he can do about the trajectory of the ball.
In the end, the rebound was also taken by Kyle who jumped high into his arms. As soon as he landed, Keldon passed the ball to Chang Tiancheng, and then he ran to the Kings' frontcourt as fast as he could.
On the other side, Sochan, who was originally responsible for defending Sabonis Jr., also directly began to accelerate and sprint, which made the tall Sabonis Jr. unable to catch up with him for a while.
After Chang Tiancheng noticed this, he boldly passed a direct advance to the King's restricted area. This ball was actually passed very dangerously, and there were Kings players on both sides of the basketball landing point, but Chang Tiancheng still passed it confidently.
Sure enough, just as Keegan Murray and Fox of the Kings were about to reach for the pass, Sochan showed up in time, took the ball directly into his arms, and then took three steps and dunked the ball into the basket with one hand.
And at this time, Sabonis Jr. is still on the way back to defense.
The Spurs' small-ball lineup, which has not been used for a long time, has just come on the court and has shown its value on both offensive and defensive ends.
Fox passed the ball to Keegan Murray and motioned for him to bring the ball to the frontcourt, and he followed in the footsteps of Chang Tiancheng's retreat, slowly moving towards the Spurs' half.
Although Keegan Murray is also a rookie who has not played for a long time, he has been very mature in handling some of the balls on the court, and he knows that if he continues to pass the ball to Sabonis Jr. on the inside, he will only let him continue to be caught by the Spurs, so he decisively called Sabonis Jr. to block for himself.
After bypassing Sabonis Jr.'s cover, Keegan Murray found that the opponent's Sochan had switched defenses, so he turned around directly, stuck Sochan's body with his ass, and then gave the ball to Sabonis Jr. who bounced outside after blocking and dismantling.
Sabonis Jr. was aware of Keegan Murray's idea when he called him over to block the pick-and-roll, so he stood outside the three-point line after covering him, and sure enough, he waited for Keegan Murray's pass.
After receiving the ball, Sabonis Jr. faced Vassell, who was defending him in front of him, and shot a three-pointer without any hesitation.
Vassell really couldn't do anything with him, except to watch the basketball make a perfect arc in the air and crash into the hoop.
The Spurs attacked, Chang Tiancheng quickly advanced to the Kings' half with the ball, and then directly blocked and dismantled Sochan.
After blocking and dismantling, Chang Tiancheng first glanced up at Xiao Sabonis, who had changed his defense, and directly chose to use his speed to break through him.
And Sabonis Jr. also couldn't prevent Chang Tiancheng, and Chang Tiancheng turned around and completed an easy breakthrough layup.
It's the Kings' turn to attack again, and this time Fox still chooses to let Keegan Murray take control, and he is just responsible for standing by Chang Tiancheng's side, and I don't know what he has in mind.