Chapter 741 The Gaze From the Mentor (Second Update!)

The opening rounds became a microcosm of the first quarter for both teams.

Perhaps because of Woj's previous report, James' offensive desire was not strong after the start, and other members of the Cavaliers were somewhat out of shape.

The Pelicans, on the other hand, have welcomed a new first assistant coach and the team is stable and in excellent condition.

As a result, after the first quarter, the Pelicans already led the Cavaliers by 15 points, 34-19.

This is really a slap in the face.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Blatter took the initiative to seek changes. He replaced Irving in advance to lead the team.

The Cavaliers' substitutes include J.R. Smith, Thaddeus Young, and Tristan Thompson, which can be said to be quite luxurious.

Irving also led the team very well in this period. He led the team to a 10-2 personal attack wave with sudden inside and outside shots, narrowing the point difference to single digits.

He is under tremendous pressure playing next to James, and he seems to be using this method to illustrate that he can play better without playing with James.

The on-site photographer naughtily gave the lens to James.

Winning is not scary, but missing someone is embarrassing. Chasing points is not scary, but being absent is embarrassing!

Sure enough, when James looked up and saw his figure on the large LED screen, he frowned and looked very unhappy.

Tyronn Lue, the assistant coach of the Cavaliers, observed what was happening and walked quickly to Blatt and whispered for a while.

Blatt turned around, called James up, and replaced him on the court.

After James came on the court again, his desire to attack obviously became stronger. He forced Aminu to score several times, and the Cavaliers further narrowed the point difference.

Stevens responded quickly and replaced the main players one after another.

The situation on the court was at a stalemate, with the score between the two sides fluctuating between 5 and 7 points.

In the last attack of the half, James broke through three steps for a layup. After taking the third step, he squeezed out of the double-team of Davis and Bo Yang and scored at the buzzer.

After halftime, the Cavaliers chased the score to 46-50.

James scored 13 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in the second quarter, which was a very good performance.

At halftime, both sides returned to the locker room one after another.

Stevens and Brown were discussing tactics for the second half in the locker room at this time.

"Mike, you know LeBron's skills better, tell me what you think."

Stevens is more willing to discuss tactics with others, and now he took the initiative to talk to Brown.

His use of Davis to defend James in the first half was not very effective. After all, Davis is an inside player and there is a speed gap between him and James.

"LeBron is now at his personal peak. It is very difficult to guard him one-on-one. Our strategy should consume him more and force him into scoring areas that he does not like."

Brown deserves to be James' mentor, but he may not be as good as Stevens in terms of defensive tactics.

But compared to defending against James, he said No. 1, and probably no one in the league would dare to say No. 2.

Later, Brown talked about some specific defensive details, including that although James has the ability to shoot from the outside, he does not like to do it. Although he attacks with his right hand in the game, he is actually left-handed and will still prefer breakthrough routes. Wait on the left.

After hearing this, Stevens felt that the Pelicans had really made a profit by signing Brown this time.

As the imaginary enemy of the Pelicans in the Finals, the Cavaliers will limit James to get twice the result with half the effort if Brown is there.

Back in the second half, the Pelicans made starting adjustments, and Aminu replaced Bojan as the team's starting small forward.

This is also an obvious signal to strengthen the defense against the Cavaliers or James.

Back in the second half, the Cavaliers attacked first. James dribbled the ball from the backcourt and Aminu pressed directly from the frontcourt.

But James is James after all, and Aminu's pressing didn't work. He still relied on his personal ability to bring the ball to the half court.

James moved to the top of the frontcourt to organize the attack, and Aminu's defensive position was relatively deep at this time.

After observing his teammates for a while and seeing that there was no chance, James took a shot from outside the three-point line.

"Uh-huh!"

He continued his excellent touch in the second quarter and hit a three-pointer from the outside.

The score difference is only 1 point.

There was a commotion in the place.

"He needs to stand further forward. LeBron's current outside shooting ability is not the Cavaliers 1.0."

Smith opened his mouth to analyze in the commentary box.

"If you stand further up front, he'll get past you, he's LeBron!"

Buckley said immediately.

Tang Tian, ​​Curry, and James are now top three-threat players, and it is really difficult to limit them in one-on-one defense.

"Stay defensive!"

Stevens stood up at this time and shouted to the players that since he had adopted Brown's opinion, he chose to trust it.

In the Pelicans' offense, Tang Tian took advantage of Davis' pick-and-roll to catch the ball and shoot a three-pointer.

"Uh-huh!"

With the same hand, he immediately gave James a three-pointer!

James' performance has been very strong since the beginning of the second quarter, but in fact Tang Tian's performance from the beginning to the present has been very eye-catching.

After scoring this three-pointer, his personal score has reached a game-high 22 points.

James continued to advance with the ball in the backcourt, and Aminu continued to press.

Blatter on the sidelines is a famous European coach. He quickly realized what was happening and signaled Irving to receive the ball and help James share the defensive pressure.

But James did not give the ball to Irving. Instead, he signaled Irving to go back and dribbled the ball past half court.

In addition to the fact that the Heat have no future, another big reason why he chose to leave the Heat was Spoelstra.

Spoelstra is much more controlling than Brown was, which makes him feel uncomfortable.

Now Blatter is also developing in this direction, but he simply chooses to ignore it.

Tyronn Lue was hesitant to speak on the sidelines. He knew how to watch people's actions when he was with the Clippers. He could guess James's thoughts very well.

It's just that Blatter is also a stubborn coach. He is not good at giving advice and just chooses to remain silent.

Bratt felt uncomfortable being left out, but the opponent was James, so he could only hold it in and pretend nothing happened.

James reached the top of the arc and continued to organize, but Aminu still let him go.

After Bo Yang came off the court, the Pelicans' defensive intensity increased significantly, but others still had no good scoring opportunities.

James glanced at Aminu in front of him and chose to break through on the left.

Aminu rushed to the left to break through the line early and forced him to the right.

James' breakthrough from the left eventually turned into a layup in the middle. Jokic stopped under the basket, and James' shot ultimately failed to hit.

The ball in the rebound competition was knocked out of bounds by Mozgov, and the Cavaliers' attack was in vain.

When James retreated, he glanced at the Pelicans bench.

Stevens was communicating with Brown at this time.

Perhaps noticing James's gaze, Brown raised his head and the two men met each other's eyes.

James felt the gaze from his mentor.