Chapter 1016: The Mavericks and the Lakers Have the Same Weakness
After Li Ba surpassed Nowitzki by half a step, he changed direction again, took a step to the left, and stepped into the paint area again from in front of Nowitzki.
At the top of the arc, Rondo kept running. At this time, he saw Li Ba running out of the receiving position and hurriedly passed the ball down.
Li Ba grabbed the ball with his right hand, and at the same time pressed Nowitzki with his left hand, changed direction again, and rushed to the basket with the ball.
Nowitzki in front was held down, and O'Neal in the back hurriedly moved to the basket, but before he could stand in position with his feet, Li Ba had already flown up and hung straight on the basket. He quickly jumped up to block the shot.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
As O'Neal was knocked away in the air, Li Ba dunked with one arm, exploding the Mavericks' basket.
With a bang, O'Neal fell to the floor.
Li Ba landed, glanced at O'Neal, and turned back to defend.
"This guy, is he serious today?"
Nowitzki saw the extremely strong excitement and coldness in Li Ba's eyes, and a strong sense of danger rose in his heart.
"Beautiful! This attack was so beautiful!" Zhang Heli shouted excitedly.
"He used his good footwork to get rid of the double team. Tiechui's shot was really beautiful." Xu Jicheng said.
"Rondo passed the ball in time. Although he didn't shoot, his passing ability has been practiced now." Yu Jiazan said.
Mavericks attack.
Nowitzki received a pass from Kidd outside the three-point line on the right wing, backed up Tony Allen, first pushed the latter, then turned and leaned back to shoot a dog pee, hitting a three-pointer.
Looking back, Li Ba moved continuously in the paint again, and suddenly went up to the high position to receive the ball.
After O'Neal and Nowitzki followed to the high position, Tony Allen suddenly cut into the basket from the left wing, received a pass from Li Ba, and made a layup.
Mavericks attack, still Nowitzki played Tony Allen.
Tony Allen is only 193 cm tall, 20 cm short of Nowitzki. With his wingspan, he is 40 cm tall. The former weighs only 97 kg, which is nearly 15 kg short of the latter. He cannot shake the latter's center of gravity, which is a big disadvantage.
Nowitzki played against Tony Allen, with an absolute advantage of mismatch, plus his unique dog-peeing shot. Tony Allen had no way to defend. He jumped up to block the shot, but he didn't even touch Nowitzki's elbow.
"A long two-pointer hit, the Mavericks are leading by 1 point." Yu Jia shouted.
"Let's change players, put Hill in. Hill is 203 cm tall, the height disadvantage is not that big, and the weight is bigger than Tony Allen, and he can open up on the offensive end." Zhang Heli shouted.
The Suns attacked.
Li Ba once again moved to the high position, emptying the Mavericks' basket, and this time it was Alian who cut in.
Stoudemire's defensive attitude is still his weakness. Thanks to the continuous fly-catching training, A-Lian's turn and first step are very fast. By running back, he left Stoudemire behind and cut into the paint area.
"Bang!"
Li Ba jumped up to pass the ball, and A-Lian dunked the ball in an alley-oop, which exploded the Mavericks' basket.
"Beautiful!" Yu Jia shouted excitedly.
Mavericks attack, right wing, Stoudemire wants the ball. He is now convinced by Li Ba's strength, but he is definitely not convinced by A-Lian. He wants to return one.
Stoudemire took the ball and played against A-Lian in front of the basket, and the latter took a half step back to defend.
Stoudemire suddenly started a tentative step, but it was a fake breakthrough and a real shot, trying to shake A-Lian off and then jump shot.
But A-Lian knew one fact, that Hammer was under the basket, and his defensive strategy on the wing was only one, to defend the shot but not the breakthrough.
He did not retreat, and when Stoudemire took back the tentative step jump shot, he directly stepped up and jumped, and blocked the ball with a slap.
"Beautiful! A-Lian blocked Stoudemire!" Yu Jia shouted excitedly.
The ball landed, and Stoudemire and A-Lian scrambled for it. At this time, Li Ba rushed over.
Stoudemire had just taken the ball from the floor, and Li Ba knocked it away with a palm, and then snatched the ball away.
"The hammer completed the steal, and the Suns are about to go down!" Xu Jicheng shouted loudly.
The Suns had three fast players, Ginobili, Rondo, and Tony Allen, all of whom were small and fast on the outside.
The Mavericks' outside players, Nowitzki, Kidd, and Josh Howard, were obviously slower. Nowitzki didn't keep up with the rhythm, and the frontcourt formed a three-on-two situation. Later, Li Ba and A-Lian also followed up, increasing the advantage of more players against fewer players.
Rondo advanced to the basket and passed the ball back to Ginobili. Ginobili faked a pass to Tony Allen, deceived Josh Howard's defensive attention, and made a layup.
8:5, the Suns led by 3 points away from home.
Next, on the offensive end, the Suns accelerated, accelerated the speed of offense and defense conversion, and frequently played fast breaks.
Fast break tactics have always been the basic tactics of the Suns. Payton has played for the Suns for several seasons and is very familiar with them. He can use them right away and use them quite smoothly.
Simply put, when Li Ba is on the court, he doesn't need to worry about the defense. He can use the original tactics on the offense, and he can do a good job as a head coach.
He also doesn't understand why Scott would have a conflict with someone as good as the Hammer?
The Mavericks have good height, but relatively slow speed. O'Neal and Nowitzki are slower than Li Ba and Alian. This weakness is similar to the Lakers, both of which are too slow in the inside line and can't keep up with the offense and defense rhythm of the Suns.
The Mavericks are led by Nowitzki, who made 3 of 4 shots, 2 of 3 three-pointers, and 3 of 3 free throws, scoring 11 points.
Tony Allen was beaten at this point. The old driver is really powerful. The advantage of mismatch is too great, and his shooting posture is also very difficult to defend, and the possibility of accidental injury is also very high.
In the 7th minute, 18:17, the Suns led by 1 point.
Timeout, Payton replaced Tony Allen with Hill.
Hill's first step is the fastest in history, and it is still the top first step. He broke through Nowitzki and hit a long two-pointer when he came on the court.
Nowitzki could not double-team Li Ba in advance. O'Neal defended Li Ba alone and was directly beaten.
After one quarter, the Suns led by 7 points at 32:25.
Li Ba made 7 of 8 shots and 2 of 4 free throws in a single quarter, scoring 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 1 block.
Two of the 4 assists were given to A-Lin, one to Tony Allen, and one to Ginobili.
There were a few fewer blocks, because O'Neal rarely attacked. In the first quarter, the Mavericks mainly had Nowitzki shooting from the outside and even outside the three-point line, so there were few opportunities for blocks.
"Iron Hammer, keep playing?" Payton asked after leaving the court.
The Mavericks are very strong, and he knew that Li Ba wanted to take this good opportunity to get a five-double today.
Nodding, Li Ba smiled and said, "Of course."
In the second quarter, Li Ba was the main defender and played as an organizing center on the offensive end.
In half a quarter, he grabbed 5 rebounds, sent out 2 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal, led the substitute lineup to play a 16:8 attack wave, forcing the Mavericks to immediately replace half of the main lineup.
At the end of the half, 60:55, the Suns led by 5 points.
Li Ba did not attack in the second quarter, and did not play the second offense, just aiming for a five-double, scoring 16 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals, 4 blocks and 1 foul in two quarters.
Zhang Heli laughed and said, "I think the Mavericks wanted to prevent the hammer from hitting a five-double. He didn't play inside much in the first half, and Xiao O didn't ask for the ball much."
"Maybe it's true, haha!" Yu Jia laughed.