Chapter 503 Are You Ready to Challenge Me?

Sakuragi Hanamichi played his best performance since his debut.

He scored 41 points and 26 rebounds. Although most of the points were based on dunks, he scored 41 points and 26 rebounds. This is a top-notch performance.

Doris was dumbfounded, while Barkley almost laughed his mouth off.

Many people had predicted that the Lakers and Cavaliers had a great chance of winning against the Supersonics, and listed countless pros and cons of both sides. Among them, the most mentioned was that the Supersonics' inside line was not as good as the Lakers and Cavaliers.

Although the Supersonics' outside offense has been better than their inside offense in the past few seasons, the strength of the inside line can guarantee the rebounds of the outside line and give the outside players more confidence to shoot, which is also one of the reasons for the Supersonics' outside line strength.

More importantly, when only the outside line can support Lin Dong on the offensive end, as long as the defensive space is opened to a certain extent and the Supersonics' outside line is blocked, the offensive connection between Lin Dong and the team can be well cut off, and finally it will turn into a beating of Lin Dong by the whole team.

But if the Sonics also have strong offensive capabilities in the interior, then the difficulty of defense is definitely not as simple as just keeping an extra person in sight.

To put it bluntly, the Sonics' outside line is strong, and you can't just block it casually. You can only deal with it through zone defense, clearing the interior space, etc. You have to spread out the defensive formation.

But if you want to deal with the Sonics' inside line now, if Lin Dong doesn't exist, it's okay. Yao Ming or O'Neal undoubtedly have the ability to single-handedly defend Sakuragi Hanamichi, but if these two people do their best to defend Sakuragi, what will happen if Lin Dong rushes in?

It's impossible to defend Lin Dong alone, and you can only rely on O'Neal or Yao Ming to double-team him.

But as soon as you double-team him, he will pass the ball to Sakuragi Hanamichi.

The outside players only come in to defend at this time?

It's too late, so you can only shrink the defense circle from the beginning and strengthen the control of the interior.

But if the defensive circle is shrunk at the beginning, the outside line will be leaked again...

Lin Dong alone is enough to break the team's original matchup balance. The Lakers and Cavaliers originally relied on the advantages of other positions and could squeeze out a little space for each player to deal with it, but now...

Fans and commentators across the United States have now quieted down.

The Sonics, who have both inside and outside support, are almost an unsolvable problem under the leadership of Lin Dong. Even the Zen Master can't find the answer for a while.

Everyone turned their eyes to the Grizzlies, trying to see if the old guy Mike Fratello, who won the NBA's best coach in the 1986 season, coached the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers successively, and went to TNT to be a commentator for several years, and was finally re-employed by the Memphis Grizzlies with a large sum of money, can give a standard answer.

As a veteran NBA coach who has already experienced the test of fire, he has been active in the forefront of NBA commentary even after retiring in 1998. His understanding of the technical and tactical changes of the NBA can be said to be the first-class type. Fratello's coaching level and adaptability are naturally unquestionable.

Of course, even for Fratello, no one expected the Grizzlies to beat the Supersonics or cause too much trouble to the Supersonics. After all, the score in the first half of the first game was too heartbreaking. If the Supersonics were not afraid of injuries to their main players, most of the main players would have clocked out at halftime. Otherwise, it is estimated that G1 would have created the largest score difference in the NBA playoffs.

However, people still expect to see some changes and attempts, especially for the inside line of the Supersonics, which can provide a good reference for the Cavaliers and the Lakers, and make efforts to defeat the Supersonics and the Asian Big Devil, the ultimate goal of the entire league.

These people are silent and waiting anxiously, because they can see the strength of the Supersonics and the gap in strength between the two teams.

However, many laymen on the Internet found a new excitement after a night of silence-that Sakuragi Hanamichi was just a momentary good luck. Which All-Star player has not had a highlight performance in the NBA? He is indeed very young and promising, but it is too exaggerated to say that he now has the strength to balance the inside line of the Lakers and the Cavaliers. Just wait and see, he will show his prototype in the second game!

This argument made many Sonics haters like they had found a lifeline, and they praised it and praised it highly, which actually attracted a lot of attention.

This was the first time that the focus of American fans on Sonics was not on Lin Dong.

So everyone was looking forward to the G2 battle between Sonics and Grizzlies. After the failure of the last game, Grizzlies would definitely learn a lesson and at least give the arrogant red monkey a good look.

The head coaches of Lakers and Cavaliers, Phil Jackson and Mike Brown, flew to Seattle quietly overnight and sat in the Sonics home stadium wearing sunglasses.

Of course, they didn't come to see Sakuragi Hanamichi "show his original form". In their eyes, Sonics deliberately fed the ball to the outside this season, which was a recognized fact a long time ago. They even saw Sakuragi Hanamichi's improvement on the offensive end this season through some details, but they didn't expect it to be so great.

G2 will show his original form? Phil Jackson and Mike Brown would not have such a naive idea.

They just want to see it clearly, to find the answer on the court - to see how Mike Fratello balances the defense of the Sonics inside and outside.

On April 27, the Sonics and the Grizzlies started Game 2 under the attention of everyone.

The ratings of over 60 million really amazed the league and the media. It was thought that the whole country was paying attention to the Sonics vs. Lakers and the Cavaliers, but it was unexpected that the Grizzlies game used as a "prelude" would have such a high ratings.

It's just that the process and results of the game...

Flatlo did make a lot of adjustments to the team's defense in the past two days, but what disappointed Phil Jackson and others was that his adjustment method was the "lesser of two evils" that laymen on the Internet said the most before.

The Grizzlies did not have the ability to defend the Sonics inside and outside at the same time, so they shrunk the defensive encirclement and focused on a double-team inside, using the inside human sea tactics to block Lin Dong and Sakuragi Hanamichi's impact on the basket, and also using this to try to ensure more rebounds to freeze the Sonics' outside touch.

This is the most mediocre and stupid move in the eyes of a master like Zen Master.

This is the NBA, this is the Sonics!

Betting on their outside shots?

It seems that the experience of leaving the NBA and becoming a commentator for a few years has made Fratello, the legendary NBA coach, out of touch with reality to a certain extent, and no longer as focused on basketball as before.

Facing such a team, if you choose to put the outcome of the game on luck and gambling, it is actually equivalent to admitting defeat.

Of course... When thinking of this, the Zen Master and Mike Brown cursed Fratello secretly and laughed at themselves.

They scolded Fratello for making stupid moves and being out of touch with reality, but the fact is that they didn't think of any good tricks... Maybe Fratello didn't know this? It's just that there is really nothing he can do, so he just treats a dead horse as a living one.

As expected.

After shrinking the defensive circle, the Grizzlies did freeze Sakuragi Hanamichi, and when no one in the Grizzlies could match up with Lin Dong alone, they also limited Lin Dong's shots. This is another benefit of shrinking the defensive circle. After all, one-on-one and two-on-one are not good. If only one player is used to defend Lin Dong's three-pointers from the outside, and the other four players form a human sea tactic in the interior, no matter how strong Lin Dong is, he can only occasionally make two magical balls. It is impossible for him to fly over these four people to score every time.

But as soon as you shrink, the Sonics' outside line soars.

Iguodala's three-pointers in the first quarter were 4 of 4, while Chandler was 1 of 2. The main point is that if you dare to leave me open, I dare to shoot, and if I dare to shoot, I dare to score!

The Grizzlies, who were afraid of being shot, had to separate Jones for single defense. Jones's defensive ability is still good, and under the defense of three points, even Iguodala has few opportunities to shoot.

One person can be assigned to defend Lin Dong's 3-pointer, and another person can be assigned to defend Iguodala. After the inside line shrinks, the remaining 3-man combination must always pay attention to Chandler's slipping outside. This big man also has 3 points!

Although it is said to shrink, there are only two people in the inside line most of the time. The inside line of Gasol + Mike Miller is almost unable to limit the impact of Sakuragi Hanamichi and Lin Dong.

It is completely impossible to limit...

So the Sonics' outside score began to decrease in the second quarter, but the inside line frequently attacked and succeeded. After several 2+1s, Paul Gasol, who was on fire, had accumulated 4 fouls, and his lethality was even more terrible than the Sonics who focused on the outside line.

On the other hand, the Grizzlies were frequently restricted on the offensive end.

Gasol, who once relied on the inside line to gain a foothold, had to try his best to score every goal when he met the defensive Sakuragi Hanamichi, and there were really few opportunities to shoot.

Mike Miller was completely suppressed by Chandler. A functional blue-collar player faced a quasi-All-Star center who was taller, longer, and heavier than him. The result was predictable. He was completely locked.

The outside line encountered the rotation defense blockade of the Supersonics. When the Supersonics started running, the Grizzlies' outside line really couldn't hold up...

The score difference was quickly widened again. The gap in strength, almost every point was in a state of explosion, so that the Grizzlies could not see any hope of winning at all.

122:98, the Supersonics beat the Grizzlies again in G2, and Lin Dong clocked out in the fourth quarter, and took less than 20 shots in the whole game, and scored only 31 points.

And this battle also directly knocked out all the remaining arrogance of the Grizzlies, and also knocked out the remaining fighting spirit and anger in Paul Gasol's eyes.

The gap is too big, and there is no way to fight. Whether it is personal strength or tactical restraint, this is no longer a problem that can be solved by trying hard and improving your personal fighting will.

What's even more terrible is the leisurely stroll that Lin Dong showed. The seemingly reduced score, but the effortless control of the whole court and domination of the game, made people completely unable to see where his real ceiling is, and it is even more impossible to guess his current realm and strength. This gave everyone a sense of despair that even if the Sonics' current internal and external defense balance problem is solved, there is still no hope.

So when G3 went to the Grizzlies' home court, the crazy cheers of the home fans did not give the Grizzlies any morale or counterattack opportunities...

On May 4, a clean 4:0, the Sonics won the first round of the series and advanced to the Western Conference semifinals.

It was not until this time that fans across the United States finally realized one thing.

The Sonics' poor performance this season is just because they are training their outside line and hiding their strength.

The so-called Cavaliers and Lakers can use the Sonics as an experience pack this season, and even the fans of the two teams are still arguing about who will get the experience pack... All of these are just wishful thinking of the fans.

Everyone can't help but feel that the Sonics are still the Sonics, and the throne is still the throne.

And at the post-match press conference after G4, Lin Dong's words completely pushed this feeling to a climax.

Lin Dong smiled faintly and said the words that are destined to be passed down in the NBA in the calmest tone in front of the camera.

- If I am a mountain, then you have just stood at the foot of the mountain.

- LeBron, Wade, Kobe, Yao... Are you ready to challenge me?