Versatile Point Forward

Chapter 423 Breaking the Shackles

Chapter 423 Breaking the Shackles

To say that Ye Feng was quite unlucky, except that the Nuggets in the first round had no strong small forwards, in these two rounds he faced Durant and Leonard, two excellent small forwards.Forget about Durant, he is known for his offensive firepower after all, Ye Feng only needs to confront him, but Leonard is different.

It can be said that so far, Popovich has built Leonard according to the standard of the perimeter gate, and even invited the retired Bowen to guide Leonard's defense.I have to say that Leonard's talent on the defensive end is really terrifying. Although Bowen is his teacher, he is already better than the blue. There is no Bowen's small moves in defense. One-on-one defense is a must.

Many people think that Ye Feng can handle Durant on the offensive end, but he may not be able to handle Leonard. Their basis is that when the Trail Blazers and Spurs played against each other in the regular season this season, Ye Feng was defeated by Leon. Leonard was dead on defense, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the audience did nothing.

But there are also people who believe that Leonard cannot stop Ye Feng. The reason is very simple. After all, Leonard is also a rookie who just entered the industry last year. Although Ye Feng has not played for a few seasons, he is now a member of the championship Plus the finals MVP, the rich experience is not comparable to Leonard.

Ye Feng turned a deaf ear to outside comments, he just continued to carry out recovery training step by step.However, he is full of fighting spirit for playing against Leonard. As some people said, he was undoubtedly at a disadvantage in the regular season match, and now is a good time to get back to the field.And Ye Feng didn't think there was anything invincible in this. Judging from Leonard's performance, he was an iron man player. It didn't matter if he fought him after seven games.

Of course, with Ye Feng's current status, he undoubtedly belongs to the challenged party, but he doesn't care about these things. Fighting against a master is what he is most willing to do, and now he has put Leonard on the same level as the opponent. I am at the same level, at least there will not be too much difference.

However, playing against the Spurs is also a huge test for the Trail Blazers inside, not to mention Duncan, and the group of Diaw, Blair, Split and Bonner are not easy to dismiss.Especially Diaw, the sixth man who performed well in the Suns, has now transformed into the most coquettish strange uncle inside the Spurs, and his high-level support makes opponents hard to guard against.The shooting range is far beyond the three-point line, and the experience is much richer than Aldridge.

Of course, McMillan has to make some arrangements. Facing a strong opponent like the Spurs, he can't be too careful.Although the Grizzlies have helped the Blazers consume a lot of physical strength of the Spurs, who knows what other tricks Popovich hasn't come up with yet?You must know that he can already be called the top head coach in the history of the league. Under his training, the Spurs have always been an evergreen tree in the league, and no one dares to take it lightly.

But Ye Feng is still McMillan's biggest reliance. Although he lost once in the regular season, McMillan still has full confidence in Ye Feng. He doesn't believe that Ye Feng can't handle a Leonard.You must know that Ye Feng is already a top small forward on the same level as James and Durant. Leonard is just a rookie.

In order to keep the basket under the siege of the Spurs inside, McMillan plans to reduce Camby's playing time this time, and mainly use Aldridge, Oden and Hickson to rotate. This is also to ensure the impact of the inside at any time. As for who will start and who will be on the bench, it needs to be carefully considered.

The first game of the Western Conference Finals was held at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. This is the only place where the Spurs feel a little relieved. After all, the last game of the series against the Grizzlies is also at their home court. a little bit!

To most people's surprise, at the beginning of the game, the most intense collision between the two sides was not the small forward, but the inside line.In order to deal with Duncan + Dior's starting inside combination, McMillan sent a lineup of Aldridge + Oden, Oden was responsible for resisting Duncan inside, and Aldridge went to the high post to follow Diaw.

In fact, this is also the inside combination that the Blazers wanted to form at the beginning, but because Oden played stop and go, the two rarely got the chance to play at the same time. This pair of insider combinations.

However, the effect of McMillan's move is still good. Although he took advantage of the mature inside combination of Duncan and Dior, he definitely did not suffer.Oden tops Duncan inside. Although he lacks experience, he has more than enough physical fitness. Aldridge is more concerned with Diaw's pass. After all, Diaw has never been the best choice for the Spurs to shoot from the outside. Popovich values ​​it the most. His is still the one-handed pass.

In this way, Aldridge's defensive pressure is much less. After all, there are teammates who can help, so that Dior will not often pass the ball to the gap.Although Ginobili's running position is very coquettish, this time McMillan asked Matthews to defend him and left Green to Felton, completely hiding the weakness of the perimeter defense.This is just taking advantage of Popovich's fear of starting Parker. If GDP is present at the same time, Felton will most likely become a breakthrough.

But fans are more willing to see the duel between Ye Feng and Leonard. Although Leonard's status in the team is still below the GDP, and his offense is not so interesting, but it can be seen When it comes to his contest with Ye Feng on the defensive end, Spurs fans feel that it is worth the fare.

Looking at the attendance and ratings of this game, the top executives of the league couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, there are still many teams in the West who love to attack, and the boring series of the Spurs and Grizzlies is so drowsy. It has passed, and now the Blazers have undoubtedly helped the league recover a lot of losses.If you repeat the Spurs VS Grizzlies trick, then Stern basically has no place to cry. Everyone likes to watch the game. What do you mean by letting a group of black and hard people bump into each other on the field?

In fact, the Spurs are a very balanced team. Thanks to the good team atmosphere created by Popovich, they can not only play a smooth offense, but also play an airtight defense. The dullness is largely the idea of ​​Popovich. He hopes that the team can compete with the opponent on the defensive end, so now facing the Trail Blazers, in his opinion, is the time to test the team's offense.

(End of this chapter)