No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 840 - 362. The Prelude to the New Era

Fans who watch games regularly will notice something quite counterintuitive.

When top-tier teams play against ordinary teams, the subtlety of tactics is hard to manifest. The adaptability of the coach and players in real-time doesn’t seem that important, especially during crucial moments of tightly contested games, where it’s often more effective for a star to just take the ball and swing.

However, when top-tier teams go against each other, the significance of tactics and real-time adaptability becomes more pronounced. If there is a significant and good change on one side, it often crushes the opponent.

The recent games of the Bobcats are like this.

The Wizards are just an ordinary playoff team, but when they encountered the Bobcats, who had made significant adjustments to their offensive system, their performance was no different from their previous three encounters. They couldn’t defend against the Bobcats, whether the Bobcats changed their strategy or not. The Wizards simply couldn’t defend them, and they almost pulled off an upset.

Yet the Pistons and the Bulls, facing the Bobcats for the first time, found it very tough and were unable to defend, getting blitzed at the start by the Bobcats.

Tonight, the Magic Team, like the Pistons and the Bulls, had done plenty of defensive preparation, and their defensive strategy was executed very well. However, the more prepared and precise the execution, the worse their defense became.

The gap between the Magic Team and the Pistons, Bulls also became evident at this time. Those two teams could hold onto the score through real-time adaptability and individual capabilities of their players.

The Pistons, even though they lost the first battle against the Bobcats in a back-to-back, kept the score tight until the end.

The Bulls also held on for three quarters. If it hadn’t been for Zhang Yang and Felton’s 9-0 run in 58 seconds that directly collapsed the Bulls, if the Bulls had held the score during Yao Ming’s rest period and dragged it into the crucial moments, having Hinrich and Yao Ming, the Bobcats might not have been able to safeguard victory.

The Magic Team...

Big Van Gundy, compared to Little Van Gundy, has a very outstanding advantage—he’s not complicated.

In the original timeline, when the Magic Team first rose and faced the Cavaliers, they were thoroughly penetrated by James in the first two matches. James scored 49 points on 30-of-20 shooting in the first game and 35 points on 24-of-13 shooting in the second. After analyzing and summarizing after two away games, Big Van Gundy came up with the defense strategy of Nelson guarding up, Turkoglu cutting off James from the other flank, and Howard defending solo under the basket, and decisively executed it. In the third game, James’ shooting percentage plummeted to 39.1%, and the Magic Team ultimately overturned with a 4-2 win.

This decisiveness is something Little Van Gundy lacks.

But when it comes to in-game adaptability... Little Van Gundy is already poor at it, and Big Van Gundy is even worse!

Big Van Gundy’s only advantage in in-game adaptability is his emotional personality. If the Magic Team plays smoothly, he can always help his team play better, but when they don’t play well...

Tonight, in the first half of the first quarter, Big Van Gundy called a timeout, but instead of turning the team’s downturn, it directly made the disadvantage even bigger.

Compared to the Pistons and Bulls, the current Magic Team is clearly a notch weaker overall. The coach’s real-time adaptability lags far behind, and they don’t have players like Billups or Yao Ming who have outstanding personal capabilities.

Howard is strong, undoubtedly the number one of the new generation of inside players, but when he needs to stand up and score to solve problems, he can barely fight a couple of times. The team looks domineering when the wind is favorable, but when trailing, he struggles like a trapped beast.

After the official timeout, the Magic Team still couldn’t reverse the downturn, and the Bobcats gradually widened the gap...

By the end of the first quarter, the Magic Team scored 28 points, a bit higher than their season’s first-quarter average of 26.2 points, making their offense quite good. However, the Bobcats scored 45 points, setting a new single-quarter scoring record in team history!

Zhang Yang made 7 out of 10 shots in the first quarter, including 2 out of 2 three-pointers and 2 out of 2 free throws, scoring 18 points, along with 4 rebounds and 2 assists, leading the Bobcats to win the quarter by 17 points over the Magic Team. This single-quarter point difference also set a new record in Bobcats team history!

The Bobcats players got more and more excited as they played.

The Magic Team players were truly bewildered. During the intermission, no one spoke for a while, only Big Van Gundy was roaring.

A coach’s impact on a team is always multi-dimensional. When trailing by a large score, Big Van Gundy’s impatient personality makes players feel more uncomfortable. However, at the same time as feeling uncomfortable, the players also developed a desire not to give up.

After the intermission, the Magic Team players maintained their momentum.

Due to the large deficit, the Magic Team players played more freely, ignoring the defensive plans and following their instincts. When it’s time to double-team, they double-team; when it’s time to block, they block, showing less hesitation and resulting in better defensive outcomes.

On the offensive end, they kept trying to shoot threes. When trailing by so much, only a rain of threes could quickly close the gap. novelbuddy-cσ๓

But in this area, the Bobcats were prepared. The Magic Team is the number one three-point team in the league, leading in both attempts and successful shots. The Bobcats’ coaching staff and players anticipated that the Magic Team players would definitely increase their three-point output, and they intensified their three-point defense.

Moreover, even though the Magic Team players actively increased their three-point attempts, they were not that confident because they could not secure offensive rebounds tonight!

Howard’s offensive rebounding is a very important part of the Magic Team’s offense. His offensive rebounding ability is among the best in the league, but the team’s overall offensive rebounding is among the worst in the league.

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