Chapter 366 365. Duncan’s fourth peak stage is on the way!
Of course, the Spurs' profit does not mean the Grizzlies' loss.

If Parker had not been traded, Gerald Wallace would not have gone, and Gasol would have wanted to leave. Since the Lakers have already acquired Garnett and will not trade Gasol's signing rights to the Grizzlies in a package, no matter how the Grizzlies operate later, it will be difficult to form the original black eight lineup, and it is incomparable with the current core trio of the sports car + crown prince + sister-in-law.

Gerald Wallace is still on his way to the throne...but this time he's the Bear King.

The deal between the Spurs and the Grizzlies is now a complete win-win situation.

Zhang Yang glanced at the big screen and saw the 'C' after Duncan's name... The little giant went to the East, and the big shark dragged the Suns down and dragged them out of the top four in the West. The expressionless guy didn't even bother to act anymore.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, Okafor narrowly defeated Duncan to win the jump ball. The game began and the Bobcats attacked first!
Spurs starting lineup: Conley, Gay, Bowen, Oberto, Duncan.

Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Zhang Yang, Mike Miller, Okafor, Brad Miller.

Zhang Yang received the ball on the right side of the arc, singled out Gay, and made a strong breakthrough... He didn't shake off the opponent, and when he came to the right side of the free throw line, he took the initiative to move closer, turned from facing the basket to backing up, turned left and then returned to facing the basket. Gay quickly retreated to the left and back, blocking the breakthrough space...

After shaking off Gay, Zhang Yang dribbled the ball behind his back and took a step to the left. He came to the free throw line, jumped, and shot a mid-range shot before Duncan could get to the position... and it went in!
After more than three months of playing against each other again, Zhang Yang personally felt Gay's improvement on the defensive end.

He is not as aggressive as before. In the past, Gay's defense was very aggressive, to put it nicely, or to put it bluntly, he only knew how to use his body to defend, relying on his physical conditions such as reaction, burst speed, and explosive power. His body's reaction was faster than his brain, which looked quite intimidating. With Bowen on the wing and Duncan under the basket, Gay was able to defend against weak opponents in this way, but when he met someone with good skills, he would be beaten up.

After being coached by Popovich, Duncan and others for almost a season, Gay is now much less aggressive on defense. He has improved in positioning, distance control and timing of confrontations. Combined with his superior physical condition - 203 cm tall + 221 cm wingspan + athletic ability that is only slightly worse than that of Raptors' McGrady, Gay can easily be promoted to an excellent forward and guard defensive player.

It’s just that Gay has made great progress in defense, but Zhang Yang has made even greater progress in offense!

His increasingly outstanding breakthrough skills, back-to-the-basket skills, and mid-range shooting supporting techniques, combined with the ball-control rhythm of the Son of Wind (intermediate) and the back-to-the-basket rhythm of Bird (intermediate), made fun of Gay so badly that Gay couldn't even create conditions for Duncan to make up for the defense!
Watching Gay running to the front court in frustration, Duncan chased him and touched his head to comfort him.

Ginobili on the sidelines saw Zhang Yang beating up Gay in the first attack, and his eyes lit up - the bad boy's style of play is getting more and more aggressive, more like me!

When it was the Spurs' turn to attack, they played the same style. Duncan went to the low post for one-on-one play, displaying skillful and solid back-to-the-basket moves, but he couldn't fool Brad Miller!

After Duncan stopped the ball, he faked a shot, but the opponent didn't fall for it. He quickly glanced at his teammates. There was no condition to pass the ball, so he just went for it, using his wingspan advantage to shoot a high jump shot... and missed!
Brad Miller secured the defensive rebound, turned around and passed the ball to Zhang Yang, who attempted a counterattack... but failed.

The Magic's defense was already excellent, while the Spurs were top-notch, delaying, intercepting, and positioning... in an orderly and precise manner.

The media's statement that "Jack's chase three-pointer is part of the tactics, not a distraction" was confirmed in this round. The conditions were not good, and Zhang Yang slowed down when passing the center circle. After his teammates got into position, he continued to play one-on-one.

Zhang Yang played very aggressively in the last round, but this time he was very cautious when moving to the top arc position.

After just one round, Gay was sent to the wing to defend Mike Miller, and it was Bowen guarding Zhang Yang!
Bowen's positioning and interference threats were so good that Zhang Yang had no chance at all from a long distance. He chose to fake a sudden breakthrough and run towards the inside.

Although Bowen couldn't stop Zhang Yang from breaking through, he didn't actually lose his position. He continued to stay in a position outside the three-point line and at the free throw line to interfere with Zhang Yang's quick stop jump shot.

Just when Zhang Yang was about to get within the free throw line and could use his speed advantage to get rid of Bowen, he chose to pass the ball back to Brad Miller who was going around to the left side of the free throw line.

Gay became the one defending the shooter on the wing, and his assisting defense speed was astonishingly fast. Zhang Yang had no chance of a quick stop jump shot within the free throw line. Duncan was also on the left sideline of the three-second zone. If Zhang Yang broke through, he might be trapped by three people and it would be difficult to separate them. He made the most reasonable choice at the first time.

After Zhang Yang passed the ball, Bowen immediately switched defense to Mike Miller, and Gay also stuck to Zhang Yang. The Spurs' three-point defense ability was fully demonstrated this time with assisting defense + switching defense!
Brad Miller did not blindly look for a teammate to shoot directly, but passed the ball to Felton who was leaning against Conley on the left baseline three-point line.

Felton received the ball at the baseline and faced Conley, then he broke into the paint and made a layup...but the shot went in due to Duncan's help defense.

Duncan turned around and blocked Okafor's rush, and Conley secured the defensive rebound.

When Zhang Yang was retreating, the scene of Duncan’s backup defense just now emerged in his mind - he didn’t jump!
He completed a nearly perfect defensive interference by just standing on tiptoe and stretching out his hand. It's really unique!
Version 4.0 of Duncan is on the way!
Zhang Yang remembers that when Duncan was 39-40 years old, he had an outrageous statistic - when he was on the court, his opponents only scored 100 points per 96 possessions.

这是个什么概念呢，11-12赛季的钱德勒在场时每100个回合让对手拿到99分；12-13赛季的小加索尔在场时每100个回合让对手拿到98分；13-14赛季的诺阿在场时每100个回合让对手拿到96分，这三人，都是当季最佳防守球员。

Those three guys put up such performances before the center was slashed—the cylinder rule was changed—and Duncan did it after.

由于14-15赛季和15-16赛季的最佳防守球员是小前锋，不好比较，16-17赛季的德拉蒙德-格林作对比更合适，那个赛季其在场时每100个回合让对手拿到99分。

The 4.0 version of Duncan, at the age of 40, only played 4.0 or minutes per game due to his declining physical strength, but his performance was almost the same as the version every year.

Duncan, who was born at the wrong time, would not have worried about not having DPOY if he was born 20 years later. Unlike now, he only has MVP and FMVP, but not a single DPOY. He was questioned, "Who recognized that his defense was not the best in history?"

In the offense-defense transition, Conley grabbed the rebound and advanced to the frontcourt. He wanted to pass the ball to Duncan, but Duncan pulled out for a pick-and-roll, so Conley chose to attack with the ball.

Like Duncan and Zhang Yang, they made reasonable and prudent choices.

When defending Howard, Brad Miller's defensive awareness and tricks were completely defeated by the opponent's physical reaction;
When defending Yao Ming, Brad Miller's little moves were like tickling to the opponent, and the defense he usually encountered was like wrestling;
But Brad Miller did a good job in defending Duncan in the last round, who had suffered two serious injuries and whose explosive power and speed had been greatly reduced, and who was about to turn 32 years old and had begun to adjust his playing style towards version 4.0 and relied on his skills and static physical conditions to play, and made Duncan very uncomfortable!
Conley used Duncan's screen to break through, and there was no help from the wing. He chose to play small against a big opponent and faced Okafor's defense and made a layup in the paint...which also went in.

After losing weight, Okafor has swift steps and a defensive style similar to Duncan without jumping around. He relies on his height and arm span advantages to interfere with shots without seeking blocks. This time he did a very good job of defending against small interferences.

In the next few rounds, both teams were "bang bang bang". After more than 4 minutes, when the Bobcats called a timeout, the score was 6 to 5, and the Bobcats were leading by 1 point.

After Carlisle made the first round of personnel adjustments, he looked at the scoreboard again, opened his mouth several times, and swallowed his complaints. He sighed, "The Spurs are too stable. They are not affected by public opinion at all. They still defend as they should. They are worthy of Popovich."

Hill replaced Mike Miller. In the first few minutes, Mike Miller was tightly blocked by the Spurs' rotation on the outside. He only received the ball once in 4 and a half minutes and did not have a single shot opportunity.

Hearing Card's sigh, Hill said, "This is how a good coach should respond. Rick, if it were you, and you were facing Jack as your opponent, you wouldn't take his three-point performance against the Magic too seriously, right?"

Carlisle thought for a moment and responded, "Of course, the style of play can be changed immediately, but the shooting ability will not become stronger because of the change in style of play. Miller, Allen, and Stojakovic's three-pointers can't kill the opponent. Jack can't do it in most cases. There is no need to defend against such a small probability event."

Hill got the answer he wanted and appreciated his coach even more, but he had another question: "But Jack's offensive choices tonight seemed too stable. With such a score, he didn't mess around once. I thought we were back to the stage of adjusting the offensive system."

Carlisle's bald head seemed to light up at this time, and he smiled: "He is executing plan 2. Although we don't have an advantage, we are not behind. Grant, you should play as you should, and don't worry about him."

Not leading but not behind either... Hill thought for two seconds and suddenly understood. He guessed the intentions of the coach and the star player...

After the timeout, the Bobcats continued to fight a tense tug-of-war with the Spurs.

The Spurs' extremely stable style of play prevented them from making blind adjustments when facing the Bobcats' changes in playing style.

This "blindness" can also be understood as self-confidence.

The Pistons and the Bulls are very confident in their own strength, but the Magic are not confident in their own strength, but they have won the previous two matches against the Bobcats, and have the advantage of winning the match against the Bobcats again. However, the impact of confidence is similar.

Before playing against the Bobcats, they had already discovered the improvements in the Bobcats' offensive details, and wanted to make predictive offensive and defensive adjustments through analysis and research without having played against the adjusted Bobcats.

But the Bobcats' offensive basketball is different from the Suns' German-style run-and-gun, George Karl's track and field run-and-gun, and old Nelson's classical run-and-gun. It is completely different in style. Instead, it is a new system created by combining the experience Carlisle learned from watching games on the sidelines in the 80s, the experience he learned from hanging around famous coaches for many years, his own experience as a head coach, and some small ball concepts provided by Zhang Yang. It can be regarded as a new school.

The head coaches of those three teams wanted to start from restraining the Bobcats' system and make predictive attacks, but they ended up hurting themselves instead.

Skiles felt that he could not defend the Bobcats, so they chose to weaken their defense and strengthen their offense;

Philip Saunders felt that the stars were not matched properly and over-emphasized team balance, resulting in Zhang Yang and Felton hitting the key balls;

Van Gundy...he wants to make predictive adjustments.

Popovich did not try to do so. Instead, he adjusted his defense in detail based on his own defensive strengths and the offensive characteristics of his opponent's players, focusing on a steady approach.

For example, in defending Zhang Yang, he certainly saw the recent hot topic of Zhang Yang's "new three-pointer", but he still chose to focus on defending Zhang Yang's mid-range and long-range shooting. When Zhang Yang wanted to play a three-pointer alone, he let Bowen stick to him, and when Zhang Yang ran to find an open space to shoot a three-pointer, he only used the outside rotation to defend and make up for the gap.

Popovich: If you can kill me from beyond the three-point line, then you are awesome.

Facing such defense, Zhang Yang, with his explosive temper... really has no way to deal with Popovich.

If he is really asked to shoot three-pointers to kill his opponents, he might as well go for mid-range shots.

With the same shooting ability of nearly 90, the practical effect of three-pointers is far lower than that of mid-range shots. Three-pointers only have a circle, while mid-range shots have a wide range... Of course, this is only for stars who are being defended.

However, in this tug-of-war, the one with the big brain is not Zhang Yang and Carlisle, but Popovich.

The Bobcats' offense was limited tonight, and so were the Spurs!
The Bobcats did not make any special defensive adjustments against the Spurs' offense, but their defensive style this season - mainly single defense and switching defense, supplemented by double-teaming, and not easily assisting in defense to avoid missing long-range shooting opportunities - just happened to restrain the Spurs' already mediocre offense!

The Spurs' offense was relatively monotonous, with the scoring mainly concentrated on the seven main scorers.

Duncan 19+, Ginobili 19+, Gay 15+, Conley 10+, Finley 7+, Barry 6+, Bowen 6+, the Spurs averaged 98.6 points, which is a little higher than the 95 points or so in the early years, but it was mainly because Ginobili's scoring increased. The Spurs still played star basketball, with four core players in the main offense and three veteran players on the outside responsible for long-range shots. As for the three role players in the inside, they averaged 3 points per game in total and did not have many chances to score.

The Spurs' offensive style just hit the Bobcats' target, otherwise the Bobcats would not have lost to the Spurs by 5 points and defended the Spurs to only 80 points when they were in a fatigue period of consecutive away games in the middle of the season.

打到首节结束，山猫队20比21落后马刺队1分，到了第二节，山猫队打出了22比20的比分，半场结束时以42比41反超马刺队1分。

At halftime, Popovich returned to the locker room and sat in the bathroom. He had been playing uneasy and anxious in the first half, but after calming down, he quickly figured out the opponent's intention!

In the first half, he was wondering how the bad boys on the other side played so reasonably tonight? Apart from receiving the foul shots, they hardly made any random shots!
Regarding the chase three-point shot that was so hyped by the media, Zhang Yang only took one shot in a counterattack in the first half, but missed it, and he did not take another shot to "prove himself" like he had done in previous matches.

Now he has figured it out - Carlisle will not adjust his playing style randomly, but execute the offensive tactics as they should be, not allowing Zhang Yang to shoot recklessly, reducing consumption, conserving energy, and only trying to keep the score close, in order to play the key ball!
Both teams only scored a little over 20 points in each quarter. If they continue like this, the advantage will gradually tilt towards the other side.

On their side, Conlin and Gay are unstable, Yao Dao is unpredictable, and their key ball ability...

On the other side, Felton, Mike Miller, and Hill are all good at key shots, and there is also Zhang Yang who has extremely strong buzzer-beating ability!
...

After the halftime break, Popovich saw through the opponent's intentions, but he did not make any major adjustments, only emphasizing the details that needed to be paid attention to on the defensive end.

This season, their style of play is even more "retro" than last season, basically returning to the style of play before Duncan suffered from plantar fasciitis in 05. Because of the arrival of two new core players, Conley and Gay, their main task in the early and middle stages of the season was to allow Duncan and Ginobili to integrate the two new talents.

Moreover, they have too many middle-class veterans. With a salary of 6700 million, Duncan only has 1901 million, Ginobili has 908 million, Conley and Gay are both on rookie contracts, and the combined salary of the four core players is less than 3400 million. A large part of the salary is occupied by the middle-class contracts of those veterans over 35 years old. Naturally, the more familiar the playing style, the better.

He rashly adjusted his attack and defense without even drawing his magic sword, which was equivalent to stabbing himself as a respect.

After the start of the third quarter, the Bobcats played as Popovich expected, still going all out with tactics, regardless of the success rate, to ensure offensive stability.

Popovich could only watch his team slowly grind against the opponent, watch the time elapse bit by bit, but the score remained close.

In the middle of the third quarter, Hill received the ball in a high position and broke through, passing it to the left side. Pietrus went straight to the basket and received the ball and made a jump shot, which also caused Bonner who was defending to foul. Popovich called a timeout!

6 minutes and 12 seconds into the third quarter, Pietrus made this jump shot. The free throws after the timeout did not count, and the two teams were tied at 11-11. The score came to 63-62, with the Bobcats leading by 1 point.

In the current situation, Popovich really doesn't have any tactical tricks, but he has people in his hands!
After resting for half a quarter, Yaodao comes on the court!

Ginobili took off his training uniform and threw it behind him. Popovich wanted to encourage his beloved disciple, but the sweaty and smelly training uniform made his eyes go dark.

Without noticing the miserable head coach, Ginobili stared at Zhang Yang who also came on the court after resting for half a quarter.

The last time they played against each other, he won the crucial ball, and this time, he wants to win again!

Bad Boy is Yaodao’s favorite new generation player, but the way players of their generation express their love is to hit him with all their strength!

(End of this chapter)