Speaking of the Cavaliers, I have to say that this team is somewhat miserable.

Last season, the Cavaliers clearly achieved the first record in the league, but were eliminated by Howard's Magic 4:2 in the playoffs.

Faced with this situation, neither the arrogant LeBron James nor the fanatical fans in Cleveland could accept it.

So in the new season, they only have one goal, that is, strengthen the inside line and then attack the championship again.

However, since Cleveland is a small local city in the United States, at most it is a poor small town with a population of only 400,000.

This also leads to the Cavaliers not attracting the most popular stars in the league. Even if they have the LeBron James sign, people are unwilling to come to Cleveland, which is very popular and the market is very small.

The Cavaliers' first goal of strengthening the offseason is naturally the "Big Shark" O'Neal who is not in harmony with the Suns.

Since O'Neal is old, the chips that the Cavaliers need to pay for trading him are completely acceptable, but the help that O'Neal can provide to the Cavaliers is obvious.

As a result, the Thunder completed the interception before the transaction even occurred. Next, even though the Cavaliers kept looking for outstanding inside players in the market.

But those who are too famous can't pay the maximum salary, and those who are similar in fame also come at a glance. As for those who are not famous, there is no meaning to strengthen them.

As mentioned before, Cleveland's football market is far from comparable to Los Angeles and New York, so for the general manager, basically every penny has to be spent on the edge.

It was this kind of careful calculation that ultimately led the Cavaliers to miss all the inside players who could help the team, and started the journey of the new season in a daze.

LeBron James, the team's star, was obviously very dissatisfied with this matter, and even forced the management to hold the tables several times.

It said that if management cannot trade an excellent inside center in the new season to help the team, then LeBron James will jump out of the contract and stay in Cleveland.

Faced with this situation, the Cavaliers general manager has been asking other teams in the trading market.

It's just a pity that Cleveland can take out too few chips. With the premise of retaining the king-to-bomb combination of James and Mo Williams, the team has not yet traded a favorite inside player.

Fortunately, James and Mo Williams have a strong teaming strength and have been helping the Cavaliers occupy the first place in the East in the new season, which has temporarily suppressed the momentum of a split within the team.

But until the matter is really resolved, this has always been a big conflict between LeBron James and the management.

So in Yang Fan's opinion, the Thunder's real opponent is still in the West. As long as they can break out of the West, the chance of winning the championship will naturally be very high.

After all, these strong teams in the East are now in division. Whether it is the Cavaliers, Celtics or Magic, there are irreconcilable contradictions between the star and the management.

Although this situation is likely to lead to earth-shaking changes in the league pattern in the next few seasons.

But Yang Fan was not at all panicked about this, and even planned to take advantage of the chaos to take advantage of the situation.

Because before we knew it, Yang Fan had already disrupted the entire alliance's structure...

Before the game started, the entire Speed ​​Loan Center Arena was packed. After all, the battle between the Cavaliers and the Thunder can be regarded as one of the most eye-catching highlights in the league.

From a probability perspective, the two teams are likely to meet in the finals, because the two teams are currently sitting in the top spots in the east and west parts respectively.

Even though the Thunder's paper lineup looks much better than the Cavaliers, with LeBron James, no team in the league dares to underestimate this Cavaliers.

"Yang, you really don't plan to double-team LeBron, why don't you think about my opinion carefully."

"This season, the Cavaliers rely entirely on LeBron. Apart from him, the Cavaliers currently have only Mo to score in double digits, so as long as we control LeBron, it should not be too difficult to win this game."

Before the game, after learning that Yang Fan did not plan to double-team LeBron James in this game, Snyder raised objections and had been analyzing the benefits and interests of Yang Fan.

Although Snyder has been with Yang Fan for a season, in Snyder's subtle personal consciousness, defense is still greater than offense.

"Don't worry too much about Quinn. You have said before that LeBron is the only one who really threatens this Cavaliers, so I just let him score 50 points and 60 points in this game, so what can I do?"

"Okay, at most, I will count one Xiao Mo."

"You only see the surface of the matter. You know why the Cavaliers clearly only have two scored in double digits, but the team's offensive efficiency ranks sixth in the league."

"Because LeBron can contribute 8.6 assists per game this season, ranking fifth in the league, and the four ahead of him are the top point guards in the league."

"So sometimes if you want to limit a person, you don't have to double-team him, and some people don't have to kill the game with the only way they can score."

Before the game began, both sides announced their starting lineups:

Cavaliers:

Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, James, Hickson, and Ilgoskas.

Thunder:

Curry, "Martial Saint" Jackson, Durant, Jamison, and O'Neal.

After the opening, Big Z was the first to help the Cavaliers get the ball.

The Cavaliers' offensive tactics this season are very simple, that is, they hand over the ball to LeBron James after halftime, and the second leader Mo Williams will play without the ball.

Then use James' excellent breakthrough ability on the offensive end to create an opportunity to attack the basket or pass the ball to teammates, so that others can complete the shooting after receiving the ball.

Although this is a little different from the one-star radiance in later generations, it is not much different in general.

That is, with LeBron James as the absolute core, others will open up to create greater breakthrough space for him.

As for the center in the inside, they are responsible for receiving James' inward pass to finish the pie, or fighting wildly for offensive rebounds.

It can be said that although the Cavaliers have excellent record, it all depends on James being able to play.

In other words, once LeBron James encounters some injury during the game, the Cavaliers can basically bid farewell to the playoff stage.

As everyone on the Cavaliers pulled away, Hickson immediately came up to do a pick-and-roll for James.

Facing the Cavaliers' pick-and-roll, Durant followed Yang Fan's previous instructions to him, all pick-and-rolls were retreating backwards and giving James a chance to shoot from the outside, but he was determined to refuse his breakthrough.

And in this process, no matter whether Durant loses his position or not, other players can shrink inward as soon as possible, but they will never double-team James.

Yang Fan knows well that although LeBron James has a certain three-point shooting ability during this period, compared with his breakthrough and passing, three-pointers are definitely James' biggest offensive weakness.

So once James wants to use pick-and-roll to complete the killing, Yang Fan will give him enough shooting opportunities, and he will definitely not let him break through the inside easily.

After this pick-and-roll, James's face became empty.

After hesitating for a moment, James still made a three-pointer shot, intending to try out the feel first.

"Bang!"

As James bounced out of the basket with this three-pointer, the long rebound was taken away by Durant after turning around.

After receiving the rebound, Durant launched a counterattack to the frontcourt. Although O'Neal could not keep up with the speed at all, equally, the Cavaliers' Big Z could not keep up with it.

So even if the Cavaliers complete the position as soon as possible, it will be a four-on-four attack.

On the defensive end, the Cavaliers defended a 2-1-2 joint defense. Yang Fan was not too surprised by the Cavaliers' placement.

After all, the advantage of 2-1-2 joint defense is that the defensive players are close to each other and are more convenient to move. While being able to coordinate and control each other to defend the rebounds, they can also launch a counterattack as soon as possible.

This is typical of having a counterattack style of players like LeBron James, but although the 2-1-2 joint defense has strong mobility, its shortcomings are also obvious.

That is the front, and the defense outside the 30-degree and 45-degree angle three-point line will become weak.

Seeing this situation, Yang Fan naturally understood Mike Brown's intentions immediately.

This guy tried his best to force the Thunder to complete more three-point shots outside the three-point line without giving up the defensive counterattack.

After all, compared to the position closer to the basket, the shooting percentage outside the three-point line is obviously the lowest.

This is very consistent with the purpose of this era, that is, "the closer to the basket, the higher the hit rate."

"I'm really a greedy guy. I don't know how big your appetite is..."

As the Cavaliers did defend 2-1-2 on the defensive end, Yang Fan stood up and raised three fingers to the field, indicating the players to implement the No. 3 tactic.

Yang Fan had already made an assumption before the game. After all, as a man with the Eye of God, Yang Fan was really clear about Mike Brown's tricks.

In the next period of time, the Thunder indeed focused their offense outside the three-point line.

When using the Hawks' offense to rush into the inside to tear the defense, then transfer the ball out to expand more shooting opportunities.

Except for the inside center O'Neal, the other four players in the Thunder currently have excellent shooting abilities.

Especially Stephen Curry and Antoine Jamison, these two players are the best in the league today.

Among them, Curry's three-point shooting percentage was 44.7%, while Jamison's three-point shooting percentage was 42.3%.

Even Stephen Jackson, the worst among these four, has a 36.7% outside shooting percentage, so Yang Fan is not worried about Mike Brown's defensive plan.

As long as the team can perform normally on the offensive end and don't become a blacksmith like the 76ers, then the Cavaliers' defense will hardly cause too much trouble to the Thunder.

After all, the Cavaliers are also a team that focuses on offense. If we talk about defensive efficiency, then the Cavaliers are not as good as the Thunder.

With the fight between the two teams, LeBron James obviously played a bit uncomfortable in this game.

Although the Thunder did not double-team him throughout the whole process, James was very uncomfortable in the fight.

When James' breakthrough to the inside was unable to connect his teammates as soon as possible, he still suffered a lot of restrictions.

Especially the Thunder are still in charge of the "Big Shark" O'Neal, which makes James a little more difficult.

As for the offensive end, as the Thunder made consecutive shots outside the three-point line, the cold sweat on Mike Brown's head fell in a series.

Especially Stephen Curry, a player who looks like a primary school student, made Mike Brown understand what it means to behave like to behave like a person.

Even later, as long as the Thunder attacked outside the three-point line, Mike Brown would subconsciously clench his fists. Only when a "bang" sounded like a blackshot would Mike Brown breathe a long time.

As for why we don’t make adjustments to the defensive formation, because this defensive formation is not only used to target the Thunder, but the most important thing is to do with the Cavaliers’ own offensive rhythm.

Since there are not many teams who are good at shooting three-pointers in today's league, the Cavaliers are often able to do everything they can when facing other teams.

While forcing the enemy team to make a lot of outside shooting, the Cavaliers can also make up for the lack of inside strength through their mobile advantages.
To be continued...