Within a few rounds, the changes made by the Trail Blazers were fully displayed before everyone's eyes.

Riley used to control the intensity in order to make the offense smooth. This is a reasonable idea. But it is too reasonable, and the playoffs are often an unreasonable place.

The more reasonable you are, the harder it will be to adapt to the various problems your opponents point out to you.

So they changed their style of play tonight.

Since the Knicks like intensity, they will accompany the Knicks to the end.

The Blazers' five-star formation put on the pressure spontaneously.

As a result, they discovered that in high-intensity games, although their offense would be affected, it was still obviously stronger than the Knicks.

In order to break Louis' forward pass, Riley chose to let Sabonis get the ball from a high position.

This arrangement sacrificed Isiah Thomas' ball rights, but it also opened a new door for the Blazers.

Ewing's ability to completely defeat Sabonis in the first game has something to do with him being in his comfort zone.

Allowing Sabonis to get the ball in the high post is unfamiliar territory to many people.

Even Sabonis himself is getting familiar with this new position.

The Lithuanian knows very well that if he cannot perform to Riley's satisfaction with the current ball rights, it will be difficult to get the ball again later.

For his own tactical status, Sabonis has to fight no matter what.

As a result, his performance surprised Riley.

Facing Ewing in the high post, he first feinted, then dribbled, and then made a sudden stop to take the shot.

Judging from the description, this set of actions looks like a forward's offensive action, but Sabonis does it without any sense of violation.

2 to 0

"Nice shot!"

Jordan yelled like he was on fire: "Guard them!"

The Knicks' tactics hit Wilson.

It just so happened that the person guarding him was Nance.

Wilson was confident, but even with the best opportunity, no one could hit it 100% of the time.

Nance's defense was shaken by him. Except for the finishing touch, Wilson's performance can be rated as full marks.

Only the final ending went awry.

The shot missed the basket, Barkley protected the backboard, and Jordan went down quickly.

Kemp returned to defense quickly, but Jordan was also not afraid to return to defense.

Even if he was facing Kemp, he would force his way into the situation with a fighting spirit of only advancing and never retreating. He would have a fierce confrontation with Kemp, then find the center of gravity and hit the target.

The referee seemed to like this ball very much. After Jordan succeeded, he did not forget to make a supplementary call that made Louis unable to understand.

The whistle was blown by the referee, named Dan Clifford. Although this person was also named Clifford, he was a black man. Naturally, he had nothing to do with Joe Clifford, who was neurotic about all "laughing at life" behavior.

.

"Tell me what kind of foul this is!"

Louis roared at him like a tiger guarding its cubs.

Clifford turned a deaf ear.

As for the Knicks, the problems they encountered were more serious than Louis imagined.

Wilson had a poor start, Kemp was exhausted on the defensive end, and the ball was not in Miller's hands. Stockton's offensive ability was once again put on the table by the opponent's strategy.

As early as the late 1980s, Don Nelson, who was still coaching the Bucks at the time, found problems with the Knicks' offensive system that transcended its times.

Tactics can transcend the times, but how many players can transcend the times?

Nelson saw something clearly: As the only pure point guard on this team, Stockton is a barometer of the offensive end for the Knicks. If there is a problem with him, the Knicks' offensive firepower will be greatly reduced.

The Knicks' pick-and-roll system is modernized, so to restrict them, modern methods must be adopted.

Riley came up with the idea of ​​infinite defense changes.

Nelson, on the other hand, cut his salary from the bottom and saw through the technical limitations of "Even if Stockton gets an open position through the pick-and-roll, he can't score quickly."

Now, both of these methods against the Knicks have appeared in the Finals, and Stockton's response to Riley did not disappoint them.

Whether he encounters misplaced defense changes or is given space to shoot, Stockton's technical characteristics and his consistent style of play prevent him from becoming a game-breaker.

Sabonis' performance in the high post excited Portlanders.

He can shoot, support, and can make one or two attacks with the ball in one-on-one situations.

He looks like a slower version of Sampson with no athletic ability.

Except for the 1988 Celtics, the Knicks have never faced such an opponent.

It's not that they haven't seen players of Sampson's type, but apart from the Celtics, there's no other team that has left them helpless on defense.

Last year's Trail Blazers relied on the personal abilities of Jordan and Barkley to reach the seventh game, but that was limited to the category of personal abilities.

Today's Blazers' unsolvable offensive performance is based on logical tactics.

This is the scariest place.

In all confrontational team sports, once a team abandons the team and chooses individual ability to fight for victory, it means that they have reached the end of the road and there is no other way.

As long as the Blazers are matched properly, even if they only play tactics, it will be difficult to resist them offensively.

It started 21-14. Seven minutes later, the Trail Blazers led by 7 points.

The Knicks requested a timeout.

Louis must call this timeout because this lineup alone is not enough to compete with Portland, even if this is their dynasty lineup.

"John, come down and rest."

Stockton sat down. He knew that there was a problem with his playing, but he couldn't solve it. It was reasonable for him to be replaced.

Whenever Louis uses ideas that transcend the times to deal with contemporary coaches, it often produces good results. However, once they meet opponents like Riley, they will learn from his ideas in turn.

Ideas that transcend the times will soon be caught up, and then they will also treat the Knicks with modern ideas.

The coaches’ concepts have caught up, but what about the players’ execution capabilities?

This is why Stockton was repeatedly abandoned by Louis at critical moments.

For the Knicks, his value is irreplaceable, but in this situation, if Louis wants to break the game, he must change the ball carrier.

Moreover, a ball holder must be replaced who can threaten the opponent's strategy.

This is the value of Mohammed Rauf.

When Louis' eyes fell on Raouf, he stood up on his own initiative.

"You have to make good use of Patrick's pick-and-roll. If you need to pass the ball, try to pass it to the two corners. Benj and Reggie will be ready."

Rauf's link-up ability cannot be compared with Stockton, so Louis was concise and concise when deploying his tactics.

He can't implement complex tactics. Anyway, it doesn't need to be too complicated to play against the Trail Blazers. Just keep it as simple as possible.

－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Chapter completed!