Chapter 193 The first duel, is it Wang Feng vs Durant again?
As for whether James or Durant will be worse off in the finals, Wang Feng doesn't care. He loves whoever.
However, if he fails to win the championship, the golden optional badge awarded by the system will most likely be downgraded to silver, which Wang Feng cannot accept.
He must fight for this badge, and by helping the Cavaliers win the championship, he can also slap that bitch Green in the face. This is one of the important reasons why Wang Feng chose to join the Cavaliers in the summer.
Against the Warriors, the Cavaliers' strategy was actually not much different from the regular season.
First of all, Curry is definitely the most threatening player and must be defended strictly and double-teamed when necessary to limit his performance.
Although Thompson also has strong scoring ability, he is inferior to Curry after all. Moreover, he often plays off-ball offense on the court and is not actually a great threat.
As for Durant, his strength is no less than Curry, and his efficiency value is even higher. If it were the previous Cavaliers, they would choose to let James defend Durant. Of course, even James cannot guard Durant.
People will form a situation where they explode with each other on the offensive end.
But things are different now. The existence of Wang Feng, a top outside defensive master, gives the Cavaliers a weapon to fight against Durant! Especially this season, Wang Feng has strengthened his strength and jumping ability to 80 and above, and his single defense ability has been improved.
Floor, even Durant's height advantage is no longer so obvious.
In the two games of the regular season, when Durant met Wang Feng, his scoring and shooting percentage dropped significantly. Although even Wang Feng could not completely lock Durant out, this level was enough.
This is the best result to accept. Looking at the entire league and even NBA history, no one dares to hope to completely prevent a super scorer like Durant from death.
Once Curry and Durant fail at two points, the scoring ability of the Warriors' main players will be greatly weakened, such as Green and others, whose scoring ability is almost negligible.
…
The game begins with both teams competing for the ball.
The Cavaliers' starting five remain unchanged for a thousand years, still Irving, J.R. Smith, Wang Feng, James and Love.
After a season of running-in, the tactical system of this lineup has tended to be complete. Love has gradually adapted to the center position and knows what role he plays. However, J.R. Smith's data has dropped significantly this season.
On the one hand, it may be that Wang Feng's arrival further reduced his ball rights, but on the other hand, signing a long-term contract also made JR Smith no longer have the desire to fight.
Fortunately, with the arrival of Wang Feng, the Cavaliers have no shortage of starting firepower. Even if J.R. Smith's scoring average plummets from 12.4 points last season to 6.4 points, it will not hurt the Cavaliers as long as he can make long-range three-pointers.
The intimidation is still there, and standing on the court to create space for other teammates is enough.
Love won the jump ball, and Irving dribbled the ball across half court. When both sides were unsteady, he quickly broke through Curry with the ball and successfully scored a layup to give the Cavaliers the lead.
The Warriors' offense puts the basketball in Durant's hands.
"Coming!"
This scene was seen by all the fans in front of the TV or online live broadcast.
Wang Feng VS Durant, this is the highlight of the Cavaliers Battle second only to James VS Durant!
Standing in front of Durant, Wang Feng looked calm, looked at him with both eyes, and said calmly, "Come on."
This is the third time Wang Feng has directly faced Durant this season. The first two games were in the regular season, and the intensity was completely different from the current finals.
After Wang Feng said these words, he suddenly stepped forward and approached Durant, closing in on him!
The Death Coil Badge activates instantly.
Durant has suffered losses with this move many times. With the golden death coil badge and Wang Feng's power of up to 80, it is difficult to deal with it when caught off guard.
But Durant was already mentally prepared. He first turned sideways to protect the ball behind him. While raising his right hand to protect the ball, he wanted to push Wang Feng aside. At the same time, holding the ball in his left hand, he directly broke through with the ball to the left.
The disadvantage of close pressing defense is that it is too close to prevent breakthroughs.
Durant is tall and has long arms. He crossed the three-point line with just one step and reached the free throw line with the second step!
Wang Feng immediately caught up with him.
Although his pace is not as big as Durant's, his speed and agility are superior. In addition, during this process, he has always used his strength advantage to press Durant's path, so he has not been thrown away.
Seeing this, Durant immediately stopped and took off, taking a mid-range jump shot that he was best at and most familiar with.
Wang Feng jumped up immediately. The 80% bounce allowed Wang Feng to take off at a pretty good height. His raised arms successfully blocked part of Durant's shooting line of sight.
The Purple Defensive Stun Badge activates immediately.
"哐——!"
Durant took the shot with a soft touch, but the basketball hit the backboard and bounced high, missing the frame and just missing the basket.
"Damn..."
Durant cursed secretly, the feel of the ball even made him think he had hit it.
Sure enough, playing singles in this way in front of Wang Feng will be much less efficient!
"In this case, we can only proceed according to the team's planned tactics."
…
The ball returned to the Cavaliers. James singled out Green with the ball and forced a breakthrough to the basket, causing a defensive foul on Pachulia and making 1 of 2 free throws.
With the Warriors' offense, the basketball was once again put in Durant's hands.
The only difference from the previous round was that when Wang Feng stood in front of Durant, he suddenly felt a not-so-strong figure appear beside him.
The next moment Durant moved laterally, Wang Feng wanted to follow, but was blocked by a figure.
Wang Feng turned around and saw that the person blocking him was Stephen Curry who had just passed the ball to Durant.
The moment the pick-and-roll was completed, Curry immediately ran in the opposite direction of Durant's movement.
Wang Feng's heart suddenly jumped and he immediately followed Curry without any hesitation.
No one knows better than Wang Feng, who is himself a top three-point shooter, what will happen if Curry is allowed to run a little open outside the three-point line.
Wang Feng followed Curry closely while turning his head to look.
Sure enough, after the pick-and-roll, Irving, who was originally guarding Curry, became the player guarding Durant.
Switching defense and mismatched singles after the pick-and-roll screen...
This was Harden's favorite move in the 2018 and 2019 playoffs when facing the Warriors. Harden would frequently call for pick-and-rolls, creating a one-on-one situation between him and Curry, constantly beating Curry in isolation.
, while increasing your own success rate and maximizing Curry's physical energy consumption.
This tactic was very successful and was one of the tactics that enabled the Rockets to compete fiercely with the Five-Star Warriors for two consecutive years.