Chapter 487 How exactly does Wang Feng want to restrict?
Due to the different focus of the two teams, at the beginning of the game, both sides focused on their own team's strongest scoring point.
The Rockets tried every means to pass the ball to Olajuwon in the paint, but as for the Knicks, as long as they dribbled the ball past half court, the basketball would be handed over to Wang Feng.
It must be admitted that Olajuwon was really strong during the two consecutive championships. He was able to dominate all the four major centers except himself. It was definitely not for nothing. He could show great performance on both offense and defense in the interior.
Strong dominance.
As long as he receives a pass from his teammate in the paint, Olajuwon can use his signature dreamy moves to stun Ewing and then score a layup.
It can be clearly seen that if the Knicks played against the current Rockets last season, they probably would not be able to achieve a record of 3:4. There is a high probability that they would be swept 4:0 like the Magic.
But it's different now, because in addition to Ewing, the Knicks have another thigh, a very thick thigh.
"Wang Feng held the ball outside the three-point line and accelerated his breakthrough. As soon as he started, he immediately pulled back and stepped back from outside the three-point line to shoot a jumper and hit a three-pointer!"
"Shua."
The sound of a basketball hitting the net was heard.
Drexler, who tried his best to interfere with Wang Feng's shooting, looked back at the basket and shook his head helplessly.
"This guy is really powerful. No wonder neither Michael nor Scotty can limit his attack..."
After just a few rounds of fighting, Drexler realized that he would never be able to guard against Wang Feng on his own.
Drexler, who is known as a glider, relies on his strong scoring ability to compete with Jordan in the league. Compared with offense, his performance on the defensive end is not that outstanding. In most cases, defense relies on
With his excellent physical fitness, he relies on speed, strength and jumping to suppress offensive players.
Therefore, Drexler has had five All-NBA teams in his career, but has not been selected to an All-Defensive team.
At the age of 33, his physical fitness has begun to gradually decline, and he is no longer at his peak. Moreover, even at his peak, Drexler's physical fitness was slightly inferior to Wang Feng.
In this case, he naturally had no way to effectively curb Wang Feng's scoring.
The Rockets did not use a double-team tactic against Wang Feng, because Wang Feng's average triple-double per game in the first two rounds of the playoffs has proven that rashly double-teaming this guy will only make him give out more assists, which will not be effective.
Curb the Knicks' scoring.
The defensive tactics formulated by Rockets head coach Rudy Tomjanovich is that Drexler should defend Wang Feng alone as much as possible, focusing on three-point defense. Under appropriate circumstances, Wang Feng can be allowed to break through the inside, because the Rockets' inside line is very difficult.
The average number of blocked shots is as high as 3.4 times.
Wang Feng also understands that it is not a wise move to rashly rush into the paint and confront Olajuwon, the monster who will top the NBA's shot-blocking list in the future. After all, Wang Feng does not have the signature badge of a giant killer, which is necessary for small players to play big games.
Most of the badges are shooting badges, and Olajuwon can effectively reduce the success rate of his strong attacks at the basket.
Again, in the small ball era, in the absence of high-quality centers, Wang Feng relied on his super high speed, strength, jumping value, and dunk ability value of 92, plus a ball that can strengthen the confrontation and successfully dunk and layup.
A quick confrontation with the Terminator Badge is enough to cope with everything...
But in this era of four major centers, it is a very arrogant idea to dominate the basket with just one finishing badge.
Moreover, although Wang Feng's overall rating has reached the full value of 99, his skills in the penalty area, such as inside shooting, layups, dunks, and basket moves, have only been enhanced to the maximum limit of 90 that can be increased by freely allocating points.
Therefore, Wang Feng is really not invincible in this era. At least his threat after breaking through the penalty area with the ball is not up to Jordan's level.
However, shortcomings are shortcomings. There are still many ways for Wang Feng to score.
Harden's signature step-back three-pointer through breakthroughs, Curry's signature three-pointer after pick-and-roll, and even using teammates' pick-and-roll screens to move without the ball and quickly catch the ball.
Quick three-pointers, these skills of the small ball era are still very useful in this era, and limited by the differences in era and cognition, players in this era do not have much awareness of guarding against these longer-range three-pointers.
In other words, no one paid much attention to three-pointers in the 1990s. Even for shooters such as Reggie Miller and Ray Allen, who are famous for their three-pointers, the team developed very few three-pointer tactics for them. Usually, three-pointers will only be shot when the player is open.
This is fundamentally different from the future small ball era that specifically creates space for three-point shooting.
The topic has gone a bit far.
All in all, even if Wang Feng does not hold the ball and enters the penalty area, he can still maintain efficient scoring efficiency under Drexler's defense with only mid-to-long-range shots, and even overwhelm Olajuwon, who is overwhelming inside.
In the first quarter of the game, Olajuwon scored 12 points inside the Knicks, made 3 of 4 free throws, and caused one foul each to Ewing and Oakley. His performance was already quite outstanding.
But the Rockets trailed the Knicks by 5 points at 27:32.
Because Wang Feng made 6 of 10 shots, 3 of 5 three-pointers, and 2 of 2 free throws in the first quarter, scoring 17 points.
During the game, Wang Feng showed a strong ability to predict passes. He judged and intercepted the Rockets' passes many times in advance and immediately formed a fast break. With his speed, the speed of fast break counterattacks was unparalleled. The Rockets There is simply no way to form an effective defense.
To make matters worse, Wang Feng not only maintained a very high scoring efficiency, but also successfully limited the performance of Drexler on the defensive end.
Since coming to the Rockets through a trade, Drexler has become the Rockets' most stable second scoring point besides Olajuwon. Especially during the playoffs, he averaged a stable contribution of 20 7 5 per game. Shooting percentage was 48%.
To put it bluntly, the Rockets were able to advance all the way to the Finals with the sixth-best record in the Western Conference, and Drexler was indispensable.
But at this time, this important scoring point for the Rockets was unilaterally suppressed by Wang Feng. Under Wang Feng's strong defensive pressure, he did not even have a chance to take a shot. In the first quarter, he only took 4 shots, hit 1 goal and scored 2 points.
Thanks to Rockets guard and future TNT celebrity Kenny Smith, he had a good touch in today's game. He fired frequently from outside the three-point line and shouldered Drexler's scoring duties. Otherwise, the point difference between the two teams would have changed. get bigger.
However, there is no method against Wang Feng. For the Rockets, this is just a slow death...
As the game entered the second quarter, Wang Feng continued to show his strong offensive power on the outside, forcing the Rockets to use double-teaming tactics under pressure.
Wang Feng said, "If you want to talk to me about this, I won't be able to sleep."
The ten-cent badge was activated, and the fancy passer badge was activated. Wang Feng began to calmly show off his passing skills under the Rockets' double team.
Wang Feng's passes can be accurately passed to the Knicks players who are in the open space every time. Not only his movements are chic and elegant, but also with the blessing of the ten-cent badge, his teammates' shooting percentage is also blessed.
Olajuwon also began to struggle in the paint.
After all, Ewing is not given in vain. After all, he is one of the four major centers. Ewing is also a powerful insider with three Best Defensive Team awards. Even if Olajuwon can suppress Ewing, he still has to put in more energy than usual.
Can.
The physical exertion caused Olajuwon's scoring efficiency to drop a bit in the second quarter.
Therefore, the score difference was further widened in the second quarter. At the end of the half, the score between the two teams was 64:49, and the score difference had reached 15 points.
By the time the second half began, the dilemma facing the Rockets had not been resolved. Even if Olajuwon regained his form after the halftime break and frequently scored in singles against Ewing, even if Kenny Smith was extremely accurate from beyond the three-point line, 11
His 7 shots were comparable to Wang Feng's, but the Rockets still lost the game.
120:107, this is the final score of the two teams.
The Knicks won at home by 13 points.
Throughout the game, Wang Feng was the undisputed and absolute protagonist, with 2
He made 13 of 5 shots, 5 of 10 three-pointers, and 7 of 8 free throws. He scored 38 points, 8 rebounds, 12 assists, and 5 steals.
Except for Wang Feng, Ewing was suppressed by Olajuwon, but he also made 9 of 18 shots and 4 of 6 free throws to score 22 points and 11 rebounds.
Starks, Charles Smith, Derek Harper and others also got many shooting opportunities when Wang Feng was double-teamed by the Rockets, and scored in double figures one after another.
For the Rockets, Olajuwon was also on full fire in this game. He made 13 of 26 shots, 5 of 7 free throws, and scored 31 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 blocks, and 2 steals. His overall performance was not inferior to Wang Feng, but inside
There is still a clear gap between center players and outside players in terms of scoring explosiveness.
Wang Feng obviously took one fewer shot than Olajuwon, but his score was 7 points higher than him.
More importantly, Drexler, the Rockets' second scoring point, made only 7 of 19 shots under Wang Feng's defense, with a shooting percentage of 36.8% and only scored 17 points. Even though Smith made 7 of 11 three-pointers and scored 23 points.
points, it still couldn’t make up for the score gap.
…
The victory in the first game boosted the morale of the entire Knicks team, and fans in New York also began to rejoice, as if the championship was just around the corner.
Two days later, in the second game of the Finals on June 9, the Knicks pursued the victory and scored another victory at 117:109, rewriting the finals score to 2:0.
This game was Ewing's start. Facing Olajuwon who suppressed him throughout the last game, Ewing seemed to have a divine help. He scored 33 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists, and scored 34 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists.
Olajuwon, who assisted, was evenly matched.
Originally, the Rockets were unable to win when Dameng suppressed Ewing. Naturally, it was even more impossible to win when the two of them were trading one for one.
Wang Feng scored 32 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists in this game, and he and Ewing scored 65 points together...
As for the Rockets, Drexler's condition has improved slightly, but he still only scored 21 points, and his shooting percentage was barely above 40%.
After losing two consecutive games, the Rockets returned to their home court of Houston and finally regrouped, winning a tenacious comeback at 106:104 in Game 3 of the Finals on June 11.
Ewing, who forced a one-for-one exchange with Dameng in the last game, seemed to be cooling down after using his big move in this game. He sleepwalked throughout the game, making only 4 of 12 shots and scoring 11 points and 7 rebounds.
On the other hand, Olajuwon scored 31 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists with a 52% shooting rate.
The reason for losing this game is not entirely Ewing's fault.
The Rockets continued to use the tactic of double-teaming Wang Feng during the game, and Wang Feng also chose to use the pass to break the double-team as before.
But other Knicks players seem to have been infected by Ewing, and they are not in particularly good condition. Even with the support of ten cents, their efficiency is very low. This has led to Wang Feng's pass-to-assist conversion rate never being high.
But even so, the Rockets were shocked into a cold sweat by Wang Feng, because in the last two minutes of the game, Wang Feng activated the skills of the key shooter and the secondary dominant marksman at the same time, increasing the firepower to the limit, and made 5 consecutive shots from beyond the three-point line.
5 shots, 15 points in just 2 minutes.
Originally, the Rockets led by double digits in the fourth quarter, but Wang Feng's consecutive points almost led to a comeback.
It’s a pity that Wang Feng can score, and the Rockets can do the same. At the most critical moment, the Rockets chose to pass the ball to Olajuwon, who scored steadily in the paint. Although it was 2 points for 3 points, the remaining
With limited game time, such a change is still acceptable.
Olajuwon is not O'Neal, so he cannot use shark-cutting tactics to further chase points. Therefore, even if Wang Feng turns on double BUFF and transforms into a Super Saiyan, he cannot reverse the game.
What he did really frightened the entire Rockets team.
He scored 15 points in 2 minutes and chased down the double-digit point difference to only 2 points. Who wouldn't sweat it if he replaced him?
Wang Feng also relied on these last 15 points to score 44 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
The Rockets who escaped the disaster did not celebrate.
Fortunately, on June 14, still at home in Houston, the Rockets lost again, losing the game 113:110.
3:1, the Knicks have already got match points, three full match points.
In this game, Olajuwon scored 30-10 for the fourth consecutive game. He made 15 of 30 shots and scored 35 points, 15 rebounds and 6 assists.
This top four center at his peak is really very strong, and his dominance in the paint will definitely not be inferior to that of the future peak Shaq.
But such a strong performance still couldn't save the Rockets.
Ewing performed equally well in this game, making 11 of 19 shots, 5 of 8 free throws, and scored 27 points and 12 rebounds.
Wang Feng, like Olajuwon, scored 30 points in four consecutive games, making 9 of 21 shots and 3 of 7 three-pointers. Although his shooting percentage was slightly lower, he scored 13 free throws and made 11 of them in the entire game.
ball, and finally scored a triple-double of 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
At the end of this game, it has basically been announced in advance who will win the championship. The Rockets, which are behind 1:3, have been unable to find a way to limit Wang Feng and are already unable to recover.