NBA: The God of Basketball Begins with Precise Scoring

Chapter 62: The infinite switching defense is tailor-made, and the situation is already one-sided!

With less than ten seconds left on the clock, the attack was scheduled to proceed.

Royce O'Neal passed the ball back to Mitchell.

However, Mitchell was at a loss as to what to do when he saw Li Xingchen, who was still there and completely blocking his view.

He glanced at Royce O'Neal with a hint of helplessness, while the latter looked completely innocent.

He's just a role player with an annual salary of $8.5 million, and what's more, $8 million of that is spent on defense. Asking him to seize such fleeting offensive opportunities is really asking too much of him.

In fact, throughout the season, the Jazz have mostly played pick-and-rolls between the center and guard positions, or between the two guards and Gobert. Gobert's screens are of very good quality and his cuts to the basket are quite threatening, which can put the opposing center in a dilemma of "fighting or guarding the paint".

However, this approach is basically useless against the Warriors' small-ball lineup.

This is where Draymond Green's value in the game shines. Why has he, a player who is purely a liability on offense, been able to maintain his starting position with the Warriors for so many years? It is indeed closely related to his defensive ability.

First, because he can switch from point guard to center; second, because he is faster than most centers in the league; and third, because his defensive rhythm and choices are very precise. Therefore, he doesn't need to worry about being targeted by the pick-and-roll tactic, which is currently the most used tactic in the entire league.

If Gobert moves up to set a pick and roll with Mitchell or Conley, Draymond Green will inevitably move up as well to create a double-team, ensuring that the opponent's perimeter players don't get an open shot easily.

And if Gobert makes a move down the court, Draymond Green can retreat to the paint to defend first, because he is faster than Gobert.

Jazz head coach Snyder actually noticed this problem early on, so when the Warriors played their small-ball lineup, he basically wouldn't let the team execute Gobert's pick-and-roll tactics, because the effect was too limited.

What he didn't expect was that, starting from the fourth game, Kerr would directly promote Li Xingchen to the starting lineup and start playing a small-ball lineup from the very beginning...

How could they trust a rookie so much in the playoffs?

The problem is that Li Xingchen's subsequent performance truly lived up to Kerr's trust, and could even be said to have exceeded everyone's expectations. Of course, it also disrupted the Jazz's various plans, including their usual offensive tactics.

For example, right now, because of Li Xingchen's presence, the Warriors have been able to play this small-ball lineup for a long time; and because of playing the small-ball lineup, Green has moved up to the center position for the Warriors; and because Green plays center, the pick-and-roll between Gobert and the guards has completely lost its former effectiveness.

So at this moment, Mitchell did not choose to call for Gobert to set a screen, but instead prepared to set a cross screen between the two guards with Conley.

In the past, after they set cross screens, Curry would most likely be switched in front of Mitchell, and then the team could simply focus on one-on-one plays against Curry.

This time, however, it was Bazemore who was in front of Mitchell. Although Bazemore's defense is currently quite different from Li Xingchen's, he is by no means weak.

Therefore, Li Xingchen and Bazemore decisively chose to switch on defense.

Facing Bazemore, Mitchell at least regained some confidence, unlike when he faced Li Xingchen, when he was almost too afraid to make a move.

However, after the switch on defense, there was very little time left on offense, so Mitchell hastily opted for a mid-range shot, which he missed.

The Jazz's first offensive possession ended rather awkwardly.

This round was essentially a microcosm of their entire match.

The Warriors then maintained the same defensive strategy.

Anyone who tries to target Curry will be met with a strong delay from Curry, giving his teammates time to get past the screen before quickly returning to position.

Therefore, his defensive matchup was always Royce O'Neale, the player with the least independent offensive ability in the Jazz's starting lineup.

In this way, the Warriors effectively protected Curry's weakness in one-on-one defense. As for other pick-and-roll screens besides those targeting Curry, the Warriors' choice was basically to switch on every screen.

After all, the other four players are all quite good defensively, so no matter how they rotate, the defensive effect won't be a big problem.

In this way, the Warriors, with Kerr's "switch defensive matchups," directly cracked down on the pick-and-roll tactics that the Jazz had been using frequently on offense all season. This rendered their ball movement meaningless, their three-point shooting ability useless, and their half-court offense stuck in a quagmire of star isolation plays.

When Mitchell can't get past Curry, his success rate in making tough shots is indeed quite average. He can only score a few points against Cup Cat. As for the others, Green, Wiggins, and Li Xingchen, which one can he beat?

Conley also realized that things seemed very bad, as if they had returned to the fourth game when Mitchell was out of form, and the whole team's offense was incredibly sluggish.

Left with no other choice, he had to start passing the ball inside again, trying to find opportunities for Gobert. But Gobert wasn't an offensive center. He could score once or twice, but how could he expect him to consistently score inside?

The game had been going on for four minutes, and the Warriors had already taken a 10-5 lead.

This is because Curry's shooting touch wasn't great at the start of the day, and the Warriors' offense wasn't fully in place either; otherwise, the point difference would have been much larger.

A team that only scores five points in four minutes is clearly unlikely to win in the playoffs. Does that mean they will only score sixty points in the whole game?

Snyder originally wanted to wait five minutes into the game before calling an official timeout, because an official timeout would deduct from the Warriors' home court timeout count.

But when he saw Mitchell challenge Li Xingchen to another missed shot, he couldn't sit still any longer.

Taking advantage of Gobert's offensive rebound and pass back to the perimeter, Snyder called the first timeout of the game.

If they keep playing like this, the Jazz might get upset by the eighth seed!

Some adjustments need to be made.

However, it's not so bad to be determined to make changes, but Snyder himself is now completely clueless about how to make those changes.

After thinking for a long time, he finally realized that all he could say to his teammates were useless things like "pass the ball more" and "reduce one-on-one play".

So when they got back on the court, the Jazz's offense didn't improve much.

The score went back and forth, and by halftime, the Warriors had a twelve-point lead, 50-3-8.

The Warriors' small-ball lineup with its endless switching defense seemed tailor-made for the Jazz's pick-and-roll tactics, managing to limit this team, which had one of the top three offensive efficiency teams in the league during the regular season, to a paltry 38 points in the first half.

In particular, they completely eliminated their best-performing skills, the league's best three-point shooting and pick-and-roll scoring, limiting the team to only eight three-point attempts in the entire first half, of which only two were made.

A Western Conference title contender who never relied on transition offense during the regular season and always preferred to play a slow, half-court game was forced by the Warriors to rely solely on transition offense to score points in this game.

Although the current point difference is not fatal in terms of the score alone, the game itself is already one-sided.

It's obvious to everyone that the Jazz's offense has become completely disorganized. The reason the point difference hasn't widened further is simply because the Warriors' own offense hasn't found its rhythm.

If they maintain this form, the Jazz aren't entirely without hope of catching up in the second half.

But after the second half started, the Warriors seemed to have found their rhythm again!