Chapter 2221 - 33: Irresistible

Chapter 2221: Chapter 33: Irresistible

This year, The Warriors really are a magical team, Don Nelson’s experiments regarding offense have been most vividly reflected on The Warriors.

It’s said that those who are ahead of their time are geniuses, but those who are far ahead of their time are lunatics. In the eyes of the NBA fans at the time, Don Nelson was indeed too crazy.

Even when the Portland Trail Blazers used a lot of three-pointers, they had Ah Gan inside, once the most luxurious group of centers in the League. Their inside players led with three-pointers, not a bunch of forwards around 2 meters on the court playing the power forward or center positions, using the three-point shot as a basic weapon.

Many years later, when Don Nelson’s concepts, such as centers shooting three-pointers, lineups full of small forwards, creating space for frenzied bombardment became commonplace in the NBA, people realized that this so-called lunatic, science monster, was just too far ahead of the version.

And the problem with being too far ahead of the version is that their ideas are advanced, but the rules, and the players’ capabilities, don’t perfectly match these ideas.

For instance, three-point shooting capability, Golden State Warriors this season shot the most three-pointers in the League, but their three-point percentage was only 35%, ranking mid-level in the League, high in quantity but not in quality.

Because the players’ three-point shooting ability wasn’t strong enough, and the shooting percentage was not stable enough, causing The Warriors’ offense to be unstable.

Teams with as many three-pointers as The Warriors were the Phoenix Suns, whose three-pointers were more accurate, with Stoudemire and Nash’s pick-and-roll as a backup offensive tactic, which The Warriors didn’t have.

Even so, The Warriors, after the start of the third quarter in the second half, still triggered a terrifying counterattack wave. A 7-point lead for The Warriors, seemed like it didn’t exist.

Strong Baron Davis no longer attempted to find Allen Iverson for mismatched offense because one-on-one mismatches against Glory’s solid Turtle Formation are useless.

Must quickly counterattack, must push the pace, or else like the first-round Utah Jazz, be suffocated alive by the experienced Glory.

The Warriors desperately pushed the pace in the third quarter, ran like hell, regardless of stamina, ignoring shooting percentage, using fast-break threes to launch a deadly counterattack against Glory.

Jason Richardson, Barnes, Stephen Jackson all hit three-pointers in the counterattack, relying on more efficient three-pointers, aiming for a comeback.

The Warriors aren’t the type to grind point by point, slowly narrowing the score gap, relying on efficiency to erode the score difference.

They rely on bursts of power, a sudden explosion contained within multiple rounds of offense and defense, to reverse the situation in a very short time.

Glory can slowly widen the score gap, expanding it to 9 points, 11 points, whereas The Warriors chose to shoot more threes, or fast-break while maintaining efforts.

Glory slowly expanded the lead to 12 points, 14 points, because The Warriors’ defense wasn’t stable, easily letting up points.

But The Warriors in the middle of the third quarter, after continuous attempts and repeated accelerations, found their chance to explode.

They utilized three-point counterattacks, free throws, and Glory’s mistakes to launch a 12-2 rush wave in just four rounds, narrowing the gap to only 3 points in a minute and a half.

Porter called a timeout, The Warriors’ impact-oriented, reckless playstyle, indeed troublesome for Glory.

Glory is slow, has many veterans, with only Gerald Wallace as a matured small forward on the wing, lacking young and strong players.

Under The Warriors’ repeated impacts, some rounds were quite chaotic, if this persists, it’s hard to say who will end up winning.

Now Gan Guoyang no longer has the ability to play small forward, Porter calls a timeout to stabilize morale and situation, while Gan Guoyang tells his teammates, "This is The Warriors’ desperate fight, hold on, they will have no chance."

Gan Guoyang’s grasp of the game situation is very accurate, The Warriors are indeed in a desperate fight, Old Nelson knows dragging into the fourth quarter spells disaster, must reverse the situation in the third quarter.

At this point, Gan Guoyang stood out again, teaming up with Yao Ming using their inside and low post advantages for continuous strong attacks, widening the score gap back to a safe zone.

Meanwhile, The Warriors’ thunder from the first half gradually exploded, which was their foul trouble. Due to lack of height talent on defense, they had to use fouls to disrupt Glory’s offense.

This point, The Warriors’ strategy was similar to Utah Jazz’s, Jerry Sloan’s Jazz had always been the team with the most fouls in the League, not because they couldn’t control it, but in the absence of defensive talent, a fierce physical confrontation could only result in fouls.

With two minutes left in the third quarter, The Warriors already had three players with four fouls, having to rest on the bench.

Also, their non-shooting fouls had reached the free throw limit, any slight movement resulted in a foul.

At this time, Allen Iverson, like a sprite, shuttled through The Warriors’ defensive territory, leveraging Yao Ming and Gan Guoyang’s tall screens, cutting close to the basket to score, if you reach, that’s a foul, and onto the free throw line for points.

Iverson scored 6 points with consecutive shots and free throws, Glory widened the gap to 11 points at the end of the third quarter, leaving The Warriors players very frustrated.

Glory was like a slow yet tough giant beast, The Warriors like agile archers, continually shooting arrows, though hitting some parts, unable to stop the giant beast from progressing steadily, also their quiver of arrows was running low.