Chapter 229 Western Finals

   On May 22, the Suns arrived in Houston and entered the rhythm of the Western Conference Finals.

   Wang Tiejun's agent, Lance Hoxman, also came to Houston. He still has some contracts in hand, but they have not yet been finalized.

   I came here this time to cheer for Lao Wang. The two made an appointment to have dinner in the restaurant, and Lao Wang treated the guests.

   "Lance, you help me find two trainers. They want top-notch trainers. I'll bring them home during the offseason," he said.

"Old K, I've said it a long time ago, you really need to form a professional team. The sparring team, trainer, nutritionist, and security should all be provided. Don't worry, leave this to me, and I will find the best solution for you. Okay." Hawksman asked.

   "This offseason, I want to improve defense, single defense, help defense, and rebounding. As for the trainer, you can find someone according to this requirement." He said.

   "You want to keep gaining weight, don't you need a strength trainer? Or is that Mr. Zhang helping you?" Hoxman asked.

   In fact, he never understood how Wang Tiejun completed the weight gain training by himself. As far as he knew, Wang Tiejun did not hire a professional strength trainer. It's just that Wang Tiejun's weight gain effect is very good, so he doesn't understand it very well.

   "He is also helping me, he understands this aspect of training. And I know a little bit myself, so I don't need a strength trainer. You can see the effect, my weight gain is the best." He said.

  Hawksman nodded, the weight gain effect of old K is indeed the best.

   As far as he knows, after Jordan was defeated by the Pistons in the playoffs for three consecutive years, he increased his weight to 97.5 kg, and then his athletic qualities such as jumping and moving speed decreased to a certain extent.

   And Lao K has gained weight from 120 kg to 126 kg. Similar athletic qualities have not only not declined, but have improved, and some have improved a lot, which shows that his strength training is really good.

   "Then you can be a strength trainer after you retire." He joked.

   Old Wang laughed and said, "By the way, Lance, did I get you to do something for me?"

   "That city video? It's done. I'll leave it in the hotel. I'll give it to you later." Hawksman nodded.

   "Thanks." Old Wang smiled.

   Back at the hotel, he got the video.

   He took a look first, the content was very rich, it lasted more than five hours, and it took more than an hour to fast forward.

Here are some street scenes from the two big cities of Los Angeles and New York, from day to night, shootings, racism, loneliness, safety in affluent neighborhoods, chaos in slums, free-spirited schools under the so-called happy education, strict requirements There are high-quality elite private schools, low-level public hospitals, high-efficiency but very expensive private hospitals, and some street interviews. The content is very rich, there are good sides and bad sides, which can reflect the real American look.

   He even asked people to go to Manhattan's Chinatown, and photographed the sewer where he slept for five months. It was that experience, which made him know that America is definitely not a paradise for the poor.

  No. 23, the Western Finals G1 battle.

  Compaq Center, opened in 1975, has been 19 years old and is very old, far less than the target center of the Timberwolves.

   There are only more than 16,000 seats, only 20 private rooms, and no special club seats.

The    locker room is also small and dilapidated. The owner of the gym has not renovated it for at least five years.

  The Suns entered the visiting locker room.

   Last year, the Suns did not meet the Mosaic team in the playoffs, and this was the first time he played this team in the playoffs.

   He picked out his name on the wardrobe and found that it was a Band-Aid, Nima's, how stingy is this, is it expensive to make a plastic name tag?

   couldn't help complaining to his teammates: "Look, the Mosaic team sent us a Band-Aid, are you afraid that we don't have the money to buy this stuff?"

   "Ugly dead!"

   "It's too hard!"

   "One of the worst arenas in the league."

  The Suns players complained one after another.

   At eight o'clock, the two teams announced their starting rosters.

  Suns: Wang Tiejun, AC Green, Horry, Dan Marley, Kevin Johnson

  Mosaic: Olajuwon, Eric Clary, Barkley, Vernon Maxwell, Kenny Smith

  The Western Finals was broadcast live by ABC TV station in the United States, and CCTV broadcasted it in real time. Dozens of TV stations around the world purchased the satellite broadcast signals of the Western Finals.

  ABC's narrator is Bill Walton, with his partner John Hanks.

   Bill Walton held the starting roster of the two teams and analyzed: "Their starting lineup is the main lineup of the regular season, and there has been no change, which shows that both of them firmly believe that with such a main lineup, they can win their opponents."

  John Hanks said with a smile: "But maybe also, they don't have a more suitable starting lineup than this, so whether they have the confidence to win the opponent has nothing to do with this lineup."

"Ha ha…"

   Bill Walton laughed before saying, "I have to admit, John, you're right. So now, John, who do you think has a better chance of making it to the Finals?"

When it comes to this issue, John Hanks stopped joking and said seriously: "The Mosaic team still insists on defending the old K with the meat shield and letting Barkley play the small forward, which is a kind of perimeter offensive firepower for them. Strengthened, which makes their perimeter offensive ability not weaker than the Suns, or even stronger than the Suns."

   nodded, Bill Walton said: "But we've said before, Barkley's position is moved out, there are advantages, but the disadvantage is greater, they reduce the quality of the low post."

  John Hanks said: "But in fact, of the four regular season games, Mosaic won three games."

   Bill Wharton was startled and nodded.

   At the CCTV live broadcast booth, Zhang Lili said: "Today's tactical play is very important, the Suns' lineup is not as good as the opponent's, and the only way to regain the disadvantage is tactically.

Comparing the lineups of the coaching staff of the two sides, Tomjanovich is in his third coaching season, and Westphal is the second. From the point of view of performance, the latter is better, last season's championship and best. Coach, but the former's coaching ability should not be underestimated. "

   "Director Zhang, aren't you optimistic about the Suns?" Su Qun said in surprise.

  Zhang shook his head rationally and solemnly and said, "It doesn't matter if I see it or not. The important thing is that if the Suns want to win the game, they need to cooperate well in all aspects, but through analysis and comparison, they have very little advantage."

  The capital, the basketball court of the Iron Army Training Center, is still full of people.

   Yu Feihong and a group of people from Nortel, many people who didn't have filming or classes, came over to join in the fun.

   Now their favorite is here, the weather is getting warmer, and the swimming pool here is the most attractive place for them. They don’t spend money, and no one is competing with them. They can’t wait to come every day.

   There are also some relatives of Wang Tiejun and people from the village who are very well connected.

   These people are arranged to come to Fengshen Street to work. There are more than a dozen people, all of them young people. Basically, they used to work outside, but they stayed during the Chinese New Year. Liu Changfeng's two younger brothers were also among them.

   These people have two things in common. First, they have all practiced martial arts. They have practiced martial arts for a longer time than Wang Tiejun. Wang Tiejun didn’t practice much after he entered junior high school. These people have been practicing.

   The second similarity is that they are very poor. The more they practice martial arts, the poorer they become, and a little money is spent on practicing martial arts. The poor are rich in martial arts, and they have to spend a lot of money just to buy medicine.

   Today, Wang Aiguo and Liu Damei specially let them come over to watch their son's game, which can be regarded as cheering for his son from afar.

   Da Ya Er Ya is not here, Er Ya is still in Xi'an, Da Ya concentrates on her studies and rarely comes back.

   "Less than, what Brother Zhang means, is that the Tiejun can't win?" Wang Aiguo asked Zhang Lili for a long time, but he didn't quite understand it.

   Yu Feihong said with a smile: "Uncle Wang, the strength of the Suns team is indeed a little worse this year, but it's not necessarily that they can't win."

"Oh."

  Wang Aiguo nodded his head as if he didn't understand, and stopped asking, he was just watching the fun.

  …

  Chicago, Jordan's luxury villa, he also sat in front of the TV.

   Similarly, Phil Jackson, Jerry Krause and others also sat in front of their own TV sets and tuned the channel to ABC TV Sports Channel.

  The Eastern Conference finals start tomorrow, but the Bulls are not most concerned about their Eastern Conference opponent, the Knicks, but the Western Conference finals.

  Like them, the Knicks players and coaching staff at this time also turned on their TVs to watch the G1 game of the Western Conference Finals.

  …

  Compaq Center Arena, 8:10, the starting game.

   "Hey, Charles, be careful tonight, don't get too close to me, I'm afraid of hurting you." Player tunnel, as soon as they met, Pharaoh shouted.

  Buckley said angrily: "You kid is too ruthless. The last time I hurt me, I raised the injury for half a month."

   Old Wang laughed and said: "Then you have to be more careful this time. After half a month of injury, we will directly enter the finals."

   "Hmph, dreaming!" Da Meng said unhappily.

   "Soft Egg Dream, what are you humming?" Old Wang glanced at Da Meng, and his words almost ignited Da Meng's temper.

  Da Meng is definitely not a good-tempered person. He is the worst-tempered person among the three super centers, and he is an old hooligan like Jordan.

   But when he heard Pharaoh's words, his fist was bleeding, and he gritted his teeth and endured it.

   "After ten years of playing, I don't even have an MVP. It's me who retired early." Pharaoh said again.

   "Boy, are you looking for something?"

  Da Meng's scalp was about to be pierced by blood, his face was red with blood, and he rushed forward and roared.

   "Hey, calm down, calm down, calm down!" Barkley hurriedly acted as a peacemaker, got in the middle of the two, and pushed them away.

   "Charles, don't block him, let him come over." Old Wang shouted.

   "Get out of the way, Charles." Da Meng said angrily.

   "Besides, did I really get out of the way?" Buckley sighed.

   He is also not good-tempered, his temper is even worse than that of Da Meng. He hits people a lot in games, or can he be called a villain? In fact, he is not good at being a peacemaker, and fighting is actually what he is best at.

  Pharaoh laughed, he didn't really want to fight, the game is about to start, he just said a few trash talk to stimulate the big dream, maybe it can affect the state of this guy.

  Da Meng stopped talking. The postman's body was so strong that he was almost maimed by this bastard. How could he go up and beat him?

   At this time, the visiting team came on stage and got crazy boos from the home fans.

With the addition of   Barkley, this year is the most promising year for the Mosaic team to win the championship, so the home fans are very annoying to all opponents who prevent the team from winning the championship.

Their boos were overwhelming and stormy, and they caused great psychological pressure to the visiting team. Under such great pressure, it is conceivable that the players of the visiting team performed abnormally, and this is the so-called home court. Advantage.

   After appearing with boos like a tsunami, Wang Tiejun looked around and felt the enormous pressure like a real entity. To say that there was no pressure in his heart would be a lie.

He observed his teammates. Fortunately, everyone was able to hold on. After all, they are not new to the world. They are the defending team. They played the finals at home in the most terrifying Bulls of this era. , is still some distance away from the atmosphere of the United Center.

He raised his hand again and again, motioning for his teammates to come over, everyone gathered around, with their heads in the middle, he shouted loudly: "Brothers, the bigger the opponent's boos, the more powerful we are. We will kill them next, kill them. Only then can we show our strength. Listen carefully, let us work together to kill Mosaic, and we will enter the finals!"

   "Get rid of Mosaic, we will enter the finals!"

   All the Suns players shouted in unison.

   "Shhh!"

   A bigger boo sounded, squeezing the Suns, and the home fans seemed to want to crush their opponents in this way.

   Next, the home team played. When the big dream of the finale appeared, the cheers from the mountains and the tsunami, and the home fans were like welcoming their king.

   Lao Wang complained: "I don't know what you're yelling at. You support him so much, how did you lose to David Robinson for two consecutive years in the All-Star vote?"

   After the warm-up, the two sides returned to the bench and the game was about to start.

  Westphal stood at the forefront, with several main players around, and the substitutes around the outside, listening to him arrange tactics.

  The Mosaic team has always been the strongest opponent of the Suns this season. The Bulls who have studied the most and may be more powerful are not because the Bulls are in the East. If the Suns want to enter the finals and meet the Bulls, they must first settle the Mosaic team.

   Therefore, the coaching staff have been studying the tactics of the Western Finals, and they have long since decided, and now they are setting up specific tactics.

   The overall tactics are based on high-efficiency low-post offense as the mainstay, supplemented by perimeter offense.

   At half past eight, the game officially started.

  The jump ball, Wang Tiejun and Da Meng stood opposite each other, both of them were highly focused and ready to take off.

   At this time, the ball was thrown high, and when they reached the highest point, the two took off almost at the same time, and their big hands moved towards the falling basketball.

   In terms of bounce, whether it is bounce height or bounce speed, the monster-level dream is stronger. Although Lao Wang has improved, it is still a bit worse.

  Dameng jumped at least 80 centimeters, half a head higher than Pharaoh, took the ball away and Mosaic attacked.

   "Hey, Barkley's offensive end is in the low post?" Bill Walton said in surprise.

  According to the arrangement of the Suns, Wang Tiejun was guarding Dameng, Green was guarding Riley, and Horry was guarding Barkley.

  According to the way Mosaic played in the four regular season games this season, Barkley played a small forward and the position was out, but at this time he ran to the right wing low.

  Da Meng ran to the left wing low, and the meat shield Eligo fell on the top of the arc.

There is no problem with the position of   Dream, but the movement and placement of Eli and Barkley disrupted the arrangement of the Suns.

  Robert Horry followed Barkley to the low right wing, and AC Green followed the tank Riley to the top of the arc.

   "Pick-and-roll?" Pharaoh was a little puzzled.

  The top of the arc, Mosaic's point guard Kenny Smith broke through with Riley's huge wall of flesh, and shot straight into the paint area from the top of the arc.

  Kevin Johnson was blocked by the wall, AC Green had to switch to Smith, but how could he keep up with the point guard's breakthrough?

  Kenny Smith swayed very quickly, changed his direction, passed AC Green, and jumped off the free throw line.

   After this sudden break, Wang Tiejun and Horry chose to return to the basket at the same time, and the big dream and Barkley, who were on the left and right low flanks, got the opportunity at the same time.

Smith went straight to the basket and compressed Wang Tiejun and Horry to the basket. At this time, he made a covert back pass and gave the ball to the big dream in the low post on the left wing. When Wang Tiejun reacted, it was too late to return to the big dream of defense. .

"brush!"

  The left wing is low, the left line of the paint area, Da Meng nearly two-point open jumper, hit a ball.

   Zhang Lili immediately analyzed: "Unlike the four regular season games, Barkley returned to a low position on the offensive end, while Riley, the meat shield, took on the task of building the wall. This can be regarded as making the best use of it."

   "Director Zhang, how do the Suns deal with this tactic?" Su Qun asked.

Zhang Lili said: "This is a high-level pick-and-roll tactic, combined with the ball-handler's break-and-shoot tactic, combining inside and outside, using outside breakthroughs to compress the Suns' defense and create opportunities for the low-lying wings of Big Dream and Barkley. "

   On the court, the Suns advanced to the frontcourt, Wang Tiejun went straight to the basket, and Riley, the meat shield, greeted him and implemented a wraparound defense against him.

   is to use both hands, feet and elbows, all-purpose defense, one purpose, to interfere with his catching the ball, and interfere with his shot after catching the ball.

   He turned around and stuck Riley, asked for the ball, and observed the situation on the court.

  Barkley stayed on the left wing on the defensive end. This is his position in the four regular season games. It has not changed. He put Horry one step away, one step away from the low post on the left wing, very close to the paint area, and the intention of double-teaming is obvious.

   On the right wing, Green moved on the three-point line, and Da Meng also took a step. Similar to Barkley, the intention of double-teaming is the same.

   At the top of the arc, Kenny Smith defended desperately to prevent Kevin Johnson from passing the ball to the basket.

  His defense worked. The ball didn't pass for a while. Wang Tiejun had to leave the basket for a while. He failed to get the ball at the first position at the basket.

   Kevin Johnson, as the commander on the field, immediately dribbled back, opened the distance from Smith, and then made a tactical gesture.

   On both wings, Robert Horry and Green immediately ran up, and without running in, they moved on the three-point line and made catching moves to attract the defensive attention of Barkley and Big Dream.

  Dan Marley ran to the top of the arc and made a pick-and-roll.

   At this moment, the left wing was low, Wang Tiejun suddenly started, bypassing the meat shield Riley, and cutting into the paint area along the bottom line.

   Almost at the same time, Kevin Johnson passed the ball in through Dan Marley's pick-and-roll, and a scalpel-style straight-line jam was received by Wang Tiejun who cut into the paint area.

   In the next instant, Pharaoh's figure burst out.

"boom!"

   Under the dunk with one hand, the ball goes down through the basket.

  Buckley chased after him desperately, but he was still half a step behind. The same is true for the big dream on the opposite weak side, who missed the trip.

   "Beautiful! With both Da Meng and Barkley pulled out, the Iron Army singles against Eric Riley is actually very simple. As long as the ball can be passed in, one hit is accurate." Zhang Lili laughed.

   "Director Zhang, this style of playing with all the inside lines open seems very novel?" Su Qun asked.

Zhang Lili nodded and said: "This kind of inside line that can be pulled out, even to the three-point line, is really rare now. This kind of inside line can be called a space-type inside line. There are really very few ways to pull out this inside line. But the effect is very good.

   This kind of space-based insider has very high requirements. It can participate in fast breaks, has a long shooting distance, can open up the opponent's space, is good at mobile attack, and has a large defensive area.

   This is the way the Bulls play this year, with the league's first record and 72 wins. However, this style of play is not yet too mature, and there are not many tactical changes.

   To deal with this style of play, the speed of returning to the inside line will be quite high, and if it is slow, it will be exploded by the opponent's breakthrough. "

   (end of this chapter)