manynovel Chapter 125
Chapter 125
Chang Tiancheng had just experienced this confrontation once a few days ago, and he had already figured out some ideas on how to defend Doncic. After Doncic dribbled the ball on the spot for a long time, he didn't find any defensive flaws in Chang Tiancheng's body, so he could only use the old method - upper body.
However, this time Doncic found that Chang Tiancheng's body seemed to be much stronger than the last time he played. In the last game, when he singled Chang Tiancheng, he felt that the opponent's physical fitness was at the level of an ordinary NBA-level guard, but this time, he felt that Chang Tiancheng's physical fitness might be close to the No. 3 position at the NBA starter level.
Although Doncic was also able to rely on his body to push in all the way, he obviously felt much more difficult than in the previous game, in this case, even if he forced a shot, it might be difficult to score, so Doncic came to the free throw line with Chang Tiancheng and passed the ball back to James on the outside.
James saw that there was not much time left for the attack, and he couldn't care about it so much, so he directly held the ball and forced Wembanyama.
Wembanyama's defensive habits and awareness have been much better since he officially started playing in the NBA than he did when he first faced James. He knew very well that the only skill James could face him now to complete the scoring was to use his physical fitness to push himself away and then go to the basket, so Chang Tiancheng just stuck to James with his feet, but his body did not stick too tightly forward, preventing James from going directly to the body and forcibly knocking himself away.
In this way, his footpace speed is not inferior to the current James, even if he doesn't stick to him, he can use the advantage of height and arm span to cover the ball when James shoots.
But Wembanyama's wishful thinking came up short this time. After James saw Wembanyama's defensive options, he secretly admired Wembanyama's learning ability and analysis of the game, and then pointed to the ground with his front foot and directly made a super large step back.
Wembanyama deliberately kept a certain distance from James, and as soon as James retreated like this, the distance between the two instantly became extremely wide. James hit a mid-range shot, and the basketball hollowed into the net.
Before returning to the defense, James also raised an eyebrow at Wembanyama, and the expression seemed to say, "Hey, boy, it's not so easy to completely defend against me now."
Wembanyama was a little discouraged, but he honestly returned to the baseline to serve Chang Tiancheng. The reason why Chang Tiancheng's team always lets Wembanyama serve is actually a small tactic. Wembanyama can move a lot faster than Embiid and Sabonis Jr. If he serves, Embiid and Sabonis Jr. can move to the opponent's half court early and land on the opponent's interior line faster. And Booker can also get more space to run.
After Chang Tiancheng came to the front court with the ball, he did not hesitate to give the ball to Sabonis Jr. on the inside.
Compared with the few people on the side of Chang Tiancheng's team who quickly adjusted their defensive strategies, the opposing team obviously did not communicate in a timely manner, and still maintained their previous defensive strategy.
They've always been a strategy of keeping James defensively and Jaylen Brown defending. At first glance, there is no problem, but if Giannis on the inside defends Wembanyama, it means that one of the opponent's Embiid + Sabonis Jr. will be defended by Doncic.
Although Chang Tiancheng saw this situation before, he did not pass the ball to Sabonis Jr. After all, it's just a friendly match, and if you take advantage of the direct dislocation caused by this lineup gap to play all the time, it will be a little unsightly. But at this time, Chang Tiancheng's pass also means telling the other party: our side has become serious, and you had better make some adjustments.
After receiving the ball, Sabonis Jr. didn't even dribble it, but turned around and put the ball in the basket with a hook hand.
After being directly beaten into a ball like this, Doncic quickly exchanged glances with several other players, and it seemed that he was already planning to make some adjustments on defense.
Doncic advanced with the ball, but chose to stuff the ball to Giannis, the most simple and crude point. Giannis, of course, was not ambiguous, this time he didn't want to save his physical strength, but directly began to play a strong back-to-back single, after pushing Sabonis Jr. to the basket, he turned around and jumped, and pressing Sabonis Jr. was a dunk.
Giannis's dunk was so fast that even Embiid, who saw that the situation was bad and was going to come over to help the defense, didn't have time to run over and dunk the ball into the basket.
Sabonis Jr. did not hesitate, picked up the ball and sent it directly to Chang Tiancheng. After Chang Tiancheng received the ball, he pretended to shoot just after halftime. James knew very well that Chang Tiancheng had this kind of midfield shooting ability, and the shooting rate was not low, so he immediately jumped up and prepared to block.
But Chang Tiancheng just dangled a false shot, and after a little worship Buddha shook James, he quickly killed the inside. At this time, Giannis had already returned to the defense, and saw him take off directly after two big strides, and he was about to cover Chang Tiancheng's layups on the rebound.
But Chang Tiancheng had been watching Giannis for a long time with his peripheral vision, and at the moment when Giannis was about to reach Chang Tiancheng, Chang Tiancheng suddenly made a pass from the back of his head and passed the ball over.
Wembanyama, who followed behind, received the ball and dunked directly with both hands, and once again scored two points on Giannis's head.
Doncic saw that such a two-point and two-point play was not the same thing, and in order to quickly open up the difference, this time he directly called Ayton to block for himself.
After bypassing Ayton's cover, Doncic made a three-point shot while Embiid was not in place, but unfortunately this shot hit an iron.
Just as Embiid turned around to collect the defensive rebound, James suddenly came out from behind him and snatched the ball directly out of the air.
Chang Tiancheng, who saw this scene from the third perspective, could clearly feel that James was definitely thinking of making up for the ball directly, but due to the age limit, the height did not rise, so he was forced to just grab a rebound in the front court.
James threw the ball directly to Doncic on the outside, Doncic calmed down with the ball, adjusted his shooting posture, and made another three-point shot, and this time, the basketball went into the basket steadily.
Chang Tiancheng counterattacked with the ball, and this time he still pretended to shoot at half court. James naturally didn't want to be hit by Chang Tiancheng twice in a row, so this time, he didn't jump.