The away locker room at the American Airlines Center in Miami on May 13.
Howard sat there alone. He said he was alone not because there was no one around him. Josh Smith and Gerald Wallace kept talking beside him, and other players were also wearing various protective gear in the locker room.
Tool.
Although the atmosphere in the locker room was lively, Howard's state seemed out of place with them. He sat there quietly without saying a word, repeatedly arranging his wrist and elbow pads, as if he was in another space.
Similar.
Edison looked at it, walked to his side, drove Josh Smith away, and then sat down.
"What's wrong, Dwight? Are you nervous?"
"One thing is, coach, if I can't guard O'Neal, it will be difficult for our team to win." Howard lowered his head and said.
"Pretty much, your battle with that big guy is the key to whether we can advance."
"Then what if..."
"There is no need to worry. If you lose, you lose. Do you still remember what I said to you at the beginning of the season? Your opponent is one of the greatest centers in NBA history. You have to wait at least until you can beat him.
2 or 3 years. What you have to do now is to remember what that guy can do and set a benchmark for your future growth. And didn't we do targeted training? I believe that with that tactic, O'Neal will not be
The key to the game.”
Howard didn't speak after hearing this, he just nodded without raising his face.
After a season of training, Edison has become very mature in dealing with players' psychological problems. He knows that no matter what he says at this time, Howard can't stand it anymore. Whether he can come out can only depend on himself. But Edison can't do nothing.
He did, so he patted Howard's shoulder heavily to show his trust in him.
"Hello viewers, welcome to watch the third game of the second round of the NBA 03~04 playoffs brought to you by tnt. The Miami Heat will face the Orlando Magic at home. This game will be played by my coach Albert.
, Kevin Harlan and Steve Kerr provide live commentary."
"Miami is different. Let's see how many stars came to the sidelines to support us. Meryl Streep, the greatest actress in the world, Anne Hathaway, a strong contender for the new generation of America's sweetheart, and
Rachel McAdams, the girlfriend of Magic coach Edison, is really talented and beautiful." Kevin Harlan couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the many stars in the audience.
At this time, Edison also noticed Rachel and his group, and took the opportunity to shake hands with Stan Van Gundy and say hello to several people.
Needless to say, Rachel, the two simply had a face-to-face meeting. Anne Hathaway and Edison were not strangers. There were rumors of an affair between the two because of their chat. Originally, Edison planned to shake hands and go over.
Thinking of it, Hathaway also took the initiative to stand up and hug him.
The last Meryl Streep was more than 20 years older than Edison, and unlike other movie stars, he could be said to be a real performing artist. Edison always admired this kind of old artist, so he bent down to shake hands with her.
Show respect.
This series of courtesy actions by Edison attracted the audience and reporters to take crazy pictures, especially the hug between Edison and Anne Hathaway, which killed many photos. In the minds of reporters, no matter what the relationship between the two people was,
, it will definitely be useful to keep this kind of photo. In case there is a scandal between the two in the future, this will be the evidence.
Standing next to me, Stan Van Gundy looked very unhappy and thought to himself, "Boy, this is my home court, and you are so arrogant, pretending that I don't exist."
But he didn't expect that Edison did something that made him even more angry. After Edison returned to the coaching bench, after saying a few words to the team's assistant, the main player took back a pile of hats. They were all the most ordinary ones.
Baseball cap, with a white background and blue rim, with the Magic's team logo printed on the front...
After Edison got the hat, he came to Rachel and others again and gave the hats to them. After Rachel and Anne Hathaway received it, they put it on their heads without thinking, and then the two helped each other tidy up.
Hair, after all, appearance is the first priority for them. Meryl Streep just held it in her hand and smiled politely at Edison.
When Edison returned to the coaching bench again, Thibodeau came over and asked, "Do you think this trick will work?"
"I see that guy Stan is already a little angry."
"It was just a moment. He didn't lose his calm. Your idea is too naive." Thibodeau began to mutter.
After hearing this, Edison thought to himself, "I know it's childish, but this is arranged by my agent. What can I do?"
Regardless of other people's reactions, David Stern, who was watching the game broadcast on the TV, was very satisfied, "This is great. Not only can you watch the game, but you can also watch big stars. Edison is really getting better and better at doing things now."
."
Edison was very high off the court, and the players on the court were even more excited.
Both sides are open, and the first quarter has been played for 5 minutes. 13-7, the Heat lead by 6 points, and the Heat are overwhelming the Magic on the scene.
"It seems that the impact of Shark's comeback has been shown. I remember the first two games, the Heat have never played so reassuringly." Groom Albert pointed to the court while talking to his two partners.
have a discussion.
"You're right. O'Neal can suppress the Magic's two insiders by himself on the court. Let alone the Magic. Looking at the entire league, you can't find anyone who can stand up to O'Neal alone. There must be help from others.
To help defend and double-team. Therefore, the situation of bombarding the Heat inside like before the Magic started today is no longer seen. Under O'Neal's guard, Howard can no longer attack the basket so arrogantly, and he does not dare to
It hit the basket. And it mobilized the whole body, and it also produced many cascading effects. For example, we originally said that Edison sending Diaw on the court to cooperate with Howard was a good move. This would create more space for Howard to crush.
The opponent. But now this has become a failure, because with him leaving, O'Neal is more focused on defense, which restricts Howard even more." Kevin Harlan took over.
"In addition to what Kevin said, do you know what I think is O'Neal's biggest contribution when he appears on the court? Confidence. His appearance gives confidence to other Heat players. You know that I was also a pitcher. For a pitcher, the most important thing is
What's scary is that he hesitates when he takes a shot. Once he takes a shot and thinks, 'What if I don't make the shot?', it's bad. His muscles won't be so natural when he takes a shot, and the ball won't be easy to score.
When I was with the Bulls and Spurs, I shot very accurately because I never had this idea in my mind. At that time, there were Rodman, Duncan and Robinson on the team, so I didn’t worry about not making the shot at all.
They will get the ball back, and I will make another shot. The Heat's outside players also have this mentality now. We see that Damon Jones has now made 2 three-pointers, and his three-pointers in the previous two games were 10.
He made 3 shots, and his shooting percentage was only 30%. The sudden improvement in his shooting percentage must have a lot to do with O'Neal. Anyone who sees such a big guy from his team standing under the opponent's basket will take a much more decisive shot."
When Edison saw that this was not going to work, he originally planned to ask Howard to try O'Neal to see how his leg injury was recovering. If his recovery was not good and his condition was not good, then he would let Howard do it alone. But the current situation is that people
He had fully recovered, and beating Howard was like beating a chicken. So Edison quickly applied for a timeout and rearranged his tactics...
"Okay, let me just say two points. First, our outside defense was not good enough and gave them too many chances to take action. Today you have to break out of the defensive inertia of the first two games. Before, we were in case of breakthroughs.
Lord, but today we can't give them space to shoot. We have to get closer. Second, we have to change our defense against O'Neal. We implement plan A from the previous training. Diaw, go help Howard and double-team.
."
Stan Van Gundy also told O'Neal, "Shaquille, you have to be prepared to be double-teamed. I think the Magic are planning to change tactics."
But O'Neal didn't care at all. He had never seen any kind of double-team, and the Magic had never used it in the regular season. But when the game started, O'Neal immediately noticed the difference.
Generally speaking, teams ask themselves to let the smaller players on the outside pick up the ball for themselves, and do not allow them to dribble and rely on the ball. The Magic, on the other hand, ask the inside players to double-team them and do not allow them to turn around and take off.
But O'Neal is, after all, the closest to the prehistoric monster. Under the double team of the Magic, he still managed to fight off two people and dunk successfully.
After O'Neal succeeded in dunking, when he ran past Edison, he gave Edison a provocative look.
"It seems that Plan A cannot completely restrain O'Neal. Should we implement Plan B?" Thibodeau was also very unhappy when he saw O'Neal's arrogance.
"Don't worry, didn't you see? O'Neal's ball just now was just a demonstration. He was telling me that my arrangement could not prevent him. But the strong attack just now must have consumed a lot of his physical strength, and his lower limbs
The burden must be heavy. And he has just returned from injury. He dare not keep playing like that because the intensity of exercise is too high."
Sure enough, just as Edison expected, O'Neal no longer attacked so hard, but frequently made plays for other players.
But at this time, the effect of Edison's arrangement is reflected. If O'Neal is double-teamed from the outside, then as mentioned above, he must be waiting for O'Neal to dribble. The center of gravity of the double-teamed player will definitely be suppressed.
Very low, so that he can get the ball, and O'Neal has the opportunity to hit the ball over his head to the outside.
Diaw on the inside is waiting for O'Neal to turn around, mainly to prevent him from taking a shot, so he doesn't have to bend down and press his center of gravity. At this time, it is not so easy for O'Neal to pass the ball to the outside. The Magic have two people and four hands.
It's like a net blocking O'Neal's passing route, making it difficult to pass inside.
But this defense is not perfect, and it also has two shortcomings. First, the timing of the double-team needs to be very precise. If it comes early, people may turn in the other direction to avoid the double-team; if it comes late, they may avoid the double-team.
It's already about to get up, and you will easily foul if you go over. Therefore, the tactical literacy of the insiders who come to double-team is very high, and it cannot be done by just pulling in someone. Secondly, even if the double-team is successful, in order to prevent others from passing the ball, the defense 2
A player's hands must keep moving. If someone presses hard at this time, he will accidentally become a thug. Third, if the outside double-team is successful, it will be a steal, directly switching offense and defense. And the inside double-team,
Just to prevent this person from scoring, the ball is still in his hands.
But the Magic don't care about these three points. First of all, Diaw's tactical execution and game reading ability are very good, and his timing of double-teaming is very good. Besides, even if there is a foul, it is not a big deal, let O'Neal take the free throw.
If in statistics, two missed free throws are counted as one turnover, then O'Neal's average number of turnovers per game must be added to at least 2. In the end, Edison deployed this tactic not to kill the Heat, but to limit O'Neal.
Don't let Howard be defeated. As long as O'Neal doesn't score, Edison is still very confident in the defense of other players.
So in the battle of wits between players and coaches from both sides, the first quarter of the game ended, 21-17, with the Heat leading by 4 points.
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Don't talk about the book not being on the shelves. The editor has already talked to me, but I just rejected it. I have no grudges with the editor, this is the truth.
