Since the Suns have a problem with their off-ball defense, they should focus on this problem.
Curry continued to move without the ball, and his teammates kept covering him.
Soon, Curry ran into an open space again, caught the ball and took action quickly.
The basketball hit the net.
6:6!
The leaders of the two teams refused to give in to each other!
The pace of the game is fast.
The Suns originally played a run-and-gun game and focused on speeding up the game.
The same goes for the Warriors, who take decisive action when they have the opportunity and can play fast breaks without losing ground.
Since both teams are very adaptable to this rhythm, they play smoothly against each other.
Especially Curry and Nash.
In this competitive offensive rhythm, Curry and Nash are the most comfortable.
Soon, Nash hit four three-pointers and one two-pointer, scoring 14 points.
Curry was equally outstanding, hitting three three-pointers in a row and scoring 13 points by running back for two empty baskets.
The game soon entered an official timeout.
During the timeout, Suns head coach Gentry made arrangements for Curry's off-ball movement.
Gentry quickly understood Deng Fang’s intention—to let Curry and Nash compete in scoring!
Gentry knows Nash's scoring ability and he believes in Nash.
However, Nash attacks with the ball, while Curry shoots without the ball. In comparison, Nash is more physically demanding and more difficult.
In addition, time is not forgiving. After all, Nash is a 35-year-old veteran and his physical strength is not good!
What's more, the Suns' offense relies entirely on Nash. If Nash is exhausted, the Suns will be in trouble.
Also, Curry's advantage is that he is young and has excellent offense, but his disadvantage is that his defense is average.
This must be fully utilized.
After the timeout, the Suns' defense against Curry's movement without the ball has obviously improved. Suns players continued to collide with his body, and Curry no longer moved so freely.
However, the Suns focused most of their attention on Curry, which gave Lopez and others many opportunities to make air cuts.
There's nothing you can do about it, you can't take care of everything.
Especially when you're not a good defensive team.
In turn, when the Suns are attacking, Nash no longer blindly picks and rolls with Stoudemire, but constantly picks and rolls with Curry's defender.
Curry was guarding Barbosa, and Barbosa came up to pick-and-roll with Nash, allowing Curry to switch to Nash.
Then Nash picks and rolls with Stoudemire.
In this way, Nash becomes more unscrupulous when shooting.
After all, there is still a big gap between Curry's defense and Laga Bell's.
If Curry doesn't switch defense, give the ball to Barbosa and let him play in isolation.
Barbosa is known as the Brazilian lightning, fast, accurate in three-pointers, and very strong in singles.
In short, it is constantly consuming Curry's physical strength.
The Warriors responded quickly.
Without the ball, more energy is consumed and the opponent will pay more attention, so play with the ball.
Curry began to constantly pick and roll with Lopez.
Like the Suns, Curry first picks and rolls with Laga Bell, switches Nash in front of him, and then picks and rolls with Lopez.
Compared to Nash and Stoudemire's pick-and-roll, this move is more difficult to guard against.
Although Nash's passing is better, Stoudemire's scoring method is relatively simple, relying more on attacking the inside.
But Lopez is different. He can be inside or outside, making it difficult for the Suns to guard.
The game went quickly, and the scores of the two teams increased alternately.
With two minutes left in the first quarter, the game paused again.
The score became 25:23, and the Suns led by two points.
Nash played brilliantly, scoring 5 three-pointers in a single quarter and scoring 18 points and 3 assists.
Curry performed equally well, scoring 4 three-pointers and scoring 16 points and 4 assists.
After the timeout, the substitute comes on.
The Warriors' bench is still Livingston's five.
The Suns' substitutes are Dragic, Amundson, Dudley, Clark and Channing Frye.
Originally, Barbosa was the main scorer on the bench, but due to Jason Richardson's injury, Barbosa was put into the starting lineup, and the bench seemed to be short-handed.
The gap between this bench lineup and the Warriors is not small.
Dragic was originally a very powerful character, but at this time Dragic was still in the process of leveling up, lacking experience and confidence.
Dragic was traded to the Suns after being drafted by the Spurs in 2008.
Dragic serves as Nash's backup with the Suns.
Since Nash occupies a large amount of playing time, coupled with Dragic's average physical fitness and mediocre defense, he has very little playing time in his rookie season.
Historically, Dragic is well known because of the Suns' playoff game against the Spurs in 2010.
Historically, on May 8, 2010, the Suns faced the Spurs in the second round of the playoffs. The Suns led 2:0 at the time.
In the third game, Dragic scored 23 points in the final quarter, made 5 of 5 three-pointers, and scored 26 points on 10 of 13 shots. He played the role of a surprise player and led the team to reverse the Spurs 110-96.
Fight to become famous.
On that peak night, Dragic scored against Duncan, Blair, George Hill, Ginobili, and Parker. He almost single-handedly defeated the entire Spurs team.
However, after that, Dragic became mediocre again and his performance was tepid.
It wasn't until the Suns traded Dragic back again and made him the team's starting point guard that Dragic began to show his worth.
Therefore, without Barbosa, the Suns' bench lineup is really not that good.
At least compared to the Warriors, it's quite different.
Livingston is definitely better than Dragic in all aspects.
Not to mention Jordan, who is many times better than Amundsen.
Even Radmanovic is not much worse than Channing Frye.
As for Belinelli and Anthony Morrow, their scoring abilities are much better than Dudley and Clark.
Less than a minute after the substitute came on, the Warriors immediately took the lead.
Fortunately, Dragic performed bravely and hit two three-pointers, which did not let the score open too much.
At the end of the first quarter, the Warriors led 31:29.
The second quarter of the game started quickly.
The first few minutes were still a competition between substitutes.
However, in order to make up for the substitute's scoring ability, Gentry replaced Barbosa on the court early.
Now the difference between the two teams' substitutes is not that big.
Five minutes later, the Warriors led by three points at 41:38.
The game was paused again.
After the timeout, the starting lineups of both teams resumed play.
Deng Fang's defensive strategy remains unchanged.
Just guard against others and only give Nash a chance to see if you can kill me by yourself!
The Suns are the same, they just keep consuming Curry.
The offensive end constantly looks for Curry for singles, and the defensive end doubles down on Curry.
Although Curry's defense is average, Curry is young and has good physical strength, plus Laga Bell, Prince and Azubuike wiped his ass, so Curry did not hinder him much on the defensive end.
On the contrary, on the offensive end, due to the Suns' flanking attack, there were a lot of vacancies for teammates, and Curry sent out several assists in a row.
Although he is still a little behind Nash, the passing master, Curry's passing is still top-notch.
For the Suns, as before, most of the scoring came from Nash.
Soon, half the game was over.
The score between the two teams became 60:59, with the Warriors leading by one point.
Nash played bravely, hitting 7 three-pointers and scoring 28 points and 4 assists in the half.
Curry performed equally well, hitting 4 three-pointers, scoring 21 points and 9 assists.
