After Manu Ginobili came on the scene, the Spurs' offense and defense changed.
On the offensive end, Manu Ginobili began to bear the pressure brought by Lin Yu's defense, and Tony Parker was liberated.
In the Spurs' first offensive round after the substitution, the French sports car relied on a sudden stop jumper after a breakthrough to score 2 points, helping the Spurs regain the lead.
In the subsequent defensive round, Bruce Bowen continued to defend Lin Yu, and Popovich also added a little help defense to Lin Yu on the wing. LeBron James became more relaxed.
He immediately broke through and succeeded in a layup and dunk. His performance of 1-for-3 became 2-for-4, and his shooting percentage suddenly returned to 50%.
With this dunk, James' confidence seemed to be back.
In the next few rounds, with the help of the home court advantage, James continued to break through and cause damage, and scored consecutively. For the first time since the beginning of the Finals, the Cavaliers played a qualified opening performance.
As for the Spurs, Lin Yu's defense locked down the newly debuted Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker's personal offense was also slightly restricted by Lin Yu's assisting defense.
But he and Tim Duncan played a pick-and-roll match, and the Cavaliers' defense always had loopholes, so the Spurs' offense went smoothly.
After the first quarter, the score was 22:21, and the Cavaliers held a 1-point lead. After the start of the finals, the Cavaliers did not collapse for the first time in the opening game.
"At the end of the first quarter, LeBron James finally found his proper form. In the first quarter, he scored 11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. He completely dominated the offensive end, and the Cleveland Cavaliers played accordingly.
It was the best start since the start of the finals.”
Kenny Smith in the commentary box boasted about James and took all the credit on James.
However, in Buckley's view, the word dominance is overused: "Dominate? are you kidding me? (Are you kidding me?)"
"It took LeBron 8 shots to score 11 points, 3 of 8 from the field. He scored only 7 points in sports games. The remaining 4 points came from free throws. His free throw shooting rate of 4 of 6 free throws was not considered good.
, if he can be more accurate, the Cavaliers' lead will be more than 1 point!"
Kenny Smith raised his hands and surrendered: "Okay, okay, but you have to admit that LeBron's performance today was good enough. His performance helped the Cleveland Cavaliers get through the difficult opening period."
Charles Barkley began to shake his head: "But the reason why the Cavaliers were able to take the lead was not LeBron, but China Lin's defense and singles."
Then, he began a detailed analysis: "China Lin's defense is the biggest change made by the Cavaliers in this Tianwangshan battle. His single defense has become more aggressive, whether it is Tony Parker who was on the court at the beginning.
, or Manu Ginobili who came off the bench, both were completely misfired by China Lin’s defense.”
"But that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that his help defense covers the entire mid-range position. So far in this game, he has almost blocked the Spurs' outside attack by himself."
"There was also that inconspicuous single. In the entire first quarter, he only played once. After his single was successful, Gregg Popovich adjusted his defense and shifted the focus of defense to China Lin.
Side, this is also the reason why LeBron was able to play an excellent offensive performance in the first quarter."
Kenny Smith tilted his head: "So, most of the credit belongs to China Lin?"
Charles Barkley still nodded firmly: "That's right!"
Kenny Smith shook his head, obviously not agreeing with Barkley's judgment.
In the second quarter, Lin Yu stayed off the court to rest, and the Cavaliers' defense immediately collapsed. Manu Ginobili partnered with Michael Finley, both of whom opened up the offense, constantly breaking through and scoring mid-range shots.
LeBron James, who led the Cavaliers' second team through the rotation period, still performed as usual on the offensive end because Duncan was not guarding the penalty area, but on the defensive end, he was unable to limit the Spurs' peripheral offense. Of course, it was not impossible.
It's that he is unwilling to devote more energy to the defensive end.
After half a quarter, the Spurs overtook the score and took a 4-point lead at 31:35.
At this time, behind the commentary box, Charles Barkley didn't even need to say anything more. The progress of the game had already proven the importance of Lin Yu's defense.
"Without China Lin, the Spurs scored 14 points in half a quarter. Converted to a full quarter, they could score 28 points. They still sent a substitute rotation lineup. China Lin's defense is undoubtedly important."
Mike Brown off the court also realized this, and it was time for LeBron James, who had been working hard for a quarter and a half, to take a rest.
So, a substitution was made, Lin Yu replaced James.
"China Lin came on again, he replaced LeBron. Now, the Cleveland Cavaliers' lineup has become point guard Andre Miller, shooting guard Damien Wilkins, small forward Lin, and power forward.
Drew Gooden, center Anderson Varejao."
Without James, the old Miller's task was to pass the ball to Lin Yu.
Obviously, even Mike Brown has not realized that Lin Yu in this game has the ability to play alone and does not need the organization and passing of the old Miller at all.
This is understandable. Lin Yu only scored 5 points on 2 of 5 shots in the first quarter and didn't perform much. Now, the Cavaliers are only 4 points behind.
Lin Yu felt like he had everything under control, but at this stage of the game, it was time for him to step up and lead the team forward.
Amid cheers after the substitution, Lin Yu stepped onto the floor of Quicken Loans Center.
The Spurs also made a substitution at the same time, with Bruce Bowen coming on.
"Bruce Bowen came on the stage at the same time, and Gregg Popovich continued to implement regular defensive strategies against China Lin. During regular time, Bruce Bowen's defense against China Lin was quite successful. In the second game of the Finals and after
We successfully restricted China Lin in both home games.”
Kenny Smith quickly introduced Bowen's defense against Lin Yu, and he was right. Apart from the buzzer beater in the second game, Bruce Bowen, who started to guard Lin Yu after the first game of the finals, was right about Lin Yu.
Yu's defense was a success.
It's just that today, Lin Yu is no longer the normal Lin Yu.
Old Miller received the ball from the sideline and controlled it for half the court. He did not pass the ball directly, but controlled it for a while, looking for Lin Yu's position.
Lin Yu ran around without the ball, which was a regular offensive play for the Cavaliers who lacked LeBron James.
But after running around for a while, Lin Yu didn't get a chance. He simply stopped on the right side of the free throw line and directly opened his hand to ask for the ball.
This is not the regular play style of the Cavaliers. Old Miller hesitated and passed the ball to Lin Yu. There was no other way. The Cavaliers' offense only had a few options. Without passing the ball to Lin Yu, their offense would stagnate.
.
Lin Yu received the ball and played singles. Gregg Popovich shouted from the sidelines: "Help defend, pay attention to help defend."
However, Lin Yu used a breakthrough that seemed slow and not very threatening, and Fabricio Oberto's inside defender did not step forward immediately.
This gave Lin Yu an opportunity, and he made a long-distance pull-up jumper, a difficult shot.
A swish sound!
Amid the cheers, Popovich's face suddenly turned serious. Lin Yu scoring in a single was extremely bad news for the Spurs.