Soul of the Golden State

Chapter 64 Strongest Defense

The old Milwaukee Stadium was built in 1968. For the stadium, this is not a long time, at least not as old as the Warriors' own arena, but the state it presents is far worse.

It is not only due to maintenance but also the frequency of use. Fortunately, the players can't bear it for too long. In two years, they will be able to move into the newly built Bradley Center.

This year's stadium is dilapidated, but it didn't affect the mood of the Bucks. I'm afraid they have already become accustomed to this.

If the Warriors are a blazing flame, then the Bucks are an extremely hard rock, allowing the Warriors to block left and right, they will not move like a mountain, pressing on every Warriors player, Until they suffocate to death.

Before coming, the Warriors knew from top to bottom that this would be a fierce battle, but they didn't expect that this battle would be so difficult.

After a three-day break, the Warriors traveled to Milwaukee to challenge Nelson's former team, the Bucks.

Originally relying on the power of five consecutive victories, the Warriors were full of momentum and wanted to earn some face for Nelson, but who would have thought that it would be good if they didn't show their butts at this time, let alone face.

After playing 5 minutes in the first quarter, the Warriors, who have always been known for their offense, only scored a mere 4 points. The Warriors were surrounded by the Bucks' impenetrable defense.

This Bucks is an iron-blooded team that Don Nelson spent several years building. The whole team has a tenacious defense, handles the ball properly, and has extremely low turnovers. It has the flavor of the mid-to-late 90s to the 00s.

The defense-oriented thinking that Nelson instilled in this team has profoundly affected this team. Even though Nelson has left and the head coach has been replaced by Del Harris, their defensive blood has never changed.

The whole team is centered on the two-time Best Defensive Player winner Sidney Moncrief, together with Paul Pressy, Terry Cummings, Ricky Pierce and many other players, forming a team. The impenetrable net makes every attack of the Warriors extremely difficult.

After Li Weisi dribbled the ball for halftime, he encountered a tight defense from Bucks point guard Craig Hodges. Li Weisi looked heavy and his brain was running fast, thinking about how to break the game.

Li Weisi didn't care if he was facing only one Hodges, because although Hodges' defense was strong, his body was not much stronger than the Ron Harper or Terry Porter he encountered, so Li Weisi was okay. Handle.

But the Bucks' defense is a whole, not just facing a Hodges.

Whenever Li Weisi breaks through or gets rid of Hodges' defense, he will encounter the defense of other Bucks. When he transfers the ball to the vacant hands, the Bucks' supplementary defense will be in place quickly. It doesn't give any space at all. Is this the best defense in the league?
Time passed bit by bit, and it was time to launch an attack, but Li Weisi still couldn't find a flaw in the opponent's defense.

In desperation, Li Weisi could only wave his hands and seek Ma Long's pick-and-roll.

This trick has been used once before. Ma Long's down move scored a precious 4 out of 2 points for the team, and Li Weisi plans to do the same.

Malone's strong body keeps Hodges firmly behind him. The center of the Bucks is the veteran Sikoma. It can be said that he and Hodges are relatively the weakest existence of the Bucks.

Facing Malone's pick-and-roll, Li Weisi, who was unattended, was not at all as fast as a veteran at Xikoma's feet. He rushed towards Li Weisi, holding his right hand high to prevent Li Weisi from shooting.

Although it was the first encounter, the Bucks had already heard about Li Weisi's shooting and were fully prepared.

The tall arm covered the sky and covered the sun, blocking Li Weisi's shooting angle. Therefore, Li Weisi chose to break through, and Xikoma quickly retreated. At this moment, Li Weisi distributed the ball to Ma Long who started to go down .

The extremely fast Malone immediately chose to attack the basket, but when he jumped up, the Bucks' defense had already arrived. Terry Cummings jumped high and collided with Malone in the air, stopping Malone directly attack the basket.

Due to the confrontation in the air, Malone was no longer able to dunk, so he used his waist and abdomen to throw the ball towards the basket with difficulty. There is no doubt that the ball missed.

So there was chaos under the basket, and several people from the two teams huddled together, desperately trying to grab the rebound.

In the end, this priceless rebound was grabbed by Larry Smith who occupied a better position, but the Bucks' defense was already in place at this time, and he wanted to force the score. He couldn't think of a better ending except being taken off.

In desperation, Smith could only choose to pass the ball outward.

Mullin received a pass from Smith, but under the defense of Plessy, there was no room for a shot. At this time, he saw Li Weisi first cut to the inside, and then followed by a reverse run, back outside the three-point line, and put Hodges swung away.

Although Mullin didn't like Li Weisi, he still passed the ball to Li Weisi. After all, Mullin is also a professional player. He will not put things off the court on the court, which will not do him any good.

After Li Weisi received the ball, he immediately turned around and shot without stopping. When Li Weisi threw the ball, Hodges hadn't arrived yet!

Forgive me for being unrestrained and indulging in three-pointers in my life. The Warriors finally broke the scoring drought. After more than 5 minutes of the game, the Warriors finally reached 7 points. At this time, the Bucks scored 18 points.

"Didi..." Li Weisi just hit a three-pointer, and the Bucks called a timeout. This timeout was definitely not a planned timeout, which made Nelson on the coach's bench frown.

What exactly does this "Silver Fox" Harris want to do?
The timeout ended quickly, and the two sides returned to the field.

Hodges dribbled the ball across half court and handed the ball to small forward Plessy, who dominated the ball.

This is exactly Nelson's great tactical initiative, the organization forward, and it is this newly created position on the court that allows Plessy's organization ability to be fully utilized.

After handing over the ball, Hodges immediately ran to the bottom corner, but Li Weisi, who was chasing after him, was blocked by Cummings who suddenly appeared.

At this time, there was no defender in front of Hodges in the bottom corner. Plessy's organizational awareness was very high, and he immediately sent the ball. Hodges, who received the ball, directly raised his hand for a 3-pointer.

As a well-known three-pointer in the 8s and 90s, apart from Bird, the only three-pointer in the NBA who won three consecutive All-Star shooting games, and once held the record for the highest score in the three-point contest, Craig Mitsutoshi is the most likely The prototype of Hodges will definitely not miss this ball.

Answer ball, the score came to 7:21 again.

And when Li Weisi passed the halftime dribble this time, the defender in front of him was no longer Hodges, but replaced by the star of the current Bucks, the first and second Dpoy winner, Sidney Moncrief.

(End of this chapter)