The godfather of basketball started from conquering the NBA

"I want to announce good news to everyone."

As soon as they heard that Boss Xu had something good to announce, everyone immediately surrounded him.

"We would like to congratulate our team's Brandon Roy, and Josh Smith, who were selected to the second team of the NBA's best team this year. At the same time, Josh, you were also selected to the second team of the best defensive team. Double happiness, come on, let's cheer for them."

"Ooh"

It has to be said that the team atmosphere of the Timberwolves has become better and better under Xu Xiao's mobilization, and everyone applauds their teammates to celebrate him from the bottom of their hearts.

"Because Josh entered the second team and triggered the contract regulations, so tonight, it's up to you to treat the guests. I don't mind." Xu Xiao choked his throat and looked at Josh evilly.

"No... no problem, boss, don't keep looking at me like that, I'm panicking." Josh quickly joked.

"By the way, boss, who is the one who has entered the first round?" Josh's desire to win and lose has also risen. In this year in the Timberwolves, Josh has become more and more charismatic, and the desire to win and lose has also increased. stronger.

"For a while?" Xu Xiao took out his phone to check.

"Kobe, Wade, James and Warcraft Howard."

"The last one?" Xu Xiao said hesitantly

"Our first-round opponent, Kevin Durant."

"What? It turned out to be him? A third-year rookie, I was actually compared to him." Hearing Kevin Durant, Josh calmed down a little. He thought it would be Tim Duncan or Dirk Nowis. base.

"Calm down Josh, Kevin is the scoring champion this season, a 22-year-old scoring champion, breaking McGrady's record." I still don't forget to talk to Adu.

"No, his level is far from enough. He is just a scorer. In this round of the series, I will let them see who is more worthy of the first round." Josh slammed the chair next to him angrily.

"Okay, Josh, I understand your feelings. If this is the case, then we have to seriously study how to play this round of the series. You must know that the Blazers are not weak this season."

Xu Xiao gathered the team members and began to discuss tomorrow's tactics.

In the first round of the playoffs against the Trail Blazers, although the Timberwolves have home court advantage as the third in the West, the strength of the opponent should not be underestimated.

The opponent is Durant, the new scoring leader, and the Portland Trail Blazers led by Aldridge, which is also the strongest double-ranked combination in the past ten years.

In addition, there is old guard Andre Miller in charge, Kwame Brown, who Xu Xiao single-handedly promoted on the inside, and Rudy Fernandez, Wilcox and other good players on the bench, it is indeed a bit tricky.

The Timberwolves used their most familiar starters, Westbrook, Roy, Josh, and the inside combination was Oden + Hayes.

Hayes, who developed offensive ability, crushed Gibson and Ibaka, who were still rookies, with absolute strength, and secured the team's starting power forward.

Now that Xu Xiao let him start, he also wanted to use Hayes' defense to limit Adelaide. After all, even Ibaka in his peak period would be beaten to the point of crying when he met Adelaide, let alone a rookie.

The Blazers also have a regular lineup, with Andre Miller, Randy Foy, Durant, Aldridge and Kwame Brown.

"Boss, you have finally fulfilled your promise." Kwame Brown, who saw Xu Xiao's exceptional kindness, immediately hugged Xu Xiao.

"You too, like the league has proved your strength, and now you are a well-deserved starting center for the playoff team. To be honest, I am still a little worried that you will cause us trouble." Xu Xiao was also very pleased to slap Brown.

"Haha, boss, although I am very grateful to you, I won't be merciful for a while. You have to make your team's center forward pay more attention. After all, he took my position. I will play hard for a while." Got it," Kwame Brown said arrogantly.

"Then I'll wait and see."

The game started quickly, and Oden took the lead in jumping to the ball for the team.

Westbrook took the ball to organize halftime, and then quickly found Josh who was responding. After handing over the ball, he ran immediately, and Roy came up to cover.

One switch and it's Josh on Randy Foy.

Although the latter was physically strong, he was too short. Josh ignored the defense and raised his hand to hit a mid-range shot.

This is Paul's signature, and it is now being played to the fullest on Josh. After all, Josh has a height that Paul cannot reach.

This trick is also more handy.

The goal was scored very simply, and then the Blazers' offense.

The Blazers' first contribution was not given to Durant, but Adelaide directly made a fake pass at a high position, giving Kwame Brown a high-profile pass.

Brown turned around after receiving the ball beautifully under the basket, and made fake moves in one go, fooled Oden, and put the ball in with a light layup.

"It seems that Durant really understands it. This ball first made Kwame Brown find a place in front of his old club. I have to say that Durant has a bit of a leadership temperament."

Xu Xiao doesn't like Durant, just doesn't like his character, but Durant's strength, Xu Xiao is absolutely recognized, no matter in terms of football skills or dedication on the court, Durant is the leader of this league. One of the best players.

"Nice job, just break 'em," Durant yelled at Kwame Brown after he scored.

But the Timberwolves also quickly entered their rhythm, and their goal was very clear, that is to find Randy Foy and attack him specifically.

Josh beats Roy, Roy beats Westbrook, and three beats Foye.

Xu Xiao's move directly killed the Blazers, and this move comfortably hit the Blazers' seven inches, which wasted all the defensive resources of the Blazers. After Hayes hit a three-pointer, the point difference also came to 16 to 7, so McMillan also called a timeout helplessly.

We can only replace Foye first, and let Webster, who is not easy to be targeted, come on, but Webster is not a strong defensive player. In addition, his previous serious injury has reduced his explosive power by a notch. Now he can only Relying on his shooting and strong body to buy himself some playing time on the court.

But Webster's playing at least made the Blazers no longer at a disadvantage in terms of size, and the Blazers also changed their defensive thinking and began to conduct the ball from the outside to press.

In an attempt to split the Timberwolves' flowing offense, it fell into a stagnation in singles.

Fortunately, the Timberwolves players have strong personal abilities, and they have a high success rate in singles several times. This also allowed the Timberwolves to still lead the Trail Blazers 29-21 at the end of the first quarter.

But in the second quarter, the Blazers replaced the bench lineup. Although Pulcebila, Wilcox and others have no offensive ability, they are standard blue-collar insiders, completely crushing Ibaka and Gibson in terms of height and weight. .

Fernandez on the outside and Randy Foye, who had been bullied in the first quarter, also took the opportunity to let go.

Timberwolves' second-team defense is not as oppressive as the first-team defense. Point guard Dragic has not yet grown into the All-Star, so Xu Xiao must always have Westbrook and Josh on the court, so as to keep the ball The team has always been well organized.

The Blazers also kept Durant in the second team. Under his leadership, the Blazers began to chase points in the second quarter.

Although Josh has Paul's defensive skills, Durant's mid-range pull-up is really unreasonable and completely ignores defense.

Every time Josh's defense can be given, but as long as Durant receives the ball at the waist, turning around is a dry pull.

Three minutes into the second quarter, Durant scored 3 points on 4 of 4 shots.

Although the Timberwolves will respond, no one can continue to score points like Durant, and the difference in height and weight inside the line also makes the Timberwolves suffer a lot on the rebounds.

The best defense and counterattack failed to play, and he could only rely on Josh's personal ability to fall into the position. Fortunately, this year's undrafted Matthews stood up and hit a three-pointer at a critical moment, which gave the Timberwolves a sigh of relief.

"At this time, it can still be seen that the Timberwolves play as a team, unlike the Trail Blazers who rely entirely on Durant alone. If you play alone, it will be difficult to beat a team like the Timberwolves."

Yang Yi, who was far away across the ocean, was also explaining. Ever since Xu Xiao led the Timberwolves out of the quagmire, the Timberwolves' attention in China has also increased. It has become the home team with the highest voice among Chinese fans, so the commentary has begun to favor the Timberwolves.

But foreign commentators smelled something abnormal.

Reggie Miller is still responsible for explaining the game, and in his opinion, the situation of the Timberwolves is not so good.

"Obviously the Timberwolves' most usual tactics were not played out. McMillan's coping method was very good. He kept the inside high on the court and suppressed the Timberwolves' rebounds, so that they could not play their best defensive counterattack." Rejimi Le said confidently.

"Yeah, and Gibson and Ibaka's shooting is unstable, far less than Oden and Hayes can open up space, and they will definitely be targeted on a stage like the playoffs. This time is the test for Xu Xiao. The on-the-spot adaptability, but judging from now, he is still using his regular season routine, which is what he is most familiar with."

Another commentator Kenny Johnson also saw some clues.

However, the Timberwolves still ended the first half with a 55-50 lead.

"Guys, in the second half we have to be defensively strong, especially against Durant, he gets the ball in the waist, we must double-team the first time, his ability to break double-teams is very poor, we can't let him 19 in such an easy first half."

Based on past life experience, Durant's scoring efficiency will decrease when facing double teams, which is why he was able to play the most efficient time of his career in the Warriors.

Xu Xiao believes that although these point differences are not safe, he still has confidence in his team.

However, in the second half, the situation changed suddenly.

Durant suddenly stopped receiving the ball at the waist, and that position was replaced by Aldridge.

In the first half, Hayes defended Adelaide well and successfully interfered with him several times, but this time Adelaide still successfully received the ball.

Made a screen with the old Miller, passed directly to the old Miller who cut the ball, and the latter did not stop the ball and directly split the ball to Foye in the corner. The latter turned 45 degrees to Durant, and Durant directly made a three-pointer. .

The point difference was reduced to 2 points.

The Timberwolves still want to beat Foye, but this time Foye's defense is extremely tough. Josh wants to push back, but Foye's body is relatively hard among guards. After all, the draft template was called "Xiao Wei Germany".

Josh planned to make a strong shot, but Durant quickly came to help defend. Josh immediately passed a Paul-style pass to Westbrook. Westbrook didn't shoot directly, but chose to make a sudden move.

But Kwame Brown has already made up the defense. Westbrook made a pass to Oden, but Adelaide broke the bottom line.

After serving the bottom line ball and handing it over to Roy, he still ended the offensive round with his best small throw.

But in turn, the Blazers used the same tactics. This time, Foye did not transfer, and directly chose to shoot by himself, hitting a three-pointer from the baseline.

"It's okay, let's play steadily, don't hesitate to take a chance." Xu Xiao clapped his hands and shouted from the sidelines.

Westbrook looked a little bit over the top here, but Billups' golf quotient made him calm down quickly.

After a pick-and-roll, he hit the basket directly, but didn't go very deep. Roy scored the ball from the middle distance. Aldridge and Kwame Brown guarded the inside line on the opposite side. If you really rushed into their encirclement, that would be a mistake.

So Westbrook split the ball early, Roy was splitting Josh, the latter made a false fax shot, and made another Paul-style small throw and hit it steadily.

There is no way to face the tall and powerful Blazers, throwing shots is the safest way.

But these two points didn't stop bleeding at all. The Blazers' offense was fully opened, and Durant hit a mid-range pull-up again that ignored the defense.

On the other hand, the offense on his side is not effective, making Hayes sink to the bottom corner. Although he has Harrington's scoring ability and shooting ability, what cannot be ignored is that he is too short.

Josh has long noticed the situation on Hayes' side, but even if the ball is given to Hayes, Aldridge can rely on his super long wingspan to fly to Hayes' shot in time, giving to interference.

"Twice." Xu Xiao looked at the situation on the court, and the cold sweat was flowing. These two times, one was when Josh suddenly scored Hayes, and the other was when Westbrook suddenly scored Hayes on the other side. Timely remedial and anti-interference arrived.

Moreover, his offense was completely suppressed by the three mountains of Durant, Alder and Kwame Brown, and he couldn't improve without rebounds and counterattack speed.

"Could it be that I can't escape the curse of the wolf three collapses?" Xu Xiao was a little discouraged for a while, because he couldn't find any way to stop the pioneers from rising.