Chapter 87 The Beginning of the Iron-Blooded Era
His expression was helpless, but his tone sounded excited.
The person Mourning was talking about was, of course, Pat Riley.
Pat Riley is a famous high-pressure dominant coach, a head coach who can train Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to retire early. When Zhang Hao heard Mourning say that he could not leave the gym on training days, the picture in his mind suddenly came to his mind.
Under the divine fortune teller's control, Zhang Hao didn't know whether Mo Ning's liver could withstand it, but his kidneys definitely couldn't.
The British poet Sassoon once said: There is a tiger in my heart, but I can still smell the roses.
Mourning is a very sensitive person under his rough appearance and cold image on the court. Seeing Zhang Hao still wandering around alone at almost noon...
"Aix, my girlfriend bought some steaks from Kobe this morning. Let's go to my house for lunch." Morning put his arm around Zhang Hao's shoulder enthusiastically, took Zhang Hao to the parking lot without saying anything, got in the car, and left.
…
A very luxurious beachfront villa in Miami with a market value of 6 million US dollars. Alonzo Mourning bought this villa after signing a 5-year, 15 million US dollar endorsement contract with Nike.
Mourning's girlfriend is Tracy, a very enthusiastic Latino model.
Lunch time was... boring.
After lunch, Zhang Hao took the initiative to say goodbye: "Alonzo, Tracy, thank you for your hospitality. You don't have to see me off. I want to walk along the beach. I will take a taxi back to the Beach Coast Arena by myself later."
After Mo Ning and his wife responded, they returned to the house.
Tracy asked as she cleared the table, "Alonzo, you seem to be very concerned about that kid."
"Don't you know who he is? A genius who scored 44 points in his debut."
"I've heard of it... Oh, right, it was the game between the Nets and the Pistons that you watched the other day... But it's rare to see you be so enthusiastic about a rookie and even invite him to our house for dinner."
"I learned something recently. The coach asked me to interact more with other teams' stars. You see, Olajuwon won two consecutive championships with the help of Drexler... This kid looks pretty good. There's no harm in getting to know him."
"Can this kid fight? He looks too young."
"I don't know either..." At this point, Mourning recalled the time since he met Zhang Hao and said, "He was selected at the 9th pick and scored 44 points in his debut. I think it's possible. Besides, didn't he praise your steak for being delicious?"
"Yes, this is a good kid, I think he can play well."
After a brief contact, Mo Ning learned some of Zhang Hao's personality traits.
I can’t say he is aloof, but he is definitely not enthusiastic and is quite cold.
He is not proactive when chatting, but he will talk more when talking about topics that interest him, such as Magic Johnson's comeback, Jordan's stable 30-33 points in four consecutive games at the start... He will talk more about these topics that interest him; he will not stop talking about topics that he is not interested in, but it is obvious that he is just responding politely.
Considering Zhang Hao's performance and personality at the beginning, Alonzo Mourning has reason to believe that this rookie can play well!
No one will be nice to anyone for no reason, and the same goes for Mourning. If it was a marginal player on the Nets, he would just see it and treat it as a passerby. But because Zhang Hao was the hottest rookie at the beginning of the season and broke Chamberlain's debut scoring record, he would take the initiative to go up.
Whether you are passionate or not naturally depends on who you are with...
…
At 6:15 in the evening, Zhang Hao and his teammates entered the court of Beach Coast Arena.
Running out of the player tunnel, Zhang Hao felt that the atmosphere on the scene was very dull. Their Nets team did not receive many boos, and when the Heat players came on the court, the cheers were not very loud either.
Looking around, I saw that the competition was about to begin and at least one-third of the seats were still empty.
"Boss Kenny, do you believe they sold out the tickets?"
"Their tickets have always sold very well. In recent years, the Heat should be one of the top five profitable teams, otherwise they would not build a new arena. However, as in the past, a large number of ticket buyers want to go directly to the game if they want to watch it, so as to avoid not being able to buy tickets. Since they joined the NBA, they have been the team with the largest gap between ticket sales and attendance."
"The fans of the Miami Heat are really passionate and unrestrained, worthy of being a team from a coastal city... But it's better if there are fewer people. If we win, they won't cheer for us. If we lose, it will be even more embarrassing for you, boss."
"Why am I embarrassed?"
"You're the boss! Shouldn't you take responsibility if we lose?"
“…”
Once again, Kenny Anderson felt he could no longer suppress his urge to hit someone.
But Zhang Hao escaped early again.
After all the home team players came out, Zhang Hao paid attention to Mourning and found that he had indeed turned back into the noble, cold and iron-blooded man.
Afterwards, Zhang Hao turned his attention to the opposing head coach.
Pat Riley!
This magical coach ushered in the Showtime era in the 1980s and led the Lakers to a terrifying scoring average of 117.8 points per game.
Then he went to the Knicks and led the team's average points per game to below 100. After the three-point line was shortened last season, he led the Knicks to suppress the opponents' average shots to 78.2 times per game. They are the best team in suppressing opponents' shots in the past 19 years. The last time there was such a good rhythm suppression was before the merger of the NBA and ABA in the 75-76 season.
Soon, the game will begin.
Photos of the starting players of both teams were shown on the big screen.
The Nets' starting lineup still consists of Kenny Anderson, Graham, Almon Gilliam, Zhang Hao and PJ Brown .
The Heat sent out a starting lineup of Bimbo Coles, Rex Chapman, Billy Owens, Kevin Willis, and Alonzo Mourning.
"Bimbo Coles, 27 years old, 185 cm, 82 kg, ability rating 79, offense 69, defense 85, passing 81..."
"Rex Chapman, 28 years old, 193 cm, 84 kg, ability rating 73, offense 82, defense 59, passing 83..."
"Billy Owens, 26 years old, 203 cm, 100 kg, ability rating 83, offense 79, defense 87, passing 79..."
"Kevin Willis, 33 years old, 213 cm, 111 kg, ability rating 81, offense 70, defense 86, rebounds 87..."
"Alonzo Mourning, 25 years old, 208 cm, 119 kg, ability rating 95, offense 88, defense 96, rebounds 94..."
After looking at the player detection report of the opposing starting lineup, Zhang Hao discovered the characteristics of the opponent, or rather, the characteristics of the lineup arranged by Pat Riley - except for Chapman, a shooter who averaged 1.9 three-pointers per game last season, all other players are better at defense than offense.
Mourning is the strongest player of the opponent team, ranking fifth among the four centers. He is a real superstar. His defense is amazing, a little better than the 33-year-old Jordan and comparable to Pippen.
Looking at the data and efficiency statistics of Mourning's first three years of his career, he averaged 21 points, 10 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game since his rookie year, but he has not even been selected to the best lineup or defensive lineup until now.
But when he thought of the four big centers, Zhang Hao no longer found it strange.
O'Neal, who was in the same class as Mourning, never made the first team, but was selected to the third team once and the second team once.
I guess the defense will be a challenge tonight. In the first three games of the season, the Heat had 1 win and 2 losses, but they only lost by 3 points in both games, and both teams scored below 95 points.
Zhang Hao felt the breath of the coming of the Iron Blood Age...
At 6:30 in the evening, the starting players of both teams came onto the field and the game began.
The referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air. PJ Brown and Mourning were fully focused and jumped with all their strength when the ball reached the highest point... PJ Brown narrowly defeated Mourning and won the jump ball with a slight advantage. The Nets attacked first!
Under the watchful eye of Pat Riley, who had a big boss face, the Heat players quickly retreated.
Zhang Hao immediately ran down the court after PJ Brown won the jump ball, but Owens stepped forward to block him.
The fast break failed, Kenny Anderson was not in a hurry to pass the ball, but quickly advanced across half court, and then encountered fierce confrontation from Coles.
Nowadays, outside players are generally not very heavy. Coles' speed of 92 is quite good. His body is also stronger than Kenny Anderson. He has excellent defensive awareness and caused Kenny Anderson a lot of trouble.
Zhang Hao started running immediately after Kenny Anderson arrived at the frontcourt, and the Heat team set up a pseudo zone defense!
Unlike FIBA, the NBA does not allow early double-teaming and zone defense. Not allowing early double-teaming means that players without the ball cannot be double-teamed, while zone defense will inevitably lead to multiple early double-teaming tendencies.
Zhang Hao ran to an area, and the Heat player closest to Zhang Hao immediately switched defense with the teammate who was about to be freed from Zhang Hao, forming a pseudo zone defense formation.
The pseudo-zone defense did give Zhang Hao space to run, but he also encountered active and rough confrontation from the Heat players... As soon as Zhang Hao stopped for a moment, the opponent's arm was already on him.
Zhang Hao felt like he was back in the last game. He didn’t encounter such defense in the last game, but the confrontation was even worse!
The key point is that the Nets lack the ability to shoot from the outside, otherwise a pseudo-zone defense would be a death wish. A pseudo-zone defense does not have the real effect of a zone defense, but at the same time has the same three-point defense loopholes as a zone defense.
He couldn't run back, cut in, receive the ball and cause damage. Unlike the Trail Blazers, two of whose three main inside players were mini inside players, Mourning squatted under the basket and didn't come out. His blocking threat and extremely strong body... the key was that there was no defensive three seconds!
In the first three games, Zhang Hao got 9 blocks and showed excellent rim protection ability, which he achieved by staying under the basket all the time.
If there was a teammate who was good at off-ball pick-and-roll at this time, Zhang Hao would have an easier time. He missed Jason Williams on the sidelines a little bit, but Jason Williams didn't have a mid-range shot and Kenny Anderson was not good at pick-and-roll.
But if Jason Williams, a power forward with excellent pick-and-roll skills and top rebounding skills, could shoot mid-range shots, the price would not be the same as it is now.
On Kenny Anderson's side, it doesn't mean that as long as Zhang Hao can attract the opponent to switch defense and Mourning guards the basket, he will have good passing opportunities and breakthrough opportunities. The Heat players do a good job of interfering with the receiving routes of players who cut directly. Players with the ball on the outside who break through will also be double-teamed and have their passes cut off.
The most important thing is confrontation. If the confrontation is strong, passing and even ball control will be greatly affected.
Kenny Anderson saw no chance and gave the ball to Almon Gilliam for a single.
The Nets only have two players on the court who have an advantage. Graham's ball-handling ability is terrible, so if they need a one-on-one match, they will naturally look for Almon Gilliam.
Although Almon Guillem looks rough and has a bold personality, he is sometimes quite timid. After receiving the ball, he saw Zhang Hao pulling the ball across the baseline and immediately passed it to him.
Zhang Hao did not get rid of the opponent's pseudo-zone defense. When he saw the ball being passed to him, a greeting was stuck in his throat, but he did not have time to think about it. With his back to the basket and the defense of Mourning who followed him immediately, Zhang Hao received the ball, took a step forward, turned around, bent his knees, jumped... received the ball, turned around and shot a jump shot!
The moment he shot, Zhang Hao was tackled by Mourning, and the referee didn't blow the whistle! Fortunately, this time he turned around and made a jump shot!
Standing up while pulling the hand of Almon Guillem who looked very excited, Zhang Hao really wanted to slap him in the face and pass on the blame again!
When playing against the Raptors, Oliver Miller blamed them; when playing against the Trail Blazers, Sabonis blamed them; now when playing against Alonso, he's still blaming them!
But he made the shot, which was great, and Zhang Hao quickly ran back.
Mourning glanced at Zhang Hao who was returning to defense, received the serve from Coles, passed the ball back to Coles, and ran to the front court.
The Heat players on the field have good athletic ability, but they did not counterattack and they kept the tempo very low.
Coles advanced to the frontcourt with an 8-second violation.
When Zhang Hao saw PJ Brown retreating to the basket, he was about to defend Kevin Willis, but was stopped by PJ Brown and the two stood under the basket together.
That’s right! Kevin Willis’ shooting is terrible!
Zhang Hao did not move out further, waiting for Mourning to reach the basket, then took a step around to block him and tried to cut off Mourning's route to receive the ball... "Beep", the referee whistled.
Zhang Hao looked at the referee, and the referee was actually pointing at him!
"Oh my god..."
Just when I was about to curse, I saw the referee’s gesture - early double-teaming violation!
Watching PJ Brown following behind Mourning and going in front of him...it was pure off-ball double-teaming!
If I didn't go forward and stand under the basket with PJ Brown, even if I was close to Mourning, I wouldn't be able to form an off-ball double team...
"Go to the Ni field to catch the ball advantage principle..."
Zhang Hao returned to the basket in disappointment. Although there was no defensive three-second rule, it was more beneficial for rim-protecting inside players to prevent breakthroughs, but not allowing early double-teaming was more beneficial for strong singles inside players.
Zhang Hao was depressed, and the Heat players were even more depressed. They had just used up the 24-second offensive time to get only 10 seconds left and were preparing to pass the ball to their big man for a one-on-one shot, but Zhang Hao committed a defensive violation and the offensive time had to be reset to 24 seconds.
Pat Riley has required his players to play for at least 18 seconds per offense this season, and the Heat players themselves are not used to it yet.
The ball was served and Coles started to waste time again.
The Heat players are not used to it, and the Nets players are even more uncomfortable!
Last season was still a fast-paced era. Although many teams have started to slow down the pace this season, the season has just begun. The Nets, who do not have the capital to slow down the pace, have not felt the new trend of the league deeply. They watched the Heat start to waste time again, dribbling outside the three-point line for more than 10 seconds...
The Nets players looked anxious!
