The longest river

Chapter 132 Young hero, have some pancakes!
After the timeout, the Heat made a substitution, with Riley replacing Brown with Dan Mallley.

The Heat are using a "one big, four small" lineup, consisting of a point guard, three wings, and a center.

Riley dared to do this in this day and age; he's really bold.

Moreover, the Heat's offensive tactics have changed after this lineup was implemented.

Instead of having Mourning continue to establish position in the low post, they switched to having Hardaway and Mourning run a "15 pick-and-roll" combination in the high post.

Hardaway is very fast, and more importantly, the Heat's wing spacing was greatly expanded after Mallley came on. Hardaway eventually used a screen to drive into the Pacers' paint and score a layup.

Riley's ability to adapt to changing circumstances is outstanding.

Or perhaps his understanding of basketball is very forward-thinking.

He predicted in history that the final form of basketball would be "five players around two meters tall, with blurred positions, all-around offensive and defensive capabilities, able to switch on defense indefinitely, advance the ball and create space."

In the next defensive possession, the Heat finally managed to stop a Pacers offensive run.

The Heat's "small ball" lineup is strong defensively, especially Mallley, who just came on. Nicknamed "Thunder God," he has excellent physical attributes and is one of the best white defensive players of this era.

After one attack and one defense, the atmosphere on the field was completely different.

Go Heat!

The fans in the arena began to chant and cheer for the Heat.

The Heat continued to run the 15 pick-and-roll, and this time Davis chose to help defend the basket. Hardaway successfully passed the ball to Mallley in the corner.

Mali took a three-pointer before the help defense arrived, but his shot missed.

Mallley was a two-time three-point king in the league, leading the league in three-pointers made in both the 1992 and 1994 seasons.

But in reality, his three-point shooting percentage is not high. He has never had a season with a three-point shooting percentage of more than 40% in his career, and this season it is only 33.8% (5.6 attempts per game).

This is also why he was relegated to the bench by Leonard, a second-round pick in his second year, who had a 41.4% three-point shooting percentage (6.1 attempts per game) this season.

Mark Jackson grabbed the long rebound, then looked up and saw Yang Shuai had already rushed out of the three-point line.

Another important reason why three-pointers are not encouraged in this era is that they easily result in long rebounds, which is not conducive to protecting the backcourt rebounds and allows the opponent to launch a fast break.

Before Yang Shuai even reached the center line, he saw a ball fly over his head.

The ball wasn't going fast, and it was heading right in front of him. When he crossed the center line, he was neither too fast nor too slow, just in time to get the ball.

Yang Shuai has been running fast breaks for so many years, but this is the first time he has received such a comfortable long pass from the backcourt.

The Heat's defensive transition was fast enough, but they still couldn't keep up with this kind of fast break.

"Oh!"

Yang Shuai's signature tomahawk dunk caused a stir among the crowd.

Yang Shuai's fast break awareness, combined with Jackson's passing, seems almost unstoppable.

The Heat used the same pick-and-roll strategy, and Davis continued to collapse the defense. However, this time Hardaway did not pass the ball to Marley. Instead, he drove to the basket and drew a foul on Davis, earning two free throws.

Hardaway is averaging 20.3 points and 8.6 assists per game this season, and has completely returned to his peak form.

Hardaway made both free throws, tying the game at 9-9 again.

As expected of the team currently ranked second or third in the Eastern Conference, the game started very closely.

"Defend! Defend!"

And when they returned to the defensive end, the cheers of Miami fans rang out again.

The Heat, with their excellent defensive rotations, successfully kept up with two offensive surges on the Pacers' strong side.

However, just when everyone thought the Heat's defense was about to succeed, Jackson suddenly turned and drove towards the basket.

He wasn't fast, but after turning his body, he trapped Hardaway firmly behind him, just like he did when he fought Yang Shuai one-on-one.

Jackson had a decent floater, so Mourning had no choice but to extend his reach.

However, at that moment, Jackson suddenly made a no-look pass to a player on the weak side baseline.

A commotion broke out in the crowd because they only realized that Yang Shuai had somehow shaken off Mashburn and was cutting towards the basket after Jackson passed the ball out!

Moreover, the ball was delivered at just the right moment. Yang Shuai received the ball and barely needed to make any adjustments; he simply took a step and leaped into the air...

"Oh!"

Another powerful two-handed dunk.

Mourning had already been pulled to the corner by Miller, and with Brown out of the game, the Heat no longer had a second rim protector in the paint.

This round directly hit the Heat's weak point.

In fact, Riley's current defensive style is very similar to that of the "Heat Big Three" in history, but it is obvious that without Wade and James, the current lineup cannot produce that kind of suffocating defensive effect.

After landing, Yang Shuai let out an excited roar, then turned around and bumped chests with Jackson in celebration.

If he only felt comfortable during the previous fast break, then this pass just now truly gave him a feeling of exhilaration.

Or rather, at that moment he had a profound realization that "scoring can actually be so easy."

You know, last season, and even before this season, he made quite a few shots like this where he couldn't break through on the strong side, and then cut in from the weak side. But this was the first time he'd made such a comfortable shot.

To use an analogy, Workman is like someone who has to ask you several times before he'll make you a pancake when you're hungry; Best and Robertson are like people who can put a pancake in front of you when you need it.

As for Jackson, he could literally feed you a biscuit as long as you opened your mouth!

The Heat's momentum, which had just begun to rise, was immediately suppressed again.

Hardaway continued to drive to the basket, but this time the Pacers opted not to switch on defense, and Hardaway's pull-up mid-range shot missed.

This is also one of Hardaway's technical weaknesses; not all short guards can have an accurate mid-range shooting ability like Paul.

Jackson turned around and grabbed the defensive rebound, and then the whistle blew immediately.

Yang Shuai had already run beyond the three-point line once again, but Hardaway chose to foul Jackson on the spot to stop the fast break.

Although they couldn't continue with the fast break, the Pacers had already gained an advantage by forcing Hardaway into a foul with a single tactical move.

Standing on the sidelines, Riley turned his head to look at the other half of the court and saw Bird sitting leisurely on the bench.

Looking at Bird's relaxed demeanor, it's as if he's not a head coach, but just a VIP spectator.

Riley's mood instantly soured.

Fortunately, the Heat's half-court defense remained solid.

In fact, the best way to deal with this kind of "one big man and four small men" lineup is for the power forward to punish the opponent in the low post, just like when Nowitzki faced the Heat.

Unfortunately, the Pacers' power forward is Davis, who, as a role player, doesn't possess that kind of ability.

Seeing that the Pacers' offensive run was about to stall again, Yang Shuai started moving once more.

However, this time Mashburn was focused and didn't give Yang Shuai a chance to cut to the basket.

But at that moment, Yang Shuai made a ">" shaped movement that bore his strong personal signature.

He quickly swerved to the weak-side 45-degree three-point line using Davis's screen.

Jackson delivered another precise pass.

When the person arrives, the ball arrives.

Yang Shuai raised his hand and caught the ball, taking an open three-pointer.

"Shh!"

As expected, with a crisp sound of the net going in, Yang Shuai's three-pointer landed swiftly.

Jackson's pies not only included the hearty pies from before, but also this crispy and refreshing roti!

There was an uproar at the scene.

After Yang Shuai scored 7 consecutive points, the Pacers were poised to widen the gap!
The sign held up by the audience that read "We don't need commercial players" has become an irony.

In fact, this argument has been proven to be meaningless since Yang Shuai won the AMVP award.

A minority of people are unwilling to accept the facts and try to forcefully prove something in this way, which is exactly what Yang Shuai said: they are afraid.

However, it turned out that they only made themselves look more like clowns by doing so.

About seven minutes into the first quarter, Yang Shuai was substituted by McGee.

This is Bird's regular rotation.

But to Riley's surprise, Mark Jackson was also replaced by Scott at this time.

After Jackson and Young both left the court, the Pacers' offense noticeably slowed down under the Heat's defense.

As it turns out, Riley's pre-game preparations were not in vain.

With about 10 minutes left in the first quarter, the score was 25-22, with the Pacers holding a slight lead.

It was at this point that both sides began to rotate players deeply, and Yang Shuai was substituted into the game, and the classic "off-peak travel" took place as scheduled.

However, at the same time, Mark Jackson was also substituted back into the game!
Bird has essentially linked Yang Shuai and Jackson together.

Then, very quickly, the benefits of this binding became apparent.

They went on a 7-2 run in the last two minutes of the first quarter, extending their lead to 8 points.

Although in the previous game against the Jazz, Yang Shuai made a very beautiful assist to O'Neal under triple coverage.

But most of the time, his passing ability is just adequate; he is essentially a scorer.

In order to maximize Yang Shuai's goal of "traveling off-peak," which is to widen the score gap during this period, Bird naturally wanted to improve Yang Shuai's scoring efficiency as much as possible when given the choice.

Then, when the second quarter came back, this situation continued.

In one instance, Yang Shuai was simply smoking in the corner when Jackson drove to the basket and delivered a cross-court pass to him.

It felt like Yang Shuai had already been fed a lot by Jackson, but Jackson pried open his mouth and said: No, you still want to eat!

(End of this chapter)