Bishop of the Devil

"Kevin, you are defending against James tonight. Remember, you don't have to fight against him. Use your height to defend against his shooting. Even if his shooting ability is not strong, you still have to defend with your heart."

Richard directly handed over the task of defending James to Durant.

The current season is Durant's third season in the league. Compared with the previous two seasons, Durant has become much stronger, and his physical fitness has improved in all aspects.

This has also strengthened Durant's defensive capabilities a lot.

In the first two seasons of his career, as far as the offensive end can be seen, other aspects were quite average. However, starting from the third season, Durant completely exploded.

Although Durant has not yet reached his peak, his strength cannot be underestimated. He is at least ranked among the top five small forwards in the league, so there is no problem at all.

"Huh? Coach, James is good at breakthroughs, shouldn't I guard against his breakthroughs?" Durant was a little confused.

"That's right, you just need to follow him all the way to the basket, and leave the rest to our inside line." Richard said with a smile.

…

At this point in time, most of the tactics used by various teams to deal with James are to let him shoot, not to let him shoot, and to stick to the basket.

For example, the Spurs used this strategy when they beat James several times.

But Richard is a ruthless person. Not only does he have to stick to the basket, he doesn't even give James a chance to shoot.

When it comes to defensive shooting, players like Durant are simply outstanding. Anyway, Richard can't think of anyone who can match Durant in this aspect.

Durant nodded. Although he was looking forward to one-on-one with James, now that Richard had arranged it, he could only accept it.

"Others shot hard for me tonight. I want to teach the Cavaliers a deep lesson in this game."

…

Players from both sides began to enter the stadium. Because it was the home court of the Pirates, the entrance of the Cavaliers players triggered a burst of boos.

The generals of the Cavaliers are not very interested. If the lineup is complete, they still want to have a good match with the Pirates. After all, the lineup they formed is to win the championship. They want to win the championship in the Eastern Conference. If so, it must first pass the Pirates.

But now with O'Neal, Jamison and Varejao being "rested", the strength gap between the two sides in this game has become even wider.

…

"Beep!" The referee blew the whistle to start the game.

At the beginning of the game, Curry directly tried a three-pointer, but missed.

On the contrary, his opposing point guard passed the ball and directly hit the first three-pointer in the Cavaliers' offensive round.

Although Mo Buchuan is a point guard, he is also a combo guard. Last season he shot 43.6% from three-point range with the Cavaliers, and he has plenty of three-point firepower.

In terms of style of play, it is more similar to the little yellow-haired Schroeder who first played for the Hawks and then the Thunder. Of course, Mo Bu's passing is definitely much better than that of the little yellow-haired Schroeder. If nothing else, at least the basket is not comparable to Schroeder.

…

The goal that Mo Bu just passed was after receiving a pass from James and using Anthony Parker's pick-and-roll to complete the goal.

Next came the Buccaneers' offensive round. This time Curry did not take action rashly. He also knew that Richard attached great importance to tonight's game.

After the pass was passed to Roy, Roy moved around and went straight to the basket. At present, there was only a big Z guarding the Cavaliers penalty area. Roy did not encounter any strong defense and completed the layup directly.

Big Z is actually not too young now. As a player of the 1996 golden generation, he is in a similar situation to Iverson. He is also at the age of a hero. If Richard remembers correctly, after this season, Big Z will be He was given up by the Cavaliers and joined the Heat on a one-year contract.

After playing this year, Big Z announced his retirement. In order to commend this player who devoted all his youth to the Cavaliers, the Cavaliers also retired Big Z's jersey.

In his peak period, Big Z actually defended quite well, especially the one-on-one defense at the basket, which was even better than Yao Ming under normal circumstances.

But now that he is really old, he is powerless when it comes to Roy's layup, and can only watch Roy score the ball.

…

When it comes to the Cavaliers' offensive round, although James has played the point guard position at the beginning of his career, now even if he is playing as a small forward, he is actually no different from a point guard. Anyway, the team's ball rights must belong to him. In his hands, he controls the ball.

This is also a helpless move, mainly because James currently doesn't even have the slightest ability to off the ball...

It's no exaggeration at all. James' current ability without the ball is basically better than that of inside players.

Of course, it would be unrealistic to say that there is none at all. After all, even ordinary people on the court can play without the ball. As for whether they can score, it is hard to say.

James reached the frontcourt with the ball, and Durant immediately stepped forward to press, leaving no room for James to shoot.

Durant is the kind of player who is more obedient. He can basically carry out the tasks assigned by the coach.

What's more, it's a job assigned to him by Richard, so he must be quite attentive to it.

Durant kept it in mind to prevent shooting and not breakthroughs, so he did not defend one step like he normally defended James, but stayed as close to James as possible to prevent James from taking off and shooting.

…

James was also speechless. This was the first time he enjoyed this kind of defense...

In the first offensive round that just ended, because Durant was pressing and defending himself, he could use his own strength to easily squeeze away Durant and get a chance to break through.

But after reaching the basket, Jordan and Milicic worked hand in hand to strangle, and he had no choice but to distribute the ball.

Although the ball was scored in the end and he got an assist, it also made him feel that the situation was not good.

Under normal circumstances, James has his own routine against a team with strong inside defense.

Even if the basket is inaccurate, it doesn't mean you can't shoot. If the shooting rate is low, it will be low. If you find a few opportunities for fast break dunks, the shooting rate can be improved. In this way, after the game is over, the data will still be quite brilliant.

But now the Pirates are so ruthless that they don't even give him a chance to shoot, which makes him quite uncomfortable...

You can definitely still shoot, but when a player with seven-foot-long arms and excellent acceleration and jumping stands in front of you, shooting is definitely not a wise choice.

…

Roy unknowingly scored 8 points in a row at the beginning of the game, but the Cavaliers were struggling.

Except for Mo Bu passing the ball and hitting a field goal in the opening game, the Cavaliers didn't even score a field goal in the next four or five minutes.

The Buccaneers' defense is quite tough. Logically speaking, a defense of this intensity should easily cause friction.

But the Cavaliers players on the field were quite restrained. Even if they suffered losses from the Pirates players, they could only swallow their anger.

No way, this is the home stadium of the Pirates.

They knew very well that if they dared to cause trouble under Richard's nose, their Cavaliers players would definitely suffer a big loss tonight.

Just endure it as long as you can on the field. They don't expect to win this game anyway.

From time to time, Richard would take down a main player and replace him with a substitute player, trying to keep the lineup on the field competitive.

Because there are many strong players on the bench, the Pirates' lineup has always been quite luxurious throughout the game.

To the surprise of Pirates fans, Matthews, whom Richard selected with the 30th pick in the second round, is really a treasure.

After coming on the stage, I don't know if it was because of his explosive touch or because he had such strength in the first place. He hit three three-pointers in a few rounds, which directly brought the game into garbage time.

The 30th pick in the second round is basically no different from being an undrafted player. In the end, Richard still selected such a very high-quality forward and defensive line player.

The reason why Richard let Matthews appear in tonight's game is actually mainly for the follow-up trading plan.