Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA-Chapter 457 - 152: The Most Severe Test in My Life (Sorry, there will still only be one update today)
The first game of the first round of the playoffs between the Jazz and the Warriors arrived on April 19th.
After the game began, the Jazz unsurprisingly chose to speed up the pace.
Mid-season, veteran coach Sloan made Kyle Korver, exchanged from the Philadelphia 76ers along with Gordon Giricek and a future draft pick, the X-factor in the Jazz’s first-quarter performance.
In later years, Korver became known as "the most accurate man on earth," hitting 3 out of 4 shots in a single quarter, all three being three-pointers.
If the Warriors’ interior, guarded by Brown and Qin Yue, is still that intimidating no-fly-zone.
Then the biggest difference for the currently short-handed Warriors is that they cannot effectively restrict opponents’ outside shooting.
Sloan had anticipated this during the regular season.
Thus, in the first playoff match against the Warriors, he unhesitatingly placed Korver, whose defense was still shaky, into the starting lineup.
Korver’s excellent performance gave the Jazz an immensely wide offensive space.
But even as the Jazz had an X-factor...
The Warriors also had key players stepping up in the first quarter.
Starting from college, Jarrett Jack, who has faced off against Chris Paul multiple times, scored and assisted by outplaying Paul several times in this high-tempo offensive and defensive game, making Qin Yue subconsciously feel the Warriors still had Baron Davis.
Actually...
Looking at later records of Paul and Jack’s career encounters, one can easily find that Jack was never really afraid of the God of Point Guards.
Whether in the ACC league or NBA, given enough playing time, Jack often played evenly with Paul.
One must know, Jack, standing a solid 6’3" and weighing nearly 210 pounds, doesn’t suffer from physical matchups even when switching to the shooting guard position.
Therefore, unless you can use speed to overpower Jack, you have to accept the fact that a sticky defender will be constantly around you.
Originally, as his ball-handling skills further improved, Paul also had one trick of rhythm breaks and shots to deal with tank-like guards.
But since Jack’s grudge with Paul began back in college, he naturally had mastered Paul’s rhythm changes.
In this game, since Jack actively stepped up, Qin Yue and Brown decisively chose not to delay tactics when the Jazz executed high pick-and-rolls.
From TNT TV, Barkley commented, "The Warriors unequivocally handed the task of defending the high pick-and-roll solely to Jarrett Jack, freeing up Messiah and Kwame Brown to tangle with the Jazz’s twin towers inside."
Though the Warriors inevitably left Paul open at times while defending the high pick-and-roll, Jack utilized his understanding of Paul to repeatedly defuse dangers for the team.
Qin Yue noticed that Jack would often engage Paul with enough physical confrontation during the Jazz’s offensive preparation phase.
This way, even if Paul could gain a chance to shoot a three-pointer through picks, his shooting accuracy would be hard to ensure.
Next, without a teammate’s help to delay, Jack could still predict Paul’s breakthrough routes by selecting positions early.
In the first quarter, Jack’s prediction success rate for Paul’s breakthroughs reached an astounding one hundred percent.
He seemed like a worm inside Paul’s stomach.
No matter where this Elf Mouse tried to slip, Jack could immediately stick to him.
No doubt, such a Jack made Paul’s game rather uncomfortable.
Despite subsequent games where Paul, thanks to his outstanding vision, assisted teammates multiple times to score on the court, and with his gradually matured rhythm pull-ups, reclaimed his place in front of Jack...
For this Warriors team without Davis...
Paul’s performance in the first game scoring 14 points with 5 out of 14 shots, no successful three-pointers in three attempts, and 4 of 4 free throws, totaling 14 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals was clearly inadequate.
Within the Warriors, Jack playing evenly with the God of Point Guards scored a total of 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists in this game.
Jack’s outstanding play made Kirilenko, whom Sloan actively chose to sacrifice during the game, suffer a whole match worth of beatings from Qin Yue.
Though Kirilenko possesses enviable height and wingspan and can move his feet fast enough to keep up with Qin Yue, once Qin Yue drops into the low post...
Even the highly powerful "AK47" cannot penetrate the thick armor of Qin Yue’s human tank.
After the game, Jazz coach Sloan reviewed Qin Yue’s stellar performance of 36 points and 14 rebounds for the Warriors and remarked, "I feel Ande can block every shot of his, but whenever I think that, he always manages to send the ball into the basket in an unbelievable way."
With Qin Yue’s stable inside dominance, the Warriors clinched their first battle against the Jazz.
However, one day later, Sloan, known for his strong ability to adjust, increased Millsap’s game time in the second matchup between the Jazz and the Warriors.
After Brown’s weight loss, the constrained defensive range made Okur face significant challenges against these Warriors.
Thus Sloan decided to deliberately lower the height inside and successfully executed the fast-paced basketball he desired in the second game.
Millsap frequently followed up and seized opportunities in the Jazz’s transition offense.
