Mountain Peak System: a Path to NBA-Chapter 518 - 172 "Qin Yue’s Law" (10,000 words updated in a single day, begging for subscription and monthly tickets!)
The Lakers’ crushing defeat in the opening game was like a forewarning, causing all championship-contending teams in the league to panic like never before.
Qin Yue’s speed with his skill and talent to attack the basket is unbelievably fast.
So much so that after watching the footage, teams found that when facing the Warriors, they are destined to try to force Qin Yue to take jump shots or make him give up the ball, just like the Lakers.
But in the current era, since the league has prohibited defensive hand-checking and physical collisions...
Teams can only perform limited interference on Qin Yue’s shots and soon witnessed firsthand the flaws in this defensive strategy.
The Warriors’ second regular-season opponent was the Denver Nuggets.
This game took place at Oracle Arena.
To prevent Qin Yue’s unbridled breakthroughs on the court, Nuggets’ coach George Karl specifically devised a strategy called triangle defense before the game.
The plan was, once Qin Yue attempted a breakthrough from the perimeter, Kenyon Martin and Ben Wallace, responsible for guarding the sides of the paint, would immediately team up with Chauncey Billups near the free throw line to surround him.
And during the game, Anthony, responsible for guarding Qin Yue, would adopt a retreating defense to avoid being treated as highway for Qin Yue’s breakthroughs.
Carl’s idea was great.
But on the court, under Anthony’s devout prayers, Qin Yue first transformed into a human-shaped shooting machine, going 11-for-19 in the first half, including 4-for-9 from the three-point range.
Then, facing the Nuggets’ crazed encirclement, Qin Yue only committed 2 turnovers in the first half and delivered 9 assists.
During halftime, Carl gave an interview with ESPN.
"You ask me which player is easiest to defend in this zone defense? Of course, it’s Michael Jordan and Messiah."
Carl said despairingly, "Defending other players requires various adjustments based on their characteristics and offensive tactics. But when facing Michael and Messiah, you can only pray their shots don’t go in."
After pausing, Carl added, "Compared to Michael back in the day, Messiah is in an era where you can’t put pressure on offensive players through high-intensity physical confrontations, and I have no doubt he can drop 50 points in this era."
Qin Yue finished the game against the Nuggets with 42 points, 12 rebounds, 14 assists, 3 blocks, and 1 steal.
He didn’t drop 50 points as Carl predicted, not because he wasn’t strong enough, but because he clocked out early after playing three quarters.
After the game, Anthony, feeling even Qin Yue showed mercy, said in an interview, "I prayed all night, but his response was just ’swish swish swish.’
Two games later, the fear brought by GOAT undoubtedly reached a new level.
In November, the Orlando Magic, who challenged the Warriors, were highly anticipated by the public.
Dwight Howard is at the peak of his career, theoretically capable of defending from the paint to the three-point line.
Stephen Jackson is a tough defender, and under Stan Van Gundy’s tactical system, he will protect the Magic’s defense from the flanks.
Additionally, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu are also tall forwards.
Although they aren’t as adept at defense as Jackson, their impressive size ensures they can apply some pressure to Qin Yue during defensive rotations.
The Magic did everything they could in the game that night.
But Jackson, responsible for matching up against Qin Yue, was the first to collapse.
To avoid being easily pushed aside by Qin Yue, knowing his size wouldn’t match Qin Yue’s, Jackson predominantly focused his defensive energy on limiting Qin Yue’s catches and using retreating defense to buy survival space.
However...
"Generally speaking, players of his height would call for the ball after settling into the low post." An emotionally broken Jackson said post-match, "But he can pull up to the perimeter to catch the ball and launch an attack from miles away."
Moreover, similarly to the previous Warriors vs. Nuggets game...
Jackson, who could only apply weak interference to Qin Yue’s shots, every prayer he said was answered by Qin Yue with "swish swish swish."
Three-point shooting is indeed Qin Yue’s current only shortfall.
But if you can only weakly interfere with his three-point attempts, how can you effectively reduce his shooting percentage?
A good perimeter shooting environment can make Qin Yue confidently attempt three-point shots on the court.
Moreover, once Qin Yue enters the three-point line, his increasing mid-range shooting accuracy year after year under the opponent’s retreating defense will equally cause severe damage to the opponent’s defense.
In the game, Jackson did try to incapacitate Qin Yue in the paint together with Howard.
But unlike James, whom the Magic could restrict by sealing the paint.
When Jackson attempted to trap the slightly larger Qin Yue in the Magic’s paint, Howard quickly found himself in foul trouble and was forced to leave the court.
Jackson doesn’t want to admit he was the reason Howard was in trouble.
But by looking at the game process, he indeed was the one who caused Howard to only play 29 minutes and 58 seconds in this high-stakes battle.
The final score was 109 to 127.
The Warriors started the season with a long-awaited three-game winning streak, whereas Qin Yue achieved a "40+" triple-double in three consecutive games.
