Chapter 482 Macro Defense

Lakers' ball possession.

Looking at Nash who was looking around while holding the ball, Rukawa could feel his breathing becoming short.

He suppressed his breathing rhythm and heartbeat, but he could still feel that he was not in good shape.

This was a chance that he had finally gotten. This was a chance that he had finally gotten... He must not waste it!

Stop thinking about it. Recall the training and the feeling of defending Lin Dong. Use those things to fill your brain instead of letting these meaningless emotions dominate your thinking.

At least, you can't let yourself become the other side's ATM anymore!

With a stature of 191 cm and an unparalleled change of direction rhythm, this guy is the most difficult type to defend on the offensive end.

But fortunately, he was not a clumsy big man, so he would not lose too much in speed. His height and wingspan allowed him to take a step back and still have the opportunity to block the opponent's 3-pointer. The previous 3-pointer was just because his body was too stiff and his reaction was half a beat slower...

When the specific analysis, previous training scenes, etc. began to fill his brain, it really freed Rukawa Kaede from the worries and fears that had been entangled in his mind before, and his stiff body seemed to be much softer than before.

With his mind and heart calmed down a little, Rukawa Kaede finally had a sense of the game.

He calmed down.

McMillan was not sure about his defensive strength, but Rukawa Kaede knew that although he did not dare to say that he could block Nash's pass, if he really focused, he would not let Nash score over his head.

After all, his "sparring partner" was Lin Dong...

Use a trick!

He stood one step away from Nash and tried to "relax" his sight.

When your sight becomes ‘determined’, you can indeed focus on a certain point.

For example, staring at the opponent’s eyes, analyzing information and predicting actions through the changes in the opponent’s eyes; or staring at the opponent’s shoulders, waist and other positions, and reading the opponent’s actions in time by the way the opponent exerts force.

This is extremely effective for most players, but facing Nash’s level of offense, relying on such a single piece of information is useless, and it is even easy for the opponent to divide the ‘eyes’ and ‘actions’ into two parts to mislead you.

Thanks to the teachings of Sakuragi Hanamichi, Rukawa Kaede knows another way to read information.

That is to ‘relax’ the focused eyes and observe everything about the opponent from a bird’s-eye view and from a macro perspective.

This allows you to read more information, and it is not difficult to do it, just slightly adjust your sight distance and observation method.

However... it is not difficult to learn this trick, but it is difficult to learn it and use it.

When too much information rushes into your mind in an instant, it is actually easy to cause confusion and misjudgment in your thinking, because it is difficult for you to analyze all the information clearly in an instant.

At the same time, when the observation line is pulled to such a macroscopic angle, there is too much information to read. What should you look at?

There is a word in Longguo called "dazzled", which is really appropriate here. There is too much information and too many things to observe. How can you ensure that the information you see is valid information?

This is the real difficulty of this move. Payton and others have also learned this move from Lin Dong, but none of them have succeeded.

And if we use Payton's words to describe it, this move can be described by another more appropriate word, that is, "losing your mind"!

Yes, there is too much information to see, and I don’t know what to see; there are too many things pouring into my mind, and I can’t analyze them. The brain CPU is about to burn out. What else can you do besides being distracted?

Sakuragi Hanamichi can do this because that guy has a speechless talent. He is a single-celled organism that does things by instinct, relying on intuition.

Even if there are a million pieces of information in front of him, he can always see the most important one or two hidden in them at a glance. Maybe he himself doesn't understand why he is attracted by those one or two key pieces of information, but he can do it... It's as if there is a God living in that guy's head, helping him to pick and choose the correct answer at any time.

And Lin Dong can do this, firstly because of his extraordinary experience and basketball IQ, and secondly because this guy really has a super smart brain. His analytical ability and reaction ability are far beyond the reach of anyone else in the Supersonics.

Apart from anything else, it is said that when this guy was in high school in Xiangyang, he trained on the court every day and never read books, but as long as he glanced at the textbook before the exam, he could get almost full marks in mathematics... This is really enviable.

And Rukawa Kaede...

At this time, Nash became "three-dimensional" in Rukawa Kaede's eyes, and it was just a simple picture of dribbling over, and it seemed that countless information poured into Rukawa Kaede's brain in an instant.

——Is the rhythm of dribbling exactly the same as when he just walked over, and is there any change? Whether it is slowing down or speeding up, it is a sign that the opponent's offensive method is about to change.

——Has the power of the ball changed? Is it heavier or lighter? This can be judged by the speed of the ball and the sound of the basketball bouncing off the ground. Generally speaking, a sudden increase in the power of the ball means a breakthrough, while a reduction in the power means a possible jump shot.

——Are there any subtle changes in the height of the shoulders when dribbling? The shoulders are balanced, which means the center of gravity is also balanced. Before anyone exerts force to change the center of gravity, there will always be some changes in the balance of the shoulders. Even a top master like Lin Dong cannot violate the normal way of exerting force...

For normal people, it is the limit to be able to see one or two of these three items clearly, and it is even enough to be called a defensive master. But for Rukawa Kaede who has entered this macro perspective, these three are just basic information among basic information.

Because in addition to these most obvious external changes, you also have to feel the changes in the other party's emotions, changes in their eyes, and even the changes in the details of the air flow on the scene. Don't think it's metaphysical. The changes in air flow and sound mean that you have a comprehensive understanding of the whole court. You can only feel and hear when you look at your opponent, and the position and off-ball running of the opponent's teammates actually determine the next choice of the ball holder to a large extent. If you don't observe the whole court and only stare at the ball holder in front of you, such a macro perspective is completely meaningless. You might as well concentrate on using the old tradition to do normal one-on-one defense, which will be simpler, more energy-saving, and more cost-effective.

Too much information, too many details, the more information you combine, the more accurate your prediction will be.

Rukawa Kaede's brain is spinning desperately, processing this massive amount of information.

In the past, when he and Sakuragi defended Lin Dong, he could always do this kind of defense once or twice in three or five times.

Nash's offensive ability is far inferior to Lin Dong, there is no reason why he can't do it, but...

Huh!

A seemingly simple fake breakthrough followed by a step back, a move that Rukawa could follow at his normal level, turned into a deadly attack.

Rukawa's move seemed to be half a beat slower. Although he barely followed Nash's first step, in order to make up for the half-beat slower reaction, he swung his center of gravity too hard, so that when Nash stepped back, Rukawa couldn't keep up with the rhythm at all, and actually fell to the ground.

Swish!

A large open three-pointer, Nash's mouth corners raised, and his fists were clenched while the ball was still flying in the air.

The basketball went into the net, 8:2!

——Nash! Nash! Nash!

——Lakers! Lakers! Lakers!

——Hahaha, that No. 11 has been beaten into a sieve! So weak!

The whole court was filled with cheers and whistles, and the Lakers were in high spirits!

Rukawa's face looked a little pale.

Is there something wrong with the trick? No.

He knew where his problem was.

I don't have Sakuragi's intuitive talent or Lin Dong's super brain. If I want to use this trick reluctantly, I need two things to help me.

One is to automatically give up some information. To put it bluntly, it is to directly eliminate some things that the opponent will never do by understanding the opponent's habits, and not consider the information related to those results. In this way, about 30%-50% of the information can be directly eliminated.

When facing all-around players like Lin Dong and Kobe, this method is not advisable. After all, they can do everything, and you can't eliminate them.

Fortunately, the team has analysts, and fortunately, the objects that I need to defend are often not all-around players at the level of Lin Dong. Therefore, for players with distinctive characteristics like Nash, as long as they do their homework, they can use this trick. This kind of defense is actually no worse than Lin Dong and Sakuragi.

Even if some information is eliminated, the brain still can't handle it, then it depends on the second condition-zone!

Yes, unlike Lin Dong and Sakuragi who have really mastered it, I can only do this when the zone is turned on.

But the problem now is that I can't get excited... I'm even going to the extreme of nervousness, which is completely opposite to excitement.

Even if I try to stay calm, I'm just pulling back to the center line, and I'm still a long way from excitement!

Get excited, get excited, damn bastard!

McMillan on the sidelines finally couldn't help but frown slightly.

He didn't know Rukawa's inner drama, let alone that he was trying to defend Nash from a macro perspective. Just now, seeing that he finally calmed down, I had some expectations for his defense this time, but I didn't expect that he performed worse than before, and even got shaken and fell directly, which was a big blow to the overall momentum of the team.

Is it really too early? Or... this guy is not that kind of material after all?

If he just didn't get into the state, then give him some time to adapt, but if he is at this level when he encounters pressure, or even gets worse, then it seems that there is no need to continue.

It's a pity for that 3-point ability... Replace him now?

However, after all, it was Lin Dong who "accompanied" Rukawa to practice for a whole year. If he didn't give him a chance after only three balls on the court, it seemed a bit too ignoring Lin Dong's efforts.

McMillan couldn't help but look at Lin Dong on the court, but saw that Lin Dong had already walked up and pulled Rukawa up.

"Hey, brother, don't go to see the coach, he won't replace you." Lin Dong smiled and said, "I'll take care of everything."

Rukawa was slightly startled, and Kobe, who was about to retreat, laughed beside Lin Dong: "Are you finally ready to shoot? I'm a little impatient to wait."

Lin Dong laughed and patted Rukawa on the shoulder. He ignored Kobe's provocation and made a tactical gesture to Payton.

The Sonics have the ball.

Lin Dong, who was originally mentioned to play No. 3 in the frontcourt, actually went directly to the backcourt to receive the ball, which surprised Kobe and the Zen Master on the sidelines.

Playing point guard? Double point guard?

In the past few seasons, the Sonics' tactics have not changed much on the offensive end. In addition to the normal single point guard running and counterattack, the most commonly used is this double point guard.

In terms of ball-handling ability, Lin Dong's ball-handling ability is undoubtedly better than Payton. Although his passing vision is not as good as that of a historical master like Kidd, it is comparable to the level of most top point guards. In addition to his own offensive ability and three-point shooting from the outside, once he holds the ball, his threat is a whole level higher than that of a normal point guard. The opponent has almost no other good way to use it except to double-team immediately.

Once the double-team is chosen, the Sonics' outside line will inevitably have an open opportunity.

Therefore, this tactic is the most common one used by the Sonics when they have a better outside shooting feel. Although it sacrifices a certain amount of Lin Dong's offensive firepower, it can easily activate the entire team and clock out early in the first half.

On the contrary, those games that rely on Lin Dong to challenge one-on-one often drag on until the fourth quarter or even the last moment.

They are all old rivals and know each other too well. At this time, the Sonics have 3 outside shooters on the court. Replacing Sakuragi Hanamichi with a shooter like Rukawa Kaede makes the Sonics' outside line stronger. It is reasonable to use such a tactic.

The Lakers have already targeted this.

When Zen Master Phil Jackson saw Lin Dong mentioned to the backcourt to hold the ball, he immediately shouted on the sidelines: "Tactic No. 3! Tactic No. 3!"

All the Lakers players took action immediately.

Unlike other teams who choose to double-team when facing Lin Dong holding the ball, the Lakers' response is to mark the whole court man-to-man!

Kobe Bryant came up to Lin Dong alone.

One claimed to be about to surpass Jordan, and the other was the "authentic" successor that Jordan had chosen many times in public.

The two superstars had already faced each other at the midline.

When their eyes met, unlike the previous fiery ones, their eyes were as calm as water, and their expressions seemed to be without any fireworks, so that the space around them seemed to become eight degrees colder, and then spread to the entire stadium.

——Kobe! Kobe, Kobe...

The noisy sound in the stadium involuntarily became smaller.

Perhaps it was affected by the cold momentum of the two people, or perhaps it was the expectation of the two people's upcoming singles.

All the fans stared at the pair on the court at this time, and their hearts were involuntarily raised to their throats.

What's the big deal about eating a supersonic substitute like Rukawa Kaede? What's worth celebrating and being happy about?

Only eating Lin Dong can be the real glory and victory!