April 21, 8:30 pm, Phillips Center.

In the visiting team's locker room, the Nets players looked solemn as they looked at Frank, who was standing in front of everyone, and listened carefully to his tactics:

"Although we are eighth in the Eastern Conference, we have a chance to win this series. The Hawks are indeed first in the league, but they are mainly young players, including Garnett, and have little experience in the playoffs.

Duo, g1 is our last chance, we must seize it! From the first minute, we must raise the intensity to the highest level, especially you Jason, don't give Paul a chance to breathe. Vince, I need you to stand up

Score, score a lot, to change the shape of the Eagles' defense..."

Carter sat in his seat, looked at each other with Frank, pursed his lips, and nodded slowly but firmly, indicating that he understood.

This season is Carter's contract year. So far, the Nets and Carter himself have not reached an agreement on contract renewal. From Carter's own perspective, the farce with the Rams once plunged him into a "notorious" situation.

, the critical moment is that the Nets accepted him, so he does not want to fall out with the Nets. The Nets' idea is to look at the team's performance this season to decide whether to maintain the status quo or tear down and rebuild.

This round of the series means a lot to both Carter and the Nets. Let’s not talk about winning or losing. At the very least, it must prove that the team still has the strength to make an upward impact, right?

"...Okay, let's go, it's time to warm up! Guys, it's the playoffs and everything starts from scratch. So what about eighth place? You can do it! Come on!" Frank said loudly,

Take two steps forward and extend your right hand.

The players stood up one after another, came to the center of the locker room, put their hands on each other, shouted a slogan in unison, and filed out of the locker room.

Unlike the seriousness in the Nets locker room, the Hawks locker room was peaceful and relaxed, just like an ordinary regular season game.

Ke Yan himself was very relaxed: "Guys, as long as you perform at your normal level, the Nets are nothing! Compared with the inside, we give them a kilogram, but we are still better than them!"

"Boss, I have no problem!" Hearing Ke Yan say "kg" out of nowhere, Garnett was a little confused and said quickly.

"I know you're fine, mvp!" Ke Yan joked, and others around him soon became happy.

"Compared to the perimeter, they are just more famous! Kidd is no longer the Kidd he was five years ago. What can he do now besides picking up rebounds and pushing back on fast breaks? Jefferson and Carter obviously play like that.

There is conflict and there is no way to perform at the same time." Ke Yan "belittled" his opponent to increase confidence among the young people in the team.

But his words were not unwarranted. This season, Kidd has been involved in trade rumors several times, and even almost went to the Lakers. Although it never happened, it can be seen that the Nets have made moves to trade him.

Richard Jefferson's data dropped from 19 points per game last season to 16 points per game this season. To a certain extent, this is due to the decline in tactical status and all the ball rights being concentrated in Carter's hands.

After the warm-up, the starting lineups of both teams took to the court.

Five players of the Hawks: Paul, Joe Johnson, Battier, Garnett, Diaw.

Nets five players: Kidd, Carter, Jefferson, Najera, Jason Collins.

Compared with the regular season, the Nets also lost European insider Krstic, and the already weak inside line was even more vulnerable. Najera is a blue-collar player who plays very hard, and he has a strong presence as a substitute, but you let him

Starting against Garnett is tantamount to hanging the white flag and surrendering.

Garnett won the jump ball and passed it to Joe Johnson, who dribbled the ball across half court and passed it to Diaw.

Diaw organized from outside the three-point line, Paul, and Joe Johnson opened up on the right side. Joe Johnson and Garnett made off-ball screens, leaving Carter behind to catch the ball.

Joe Johnson caught the ball and faced the frame, waiting for Garnett to cut and lob the ball over. The Wolf King caught the ball with his back, leaned against Najera, turned around in the middle, and overpowered his opponent to throw the ball in. 2 to 0.

The Nets attacked, Carter received the ball on the right side, pushed Battier with his right shoulder and relied on his explosive power to break through. He was double-teamed by Garnett and Battier and quickly distributed the ball.

Najera got an open space inside the free throw line, and the mid-range shot was unreliable. He had to wait for his teammates to respond, and the Nets' offense immediately came to a standstill.

Kidd hurriedly stepped forward to respond, relying on his physical advantage to overcome Paul's defense, and then threw the ball away. The ball missed the basket, and Garnett grabbed the rebound.

When the Eagles attacked, Paul dribbled to the left and passed the ball to Garnett in the low post. The latter leaned on Collins and turned to the baseline and missed the shot. Garnett quickly took off for a second time and relied on his height and wingspan.

He took the advantage to grab the offensive rebound and used strength again to cause a foul by Collins's thug.

In the first two rounds of offense, the Eagles' inside advantage was clearly visible!

Garnett made two free throws, 4-0.

When the Nets attacked, Kidd brought the ball to the frontcourt and passed it to Jefferson on the weak side. The latter singled out Joe Johnson with the ball, stepped towards the frame, and took a step to the middle to make a pull-up jump shot. 4 to 2.

The Hawks attacked, Paul broke through with the ball, passed Kidd with continuous changes in front of his body, and scored a quick layup, 6-2.

After being shown a wave of moves by the young man, Kidd returned to the offensive end. Instead of passing the ball to Carter, Kidd held the ball to the low post, leaned on Paul with his back, and took advantage of the confrontation to move inside.

Paul suffered a bit in the confrontation. He couldn't hold Kidd off and was about to lose. Kidd took advantage of everyone's attention and sent a behind-the-back pass.

Najera caught the ball from the baseline and made an easy hit without any defense. (6:4)

Paul and Garnett were both responsible for the defense of this ball. The former allowed Kidd to get stuck too easily, causing a passivity behind; while Garnett neglected to defend Najera.

Dribbling to the frontcourt, Paul and Garnett played a pick-and-roll. Garnett stopped in the corner, received Paul's pass, and faked a shot, attracting the defense of Collins and Carter. He passed the ball to the empty space.

Battier cut the ball, and the latter took three steps directly after receiving the ball. After confronting Najera who came to help defend in the air, he put the ball into the basket.

If this ball had been played by someone like Ginobili, who is an actor, or Wade, who is good at drawing fouls, it would have been 21. Battier would still be too honest in his game!

The Nets attacked, but couldn't pass through several screens. In the end, Carter faced Battier and missed a jump shot.

The three stars of the Nets are all outsiders, and their breakthrough ability is not top-notch. This team's offense lacks layering. As long as they guard the outside and have a big man inside who can block shots, their offense will not be strangled.

Disaster.

Paul dribbled the ball across half court and passed it to Diaw who was at the top of the arc. He ran to the weak side and set up a cross screen with the oncoming Joe Johnson, which took a considerable part of the Nets' defensive attention, and the latter then

After the ball passed directly to Garnett in the low post, Garnett attempted to complete a single, which involved Carter's defense and then passed to the bottom corner. Battier hit a three-pointer from the bottom corner!

In the regular season, the Hawks' offense was mainly based on run-and-gun and high-post pick-and-rolls, but in the playoffs, Ke Yan came up with more tricks, making it difficult for the Nets to guard against them.

On the other hand, the Nets' offense can only be described in four words. It's piecemeal! It's hard to have any continuity!

After another 4 minutes of play, the score difference widened to double digits. Frank replaced CBA legend Josh Boone in an attempt to reverse the situation, but the effect was average. Josh Boone has a certain amount of inside impact, and can run, gun, and pick-and-roll.

Echoing Kidd, he has no shooting range, his defense is not as good as Najera, and his threat to Garnett is very limited.

Eight minutes into the first quarter, Ke Yan replaced Joe Johnson and Garnett; replaced Milicic and Stevens, using a more secure rotation to win the game at a lower cost.

Even so, the Eagles still ended the first quarter with a double-digit score difference of 31 to 18.

Compared with the starting lineup, the Eagles' bench really lacks playoff experience. Gibson and Stevens are all rookies in the playoffs. Although Milicic has a championship ring, he is nicknamed "Victory Cigar"

It shows everything, he was a soy saucer in the Pistons, and only Webb and Bobby Jackson, two losers from the Kings, experienced the big scenes of the playoffs.

Against the bench, Marcus Williams of the Nets became the team's surprise player. This wing player, who shot only 31.4% from outside in the regular season, hit three three-pointers in the first half of the second quarter.

helped the Nets narrow the point difference to 6 points. His wonderful performance also made CCTV commentators Yu Jia and Zhang Lili call it "incredible".

The situation was not embarrassing, but Ke Yan did not intend to let it go. He decisively replaced Joe Johnson and Garnett to regain control of the game. Garnett's appearance gave the Eagles' offense a fulcrum and a more three-dimensional sense. This is

The other interior players on the Hawks can't play a role.

"It's really different to have a solid inside scoring point!" Although he is better at attacking from the outside in, but if he really has an inside line like Garnett, Ke Yan still wants to shout, "It smells so good!"

As long as he plays, Garnett can improve the Hawks' overall offense and defense. Kidd's own offensive power is insufficient, and the burden on Carter's shoulders is heavier. Even though he has a good touch, making 4 of 8 shots, he is still unable to change the point difference and is pulled again.

open trend.

At halftime, the Eagles led by 12 points at 60:48.

During the halftime break, Ke Yan didn't make any changes to his game. He just said some nonsense about Carter's defense. The specific scale was left to Garnett and Battier to control.

"If something isn't broken, don't take the initiative to fix it." This is a saying that everyone in the NBA knows.

Ke Yan didn't take the Nets seriously, partly because the opponent's lineup had structural problems and couldn't cope with Garnett at all.

Just like when Ke Yan led the Lakers to compete with the Spurs, the conventional approach was to defend Duncan in a dead end, so he had to use the "three highs" inside layout to kill Duncan. Compared with the Hawks, the Nets' lineup disadvantage is more obvious, and there is no

It would be difficult for a "crazy" head coach like Ke Yan to "lead" the Eagles, bring them to the same level as them, and then use his rich experience to defeat the Eagles.

In fact, although Frank did not have Ke Yan's achievements, he was still a head coach who dared to "change". Seeing that the team could not restrict Garnett, he chose to flank Garnett and then rotate to help defend and fill the position.

Limit the Eagles' offense.

However, Joe Johnson, Battier, and Paul hit three-pointers one after another. There was no obvious point in the Hawks' formation that hindered the space, and the point difference easily reached 18 points.

From this point of view, the last regular season matchup between the two teams is more like a gift from the Eagles to the Nets! If the Eagles show 80% of their performance today, the Washington Wizards may be standing opposite them now!

Perhaps, compared to the three-headed combination of "Kidd, Carter, and Jefferson", Arenas, Jamison, and Butler are indeed a little more difficult to deal with, right?

In the end, the Hawks defeated the Nets 113-85 and won their first playoff victory of the season.

After the red light came on, Garnett slowly stood up from his seat, unable to conceal his excitement. This was the easiest playoff game he had won in his career, and it was also the one with a larger winning margin.

In the whole game, Garnett made 13 of 22 shots and 5 of 5 free throws. He scored 31 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 2 turnovers. He did his best to suppress the Nets' inside line.

The team's advantage lies in the paint. Paul restrained his desire to take shots and delivered more shells to Garnett. In the whole game, Paul made 6 of 14 shots, 2 of 4 three-pointers, 4 of 4 free throws, and scored 18 points.

He had 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers, integrating offense and defense. He took over the torch of "top point guard" from Kidd.

Joe Johnson's performance was as stable as ever, making 7 of 15 shots, 3 of 9 three-pointers, and 4 of 4 free throws. He scored 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists. In this series, for most of the time, Joe Johnson needed

Against Jefferson, the pressure on both offense and defense is relatively high.

The performance of others was also remarkable. Battier made 3 of 7 three-pointers, scored 8 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steal, 3 turnovers and 5 fouls, filling up the data column. He was very good to Carter.

The defensive effect is pretty good. Although the opponent scored 34 points, the "demigod"'s sales of 13 of 29 shots are not high!

Diaw scored a steady score of 6 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists, but it was still "the data does not reflect the effect"; Milicic scored 7 points and 5 rebounds, and Weber scored 6 points and 4 rebounds, all of which made their best contributions.

After the game, reporters interviewed Ke Yan and asked him what he thought of the game.

"It's an expected victory. Our lineup has obvious advantages. The game is really difficult for Frank." Ke Yan said honestly, "If you ask me to sit on the Nets' coaching bench, I should be fine.

Method."
To be continued...