Chapter 87: Taking advantage of the situation
After the second quarter, both teams had basically the starting lineup. Of course, there were some minor adjustments. For example, the Mavericks replaced Chou with Finley, and the Suns replaced Joe Johnson with Jim Jackson.

Then a new round of offensive battle began.

Of course, the hit rate in this quarter was much lower than that in the previous quarter, and everyone's feel became worse as their physical strength declined.

Nelson wants to see the Suns' hard work on their main players. This has nothing to do with injuries. It's mainly because the harder D'Antoni works, the worse their physical strength will be. This is good news for the Mavericks.

The score between the two teams was always very tense, and the turning point came five minutes into the second quarter when Nash went down to rest.

He played the entire first quarter and has also played until now in the second quarter. His physical strength was not as good as other players. As his physical strength declined, his concentration became distracted. He just made an extremely low-level pass error.

D'Antoni knew that he had to give this guy a break.

With Nash resting, the Suns' offense stagnated. Although other players also have the ability to control the ball, they are not as good as Nash.

"Attack and destroy them!"

Old Nelson was shouting on the sidelines. Although he was 65 years old, he was still energetic and full of vigor.

He reminded the players to take advantage of this opportunity to widen the score gap.

Afterwards, the Mavericks lived up to expectations and scored a 9:0 wave, which directly stopped the Suns.

This small climax was mainly created by Jerry Stackhouse, who scored 9 out of the 7 points.

Remember Jerry Stackhouse, the player who challenged Jordan in his rookie season and got beaten up by him?

He performed well this season. Although he missed more than 28.9 games due to injuries, in the games he played, he averaged 14.9 minutes per game, averaging 3.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and assists per game.

His scoring has improved compared to last season, and it is also the highest scoring season from this season to his retirement.

In the climax just now, he first received a pass from Jason Terry and hit a three-pointer, and then hit a mid-range shot after grabbing an offensive rebound.

In the next round, he attacked the basket again, causing damage, and then made two free throws with his unique squat.

Not to mention, although his posture is outrageous, his hit rate is quite high. His career free throw percentage is 82.2%. He averages 5.8 shots per game and makes 4.8.

The other 9 points out of 2 points came from Zheng Yang.

There is no doubt that Jerry Stackhouse was the best player in the second quarter. During the timeout, Zheng Yang and others came over to high-five him to celebrate.

Zheng Yang was not unhappy because he felt that the opponent had stolen his limelight. In fact, he was very happy that there were substitute players around him who could stand up and share the pressure with him.

This team won't go far relying on him or Nowitzki alone, because it's impossible for one person to score 100 points.

To win the championship, the team needs to be united and someone needs to stand up and explode from time to time.

After the timeout, Nash returned to the court. Although he had just been off the court for a short time, it was the playoffs and every game was crucial. If he didn't come back, today's game would be in jeopardy.

In the first round, Nash successfully established an aerial connection with Shawn Marion, helping the opponent to score a dunk.

This team can be without anyone, including Stoudemire, but it definitely cannot be without Nash.

He is the key factor of the entire team. Without him, the team will immediately fall apart and only one tenth of its strength will remain.

The Mavericks also did not let down. Dirk Nowitzki turned around and passed Shawn Marion, then dunked over Stoudemire's defense.

Not only did he fail to stop him, but he also ended up committing a foul.

"Hey, Nowitzki is really amazing. He looks clumsy, but I didn't expect him to be so fast. The turn he made just now was really flexible.

Having him step up to score has really helped Zheng Yang to shoulder a lot of pressure. He is really good at being the second in command.”

Coach Zhang in the studio said with a smile, and Yu Jia on the side nodded in agreement at first, but then realized that something seemed to be wrong.

Nowitzki? Second in command?

Is Nowitzki the second-in-command of this team?

Perhaps because he has received too much information like this in the country, Yu Jia is now not sure who is the boss of this team.

With Nash stepping up to connect the team, the Suns finally prevented the score gap from widening before the end of the second quarter.

As for whether they can equalize or even overtake, it depends on their performance in the second half.

At the end of the first half, the Mavericks led by 60 points, 52:8.

During the halftime break, Nelson still emphasized the key points he had mentioned before the game, one was to return to defense in time, and the other was to cut off the connection between Nash and Stoudemire.

Everyone nodded and kept these two points in mind, while drinking their beverages to restore as much energy as possible.

……

After the second half, both teams played well in the first half of the third quarter, with high shooting percentages, after all, they had recovered their strength during the halftime break.

The Suns also narrowed the score to 5 points at this point.

Although the Mavericks were able to respond to the Suns' offense, one was a two-pointer and the other was a three-pointer. This Suns team also likes to throw three-pointers, and their hit rate is very good. In this game, they have already shot 16 three-pointers and hit 7 of them.

Although the Mavericks also took 13 shots, they only made 3 of them, a pitifully low shooting percentage.

Thanks to their three-point advantage, the Suns were able to narrow the score to 5 points.

But as the game went on longer and both sides' physical strength declined, the Suns' three-pointers became ineffective.

Their fast break speed began to slow down, and they were dragged into the quagmire of positional warfare by the Mavericks.

After falling into a positional battle, the Mavericks began to implement their original plan and cut off the connection between Stoudemire and Nash.

Dampier kept his eyes on Stoudemire and followed him even when he was moved out of the restricted area. Nowitzki also focused his attention on Stoudemire and would double-team him immediately if something went wrong.

Zheng Yang and Da Chou took turns defending Nash. If he wanted to play one-on-one, that was fine. If he wanted to pass the ball to an outside player, that was fine. If he wanted to pass the ball to Stoudemire after a pick-and-roll, that was fine?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!
Due to the severe double-teaming faced by Stoudemire, Nash chose to take mid-range shots more often in the following rounds, or rushed into the restricted area when Stoudemire was not prepared and made layups.

But this is exactly the gentle trap that the Mavericks set for Nash. They can completely accept Nash playing alone, but he can't kill the Mavericks that way.

Nash and D'Antoni, who were being boiled like frogs in warm water, had no time to react at all. When there were only three minutes left in the game and Nash's score reached 25 points, they looked up and saw that the gap between them and the Mavericks was still 10 points.

During this period, not only did we fail to catch up, but the gap between us and the opponent widened.

D'Antoni requested a timeout again. He asked Nash to connect the team as much as possible and cooperate more with Stoudemire.

But it's not that Nash is too selfish and unwilling to pass the ball to Stoudemire. It's just that the offensive environment Stoudemire faces is too bad. It's not easy for him to catch the ball, let alone pass it.

So after the timeout, Nash chose to pass the ball to the outside, allowing Shawn Marion and others to shoot three-pointers.

But their touch was not always on point. After missing two three-pointers, the score gap not only failed to narrow, but instead widened to 15 points.

D'Antoni sighed helplessly, waved his hand, and decided to call it a day.

They have to think of a solution, either to strengthen the connection between Stoudemire and Nash, or to weaken the Mavericks' offense.

Otherwise, this series will be very disastrous!
……

Two days later, the game was played again at the Suns' home court, and the Suns won the game with a big score of 105:115.

Their defensive strategy in this game was to constantly double-team Nowitzki and force him to pass the ball.

On the offensive end, although they did not find a way to break the Mavericks' gentle trap, they were no longer obsessed with the connection between Stoudemire and Nash, but the team's three-pointers.

In the second game, they took an astonishing 33 three-point shots, which was crazy!

What’s even more amazing is that they hit the target 16 times, with a hit rate of almost 50%.

D'Antoni felt that he had found the key to winning the game, so he continued to emphasize the above two points to the players on the plane to Dallas.

We plan to continue implementing these two measures in G3.

As for the Mavericks, the big loss in Game 2 did deal a blow to their morale, but once their emotions settled down, they readjusted their state and prepared to face the Phoenix Suns at home.

Although they lost badly in G2, it was only a loss of one game. Being able to win a game at the Suns' home court was already the achievement of their strategic plan.

What they need to do next is to quickly adjust their mentality and try to change the score to 3-1 in the next two home games. At that time, they will have three match points and will have complete control of the initiative in the game.

Nelson and several assistant coaches were also working overtime to discuss the strategy for Game 3, mainly on offense, how they could help Nowitzki break free from the Suns' defensive quagmire.

During the discussion, Nelson's right-hand man Avery Johnson put forward an idea that breaks away from the inertia of thinking.

"Why did we have to let Dirk get away from the Suns defense?

We can definitely take advantage of their double-team on Dirk and increase the offensive threat of other guys.”

"Avery, have you forgotten that we lost G2 by 10 points?"

Another assistant coach reminded him, but Avery Johnson just shook his head.

“No, we didn’t lose because we lost Dirk, we lost because they shot three-pointers so well.

They made 16 three-pointers in the last game, and their shooting percentage was close to 50%. What does that mean?
It's like the sun rising in the west. What I mean is, there's no way they'll be able to make that many three-pointers in the next game.

As long as they make two or three fewer three-pointers, we will definitely be able to fight.

Zheng and Jerry can completely digest Dirk's ball possession. We just need to let others play more and we can win this game."

Avery Johnson said this in a decisive tone. Old Nelson looked at him with a frown. After thinking about it in his mind, he found that this was indeed the case.

So he nodded and made the final decision.

"Then we will continue to implement our previous strategy. I don't believe that God can stand on their side every day."

(End of this chapter)