Y13 [EN]: Chapter 150

Final 2010-2011 (Final)

“Yesterday’s defeat was painful. 87 to 90, a 3-point difference. We caught up a lot, but the last possession failure was significant. We need to turn things around in tomorrow’s game.”

The players, chatting over coffee, couldn’t help but discuss yesterday’s game, as they were facing such an important match like the Finals. Barea took a big gulp of iced Americano filled with ice and sighed.

“I know, it’s just the first game, but if we lose two home games and head on the road, it’s practically over. In a 2-3-2 Finals format, the series could end on the road.”

“I told you we’d win even without you, but we lost in the end. Hmph~ Was the curse of Y13 not enough?”

Seeing Brewer being serious for the first time in a while, and Chandler appropriately adjusting the mood with a mix of seriousness and humor, Youngjae waved his hand, saying he was okay.

“Hey, it’s alright. There’s no guarantee we would have won even if I was there. Everyone did their best, right?”

Youngjae shook his head, recalling the game he watched later, and Emily looked at Youngjae with a slightly worried expression.

“Still, yesterday’s game wasn’t all that bad. Take a look at this for a second.”

Brewer started playing a video on his laptop, and the others began to watch the game intently.

“I asked the video coordinator, and he edited the key moments of our loss yesterday into a video. First, here.”

The video stopped at the showdown between Youngjae and Dwyane Wade after Brewer pressed the space bar. It was the scene where Dwyane Wade stopped using his usual tricks and relentlessly drove with his power. Youngjae’s mouth felt bitter as he remembered yesterday.

“There was nothing we could do about this part. Dwyane Wade’s power is considered a cheat among guards.”

“It’s good if you can meet that style head-on with power, but if you can’t, it’s better not to. Actually, trying to push back with power and size led to a bad fall. It would be better to make inside attacks as difficult as possible with zone defense and force mid-to-long range shots.”

Dwyane Wade’s only weakness: as a shooting guard, his shooting range was below average, meaning he was a short-range shooter. That’s why he honed himself as a slasher specializing in penetration, and Youngjae was thoroughly sliced by that slashing.

“Well, Wade and LeBron’s main option is finishing after penetration, and their mid-range or three-point shots aren’t at a level where they can dominate the game. If we can somehow make it difficult to finish near the basket, we definitely have a chance to win.”

The main consensus was that there were no problems in guarding Wade. Tactics were not only devised by the coaching staff but also had to be understood and executed by the players, so these kinds of conversations were possible because many players had a high understanding of tactics.

‘Indeed.’

Could he have voiced his opinions and coordinated while listening to these discussions if he didn’t have the experiences from his past life? Youngjae thought he still had a long way to go. He wasn’t one to stubbornly meet the opponent head-on out of pride, but he naively thought that if he could control the opponent, it wouldn’t be bad to withstand them by meeting them head-on. As a result, he didn’t even play the entire game, his stamina was depleted, and he got injured without stopping the shots.

‘They’re right.’

He figured that if he hadn’t skipped team training today, the coaches would have said the same thing.

“The problem is that we can’t use zone defense throughout the entire game. Of course, there are cases where we use zone-like man-to-man defense, but our team is already doing that. We’ve practiced it quite a bit too. The coach said yesterday that we used zone defense 18 times. But we conceded 20 points in those 18 times, so it wasn’t very meaningful.”

“Right, the first few times, they were flustered and it worked, but from the second half, they came up with countermeasures, so it wasn’t worth it. So, they said that from the next game, they’ll reduce the frequency of zone defense and use it only at appropriate times. The original intention was to force Wade and LeBron to take jumpers, but Chalmers kept succeeding with three-pointers and drives, so it failed. That’s why the coach didn’t give zone defense instructions from the end of the game.”

Zone defense [a defensive strategy where players guard specific areas of the court rather than individual opponents] was thoroughly implemented to control Miami Heat’s top scorers, Wade and LeBron. If the two players, whose jumpers were pointed out as weaknesses, especially long-range jumpers, were forced to attempt those shots and failed, Miami Heat, whose rebounding ability was among the lowest in the league, would have difficulty securing offensive rebounds. In Dallas’s case, they had Chandler as their starting center, Haywood and Mahinmi as backups, and Nowitzki, who had averaged double-digit rebounds in the playoffs at the 4 spot, so they were at an advantage in securing defensive rebounds.

But Mario Chalmers was running wild. Forcing Chalmers to attack should have been a success in the first place. However, Chalmers kept making three-pointers and confidently driving to the basket, and the calculations started to go awry.

“I see. Zone defense didn’t really feel effective. Our offense was good, but so was their offense? I thought it worked well in the regular season. Their coach must be good at breaking down tactics since he’s a video analyst.”

The conversation, which started with Wade’s defense, eventually led to zone defense as they continued to talk. Youngjae didn’t feel that the zone defense worked very well yesterday either. Moreover, when Chandler mentioned the actual figures he heard from the analysis coach, it became easier to understand. That’s when he remembered that Miami’s coach Spoelstra was an analyst and had a knack for team tactics.

“Huh? Coach Spoelstra is an analyst? I didn’t know that. How do you know that stuff?”

Brewer, who wasn’t interested in the opposing team’s coach at all, looked at Youngjae strangely and asked. Youngjae always received and checked the data on the opposing team’s players and coaching staff, so he glared at Brewer as if he were pathetic and sighed deeply.

“He’s the opposing team’s coach. Besides, he’s the coach of a team that’s been causing issues all season. You should know at least this much, Brewer.”

Youngjae smiled and scolded Brewer instead. And after they bickered a few more times, Barea and Chandler started talking seriously again, so he joined in.

“By the way, shouldn’t we solve the problem with offense rather than defense?”

At Chandler’s words, Barea nodded as if agreeing, and tapped the table with his index finger.

“Honestly, our win rate is good when we score over 100 points, and our win rate is bad when we score below 100 points. I didn’t even need to look at the statistics to know that, but the coach told us recently that our win rate is over 90% in games where we score over 100 points. In the end, the only way to win with yesterday’s level of defense is through offense.”

“I agree. Our team’s defense is good, but if our offense isn’t as good as yesterday, we can’t suffocate the opponent with defense alone. Besides, our team tends to allow fast breaks easily when our offense isn’t working, and then we lose control of the tempo.”

Indeed, Dallas was an extremely good jump shooting team. The fact that those jump shots didn’t go in yesterday was ultimately the cause of their defeat. In order to increase the success rate of jump shots, they had to create as many open looks as possible, and having open looks meant that there had to be spacing. In other words, space creation had to occur.

Dallas had been creating space mainly through motion offense [a style of offense that emphasizes constant player and ball movement] utilizing Kidd’s exquisite leading and 2-2 plays where Youngjae and Barea used Nowitzki as a screener. However, Miami Heat, whose pick-and-roll allowed points were among the best in the league through trap defense and hedging, defended well against this, and with Youngjae’s injury, they couldn’t successfully execute 2-2 plays. In the end, Dallas relied on motion offense, but they failed to create good open looks due to the active rotation defense of the Heat players, who had a lot of activity.

“That’s right. That’s why we tested one or two new offensive tactics today. The coaches will probably tell you about it during team training tomorrow morning. As far as I remember, it’s a tactic we’ve never used this season. I don’t think many other teams have used it either? The opposing team will be quite flustered.”

Chandler looked at Youngjae as if he remembered the new offensive tactic he did today. Chandler seemed unfamiliar with it, as if it was a tactic he hadn’t done much in his nearly 10 years of professional life. Barea also recalled it, saying that he had already practiced it.

“Oh, right. You weren’t there, so Kidd and I practiced with Nowitzki and Chandler, and you’ll probably practice it first during tomorrow’s tactical training. We’ve never done this during tactical training this season, so we’ll have to try it out if we want to use it in tomorrow’s game.”

“Well, to put it simply… Staggered? Something like that?”

Youngjae tilted his head with a puzzled expression, but the players didn’t say anything more and left, saying, ‘We’re going~’.

“Yun, is your body feeling better?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I rested for a day, and I feel much better since I’m young. It won’t affect the game anymore.”

Morning of the second Finals game. Youngjae wore his usual jersey and came out to the training ground. Perhaps because Emily had washed it herself, it was on a different level from the usual wrinkled and carelessly dried jerseys.

Coach Carlisle looked at Youngjae, who had returned to normal condition, with satisfaction and nodded.

“That’s a relief then. Then warm up first, and later during tactical training, there’s something we need to do. Barea, Kidd, Nowitzki, and Chandler practiced it yesterday, but you weren’t there, so we’ll have to do it today. That way, we can use it in a real game.”

Coach Carlisle was concerned about Youngjae’s health and worried about whether Youngjae could adapt to the tactics in just one day.

“Ah, I heard a brief explanation from the team members yesterday. I was going to look into it and learn it on my own, but even if I understand it in my head, I’ll have to do it myself in the end. It’s a three-man pick-and-roll tactic. In the end, all five people move, but three are the core.”

“Hmm? Did you meet with Barea separately yesterday?”

“Yes. I had dinner with Barea, Chandler, and Brewer. We talked about the game two days ago, and Brewer even brought a video and we shared various stories.”

Coach Carlisle smiled slightly at the fact that the Dallas team was moving in a good direction. It was a simple dinner, but it was good for building teamwork, and the fact that they even talked about tactics was proof that the players weren’t demoralized by the defeat, but rather had a strong desire to avenge themselves in the second game.

Occasionally, there were players who would drink or go to clubs in a distorted way to relieve their dirty feelings after a defeat, or engage in behavior that violated their professional ethics, but at least the players who were responsible for Dallas were not doing that, so Carlisle thought that there was no need to worry about morale anymore.

“Good. Then get ready and come.”

Youngjae began to warm up calmly. His wrists and ankles were still flexible, and there were no problems with his knees or other joints. Finally, he arched his upper body backward like a bow, and Youngjae smiled with satisfaction that there was no strain on his back.

============================ Author’s Notes ============================

★Thank you to those who gave me advance picks, recommendations, comments, and coupons!!

＠This episode mainly focuses on the tactical discussions between players and tactical training. I felt like there were too many scenes with just the game and Emily, so I decided to include a story that I originally wanted to add. As a result, it might be a bit difficult. If it’s too difficult, you can skip this episode without affecting your understanding of future games. This is an attempt to write more like a basketball novel.

＠While editing the content, I accidentally left out the content of the first game in the previous episode. It was originally in the front part of this episode, but I cut it out by mistake. In a serialized novel, I should have structured it so that it could be understood in the very next episode, but it was my mistake. As written in the front, we lost the first game.

※Zone Defense: A form of regional defense. Unlike man-to-man defense, it is a method of defense in which five people each divide and defend a zone (region) centered around them. However, since the NBA cannot stay under the basket for more than 3 seconds, it is necessary to move back and forth appropriately. That’s why they almost always use a modified zone defense. Dallas’s 2-3 defense, as mentioned, is based on man-to-man defense, but the two guards defend the diagonal three-point area, the forwards cover the corners, and the center covers the basket.

※Staggered Screen: Unlike regular screen plays, it uses two screeners. A similar case is the elevator screen that utilizes Curry of the Golden State Warriors, which is a form in which two screeners create space to allow Curry to shoot comfortably, whereas the staggered screen creates open opportunities by having two big men pop and roll to the outside and the basket, respectively. The problem is that it requires two screeners who are good at screening and capable of shooting and dunking, so it is difficult for many teams to use. There are not many teams that have two such players.

※Motion Offense: An offense that involves movement. There are so many detailed types. Basically, it minimizes 1:1 situations, creates good opportunities by having players move a lot, and is a systematic tactic that focuses on organic passing games. As of this NBA season, San Antonio, Dallas, Golden State, and Atlanta are representative. Most teams with a lot of passes and that don’t rely on one or two players, but have multiple players touch the ball, can be considered to have motion offense as their main focus.

잿빛그림자님/// Thank you for the first comment. Thank you for the coupon!!

개구리파워님, 그곳에님, 사라질영혼님, 오마리온님, -DarkANGEL- 님/// Thank you for the comments!!

울트라10님/// Oh lol, there’s a game again today;;;

현익님/// Oh no… Thank you for pointing that out. I was editing with a touchpad, so there was a duplication.

석이형님, -ㅁ-ㆀ님, CountOfDark님/// I’m sorry. I should have edited it a little later, but it caused a misunderstanding for many people.

킹덤브라더스님/// Thank you for the compliment. We will continue to work hard as writers.

Naye님/// Yes. I heard that too lol. It seems that japchae and bulgogi are more suitable for Western tastes. It’s probably because they’re less spicy… Spicy foods like bibimbap and kimchi don’t get very good reactions. Of course, there are exceptions like some of our foreign players who prefer those Korean foods more.

ㅎ0ㅎ님/// Oh lol, did you have a delicious dinner?