CHAPTER 1343: CHAPTER 538: THE NEW ’GREEN FORMULA

Moreover, the stamina of these three is clearly better than the other two plus Thompson!

Compared to these three scoring in double digits in a single quarter, their play in the third quarter truly left Curry and Durant in awe.

The Celtics’ Three Giants, Garnett abandons isolation play, instead opting for catch-and-shoot, defense, and facilitating, Ray Allen gives up ball handling, transforming into a pure shooter;

The Miami Heat’s Three Giants, Wade gives up his top-of-the-league ball-handling offense, switching to simple plays, perimeter pressing defense, and secondary playmaking, Bosh defends at center and morphs into a three-point shooter on offense.

These two teams have two giants supplying the third with energy to ensure great coordination. The Celtics’ Three Giants seem less obvious because all three were older, Garnett suffered a major injury in the second year, and by the third year Rondo was leading the team, showing little real difference from the Miami Heat’s Three Giants.

The current Three Giants, although different from the beginning in their style of coordination compared to the other two Three Giants, fundamentally differ very little, all playing on the principle of ’sacrifice’, except here ’sacrifice’ involves everyone.

Yet in this quarter, the trio across had a fundamental distinction from the other two Three Giants!

When one is holding the ball, the other two move like role players, running, transitioning, distracting defense, finding passing options... all very proactive, each playing like the team’s sole superstar when handling the ball.

And when one controls the team like a superstar, he shoulders most of the pressure, allowing the other two to truly play as relaxed role players.

Curry and Durant’s views on basketball were reshaped—this is the true Three Giants!

Curry raised his head, Durant lowered his: did we play so well that we truly activated Compton’s Three Giants?

...

It wasn’t just the student and the backpack who felt their basketball perspective redefined.

On the Lakers’ side, even Budenholzer, who had high expectations for this playstyle, and Zhang Yang, who proposed tactical adjustments, didn’t expect it to work this well.

Actually, playing as they did diverged significantly from their initial strategic goal of ’targeting Curry infinitely, forcing Durant and Curry into early decisive mode’.

It shifted from intended attrition to direct confrontation, finally overpowering the opposition!

Turns out Three Giants can cooperate like this!

Budenholzer decided to capitalize on the momentum, highlighting imperfections in the Three Giants’ cooperation, optimizing the adjustments for the two inside players, and continued to deploy the Three Giants, Ed Davis, and Zubac in the final quarter, preparing for the opponent’s quick break after a few minutes’ rest.

As expected by Budenholzer, during the break, Kerr again placed Green at center, or rather... placed Durant at center, sending in the lineup of Curry, Thompson, Iguodala, Durant, and Green, making it even smaller.

At the start of the final quarter, the Warriors’ smaller lineup indeed tore an opening in the Lakers’ transition defense, launching an 11-point burst in 3 minutes on 6 shots with 4 hits.

However, this lineup’s defense was much weaker than when Josh Smith partnered with Green inside.

They couldn’t contain Zubac earlier, and now even Ed Davis was uncontrollable!

Josh Smith’s physical fitness is not as good as before he was 30, without the mobility to keep up with point guards, but if confined to the Power Forward position, he’s still a physical powerhouse with a solid build, able to withstand impacts, and retains his defensive instinct, having been the defensive powerhouse averaging 1.5 steals and 2.8 blocks in his peak.

Though Durant had a height advantage and was a strong shot disruptor, he couldn’t contain either Ed Davis or Zubac!

At the start of the final quarter, Ed Davis consecutively charged in for two dunks, and Zubac put one over the top, immediately giving up 3 consecutive baskets, forcing the Warriors’ perimeter to contract inside to help block Ed Davis’s cuts after side pick plays, giving the Lakers’ Three Giants better opportunities for outside shooting and cuts.

On offense, the Warriors showed a crazy 4 out of 6 performance, but defensively lost far more... the Lakers hit 5 out of 6, including one for one from three-point land!

They scored 11 points, but also conceded 11 points!

to 123, the Warriors were still trailing by 8 points!

Warriors’ turn on offense, Durant swings along the baseline to catch the ball, unable to shake off Zhang Yang’s trailing defense, he tries to force up, but under Zhang Yang’s close defense he couldn’t even jump up, hurriedly passing the ball out, fortunately, Green was agile, picking it up under Zubac’s interference, but his spinning hook hit the neck of the basket and missed!

Zhang Yang grabbed the rebound before Durant, initiating the fast break!

Curry was the first to fall back on defense, he indeed ran back, but watched as Zhang Yang swung through Durant, broke away from Green, and after a long sprint bypassed Iguodala at the three-point line charging in... he could only helplessly extend a hand, then watched Zhang Yang dazzle with lateral jumps before slamming the ball in with one hand.

After being troubled by the Warriors’ speed for several possessions, it was finally Zhang Yang’s turn to give them trouble!

to 115, the lead extended to 10 points!

At this point, the situation in the final quarter was solidified, the Warriors’ initial approach to close the gap failed, turning into a long chase from a double-digit deficit.