Zhang Jiawei: The Suns learn from the Heat and don’t let Wen Ban enter the penalty area. The Spurs need to find a stable organizer

In the NBA regular season, the Spurs lost to the Suns 118-130, and their unbeaten streak ended with 5 wins and 0 losses at the start.

After the game, freelance writer Zhang Jiawei commented on the game. The original text is as follows:

The Spurs lost their first season of the season, and the Bulls in the East also lost: the only remaining team that won the game was the defending champion Thunder.

Bunbanyama’s season-worst 4-of-14 shooting, 9 points and 9 rebounds—averaged 30 points and 15 rebounds before this game. But it’s not surprising: after making 28 of 44 shots in the first two games of the season, he made 9 of 21 at the net, 7 of 8 against the Raptors, and was targeted by Adebayor against the Heat, scoring 27 points on 10 of 23 shots: opponents are gradually adapting to the basket-facing skills developed in the summer.

Miami coach Spoelstra has previously outlined the key points for dealing with Bunyama:

- Build a wall of rules to prevent him from running straight to the basket; maintain the towers and stumbling blocks, and treat him like Giannis.

——On offense, avoid shooting and start around cutting, weak side and three-pointers.

From now on, the alliance's dealing with Wenbanyama can be regarded as an open-book test: today the Sun learned a little bit about this idea.

Wenbanyama made 1 of 7 shots in the first three quarters, and only two of them were under the basket. The Suns did not even allow him to "break through to the basket and pick up the basket with his fingers from the side of the penalty area" against the Mavericks, and "break through to the reasonable area to hit the board" against the Raptors. The Suns used Ma Wei, Iguodaro and even Royce O'Neal, who was 30 centimeters taller in the short class, to take turns to follow him: Tony Allen played against Durant and the Black Eight Warriors played against Dirk.

A small price to pay:

The Suns even allowed Keldon Johnson and Castle to make a big splash in the penalty area, but Wenban? Don't come in.

By restricting Wenban from entering the penalty area, the Suns took away the Spurs' internal and external threats; Harper was injured, and the Spurs were without an organizer; without their two best ball sources, Vassell was also outside the game. The Spurs offense is lackluster.

On the offensive end, the Suns' most successful point: 8 of 12 long-range shots from the two bottom corners.

The Suns' offensive logic:

Booker's pick-and-roll is unstoppable, and he can't defend Wenban.

The Spurs were forced to rotate wing players to fill in positions.

The Suns took advantage of this, and Booker started, forcing the Spurs wing man to run back and forth between the upper line and the bottom corner, missing the bottom corner.

The Suns only scored 38 points in the game, but they made 19 of 33 three-pointers - half of them were corner three-pointers.

Booker almost didn't rush into the reasonable area throughout the game, but he made 6 of 8 shots from the free throw line and had 13 assists: he avoided Wenbanyama's defensive range and gave the ball to an open space.

In the fourth quarter, the Spurs tried to "everyone mind their own business, it is enough for the team to protect the penalty area", and then relied on counterattacks to rush forward, but it was too late.

Losing one game after the best start of the season is a trivial matter, but the real problem for the Spurs is: five consecutive wins in the beginning can be said to be Wenban's summer progress and the entire league was caught off guard; today's outstanding performance of Castle and Keldon proved: If Wenbanyama is restrained, they alone cannot win the game.

After that, Wenban's physical strength declined (39 minutes against the Heat, 34 minutes today), his opponents adapted (the Raptors, Heat and Suns all played many new tricks against Wenban), and his own ups and downs (the Nets, Raptors, and Heat all had the experience of being ahead and being caught up). How will the Spurs deal with it next?

—Before Fox and Cornette return, and before Harper can indeed play a stable role as a playmaker?

-After all, the Spurs only have one Wenban Yama.