Miller isolates Iverson for a one-on-one. Ideally, Snow should be the one guarding Miller, but if you have Snow on Miller, who’s going to guard Jordan?
So it’s a tough situation. Better let Iverson deal with Miller, because guarding Jordan is really too hard for Iverson.
Miller backs in with his hips, turns around near the three-second zone, and Coleman comes over to help, but Miller lobs it inside to Yao Ming. Yao catches and easily dunks it.
The 76ers realize here that Yao Ming is the finisher, and other positions are just openings to break the defense. As long as the interior helps, Yao can score easily.
His height, touch, and agility make him a natural, excellent finishing tower that can maximize mismatch advantages.
Nobody favored the 76ers before the game because the Glory has significant mismatch advantages. In every matchup, they have the height and strength advantage, and the 76ers don’t have an absolute strong point.
This forces them to make lots of switches, helps, and rotations. If the Glory doesn’t exploit mismatches and play Princeton, the 76ers would actually prefer it.
The original advantage of the Princeton offense was to allow ordinary players to rely on this system to compete against higher-level teams.
Correspondingly, sometimes the downside of this system is that it makes stronger players ordinary; playing too reasonably is not always good.
The adjustments made by the Glory make Larry-Brown realize they can’t let Yao Ming have his way inside and need some adjustments.
The Las Vegas Glory has overtaken the lead, and with the first quarter halfway through, Larry-Brown calls a timeout; the struggle between both sides is still intense.
The 76ers substitute in Canadian center Todd MacLoughlin. This white Canadian center was drafted by the 76ers, then played for the Nets, and this season he returned to the 76ers with the Mutombo trade.
For the Glory, Jordan and Gan Guoyang haven’t really exerted themselves yet. Both haven’t even broken a sweat in the first quarter; during the timeout, Gan Guoyang takes a rest, replaced by Malik Rose.
With Gan Guoyang off, the Glory’s interior defense weakens. Kenny Thomas cuts to the basket, receives a pass, and makes a reverse layup.
Both teams have relatively "old-school" offensive styles, without major perimeter play or long-range shots, instead focusing their offense in the paint and the three-second zone.
This is the basic principle of early basketball tactics, because at that time there was no three-point line, and scoring in the paint was the most efficient. Getting the ball near the hoop was the ultimate goal of most tactics.
With the introduction of the three-point line, after more than twenty years of development, more tactics have emerged around spacing, zone play, strong and weak sides.
However, some coaches still prefer the things they learned in their youth, like seasoned coaches such as Larry-Brown.
Even though Gan Guoyang and the Trail Blazers’ three-point wave once won many championships, to many coaches, the three-pointer is still supplementary, not core.
Moreover, the overall environment is becoming less friendly to shooters, with physical confrontations being too intense, making long-range shooting difficult. This year, everyone’s three-point performance is average.
In terms of the overall number of three-point attempts, there’s been a rare stagnation, as it has been increasing every season for over twenty years, but this season the total has slightly regressed.
The 76ers are among the teams with the fewest three-point attempts in the league, with fewer than ten, and only the even older Utah Jazz have fewer than the 76ers.
This offensive mode tests the Glory’s defending under the basket. During the time Gan Guoyang is off, Yao Ming needs to support the defensive shield under the basket.
On offense, his touch is still outstanding. In a half-court offense, he turns and shoots after getting the ball, ignoring MacLoughlin’s interference, scoring two points!
On the sidelines, Gan Guoyang claps to encourage Yao Ming. He’s always told Yao, "When your touch is good, just shoot freely, don’t hold back."
"Ask your teammates for the ball, play more; if you don’t play now, your touch is gone and your stamina is lost later. You might as well not play, and there will be no points."
In the first quarter, both sides went back and forth, ending in a 25:25 tie. The performances from both sides were quite good.
Yao Ming started exerting himself in the middle of the first quarter, scoring 10 points with 5 out of 6 shots, being the top scorer for the Glory.
Iverson also scored 10 points in the first quarter, with a 4 out of 6 performance and two free throws, also very efficient.
Gan Guoyang and Jordan haven’t truly exerted themselves yet; like an old car and a new car, the warm-up takes longer.
As the regular season enters the middle and late stages, these two often only truly get into form in the second half. At the start, they also don’t dare to push too hard for fear of injury before they’re warmed up.
In the second quarter, Alon Magee starts with a spin and a layup, helping the 76ers take the lead.
Magee once played for the Trail Blazers, was later traded to the Atlanta Hawks, and then came to the 76ers in the Starkhouse trade, where he remains now.
He was once somewhat average in all respects but is now a decent defensive guard with some offensive capability.
On defense, Magee and Snow double-team Van Exel, pressuring him into the half-court corner, almost causing Van Exel to make a turnover.
The ball barely gets out to Gerald Wallace, but Wallace hesitates to handle it, wanting to make a move down the lane, but Snow steals it.
Snow leads a fast break, makes a layup, and the 76ers take a 4-point lead. The 76ers’ defense is not something the first-round Heat can match.
Snow and Magee are both excellent perimeter defenders; Old Tang doesn’t hesitate. As soon as the referee whistles for a 76ers perimeter defensive foul, he immediately sends Jordan back on, replacing Gerald Wallace.