At the Staples Center, the Philadelphia 76ers' away game against the Los Angeles Clippers has reached halftime.

Inside the away team's dressing room.

"Chris, is it bad?"

Cheeks was laying out the second-half tactics for the players when he looked up and saw Webb limping into the locker room accompanied by the team doctor, and hurriedly asked, "Is it a knee?" Knee problems? ”

"It's not bad for the time being."

Accompanying Webb back to his seat and sitting down, the team doctor replied while taking out emergency treatment tools to deal with his knee pain: "It's a little red and swollen, I guess it's still an old problem, I ran too often on the field just now, and I may have a little sprain in my knee in order to cover up the change of direction many times." ”

"I've done an initial examination with their equipment, and no structural damage has been found yet, but it needs to be observed again to confirm the diagnosis. It's best to get a full check-up at the hospital here, if not, you'll have to wait until you're flying back to Philadelphia. ”

The words of the team doctor were like a heavy burden, weighing on the shoulders of every 76ers player. Everyone was silent, bowing their heads and saying nothing, while Chen Mu and Iguodala immediately stepped forward to comfort Weber.

"Alas......"

Cheeks sighed helplessly: "So in this game, Chris can't continue to play?" ”

"Absolutely not." The team doctor's head shook like a rattle, and he vetoed: "Until the injury is clear, you can't do strenuous exercise anymore." ”

"What a terrible ......"

Cheeks was helpless, and finally under Chen Mu's suggestion, he changed his tactical thinking and reactivated Weber, which achieved good results. But before the game was over, Webb was injured, how should he play in the second half? Cheeks also had a headache.

At the beginning, the Clippers used their back advantage to play unlimited singles, and the effect was remarkable, once putting the 76ers in a desperate situation.

Later, Chen Mu's sentence "You can't become a fat man in one bite" inspired Cheeks's wonderful idea, and the team changed its thinking, walked out of the dead end of "fighting with the Clippers", and began to use the impact of young players and the linkage of the three command towers on the court to seek space, and achieved good results.

You can't become a fat man by eating in one bite, Chen Mu is right, after losing Iverson, Cheeks meditated hard, and finally decided to use Miller and Chen Mu's backs as the center to attack. In the first game against the Warriors, this tactic was very successful, Chen Mu killed under the basket, and almost devoured Mo Fei alive.

But if you think about it carefully, what is most lacking in today's 76ers is experience and back-to-back skills. If it weren't for Miller, a good backer, even if Chen Mu, who is known for his strength, the rest of the players would be outsiders with their backs.

Once upon a time, the 76ers led by Iverson, Korver, Iguodala, Webb, and Daim Porter had a serious decline in athleticism. Especially the inside combination, the speed is slow, and it is impossible to run and involve in a large area, creating a killing opportunity.

Now that Iverson has been sent away, Daim Porter is injured, with athletes like Chen Mu, Iguodala, and Hunter, plus athletes like Carney and Louis Williams on the bench, even Korver's speed and strength are not too bad. Athleticism is no longer Philadelphia's shortcoming.

Facing a team like the Clippers, they clearly have an athletic advantage, but they don't take advantage of it, but use their weaknesses to compete with the opponent with their backs. Philadelphia's passivity at the beginning stems from this lack of clarity about itself.

"With Miller and Chan with increased strength, we will no longer be at the mercy of others in the low position. But that's all, our back ability is still at the bottom of the alliance! ”

With this in mind, Cheeks made drastic changes, activating Webb, using the vision of the three points to make a fuss, endlessly running, covering, and passing, covering up the team's weakness of attacking power with the ball, and playing the back door tactics.

It's not uncommon to get the tactics right, the players are motivated, and the performance on the pitch improves.

But now, as soon as the tactic began to work, the team suffered a major blow.

After some communication, accompanied by several members of the team's medical team, Webb went to a local hospital in Los Angeles for further examination, and the players who remained in the locker room were about to face the second half of the game without Webb.

"Miller, Kyle, Andre, Chan, Hunter, ......"

Looking at the players who could continue to stay on the field and fight, Cheeks's head flew, as if there was some idea in front of him, but he couldn't grasp it.

"How should this lineup run the offense?"

Cheeks is well aware that with the current strength of the roster, it is impossible to completely defend against the Clippers' offense. As long as they understand Philadelphia's defensive center of gravity, use cover and run to play more mid-range shooting offense, combined with the already advantageous back-to-back singles, scoring is not a problem at all.

"The key is to attack, since you can't defend it, you have to attack well, seize the opportunity, and find a way to score a few more goals."

What to do?

Here Cheeks was meditating, and over there Chen Mu took the half-time technical statistics and took the scriptures from Miller.

"We're basically focusing on the baseline and corners now, and we also have it under the basket, and we don't have a lot of mid-range, and we don't shoot at the top of the arc and on the wings."

Pointing to the shooting diagram in his hand, Chen Mu frowned and said: "Their outside defense ability is not strong, and the inside center is also very slow, can you open up space from here and find a way to play more high-level blocking?" ”

"Well, it's not impossible."

Miller nodded: "The problem is that we don't have players who can score consistently in POINT, your downplay after the high block, and my passing are not a problem, the question is who will take the second point and take over quickly after I leave POINT?" ”

The sound of Chen Mu and Miller's conversation came into Cheeks' ears, and suddenly a bright light flickered, and the fleeting feeling was finally caught by the gradually enlightening coach.

“POINT…… That's right, it's POINT! ”

Glancing at Chen Mu, who was still studying carefully, Chicks waved his hand and said loudly: "There is a way!" Let's do ...... next."

At halftime, the second half began with the cheers of Clippers fans.

After coming on the court, Cassel looked at the 76ers halfcourt and did not find Webb. The staff also provided information, and Webb estimated that there was no way to continue playing, which made the Clippers players breathe a sigh of relief and feel a little relieved.

'Chris isn't an easy character to play against, he's very clever and he can score points from time to time with his back, so if they continue to start him in the second half, it's going to be difficult for us defensively.

Looking at the two figures of the 76ers standing on the inside, one black and one yellow, Cassel had a smile on his face.

"The Chinese kid is very good, but the court feeling and spatial recognition ability are far from home, and the back singles are even more laymen. As long as we stick to the way we played in the first half and continue to crush with our backs, we won't have a problem winning this game! ”

Cassel's idea is not wrong, and the problem faced by the 76ers is also very simple, without an assaulter, how to open the offensive situation is the biggest problem in front of the 76ers.

"Chinese Kid, Andre Miller ......"

Looking at Chen Mu and Miller, who had not lost their fighting spirit, Cassel's eyes narrowed, and he said to himself: "How are you going to deal with this problem...... ”

The Clippers attacked, Mobley scored from the middle distance, and the fans cheered.

"Sure enough, it's starting to focus on the middle distance!"

Chen Mu saw it clearly, and the Clippers aimed at the 76ers' defensive focus, skillfully avoiding the three-point line and baskets that were hoarded by heavy soldiers, and solving the battle in the middle distance.

"It's very smart, and it's worthy of being an alien."

Seeing Cassel go back to the defense with an indifferent face, giving the baseline ball, Chen Mu rushed to the front court quickly.

"But we're not prepared to throw in the towel!"

When he came to the front court, Chen Mu did not go directly to the waist position to ask for the ball, but made a change of position cover with Hunter, and then leaned in, stood firm in the ribs, stuck in front of Carman, and made a covering action.

Iguodala started from the strong side and moved to the weak side under the cover of Chen Mu. On the other side, Korver quickly rose up, and when he was about to reach the top of the arc, Miller, who had not moved half a step at the top of the arc, sent a pass.

Chen Mu received the ball, saw Miller move to the strong side at a glance, and gave it in reverse, and the basketball came to the hands of Korver at the top of the arc.

In the face of the sharpshooter, Mobley did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and pressed through the heavy cover, but the moment he reached the top of the arc, Korver passed the ball again.

The basketball returned to Chen Mu's hands, and it seemed that nothing had changed, but half a second before that, Miller had already rushed to the basket with Chen Mu's second cover.

"Whoosh"

A light pass, Miller received the ball and scored a layup directly, Carman and Brand were pinned down, too late to make up for the defense, and the offense was easily completed.

"Well done!"

and Miller nodded to each other, and Chen Mu returned to the defense, leaving Cassel and the others stunned, almost forgetting to serve the baseline ball.

"What's going on......?!"

Dribbling to the frontcourt, Cassel kept thinking about the 76ers' offensive routine, and a familiar and unfamiliar feeling arose.

"This time, since Miller came to the top of the arc, they haven't dribbled once in the whole team!"

That's right, the constant passing, the constant air cut, the most primitive tactical coordination of basketball - the pass cut, was picked up by Cheeks and used in this most difficult moment.

"Keep moving, pass fast!"

Cheeks shouted out instructions, and Chen Mu didn't look back at him, but made an OK gesture to him.

"Chen, thank you."

Cheeks smiled and sat back in his seat, secretly grateful, "If it weren't for your discussion with Miller, I wouldn't have thought of such an easy solution!" ”

Chinese kid Chen Mu, since he came to the 76ers, has always burst out with some whimsical ideas from time to time.

Sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally, but Cheeks found that no matter what Chen Mu's original purpose was, he could always come up with new ideas for himself, and even turn things around in one fell swoop.

"This kid is really a blessing!" (To be continued.) )