The Whip of the God of Basketball

Leon's idea is very good. After winning the Bobcats, the Suns also achieved an unbeaten start to the season, ranking first in the Western Conference.

However, a day later, they arrived in Atlanta, facing the Atlanta Hawks, the situation is not as good as when facing the Bobcats.

In the Hawks team, there is Leon's old acquaintance Joe Johnson. Wen - Williams for the starting lineup. Among them, Al Horford and Asilao are this year's No. 3 pick and No. 11 pick respectively, and they quickly occupied the team's starting position.

Now, the Atlanta people have great expectations for these two rookies. With the addition of the other starters, the Eagles feel that they will gradually get rid of their past status and become a strong playoff team in the East.

Of course, the season has just started, and everything is still being debugged. A strong team in the West like the Suns is undoubtedly a good touchstone.

Before the start of the game, Leon and Joe Johnson had a hug. The Celtics and the Suns are both his old clubs. However, in front of the championship and money, he must have chosen money. After all, no one will refuse the ten million level For Johnson, his championship dream has come true in Boston.

Facing the former owner and mentor, Joe Johnson showed no mercy. They played very strongly in the first quarter. Their head coach Mike Woodson was no ordinary person. The team has served as an assistant coach for a long time, so his pre-match tactical preparation skills are quite good, and he is a very meticulous coach.

In response to the current emptiness of the Phoenix Suns inside, Fox Leon is still focusing on the strategy of playing a small lineup. Woodson's response strategy is very simple, which is to let the striker attack the Suns' inside.

The Eagles started with Josh Smith and Marvin Williams, two 6-foot-9 forwards, and on the bench, there was Childress, three 6-foot-9 forwards who could run and jump. Players, from the first quarter of the game, they rushed to the inside of the Suns frantically, grabbing offensive rebounds.

Originally, the Suns had only one Turiaf. In the middle of the first quarter, Leon also replaced Turiaf with Brent Barry and continued to test his five small lineups. The result was the Suns Continually lost backcourt rebounds. Although Marion and Dior fought hard, facing three beast-shaped strikers, it was really difficult to withstand their impact without a tall inside man.

At the end of the first quarter, the Suns trailed the Hawks by 4 points at 27:31. Undoubtedly, this was a bad start. The first quarter is very important for an offensive team like the Suns. The feel of the team offense, the period that sets the tone for the entire game. In the first quarter, their tone was undoubtedly not set. They dropped several offensive rebounds, which prevented them from making continuous quick counterattacks. Nash had to rely more on his own personal ability to score.

In the absence of Stoudemire, the offensive ability of the positional battle is much worse when the ball is lost, and without the rotation of personnel brought about by the quick counterattack, the offensive opportunities that Marion and Diaw can get will be greatly reduced.

In the second quarter, Leon made adjustments to increase Turiaf's playing time. At the same time, in the second half of the second quarter, he replaced Bell with Dudley, and replaced Turiaf with Barry. This way the team has four forward players on the field and hopefully even a small lineup can add some height.

However, Leon's adjustment didn't work because Barry is too old. He can contribute passes and three-pointers on the offensive end, but he can't keep up on the defensive end. He was played by Joe Johnson Between the palms. There is a Nash on the outside, and there are loopholes in the defense. After Bell is missing, there is really no need to worry about him grabbing offensive rebounds, because he directly throws the ball in.

This wrong substitution strategy caused the Suns not only to fail to recover the point difference in the second quarter, but to be further stretched. After Leon realized this mistake, he immediately replaced Barry and let Bell reappear. At this time, Leon especially hopes that there will be Grant Hill on the bench. If he is there, the Suns' bench will be more substantial.

Compared to the chaos on the Sun's side, the Eagles played more and more smoothly at home. Their flying forward group played more and more vigorously, because the Suns didn't have an insider who could stand up to them. Childress, who came off the bench, grabbed offensive rebounds consecutively. In the second half, he even instigated the team's fast breaks again and again, helping the Eagles maintain their advantage.

Nash is the best performer for the Suns. The Phoenix people have to rely on this 33-year-old white veteran. Nash's efficiency is very high tonight, scoring and assisting a lot. The Suns' offense is actually good, but it's not enough. Their offense is not enough.

In the starting lineup, only Sean Marion played at a high level, and the others, including the substitute players, played very averagely. In the offensive competition between the two sides, the Suns actually fell into a disadvantage. In the final period of the fourth quarter, Nash almost had a chance to turn things around with his own three-pointer, but after hitting two consecutive three-pointers to narrow the point difference to one point, the Eagles played a beautiful offensive cooperation. Horford was missed at the basket, allowing the blue to get over Horford.

Then, the Eagles double-teamed Nash in advance, Nash gave Bell the ball, Bell missed a three-pointer, Josh Smith got a backcourt rebound, and the Suns had to foul and send Smith to the free throw line. Smith made two free throws, Leon called a timeout and arranged a two-point tactic, successfully scored, but there was no time, Joe Johnson played steadily at the free throw line, made two free throws, and finally Nash made a futile three-pointer. In the game, the score was fixed at 110:106, and the Suns lost the game against the Eagles in the away game.

This is the first game the Suns lost this season. Nash scored a game-high 35 points and sent 11 assists. His performance is not bad. But for the Hawks, three players scored 20 points, Childress got 5 offensive rebounds, and Josh Smith grabbed 4. This gave the Eagles a large number of second-attack opportunities, and at the same time caused the Suns to be unable to counterattack, and their offensive efficiency dropped significantly.

Efficiency, at the moment the game ended, Leon was thinking of this word. For the Phoenix Suns, their speed had reached the limit, and the 7-second offense could no longer be faster. So if their offense wants to become better, they must improve efficiency, make every round more valuable, and make every shot selection the best choice.

This is also the reason why he experimented with a small lineup, and it seems that there is still a lot to go. Back in the locker room, Leon didn't make too many conclusions, and simply accepted the reporter's interview. He was the only one to attend the post-match press conference, and it ended hastily. After that, Leon called Cole: "It's best to get Hill's contract done tomorrow."