NBA: Since James left the Cavaliers

Chapter 213 The Second Steal of Long Rui

With the last 4 minutes left in the first half, Long Rui, who reappeared, finally used a difficult goal to help the Cavaliers stabilize their position.

The game is back on track, and the two sides need to use the last 4 minutes to try their best to establish some advantages for their teams before the end of the first half.

Seeing Long Rui score, the Celtics will not let it go.

Rondo exerted excellent organizational skills and connected the team's offense in series.

Although the Big Three of the Green Army have very old qualifications, they all fully obey Rondo's dispatch.

After a few passes, they seized the opportunity to tear apart the Cavaliers' defense and returned a two-pointer.

Since then, the two sides have fallen into a pulling stage again, and the score has been in a tight state for a full 3 minutes.

With only one minute left before the end of the first half, the Celtics took control of the offense.

Rondo is pressing the attack time on the outside. According to the regular time, they can have two offenses, while the Cavaliers only have one full 24-second attack time.

The two sides fought to a 57:57 tie. If these two offensive opportunities can be used properly, the Celtics will take the lead before the end of the first half.

With ten seconds left in the offensive clock, Rondo began to plan the attack.

He gestured to Pierce, who immediately understood his intention.

I saw Pierce cut in from the left, bypassing Garnett inside, blocked the chasing Hickson, and then came out from the right.

At the same time, Rondo gave the ball to the past.

Hickson, who was supposed to defend Pierce, was delayed. In desperation, Yi Jianlian had to chase him out to switch defenses, forming a small-to-big situation on the right side.

With only five seconds left in the attack time, Pierce chose to force a breakthrough in the face of Yi Jianlian's defense.

Although his speed is not fast, the changes in his footsteps are extremely deceptive. Coupled with his perfect sense of rhythm, two consecutive setbacks immediately deceived Yi Jianlian's defensive center of gravity and successfully completed the breakthrough.

The moment the shot clock ran out, Paul Pierce made the shot!

"Shh!"

Basketball hits the net!

"Good shot! At the critical moment, it has to be Pierce!"

"This goal was not only scored, but also took a full 24 seconds."

Looking back, the Cavaliers' offense.

After sending the baseline ball, Long Rui quickly retreated the ball to the frontcourt. He wanted to make a fast break so that they could have another chance to attack.

But the Celtics' retreat was very timely and did not let him succeed.

Seeing that there was no hope for a fast attack, Long Rui had no choice but to give up this idea, and instead entered into positional warfare.

He also pressed the time on the outside, intending to use up 24 seconds, compressing the opponent's final attack time as much as possible.

When the attack time came to the last eight seconds, Long Rui signaled his teammates to pull away to create space for him to play singles.

Rondo, who was in charge of defending him, stood tightly in front of him. At this moment, Rondo had only one thought in mind, and that was to defend Long Rui.

His legs were slightly bent, his long arms were spread out, and his eyes were fixed on Long Rui's movements.

Long Rui looked up at the attack time, took a breath, and immediately launched an attack.

He hits an Iverson-esque 'crossover' straight to the right.

In the case of one-on-one singles, few people can prevent Long Rui's breakthrough, because his body is strong enough and his speed is top-notch.

In the team at the same position, even if someone can keep up with his footsteps, he will be pushed away by his strength.

Rondo knew this very well. He couldn't withstand Long Rui's strength, so if he wanted to defend the ball, he had only one choice, and that was to steal.

In addition to organizing the offense, Rondo's stealing ability is also very good. In the regular season this season, he averaged 2.3 steals per game, which is a very good statistic.

And he also has full experience in steals, that is, observing the opponent's dribble and judging where the ball will fall.

The best time to steal is when the offensive player dribbles and the moment the ball leaves his hand.

Although this time point is very short, it is the only time when the ball holder loses control of the ball.

Therefore, the lower the center of gravity of the dribble, the shorter the time for the basketball to be out of control, and the less likely it is to be intercepted.

When Long Rui made a breakthrough, his center of gravity was very low, and under normal circumstances he couldn't steal at all.

But Rondo did everything he could to prevent the ball.

At the moment Long Rui changed direction and broke through, he took a step ahead and directly reached out to block the basketball's landing position.

At this moment, Long Rui's ball has not left his palm. He can completely change the trajectory of the basketball. As long as he stops his footsteps, he can immediately break Rondo's defense, because he has lost his best defensive position in order to steal.

But Long Rui was startled by the other party's sudden action, he couldn't help being stunned for a moment, and immediately reacted, but it was too late.

In the next second, Long Rui only felt that his palm was empty, and Long Duo's fan-like palm passed by in an instant, and intercepted the ball from his hand!

"Stolen!"

"He actually made a steal at the moment Long Rui broke through!"

"This is already the second time that Rondo successfully steals against Long Rui in this game!"

Su Qun said in surprise.

You know, Long Rui rarely makes mistakes in the game, and most of his mistakes are when passing the ball. It is even rarer to see the ball being abruptly intercepted like this.

After completing the steal, Rondo was not in a hurry to break fast, and still chose to play steadily.

They still have 14 seconds of attack time. With his ability, it is enough to organize a complete offensive coordination.

"Pay attention to defense."

Long Rui reminded him. It could be seen that his expression was a little dignified. He shouldn't have made a mistake in that ball just now.

Rondo began planning the final attack of the first half.

The Big Three of the Celtics began to run their positions, and Garnett mentioned the position of the free throw line.

Ray Allen ambushed to the corner of the weak side, while Pierce took the initiative to play a pick-and-roll with Rondo.

After the pick-and-roll, the two made a cross, but did not form a defense switch. Long Rui forced his way past Pierce and continued to defend Rondo.

At this time, Rondo suddenly passed the ball, and Garnett near the free throw line shifted the defensive attention of Long Rui and others to 'Wolf King'.

At the same time, he made a second crossover with Pierce.

Because Long Rui and Hixon's attention was distracted by the pass, after this crossover, their defense could not keep up in time.

Rondo found the opportunity to cut inside and rushed in without hesitation.

Garnett took advantage of the trend and passed the ball back to Rondo.

Facing the empty basket, Rondo directly strode up!