Who defended peak Duncan in the 2005 Finals?

On June 19, 2005, Duncan, then 28 years old, was experiencing the most thrilling and critical nine minutes of his career. The Spurs and the Pistons, two of the most sophisticated and ruthless meat grinders of their time, were tightly knotted together, each cog emitting an overwhelming scraping sound like Wolverine's sharp claws across Captain America's shield.

And Duncan, in the last nine minutes of the game, did not have a single sporting goal. In the last minute of the fourth quarter, Duncan came even closer to the darkest moment of his career - missing two free throws, followed by one of two free throws, when he was only one point away from tying the game. The "letter carrier doesn't work on weekends" mantra seemed to come down again (Karl Malone once hoped to use his career-high 36928 points for those two free throws), and when the two teams entered overtime with the score tied at 89, I vaguely saw the word "panic" in Duncan's frightening girl-like movements.

But at this point, Robert Hawley stepped up, only 3 points in the first three quarters, but in the fourth quarter and overtime, he turned into a super warrior, inside and outside the shot scored 18 points, not only to play a flying dunk of the amazing play but also in the Spurs trailing at the critical juncture of hitting a series of life-sustaining three points. After he took the ball from Manu and hit the decisive three, Duncan gave him a big hug on the sidelines.

Although he played almost all 48 minutes and cut 26 points and 19 rebounds on 46% shooting, the magnificent data was automatically filtered at this moment like irrelevant impurities because he played out of order at the critical moment and almost buried the victory in the battle of Tennent's Hill.

Just as there have been voices saying 'Duncan was limited by double Wallace' and 'how Rasheed Wallace defended Duncan bullying', so the big trends and small details of the whole series were automatically replaced by these highly labeled definitions.

So why did Duncan only hit 47% of his true shots, and how exactly did the Pistons defend Duncan?

The Pistons' approach to defending Duncan is pretty straightforward: double Wallace rotates top defense, while the other Wallace is responsible for co-defense; when Robert Hawley is on the floor, the more mobile Rasheed Wallace has to keep an eye on Hawley and play with mobility to get involved in co-defending Duncan at all times. Overall, Big Ben is the main force guarding Duncan.

Note my wording: involved in co-defense.

Yes, defending the 28-year-old Duncan is not something that two Wallace can handle. Watching this round, you can understand the Pistons' defensive effort, with three or even four-man packs being a common occurrence.

In this instant of Duncan starting the ball, the Pistons have four people contracted to the penalty box, ready to go up to pinch, all five people are watching Duncan.

Here I need to popularize the starting lineup of 05 Spurs playing in the playoffs: Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Bowen, Hawley, Brent Barry, and Naz Muhammad. Except for Muhammad and Duncan, several others are good long-range shooting threats (Parker just practiced his mid-range shot), and the '05 Spurs have developed the advantage of a 'spacey four', with Hawley averaging 29 minutes per game in the Finals and shooting 48% from three-point range. The Spurs also averaged 108 points per game against the Nash-led Suns with their three-point brigade and defensive twin towers.

Throughout the series, the Spurs made 51 three-pointers, while the Pistons, only 18.

Even so, the Pistons continued to relentlessly throw their defensive resources at Duncan, like piling all the sandbags onto the first notch of a dam. So the Pistons' clinching and the Spurs' three-point shooting were the cause and effect of each other, and Holly's decisive three put an end to the brutal beating of the series.

The Spurs' outside three and Duncan's inside threat became a two-for-one send-up for the Pistons, but as mentioned earlier, Larry Brown and the Iron Army under him never hesitated. Even if the Spurs discharged a one-star four-shot lineup to space out to the extreme, when Duncan caught the ball for a moment, the help defense still came as swift as the wind.

But pay attention to the action of Duncan handling the ball: he received the ball without hesitation, not even dribbling time to the opponent, directly up and throwing.

In this round, Duncan singled out Big Ben, facing the pack did not even look at the basket, and passed straight to Muhammad, but unfortunately, Hamilton behind Muhammad like a shadow destroyed the attack.

This is a countermeasure of Duncan to deal with the clamping - catch the ball and start quickly, either near the box to end, or attract the package after passing to teammates, never wasting a little time. After he receives the ball, all the follow-up actions have been formed into a plan, in one go, with only one principle: no dead ball.

But the Pistons' defense is equally tight, and the hitting rate of both sides can't be considered low, what ruins the game's perception and depresses the score of both teams is not the iron, but the long standoff caused by the lack of shot timing - jamming, melee, posting, pinching, and missed passes ...... Rasheed Wallace started to prevent Duncan from catching the ball when he crossed the half-court, and Hamilton's run without the ball was touching the defensive nerves of everyone in the Spurs. The players on both sides are like soldiers on the battlefield, shooting is only a brief moment in a long war, lying in trenches, crossing the barbed wire, sneaking and maneuvering is the main theme throughout the brutal battlefield.

The Pistons didn't just consume Duncan on the defensive end, but on the offensive end, they also had a superbly targeted tactic: Billups' mismatched one-two punch. In just one quarter, I saw at least three 'Billups calling for a block and pulling out Duncan for a one-on-one and ' screens. The Pistons' focus was not on letting Billups get a single shot, because even if it was a mismatch, Billups' shooting percentage wasn't much brighter. They prefer to use this way to consume Duncan and mess up the Spurs' defense by the way.

And Billups in the fifth game was in good touch, shooting 11 of 26, cutting a game-high 34 points and 7 assists.

So to prevent Billups from killing the game with a mid-range shot, Duncan had to face the opponent's mismatch trap again and again, and in the process of chasing after the defense with all his might, he exhausted his fitness and condition in the last 9 minutes.

So, the Spurs suddenly changed their defensive strategy at the last minute, giving up their mid-range defense and gambling with the Pistons on Billups' blocked shots, just like the Spurs suddenly used the first line of defense to pinch Nash and then forced Jr. to stop the ball at the critical moment in the Western Conference in the same year.

So all kinds of bets and entanglements, consuming and fighting for their lives, the Spurs were finally lucky to take the battle of Tennant Hill victory, Duncan can also temporarily put down four free throws a heavy burden, not to make this game completely into a stain on his career.

So I've always been against this overly simplistic and crude definitional conclusion that limiting Duncan is the result of the Pistons' entire team letting the Spurs' three-point threat go and laying down their lives to pinch Duncan, with Billups constantly blocking and pounding the lane, and Hamilton constantly running the floor to mess up the Spurs' defense. Likewise, the Spurs won the game of the three-pointers who lived up to their expectations, Holly's desperate outbursts, Manu and Parker's ball-breaking, and Muhammad who shared the pressure inside for Duncan.

Not to mention the game scheduling of both coaching staffs throughout the seven games.

Just as I objected to 'Small Gasol locking down Vucevic to guard Embiid' and 'Leonard locking down Alphabet' this year. A game is won or lost by 10 (sometimes 13) people - behind Pau Gasol and Leonard is the best defensive starting lineup in the league, and Vucevic, Embiid, and Alphabet have to face the pressure of a whole Raptors defense, help defense (Embiid also has to face the gastroenteritis and Ben (Simmons had to play inside the squeeze).

If you think about this, you won't be able to easily shout simple, mindless slogans like "chicken tacos kill beef burgers, chicken nuggets blow up fries". Chicken rolls have the crispness of cucumbers and shredded scallions, the seasoning of the sauce, the chewiness of the chicken, and the tenderness of the roll skin, and beef burgers have the savory aroma of cheese, the coolness of lettuce and tomatoes, and the thickness of the dipping sauce beef and the aroma of sesame bread. It's hard to convince myself of the simple and brutal conclusions for the individual, the analysis for the permutations is the more interesting and closer to the true way to explore.

No, I'm off to study the permutations of chicken rolls and beef burgers.