Smith laughed and said, "Looks like Charles Barkley has to take back that crown he gave to the Messiah."

Take it back?

Actually...

Van Gundy thought that Qin Yue really deserved the crown as the league's top power forward.

Because being able to push the Spurs and Duncan to such an extent is enough to prove Qin Yue's value.

On the court, after a few more rounds, Smith said, "Hey, Jeff, let me summarize this for the audience.

In simple terms, in the third and fourth games, the Spurs succeeded in turning Tim Duncan into a larger version of Bruce Bowen, focusing all their defensive resources on the Messiah's teammates, effectively cutting off the Messiah's connection with his team.

This way, the Messiah couldn't use his 'explosive creativity' to energize his teammates. Moreover, Tim used his tireless defense to successfully limit the Messiah's personal scoring to a range the Spurs deemed controllable."

Van Gundy smiled and said, "That's exactly how you can understand it."

In the third and fourth games, Duncan's stats declined, yet the Spurs won. Qin Yue's stats went up, but the Warriors lost.

Because once Qin Yue couldn't maintain his offensive influence in the game, those easy shooting opportunities that the Warriors originally had would disappear accordingly.

After all, no matter how accurate the Warriors' three-pointers were before, they had to create shooting opportunities first to possibly make those threes.

In the third and fourth games, apart from Qin Yue, the only player on the Warriors capable of creating shooting opportunities for teammates was Davis, who had 6 and 7 assists respectively.

Solely looking at the stats, there was nothing wrong with Davis's performance, but he couldn't explosively create shooting opportunities for the whole team like Qin Yue.

So, in the two consecutive shootout games, the Warriors ultimately lost due to insufficient firepower.

At the ATT Center, when it was the Spurs' turn to attack, Smith asked, "Jeff, the Spurs' defensive strategy is indeed bold, but could you analyze the Spurs' offense for us?"

"..."

Offense?

At this moment, after scratching his head, Van Gundy said, "I won't specifically analyze the Spurs' offensive tactics. I'll just say one thing: the on-court offensive core of the Spurs in the third and fourth games was actually their point guard Tony Parker."

After changing their defensive approach, since Duncan had to use his energy to deal with Qin Yue, the Spurs had to rely on another core player to lead them to win the shootout battle against the Warriors.

Parker was precisely the choice of the Spurs' coaching staff.

During his career peak, Parker's finishing rate at the basket was consistently above 60% (70.5% in the 05/06 season), and he had quite an impressive touch around the basket, often using his signature floater to toy with the opposing interior defenders.

Additionally, in the playoffs, Parker's field goal percentage in his favorite mid-range shooting area was nearly 50%.

This made him even harder to defend in one-on-one situations.

Because the interior players responsible for helping defense couldn't determine whether he would choose to use a jumper or continue driving to complete the attack after bypassing their guards, allowing Parker to metamorphose into a sharp sword in solo plays, piercing right into the Warriors' chest.

As the NBA Finals MVP of the 06/07 season, Parker was also a player whose on-court value was difficult to reflect accurately merely through stats.

After all, once your defense was disrupted by Parker, Parker, who was always ready to pass, could further boost his teammates' offense with the simplest drive-and-kick plays.

The Spurs had designed a large number of isolation plays for Parker in the third and fourth games.

They indeed found the Achilles' heel of these Warriors.

That was, although Richardson and Davis both had physical advantages, their defensive awareness and capabilities each had their shortcomings.

In the games, with the Spurs' strategic plays for their shooters and driven by Parker's rhythm, the Spurs had a large number of opportunities for perimeter shots in the past two games.

Drive and three-point shots.

The Spurs precisely matched the Warriors' offensive firepower with these two trump cards.

Therefore, in this battle of Celestial King Mountain, the Warriors' coaching staff chose to enhance the offensive firepower of the starting lineup to win the game.

This choice was direct and blunt.

But on this night, it produced an outcome that the Warriors' coaching staff had not anticipated.

On the court, it was the Warriors' offensive round.

Working a hand-off play with Murphy at the high post, Qin Yue suddenly rolled down.

During the hand-off process just now, Qin Yue didn't choose to take the ball.

As a result, since all five Warriors on the court were capable of shooting, and Murphy had previously scored a three, seeing his teammate out of position, Duncan had to cover the gap.

The next second, Murphy quickly fed the ball, and Qin Yue scored an easy layup upon receiving the ball.

In this round, Murphy, with some playmaking ability, helped Qin Yue successfully break through the Spurs' consistently enforced defensive principle against him.

At this moment, Smith asked, "Hey, Jeff, since Troy Murphy and the Messiah have such great chemistry, why didn't the Warriors give him more opportunities in the first two games?"

Upon hearing this, Van Gundy immediately felt the essence of...

Monday morning quarterbacking.

In fact, in the NBA, many strategic masterstrokes inherently have an element of randomness.

For instance, in Qin Yue's memory, that Cavs-Warriors battle in the 14/15 season.

Steve Kerr initially didn't agree with the Warriors playing the 'Death Lineup' because, when facing LeBron James's team, it was typically optimal to provide two interior barriers on the court.

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