Chapter 181

Section 3 of the game started quickly. The Heat had previously adopted a half-court zone defense, but once Section 3 began, they resorted to a full-court press, sparing no effort. From the moment Zhou Yi received the ball, Mario Chalmers kept interfering with his control. Given Zhou Yi’s ability to handle the ball, there was no need to worry about it being taken away so easily. However, Chalmers’ constant interruptions were troublesome. Eric Spoelstra decided on a full-court press as their defensive strategy. The Heat were best at fast breaks, and a prerequisite for those was getting the ball across half-court quickly and handing it to a player in a favorable position. A single attack took only about ten seconds, and the longer the attack lasted, the lower the chances of success for the Heat. Chalmers’ interference was deliberate; his aim wasn’t to steal the ball from Zhou Yi. With Zhou Yi’s steady control, even Mike Bibby couldn’t easily take it away from him. Chalmers always kept a two-step distance, preventing Zhou Yi from having enough time to get moving. It took Zhou Yi about six seconds to get the ball across half-court, with Heat players standing by the Pistons’ other players. Zhou Yi sighed inwardly. He hadn’t expected the Heat’s defense to become even more troublesome after Mike Bibby left the court. When Bibby was on the team, their focus was on offense rather than defense, resulting in many defensive gaps. The Pistons were adept at exploiting these gaps, while now the Heat focused on defense at the expense of offense, unable to quickly launch attacks and thus needed to change tactics immediately to play a set offense.