Bosh and Little Gasol jumped for the ball at the center circle.
Amidst the cheering of the fans, Bosh tapped the ball back to the Heat’s half-court, giving the Heat team the first opportunity to attack.
The Heat team’s style of play was no different from the regular season; the others spread out, then let James go for the low post one-on-one.
The Grizzlies had prepared for this, with Little Gasol staying near the three-second zone, ready to provide help defense at any moment.
Guy also spared no effort to physically contend with James.
James finally turned and squeezed past Guy, but after encountering Little Gasol’s help defense, he passed the ball to Bosh.
Bosh took a mid-range shot off the catch but hit iron.
Bosh had been injured against the Pacers in Game 1—a pulled abdominal muscle.
It wasn’t a major injury but, with the Heat at a severe disadvantage against the Celtics, he had been forced to come back early before fully healing, and his condition was average.
This was also the foundation of the Grizzlies coaching staff’s defensive strategy.
Up to this point, not only the Grizzlies’ players had grown, but their coaching staff had as well.
The playoffs were about who made fewer mistakes and who could better exploit the opponent’s weaknesses.
When it came to the shift between offense and defense, the Grizzlies continued to exploit the same weakness.
Spoelstra used a tall-and-four-small lineup with the same goal as Brooks before him; both aimed to take the pace of the game into a quick transition defense battle.
The Heat had a more mature defensive system compared to the Thunders, which is why, despite the Thunders’ loss, Spoelstra still had the confidence to try it.
But if you, Spoelstra, dare to use it, then I will keep chipping away at your interior until it breaks.
At this time, McRoberts was defending Randolph.
Why wasn’t James defending him?
I, James, am playing small forward!
McRoberts was adept at facilitating and shooting threes, defense was not his strong suit, otherwise he wouldn’t be getting just a three-million salary.
Of course, Spoelstra knew this, so the Heat team relied on their help defense and defensive system.
Just like the Grizzlies coaching staff, Spoelstra had also targeted Randolph’s condition.
However, before Randolph could be double-teamed, he quickly passed the ball to Guy. The source of this content ɪs 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝~𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖~𝕟𝕖𝕥
"Condition" might seem like a vague term but simply put, it’s your on-court touch, physical response time, confidence, and such.
Randolph had recouped a lot in these aspects, especially after finishing the Western Conference Finals against the Thunders.
After Guy caught the ball, he too was quite confident, and decisively shot a three before James could close out on defense.
But since he had just come on the court, his hands weren’t warm yet, and the ball smashed off the rim.
Randolph grabbed the offensive rebound.
Randolph’s shot went astray after Bosh valiantly closed out for the block; the Heat’s help defense was indeed quicker and more systematic.
But then, Little Gasol went right up and finished with a put-back dunk!
The Heat’s tall-and-four-small lineup was at an absolute disadvantage on the boards against the Grizzlies’ twin towers.
At this point, the Grizzlies just needed to keep things simple on offense: drive inside, shoot with confidence.
Turning back around, James forcefully attacked the basket, using his unique footwork to fake past Little Gasol for the shot.
But as soon as the ball left his hands, Guy leaped high and rejected it straight out of play.
Every Grizzly on the court was giving it their all!
And of course, more importantly, Guy was blunt—he didn’t care how many steps you, James, took; as long as he sent the ball out, he couldn’t be wrong.
The FedEx Forum instantly erupted into a frenzy.
The Grizzlies had started the game with a surge of momentum.
With not much time left on the offense, the ball found its way to Wade’s hands.
Ever since shouting "Even DW can’t save you" in front of Wade to James, Hansen had had much less contact with Wade.
It wasn’t just because Wade was afraid of James misunderstanding but, more importantly, since Wade had made his choice, he also wanted to prove his decision was right.
Now facing off against Han, Wade was holding nothing back, going straight to his signature move, Mysterious Steps.
But he couldn’t easily shake off Han.
Since the Grizzlies’ opening tactics were to play inside, Han didn’t need to expend much energy, which allowed him to commit fully on the defensive end.
When Wade finally managed to squeeze past Han, Little Gasol’s help defense came up as well.
Like against the Thunders, Han was fighting in conjunction with Little Gasol.
Wade’s last, high-difficulty, stepping throw missed the basket, and Randolph secured the rebound.
Then on the return, Randolph received the ball in the low post and quickly turned after a drop step, barreled into the lane, bumped off Bosh, and scored off the glass.
Truth be told, not just McRoberts but even Bosh’s build wasn’t quite up to resisting either of the Grizzly big men.
The Grizzlies’ start to the game was even smoother than during regular-season play.
Before the game, as part of the pre-game hype, Windhorst had written an article on ESPN, analyzing that the Heat’s regular-season sweep by the Grizzlies was due to integration issues. These, he claimed, would be gone by the finals, and the Heat would present a completely different game than in the regular season.
But, right from the start, his face was slapped hard, because he missed the most important point: Randolph hadn’t played during the regular season.
Six minutes into the game, the score was 4 to 11, and the Grizzlies were fully capitalizing on their interior advantage.
Seeing this, Spoelstra was forced to substitute Haslem for McRoberts. The tall-and-four-small strategy was declared a failure.
While shorter in height, Haslem was ferocious on defense, and in his first play he successfully stifled Randolph’s low-post offense.
In return, he set a solid pick for James. After James drove in and drew Guy’s double-team, he passed the ball back to Haslem, whose mid-range jump shot was good.