But tonight, Hansen gave off the impression defensively that if someone tried to go against him, he truly would deliver a double steal.
It was an outrageous yet authentic feeling.
As for trying to draw fouls to send Hansen off the court, that wasn’t realistic either; although Hansen wasn’t a Nike-sponsored player, he was nevertheless a back-to-back Finals MVP.
Moreover, when Hansen was on the court, his defensive impact was merely incidental; his greater influence was on offense.
This time, after forcing Perkins out of the three-second zone using a pick and roll breakthrough, Hansen immediately passed the ball to Little Gasol, who scored with a powerful two-handed dunk under the basket.
The Grizzlies had stopped the Heat’s offenses, but the Heat couldn’t stop the Grizzlies’ offenses!
Last season’s finals had already made one thing clear: if the Heat couldn’t open up their offense, they couldn’t beat the Grizzlies.
Spoelstra proactively called for a timeout.
After the timeout, the Heat adjusted their offensive strategy.
They neither tried to wear down Hansen nor to draw his fouls but chose... to avoid Hansen!
If you can’t provoke, then avoidance was still manageable.
As long as they treated Hansen’s defensive side as the weak side and used the other side as the strong side, it would suffice.
Even though Hansen had made a help-side block earlier, being cautious wasn’t an issue.
This tactic indeed worked, as Wade and Bosh’s stop-and-pop mid-range after a pick and roll finally continued the Heat’s scoring.
However, this choice by the Heat stirred excitement among the fans once again.
Because it was tantamount to admitting they couldn’t break through Hansen’s defense!
Of course, it wasn’t just the fans who were excited; as a defensive coach, Joerger knew exactly what this meant.
When your offensive options are forced to lean toward one side, it naturally becomes much easier for the defense to respond.
He called Carter over and gave him a series of instructions.
On the Grizzlies’ offensive end, Conley received Hansen’s pass outside the three-point line but missed; however, Hansen quickly moved to grab the offensive rebound and faced Bosh, spinning in mid-air for a layup.
Bosh’s mid-air spinning interference was called by the referee for a defensive foul.
The [vertical jumping rule] increasingly highlighted its impact on interior defense.
Hansen headed to the free-throw line.
Taking advantage of this dead-ball moment, Carter was also brought in to replace Battier.
Hansen made both free throws, bringing the score to 4 to 9.
The Heat continued their attack on the other side of Hansen’s defense.
Wade held the ball and continued to use screens with Bosh. This time Carter chose an overplaying defense to deny the mid-range opportunity, deliberately forcing Wade towards the basket.
Wade took the opportunity to penetrate deeper.
The Heat had suffered under the new rules twice already, and now it was finally their turn to exploit them.
Facing Little Gasol, Wade used the "Mysterious Steps" again.
For most players, moves like Mysterious Steps or European Steps require space for offensive maneuvering because significant changes in direction need acceleration space.
But Wade was not within that range, his explosive power was sufficient.
Seeing that the Heat had been called repeatedly, Little Gasol didn’t dare to jump easily.
Wade successfully bypassed Little Gasol to complete the layup.
But just as he released his shot, Hansen swiftly closed in again.
Death Entanglement didn’t just enhance speed, but also defensive awareness.
Hansen could catch the opponent’s offensive intentions more quickly and then complete his defensive interference.
With a volleyball-style block, Hansen precisely angled and swatted Wade’s shot straight out of bounds.
In less than half a period, Hansen had already contributed 2 blocks and 1 steal!
Of course, there were also successful defensive plays like earlier against Durant, which the data didn’t show.
The crowd erupted again with deafening cheers, and some fans couldn’t contain their excitement and stood up. Read complete versıon only at 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⁂𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⁂𝓷𝓮𝓽
In this moment, they too felt that they had their own Jordan on the court!