As the game is about to begin, both sides announced the starting lineups of this game respectively.

Magic:

Sujiu, Iverson, Carter, Marion, and Howard.

Cavaliers:

Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, James, Jamario Moon, and "The Big Shark" O'Neal.

In this game, Mike Brown did not use the inside double towers as before in the starting power forward, but instead used Moon, who was 2.03 meters tall.

Because in the last preseason match between the two sides, the Cavaliers' loss was fully proved to Brown.

Although the double tower lineup can cause more interference to Howard in the penalty area, it is equivalent to cutting off one's own arm on the offensive end.

Since the projection threats of "Big Sharks" O'Neal and Hickson are basically negligible, the entire Cavaliers cannot open up space for LeBron James on the offensive end.

Everyone's positions seemed particularly crowded, which greatly increased the difficulty for James to break through to the inside.

Originally, when the Magic's inside player is in charge of "Warcraft" Howard, LeBron James' breakthrough will be greatly restricted.

If the Cavaliers' offensive formation cannot try to open up space for LeBron and James, then James will become very uncomfortable on the court.

In addition, the reason why James can become the best player in the league today is not only because of his strong personal breakthrough ability, but also has an inseparable relationship with his outstanding overall view.

In this case, only by trying to expand and spread the Cavaliers' formation can James play all his advantages on the field.

On the contrary, if all the Cavaliers players are squeezed into the inside, then LeBron, who is already lacking in a long shot ability, will probably be greatly reduced.

So after experiencing a crushing defeat in the preseason, Mike Brown deeply understood this.

Although the most standard lineup in the league is the Double Tower, for the Cavaliers, this is obviously not that effective.

Compared with JJ Hickson, Moon, who played the starting power forward in this game, has the ability to shoot from the outside.

Although the three-point shooting percentage is not very high, at least you can open up space for LeBron James from the field and not become a drag on the offensive end.

And at the same time, Moon's personal defense is also excellent, and in a sense, he is more like a weakened version of Marion.

After all, before transferring to the Cavaliers last season, Moon averaged 7.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1 steal and 0.8 blocks per game.

As for the Magic, they still put on their regular lineup in this game.

Even Vince Carter's personal performance in the previous few games did not meet the fans' expectations.

But in Stan Van Gundy's words, Vince Carter is an All-Star player after all, so all he needs is to use time to adjust.

After the game started, Howard took the lead in getting the ball for the Magic. After all, when Warcraft and O'Neal stood in the middle circle and jumped the ball, there was basically no doubt about this.

In the whole first quarter, the Magic still played according to their regular style and did not change much.

After experiencing the cooperation of the first few games of the regular season, when Carter stood at a high position and acted as a ball holder, he was able to form a tacit cooperation between two people with Su Jiu who was out of the ball.

Although he can't do the same as Su Jiu and Tkoglu, at least when he sees Su Jiu's pace after using the pick-and-roll without the ball, Carter can subconsciously understand Su Jiu's offensive intentions.

In addition, this can be regarded as the first time the Magic and the Cavaliers this season.

In this game, "Big Shark" O'Neal finally took out his all his strength and made a personal defense against Howard at a low post.

In fact, when "Big Shark" O'Neal was in the penalty area, Howard's back-to-back singles efficiency was indeed subject to some restrictions.

Even though O'Neal was already in his twilight years at this time, his weight still reached the top level in the league.

In addition, the strength of the lower limbs has always been a disadvantage of Howard, so this makes it difficult for Howard, who is on his back, to resist and can push the "Big Shark" O'Neal in the penalty area.

After all, Howard's offensive goal was basically a forced dunk after squeezing away the opponent.

His offensive skills can be said to be very few, so players like O'Neal undoubtedly increase the difficulty of Howard on the offensive end.

Fortunately, Howard still has many personal advantages compared to O'Neal in his late years.

Among them, the most obvious ones are movement speed and reaction ability.

These two points can ensure that when Howard and his teammates play and cooperate at a high position, O'Neal's reaction ability becomes one of his major weaknesses.

And O'Neal was also at a disadvantage in the rebounding battle.

Even though the two people were of the same height, Howard's bounce and speed were obviously higher than O'Neal at this time.

This also leads to Howard having more advantages in rebounding. When many fans saw this scene, they had to sigh:

"Time really makes people grow old!"

In the whole first quarter, the Magic's performance was still relatively stable. They played at their own pace on both sides of the offense and defense, and were completely uninterrupted by the Cavaliers.

On the other hand, with Mike Brown taking the initiative to abandon the double tower lineup and put Moon in the starting power forward position, this indeed improved the Cavaliers' dilemma on the offensive end.

Helping LeBron James open up more space, thus greatly improving the team's own offensive fluency.

Even though Moon's appearance was to put the Cavaliers at a disadvantage in rebounding, which was already at a disadvantage.

But Mike Brown has mastered the essence of playing against Magic, that is, he can only fight with Magic with offense in the front.

Because in terms of defense, even if the Cavaliers do it perfectly, they cannot completely lock in so many offensive methods of Magic.

After all, there are too many players in the Magic team with independent offensive ability. They defended Howard and Su Jiu, Su Jiu and Iverson, Iverson and Carter, and Carter and Lewis.

In this case, the Knight can only kill the magic through the offensive end, and only then can he defeat the magic on the front.

If in the previous fight between the two sides, Mike Brown was thinking about how to limit Su Jiu or Howard's personal performance, comparing himself to a shield.

So in this game, Mike Brown turned himself into a spear and did not consider the performance of Su Jiu and Howard on the offensive end.

More importantly, he focuses on one of his own offensive ends, and wants to create a glimmer of hope in this collision of narrow roads through this spear-to-spike.

I have to say that Mike Brown's change in this game really played some role.

After the first quarter, when most fans were not optimistic before the game, the Cavaliers who played at home were:

26:26

The game with the Magic team reached a draw, ending the first quarter between the two sides.

In the whole first quarter, the Magic also did not change their personal defense against James, which was to try to push him out of his shooting comfort zone, forcing him to finish away from the basket.

However, because the Cavaliers' offensive space is wide, when LeBron James breaks through to the inside with the help of a pick-and-roll, the Magic dare not shrink too deeply.

Otherwise, once the defensive player blocks LeBron James, he will miss some opportunities from the outside.

In this case, James can always find the best position for him to take action through his excellent reading competition ability.

And while taking action, you can also try to stay away from the interference that Howard brings to him.

As for how he did this, he must classify this credit on O'Neal.

Although O'Neal is old, his movement speed and personal ability have greatly decreased.

But his excellent weight and positioning ability are able to try to get Howard behind him on the offensive end and make some off-ball screens for James.

Help James get more chances to attack the basket.

Regarding this, Howard often complained to the referee in the first half, saying that O'Neal had many unball pick-and-rolls and illegal screenings.

But the referee on the sidelines was indifferent to Howard's complaints, and obviously did not intend to yell.

After all, everyone knows the weight of "Big Shark" O'Neal. If he put all his strength on Howard.

Then even if Howard thinks of jumping to make up for defense, he is completely powerless.

It has to be said that as a former No. 1 center in the league, although O'Neal is gradually getting old, his personal experience at the basket still makes Howard, who looks quite immature, feel extremely uncomfortable.

After the end of the first quarter, Stan Van Gundy was obviously very dissatisfied with the referee's call in the first quarter and communicated with the referee many times on the sidelines.

But no matter how Van Gundy puts pressure on the referee, the referee did not give a clear explanation.

It’s just like playing Tai Chi, telling Van Gundy: “Do your own business.”

Seeing this situation, Van Gundy was obviously a little angry, and at the same time he knew that there would be a League Guild behind this game.

After all, LeBron James is a league super giant that the league wants to launch with all its might. In this case, the league guild certainly does not want James to be ravaged by magic to be too miserable.

So when the Cavaliers are at home, if the Cavaliers can win this game, it will definitely be a very important thing.

However, Stan Van Gundy, who knew this well, did not intend to give up. In extreme anger, he repeatedly reminded the players with a tactical board.

It can be said that at this time, Dafan was completely stagnant with the referee.

Since you don’t call me for so many fouls on the field, then I will win this game!!

After returning from the second quarter, the two sides replaced the substitute lineup to compete. This season, with the Cavaliers' personal strengthening in the offseason, the Cavaliers' substitute firepower in the new season is actually quite strong.

Among them, in the substitute lineup, the Cavaliers also have several players including Gibson, West, Hickson and Ilgoskas.

Not to mention anything else, at least when facing some ordinary playoff teams, this substitute lineup can completely help the Cavaliers get through the period when LeBron James and other main players are resting.

Unfortunately, the Magic are not an ordinary playoff team.

It is no exaggeration to say that there are only a handful of teams in the entire league that can be better than the Magic in terms of lineup depth.

And this is only a few descriptions with modesty.

You know, this season, the Magic are sitting on the bench at the same time: Lewis, White Chocolate Williams, Courtney Lee, Brandon Bass, Leon Anderson and other powerful players.

Among them, Lewis was the Eastern Conference All-Star player last season.
To be continued...