What is "back to back"? Literally, the original text is "back to back", which is continuous combat in professional league terms. The word "back to back" has great freedom, and different occasions have different pertinence. The narrow sense of "back-to-back" refers to playing against different opponents in different away games for two consecutive nights, and the broad sense of "back-to-back" can be interpreted as playing against different opponents in different venues for two consecutive nights.
Regardless of the narrow sense and broad sense, the most critical essence of literal understanding of "back to back" lies in "continuity". In order to illustrate the narrow sense of "back-to-back", we can think that Team A came to the home of Team B in 65438+February, flew to the city where Team C was located immediately after the game, and played at the home of Team C in the evening of 65438+February. If the explanation is translated into a broad sense, it can be thought that Team A will fly back to its own city immediately after finishing the away game on the evening of 65438+February 1 and play against Team D at its home on the evening of 65438+February 2.
As an important competitive sport, the physical factors of basketball play an important role in winning or losing the game. Although no one can say that physical strength is everything to win, even the first-class teams, once caught in the physical trap, will easily lose their fighting capacity, let alone the middle-class teams or weak teams. "Back-to-back", a terrible term, is just torturing players' physical strength and even their psychological endurance.
What is back to back? Some players will scoff. Yes, players with excellent physical fitness and good self-adjustment ability will not regard back-to-back as an insurmountable obstacle. Compared with "back-to-back", the NBA also has a formidable name "back-to-back", which means fighting on different courts for three consecutive nights. Readers who have read the above "back-to-back" description may have a general impression: what does it mean to travel to three different cities for three consecutive nights?
Due to the large number of league teams and the principle of keeping away games as compact as possible, back-to-back away games have become commonplace, and the "back-to-back" mentioned above is not new. If you think this is high strength? Then you are wrong. Due to the increasingly rich experience of professional basketball operation, the intensity of back-to-back is strictly controlled. The League Office strives to treat each team fairly and make every game full of fair competition. Therefore, the early four back-to-back games and five back-to-back games in professional leagues have become history.
Don't doubt the authenticity of "four back to back" or "five back to back". Turn the calendar to the 67-68 season, as happened to the unfortunate Chicago Bulls. On four nights in' 67165438+1October 15, the Chicago Bulls challenged the Los Angeles Lakers in four different city wars (1 15- 124, the Bulls lost) and/. Bulls lost), away game against San Francisco Warriors (109-11,bulls lost) 18 night, home game against Detroit Pistons (132- 130,
Has hell come to an end? Chicago Bulls are called "unlucky" because they just finished the fourth back-to-back game on June 5438+065438+ 10/8, rested for less than 72 hours, and then ushered in a round of five back-to-back battles: 10/day. The Bulls lost), visited Bartimo on the evening of 22nd to challenge the bullets (105- 100, and the Bulls won), played against the new york Knicks in Milwaukee on the evening of 23rd (the Bulls won at that time), and played against the Philadelphia 76ers at home on the evening of 24th (65438+). It can't be explained that the bulls can achieve 3 wins and 2 losses in the "5 back-to-back" environment. You know, the bulls in the 67-68 season can only be regarded as the grassroots team of the league, and it is difficult to get on the table with a record of 29 wins and 53 losses throughout the year. If you barely find a reason for the bulls' five back-to-back resistance, it may only be attributed to the presence of God and Chicago fans.
This is a legendary story about 40 years ago, which is too far away from the modern alliance. No matter how horrible the game is, any reader will blurt out, "Who arranged it? Does this still prevent players from playing well? " The schedule comes from the league office. In years of operating experience, the schedule has gradually become procedural, and the original horrible schedule has become history. According to the grand statement of the League Office, any team should accept it no less than 15 times in a single season, but it should not exceed 24 times.
Matthew Vinnik, vice president of the NBA, made the NBA schedule. He graduated from the University of Buffalo, majoring in accounting, and worked with numbers all his life. 1976 began to play for the NBA. As vice president, he was responsible for all the schedules of all teams in six months, and also successfully operated the emergency plan for the shrinking season in 1999. He should also have suffered from the Millennium bug in 2000, and he is a veteran of the League. Mr Wienicke said: "In the NBA, the schedule is a true portrayal of life. We try to meet the needs of all teams, but you know, no matter how hard we try, some teams will have an advantage over others in any season. I can only say that I can't make the status quo better within my control. "
Wienicke's quick response is naturally a habit of dealing with the media for many years, but he can't deny a problem: the number of back-to-back games will never be fair. There is an order of magnitude gap of 60% between the minimum 15 back-to-back and the maximum 24 back-to-back, and this flexible space is one of the cornucopia of NBA financial resources.
As a commercial basketball league, basketball is just a tool to serve the huge commercial machine. NBA needs popularity to get the related economic income brought by popularity, including broadcasting rights, souvenirs, advertisements, game-related entertainment industries and so on. These sources of income will not appear in poor mountainous areas, and only rich cities or highly competitive teams have the capital to attract wealth. It is not difficult to explain why weak teams or small city teams tend to rush to frequent back-to-back games. In the NBA's view, they belong to big cities or popular teams. On a weekend, the league manager met two popular teams that had feuds with their directors. Many teams had to give way before and after the two protagonists met, so other smaller teams often became victims.
Naturally, the slogan of "fair competition" always hangs on the corners of operators' mouths, but teams in developed cities often get some subtle preferential treatment. This is not surprising. The essence of NBA is business, the green ticket behind business.
"I'm exhausted." After back-to-back, players often say this at press conferences. Looking back on Chicago Bulls in 165438+ 10, modern players should know how happy they are. Even if there are some unfavorable back-to-back, the coach can use various means to minimize the unfavorable factors. What can he complain about?
Policies and countermeasures
The biggest feature of people is that when faced with an unchangeable situation, they will find ways to adjust themselves to the situation. The so-called "there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom" is the last word that is universally applicable.
Physical strength is an important factor in winning or losing the basketball court, and "back-to-back" torments the players' physical strength. The management concept of NBA for many years has helped professional leagues to establish a set of policies and strategies to deal with different situations, such as the handling of "back-to-back" games, and there are various ways to deal with them. Although the unfavorable situation cannot be completely recovered, the coaches still try their best to stifle the unfavorable factors to a minimum.
Dispatching troops in the last game will be a knowledge, and many head coaches will temporarily allocate players' playing time according to the specific situation: if the lead is obvious, the main players will often leave the bench early to rest, so that the substitute players can maintain their lead to the end; Similarly, if the disadvantage is too great to recover, the head coach will not hesitate to replace the main players and take an early rest, preferring to give up one game in exchange for the physical fitness of the second main players.
Even during the game, the frequency of the main players' appearance is strictly controlled. The coach will not let the main players overdraw for a long time, and even change the main players when the score is even, until the key stage of the fourth quarter sends the main players to complete the final impact.
It is not difficult to see that the coaches saved every bit of physical strength for the next night's game, but this is not an absolute theory. If the opponent on the first night belongs to an absolutely equal opponent, and the opponent on the second night is too strong to win, the coach will spare no effort to dispatch the main player and strive to capture the first breakeven. As for the game that has no chance of winning the next night, let's play it by ear.
Specific analysis, this is the best policy in the face of back-to-back games, and there is no possibility that everything will be fine without a set of strategies. However, the best a coach can do is to adjust the players' physical strength. As for the psychological endurance of continuous operations, it can only be supported by idealistic things such as morale, cohesion and indomitable spirit.
Physical fatigue is not difficult to overcome, and the collapse of psychological endurance is the reason why most teams often lose control in the second game. Just after playing a game, I rushed to the second game under extreme fatigue. Lack of sleep time, frequent change of transportation, so that the team members' brain nerves are not enough to restore to the best state. Especially the game scene of the night before is still lingering in my mind, and I will immediately listen to the head coach's chatter about the tactical points of the second game. Some players with insufficient psychological endurance may even feel that time and space are reversed, and the two tactics will be confused in their minds, and the best execution effect cannot be achieved.
The human brain is different from a perpetual motion machine. The brain needs enough rest to restore its peak memory level, analytical thinking and reaction speed. Unfortunately, the continuous operation of "back-to-back" just challenges the limit of the brain, so the players on the next night tend to be inattentive and slow to respond. Faced with this embarrassing situation, the head coach can only shake his head and sigh. By the way, every time he paused, he shouted slogans such as "No one can save us except ourselves", hoping to help the players cheer up and go all out.
Trainers also play an important role in dealing with "back to back". Usually, the training plan specially made by the trainer will take effect within 24 hours before the first game of "back to back". This special training plan includes details such as the training amount, training time and training intensity of each player. Some players reduce the amount of training to maintain their physical strength, while others will increase the amount of training because it will be the magic weapon for the first charge.
It's like a massive record. The coaching staff seems to be working like a frontline command, with multiple sets of plans in hand to deal with different emergencies. At this moment, the test is not only the endurance of the players, but also the working ability of the coaching staff. When it comes to the coaching staff, it's a bit off topic: why does every head coach take the coaching staff to change blood when he takes office? In order to make the coaching staff form the strongest working effect, coaches often change into their own staff, and more tacit cooperation often does not show advantages when things are smooth. Once faced with severe challenges, a handy coaching staff is as important as adding an all-star player to the coach. "Back-to-back" is one of the most common challenges for the team.
The stadium changes quickly, but it will never change its original religion. "Back-to-back" is a common "variable" in the stadium. All teams have unique methods to deal with back-to-back. From psychological adjustment to physical adjustment, every step is like a part of a huge machine. Why can the legendary "super power" win in a row? Strength is a factor, and more importantly, both players and coaches know how to overcome "back-to-back" and resolve the disadvantage to a level close to zero. Who said "back-to-back" test players? The real test is the head coach and coaching staff. Their strategizing didn't win applause from the stands, but it permeated every minute of 48 minutes and finally turned into a hard-won victory.