NBA: The start beat Kobe Bryant in his old age

Chapter 186 The Worst Team in the League

After the confrontation of the Lakers is brought up, the young players of the Jazz can't prevent them.

Under Lin Tian's tandem, Howard on the inside can easily play Gobert.

Clarkson and Kobe also hit three-pointers one after another, gradually opening up the score between the two sides.

Compared with the efforts made on the offensive end, Lin Tian spared no effort on the defensive end.

Since his defensive strength has improved, Hayward has no way to pass Lin Tian, ​​​​and can only hand over the ball to Raul Neto to handle more.

Raul Neto is the Jazz's second scorer, but his height is here, only 1.8 meters three.

Against Clarkson, Raul Neto has little advantage.

With 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Lakers had already led by as much as [-] points, and they were basically sure of winning.

The Jazz don't intend to give up. They can only hand the ball back to Hayward when the Lakers' defense has improved significantly.

When ordinary players feel extremely cold, those who handle the ball will naturally become star players.

Hayward refused to accept it, and asked Lin Tian to hit two more singles, but one of them was cut off by Lin Tian, ​​and the other was defended by Lin Tian.

The Lakers also took advantage of two opportunities to successfully complete the fast break and score, pulling the score to 21 points.

In desperation, Jazz head coach Schneider let out a long sigh, and then called a timeout to withdraw.

Several main players of the Lakers, including Lin Tian, ​​were also replaced by Scott back to the bench.

What follows is garbage time for both parties.

Howard took a sip of water, turned around and said to Lin Tian: "Lin! We cooperated well today!"

Lin Tian also nodded with a smile: "Your dunk is so cool!"

"Really? I think so too, haha, should I practice more pick-and-rolls in the future?"

Kobe suddenly said: "If this is the case, that would be great."

Kobe saw Howard's growth. When this guy came to the Lakers, he didn't want to pick and roll for himself at all.

Later, when he came to the Rockets, it was normal for him not to give Harden.

I'm afraid not many people think that Howard is willing to do these dirty jobs now.

Lin Tian turned his attention back to the court. Nick Young was scoring points like crazy, and he even scored an assist for himself.

The advantage of a player like Nick Young is that no matter what the occasion, his mentality is always as stable as an old dog, and he is not afraid of anything.

The Lakers don't have much depth off the bench, and neither does the Jazz.

Amid the cheers of the audience, the game finally ended, and the Lakers won the game without much surprise.

今天林天的表现颇为中规中矩，砍下了45分4篮板9助攻3抢断1盖帽的数据。

His number of turnovers also set a new high in a single game, reaching 4 turnovers.

Compared with other stars who can get high scores, 4 turnovers in a single game are not too many.

Howard scored 20 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks today, while Kobe scored 19 points.

Of the 19 points Kobe scored, 15 were obtained by shooting three-pointers.

He made 9 of 5 three-pointers today, and his shooting percentage exceeded 50%, which is very good.

After the game, O'Neal in the commentary got up and came to Kobe and joked: "I never dreamed that you guys have practiced three-pointers this season!"

Although the two broke up unhappy more than ten years ago, those old memories have long since disappeared with time, and now they are considered close friends.

Moreover, Kobe only truly realized O'Neal's dominance at the center position after O'Neal left the Lakers.

So much so that he was very dissatisfied with many of the centers he worked with later, feeling that the gap between them and O'Neal was too great.

Faced with O'Neal's ridicule, Kobe smiled and said: "Shaquille, look at what you said! Isn't my three-pointer always accurate?"

O'Neal showed an exaggerated expression: "My God! If your three-pointer is really accurate! Why do I need to work hard for rebounds?"

After saying this, both of them couldn't help laughing again.

Then O'Neill continued to sigh: "It's unimaginable! This is your last season! You should have unlimited shooting rights, but you are willing to play off the ball for a young rookie! Kobe! I suddenly feel that you are so strange."

"Let me tell you why!" Kobe said seriously, "For winning! For the playoffs!"

O'Neill nodded: "That's right, you are more competitive than anyone else."

He put his eyes on Lin Tian next to him again, and then patted Lin Tian's shoulder heavily: "Boy Tianchao! I really have you!"

Lin Tian observed O'Neill at close range, and only felt that O'Neill was fatter than he imagined.

After retiring, he probably didn't carry out body management anymore.

While several people were talking, Hayward, who was wearing a towel, also came over to congratulate the Lakers.

After chatting with Kobe for a few words, he said to Lin Tian: "Damn! Your defense is terrible."

With Hayward's approval, Lin Tian scratched his head: "It's okay."

After Hayward hugged Lin Tian again, he was about to turn around and leave, but Lin Tian suddenly remembered what happened to Hayward next. He stopped Hayward, came to him and reminded him: "Don't think about going to Boston in the future."

Lin Tian's seemingly unreasonable words made Hayward a little confused.

He didn't know his fate, but Lin Tian did.

According to the memory of his previous life, Hayward will leave the Boston Celtics in the summer of 2017, sign a big contract with the Celtics that exceeds [-] million yuan, and then sign the first game of the first season of the contract, and he will be seriously injured in the game!Then it's hard to get back to the top.

After all, not every player is named Paul George.

Lin Tian has traveled to this world for a while, and he found that apart from things related to himself, other teams and players in the league are basically developing according to the historical trajectory, which is not much different from his previous life.

Hayward froze for a while before asking: "Man, are you kidding me? What am I doing in Boston?"

Seeing this, Lin Tian knew that his words were of little use, so he could only smile wryly: "Just kidding."

Hayward just nodded and left.

A big victory in a game made the atmosphere in the Lakers team surprisingly good.

After accepting the post-match interview, Lin Tian returned to the apartment and read the news as usual:

"The Lakers beat the Jazz and won six consecutive victories!"

"Dark horse rising in the middle of the season: the Los Angeles Lakers!"

"From the No. 28 pick to 30 wins and [-] losses, what has the Lakers experienced?"

"The Warriors' winning streak was ended by the Trail Blazers! Do they still have hope for 73 wins?"

Lin Tian pays special attention to the news of the Warriors, Spurs and Thunder recently.

Even if they couldn't watch the live broadcast of their games, he would usually watch the replays.

Lin Tian was not surprised at all that the Warriors' winning streak was ended by the Trail Blazers.

In the previous life, the Warriors had 73 wins and 9 losses. In the nine games they lost, it seemed that except for the Spurs, they were all weak teams.

Teams like Timberwolves and Nuggets
The reason for this situation often has a certain relationship with the mentality of the Warriors.

When facing weaker teams, their concentration will drop.

On the contrary, they tried their best when facing strong teams like the Cavaliers and Thunder.

The loss to the Blazers this time was entirely because the Blazers were too accurate in the backcourt, and the Warriors' shots today were just not accurate...

After reading the news for a while, Lin Tian fell asleep.

In the early morning of the next day, Lin Tian was the first to arrive at the team training hall.

They still have a back-to-back game at home today, playing against the underdogs in the Eastern Conference, the Nets, so training is essential.

The team has at least two back-to-back games every month, which is actually quite scientific compared to the previous schedule.

After Lin Tian practiced alone in the empty gym for a while, Kobe came.

He practiced shooting three-pointers meticulously as soon as he arrived.

In recent times, Kobe's three-point shooting rate is so high, which is inseparable from his hard training.

There are rumors that Kobe wakes up to practice at four in the morning every day, which is actually a bit exaggerated. At least since Lin Tian knew Kobe, the opponent usually arrives at the arena at six or seven o'clock, but this is enough to show how hard Kobe is.

The training of the two of them has basically formed a habit, they are all practicing by themselves, and they don't have much communication with each other.

It wasn't until after they practiced for a long time that Nance Jr., Nick Young, the team's assistant coaches and others arrived that the training hall gradually became lively.

After all the players arrived, Scott also held a morning meeting, the morning meeting ended, and it was busy training time again.

Howard did not break his promise. Under the guidance of the assistant coach, he actively contacted the basket and his pick-and-roll skills.

These are things he was more disgusted with before, but now he has completely compromised.

The training intensity during the day was very low, and Lin Tian didn't train himself to the death. They only played the game last night, and they will play again tonight. If the training takes too much effort, I'm afraid they won't have the energy to play at night.

……

Los Angeles at night perfectly interprets what a big city is.

Here the lights are bright, the traffic is prosperous, and the audience is orderly checking in at the entrance of the spacious Staples Center arena.

In the arena, players from the Lakers and Nets are already warming up.

The Nets can be called the worst team in recent seasons, not one of them.

Their boss is not short of money. He completed a shocking deal in the summer of 2013, trading Pierce and Garnett from the Celtics to the Nets.

As a result, in that season, they formed an ultra-luxury lineup of Deron Williams, Pierce, Garnett, Lopez, and Joe Johnson.

In order to put together such a lineup, the Nets completely tossed out the future of the team.

They had only one goal that season, and that was the championship.

However, the sky did not come true. The dream lineup created by the Nets allowed them to enter the playoffs that year, but they were ruthlessly crushed by the Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Even though three years have passed now, the Nets, who have overdrawn their future, have not been able to slow down.

The Nets' first-round pick this year has long been traded to the Celtics. Therefore, no matter what their final platoon is this season, it has nothing to do with the first-round pick at all. It's just a wedding dress for the Celtics.

It's just their strength, they can't win even if they want to win.

If nothing else, this year's first-round pick that should belong to the Nets will be the No. [-] pick, and the Celtics will use this pick to sign the talented player Jaylen Brown.

The starlight of the Nets this season is bleak, and only one big Lopez is struggling to support it. Even Joe Johnson was sent away not long ago.

Lopez averaged 20 points per game this season. With such a high score, it shouldn't be a big problem to be an All-Star substitute.

But the Nets' record is really bad and their popularity is low, which made him miss the All-Star.

After the game started, Lin Tian thought it would be a game with a relatively large disparity in strength, but the resilience of the Nets exceeded his imagination.

Although Lopez has no three-point ability, he was in his prime and fought Howard in the interior, and he did not fall into a disadvantage.

Thaddeus Young of the Nets is also very aggressive. He even singles Lin Tian frequently. Of course, his shooting rate is not ideal and he is often interrupted.

After halftime, the Lakers only led by 5 points, which surprised the fans.

In fact, this is also normal. The Nets are a team without any baggage. The playoffs have long been hopeless, and there is no need to be pressured by the management to play badly. They have no ideological baggage at all, and they can play as they want.

On the other hand, the Lakers only experienced the game against the Jazz yesterday. Although it was at home, it was difficult for the players to recover to their peak physical strength.

In addition, facing an underdog, he was a little relaxed, and his state was obviously not as good as when he played against the Jazz yesterday.

In the Lakers locker room, Kobe had a rare tantrum: "What's wrong with you today? Are you all sleepwalking? The offensive end is limp like dancing, and the defensive end is always missing people! It's so hard to beat Brooklyn, then stop fighting in the second half, just surrender, admit that you are a softie, go home and sleep early..."

Kobe's unique way of encouraging his teammates has had quite a gratifying effect.

After the start of the second half, the Lakers began to confront the Nets, which once led to an embarrassing situation where the Nets scored 5 goals after playing for 2 minutes.

As a result, the game was taken away by the Lakers.

They gave the Nets a disastrous defeat, and at the same time their record was rewritten to 29 wins and 30 losses, completing a wave of seven consecutive victories.

Lin Tian scored fewer points today, only 40 points.

Bryant and Howard both scored over 20.

In the Lakers locker room after the game, Kobe finally had a smile on his face: "Little bastards! You must be scolded by me to play seriously, right?"

All the players also laughed happily.

Next, they will have two days of rest, and then continue to face the enemy at home.

Their next opponent is the Timberwolves.

They have already played the Timberwolves before, but there are 82 games in a season, and they usually play the same team at least twice, and some teams have to play three times, and the Timberwolves are one of them.

(End of this chapter)