You should cross the mountains like a brave man

Chapter 836 When Will He Grow Up?

If the 76ers want to leave Los Angeles happily, they still need to beat the Clippers.

The timing of the Clippers' rise is perfect, just when the Lakers are in their infancy. If they can win the championship at this time, they can greatly improve their status in the hearts of the Los Angeles people.

Because for a long time, they gave people the impression that they were a visiting team living in Los Angeles.

But only one team wins the championship every year. In history, there are many players who are worthy of the championship but have no championship for life. The Clippers have long been contaminated by Elgin Baylor's bad luck and suffered from the former owner Sterling's refusal to spend money to build the team.

When Paul and Griffin saw Wei Xia, they both spoke harshly.

Paul is a student of Wei Xia's class, and one of the few players in the 2005 draft who also has All-Star quality.

Wei Xia has a good friendship with him, while Griffin has been in the industry for many years and reached the peak when he debuted, but his follow-up development is not as good as other people in the same year.

At the beginning of the game, Wei Xia scored a three-pointer and took the lead, but the Clippers were not afraid. Paul's ability to call the pick-and-roll is well-known around the world. Griffin gradually stopped grabbing headlines with dunks.

After halftime, Cousins ​​is not good at defending pick-and-rolls, and once he defends, he will be targeted.

When Rondo fails to make a three-pointer, the 76ers have no suitable substitute to replace him, thus forming a vicious circle, and the Clippers can double-team Cousins ​​​​at will.

In the third quarter, Griffin bared his fangs at Faried.

Everyone knows that Griffin has a good body and can dunk very well.He has the explosive power of Sean Kemp, can take off and dunk like a helicopter without stopping after a large turn; he has the body of a boxer like Larry Johnson, and the thick arms of Darryl Dawkins.He also has the agility and touch of a small forward, a perfect blend of strength, explosiveness, speed, and height.

It's just these, but he still can't become the top pick in the draft.

Then what?He has great strength, big and steady hands, and good rebounding awareness; he can quickly dribble to advance the frontcourt, can get behind the basket to get a position, knows how to use strength and speed to occupy a favorable position before receiving the ball, and then turn over to complete the dunk.He's also good at passing the ball.

The shooting that was not very good was gradually practiced.

Now this ability fell on Farid, but it was a heavy blow.

The 76ers' coaching staff hopes that Cousins ​​​​plays the feeling of other insiders in the West facing Griffin.

When crushing Griffin with the inside line headed by Cousins, it can often affect his offense.His scoring skills are mainly to turn his back inside to a deep position to catch the ball, and then to lower his center of gravity, make concessions and turn around to attack the basket in his signature.If it is too far from the basket, he will throw one at Jiba with a look of world-weary despair.

But today Cousins ​​was double-teamed offensively, and was repeatedly stolen by Paul when defending.

Jay Wright wanted to change his formation to play small ball several times, but he held back.

He finally began to understand Cousins' thoughts and maintain his self-esteem, but his control was still not enough.

Of course, it may also be that the current president of the players association is too cunning.

Paul and Cousins ​​were running together, and Cousins, who was not blooming on both offense and defense, was sulking at himself, but Paul was flirting aside, didn't he get angry from his heart?Throw the opponent directly.

Paul's reaction was classic, and any player who wants to be a performance artist on the court should watch what he does over and over again.

His face was miserable, his teeth were open, his voice was piercing, and his body could not help but fall in another direction under the brutal heavy blow, and he gave a French military salute to the audience with his hands gracefully.

"Beep!"

"Beep!"

"Beep beep!"

The referee blew a beep and came to uphold justice. Cousins ​​was so angry that he jumped up as if to defend himself. Because his behavior was too fierce, his tone was really tough, and his physical behavior was somewhat irregular. In addition, he was tall and tall and had many conflicts with referees.

Cousins ​​​​immediately led two technical fouls at an unexpected speed and exited in shame.

"Boss, don't get too close to that bastard!" Cousins ​​reminded Wei Xia before leaving the court, "He is not a good person!"

Wei Xia waved off Cousins ​​regretfully, "Understood!"

Paul said sadly: "DeMarcus misunderstood me, won't you explain a few words for me?"

"He's still a child, why are you making trouble with him?" Wei Xia's words terrified Paul.

That is also called a child?
What the hell is that a child?

Has anyone ever seen a child who weighs more than 250 pounds?
Cousins ​​was blown off the court, and Wright could finally boldly put up a five-small lineup, Faried played center, Wesha mentioned the third position, and Hayward played the fourth position.

Compared with the Warriors in the West, the 76ers' five small lineups do not have the ability to destroy everything.

Because the Warriors really use the five minors as a killer move, while the 76ers usually don't have many opportunities to use it because they have to take care of Cousins' feelings.

No matter how good something is, it will become rusty if it is not used for a long time, let alone a system that requires five people to develop a tacit understanding?
The 76ers, who temporarily put up a small ball to try to restore the decline, were blown away by the Clippers' big ball.

The Clippers are definitely one of the best small-ball teams in the league.

Their insiders, Griffin at No. [-], and DeAndre Jordan at No. [-], are all modern insiders with beastly athletic talents, excellent running and jumping, and able to defend against small guards.

If the 76ers can bring up the speed, they still can't keep up, but what they can do is not let the 76ers bring up the speed.

How to speed up the small ball lineup?
Three-pointers, rotating counterattacks - three-pointers need touch cooperation, and defensive counterattacks need to hold defensive rebounds.

The 76ers' defensive rebounds are dominated by the Clippers. Entering a positional battle is not what the small ball lineup is good at. Behind them, Weisha and Hayward can only take turns to control the situation, and this has deviated from the original intention of the small ball lineup.

In an instant, the situation of the game was mastered by the Clippers.

116 is better than 104
The Clippers beat the 12ers by 76 points, making it difficult to leave Los Angeles with a complete victory.

This is the 76ers' second loss of the season.

The second defeat of the new season came much earlier than last season.

Visible to the naked eye, the dominance of the 76ers has declined.

All teams competing for three consecutive championships have this process. Their core lineup is still very young, but people's hearts are changing, their status is fluctuating, and their opponents are also changing.

"DeMarcus Cousins ​​is 25 years old, we've always been waiting for him to grow up, but looking at him tonight, I can't help but wonder, can he really grow up? He is no longer that insignificant rookie. He is the right-hand man of Wish. If he can't mature himself, he will become a reef for the 76ers to compete for a three-peat." - "Philadelphia Enquirer"

It's easy to hide an open gun, but it's hard to defend against a hidden arrow, let alone a backstab from one's own media.

The Investigator has always claimed to be impartial, and they like to follow the current affairs hotspots in other states. For Philadelphia's own dirty stories, especially those inside stories that are speculative, they often throw them out immediately to create a stir in public opinion.

The blow to Cousins ​​was just a routine operation.

In an APP where everyone has the habit of "just off the plane", there is a classic saying, first ask if it is, and then ask why.

Is Cousins ​​really as immature as the Examiner reports?

Not necessarily, Cousins' attitude of admitting his mistakes that night was very good.

"It's my fault, I delayed everyone." Cousins ​​​​assured again and again, "We will be fine!"

The 76ers left Los Angeles, where they will play three away games in California.There are four teams in California, two of which in Los Angeles have already played, and now they will play the third team-Sacramento Kings.

The Kings are also a team looking for opportunities in the lost.

They have been bad for many years, but they have never met a true soul who can revitalize the team.

They were unlucky to meet the 76ers who had just experienced failure, a belly full of flames, and Cousins ​​​​especially angry.

This Kings team is full of mobs, and its main player is Noah Vonleh PF/SF, who was drafted in 2014. This name may be confusing to many people, because he is really not well-known. After a season of training, he was labeled as a parallel importer.

Feng Lai has a standard power forward size and small forward skills. He can shoot three-pointers from the outside to open up defensive space, and his low-post singles skills on the inside are also rapidly improving.He was less than 19 years old when he was drafted, and he has great potential.Vicious on rebounds.Under his height condition, his athletic ability and footwork are excellent, and there are no obvious shortcomings in terms of height, weight and athleticism.

The reason why the 2014 draft attracted people's attention was that the general expectation of scouts at that time was that there would be 3 superstars, 7-8 All-Stars and a bunch of main rotations in this session.

Feng Lai's draft template at the time was a taller Jamal Mashburn.

According to the expectations given by the King's scouting department, they believe that even if Feng Lai does not develop well, he can reach the edge of the All-Star level.

Such expectations for a player whose draft pick is only the ninth pick in the first round show that the 2014 draft is paid more attention to.

But as the so-called scouts are deceiving people, it can best explain the existence of side effects of scouts, which is just opposite the king.

Why Wish fell to the sixth pick has become the most puzzling mystery for contemporary young fans.

Today, the biggest draft suspect in the contemporary era plays even more low-key than rookies, allowing Cousins ​​to play.

Cousins ​​stared at Feng Lai on the opposite side and rubbed him in various ways.

In the counterattack, it is necessary to turn around and eat hard;
The face-basket breaks through the shoulders and shakes the opponent's body away, then fakes and shakes for a layup;

When in position, one side feints and then turns to the other side to hook and shoot;
Push through the crowd like they're straws and jump up to the offensive rebound.

Feng Lai exhausted all methods, blocking positions, half-circling forward, circling forward, retreating, blocking the bottom line, blocking the middle - there is no way, his opponent is so strong.

Wei Xia scored a triple-double in two and a half quarters and then got off work.

It was a night for Cousins ​​to vent his emotions. He scored 40 points and 23 rebounds, causing Sacramento to bleed.

In this era of playing small ball, almost no insider can handle him one-on-one.

But the good times didn’t last long. When the 76ers finished their away game and returned home, Cousins ​​also played well against the Indiana Pacers, a strong team in the East. He scored 39 points in the game.

At this time, Wei Xia walked to his side and comforted him: "You did a good job, leave the rest to us."

Four seconds before the end of the game, Wei Xia singled out Paul George with the ball, and let George fly into the sky with one hand.

"Shh!"

The perfect buzzer-beater made the 76ers win the home defense.

At that time, Cousins ​​was as happy as a kindergarten child who got a little red flower for the first time, and happily rushed to the court to bump into Wei Xia's chest.

(End of this chapter)