Start without the ball

Chapter 129

After the warm-up, the players returned to the field. Amid the home DJ's announcement, the Thunder players took the lead.

Li Haoyu was naturally the finale, and when he stepped into the court, there were boos all over the sky.

As the hottest rookie in the league, Li Haoyu received warm "hospitality" from the Denver fans. After these days of fighting, Li Haoyu has adapted to the pressure brought by the away game and stood calmly on the field.

Later came the Nuggets. When Nikola Jokic stepped into the Pepsi Center, the Nuggets fans sent a tsunami of applause.

Any serious discussion of who's the best big man in the league has to include Jokic, the Nuggets' 7-footer who may not be scoring as much, but only because he wasn't asked to. In the last five games, he scored an average of 26.6 points per game, and the three shooting percentages reached 54.9%, 33.3% and 90.3% respectively, proving that as long as he wants to, he can also score high.

Both head coach Mike Malone and his Nuggets teammates raved about Jokic's MVP-level value.The reason why the Nuggets can rank second in the West is entirely because of his existence.

After the entrance ceremony, players from both sides returned to the bench to get ready.

Donovan: "The key to this game is defense. We must put pressure on Jokic. The offensive end will follow the pre-match arrangement. Lee, you can let go of your hands and feet to attack."

Li Haoyu nodded in response to Donovan, checked that the protective gear and shoelaces on his body were fine, and walked into the court.

Nuggets starting: center Jokic, power forward Millsap, small forward Craig, shooting guard Harris, point guard Murray.

Thunder starters: center Adams, power forward Grant, small forward Ferguson, shooting guard Li Haoyu, point guard Schroeder.

After landing, the ball jumped in the middle circle, Jokic jumped to get the ball, and the Nuggets took the lead in attacking.

Murray waited with the ball at the top of the arc, and asked the teacher to step forward to pick and roll.

Schroeder was blocked, Murray accelerated to the basket, and Adams switched defenses to keep up.

Murray passed the ball back to the top of the arc, and the teacher relied on his height to easily get the basketball over Schroder's head.

Schroeder knew that Teacher Yue had a good three-pointer, so he immediately posted it to interfere.

Teacher Yue was not in a hurry, passed the ball to Harris on the left, directed his teammates to make room on the left, and then took Schroeder to the low post on the left.

Li Haoyu knew that if Jokic got the basketball, these two points would be equivalent to free, so he immediately stepped forward and put pressure on Harris.

Seeing Li Haoyu stepping forward to apply pressure, Harris dribbled backwards to adjust a step, and immediately accelerated to the right.

Li Haoyu's sliding speed couldn't keep up, and he was gradually thrown away.

Grant, who was in the low post on the right, retracted to the basket to stop Harris, and the Nuggets guard scored the ball to the vacated Millsap.

Millsap scored 2 points with an unstressed mid-range shot.

Thunder attack.

Li Haoyu landed at 45 degrees to the left. Facing Harris, he took a sudden step to the left. When Harris shifted his center of gravity, he started in reverse and ran to the right corner.

Harris followed Li Haoyu half a step behind, and was blocked by Adams and Grant on the sideline of the three-second zone on the right.

Li Haoyu successfully received the basketball in the right corner, but at this time Millsap had already switched to the front of him.

Li Haoyu couldn't be bothered, so he directed Grant to run to the opposite side, leaving Adams on the edge of the three-second zone.

After Grant walked away, Li Haoyu began to dribble. Millsap, who knew Li Haoyu's dribbling ability, was unmoved. Seeing that the defender did not move, Li Haoyu got up and shot after receiving the ball.

Millsap rushed forward immediately, and Li Haoyu, whose heels were off the ground, stopped his shooting action and waited for Millsap.

Knowing that Li Haoyu would touch porcelain, Millsap paid attention to controlling his footsteps when he rushed forward. Seeing Li Haoyu stop his shooting, the Nuggets power forward immediately slowed down.

Seeing that Millsap slowed down, Li Haoyu immediately passed the ball to Adams on the edge of the three-second zone, accelerated to the inside, took the basketball from Adams, and took three steps slowly to the left of the basket.

Teacher Yue stepped forward to defend, and Li Haoyu passed the ball back to Adams.

After getting the ball, Neptune easily dunked and scored 2 points.

TNT commentary seats.

Miller: "Lee's defensive reading ability is too strong. The moment Millsap slowed down, Lee reacted immediately and made a pass and cut cooperation with Adams.

If it is another player, after failing to make a foul, the ball will stop in his hand, and the defender will see him dead in the bottom corner.

"

Albert: "It's true. Lee can always find defensive loopholes. His consciousness is not limited to dribbling. This is what many ball-handlers who have dribbled to the end of time should learn."

Miller: "Let me think about who are you implying?"

Albert: "I understand everything."

The Nuggets attacked, and Murray came to the frontcourt and gave the ball to Teacher Yue at the top of the arc.

Teacher Yue dribbled the ball to the left at 45 degrees. Li Haoyu, who was on the left, knew that it was a hand-to-hand, so he quickly stepped forward to stick to Harris.

Seeing that he couldn't pass the ball, the teacher stopped the basketball to observe the situation on the court. Seeing that Adams was far away from him, he immediately shot a three-pointer.

"Shu~"

The basketball passed through the net, and the walking pork belly scored a three-pointer, and the score came to 2 to 5.

In the rest of the first quarter, it was difficult for the Thunder to defend against Jokic's offense. The Nuggets had nothing to do with Li Haoyu. For a while, the two sides came and went. The shooting percentage was very high, and there were 3 points left. At 20 seconds, the score was 26 to 27, with the Nuggets leading by 1 point.

About to enter the transition period, knowing that the Thunder's substitute was weaker, Nuggets coach Mike Malone thought this was a good opportunity to open up the score and requested a timeout.

Li Haoyu was unhappy when he returned to the bench. The Thunder's defense could not limit the Nuggets. The high shooting percentage naturally produced fewer rebounds. Among the few rebounds, Jokic also put a lot of pressure on Adams. Li Haoyu has only harvested 1 Counting rebounds is far from the goal of 11 rebounds.

Sitting on the bench, Li Haoyu whispered:

"If only Kobe was on the Nuggets."

Ferguson on the side heard it and asked suspiciously:

"Ah, what are you talking about?"

Li Haoyu: "It's nothing, it's just that the Nuggets are shooting too high and producing too few rebounds."

Ferguson: "Hey, Jokic's style of play is as disgusting as yours, and the defense is disrupted without knowing it."

Li Haoyu: "Go away, I call it restraining force!"

Ferguson asked quietly: "Okay, okay, Brother Wan must not be able to restrain Jokic, Brother Li, do you have any?"

Li Haoyu: "If Brother Gui is here, it's easy to do, and I can persuade him to put pressure on Murray crazily. It's easy to say that the fat Nuggets can't get the ball!"

Ferguson: "The problem is that Brother Gui is recuperating in the sewer."

(End of this chapter)