I just play ball

Chapter 61 The Real Rival

The time-out is over and the game continues.

The Lakers replaced Gasol with Clark, Blake with Artest, and Li Yue switched to shooting guard.

D'Antoni made such an arrangement, the purpose is to wait until the last 2 minutes of the first quarter, replace Howard with Gasol as the center, and replace Nash with Blake as the point guard, so as to ensure that there are always at least two main players on the field to complete the transition. .

This is a strategy for stability. After all, PepsiCo has not lost for nearly three months and cannot relax until the last moment.

Li Yue got up and walked into the court, looked up at the big screen in the center of the court, and learned about the adjustment status of the Nuggets.

JaVale McGee replaced Koufos on the field. The Nuggets clearly wanted to use their excellent athletic ability to change the inside defense, but McGee has a very serious shortcoming. Judging from the embarrassing situation of people, it may be hard to get any good results against Nash and Howard in the pick-and-roll.

Thinking of this, Li Yue walked quickly to Nash and Howard, covered his mouth and whispered a suggestion.

With the whistle of the referee, Lawson received the ball in the backcourt and pushed forward. McGee and Wilson separated the left and right low positions, and Iguodala and Fournier separated the left and right sides near the bottom corner. The Nuggets team 1 High 4 low formation.

This typical return-from-timeout tactic has a high probability of running without the ball, and Li Yue immediately reminded him to switch defenses.

Lawson took the ball to the left 45 degrees, handed the ball and then strode to the bottom corner, and Iguodala caught the ball and moved to the right.Li Yue chased close to the top of the arc, encountered Fournier's second cover, quickly bypassed and continued to follow.

But Iguodala stopped to hand the ball in a hurry, Fournier received it, and took advantage of the opportunity to use his height and weight advantages to rush in.

Nash couldn't resist, Howard stepped forward to make up the defense, but Fournier made a throw.

The basketball hit the basket and spun several times before falling into the net. The point difference between the two teams returned to 9 points. The audience in the Pepsi Center cheered excitedly, as if they hadn’t eaten meat for many years, and suddenly tasted a small piece of top-quality fat beef, which was only enough for teeth. Seam is very satisfying.

Li Yue subconsciously turned his head to look at the bench. The Nuggets wanted to use Nash as a breakthrough point, and the coaching staff had to find a way to deal with it.

D'Antoni stared at the frontcourt and did not respond, but assistant coach Phil Weber nodded at him, as if to say that he had received the request.

The Lakers changed sides to attack, Li Yue and Artest separated the left and right wings, Clark stood on the right elbow, Nash dribbled the ball to the top of the arc, and when Howard ran to the left waist, the whole team once again set up a 1-low 4-high formation , It is clear that he will continue to hit the basket.

McGee knew that it was difficult to defend against, so he hurried around to intercept the passing route, and he seemed to be working very hard.

But Howard ran back and rushed to the top of the arc to set up a wall as a cover. Nash got rid of Lawson and dribbled the ball. McGee rushed to grab the delay.

But as soon as he took two steps, Howard cut to the basket again, and Nash lobbed the pass.

With a bang, he clasped his hands.

The Lakers lead 18-7.

George Karl shook his head again and again, yelled at McGee, and gestured frequently.

McGee lowered his head, and ran to the field embarrassingly like a schoolboy who had done a word problem wrong.

Lawson quickly took the ball across the center line. The Nuggets still had 1 high and 4 lows. Iguodala adjusted his direction ahead of time, and it was still the previous three-point line. It seemed that Nash was still going to play.

Li Yue followed to the top of the arc calmly, stopped at the moment when Iguodala and Fournier handed each other, gave up chasing and blocked the front and started to press. Nash knew what he wanted to do in seconds, and blocked the pass Route, the two teamed up to double-team.

Fournier is not afraid to confront the big center, but rarely encounters such a scene that requires quick wits, and immediately stops holding the ball with both hands.

Nash also joined in the press, Fournier twisted his body and passed the ball to the right, Li Yue decisively withdrew and returned to the defense.

Iguodala immediately broke through to the short corner after receiving the ball, used McGee's cover to get rid of it, and slipped to the bottom line against Howard's threat.

Li Yue chased in parallel, intending to prevent the opponent from passing the ball outside. After two steps of chasing, the basketball flew out.

Snapped!
The basketball was slapped by Li Yue, its trajectory turned 90 degrees, and it flew straight to the left sideline.

Nash and Lawson grabbed each other, bent over and reached out at the same time, and the basketball was forced out of bounds.

The referee blew his whistle and penalized the Nuggets to get the ball in the front court, and there was a burst of cheers in the Pepsi Center.

Nash threw his hands at the referee, "I didn't have the basketball before it went out of bounds. It should be the Lakers' sideline ball!"

The referee waved his hand, as if to say stop making trouble, Li Yue looked up at the big central screen.

It turned out that while Iguodala slipped the baseline, Fournier ran to the left sideline to cover Lawson's wall. If he hadn't intercepted the pass halfway, the Nuggets' offense would have been Lawson's single from outside the three-point line. Pick Nash.

As for who knocked the ball out of bounds in the end, he didn't care much about it without replaying it.

Even if it is a wrong penalty, the Nuggets only have 3.6 seconds of attack time, and they can just defend and defend.

The referee whistled, and Iguodala received the ball from the left sideline and raised it high. The other Nuggets players moved their positions, and the route was extremely complicated.

But Howard and Clark always guarded the basket. Li Yue, Artest, and Nash adopted a three-defense and two-defense strategy, and did not give Lawson and Wilson any heat to catch the ball. Finally, McGee took the ball from the free throw line and hesitated for a moment. point.

when!Smashing baskets and striking iron.

Howard grabbed the rebound, and Li Yue caught the ball and pushed forward, deliberately slowing down, like an elderly person taking a walk after a meal.

He took ten seconds to get the ball to the right wing, set a screen for Nash, and sprinted toward the top of the key.

Slowly and quickly, Iguodala was deceived and had no time to catch up. He successfully misplaced and faced Lawson.

Seeing this, Howard and Clark withdrew from the three-second zone, and the audience made various disturbances.

Lawson slammed forward and made a gambling steal. He pulled the ball with his right hand and turned around to avoid it. He dribbled with his left hand and rushed to the basket.

McGee moved laterally from the low post on the right to cover the defense. He jumped high in the face and passed the ball behind his left hand in the air.

Howard, who followed up, took the ball and took a big step, like a wild beast coming out of the cage, smashing the basket with both hands and dunking.

The Nuggets attacked and Lawson advanced with the ball.

The excited expression on his face at the beginning completely disappeared, and the audience was also a little depressed. The atmosphere of the Pepsi Center's devil's arena was gone, and instead he revealed a sense of powerlessness, as if he didn't know what to do.

The Nuggets were crushed by the Lakers' twin towers on the defensive end, and the Lakers' crazy restrictions on the offensive end. Those routines in the past didn't work at all. The players and fans could see the final result of the game at a glance, and there was no hope of winning the game.

But the game must go on.

Lawson crossed the ball at the top of the arc, McGee and Wilson looked at each other and gave way to the basket, and Iguodala singled out Li Yue.

The DJ immediately played dynamic music, the atmosphere at the scene finally eased, and a small group of audience cheered and cheered.

Iguodala started with a three-threat posture, and frequently took tentative steps with his right foot as the axis, like a beast about to prey.

Li Yue blocked the right and left, and deliberately took a small step back, not taking any precautions against three-pointers, because he had seen video clips and data analysis before, and Iguodala averaged 3.6 three-pointers per game this season and hit 1.1 times. .

Sure enough, Iguodala stepped down the ball, lowered his center of gravity and stepped to the left to break through.

Li Yue twisted his hips sideways, stepped on small steps to catch up closely, and raised his right hand high to block the shot.

The two came to the left waist in a blink of an eye, and Iguodala slammed his shoulders to receive the ball and forced a three-step layup.

Li Yue's body weight and core strength were difficult to match in this kind of hard-working style of play, and he was abruptly pushed away by a body distance. In the end, he tried his best to interfere with the take-off but failed, and the basketball fell into the net with bumps and bumps.

The audience applauded and cheered, Li Yue pouted and shrugged.

If Iguodala can continue to use this extremely exhausting method to score goals, then he will admit defeat.

Artest ran up quickly and whispered, "I'll defend next round, I should be able to hold him."

"Don't, your lateral speed is slower than before. The Nuggets just want you to switch defenses." Li Yue said bluntly.

Artest nodded silently after concentrating for a moment, and the two jogged to the front field, each taking their positions on the left and right wings.

Nash dribbled the ball to the top of the arc, and Li Yue went up to cooperate hand-in-hand.

After he got the ball, he raised it high and prepared to pass it to the basket, but Howard shook his head and refused, and retreated to the short corner on the right to make room. Clark did the same. The teammates on the bench chanted 1V1, and the whole team encouraged him to make a pass. heads-up.

Since he was interested, he took advantage of the situation, started in the same three-threat posture, lowered his head and swayed from side to side to adjust the center of gravity of his body. Seeing Iguodala's toes turned to the right, he decisively withdrew to the left and jumped up to shoot a three-pointer.

Iguodala hastily twisted his hips and turned to defend, but only had time to adjust the direction of his toes.

The basketball flew through Iguodah's fingers, slammed into the backboard, and bounced into the net.

The entire offense took only five seconds from the start to the shot, which is simpler and easier than Iguodala's strong attack.

Li Yue and Nash high-fived to celebrate, and the Lakers led by 14 points, and the advantage was getting bigger and bigger.

The Nuggets attack again.

Iguodala continued to beat Li Yue hard, and after Howard made up, he scored the ball, but McGee made a hand slip and made a mistake, and the basketball rolled out of bounds.

George Karl was so angry that he immediately called a timeout, and roared at McGee from afar, as if he was going to eat people.

Seeing McGee leaving the field in a dispirited manner, Li Yue felt a little distressed. The mistake was indeed a mistake, but he should not be blamed entirely.

McGee was acquired by the Nuggets in a three-party trade. He just signed a contract with an annual salary of tens of millions this season, but his scoring average dropped from 11.9 to 9.1, his average rebounds dropped from 8.8 to 4.8, and his blocks dropped from 2.5 to 2.0.

Such a sharp decline was only because George Karl preferred Costa Koufos and completely ignored the management's request to train McGee. As a result, McGee's average playing time dropped from 27.5 to 18.2. He played 79 games in the regular season but the number of starts was zero.

In this game, McGee was pulled out to try after Koufos had difficulty defending normally, and the effect was naturally poor.

...

After the first quarter, the Lakers still maintained a 14-point lead, and the Nuggets relied on Andre Iguodala to maintain a stable score.In the second quarter of the game, the Nuggets replaced Corey Brewer with the main small ball and scored 6 points in a row, but at the same time the defense was extremely poor. The Lakers easily recovered the points and continued to expand their lead.

Back in the second half, the Nuggets directly pressed for three rounds, and the Lakers resolved them one by one.

In the fourth quarter, the Nuggets made all-out attempts with a 22-point disadvantage, rushing to shoot three-pointers but hitting the iron continuously.

In the end, the Lakers beat the Nuggets 111 to 94, leading the series 1-0.

Li Yue scored 28 points and 11 assists, Howard grabbed 19 rebounds, and 5 players in the team scored in double figures.

...

Immediately after the game, ESPN and other sports media made comments one after another, praising Li Yue in various ways.

He scored a large double-double in the playoffs and led the team to victory, and it was in the Pepsi Center that had not lost a game in three months, so that those who questioned him temporarily disappeared. Even Jaylen Rose, who has always been hard-spoken, officially admitted that he is a real player. star.

However, his limelight was quickly stolen.

Because in the Warriors vs. Spurs game held at the same time, Curry led the team in two overtimes and scored 44 points and 11 assists. Among them, he scored 22 points in the third quarter. The famous coach Popovich praised Curry Make him think of Jordan.

Some media claimed that if the Warriors beat the Spurs and the Lakers beat the Nuggets, Curry and Li Yue will become each other's real opponents.

(End of this chapter)