I just play ball

Chapter 96 Top Treatment
At 17:[-] p.m. on NO.[-], at the Staples Center, the sixth game between the Lakers and the Spurs is about to start.

As the last note of "The Star-Spangled Banner" fell, more than 8000 audiences applauded in unison. The only beam of light on the scene slowly moved to focus on Li Yue. The DJ shouted in a low voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Li Yue to bring the opening Speech."

After the voice fell, there were cheers from all around the arena, mixed with some boos, which were clearly audible.

Several bigwigs on the sidelines turned their heads to look at Li Yue, as if they wanted to observe how he would react.

The corner of Li Yue's mouth raised slightly, he raised his hand to take the microphone, and walked quickly to the center of the court following the light beam.

"Good evening, thank you all for coming to watch the game, I guarantee this promotion."

In just one sentence, he put down the microphone and turned to leave the arena after speaking. Most of the audience were dumbfounded. After a moment of hesitation, the DJ shouted and cheered loudly.

Li Yue walked to the technical stage, finished the opening ceremony with Goodlock, then high-fived the TNT O'Neill foursome one by one, and finally came to the west side auditorium to greet the five female stars invited by Jenny.

The five people were Elizabeth Olsen, Saoirse Ronan, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Connelly, and Emma Roberts. There was also Jennifer Lawrence who came to join in the fun and rushed to chat with him.

The large central screen showed several people shaking hands and chatting. The male spectators booed as if they were treating the away players. The female spectators, with disdain or envy on their faces, also shouted and booed, and the arena was full of people.

The big-screen camera switched, and Nike boss Phil Knight, sitting in the VIP room on the middle floor, was smiling all over his face, as if he was suddenly hit by money bags falling from the sky while walking on the road, and there were still several bags in a row.

...

TNT commentary seats.

O'Neill looked at the big screen and frowned, "He'd better do what he says tonight, or I'll be the first to spray him."

Kenny smirked: "Young man! He is still restrained. If someone else got a 2 million contract, he would have let himself go."

Barkley stared: "He even had shooting training yesterday afternoon, but I couldn't do it anyway."

Ernie looked at the prompter: "There are a lot of comments on Twitter that the Lakers won three games and then lost two games in a row. The main reason is that Li Yue's performance is not stable enough, and the Lakers still need Kobe to be in charge. What do you think?"

O'Neal shrugged: "There is no need to talk about the importance of my brother to the Lakers, but those discussions are all nonsense. Without Li Yue's super performance in three consecutive games, the Lakers have now ended the season and started fishing."

Kenny nodded slightly: "High-intensity defense in the playoffs can easily lead to abnormal performance. Even LeBron had an embarrassing situation of 8 points in a single game in the finals. Li Yue just didn't play well in a game."

Barkley spread his hands: "Distance produces beauty. In fact, Kobe played poorly in the first game, and it is still unknown when he just came back."

...

Inside the arena, a short whistle sounded.

The starting players of the two teams entered the field, point guard Nash faced Parker, shooting guard Kobe faced Green, small forward Li Yue faced Leonard, power forward Gasol faced Duncan, and center Howard faced Splitter. The expression is serious, especially the Spurs players, who are not as relaxed as they were in the first game, as if they are preparing to play the seventh game of the finals.

The referee tossed the ball lightly, Duncan touched it first, and slammed it towards the Spurs half court. Parker picked it up and pushed forward.

The Lakers retreated rapidly, and followed the pre-match plan, man-to-man and close-to-body defense.

Parker crossed the ball to the left wing from the center line, accelerated to the top of the arc, and used Duncan to cover and cut inside to the basket.

Leonard took the ball and took a feint shot, but failed to trick Li Yue into a position, passed it to Duncan instead, and ran to the left corner to squat in the opposite direction.At the same time, Parker came to the short corner on the right along the bottom line, and ran out with the help of Splitter and Green.

Bryant went around the screen to catch up from the right sideline, but it was still a step late. Parker received the pass from the right wing, took two strides and rushed to the right elbow area, and made a sudden stop to take off and make a mid-range shot.

The basketball crashed into the net, and Parker blew his whistle, as relaxed as a team training.

Kobe stopped, turned around and gestured with Nash, whispering the details of the defense change.

Li Yue ran to the right wing of the frontcourt ahead of time, and stuck Leonard sideways to catch the ball.

But Nash just took the ball over the center line, and many spectators at the scene chanted 'give the ball to Kobe'.

He subconsciously turned his head to look at the left elbow area, and found that Kobe didn't reach out for it. It was all because of the audience booing and wanting to watch the excitement, but Nash didn't think too much, and directly raised his hand and threw the ball over. The audience cheered and applauded.

Kobe took off to catch it, landed and hit Green with his back, and the Spurs' inside twin towers quickly shrank to the basket.

After making three consecutive step-up attempts, Kobe turned around sharply. Before Green could fully chase and defend, he stopped in front of his body and changed direction to dribble with his left hand.

The basketball smashed into the rim, Splitter jumped up and caught the rebound, and threw it to Parker from the back of his head.

The Spurs made a three-line fast break, Parker rushed to the top of the arc in two seconds, and Green rushed forward with both hands on his hips.

With such an action, it is almost obvious that he needs to cover from the side. Kobe chased him closely, and felt that his position was the first to change the direction of his toes.

I once thought that Green's fake block was real, and he suddenly ran back and rushed to the basket, as if entering no one's land.

Li Yue was squatting at the bottom corner at this time, and it was too late to defend if he wanted to defend. Kobe turned his toes for half a shot. Green received a pass and scored two points for an empty basket. The Spurs led 4-0.

Kobe pouted and shook his head, raising his right hand high to signal that he made a mistake.

The Lakers attacked, and Li Yue arrived early and ran to the right wing.

Seeing that Nash dribbled the ball across the center line, he hurried up and prepared to do hand-to-hand cooperation.

This time, more spectators shouted 'give the ball to Kobe'. For some reason, Nash threw the ball to the left wing, and then rushed up to make an off-ball positioning screen. Let's talk about the situation.

Kobe held the ball in a three-threat pose, with his left foot as the axis to test the right, and abruptly crossed and stepped down the ball forcefully, the movement was quite smooth, as if he was playing a game and pressed a combo, but the basketball hit the instep and rolled to the ground like discouraged The outside world.

The referee blows the whistle to whistle for a violation.

Kobe clapped his hands and stomped his feet depressingly, the audience applauded and comforted him, and a few big shots on the sidelines shouted "take your time".

The Spurs attack and Parker drives the ball to the top of the arc.

Green started from the left bottom corner and ran to the right along the baseline with the cover of Duncan.

Kobe followed closely, and Green rushed to the short corner on the right, made an emergency stop and diverted to the three-point line.

Kobe was blocked by Leonard, and Li Yue hurriedly switched defenses, but was also delayed by the rushing Parker, and Green took the ball and took off decisively.

Li Yue leaped forward, and was about to block the shot, but the basketball flew to the right.

Li Yue turned his head immediately when he landed, wanting to observe the suitable situation, just in time to see Leonard shoot an open three-pointer.

The basketball went into the net, the Spurs led 7-0, and the Staples Center was so quiet that only the sound of sneakers rubbing against the floor, and Leonard and Green's short celebratory shouts from the air.

Li Yue originally wanted to check the replay on the large central screen, but after thinking about it, he gave up and strode forward, guessing that the reason why Leonard was able to shoot an open three-pointer was definitely because of Kobe's negligence, watching the ball and not the person, which led to missed defense .

But it's really hard to think where Green will pass it on, and it's normal that Green is not good at this kind of delicate work.

The Lakers attacked, and Nash took it across the center line.

Before the audience shouted, Kobe turned his back on Green and stretched out his hands to ask for the ball.

The audience stood up and applauded when they saw this, Kobe took the ball without any technical movements, and turned directly forward.

Green moved sideways in small steps to block the way, raised his right hand to interfere, and his eyes were very calm.

Kobe stopped and fused the ball suddenly, raised his head and shrugged, but Green didn't eat this fake move, and stuck in place like a stone pier.

In such a situation, it was equivalent to the arrow being on the string and had to be fired. Kobe took advantage of the situation and took off, but the movement was a bit reluctant.

Snapped!The sound of a block was heard, and the basketball rolled to the midfield.

Li Yue was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and rushed up, rushing to grab the ground with Leonard at the same time.

Parker and Nash then joined, and the four of them had no time to tell the difference between the enemy and the enemy, and they fought in a scuffle.

I don't know who pushed it out, the basketball rolled out of the control of the four, and rolled right beside Green.

Green quickly bent down to pick it up, faced Kobe and intercepted it around the front, and threw the ball forward without hesitation.

Duncan received it, turned into a point guard and rushed forward, Kobe and Gasol both chased,

Li Yue got up from the floor, just in time to see the three of them arriving at the basket at the same time, Duncan raised the ball with both hands and forced a layup.

Beep!The referee blew his whistle and called Kobe for a thug foul.

Then the audience sighed, the basketball rebounded into the net, and Duncan scored 2+1.

Kobe walked to the side of the ball rack and slapped it depressedly, his eyes were full of anger and dissatisfaction.

...

TNT commentary seats.

Kenny patted his bald head in embarrassment, "Kobe may have just come back, and his state and rhythm are a little uncomfortable. You can use this free throw to slow down a little bit, and then chat with your teammates. There is no need to be so anxious."

"Totally agree," Ernie nodded. "Actually, since he was injured against the Warriors in April, Kobe has only played one full game until now, and his recovery is a bit slower than before due to his age, which is understandable."

"I will always trust Kobe" Barkley spread his hands, "but he doesn't need to be as anxious as before."

"Change the subject." O'Neill waved his hand again and again, "My brother won't make excuses. A bad fight is a bad fight. He will definitely find a way to solve it. We just need to wait patiently."

...

On the court, Duncan made an extra free throw and the Spurs led 10-0.

The referee whistled and the Lakers requested a timeout.

The generals returned to the bench, facing D'Antoni in an arc, waiting for the announcement of tactical adjustments.

Li Yue listened to a few words in detail, and they were all circling around and completely correct, so he immediately figured out how to solve it.

But after thinking about it, I really have nothing to say. The previous three rounds were Kobe singles, and the tactics didn't work at all, so there was no way to talk about how to improve. Moreover, Kobe's expression of "I just don't accept it" now, D'Antoni If you dare to speak out, you can only hint at insinuations, hoping that Kobe will change himself.

Kobe must have known that he didn't perform well, and he definitely wanted to fight back, but he took the initiative to speak out because of his face. If others dare not speak up, then he must come forward to remind Kobe and give Kobe a step up.

After making up his mind, when D'Antoni finished speaking, Li Yue clapped his hands to signal not to disband.

"In this game, the Spurs' investment in my defense was low. As long as Paul and Dwight simply set up some screens, I can get a lot of point guard shots by running off the ball, and I can definitely complete the chasing points easily."

"It's that simple?" Kobe asked suspiciously.

"I move more casually. It is best to have two people pass the ball for me." Li Yue scratched his head.

"Then count me in." Kobe turned to look at Nash, "plus Steve should be enough."

All the generals nodded one after another, and Howard gave two thumbs up, "Top treatment!"

(End of this chapter)