I really can't handle the ball

Chapter 116
Amid the boos of the fans, Nowitzki stepped up to the free throw line, received the referee's pass, withstood the pressure, and made a steady free throw.

At this time, both the Pistons and the Mavericks made substitution adjustments.

The Pistons replaced Big Ben and Okur with Eldon Campbell and Selke Rebrascia.

Pistons head coach Larry Brown doesn't like to use rookies, so this year's No. 03 pick Milicic has no chance to play at all, and he has become the worst lottery pick in [-].

On the other side, the Mavericks replaced Finley, Nash and Nesterovic with Delker, Lagabel and Bradley.

After the substitution adjustment, Nowitzki hit the free throw steadily again.

Since Big Ben was fined a first-degree malicious foul before, the Mavericks also got the ball after Nowitzki made the free throw.

Delk dribbles forward, comes beyond the three-point line and passes the ball to Nowitzki.

The two players replaced by the Pistons are big centers with slow movement speed. Nowitzki is very handy in playing such players.

Without any suspense, Nowitzki used his flexible feet to shake Campbell's center of gravity, then quickly turned around, wiped Campbell, and broke through to the penalty area.

Rebrasia quickly ran forward to make up the defense, raising his arms to interfere.

The "driver" did not make a strong attack, but hit the ground and passed the ball to find Li Xuan who cut inside from the baseline.

After Li Xuan received the ball, he immediately threw it to the basket, and then ran towards the Mavericks' defensive half.

Bradley, who came to the basket, ate a cake comfortably, caught the basketball in the air with both hands, and dunked it vigorously into the basket.

"Beautiful! A smooth offense, this is what a basketball game should look like. It's much better than that dull defensive battle." Barkley complained.

The ball is switched and the Pistons attack.

Billups dribbled forward, came to the top of the arc, shot a cold arrow, and shot a three-pointer.

Delk, who was standing inside the three-point line, couldn't react. It happened too suddenly, and it was too late to interfere with the shot when he reacted.

"Shh!"

The basketball is hollow into the net and hits steadily!
In fact, Billups didn't want to do this either. After all, the Pistons are a very conservative defensive team. There is no such three-point shooting tactic in Larry Brown's tactical system.

Billups, who is extremely competitive, would not have done this if he hadn't fallen behind too much and no one could stand up and score.

If you fail to make a shot, you will be replaced by Larry Brown, the big devil, and sit on the bench. This kind of reckless behavior is not worth the candle.

In the next few rounds, both sides scored points.

The Mavericks scored 6 points relying on Nowitzki's singles, as well as Li Xuan's off-ball running and air cuts.

The Pistons relied on Billups and Hamilton to shoot from the outside. The two hit a mid-range shot and scored 4 points, without pulling the point difference beyond [-] points.

At the end of the first quarter, the score on the big screen was 22:30. The Mavericks led by 8 points and entered the second quarter.

Against the Pistons, the best defensive team in the league today, being able to score 30 points in a single quarter is already considered incredible, which is enough to show that the Mavericks' offensive firepower is ferocious.

The Mavericks were able to take the lead, and Nowitzki contributed a lot. He scored 16 points in the first quarter, which was very efficient.

"Dirk played very well tonight. He scored half of the Mavericks' points alone. It seems that he wants to compete for Lee's best player, hahaha." Barkley joked with a laugh.

"It seems that Dirk has finally proved that he is still the boss of the Mavericks, otherwise it will be Lee's team in the future." Kenny Smith also echoed in a teasing tone.

After the intermission, when the second quarter started, the core of the Mavericks' offense was Nowitzki.

But "Driver" failed to continue the fiery touch in the first quarter, and he attacked twice in a row, and the Pistons also changed their defensive strategy against him. As long as he received the ball, he would be double-teamed.

On the bench of the Pistons, Larry Brown smiled and relaxed when he saw that the defensive tactics he formulated worked well. He was really afraid of being shot to death by Nowitzki.

Nowitzki got so many points in the first quarter, which made him very angry, and he was determined to contain the number 41 of the Mavericks.

After all, defense is what the Pistons are built on.

When Nowitzki's shooting percentage dropped, the Pistons also seized the opportunity to close the score.

About 3 minutes into the game, Nelson Sr. requested a substitution adjustment, replacing Nowitzki, Derk and Lagabel with Nash, Finley and Jamison.

After the substitution adjustment, the offense of the Mavericks has improved.

Nash organized the offense at the top of the arc and made tactical gestures. Bradley near the penalty area quickly stepped forward to make a pick-and-roll.

At this time, there was no one in the penalty area, and Ben was brought to the high position on the right by Jamison, while Okur ran to the free throw line and was ready to switch to Nash at any time.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Li Xuan, who was ambushing in the left corner, squeezed the thin Prince away with his body, and made an air cut to the basket along the baseline.

Nash has quick eyes and quick hands, and immediately threw the ball to the basket.

Li Xuan, who was on the move, took off vigorously, grabbed the basketball in the air with one hand, and dunked it into the basket very easily.

When Li Xuan finished dunking and landed, he saw Daben coming to assist in the defense, ignored him, and quickly returned to the defense.

Daben quit, and was ignored by the rookie. Where is the face, and then he shouted in the direction of Li Xuan: "Rookie, you won't get any chance to dunk in the future, I told you!"

In the next few rounds of offense and defense, Daben really followed his word. He and Okur switched defenses to guard the basket. The entire three-second zone was his defensive range, which strengthened the inside defense.

After being blocked at the basket several times, Li Xuan complained in his heart: "This big guy is an honest man, and he really does what he says. It seems that he can only think of other ways to score."

In the following games, the Mavericks changed their offensive strategy and sought scoring opportunities from the outside.

The Pistons relied on their excellent defense to limit the Mavericks' scoring, and occasionally scored a goal on the offensive end to catch up with the score.

In this way, the second quarter played for about 8 minutes, and it is about to enter the substitution adjustment period.

In this round, Nash used the cover to break through to the basket, and Ben, who was near the penalty area, quickly stepped forward to make up defense.

At the same time, Li Xuan, who was standing near a 45° angle outside the three-point line on the right, suddenly ran towards the basket.

Prince immediately turned around to chase, but bumped into Jamison who had already set up a cover, and completely lost Li Xuan's figure.

Seeing this, Daben, who was supplementing the defense, immediately gave up defending Nash, turned around and ran into the penalty area.

Li Xuan received Nash's ground pass, jumped into the air with one foot, and made a dunking posture.

Daben, who had just run to the basket, jumped up to block the shot, not to be outdone. Due to his haste and lack of preparation, he couldn't take off completely. Blocking the shot was almost impossible, and he just wanted to interfere.

But Daben obviously underestimated Li Xuan's height and wingspan, and Li Xuan's weight has become a bug-level existence after system modification.

After a while, the two bodies collided, and Da Ben showed a surprised expression. His body resisted him and he was actually below, which is completely unreasonable!

Li Xuan, who was flying in the air, had an absolute advantage, put Da Ben under him, and dunked the ball into the basket with one hand.

After the confrontation, Big Ben lost his center of gravity and fell to the floor.

Li Xuan maintained his balance with the help of the basket, landed firmly on the ground, and improvised a famous sentence towards Da Ben: "This is my horse!"

(End of this chapter)