God's hand behind the scenes

Chapter 319 Finals Repeat

In addition to the Christmas game, the league also likes to create some gimmicks in the opening game, such as last season's championship and the championship.This time the 76ers also received such treatment. Their opponent in the opening game was the Lakers who fought them seven games in the finals last year, and the 76ers still went to Los Angeles for an away game in this game.

Before the start of the season, the Lakers finally convinced the Timberwolves. They paid a number of players, including Foster and Tyronn Lue, and got shooter Szczerbiak from the Timberwolves.At the same time, in order to make up for the rotation loopholes after the departure of Tyronn Lue on the back line, Zen Master took another shot to win the aging All-Star point guard "The Rock" Richmond.

Richmond wasn't a particularly big threat for the Sixers, a six-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer entering the twilight of his career.Although he averaged 76 points and 16.2 assists per game in the Wizards last season, it is difficult for him to keep up with the speed of young people as he is old, and he is not afraid at all in the game.

Szczerbiak is now Brown's troublesome existence. Although the third-year shooter averaged only 14 points per game last season and only made 33.8% of his three-pointers, but now after joining the Lakers, he has O'Neal to attract defense. With Kobe pulling space outside, Szczerbiak will definitely get more shots.For such a player who relies on shooting for his living, as long as he is given enough space, his three-point shooting percentage will definitely have a huge improvement.

Restricting Szczerbiak on the defensive end is actually not difficult. The European shooter is least good at physical confrontation. As long as his shooting rhythm is disturbed, his threat can be greatly reduced.However, Bell needs to mark Kobe, who is more threatening, so the task of defending Szczerbiak can only fall to Reed, which is not a small test for him.

When Brown told Reed about this, Reed gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, and said in a deep voice: "No problem, I believe I can handle him, isn't he just a soft guy from Europe? What will I tell him?" Call it tough!"

Brown is very pleased with Reed's guarantee. In his opinion, whether a player can restrain the opponent on the defensive end is mainly a matter of attitude. A player like Reed obviously has the right attitude, even if he can't guard Szcerby at that time. Yake, the old man will not blame him too much.But in fact, Brown also thinks that Szczerbiak is nothing special. As long as he can destroy his center of gravity, his shooting rate will definitely not be guaranteed. Wouldn't this directly abolish a scoring point for the Lakers outside?
But after the game started, Brown realized that this problem was really not easy to solve.Now Reid is already an important scoring point for the 76ers outside, and Szczerbiak is a player with a very good basketball IQ. I got dizzy.And Reid consumed too much energy on the defensive end, so naturally he couldn't contribute to the offensive end. In the first quarter, he only scored 6 points on 1 of 3 shots, which was very rare before.

As soon as Reed misfired, other 76ers players were a little caught off guard. Unknowingly, they had begun to rely on this second-year guard on the offensive end.Originally, Reed's role on the offensive end was to help Iverson and the others pull out the space, and then use his super three-point firepower to increase the team's points, but now he is a little weak on the defensive end, let alone offensive.It was precisely because of his sluggish performance on the offensive end that the 76ers trailed by 25 points 37 to 12 at the end of the first quarter.

Szczerbiak scored the most points for the Lakers. He didn't feel uncomfortable when he first arrived. He hit 3 three-pointers in a single quarter and scored 11 points. Kobe and O'Neal scored 8 points each. The Lakers' new trio The joint team scored 27 points, which is already more than the 76ers' team.Under their leadership, other Lakers players did not hesitate to score nearly 40 points in a single quarter. The result of being 12 points behind was something Brown had never thought of before the game.

The joining of Szczerbiak made the "OK combination" even more powerful. They no longer need to score points on the court. It fits very well, and it can be seen that Zen Master's vision is indeed quite sharp when signing in. Who would have thought that this third-year shooter could become a powerful support for Kobe and O'Neal?But Zen Master dared to trade, and put him in the starting lineup in the opening game!

Out of a cautious attitude, Brown played a full 12 minutes with the starting five in the first quarter, but dealing with the Lakers made everyone feel physically and mentally exhausted, especially after falling behind by 12 points.So Brown had to put on the full bench at the beginning of the second quarter. This has been used many times in training, but it is the first time to appear in an official game.

Before going on the court, Brown patted Arenas on the shoulder and said seriously: "Gilbert, it's up to you whether you can reduce the score before the starters come on the court. You are the most practical scorer in our bench lineup. Once I give you unlimited shooting rights, as long as you think you can hit the shot, then shoot bravely! You have to believe that your teammates can provide you with support."

Arenas nodded, without speaking, turned and walked towards the field.Chang Wei keenly saw that this guy's fists were clenched tightly. Of course, it was not because of nervousness, but because of excitement. After all, this was the first time Arenas played in the NBA.It's not that he didn't represent the team in the summer league before, but the intensity of the game obviously couldn't be compared with the regular season. Even though he averaged nearly 25 points per game in the summer league, that wasn't an achievement worth showing off.

The Lakers didn't dare to remove all the starters like Brown did. The main reason is that the Lakers' bench lineup is similar to the problem with the 76ers' bench lineup last season. There is no scorer who can score crazy points.Although Richmond was introduced, Zen Master didn't trust his athletic ability too much, so he continued to put Kobe on the court and let him lead the team's offense.

Looking at the figures of Arenas and Kobe, Chang Wei couldn't help but smile. Now the status of these two players looks very different. Kobe has a championship ring in his hand, and he is a potential rookie that the Lakers focus on training. Arenas It's just this year's No. 30 rookie, a bench player for the 76ers.But Chang Wei knew that Arenas would eventually grow into an existence as powerful as Kobe. Although his peak period was far shorter than Kobe's, even Kobe didn't dare to beat him when he was at his most dazzling. When Arenas grows to that height, Kobe will revisit this game, right?

(End of this chapter)