NBA's strongest prince

Chapter 389
"Defend well, we have to fight..." In the Lakers locker room, the players encouraged each other.

The Lakers have been depressed for the past few seasons. This season finally sees the dawn of the Western Conference finals, and they definitely don't want to end like this.

And their players adjusted their mentality very quickly. They were a little dizzy in the first half, but they quickly returned to normal when they came to the locker room.

After all, they did not fail consecutive playoffs, and the pressure this season is relatively less.

The Lakers coaching staff also decided to put the game on Kobe, and the others tried their best to defend and cooperate.

At this time, it is unrealistic to expect the entire team to be rejuvenated. It is better to use a simple and rude method.

The Suns also considered this situation, but they finally decided to use the old method because it was safe.

The effect of pinching in advance may be good, or unpredictable situations may occur.

When they have an advantage, they will certainly not change the game strategy at will.

In the third quarter, Kobe turned on his personal mode, giving people the impression that he was an emotionless killer.

Even if he made some mistakes soon, there was no panic.

After an iron strike to make adjustments, Kobe entered the state.

While other Lakers players are also desperately defending, Stoudemire has become the biggest victim.

Inside players can't avoid hand-to-hand combat. It's normal to have scratches and bruises everywhere in a game with more action.

The Lakers' defense is not aimed at fouls, but they are indeed more ruthless.

Stoudemire was still shaking after standing at the free throw line again, resulting in two missed free throws.

That is to say, the exaggerated physical fitness of athletes can withstand this kind of confrontation, and ordinary people estimate that injuries will occur after a few rounds.

Relatively speaking, the outside line is slightly better, but there is less confrontation.

Especially for a player like Russell who is not particularly fast, the defender always wants to fight him physically.

So Russell always has to call screens and doesn't want to entangle with the defense repeatedly.

Sometimes he will also give the ball to his partner in the backcourt to slow down.

When Joe Johnson was in the past, sometimes Joe Johnson could play singles.

Now for Ray Allen, there are fewer singles, and Russell has to work harder.

But this kind of hard work is temporary, and it will be fine when Durant grows up.

There is also Gasol Jr., who can support in the high position and relieve Russell's situation.

Now, the best solution is to make a few fouls.

Russell's free throws can definitely scare the opponent. You must know that the defensive players behind the masters who make fouls are unwilling to entangle them, worrying about giving the opponent points.

At the Suns' home court, if the Lakers move too much, the possibility of being called a foul is relatively high.

That's home court advantage, and after discovering that Russell has a lot of tricks, the Lakers' defense has also changed.

They began to stare at the rest of the Suns, forcing Russell and Kobe to compete for scoring ability.

It can be said that the Lakers are successful, and they have recovered a few points before Russell scored with all his strength.

Except for Russell on the Suns side, Stoudemire has difficulty scoring, Durant can score but is unstable, and Ray Allen is made very uncomfortable by Kobe.

The good news is that the Suns are still ahead.

But you can take it lightly if you are leading. It is not a safe decision for Russell to go all out to score points now. Russell will definitely not be Kobe's opponent if he fights for physical strength.

His hit rate is also hard to say, the more shots he takes, it will definitely drop.

So they first adjusted the lineup and replaced Ellis with one more ball-holding point, hoping to break the deadlock.

A powerful sixth man holds the ball well, just to guard against situations like this.

After Ellis came up, Russell had more choices, but the Suns' offense still didn't come out immediately.

The Lakers really took a lot of thought on defense at this time, because their offense was basically solved by Kobe holding the ball, so other players had more energy to focus on defense.

Under the concentration of the Lakers players, the Suns hardly played any easy and fast offense.

And Ellis didn't feel very good when he first came up, so Russell had to come by himself.

"Beautiful, it's a response ball again, Kobe and Russell have already matched."

"Kobe has taken the lead in scoring 20+. The stars of the two teams have played seemingly unreasonable and difficult shots, but this is the playoffs and the stage for the stars. The game is getting better and better."

"Russell will still send more passes. In fact, he is more efficient. Unfortunately, the Suns did not hit the three-pointer in this quarter. Kobe has completely entered the scoring mode. Sometimes this mode will be more useful."

"The score gap between the two teams is getting smaller and smaller, and it has come within 5 points, but there is not much time in the third quarter. Whether there will be other situations in the game depends on the confrontation between the two teams in the final quarter."

"Russell is still going to rest before Kobe... Well, Kobe may play the whole game, and now the Suns need other players to stand up."

"Today, the Suns also had surprise players. Gasol Jr. played very tough after he came up. After Russell left the field, the Suns surprisingly focused on the inside. Stoudemire and Jr. Gasol's partner is very good."

"The Lakers are defending and attacking. They saw that the Suns' main attack on the inside began to speed up...the effect is good. The Lakers seem to be opening up the three-pointer."

"Russell returned to the court ahead of time, and it seems that the final duel of the game is about to begin."

This time the Lakers reacted very quickly. After seeing Gasol score several times at the basket, they immediately launched an attack with a small lineup.

In fact, the effect is not bad. Today, the Lakers' substitutes, Farmar, Vujacic and Walton, can't be said to be very good, but their shots are no worse than the main players.

When Kobe is attacking with all his strength, the Lakers need role players who can catch and shoot. Odom and Gasol are a bit unsuitable. They are good at grabbing rebounds now, but the role players on the perimeter and front line can all be used as 3D. .

And the Lakers didn't plan to take it back after playing like this. They didn't care about defense as much as they did in the third quarter. They still had to use their best offense to decide the outcome of the game at the last moment.

In this case, they can't limit other Suns players.

In fact, it was the Lakers who realized that they felt good on the offensive end now, so they decided to fight the Suns.

After all, defense is not what they are best at. Even if they don't fight like this, they may not last until the end.

So even knowing that the Suns might play a stronger offense, they also bet on it.

After Russell's touch test in the third quarter, he made adjustments and entered the personal attack mode.

In the speed-up attack mode, others will also have some opportunities, but Russell will not pass the ball that much, he will only pass some easy-to-score balls during fast breaks or other times.

At other times, of course, it was a head-to-head confrontation with Kobe.

(End of this chapter)