Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 142

"Steve Nash almost completely disappeared in the first quarter. The Mavericks scored all their points in singles. Opportunities.” During the break, Mav Albert commented on the performance of the two teams in the first quarter.

"Although the effect is good, I have doubts about whether Kobe can maintain the intensity of both offense and defense throughout the game. You must know that full-court marking is a very energy-consuming defensive method." Kenny Smith expressed his concerns.

The Mavericks first made adjustments at the beginning of the second quarter, Nash was replaced, Raja Bell and Van Exel partnered in the backcourt, Walter Williams and Najera served as strikers, and Nowitzki Temporary top to the center position.

The Lakers replaced backup point guard Derek Fisher and center Brad Miller, replaced Garnett at the same time, replaced Gerald Wallace, and pushed Artest to the big Forward position.

Seeing that the Lakers also changed to a small lineup, Nelson was secretly pleased that Nowitzki can take advantage of the time when the two mainstays of the Lakers are off the court to fire as much as they want.

However, the Lakers did not arrange defense according to the position. Brad Miller kept the inside and kept a certain distance from Najera, and Ron Artest stood in front of Nowitzki.

Although Artest's height is 10 centimeters shorter than Nowitzki's, the weight of the two shows that Artest is 10 pounds heavier, and Artest has the best perimeter player, with a wingspan of 2 meters.

In contrast, Nowitzki's 2-meter wingspan is a bit of a cup compared to his own height.

Generally speaking, the defenders that Nowitzki encounters are stronger than him and usually not as flexible as him. Nowitzki can use his range threat, first pull to the outside, and then rely on the outstanding combination of his own inside players Ball ability, use face-up offense to solve opponents.

When encountering a flexible bamboo pole, Nowitzki usually uses a turnaround jumper to suppress the opponent. In short, his style of play emphasizes skills and projection, and mainly avoids playing. It is not the inside fighting style of mainstream power forwards.

But facing Artest, who is full of tendons, Nowitzki is a little helpless. At this time, Artest is not the later Metta World Peace, full of violence, and his defense is both aggressive and skillful. It is very difficult. entangled opponent.

Nowitzki first habitually turned into a face frame, bent over to protect the ball, and Artest's Lushan claws had already stretched out, almost stealing the ball directly from his arms.

Nowitzki quickly grabbed the basketball and turned his back, ready to take advantage of his height advantage to displace and force him, but after two dribbles with his back, Artest, who had a lower center of gravity and a more stable foot, remained motionless.

Nowitzki had no choice but to turn around and shoot, ready to sacrifice his nirvana "Golden Rooster Independence".

Unexpectedly, Artest had already guarded against this move. Following Nowitzki's turn, he used his five-claw magical skills. The moment Nowitzki lifted the ball, he cut the ball away crisply.

"Dirk's confrontation is still a little weak. He didn't use his back to create space first, but turned around and shot a jumper in a hurry, and he didn't get rid of the defender at all." Barkley, a professional power forward, saw Novus at a glance. The problem with this attack.

The big bamboo pole Sean Bradley has completely fallen out of the rotation, and the only inside substitute that the Mavericks can use is Najera.The Lakers use Brad Miller, who has weak mobility, to take care of Najera's lack of offensive ability, and let the defensively strong Artest deal with Nowitzki.This arrangement had a miraculous effect. Under Artest's crazy personal harassment, Nowitzki was very uncomfortable, made consecutive mistakes, and was beaten back by the Lakers.

As a last resort, the Mavericks replaced Finley again, allowing Nowitzki, who had played nearly 15 minutes in a row, to rest.

The Lakers also replaced Artest, and Garnett returned to the game to defend Walter Williams, while Finley handed over to the young and strong Gerald Wallace to deal with.

Compared with Artest, Gerald Wallace's defensive experience is a little immature, but Finley wants to get rid of Gerald Wallace's mad dog defense that does not spare energy. easy thing.No matter how Finley circles the screen or moves out of position, Gerald Wallace will desperately stick to him, not giving him an easy chance to catch the ball.

In the end, the calf's scoring task has to be carried by Van Exel.

Fisher concentrates on defending Van Exel's left-hand side and releases the right side for him to break through. Inside, Garnett and Brad Miller help defend at any time. Najera and Walter Williams have limited offensive capabilities. , Not enough to contain the two, this is the anti-big side tactic prepared by Phil Jackson for the left-handed fan lunatic.

He has been shooting continuously since the first quarter, and his offensive desire is as high as Van Exel's, and he also feels tired. The continuous singles offense has caused his physical strength to decline rapidly, and his shooting percentage has also shown a downward trend.

For the Lakers, Garnett took over the offensive task. Whether it is Walter Williams or Najera, there is a huge gap in height and wingspan with Garnett, and it is impossible to prevent him from scoring with a jumper.Kobe stayed on the weak side most of the time, conserving his strength.

The Lakers scored consecutively, and the point difference was pulled to 11 points. The Mavericks' offense seemed to have few options.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Old Nelson called a timeout.

The Zen master also secretly heaved a sigh of relief. The opponent couldn't hold on anymore. Here, Gerald Wallace was already sweating profusely and panting after only 5 minutes of playing. Obviously, keeping him in such high-intensity competition Defense consumes a lot.

It can be seen how difficult it is for Kobe to maintain a high-intensity defense against Nash for nearly a quarter and still contribute to the offensive end.

After the timeout, the Mavericks replaced Van Exel and all the main lineups, and the Lakers also replaced all the main players.

As soon as he came up, Nash called Nowitzki to set him a pick-and-roll. Kobe reacted a bit slower this time and failed to bypass the pick-and-roll in the first place. When Garnett came up and was delayed, Nowitzki took the opportunity to directly Along the way, Nash's clever ground pass helped Fei Nuo Tianwang dunk and score.

The point difference returned to single digits.

Although the second quarter was basically paddling, Raja Bell's running on the offensive end still wasted a lot of Kobe's physical strength. He has not been rested, and his defensive strength has obviously declined.

When it was the Lakers' turn to attack, Kobe went around the screen and missed the mid-range shot.

Zen Master pulled Fisher up again after wiping off his sweat, and signaled to the technical table for a dead ball substitution.

"Derek, let them score as little as possible. If necessary, fouls can be used to slow down the rhythm." When Fisher passed by Jim, Jim stood up and pulled him back, whispering.

Fisher looked at Zen Master suspiciously, and the latter nodded.

(End of this chapter)