Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 172 Eastern Power
The Grizzlies' only desire for victory disappeared after Wade's block.

The Lakers defeated the Grizzlies 112 to 95 at home and regained the league's top record. Garnett maintained his efficient performance against Pau Gasol, with 24 points, 18 rebounds and 7 assists, the best in the game.

In the next game, the Lakers' opponent is the Toronto Raptors. Both teams have eye-catching newcomers. In the Lakers team, Wade, who has quickly entered the state, has already proved to everyone with practical actions that this No. [-] pick is worth it. , and the Raptors management, who thought they had picked up a big deal, are now in a very complicated mood.

Milicic has not yet integrated into the team. His poor English level even poses problems in basic communication. Although he trains very hard, his confrontation is seriously not up to standard. The almighty skill that he is proud of cannot be displayed at all without the support of confrontation.

Raptors coach Kevin O'Neal, although he has a very loud name that sounds like an insider, but he is an out-and-out rookie coach. After Qiansheng coach Lenny Wilkens resigned , Temporarily took over this mess.

There is nothing special about Kevin O'Neal's tactics, that is, the whole people play bloody defense, and Carter is dead on the offensive end.Fortunately, the demigod who returned from injury is in good condition and scored high points in a row. The Raptors have achieved a record of 4 wins and 3 losses in the first seven games. The inside combination of Antonio Davis and Jerome Williams , although there is no offensive ability, but the spoiler is not bad.

The Raptors also introduced Chinese center Mengke Battelle in the offseason to supplement the inside line. In the previous game with the Pacers, Battelle became famous in the first battle. After losing his position, he single-handedly prepared O'Neal who was about to complete dunks. The shark lay on the ground for a long time before getting up. The live commentator at the time sighed: "In Shaquille O'Neal's career, he may have never felt such a huge force from the East. Mysterious power."

In the first quarter, the matchup between Kobe and Carter became the focus of everyone's attention, but Kobe has excellent teammates, and Carter can only play by himself. Although in terms of statistics, Carter has 10 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists vs. Kobe's 9 points and 3 rebounds 1 break, the two sides are evenly matched, but in terms of efficiency, Kobe, who made 6 of 4 shots, was much higher than Carter, who made 8 of 3 shots.

After the rotation lineup came on the field, Wade took Nene, Barbosa, Bell, and West to gallop on the field, and played well with the Raptors' Maurice Peterson and Ramond Murray and other bench gangsters. Back and forth, but Milicic can only sit on the bench, and even Battelle's appearance order is ahead of him.

But Milicic waited for the chance to play at any rate. Battelle showed his explosive foul power, received 5 fouls in 3 minutes, and quickly returned to the bench.

As soon as he came on the court, Milicic made a breakthrough. Facing David West, who was not as tall as him, but was tougher, he forcibly turned around and received a walking violation.

"I seem to understand the decision of the Pistons, Nuggets and Lakers to skip Milicic. He doesn't seem to be the next Nowitzki or Garnett. Skitishvili is his future." TNT In the studio, Big Mouth Barkley was merciless, commenting on Milicic's poor performance.

The Raptors have always been the main force to dig holes and fill in the bench, but under the leadership of Wade, the Lakers' bench lineup did not experience a power outage and maintained a leading edge until the main lineup returned.

Then, the hole got bigger and bigger, and finally it couldn't be filled.

101 to 79, although Carter scored 35 points alone, almost half of the team, but it could not save this defeat.

"About the choice of Dwyane and Darko, I don't think anyone who watched the game will question our decision. Darko has good potential, there is no doubt about it, but he is just a kid, and the expectations are too high. Maybe it will ruin him, he needs a process to adapt to this league and adjust his mentality, to some extent, it is a kind of luck that he didn't go to Larry Brown's team." Jim said in the post-match news At the press conference, an explanation was given for the team's practice of signing Wade by bypassing Milicic in the draft.

"Mr. Bass, what do you think about the performance of the Chinese player Battelle? Is the Lakers willing to sign a Chinese player?" An Asian-faced reporter wearing glasses spoke English from a book and got up to ask.

Jim took a look, isn't this an acquaintance?

"Since you asked this question, I'm going to talk about my opinion honestly. If Battelle could have entered the NBA 5 years ago, he might still have a place in the league. He has a good IQ, and He has a good shooting touch, but his current skills have already been finalized, and many bad habits cannot be changed, so I am not optimistic about his prospects in the NBA, including Wang. He is now joining the Clippers, and there is nothing there. Opportunity, they wasted too much time in the low-level leagues and missed the best stage of growth. As for whether the Lakers are willing to sign a Chinese player? If it is a player of Yao’s level, we certainly hope to be able to sign Down."

After sending away the Toronto Raptors, the Lakers continued their sweet home schedule against the Detroit Pistons who came to challenge.

In previous interviews, Jim questioned the coaching methods of the new Pistons head coach Larry Brown, which made the veteran coach a little bit embarrassed, and various media seemed to start digging up his dark history.

Larry Brown decided to give the Lakers some color in this game. He won the best coach in the ABA that year, and when he was playing running and bombing in the Nuggets, Jim Buss' father was still selling real estate.

Ben Wallace, who returned to the Pistons, became the mainstay of Larry Brown's system. The combination of him and Brad Miller has a strong inside defensive ability, plus the double guns of Reed and Stackhouse on the outside , as well as the field control of the old fritter Kassel, the Pistons have a good record since the start of the game, faintly and the Pacers have become the poles of the Eastern Conference, while the 76ers and Nets, the finals teams of the previous two years, gradually began to decline.

Larry Brown's plan is full, but the reality is very skinny.

Stackhouse and Redd's offense is fairly reliable, but their defense is really unrecognizable. They can suppress the second-rate outsiders of the Eastern Conference teams, but against the Lakers, both offensive and defensive ends have shown their original shape. The two are crazy Strike the iron and smash the Staples basket with sparks.If it weren't for Ben Wallace facing his old club, Xiao Cosmos broke out and grabbed 23 rebounds, the game would have lost its suspense.

Barely making it to the fourth quarter, the Pistons still couldn’t stand it. Five of the Lakers scored in double figures. Artest also contributed 5 points, 8 rebounds and 6 steals, helping the team beat the Pistons 5-99 at home and win a three-game winning streak. win.

(End of this chapter)