Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 282
The Lakers attacked, and after Kobe attracted two double-teams, Artest scored an empty cut. Artest scored two points after eating cakes.

On the Magic side, Hill finally touched the ball. After he and Turkoglu performed a pick-and-roll, he cut into the paint, attracted Garnett's double-team, and then distributed the ball to Howard who followed up, completing a two-handed dunk. The offensive process is clear in thinking and flowing.

It has to be said that Hill's ball intelligence is much higher than that of everyone in the Magic. Francis is obviously not a point guard. Obviously more suitable as a single player blasting point.

Stephen Jackson defended Kobe Bryant, spat out tons of trash talk with resentment, and even years after the trade turmoil, he still has a bitter heart for the Lakers.

It's a pity that Kobe seems to be naturally immune to trash talk, and he made a smart pull-back step and made a steady hit.

Turkoglu's mind was still clear, ignoring Francis who was frantically asking for the ball, and passed the baseline ball to Hill.

Artest has enough strength to defend against Hill, but he is almost inflexible. Hill wiped Artest with a cross step, and then made an emergency stop and made a mid-range shot.

When Billups passed the ball to David West and passed it to Kobe Bryant in an air cut, he made a mistake and was intercepted by Stephen Jackson. Francis took the lead and scored a fast break dunk.

Kobe hit the iron in the mid-range shot, Howard defended the rebound, and Francis forced Billups to cause a foul.

Francis made two free throws, and the Magic went ahead 10-8.

Jim asked for a timeout.

"Why are you being polite, why are you floating outside to shoot? Are you worried about Dwight Howard, when will you be scared by a rookie and dare not attack the basket? Yes, he can jump very well, but he is better than watching It's much softer. We need to attack their basket firmly. Turkoglu has no ability to protect the basket. David, I don't want to see you hesitate to pass the ball anymore. The opportunity is here for you. Attack me resolutely, your muscles are used to scare people? Then when defending, Kobe goes to guard Grant Hill, if the ball is given to Francis, then let him play alone, understand?"

The juvenile Warcraft who has just entered the league now is not the Qingtian Bai Yuzhu and Jiahai Zijinliang who can replace James alone. At present, he is just a very talented high school student with good physical fitness.

After adjustments, the Lakers' offense began to hit the basket more, especially David West, who had an obvious size advantage against Turkoglu, and the Turks couldn't stand West's force at all. Received two fouls in a row and had to end the game early to rest.

Seeing that the Lakers were overtaking the score again, the Magic also hurriedly made adjustments and replaced the blue-collar giant Tony Batty to consolidate the defense at the basket.

Although Batty plays tough and works hard on defense, his offensive ability is really limited. When he and Howard go inside, they basically block the breakthrough route of Francis and Hill.

Of course, the head coach of the Magic, Johnny Davis, did not intend to continue to let Francis and the others kill them inside. Hill left the field early and replaced Mobley. Gain an edge on rebounding.

A round later, Jim also replaced Artest and West, replaced by Nene and Battier.

Johnny Davis swallowed the bitter pill. Tony Batty and Howard faced the combination of Nene and Garnett. They didn't take advantage of the rebounds. Instead, Batty became the weakness on the defensive end. Although Coglu was a bit weak in confrontation, his footsteps were still fast. After all, he was a guest who could play a small forward, and now Tony Batty is a purebred insider. After being targeted by the Lakers' pick-and-roll, Billups and Bryant made continuous use of Nene's screen and made shots.

As for the three-pointers that the Magic have high hopes for, only Mobley and Stephen Jackson are slightly reliable. Francis’s three-point shooting percentage has become a 2-pointer since last season. Not reliable.

The Lakers played a wave of 15 to 3, and this wave of adjustments by the Magic ended in failure.

At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers led 33 to 18. With the Lakers fielding the bench lineup that had been invincible before, it seemed that this would be another massacre.

However, the situation changed suddenly in the second quarter, and the Magic sent a lineup of Stacy Augmon, Mobley, Hill, Turkoglu and Mario Kasu.

Two starters, plus a starter-level Mobley, point guard Augmon is a veteran who has been in the league for many years, and Casu has a real height of 2 meters.

Under the sorting out of Hill and Turkoglu, the Magic's rotation lineup played in an orderly manner. Hill and Mobley took turns to find Korver, the weakest defender of the Lakers, for precise strikes, and the Lakers' offensive starting point Wade is restricted by Mobley, and Hill is cruising around to assist in defense at any time.

Although Wade's talent is outstanding, Hill's experience is obviously better. The Magic responded to the Lakers with an 8-2 wave at the beginning of the second quarter, narrowing the point difference to single digits again.

Seeing Korver being chased and beaten by the Magic, Jim had no choice but to replace Billups and push Wade to the 2nd position.

Although the situation of losing points has been alleviated for the time being, the Lakers have lost their touch in offense. The Magic's defense is quite experienced. Billups is not fast. Wade's three-pointer is unstable, and the defensive players are all recovering to defend against his breakthrough, while the giant inside, Kasu, is always ready to protect the basket.

Mobley's defense at the second position is trustworthy, and Hill is still an excellent choice to defend Kobe at the age of 38 and suffering from injuries, and his defensive ability needs no words.

Under the targeted defense of the Magic, Wade, who had all kinds of highlights in the previous games, felt that he had hit a long-lost rookie wall today and missed 4 consecutive shots.

Seeing that the point difference was being eroded step by step, Jim, who felt that he had been placed by the Magic, replaced Kobe and Garnett again to stabilize the situation, which was about 2 minutes earlier than the rotation in the previous games.

Johnny Davis used Hill quite sparingly, preventing him from playing for more than 6 minutes in a row. Seeing that the Lakers had changed back to the main force, the Magic also brought back Ferguson, Stephen Jackson and Howard.

Although the Magic offense led by Francis is far less clear and crisp than when Hill was on the court, but fortunately, Mobley has a good touch and hit two consecutive three-pointers from the outside, while the Lakers let Garnett score consecutively against Howard. I went, refused to give in to each other, and the point difference was always around 8 points.

Francis couldn't afford to link up the team, but there were still occasional bright spots in his personal offense. After a breakthrough, he made a layup with a folded lever, which ignited the atmosphere of the Magic's home court, and at the same time narrowed the point difference to 5 points.

With Wade's ultra-long three-pointer in the half, the Lakers entered the intermission with a 57-52 lead.

(End of this chapter)