lakers championship

Chapter 26 again

In addition to superficial praise, Jim Bass' words also have hidden dissatisfaction.

Kupchak naturally understood that Tianyang defended in one round, took off 4 times in a short period of time, and finally rushed decisively to a player who was taller and stronger than him. Only the word "desperate" can describe him like this Performance.

But why did it get so desperate?

Because of a low-level mistake, dribbling from behind and hitting the heel is a fatal disaster for a defender.

From Jim's point of view, he is the president of the Lakers and shoulders the mission of revitalizing the giants. If you want to choose a player, the first consideration must be that player's scoring ability and defensive ability.

Desperate, belongs to the spiritual ability, the icing on the cake, should you consider it?Of course, it must also be considered, but it must be ranked at the bottom.

On the field, the referee had made a penalty. Tianyang fouled and Isaac made two free throws.

Players from the two teams stood in their corresponding positions, only Tianyang rushed to the sidelines to wave.

He covered his chest, grinned, frowned, and his expression was very uncomfortable. The accompanying team doctor rushed to him.

"Where does it hurt?"

"I feel tight in my chest and my ribs hurt a little. I need to rest and take it easy."

The team doctor patted him on the shoulder, and then waved to the Sequoia bench.Michelle and Cameron ran over, set up Tianyang, helped him to a chair and sat down.

After some inspection, the team doctor said to coach Johnny: "No problem has been found so far. Maybe his chest hit the opponent's elbow. Let's take a rest and take a look."

Johnny nodded in agreement, waved his hand, and signaled Sheffield to come on.

Above the stands, Jim Buss pursed his mouth high. He folded his hands and shook his head slightly, saying, "Mitch, his physical confrontation is too bad, and he needs to rest after just one collision. How about entering the NBA and meeting Clay?" - Aren't people like Thompson and Harden going to be hospitalized directly?"

"Jim, be more patient. It's only one round. When Kobe made mistakes, I still believe in Banner. He is the most talented scout I have ever seen."

While the two were chatting, Isaac made two free throws and the game continued.

After playing for 10 minutes in a row, the two teams attacked back and forth. The Bruins only led the Sequoia by 4 points.

Sheffield, who came on as a substitute for Tianyang, played well, making 4 of 3 three-pointers, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.

"In Banner's scouting report, he said that he had a great influence on the Sequoia team. With him and without him, the Sequoia is completely two teams. But how do I feel, he rested, and he didn't have much impact on the game. Impact? Plus, the guys who came in for him did really well."

For Jim Bass' question, Mitch Kupchak chose to respond in silence.

Kupchak is well aware of how intense the struggle within the Lakers can be.If Kobe can't continue the glory of the Los Angeles Lakers after retiring, then Jim and himself will step down in the internal struggle.

For this reason, in the past few years, every summer, he will spend a lot of time pursuing big-name players.

Luxurious recruiting groups, inviting stars to dinner, talking about team building plans, all methods are exhausted!
It's a pity that no big-name players are willing to come to the Lakers.

In desperation, he negotiated with Jim and decided to focus on rookies this year.

So he put all his eggs in one basket, regardless of the objections of the two brothers and sisters Jenny and Jim, let Banner, who was originally working in a sales company, become a scout for the Lakers and responsible for scouting rookies.

Just because he likes Banner's excellent discrimination ability.

The afternoon before yesterday, Banner sent a report telling him that Tianyang could become Kobe's successor.

In the report, Banner spoke highly of Tianyang: "Big heart, tenacity, team leader, tough style and full of dexterity, historical level of three-point shooting, only weak physical confrontation."

If you put your name on it and just look at the comments, nine out of ten people will think it's Stephen Curry.

With excitement, he inquired about the game schedule of the Sequoia team and saw that Tianyang would appear at UCLA. He put down his team affairs and dragged Jim to watch the game in person.

But everything in front of him clearly told him that Tianyang's performance was completely different from the report.

Did Banner really miss it?

Hesitating, he took out his cell phone, intending to look for the game video between Sequoia and 'Sun Devils'.

……

It was another 5 minutes, and the difference between the two teams was still only 5 points. After the Sequoias attacked the dead ball, the head coach of the Bruins, David Alford, called for a timeout.

Seeing the other party pause, Johnny took a deep breath, and he knew that the real test was coming.

Although in the first 15 minutes, the Sequoia team seemed to be biting the score very tightly, but the Bruins' defense was called an iron barrel. Roscoe, the team's top breakthrough player, could only float near the 3-point line.

If it weren't for Shelfield, who miraculously hit difficult three-pointers at several critical moments, the Sequoias might be 15 points behind by now, maybe more.

Sure enough, after returning from the timeout, the Bruins further strengthened the pressure on the outside line, adopting a close-fitting and quick-changing tactical strategy, making it difficult for Shelfield to receive the ball and make a shot.

Shelfie was locked up, and the Sequoia team immediately fell into a scoring drought. In less than 3 minutes, the Bruins played a wave of 8-0, directly expanding the point difference to 13 points.

Seeing this, Johnny anxiously called out a timeout.

But for a while, he couldn't think of a useful strategy, so he could only stabilize the players' emotions first.

"Coach, I'm slowing down, let me go!"

With Tianyang's words, everyone in the Sequoia team looked sideways. They all thought that Tianyang would rest all the time in this game.

This initiative to fight this time was somewhat unexpected, but it greatly improved the morale of the Sequoia team.

After all, in the last game against the 'Sun Devil', Tianyang scored 7 consecutive three-pointers, instantly bringing back the lost game.

Everyone turned their eyes to Johnny again, waiting for him to nod in agreement.

But Johnny felt a little conflicted. In his opinion, Tianyang's playing had little effect on the current situation, because Tianyang would be the same as Shelfield, and it would be difficult to get a chance to make a move.

Blunt, who was on the side, seemed to understand his hesitation, and reminded him: "Our opponent in the first round of the playoffs is very likely to be UCLA. It is a good thing for Tianyang to familiarize himself with their defensive style in advance."

Johnny suddenly realized when he heard the words, the success or failure of Stanford University in the 15-16 season is not determined by this game, the playoffs are the key.

If you want to win more playoffs, Tian Yang must stand up. He is the only player who can improve the upper limit of the Sequoia team.

Johnny gave Blunt a thankful look, and then said, "Okay, you go up and fight, you create opportunities for him."

With just such a short sentence, the Sequoia players all understood that whether it was a pick-and-roll or running off the ball to take away a defender, they all had to revolve around Tianyang.

The game continued, the Sequoia team attacked again, Marcus dribbled the ball across the half court, passed it to Tianyang and made a screen at the same time.

Tianyang didn't choose to take the ball for 3 points, but directly dribbled the ball into the inside.

The Bruins were a little uncomfortable with the sudden change of offensive strategy, and the defensive rotation failed to keep up. Exa, who was man-marking Tianyang, was blocked by Sequoia center Grant.

Two points hit, Marcus and Grant wanted to high-five to celebrate and finally scored. Unexpectedly, Bruins center Thomas made a long pass from the baseline, and the basketball flew forward like a bullet.

Of the entire Sequoia team, only Tianyang didn't dare to be careless after scoring a goal.

Therefore, only Tianyang was the first to chase and defend, but fortunately, the rest of the Bruins team did not catch up and cooperate.

The person who received the basketball was Bruins power forward Parker. He was relatively slow. Tianyang ran up and down and caught up with him at the free throw line.

Tianyang made a head-on block and moved his feet, trying to draw an offensive foul.

It's a pity that his pace was a bit slow. Parker has already started three steps, holding the ball with both hands and rushing towards the hoop.

Parker is more than 7 feet tall and weighs at least 260 pounds. After jumping up, he looks like a tank flying in the air. No matter how you look at it, he is unstoppable!

But unexpectedly, Tianyang still stood where he was.

99% of the people in the entire Polly Arena had the same thought when they saw this scene: "Why doesn't he go away? Does he still want to get hurt?"

Not only did Tianyang not walk away, but he jumped up to meet him.

Because he felt that the mistakes in the opening game had not been made up for by the previous 3 blocked shots.

Must do it again.

　Old irons, don't you have some recommendation tickets?

　　


(End of this chapter)