basketball kingdom

Chapter 16 Summer League Semifinals

Xu Tian, ​​McDaniels, and Capela are collectively referred to as the Rockets' Summer League Trident in the Rockets section of the Hupu Forum. Various posts have begun to discuss the possibility of the Rockets winning the Summer League championship.

Although there are replies from the Rockets' annual championships and first-round games at the bottom of the post, this does not affect the Rockets' impressive record in the Summer League.

Relying on the strong performance of the Rockets Trident, they entered the semifinals of the Summer League undefeated and successfully joined forces with the Lakers.

Because this game is the Rockets' home team against Kobe, although Kobe called before the game, he didn't give Xu Tian too many suggestions, he just hoped that Xu Tian could play his usual performance.

Alice had returned to Los Angeles a few days ago, Xu Tian followed the team to the stadium alone, and was warming up and shooting.

CCTV has never broadcast the summer league and preseason games live, so only Tencent will broadcast the whole process of live video. This game is narrated by Liu Jiachao, and Zhang Weiping is the guest commentator.

"Hi everyone, I'm Liu Jiachao. Today's guest is Director Zhang Weiping and Zhang. The two of us will give you the commentary for the next game." Liu Jiachao is the host, so he will do the opening.

Director Zhang sat on the side facing the camera, and also introduced himself, "Hello, audience friends, I am Zhang Weiping."

When the game has not yet started, the two commentators should cooperate like a cross talk to fill the time before the game so that the audience will not feel bored.Therefore, after Zhang Weiping finished his self-introduction, Liu Jiachao asked, "Director Zhang, I want to ask you a question first."

"If you have any questions, just say it." Director Zhang has commented on the game for many years, so he is naturally proficient in these, and he took over the conversation smoothly.

Liu Jiachao asked: "It is said on the Internet that you are a fan of the Lakers. Now that the Lakers are playing against the Rockets, which team do you support more?"

"I'm not a Lakers fan, and I like both teams very much, and I don't say which team I support more." Director Zhang didn't answer Liu Jiachao's question directly, but dealt with it by playing Tai Chi.

Liu Jiachao did not continue to talk about this topic, but asked a different question: "In other words, which team do you think has a better chance of winning this game?"

"If you ask me this way, I think the Rockets have a better chance of winning. Why do you say that? You watch the Lakers Summer League game, mainly relying on the combination of D'Angelo Russell and Larry Nance Jr. But these two happened to be facing off against Xu Tian and McDaniels of the Rockets today. The Rockets also have Capela in the interior, and the Lakers don’t have such an excellent big player in the interior. As long as the Rockets mainly play Capela At this point, they can have an advantage on the field." Director Zhang said which team he is more optimistic about, and at the same time analyzed the reasons for his choice, so that the audience can accept it more easily.

"Since you mentioned today's matchup, which of these two has performed so far, which one do you think is better?" Liu Jiachao naturally brought the topic to player comparison.

Director Zhang has already analyzed the lineups of the two sides, and continued to analyze this group of more controversial matchups, "The two have their own characteristics. If you want to say which player is better, it is really hard to say before the game starts. But personally, I prefer Xu Tian's style of play."

"Is it because he trained with Kobe?" Liu Jiachao said this in a joking manner.

While talking and laughing in the Tencent live broadcast room to analyze the game, the United States ended the pre-match warm-up session, and the ten starting players from both sides began to prepare to enter the field.

Xu Tian watched the video of the Lakers game and knew that their main players were No. 1 D'Angelo Russell and No. 7 Larry Nance Jr. When he was doing the final warm-up, he glanced at these two .

Russell and Nance Jr. stood on the sidelines together. The two led the team to the semifinals together. Their relationship was better than that of the others. At this time, they were discussing the strategy for this game.

"Xu is looking at this side." Little Nance was standing facing Xu Tian, ​​just in time to see his gaze.

Hearing what Xiao Nance said, Russell turned his head and took a look, only to see that Xu Tian was already moving his wrist, not paying attention to any surrounding situation, and said: "I'm going to face him this time, he looks over here It's also normal."

"I remember that before the draft, the media blew him up a lot, but except for scoring 25 points against the Kings, he never scored more than 20 points." Nance Jr. knew Xu Tian's performance in these few games and knew Xu Tian There was only one explosion.

Russell thought for a while, and whispered something to little Nance.

Kobe was lying on the sofa in his mansion and watching the game on the field. He wanted to make sure whether his choice was right or not.

After Xu Tian finished his warm-up activities, he walked in the direction of Russell and Nance Jr. This is a routine greeting session before the game, after which the game will begin.

Capela stood near the middle circle, and it was still him who opened the jump ball.

The referee came near the center circle with the ball in his arms, and after confirming that the center forwards of both sides were ready, he threw the ball into the sky, and the whistle for the start of the game sounded at the same time.

Capela was very excited in this game, and he took off a little early, and the ball in the first round came to the Lakers.

Russell got the basketball from the center and carried it across half court.After arriving at the top of the arc, he faced Xu Tian who was waiting for him.

Nance Jr. stepped up to cover immediately, blocked Xu Tian's position, and created a shooting space for Russell. This was the tactic that Russell and Nance Jr. discussed just now.

Xu Tian felt the block from his side, but he had no time to defend Russell at this time, because he directly shot a three-pointer.

Russell's right hand still retains the action when he throws the ball. He has full confidence in the shot, which is why he was selected as the second place.

The shot was marked by the presence of McDaniels trying to defend, as he failed to touch Russell's throw.

The basketball flying in the air drew a perfect arc and entered the net hollow.With less than 15 seconds to go, Russell made their first shot of the game.

The English commentary on the sidelines was admiring the three-pointer just now, "This three-pointer perfectly explained why the Lakers chose D'Angelo Russell. His hand shape and accuracy are perfect. In him, I saw Stephen In the shadow of (Curry), he is indeed better than Xu."

"Dude, I don't quite agree with you! Xu is currently the assist leader of Xia Lian, and his shooting percentage is not much worse than that of inside players. Before he shows his performance, it's better not to draw a conclusion directly."

"The real core of the Rockets is Clint Capela. In addition, Xu has never faced a star perimeter. His data is not very convincing."

"Will never say these words after watching the Rockets' games. When Xu is on the court and when he is not on the court, the performance of the Rockets is very different."

Bickerstaff agrees with this sentence very much. Since he brought Xu Tian, ​​he doesn't need to arrange tactics. As long as he thinks about life on the sidelines, the Rockets can win.

Capela came to the bottom line to serve and passed the ball to Xu Tian.

Xu Tian naturally couldn't hear the voice of the English commentary, and even if he could, he couldn't understand it.

McDaniels took the initiative to ask Xu Tian for the ball. It was Russell who he switched defense just now, and he wanted to return it.

Xu Tian originally wanted to use this ball to kill the morale of the Lakers, but when he saw his teammates asking for the ball, he passed the ball to McDaniels who was at 45 degrees without saying a word.

McDaniels received the ball and started directly, trying to break through Nance Jr. who was defending him in front of him, but because he was a little too anxious, the ball fell out of his hands and contributed to a dribble error.

Nance Jr. reacted immediately, intercepted the basketball that was about to fly away, and threw it towards the frontcourt.

Russell is now in the Rockets' half court. As long as he receives the basketball, he can go straight to the fast break.

Xu Tian had noticed Russell's movements a long time ago, and quickly chased and defended the past. When the basketball started to fall, he stopped the ball in the air.

"Hey, what is this bouncing? I can't believe that he was able to intercept the ball in that position!" The English commentary was much more passionate than the domestic commentary. This series of English was almost all spoken with an accentuated tone. of.

"I told you! Xu is really strong. If he doesn't have enough potential, it is impossible for him to enter the NBA at the age of 19." He just supported Xu Tian's commentary, and now he is showing off his vision.

Xu Tian took the ball to the top of the arc again, and waved to McDaniels who wanted to come up to cover, motioning him to pull away.

McDaniels just made a mistake and consciously ran back in a 45-degree direction, taking away the defensive player Nance Jr. who followed him.

Russell lowered his center of gravity, looked at Xu Tian in front, and felt the change of Xu Tian's dribbling rhythm.

There was no expression on Xu Tian's face. Although it was just the beginning, since Russell had already taken the initiative to attack, he had to respond.

Xu Tian sent the ball with his right hand to a place within Russell's reach. Russell habitually reached out, trying to steal Xu Tian's dribble.

When Russell reacted, he then slightly changed the direction of the ball with his right hand, avoiding Russell's hand.

Russell, who was centered forward, was instantly passed by Xu Tian.

Xu Tian raised the height of his dribble and accelerated towards the inside line.

The Lakers' inside line goes around to defend Capela. He knows Xu Tian's style of play, so he can defend both Xu Tian and Capela.

Seeing Xu Tian's speed, Xiao Nansi decisively dropped McDaniels, who was defending him, and chased after Xu Tian.

Capela saw Xu Tian's movement to collect the ball, and immediately retreated to the outside of the penalty area. Xu Tian's dunk is very violent, even if he is a teammate, he doesn't want to stay under the basket.

The insiders of the Lakers also saw Xu Tian's action of collecting the ball, and rushed towards Xu Tian's direction. He wanted to stop Xu Tian with a foul.

At the same time as the referee's whistle sounded, Xu Tian, ​​who lost his balance, threw the basketball with his left hand. The ball circled around the ring twice and finally entered the basket.

(End of this chapter)